PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

On Wednesday our choir participated in the combined school carol’s festival. This event took place at St. Mary’s Catholic church with choirs from most of the Hamilton schools. Our choir, under the coaching of Mrs Garland, chose to sing ‘Aussie Jingle Bells’, a modern day twist on a classic. The choir should be incredibly proud of the way they represented the school and sang with such joy, reflecting the great passion for music Mrs Garland is instilling in them. We look forward to hearing them perform again at the upcoming Carols on Friday December 11th.

I continue to be proud of the way that our students embrace extra curricula activities and the attitude they take to being involved in these. This positive attitude and respectful manner was highlighted in two messages I received last month from people in the broader community. One from a netball umpire who said “your team was a delight to umpire. They had positive language, played in the right spirit and were kind & polite” A similar message was received from a colleague at the District Cricket who said “your boys had amazing athletic skills and played the game in great spirit. They were competitive but humble”. It has been great to share this feedback with staff, students and School Council and reinforce how are actions are noticed by others and are a reflection of our character, our school and our families.

As we move into the final weeks of the year we are continuing to finalise our 2025 plan. This year we have had a structure that has allowed for teams of teachers to work collaboratively together to support students needs as the progress through the school. Our commitment is to provide ongoing consistency in sustaining a model that works and minimise change across the school. Our final structure of 13 grades consists of two Prep classes of 22 students, four Year 1/2 students of 24, four Year 3/4 classes of 21 and three Year 5/6 classes of 24.

To support this structure we anticipate there to be little movement in teachers in our planning, although we do have two new teachers joining our team in 2025. Mr James Stephens and Miss Jessica Martin. Mr Stephens is currently at Lake Bolac P -12 College. Previous to this he has worked at Inverleigh P.S, Westgrove P.S and Dunkeld Consolidated. In his teaching roles James has also been team leader, PLC leader, Numeracy Leader and Primary Maths and Science Specialist. Miss Martin has had several years teaching experience at George Street and in this time has also taken on some leadership roles. Both Miss Martin and Mr Stephens come with strong references and we know will both make another fabulous addition to our team. Information on class teachers will be sent out in the next newsletter.

A reminder that next week our Year 5/6 students are heading away on camp to Sovereign Hill. I will be attending camp as well and Mr Kelson will be in charge in my absence. The weather is looking perfect for gold hunting and we know the students will have a great time.

Jane Langley

Hamilton OSHC