Message from the Principal 

Welcome back to the new school year to all our families and a very warm welcome to the new families joining our Greenhills Community in 2026. I hope you all had a terrific summer break and enjoyed lots of quality family time. How good was the weather! Now we just need some rain as well.

We welcomed our students and families with all staff creating a guard of honour for students to walk through complete with music and bubbles. It is always a real joy seeing the smiles and excitement on the faces of our students and of course the just as big smiles from our parents and carers with the knowledge that school is starting back. 

Whilst it was a Thursday, this is the type of fun and buzz we try to start every school week with our Monday Madness and we started this week with some chalk drawing under the shade sails. Look out for next week when we will have a Winter Olympics themed Monday Madness!

Overall, Janine, Brad and I have been really impressed with the way our students have started the school year. In fact, we think that this is our most settled and positive start to a school year that we have had in our time at Greenhills. 

THREE IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT 2026

2026 will be a very exciting year for our school. We will continue to work proactively to further develop our home-school partnership as we strive to ensure that our students are provided with an environment and experience that enables them to make strong connections, grow their curiosity and embrace challenges. 

Greenhills has so many strengths as a school community and this school year is another opportunity for us to take the next steps to keep ensuring that our school is a G.R.E.A.T. place to be, learn and grow.

1. Our theme for 2026 is “2026 The Art & Science Mix”. 

At Greenhills Primary School, G.R.E.A.T. things can happen when we all take the best of the “science” of teaching and mixing it with the best of our “art” of teaching.

The science of learning includes clear goals, evidence-based teaching, feedback and consistency — the structures that help students know where they are going and how to improve.

The art of learning is just as important. It lives in relationships, creativity, curiosity and the opportunities students have to share ideas, make choices and take ownership of their learning.

Last week, staff explored this idea together at Werribee Zoo, using animals as metaphors for balance, adaptation and growth. The experience helped us strengthen a shared understanding of how learning growth and student agency work best together.

In 2026, families will see this in classrooms through:

• clear learning intentions and feedback
• increased opportunities for student agency including reflection and self-assessment
• learning environments that value curiosity and confidence

Together, we are building a learning culture where every student can grow — and grow with purpose.

2. Our whole school picture story book for 2026 is “Some Days You’ll Have Days Like These”.

Each year we also use a picture story book as a strategy to promote our school focus and message for the year. All classes and specialist areas engage with the story, and this enables us to have a consistent resource to discuss and explore. We have been doing this for a number of years and feedback from our families is that it provides a common talking point at home for those with children in different areas across the school.

Some Days You’ll Have Days Like Theseis a gentle and reassuring story that reminds us that not every day will go to plan — and that’s okay! 

The book explores themes of resilience, perseverance, emotional awareness and self-belief, encouraging children to keep going even when learning feels tricky. These messages strongly align with our focus at Greenhills on supporting student wellbeing, learning growth and student agency. By normalising challenge and reminding students that grit, effort, reflection and resilience matter, we help children develop the confidence to take risks, learn from mistakes and believe in themselves — on the good days and the tough ones too.

There are some copies of the book available at the office if you would like to borrow one. You might also ask you child/ren if they have read the book in class and ask your child: Can you remember a day that felt tricky at school? What helped you keep going? Talk about how everyone has challenging days and how trying again, asking for help and believing in yourself can make a difference.

3. 2026 Annual Implementation Plan

There are two main goals as part of our 2026 Annual Implementation Plan. These are:

GOAL #1

To optimise student learning growth 

GOAL #2

To strengthen student voice and agency

As we progress through the term, we will share more details about some of the specific actions and plans we have to help us achieve these goals.

HOLIDAY WORKS UPDATE

The school is looking fantastic as our capital works projects continues. Over the holidays we have had lots of painting completed, new roofing installed and even replacement and refurbishment of decking areas. There is still some major drainage works to be completed (outside the multi-purpose room) shortly as well.

