Principal's Report

Immediately prior to our last School Council Meeting we had the Annual General Meeting. 

Many thanks for the enquiries and nominations received. The process closed on March 6th, 2024 and I am pleased to say that all vacancies have been filled.  Our council for the next year is as follows:

Newly elected for two years; Fia Moraitis, Jim Fang, Nadiah Smith, Jeff Fang. Elected for one year to replace a departing member:  Aurellia Gonasillan.

Continuing councillors:  Deepak Ganga, Kelvin Wong, Krystle Day.

I would like to once again thank departing members, Andrea Sergi and Rajib Chowdhury for their time, commitment and support on council.

Staff members on council are: Carly Epskamp, Niki Corfios, Natalie Pike and myself (Jim Hill).

At the Annual General Meeting office bearers were elected and I look forward to working with this fine group of people. Sub committees were formed for Finance, Policy and Student Welfrae and Curriculum. Together council will oversee decisions and finance as we guide DPS into the future.

Doncaster Primary School (DPS) has been proudly educating the Doncaster Community for over 161 years, and we offer quality education by having high expectations of all students. At DPS, we achieve high individual growth by utilising data to inform teaching and learning. Students learn in a safe, vibrant and caring environment that promotes acceptance, confidence, curiosity and respect, in line with our guiding values of Determination, Pride and Success. Our values cultivate positive interactions and expectations for one another; this includes teachers, students, and parents and provides a common language understood by the community. 

The school has a standard for high academic performance and achievement whilst promoting ethical behaviour, personal and social competence, critical and creative thinking, and intercultural understanding. The skills, behaviours and attributes developed will equip students for success in life and work in the 21st Century. We believe in developing the whole child. To that end, our highly experienced teachers coordinate a wide range of extracurricular activities and events to complement the teaching and learning of our students. 

Doncaster Primary School's excellent reputation ensures that we are a sought-after school among international students. We only accept students that meet DET policy criteria and guidelines to ensure that international students are given optimal opportunities for immersion into our school community. Parents and carers are welcomed as partners in the school community and are involved in decision-making activities through parent associations, committees, and school councils. The school implements strategies and processes to encourage and empower parents and carers to communicate and engage with the school. We regularly communicate opportunities for parent engagement and articulate the benefits of parents as partners for student learning and well-being. 

Our staff work in a close partnership with our parents through School Council, Class Representatives, Volunteers and Helpers, Student Conferences and Student Presentations and Information Evenings. The school harnesses the capacity of community partners to collectively meet the diversity of its student needs by accessing such things as expertise, professional development and delivery of activities and services. Partnerships are monitored and reviewed to measure their effectiveness. The school and its partners co-design learning experiences that have mutual benefit. For example, we have a close partnership with the Doncaster Uniting Church which give us 8 Kids Hope Mentors that work one to one with students who may be at risk. Within this context, school leaders and teachers are committed to implementing a consistent whole-school approach to learning and instructional model underpinned by explicit teaching and a differentiated curriculum. 

Teachers plan collaboratively to ensure we cater to different rates and learning styles whilst building consistency of practice across the school through collaborative team planning and reflection, professional learning walks, peer observation within and beyond DPS, and individual and cohort data to inform differentiated lessons and student learning goals. 

We are committed to continuing the school's tradition of providing educational excellence for all. DPS has a long and rich history, dating back to 1863. Located in the City of Manningham and the heart of Doncaster Hill, it occupies the s 2.63-hectare site with state-of-the-art facilities. The 550 children are representative of a wide range of cultural backgrounds, with a high proportion of children from Language Backgrounds Other Than English. We also have International Students that are part of our school community. The school's overall economic profile is based on the school's Student Family Occupation and Education Index (SFOE), which considers parents' occupations and education. Doncaster Primary School's socio-educational band value is 'Low', representing a low socio-educational disadvantage. Our school has 37.8 equivalent full-time staff: 2.0 Principal class, 28.6 teachers and 9.2 Education Support Staff. DPS is an attractive school with beautifully cultivated gardens that ensure a safe learning and playing environment. 

Our students are fortunate to have vast areas to play, with expansive grounds that include a full-sized oval with soccer nets, cricket pitch, long jump, sandpit and two playgrounds. In addition, students can enjoy playing sports on our basketball and volleyball courts or enjoying some shade in our seated areas dotted around the school. Our sustainability garden and chickens keep the children connected to nature. Children are engaged and challenged in wonderfully bright and stimulating learning areas with classes led by teams of high calibre teaching professionals. Our classrooms and teaching spaces are modern, large, well-equipped, and resourced. We have dedicated rooms including Visual Arts, ICT, LOTE, Cultural Studies and Library. The school also has a full-sized gymnasium for indoor Physical Education classes. Experienced staff run engaging programs in each area and offer our students a range of extracurricular opportunities. 

Additional program areas include sport (swimming, cross country, athletics, gymnastics, team competition); camps including our Grade 6 Camp to Canberra and excursions; cultural activities; music and performance (school productions, concerts, choirs, instrumental tuition); Values; Respectful Relationships; School Wide Positive Behaviours Program; TEAMS, The Tutor Learning Initiative (TLI) has continued to 'catch' students who may have fallen behind in reading and numeracy due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 and remote learning periods and EAL(English as an Additional Language.

Our TLI program has ensured success for our students due to our exceptionally high standards around the implementation of the program and thoroughly developed practice principles, and most importantly, the dedication and professionalism of our teachers. Doncaster Primary School's leadership team is always striving to improve. As such, we take pride in our forward-thinking and goal-driven approach to everything we do for the benefit of the students. Moving forward, we will continue to focus on student wellbeing and engagement but are also very excited to embark on the journey of developing a whole-school approach to activate student voice and agency, including in leadership and learning, to strengthen students' engagement in school.

Leadership is well supported by members of the school council lead by President Kelvin Wong.

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and sometimes it’s tricky to find a unique gift. This year, we would like to create a DPS cookbook to sell as a fundraiser at the Mother’s day stall.

As we have such an amazing multicultural school community, it would be great to share some of our family’s delicious recipes.

Could you please send your family’s favourite recipe with a photo to Marika.Quinonero@education.vic.gov.au by 12/4/24.

I would like to thank everyone for a wonderful start to the 2024 school year. Our staff are highly qualified and committed to providing the best possible education and we are very proud of the work we do together with each other and you, our parents.

DPS is an excellent school that we should all be justifyablly proud of. The results our students are producing are a credit to all invoilved.

Enjoy the break, happy easter!

James Hill 

Principal