Principal's Message

Welcome to our 2025 Preps and new families

Last week we held our first transition session for our incoming 2025 prep students. It was a very smooth and well organised event with students being able to experience being in classrooms, making new connections with other students and meeting HPS staff.

We also held the first of our three daytime information sessions for parents/families, helping to build their knowledge and understanding of all things primary school and Hillsmeade.

It was so lovely to meet our new families and welcome them into the wider Hillsmeade family!

Prep transition continues fortnightly, with the next session being held on Tuesday 12th November. 

STEP UP - Schoolwide Transition Program for 2025

As mentioned in previous newsletters, Term 4 is a time for preparing our school community for transition into 2025.

A large part of this process is the preparation of students to meet their new teacher, new classmates and see their new classrooms!

With School Council consultation and approval, we have designed a STEP UP program that will cater for all students in supporting them through a transition process.

This will be a four part program.

Part 1: Monday 9th December - Students meet their 2025 teacher and classmates for one hour.

Part 2: Tuesday 10th December - Statewide Transition Day - HPS Students spend two hours with their new teacher and classmates. Year 6 visit their new secondary colleges and incoming Prep students have their final transition session for the year.

Part 3: Tuesday 17th December - 2025 classes commence and continue until Thursday 19th December at 2.30pm - end of 2024 calendar year at school.

This means that 2024 classes will all be completed on Monday 16th December.

This will also be the final day for Year 6 students - with their Guard of Honour to finish the day and their schooling year.

Where required in the following days, if Year 6 students attend there will be supervision available, but no classes running.

This has taken a lot of time and preparation and we look forward to seeing the enhanced version of Step Up at HPS come to life this year!

Festive Time of Year

Just a reminder please that at Hillsmeade we kick off the festive season as of December 1st! We ask that Christmas related clothing, cards and gifts are held until at least this date, to enable our students to stay focussed on their learning as long as we possibly can! 

New OSHC Provider

We have had many fabulous years with our OSHC service being run by the school and overseen by School Council. However our OSHC Director Shiona Watson and I have been in lengthy discussions about rejuvenating the OSHC program and believed it was time to look for an external provider.

With School Council's permission, we recently put information on our website seeking Expressions of Interest for a new, third party OSHC provider at Hillsmeade.

An OSHC sub committee was formed with representatives from School Council. Four Expressions of Interest were received and last night at an Extraordinary General Meeting, School Council passed a motion to offer the tender to TEAMKIDS. We are really excited by the prospect of bringing in new and fresh ideas and giving our students a refreshed OSHC experience. 

We truly value the work our OSHC staff have done, and continue to do, and they will be in discussions with the new provider regarding employment positions for 2025 and beyond. 

We are so grateful for the program that has been created by Shiona and everyone over the years at Hillsmeade.

Once further steps have been taken with the license agreement between TeamKids and the Department of Education we will be able to provide the community with further details. Until then, the current OSHC program will continue to be available.

End of Year Extravaganza and Christmas Raffle

Don't forget... raffle tickets will soon be coming home and this year in particular we have lots of wonderful prizes to give away!

The raffle will be drawn at our END OF YEAR EXTRAVAGANZA that will be held on Monday 9th December on the synthetic oval/ampitheatre from 4.00pm until 5.15pm

We look forward to seeing our year level performances and enjoying an afternoon of celebration with our community.

Curriculum Days Term 4 2024

Students do not attend school on the following days this term:

Wednesday 27th November - OSHC available

Friday 20th December - No OSHC available

A reminder that the last day of the 2024 school year, Thursday 19th December, is a 2.30pm finish.