Principals' Message 

Hello Parents and Friends,

It has been a sensational fortnight at Templestowe Park PS.  As you will read below, our COLA is now fully completed, we have celebrated Education Week, hosted both an Open Morning and Night and undertaken our largest ever ‘Taste of School’ sessions for kinder kids. On top of the outstanding learning in the classroom, as part of our Inquiry learning program our Grade 2, 3 and 4 students have attended excursions. Our Grade 2 students have been learning about how life has changed over time and as part of the unit they visited Schwerkolt Cottage Museum, Grade 3 visited Healesville Sanctuary and Gr 4, Polly Woodside. All students had a fantastic time and learnt greatly from their excursions. Our Grade 5/6 students have been representing the school in interschool sports.  We have been so pleased with their endeavour and teamwork.  There is just so much happening at TPPS. 

This week has been National Reconciliation Week across Australia.  This week is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. The dates for Reconciliation Week remain the same every year, they are 27 May to 3 June. On the 27 May 1967, a referendum was held where Australians voted overwhelmingly to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the census. June 3 is Mabo Day, marking the historic 1992 High Court decision that recognized native title and overturned the notion of terra nullius. The Reconciliation Week them for 2026 is ‘All In’. It is a call-to-action reminding Australians that reconciliation is not a spectator sport, but rather a commitment requiring active, everyday effort.  At Templestowe Park we are ‘All In’ in promoting reconciliation and we learn about and celebrate indigenous culture in all areas of our curriculum. In the first week of Term 3, we will be undertaking our annual whole school celebration of NAIDOC Week.  We can’t wait to celebrate this special week with our whole community. 

To all our Muslims in the TPPS community, we wish you a happy Eid al-Adha.  We hope you and your family have a beautiful Eid celebration that brings you closer together and fills your life with love.

COLA – Open for Business and Play!  

Our new COLA is now open for our students and community to enjoy.  After two and a half years since the commencement of this project our new COLA and synthetic basketball courts are fully constructed. As you can see in the photos, it is a magnificent space for learning and play. This has been the largest school/community funded project in the history of Templestowe Park PS. Our personal highlight and the reason why we worked so hard to build the COLA, was evident this week.  We had a torrential downpour on Wednesday that would normally halt PE lessons.  It made us so happy to look out the window and see our Grade 3 students enjoying their PE lesson in dry and comfortable conditions.  We are so happy with the COLA and entire space. It is a truly wonderful addition to the school. 

There are many people to thank for the COLA project.  Firstly, we would like to thank Shalina Navaratnam (School Council President) and the entire School Council for their work.  The amount of paperwork that is required behind the scenes in a project of this size is immense.  Shalina and the School Council have worked diligently over the past three years to make this project a reality.  We would also like to thank the PFA and school community for their contributions towards fundraising for the COLA.  Every single dollar counts, and the fundraising efforts from the PFA and generous support of the community have contributed to the project. Sanober Arefeen (Business Manager) has managed the school finances so skillfully over the last five years to allow us to undertake a project of this scale.  Finally, we thank our students, staff and community for their enthusiasm support and patience with the project.  It has certainly been worth the wait and it will be such a wonderful asset to our school for decades to come. 

What a great Education Week at TPPS! 

We had a fantastic time celebration Education Week at Templestowe Park last week. The theme of the week was ‘Showcase your school’ and we certainly did that. Our "Open Morning" was very well attended and we loved having so many parents and friends seeing how our classrooms operate.  It was business as usual, so our families saw learning in action across all areas of the school.  Our "Open Night" was a wonderful celebration of our school.  It was our aim to showcase our specialist and extra-curricular programs. Our "Open Night" Passport trail included all specialist areas and activities were set up in each area to showcase the outstanding learning that takes place in our specialist classes.  The passport code was ‘We Love TPPS’ and I would like to congratulate the following families who were winners of our prizes for completing the passport. 

• 1st place – Mos family
• 2nd place – Clapton family 

• 3rd place – Emini family 

   

We also held the second of our ‘Taste of School’ sessions for Prep 2027 during the week. Our newest students had a wonderful time as they got their first experience of Visual Arts and Physical Education at big school.  It was the biggest group we have ever had to our ‘Taste of School’ sessions and we had to run three different groups to fit all the little ones in.  On Friday afternoon we concluded Education Week with a fantastic school assembly where we celebrated so many of our students. 

We would like to thank all our students, staff and community for such a great Education Week.  We had hundreds of our community members with us last week and we were so proud to showcase our wonderful school.  

