Principal's Report
Gardenvale Welcomes Perci
Last Friday, we held a special whole-school assembly to officially launch PERCI, HERRRBy's friend and an exciting new initiative that will help foster positive learning mindsets across our school. PERCI represents the important attitudes and dispositions we want our children to develop: Perseverance, Excellence, Risk-taking, Curiosity and Initiative. These qualities support students to approach their learning with confidence, resilience and a willingness to challenge themselves. We are incredibly grateful to the Maguire family for generously creating a beautiful wooden PERCI, and to Tommy Munro for producing PERCI keyrings for students to purchase. Thank you to Robyn Krawitz for her work in organising the key rings. A special thank you to Tyler Trevaskis, our Wellbeing Leader, whose vision, enthusiasm and dedication have been instrumental in introducing this valuable initiative and bringing PERCI into the Gardenvale family.
HERRRBy Week
This week we will be celebrating HERRRBy Week. HERRRBy Week provides an opportunity for students, staff and families to reflect on how we communicate with and treat others, as well as ourselves. HERRRBy has helped foster a strong and positive culture across our school community.
This year’s theme is “Celebrating All Our Tricks in 2026!” One of those exciting new tricks is the introduction of HERRRBy’s friend, PERCI.
A key focus of HERRRBy Week is developing understanding and awareness of disabilities, both visible and invisible. As part of our celebrations, tomorrow we will welcome Australian Paralympian Josh Hose, who will present to the whole school at 11:20am under the COLA at the Senior Campus. We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to members of our parent community, Jen Robinson, Nat Leechman and Lauren Jarvis, for their support in making this valuable opportunity possible for our students and staff.
Prep Phonics Dress Up Day
Our Preps have been busy during their first semester of school developing their phonic knowledge. As a celebration of their hard work a Phonics Dress Up Day was held on Wednesday 20th May. As part of reinforcing their knowledge the Prep students dressed up as something representing the first letter of their name! A lovely parade was held, and the children were involved in myriad of activities during the day. Our Prep staff also joined in the dress up celebration. A big thank you to our Prep parents for their ingenuity and hard work in helping to create their children’s costumes and supporting the event!
The Great Debate
We are fortunate at Gardenvale to have outstanding teachers who always endeavour to provide quality learning experiences and opportunities for their students. Many parents, students and staff witnessed one such event last week when they watched our Year 6 ‘The Great Debate’. This program involves the students learning the process of debating. Within each class various debates were held and then each class selected two teams to represent them at ‘The Great Debate’. The debate topics were
- Students should be able to use AI to help with their homework
- Graffiti is art, not vandalism
- There should be a minimum age for mobile phone usage.
The scoring was very close however the 6A teams of Lorelei, Lucy and Mert, and Ava, Hamish and Leora, declared the winners of the first two debates and the winners of the third debate were Hailey, Mila and Theo from 6B! Leora (6A), Mert (6A), and Theo(6B) were declared the title of best debaters. Well done to all involved, including the audience members!
Lost Property
Is your child missing any items of their school uniform, lunch box or drink bottle? If they are, please ask your child to check the lost property bins, we have a mountain of lost property at both campuses.
Students arriving Late
If your child arrives at school after 9.00am, they must be signed in at the school office by a parent or caregiver before going to class. This ensures that attendance records are accurate and that we know all students have arrived safely at school. We appreciate families supporting this important process.
Have a lovely week, hopefully you get time to enjoy the sunshine,
Janine