Hello NPS families,

I hope that you have all had a great week.

Late last week we received our 2024 preliminary NAPLAN data and although not having had an in-depth look at this yet - what I have seen is extremely promising and encouraging. The data reaffirms that what is taking place in learning areas is hitting the mark and that our students are achieving great outcomes and showing wonderful growth.

I am very proud of our school and although there are certainly areas to tighten up on (and we are working hard on these) - the practices I am seeing in classrooms are terrific.

In speaking about feeling proud of our school, this week I sought some in-depth feedback from our senior students as to why THEY are proud to be students of Newtown Primary School. We take student voice seriously and there is generally nothing like the honesty of young people to truly tell you how it is! I have attempted to capture some of their responses for you all below...

The question that was asked was: "I feel proud about being a student at this school - if you do - why and what makes you proud? If not, what is it about NPS that makes you not proud to be a student here?"

I am proud because people are nice,
I’m proud to be a student because I get most of my learning skills from school,
I feel proud that I’m in the tech impact team and I like supporting our lightning premiership teams,
I feel proud because I am a leader at this school,
I am proud because people look up to me,
I am proud because it is an amazing school and everyone is very kind,
Yes because I have been here for all 7 years,
I am proud to be a student here because of the amount of interaction that happens between our school and others,
I feel proud to be part of this school community and to have a say in what we do,
NPS makes me a proud student because most students follow the expected behavior,
I feel proud because I’m a leader of the school and that I’m in an impact team,
I feel proud because I have made so many friends here,
I am proud to be here because of the impact I can have in my area of impact.

Some great responses! Of course, with the positive comes the negative, and although this was very light on and in the form of "idk"'s... (I don't know), we'll still look to flesh this out and make that positive connection!

Yesterday, Mr. MckInnis, Mr. O'Meara and I attended our termly BNC (Barwon North Central) Principal network meeting. These days generally include a lot of discussion, sitting, and listening about a wide range of hot topics and allow Principals to discuss these together. One of those hot topics yesterday had to do with racism. Statewide data indicates that racism is a growing problem (thankfully not here in our Barwon region or even in our network for that matter) however the onus was placed on us as schools to continue to educate our students and break down those barriers as best we can.

We viewed two quite confronting videos yesterday, both of which I have included below for families to watch. As a slight warning, they are quite confronting as is the topic of racism and discrimination itself - but because of that it is important we do not shy away from what is challenging and needs to be discussed.

We love the fact that as a small school in the heart of Geelong, we are very diverse and have families from a range of backgrounds. This is something we acknowledge and celebrate and with a core school value of RESPECT, our students are extremely welcoming and respectful of diversity.

Finally, as a school over the years, we have offered a wide variety of extra curricular activities and we are keen to have some feedback from our families about what is currently offered, and what else if anything you'd like to see. There is a Google Form linked here Extra Curricular Programs / Offerings. If you have the time, please complete this for us.

That's it from me, have a great weekend!

Thank you,

Corrie Barclay

Principal

Thank you everyone and have a great weekend!

Newtown Primary School

Principal

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