Leadership Report

9 Days Left of Semester 1!

Only 9 days left of Semester 1! While many of our families are gearing up for tonight’s Spanish Festival Movie Night at Pentridge and organising holiday playdates, our students have their minds firmly focused on the exciting weeks ahead.

Our Foundation students are still buzzing from their latest excursion, our 1/2 students are deep into preparations for the Term 3 Production, our 3/4 students can think about little else except next week’s school camp, and our 5/6 students are preparing for their final Interschool Sports matches of the year.

Behind the scenes, our teachers have been working tirelessly to prepare end-of-semester reports and student-led conferences. It is always an incredibly busy time of year, and we appreciate the dedication and hard work of our staff.

Thank You, Adrian

Today marks Adrian’s final day with us as Graeme’s replacement for Term 2.

Adrian has done an outstanding job stepping into Newlands, learning how we operate, and quickly becoming a valued member of our community. He has contributed greatly during his time here, bringing fresh ideas, thoughtful leadership, and a genuine commitment to our students and staff.

We wish Adrian all the very best as he begins the next stage of his career working as a bureaucrat within the Department of Education. While the system will undoubtedly benefit from his talents, we hope he finds his way back to schools one day, as education is always stronger with people like Adrian leading the way.

Mobile Phones and Smart Watches

For absolute clarity, students are not permitted to access mobile phones during school hours.

Students who bring a mobile phone to school must hand it into the office upon arrival and collect it at the end of the day. If a student is found with a phone during learning time, parents will be contacted and asked to collect both their child and the phone.

We have also noticed an increase in students wearing smart watches capable of making phone calls, sending messages, and taking photographs. While we understand these functions can be disabled, staff are unable to effectively monitor this. To ensure consistency and compliance with Department policy, smart watches are not permitted to be worn at school.

Thank you for your support with this matter.

Term 3 Before School Sports

What started as an innovative idea from Raul has grown into an absolute beast of a program!

In Term 3, more than 250 students will be participating in our before and after school sporting programs. It has been incredible to see so many students eager to be active, learn new skills, and represent their teams.

The next exciting part of the initiative is the launch of our official sports jumpers, which have now been approved as part of the school uniform.

Orders close next Friday, 19 June.

We have already received an amazing number of orders and cannot wait to see students proudly wearing them next term. And yes... parents are absolutely welcome to purchase one for themselves as well!

Simply complete the order form and we will organise the rest. Payment will be added to SENTRAL next Friday.

Please note that there will be no extra stock, no leftovers, and no re-orders in 2026, so if you would like one, make sure you place your order before the deadline.

Here is the LINK - CLUB MERCH

We Are So Excited About What Is Happening in Our Classrooms…

Foundation

Our Foundation students returned from their excursion to We Rock the Spectrum absolutely exhausted and full of excitement. I asked students about their favourite part while they were eating lunch.

Olina – “I had fun on the zipline.”

Luca – “I loved playing basketball with my friends.”

Bonnie – “The flying fox was super fun.”

Remy – “The flying fox was the best.”

Takanya – “The monkey bars were really fun.”

Isabella – “The trampoline was so fun. I jumped so high.”

Juana – “I didn’t like the walking. It was too far.”

Jemima – “The climbing wall where you get to pretend to be a spider.”

Sonny – “The rock-climbing wall was the best.”

1/2

Students have begun designing costumes for the school production and have created draft designs for bags inspired by geometric shapes, colours, and Colombian influences.

They are also preparing to publish their information reports about Australia. I asked students to share something they had learnt.

Arrabella – “Australia is a continent, a country and an island.”

Esther – “Australia has a population of more than 26 million people.”

Oliver – “Australia is called the Lucky Country because it has never had a war fought on its soil.”

Ryan – “Australia has lots of animals like kangaroos, koalas and wombats. We can even buy kangaroo meat to eat.”

Diego – “Australia has funnel-web spiders, thorny devil lizards and taipan snakes.”

River – “Australia is surrounded by water.”

3/4

Students are busily preparing for their Open Learning Expo.

Throughout the term they have travelled all around Australia through their learning, exploring natural and human-made landmarks. They have created postcards and letters that have been sent home, persuasive pieces about the best places to visit, brochures, posters and even T-shirt designs.

It has been an incredible unit of work.

I asked students what they believed was the best place in Australia.

River – “In my opinion, Uluru is the best because it is very special to Indigenous people and it is the only natural element of its type.”

Angie – “I strongly believe the Daintree Rainforest is the best place in Australia because it is very scenic and important to the Kuku Yalanji people who still live there today.”

Cooper – “Parliament House is the best because Prime Ministers have made lots of important decisions there to improve our country.”

Alyssia – “I think the Big Banana is the best because it has lots of banana-themed things and a giant slide.”

Albertine – “The Blue Mountains are the best because they are beautiful and have important Indigenous culture, especially for the Gundungurra and Darug people. There are also amazing rock formations like the Three Sisters.”

Mia – “Tasmania is the best because it has so many beautiful lakes and mountains, and not many people live there compared to the rest of Australia.”

5/6

Our 5/6 students have been investigating natural disasters and their impact on both people and the environment. Following last week's IMAX excursion, students are finalising their information reports in English and writing biographies in Spanish about famous people they have selected.

Here are some of the interesting facts they shared:

Leyla – “Tsunamis are caused by sudden movements, such as earthquakes.”

Violet – “The centre of a tropical cyclone is called the eye, and it has very calm winds.”

Lily – “We don’t get many tropical cyclones in Melbourne because they need ocean temperatures of at least 26 degrees.”

Llyellyn – “Sinkholes are usually not as big as people think they are.”

Anita – “In Spanish I have learnt about lots of interesting people like Vincent Lingiari and Frida Kahlo.”

Tommy – “Dust storms can be up to one kilometre tall!”

We hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and enjoys tonight’s Spanish Festival Movie Night.

Thanks,

Luke