Principal's Message
Our children are our future...
Principal’s Message
Welcome back to 2026! It certainly has been a scorching start, and I hope everyone in your orbit is safe. I extend my empathy to those in our community who are caught up, either directly or indirectly, with the fire situation. Tuesday, the day that staff return to work, looks like an absolute scorcher, so I hope your family stays out of the heat.
School begins for students on Wednesday, January 28, and all staff are keen to see their students, colleagues and community members again on that day. At the time of writing, leaders have put a lot of planning into staff’s first day back, which is Tuesday, January 27. Our broad goal is honing our pedagogical craft.
By any measure, 2025 was a roaring success for South Melbourne Primary School. Our results are at the top of the tree in many areas, being amongst the highest performing schools in the state of Victoria across multiple measures. When compared to all Victorian government schools with 10 or more students participating in NAPLAN, our Year 3 cohort ranked:
- 1st in Reading
- 1st for average score across all subjects
- Our participation rates were also higher than the national average.
Our Year 5 results were ranked 11th in the State in terms of VCAA “Most Influential Schools”.
A quick glance at our Student Opinion Survey, Staff Opinion Survey, and Parent Opinion Survey showed a similarly high trend, with many very strong ratings across all parameters.
I look forward to 2026 with great optimism. It’s probably no mystery that we are an extremely high-performing school. So much so that our Assistant Principal, Maddy Morrison, and myself have been invited to present at a leaders conference later this week on the success of South Melbourne Primary School and how we have attained these outcomes over time.
I really look forward to seeing you all at the front gate on Wednesday with your usual trademark smile and optimism.
School Improvements
As you physically enter the school in 2026, you will notice more improvements. Huge amounts of work occurred over the summer, with the entire Level 1 carpet being torn up and relaid to match the rest of the school. Teacher offices on every level, where the last remnants of the old carpet remained, have also been relaid so the entire scheme matches.
After eight years, we decided to paint the entire school internally, and this work was executed over the break as well. The entire school carpeted area was steam cleaned, with all furniture removed, cleaned and placed back onto the refreshed surfaces.
We have tried valiantly to lay some grass on the forecourt play area, which was looking a bit threadbare at the end of 2025, with mixed results. It is our goal to try to have natural grass for the children, but we may be challenged by the sheer amount of foot traffic this area attracts. We will see how it goes.
We also commissioned the cleaning company to wash every external window, and this was completed over the holiday break. In addition, we had the entire recycled toilet water system flushed out and renewed, and are hopeful this will continue to support environmentally responsible operations at the school.
In all, it has been a huge undertaking in a relatively short space of time. I want to thank our Business Manager, Colin Mountney, who was central to ensuring this work was done efficiently over the break via the different companies. I also want to thank our facilities worker, Sean, and our Assistant Principal, Callum, who did an enormous amount of work over the summer.
I want to thank the 86% of parents who were able to contribute to the parent fees in 2025. The summer improvement work was directly funded by your generous donations. We could not have done it without you. I hope you decide to pay your parent contributions in 2026 (if you are financially able to) so we can continue to provide the world-class education that we do.
We have reappointed our First Aid Officer (Miss Jo) to work in the administration space near the Sick Bay. Her role is to focus on student first aid and parent follow-up. It is incredibly difficult for Emma and Kirsty to complete all of the processes involved in first aid when their primary role is office administration. The appointment of Jo is made possible due to your fee contributions, so we again thank you for choosing to support the school in this way. We cannot do such things without your financial support.
Newsletter Contents
The vast majority of this newsletter contains profiles of our wonderful staff who will work with your child in 2026. Please take the time to read these profiles, put together by each member of the team. They work passionately for the sake of your children. It would be respectful to take the time to get to know them as human beings. We are all in this together.
New Year Link
It may be a good idea to save the link below, which is a “Return to School in 2026” resource. It may assist families new to our school, or those new to the system, in understanding how schooling works in Victoria in 2026.