Newsletter 2025

From the Principal

I was delighted to celebrate my first year as Principal at Brunswick South Primary School last week! I’d like to express my heartfelt thanks to our wonderful community for the warm welcome and support I’ve received. It has been a privilege to join such a vibrant, values-driven school.

I’ve loved getting to know the people who make this place so special; our students, staff, and families. It’s been a pleasure to chat with many of you at morning drop-off and hear your aspirations for your children’s learning. Our staff are nothing short of inspiring: their commitment to our bilingual model, their belief in our students, and their professionalism is energising. And of course, our students continue to impress with their curiosità, entusiasmo e gioia di imparare. They are amazing learners, and a joy to interact with each day!

One of the special characteristics of BSPS is our incredibly engaged and generous parent and carer community. The positive contribution you each make through volunteering, fundraising, being on School Council, or simply being present with enthusiasm and care has a huge impact. Grazie di cuore for all the ways you support our little village. The Trivia Night on Saturday was a perfect example of this! (Grazie mille to Stef and team for making it happen and to all who came along!)

We’ve achieved so much together over the past twelve months:

  • Our school’s commitment to student wellbeing has been further strengthened with the introduction of the Leading Teacher Wellbeing role and development of a whole school Wellbeing Plan. A team of Education Support staff have also been employed as part of our inclusion focus,
  • We are on track to complete our Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) for 2025, and are well prepared for our upcoming school review expected to take place in Term 1,
  • Our students have achieved excellent learning outcomes in both literacy and numeracy, performing well above the state average and surpassing neighbouring monolingual schools,
  • We’ve successfully implemented the Victorian Curriculum 2.0 and the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0, setting us up for continued alignment with best practice,
  • We introduced the Bilingual Pedagogy Leader role, supporting staff to identify the high-impact metacognitive strategies that most effectively build literacy and numeracy skills across both English and Italian. This helps ensure our bilingual model remains both purposeful and evidence-informed,
  • We’ve continued to strengthen our bilingual pathways, nurturing our links with local kindergartens and connecting with local secondary schools, offering to support their Italian programs so they are better positioned to meet the needs of our students,
  • It’s been a pleasure to host members of the Bilingual Schools Network (BSN) and to contribute at a system level. I had the opportunity to join a panel of principals in helping to shape a developmental framework grounded in contemporary research, that will guide future bilingual practice across Victoria,
  • We celebrated our inaugural participation in the Giochi Matematici del Mediterraneo. We were the only Australian school to take part in this highly regarded international event, and our students achieved remarkable success; three students placing first in their respective divisions! We were proud to welcome the Consul General for a special awards ceremony,
  • I’ve had the opportunity to represent BSPS on the HUMA Network Executive, helping shape the direction of professional learning across our network and raising the profile of our bilingual program within the broader education community,
  • With a focus on student voice and agency, we have  expanded our extracurricular opportunities for students, including interschool sports and Pranzo Italiano Club,
  • With a strong focus on staff development and instructional leadership, we have introduced structured professional development plans, mentor support for all staff, and formal Positions of Responsibility; giving our teachers the opportunity to lead and grow their practice in areas they’re passionate about,
  • In addition to the refurbishments we’ve undertaken in the school entrance areas this year, we’ve secured two successful funding grants to further improve and upgrade our school’s physical spaces. We look forward to this work getting underway this semester. Work has commenced on our Inclusion Space; huge thanks to our student-led Inclusion Action Team and the parents of our Environment Sub-committee, who joined forces in designing the space. We are so grateful for all the donations into the Building Fund, Ciao Downs, Festa and other fundraisers - without this support, these improvements would not be possible.

Un grande grazi to the BSPS Executive team, Sarah Burdak, Mary Glendza, Chiara Spalletta and our School Council President Dan Ziffer for their support, humour and guidance these past twelve months.

Avanti insieme – forward together! Here’s to many more years of growth and shared success.

 

Ciao for now, Kristie