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 Principal News

STUDENT REPORTS AND SEESAW

These are scheduled to be shared with families via Compass on Friday 19th December. Parents/carers of current Grade 6 students are encouraged to download and save their child’s reports from Compass. They are also encouraged to download and save their child’s portfolio from SeeSaw, instructions on how to do this will be distributed via Compass soon.

 

Student reports. Thanks to our teachers who are dedicating a lot of time and effort out of school hours to provide informative student reports for parents/carers. 

 

How do teachers assess student achievement? Teachers consider a range of assessment tools including the Victorian Curriculum 2.0, student work samples, anecdotal data including conversations with students and other data to assess student achievement. Once completed, student achievement is shown in student reports.

 

Reporting student achievement in Maths. In June 2025 schools commenced using the Mathematics Curriculum 2.0 for reporting student achievement. Under the Mathematics Curriculum 2.0, your child’s teacher will report against the achievement standard as a whole, providing a single, aggregated score.

 

2026 STAFFING

Our Home Group teachers for next year are:

  • Prep: Shannon Doherty and Elizabeth Newton.

  • Grade 1: Emily Philp and Honey Kirwood.

  • Grade 2: Alana Bound and Renee Winterton.

  • Grade 3: Christopher Hebbard and Rebekah Schefe.

  • Grade 4: Matt Plummer and Brittany Elliott (Mon-Th), Jackie De Koning (Fri)

  • Grade 5: Kelly Szmigielski, Jodi Martin and Narelle Smith

  • Grade 6: Nick Clifford, Elissa Jones and Leon Tremain.

 

Other staff are:

  • Principal: Murray Surkitt

  • Acting Assistant Principal: Brett Greenwood

  • Acting Learning Specialist: Kelly Szmigielski

  • Learning Specialist: James Ramage

  • STEM (Science): Allyce Benci (Mon-Wed) and Caitlin Ovens (Thursday)

  • Physical Education: Chloe Liversidge.

  • Auslan: Rheanna Goeschl and To Be Appointed.

  • Art: Chris Burns (Mon-Wed) and Jackie De Koning (Thursday)

  • Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden: Caitlin Ovens and Brett Greenwood (Friday).

  • Business Manager: Michaela Bird.

  • Administrative Assistant: Jocelyn Cassar

  • Teachers of the Deaf: Keryn Eskrigge and Erin Hunt.

Note: Our Education Support staff are yet to be finalised.

 

2026 CLASSES. Following our transition day last Tuesday, 2026 classes will be announced on Thursday 18th December via a letter to be brought home with the students. 

 

TEACHING AND LEARNING 

Well done to the Grade 5 students and teachers for hosting their expo today titled ‘Bizarre Bazaar’. It was terrific to see the learning the children have completed and thanks to the many parents/carers/visitors to the Expo.

 

FAMILY PICNIC 

Our end of year celebration will be held at school, in the garden area near the Prep-2 building, from 5:30-7:00pm on Thursday 18th December. Please see another section of this newsletter for more details. 

 

GRADE 6 GRADUATION 

Our ceremony will be held at the Grovedale College Auditorium on Monday 15th December beginning at 6:00pm. Invitations have been sent to families of Grade 6 students. 

 

ASSEMBLY 

Our end of year Assembly will be held outdoors (weather permitting) at 9:15am on Wednesday 17th December. Please feel welcome to attend and bring a chair.

 

SOMERS CAMP 

Twenty boys and fifteen girls submitted an Expression of Interest to attend this camp in March next year for students in Grade 5 and 6. Somers Camp have been informed and early next year they will let the school know how many places we have been allocated for boys and girls. 

 

SCHOOL COUNCIL

We met this week and below is a summary:

  • To support our families who rely on Out of School Hours Care (OSHC), we agreed to lodge an application to increase capacity from 75 to 90 students per session. More information to come.

  • As we have the Deaf Facility, we are required to have an enrolment policy. This was endorsed and will soon appear on our website.

  • As members of school council are appointed for 2 years at a time, our retiring members are Deanne Titler, Lauren Mayall, Kelly Hunt and Catherine Carey. On behalf of the school, I would like to thank them for giving their time to support the school. Retiring members can renominate to stay on school council, as can other parents wanting to be on school council. More information to come next year.