Principal's report

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung People of the Kulin nation; past, present and those who will walk with us into the future. We acknowledge the rich and unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and seas, educational practices and the hopes of all First Nations Peoples. We do this in the spirit of reconciliation as we move to a place of justice and partnership - together we work, learn, play and care for one another and this land.

Initiative - being problem solvers

One of our Key Improvement Strategies in our Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) is improving problem-solving skills (particularly in mathematics). Our School Improvement Team regularly monitors our progress towards our AIP goals. 

In our latest discussion regarding problem solving we decided it would be a great idea to have a whole school focus on initiative and problem solving.  Not just in mathematics, but in everything we do. 

As teachers, we can see that our students work hard, are well-behaved, and are kind to one another. However, we also want to make sure our students are pro-active in learning, wellbeing, and socialising, not just compliant. 

Developing greater autonomy, agency, and showing initiative are all important factors that enable students to perform well, particularly in secondary school. Building initiative can happen gradually, and our expectations look different between Foundation and Year 6. However, we are keen to encourage and celebrate it whenever possible.

We will be doing this throughout the school in the second semester, and asking families to join us in encouraging your children to show initiative at home as well as at school.

Showing initiative is all about taking responsibility without being told to do so. This could include getting your belongings ready for learning, tidying up, helping others out, and solving problems.

Noticing and celebrating students showing initiative is a great way to build positive momentum with this change. Another is that we will be changing our ‘Pupil of the Week Awards’ to ‘Problem Solver of the Week Awards’ for the rest of the year.

Please note it is important to always stress that showing initiative is different than solving behavioural or safety issues themselves. We still will strongly encourage students to seek adult help and support when needed.

Bogan Bingo - Thank you

On Friday, 20th June we had a great night at the Bogan Bingo event. It was great to see more than 120 parents and staff in attendance.

A huge thank you to the Parents and Friends for organising this great event and for all the businesses who contributed to the night.

School Reports - Learning Behaviours

I know for many parents, the first and most important section of the reports that is looked at is learning behaviours. Knowing that our children are doing all they can to set themselves up to succeed, is as important as the level of their performance.

The learning behaviours checklist we have been using for the last few years was developed collaboratively by our staff and was based on evidence-based findings from John Hattie on which learning behaviours have the largest impact on student learning outcomes.

We have not changed our checklist this year, however, we have spent time with our teachers moderating the checklists to ensure consistency of how we report against it. One teacher's idea of 'consistently' could be another's idea of 'usually'. 

Working towards consistency in this reporting will give parents a far better understanding over time of the learning behaviours your children are demonstrating in the classroom.

Our agreed upon approach to marking against this checklist is below:

Consistently: more than 90% of the time

Usually: more than 70% of the time

Sometimes : approximately 50% of the time

Rarely: less than 30% of the time

Student Free Days in second semester

Our student-free days for the remainder of 2025 have been finalized and approved by the School Council. Please note these days in your calendars. TeamKids will provide full day care on these days.

Student Free Days:

• Friday 22nd August
• Friday 17th October
• Friday 12th December

End of Term

We will have lots of trades people in the school over the break doing both roof and ramp works, so please be careful if coming on site.

This last week will be a fun one for students with a staff-student netball game on Wednesday and our dress as your future self day on Friday.

Finally, I would like to wish all our Kalinda families and staff members a great school holiday break. I hope any time off is able to be spent with loved ones and is filled with joy.

We are kind. We are resilient. We are respectful.