Principal's Desk

Developing Your Strengths 

At Park Ridge Primary School we mandate ten hours of literacy and five hours of numeracy per week. We have high expectations that students become highly proficient in these areas. We also ensure that we provide other opportunities for students to develop and practise their strengths. Weekly sport and a variety of lunchtime clubs are just some of the extra curricula activities available for our students to develop their talents. Our students are very fortunate to take part in such a range of extra-curricula activities.

Reading Reading Reading

For all my years in education, I have always held a firm belief that regular nightly reading is so important to students. It needs to be a priority in every family’s routine. At Park Ridge Primary School, we don’t consider reading to be classified as part of our home learning routines. It’s something we need to build into our daily activities. Recently, I re-watched a TED Talk about how you ‘Make a Habit Become a Habit’. The presenter spoke about attaching a current habit like brushing your teeth or getting dressed in the morning to a new habit. For those families who are having difficulties getting the routine in place, try getting their child to read for two minutes after they brush their teeth in the morning. The time is not important, it’s the fact that you are starting to establish a routine. Hopefully over time, the two minutes extends to five to ten to twenty minutes. Research also shows that if Dads or a significant male hears the child read then the improvement is even greater. Listed below is some research from New Zealand. The message is pretty simple: The more you read, the better you become at reading. How many words does your child read each day? Reading to your child is important. It would be an interesting task to analyse the ratio between home reading, playing electronic games and outdoor physical play that our students perform each day. I am sure you would all agree, two of these activities need to make up a predominant amount of a student’s time.

The Amount of Reading Done

Clay: Observation records of book reading taken at weekly intervals – Auckland Research Study

Note: It’s obvious to see why nightly reading is so important

Getting to Know You Nights / Information Gathering

Thank you to all of the families who attended the Getting to Know You Nights this week. These nights are a valuable opportunity for teachers and parents to forge a great relationship to ensure that students achieve the best possible learning outcomes. If you missed out on talking with your child's teacher, please contact them directly through Compass.

Slip Slop Slap 

Park Ridge Primary School is a SunSmart school. We require all students to wear a hat while outside in Terms 1 & 4. Students who do not have a hat must play undercover near the library. Applying sunscreen and cleaning your teeth should become routine events each morning for students. The consequences for not protecting yourself against the sun could be catastrophic in the years to come.

Park Ridge Processes

As is common for the beginning of any year, we are all likely to forget some of the logistics of school. Below are a couple of things that support us all in the business of the year:

Compass excursion/camp/incursion deadlines

All events for our students are published via Compass with details of the event and payment details. The due date for final payment will be on the event details. All events must be consented and paid for by the date to allow for both the office staff and classroom teachers to undertake essential processing and planning. Please contact the office if you are having difficulty in making payment before the due date to discuss with either myself or our Business Manager, Chris. To avoid any child's disappointment in being unable to attend an event, we ask that you regularly look at Compass and make yourself aware of payment details. Late payments, without prior discussion with the office, will not be accepted.

School attendance and supervised time onsite

It is a legal requirement that all students attend school on a daily basis. We all understand the benefit of attending school and how a large amount of time away from school can be detrimental to learning and social friendships. We do understand that from time to time students are too ill to attend school, and in the case of a necessary absence, parents must provide an explanation of their child's absence. We ask that parents log both their child's absence in Compass and provide an explanation in the notes section.  School learning begins at 8:45am and teachers mark rolls when students arrive in the morning. 

Our school grounds are supervised by staff from 8:30am before school and until 3:30pm after school. Students are allowed to enter their classrooms at 8:35am. If students arrive before or after these times they are in a public, unsupervised area which people external to the school community do use. Staff who are at school are not responsible for supervising your children beyond these times unless it is a specific school organised event. I would encourage you to make use of the before and after school facility, Team Kids, if you need care beyond this time. 

Staff Carpark

We've noticed more students and families strolling through our staff carpark lately, especially towards the end of the day. Since some of our staff leave at that time, we want to make sure everyone stays safe. Remember, cars and kids aren't the best mix! I encourage all families to use the designated pedestrian entry and exit points instead of walking through the staff car park. Thanks to all our community for helping us keep our school grounds safe for everyone! 

2025 Foundation Enrolments

School Tours are now available for prospective new families with children commencing school in 2025 to book, starting in March. Please contact the school via our website or call us on 03 9752 8555.

Nude Food 

There has been a collective effort to reduce the litter in our school yard and it is working because students are eating inside and only permitted to take nude food outside. We encourage parents – wherever possible – to send the students with a packed lunch that is nude! 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Please feel free to pop in for a chat with either Carrie, Brendan, or I, should you wish to discuss anything. 

Our doors are always open! 

Take care,

Mr. Dale Blythman