WHAT’S HAPPENING @ GREENHILLS 2026

MEET WITH THE TEACHER - PARENT MEETINGS

Our optional “Meet the Teacher” - Parent/Teacher interviews will be held on Tuesday 17th February between 3.50pm and 6.50pm. Whilst these interviews are not compulsory to attend, the main purpose is for parents to meet with the teacher and pass on any relevant information that will assist our students to have a successful year. Each classroom teacher has also sent a link to a Google form where you can share information with us. In this way, if you are unable to attend you can simply complete the form and we will still have what we need to ensure we do our best to build strong connections with all of our students. 

Bookings are made through Compass so that you can select from the times available which suit you best. These are now open and close on Monday 10th February at 4pm.

BE ON TIME FOR SCHOOL EVERY DAY

A reminder that our classrooms are open from 8.55am each morning. We know that getting off to a GREAT start each day is critical for learning, so we are encouraging everyone to be on time and ready to go inside classrooms before the 9am bell.

At the other end of the day a bell will ring at 3.30pm where students will be dismissed and again at 3.45pm. This is a reminder to any student who remains unsupervised that they need to report to the office so that we can ensure they get home safely as yard supervision finishes at this time each day.

ROAD SAFETY AROUND SCHOOLS

Speed zones, pedestrian crossings and parking restrictions around school are there to improve the movement of traffic during peak times and maximise safety for children and road users.

It is vital that adults, we lead by example and set good road safety practices travelling to and from school. As such we are asking all parents and carers to observe and obey parking signs and in particular No Stopping and No parking signs. 

Banyule City Council have asked us to remind our school community that it is an offence to: 

• double park by stopping next to a legally parked vehicle, even for a short time or to drop off/pick up passengers
• Stop or park across a driveway, footpath or dividing strip 
• Stop or park within 10 metres of an intersection or corner that doesn’t have traffic lights
• Stop or park across or in a bus zone.

Council Local Laws Officers will be active around our school area to issue warnings and fines.

PRIVACY INFORMATION

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Department of Education’s Privacy Policy.

Please take time to remind yourself of the school’s collection statement which is included in this newsletter.

For more information about privacy, see:

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Pages/Schools-Privacy-Policy-information-for-parents.aspx

 This information is also available in nine community languages.

SCHOOL UNIFORM

Our uniform dress code reinforces in students a pride in their own appearance, instils recognition of themselves as an integral part of the school community, and assists in developing pride in representing their school. The uniform dress code aims to promote equality amongst all students.  As part of our focus on our value of RESPECT we are seeking your support to ensure that all students are dressed each and every day looking like a full member of our school team.

Recently, School Council added in the option for students to wear black pants, shorts or leggings. It should be noted that our Uniform Policy still requires all shorts or leggings to be mid-thigh or lower in length. 

We are lucky to have so many uniform options provided through PSW, and I also encourage any families having difficulties providing school uniform to contact me at the school so that we can assist.

If a student is not in school uniform as listed in our policy, a member of the principal team will issue them with a uniform pass as a reminder. We will then also follow up with families to help ensure and support our students to follow the policy. 

WE NEED YOUR HELP – STUDENTS WITH LIFE THREATENING ALLERGIES

We have several students at our school with potential life-threatening allergies. These anaphylactic reactions are often triggered by coming into contact with nuts. Whilst we can never say we are a nut free school, we do ask all members of our school community to help keep our students safe by not bringing nuts and nut related products e.g. Nutella to school at anytime. We appreciate your support and assistance with this request. 

HAVE INPUT INTO OUR SCHOOL…SCHOOL COUNCIL NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN

We know that one of our school’s key strengths is our strong parent input and involvement. Our School Council is one the main forums in which parents and staff work together for the benefit of all our students. At the beginning of each school year, we have a number of vacancies for School Council. There are 4 x Parent member positions to fill this year for a period of two years and two casual vacancies for a period of 1 year. If you are interested in nominating, please collect a form from the school office or contact me and I will arrange one to be sent home. These must be lodged at the office by 4pm Friday 6th February.

Please contact me if you would like more information about being a parent on our School Council:

James.penson@education.vic.gov.au

James Penson,

Principal.