Breakfast Club at TPPS

Templestowe Park have joined the School Breakfast Clubs program.  Each week, our school receives a free delivery of fruit and vegetables.  Every morning at 8:30am, our sensational Grade 6 Wellbeing Leaders and a group of helpful assistants set up a cart on the synthetic grass with fresh fruit for our students, parents and community members.  It is fantastic to see our students munching away on a healthy snack in the morning while they play games before the commencement of music at 8:50am. 

As part of the Schools Breakfast Clubs program, the school can also receive grocery packages each week for families.  The packages include non-perishables essentials.  If your own family, or someone else’s in the community would benefit from this grocery package, please contact Narelle Sime (Wellbeing Leader) confidentially at narelle.sime@education.vic.gov.au or 9846 2700. 

A huge thank you to Ms Demetriou for organising our new Breakfast Club. 

Keeping up with what is happening at TPPS!

Our school is a very busy place with lots of different events, excursions, incursions and activities taking place.  To keep up with what is happening we publish a school calendar.  You can access this calendar via Compass (click on the calendar in the tab at the top of your page), via the school website or via the Newsletter in the ‘School Calendar’ section.  Within this section in the newsletter we will also list the important upcoming dates. 

Prep 2027 Enrolments are Open!

Enrolments for Prep 2027 are now open.  Families can click here to submit their digital enrolment.  To find out more about Prep 2027 at TPPS please click here. 

If you require any assistance with enrolment, please contact Katie in the office on 9846 2700. 

The enrolment process and timeline for Prep 2027 is outlined below. 

• Please contact our school office on 9846 2700 to book a school tour with our Principal or Assistant Principals.
• Submit an Expression of Interest EOI if you would like to receive updates from Templestowe Park about enrolment news and our numerous transition programs.
• Digital enrolments for Prep 2027 open on Monday 20 April 2026.  Please click here to submit your digital enrolment.
• You will be notified of the outcome of your application between Monday 3 August and Friday 14 August 2026. If you receive an enrolment offer, you should accept the offer by Friday 28 August 2026. Please note – all in zone student enrolments are guaranteed acceptance. 
• We will invite families to participate in our Prep 2027 Transition programs.
• Prep students will commence school on Friday 29 January 2027.

For further information from the Department of Education about enrolling in Prep for 2027 please click here. 

Important! - Child Safety at drop off and pick up 

Recently we have witnessed and received numerous complaints about illegal parking and dangerous driving around the school. 

Church Road has become very dangerous with parents parking in ‘No Standing Zones’, speeding and undertaking illegal U-turns. On Mandella Street, it has been reported that people are parking in the drop off zone. On Niland Rise, residents have complained about TPPS families parking across driveways, on nature strips and double parking. It is extremely important for the safety of our students and community that all road rules are adhered to. 

The Manningham Council and Police have been notified and they will be undertaking regular patrols and issuing fines for any illegal activity. 

We strongly encourage families to use the Greek Orthodox Church as a parking spot. The Church have kindly allowed the school to use their carpark at drop off and pick up time. This a short 350m walk from the Church Rd entry to the school.  Parents are encouraged to park and walk from there if they would like to meet their children within the school grounds.

Please click here for road safety information around schools. 

2026 Government Schools Principals Conference 

Brian Cleary and Mark Roberts attended the Government Schools Principals Conference at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Thursday and Friday. The conference allows Victorian government school principals and assistant principals to:

• hear from renowned thought leaders in education
• discover new ways of thinking about leadership excellence

• learn and reflect from one another.

   

In our next newsletter we will provide our key learnings from the conference. 

Fidget Toys 

Throughout this term, we have seen a steep increase of students with fidget toys in class.  Fidget toys can be very distracting to the student and to others in the class.  There are a very small number of students that have worked with our Student Wellbeing Leader and have a fidget toy as part of their Individual Education Plan. If your child is not one of these students, they are not permitted to have a fidget toy in the class. 

Thank you for your support and understanding. 

Principals' Award 

At our Assembly last week, Maria G received the Principals' Award. Maria is a kind and exceptional student who always approaches tasks with optimism and a positive mindset. She faces challenges with determination and a smile on her face. Maria completes all her work to an incredibly high standard, setting herself goals to improve further and rising to meet them. Her excellent problem-solving skills have led to her being chosen as one of the students to represent TPPS in Maths Games against schools from across Victoria. Maria and her partner came 6th, which is a huge achievement! She is also a talented swimmer, reaching the Regionals in the Swimming Carnival. Maria writes with flair, choosing interesting vocabulary that makes her writing engaging to read, and she enjoys sharing her ideas during class discussions. Above all, Maria is friendly and helpful to everyone and has a great sense of humour. We are very lucky to have her here at TPPS! 

Have a fantastic weekend! 

Mark Roberts                       Brian Cleary                                       Robyn Twyford                                    

PRINCIPAL                           ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL                  ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL