Assistant Principal's News

Hello to all Clayton North Primary families and friends.  I hope you are all well as we finally move towards some warmer weather! 

Over the previous few weeks, our students have continued to work hard on their learning, and many have also had the opportunity to participate in exciting special events. Foundation students have visited Clayton Library for a wonderful morning of literacy fun, our F-2 students have visited Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and a number of our 3-6 students have represented CNPS at the Oakleigh District Athletics carnival with some outstanding results achieved! On Friday, a number of our Year 5/6 students are also representing CNPS in the Hotshot tennis tournament and we wish them well. 

Thank you to our families for your continued support this year.

Teaching and Learning

Book week

The school was full of colour and creativity as we celebrated our love of reading during Book week. Families went to considerable effort to support this special event with wonderful costumes on display and students proudly sharing who their favourite book characters were during our assembly. There were characters from new books, old books, fairy tales, comic books and so many more! 

Students also had the opportunity to participate in a 'Guess the teachers favourite book' activity, a bookmark competition and many other engaging activities for students and families to be a part of, across the week. Thank you to Naomi and Leannder for leading the planning and organisation of this great event.

English at CNPS

Beginning in Term 4, we will be making some whole school adjustments to our approach to teaching English which are guided by educational research and the Department of Education recommendations. 

At CNPS, we will be adopting an evidence-based teaching approach that explicitly and systematically instructs students in the essential skills of reading and writing. This is known as Structured Literacy 

This approach will see the English block broken into three key parts where all aspects of Reading, Writing and Speaking & Listening are learnt in an integrated way rather than in isolation. These three parts are:

1. Daily review 
2. Language and Literacy Skills
3. Text studies

Staff have engaged in professional learning to support an efficient transition to our new approach and we are excited to see the impact that this has on student learning!

Premiers Reading Challenge

The Premiers Reading Challenge has come to a close for 2026 and CNPS had a total of 100 students complete the challenge this year. A huge congratulations to these students who will receive a certificate to recognise their achievement.

We had a huge number of books read and verified in the final weeks with 4,895 books read in total across the whole challenge. Thank you to families and teachers for supporting students with the challenge in 2026.

Student Wellbeing & Inclusion

Positive Classroom Management Strategies (PCMS)

At CNPS, we have prioritised the introduction of Positive Classroom Management Strategies (PCMS) into everyday practice for staff and students. PCMS create safer, more purposeful learning environments that boost student engagement, learning, and wellbeing. As a whole staff, we have focused on:

1. Classroom expectations
2. Classroom procedures and routines

3. Encouraging expected behaviour

4. Discouraging inappropriate behaviour

We are already seeing the benefits of our dedicated efforts with students following classroom routines and expectations with greater consistency which has afforded our teachers with more time to concentrate on what they do best...teach!

Project Rockit

On Friday 4th September, our Year 3-6 students participated in the Project Rockit incursion which supported students in further developing their social and emotional wellbeing. The presenters were highly engaging during the sessions and provided plenty of opportunities for students to be involved and share their learning. Thank you to Josie for organising this event for our students.

Year 1/2 Story Time

Each Thursday, Danica, our RMIT Social Work student, leads a Story Time session for Year 1/2 students during the first half of recess. This session provides a wonderful opportunity for students who would benefit from a quieter start to their break while engaging with stories that promote discussion around important themes such as friendship, family and emotions. This session is held in 1/2D and all Year 1/2s are welcome to come long.

As we head into the final week of Term 3, I wish you all a wonderful, safe holiday break and look forward to welcoming families back to CNPS to begin Term 4.

Jake Uwland