Final Thoughts

The final newsletter of the year is an opportunity to reflect on the year that was and extend my sincere thanks to our whole school community for the collective efforts to make 2023 such a wonderful year in our school. Without doubt, two of my highlights were community achievements that highlighted to me what a special and unique school we are, these included our school production of Peter Pan and our school fete. Both significant events and both a significant celebration of our bilingual immersion program.

Over the last week, I have had a chance to read every one of our student reports for Semester 2 and highlight some achievements in these reports by composing some principal awards. I thank our students for their commitment to their learning throughout this semester and in 2023, they represent our school proudly and I am very proud of their achievements. I also extend a sincere thanks to our CPS families and broader school community. The voluntary efforts made throughout the year to help out in our classrooms, at excursions, to support our teaching staff and the extensive support offered at our fete and school production is another example of our school community coming together.

Finally, I extend my sincere thanks to our staff, you only need to pick up a newspaper or watch the news throughout periods of this year to recognise that teaching and education support is a job that is highly rewarding but also can be a thankless and challenging role. There is a great challenge in the teaching profession at the moment and it is sometimes a reflection of the work, expectations and demands of the position. Our staff, each of them, work incredibly hard, they advocate for our students and try to ensure that they are always delivering opportunities and learning experiences that is reflective of our student needs. They have worked tremendously hard this year, have shared in some fantastic achievements and should be acknowledged by each of us for the work they do to make our school so special – thank you!

The holiday period is a special time for our students and it also comes at a time where there is still great uncertainty and volatility in the world, it is an opportunity to reflect on how lucky we are and to celebrate with family, friends and loved one. To that end, I extend my best wishes to all our families over the coming weeks, please travel safely, enjoy some well-deserved downtime and ensure you are looking after yourselves. I thank each of you for your wonderful support this year and look forward to touching base with many of you over the coming days.

Please take a minute to read over some details below highlighting information pieces for 2024, inclusive of some highlights from around the school over recent weeks.

Final Day (Wednesday) Times

Please note arrangements for the last day of term, Wednesday 20th December. Students will be dismissed at 1.30 pm following a final whole-school assembly that commences at 1pm. Parents are invited to attend the assembly on this day. Please note there are no lunch orders on this day.

Reports

Semester 2 Reports will go home via email on Monday 18th December. You are of course welcome to speak to Miharu or I if you are unsure of anything in this report or wish to clarify anything further.

2024 Student Leaders

Our final assembly will include the opportunity to celebrate our Graduating class of 2023 and welcome our 2024 student leaders to their roles. This leadership presentation will be presented at our final assembly, a more formal badge presentation in recognition of these roles will be conducted early in 2024.

Graduation

Congratulations to our graduating class of 2023, it was a pleasure to join our students, families, past and present staff to celebrate their Graduation on Tuesday evening. I am really proud of the manner that our students have tackled their final year of school, their leadership and their approach to each day of their schooling. I wish them every success moving forward. My thanks to our Year 5/6 teaching team who delivered such a celebratory and successful evening for our students.

Full STE(A)M Ahead

In preparation for our new specialist subject in 2024, STEM, we have taken the opportunity to begin designing the new workspace. A big addition to this, is a collection of 3D Printers to support our learning space. I kindly thank Ken Fretwell (Father of Allanah and Ewan) for organsing these to be donated to the school. They are setup and running and the source of great curiosity for our students!

Principal for a Day

At this time of the year, I think we are all thankful for a little bit of extra support in our roles, to that end, I was very pleased to be able to share my responsibilities with Eloise M (Year 4) and Lillian E (Year 1) as Principal for a Day. Eloise and Lillian were great leaders, undertaking yard duty, a school tour, chairing a principal meeting, enjoying a lunch in the staffroom and coming up with their own rule for the day. Well done Eloise and Lillian!

2024 Year 5/6 Japan Trip

Over recent months Miho sensei, Kurokawa sensei and Morioka sensei have been working the phones and confirming costs and details for a proposed 2024 Japan Trip for our Year 5/6 students. At this stage the proposed itinerary and costs for an October 7-14th trip includes:

Return Flights from Melbourne to Narita International Airport
Accommodation in Tokyo (4 nights)
Sightseeing including Tokyo, Disneyland and Tokyo SkyTree
Transport and Meals
Transport to Ogaki
Homestay and school experience
Travel insurance

Initial costings are estimated at $4442.95 per student, some of these costs are reliant on extensive networking by our Japanese staff to ensure they are keeping costs as affordable as possible, whilst some of these costs are well beyond the control of the school given the current costs of international travel. At this stage, we are seeking an expression of interest from 2024 Year 5/6 families by just confirming this via submitting details in the form linked here.

Parent Opinion Survey

Thank you to those families that responded to a 2024 focus group request to explore our Parent Opinion Survey data, most surveys conducted in all schools provide some celebratory moments to highlight and some provocations for further exploration, our data is no different. I look forward to exploring this further with families next year. Our results as benchmarked against the similar schools, network and the state are detailed below:

Bush Dance and Christmas Concert

Thank you to all families that attended our Christmas Concert and Bush Dance yesterday afternoon, this was a great way to end the year as a community and it was a great highlight to see so many of our families in attendance and joining in with the dancing and fun.

Closing off

A reminder that the school office will be closed from 2pm on Wednesday 20th December, whilst I will be in and out of the school over December and January the office will not be formally open again until staff return on Monday 29th January with students returning on the 30th January.

Thank you once again for your support throughout this year, I am very grateful to work alongside our school community. To those families that have concluded their time with us at Caulfield Primary School, I thank you for your longstanding support of the school and wish your families every success for the future. I look forward to seeing everyone back together in 2024. Happy Holidays!

With Thanks,

Edward Strain

Principal

DECEMBER
Thurs 14th	End of Year Concert and Bush Dance	2.30-3.30pm 3.30-5pm
Mon 18th	Prep excursion to Myuna Fam	9.15am-3pm
Wed 20th	Last Day of Term 4: Early Dismissal No lunch orders	1.30pm
JANUARY
Mon 29th	Student Free Day
Tues 30th	First day for Students
FEBRUARY
Thur 1st	Prep orientation session 1
Fri 2nd	Prep orientation session 2
Mon 5th	First full day for Preps
Fri 9th	Welcome Picnic	2.30-4pm

CPS Calendar