A message from the Principal

This week, we were very fortunate to welcome Professor Melissa Barnes from La Trobe University to St Kilda Park Primary School to visit classrooms and observe teaching and learning across the school.

Last year, SKiPPS participated in La Trobe University’s Momentum Project, a partnership focused on supporting schools to implement teaching practices aligned with the latest evidence around how children learn best. Through this project, our staff engaged in extensive professional learning around explicit instruction and evidence-informed teaching approaches and were able to visit schools who are system-leading in this area.

It was wonderful to have Professor Barnes visit classrooms right across the school and see this work in action. She was incredibly impressed by what she observed, commenting on the calm and orderly learning environments, the consistency of explicit teaching practices across classrooms and the exceptionally high levels of student engagement and participation.

Professor Barnes particularly noted the regular “opportunities to respond” that students are provided throughout lessons. These moments allow students to demonstrate their understanding, practise new skills, apply knowledge and receive immediate feedback from their teachers. Just as importantly, they allow teachers to continually check that students are on track and ready for the next stage of learning.

As a school, we are incredibly proud of the work taking place in our classrooms each and every day. Our staff have worked enormously hard over recent years to refine and strengthen their practice, and it is exciting to see the positive impact this is having on student learning outcomes.

In the coming weeks, we will be sharing our 2026 NAPLAN results with families and the wider community. We are genuinely excited to do so, as the results are outstanding and provide strong evidence that the consistent, school-wide improvements we have made to teaching and learning are having a significant impact for our students.

Parents Battle of the Bands – Next Thursday!

A reminder to families that the annual Parents Battle of the Bands will take place next Thursday 4th June at the Prince Bandroom, kicking off from 7pm.

This event is always a fantastic night out and one that is wonderfully close to home for our SKiPPS community. Even more importantly, it raises significant funds each year to support music and performing arts education in our schools.

Funds raised help support our school orchestra program, musical incursions and performances, as well as the ongoing expansion and maintenance of our incredibly well-resourced Performing Arts program and collection of musical instruments.

We encourage families to grab their tickets, come along for a fun night and support our very own parent band, Parental Guidance, on the night!

Neil Scott

Principal