Message from the Principal 

On our Curriculum Day on Monday, our staff focused on Explicit Teaching and its place within our Greenhills Responsive Teaching & Learning Model. Building on our work with the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model (VTLM 2.0), the day provided teachers with dedicated time to develop a shared understanding of high-impact explicit teaching practices and consider how these can be consistently embedded across classrooms.

This learning centred on the key elements associated with Explicit Teaching in the VTLM 2.0, including focusing the learning, explicit explanation and modelling, scaffolded practice, and monitoring student progress. Staff explored what each of these elements looks like in practice, from clearly communicating learning intentions and success criteria, to using worked examples and teacher think-alouds, providing purposeful scaffolds, and regularly checking for student understanding throughout a lesson.

An example of one part of the day was exploring Opportunities to Respond and Checking for Understanding. Teachers considered how purposeful questioning, mini-whiteboards, partner discussions and other response routines can make student thinking visible. This allows teachers to identify misconceptions, provide timely feedback, adjust their teaching and determine when students are ready for greater independence.

Throughout the day, staff used our “Celebrate & Sharpen” approach to recognise the strong practices already happening at Greenhills and identify specific areas we can continue to refine. Teams then worked together to determine their Explicit Teaching priorities for the remainder of this term and into next term.

Importantly, this work is not about introducing a collection of separate teaching strategies. It is about continuing to build one coherent and consistent Responsive Teaching & Learning Model that guides how we plan, teach, respond to students and reflect on learning across Greenhills. Our ultimate goal remains simple, to provide every student with clear, engaging and responsive teaching that supports them to experience success while continuing to be appropriately challenged.

ATTENDANCE POLICY

Regular attendance is an important part of every child’s learning, wellbeing and development. Attending school each day helps students keep up with their learning, build friendships, develop important skills and feel connected to their school community. As you can see from the display above, our school is slightly behind Similar Schools, Network Schools and State Schools in terms of the percentage of students with 95% or higher attendance in 2025. This pattern is also happening this year.

At Greenhills Primary School, we believe every day at school matters. Supporting regular attendance is a shared responsibility between students, families and the school. We ask families to:

• ensure children attend every day and arrive on time, ready to learn
• provide an explanation whenever their child is absent
• communicate with the school about any issues that may be affecting attendance
• wherever possible, schedule family holidays, appointments and other activities outside school hours.

What absences may be excused?

The Principal determines whether an absence is considered reasonable. Absences that will generally be excused include medical or dental appointments when an out-of-hours appointment is not possible, bereavement or funerals, cultural observances, school refusal where a support plan is in place, and family holidays when the school has been notified in advance.

Families are encouraged to arrange appointments and holidays outside school hours or school terms wherever possible to minimise disruption to learning.

NAPLAN SNAPSHOT - NUMERACY

Last week we reported on our 2026 NAPLAN Reading results. This week we are sharing our Numeracy results. 

Overall, we are again pleased with the progress our students are making with Numeracy. In both Year 3 and Year 5 we have a very high percentage of students who achieved results in the “Exceeding” or “Strong” bands. This was 84% in Year 3 and an incredible 81% of students in Year 5. This is 3% higher than the similar schools we are compared against in Year 3 but also 3% lower than similar schools in Year 5. However, it was important to see that our relative growth data improved significantly this year after a dip last year.

PRINCIPAL TEAM SHOUT OUTS

At Greenhills Primary School, we love recognising students who demonstrate the positive behaviours and learning traits that make our school such a great place to learn and grow. Each week, our Principal Team will be on the lookout for students who are shining examples of our school expectations and HILATs.

At the end of each week, selected students will receive one of two special awards: a Principal’s SWPBS Shout Out or a Principal’s HILAT’s Shout Out.

The Principal’s SWPBS Shout Out celebrates students who demonstrate our school-wide positive behaviour expectations: Be Safe, Be Responsible and Be Kind. Whether it is helping another student, making responsible choices, or showing kindness and respect, we want to recognise the everyday actions that make a positive difference at Greenhills.

The Principal’s HILAT’s Shout Out recognises students who demonstrate our High Impact Learning Agency Trait’s: Engaging in Dialogue, Pursuing Goals, Acting with Courage, Being Persistent, Being Reflective and Using Feedback. These are the habits and attitudes that help our students become confident, capable and successful 

BULLYING NO WAY

As outlined in the Learning & Wellbeing section of the newsletter last week, it is Bullying No Way Week between the 17th–21st August 2026. This is Australia’s leading initiative for bullying prevention in schools. It is an opportunity for schools to foster a shared understanding of bullying behaviours and highlight strategies for their prevention. 

Last week we published the GHPS Bullying Reporting Procedure which our Junior School Council (JSC) has played an important role in reviewing.

You can also partner with us and support our work as we continue to focus on being bold, being kind and speaking up. 

How families can respond

Schools can be much more effective when parents report bullying and support their efforts to deal with it.

If your child reports that bullying is occurring at our school, or the bullying involves students from the school outside of school, you should let the school know the situation.

Working together with the school is the best way to help your child resolve bullying issues.

We will then work with you to resolve the situation and will also work with the other student's parents. Due to privacy laws, they will not be able to share information about any other students involved.

Tips for contacting the school

Remain calm and focus on being constructive (even if you feel upset).

Prepare by:

• making a time to talk with a member of the principal team.
• writing notes (and any other records) based on what your child has told you so you can be as clear as possible about what happened.

Tips for working with the school

Continue to be calm and constructive. 

• refer to your written notes to be as clear as possible about what happened and write notes of the discussions with the principal team member.
• ask what steps will be taken and if a plan is to be developed with home and school strategies.
• recognise that investigating the situation at school will require time.
• keep a written record of when you contacted the school, who you have spoken with, and any agreements that were made.
• stay in touch with the principal team member and let them know if problems continue or something new happens.

PARENT / CARER OPINION SURVEY

This is a reminder that our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents think of our school. The Parent Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is conducted amongst all parents. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of parents’ perceptions about your child’s learning, teachers at the school and general satisfaction with the school Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies. All parents and carers have been invited to participate in this year’s survey. All responses to the survey are anonymous. This year, the Parent Opinion Survey has been extended and will close at the end of this term on Friday 18th September.

The survey is conducted online, only takes 15-20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the fieldwork period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. These include Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Somali, Turkish, Punjabi and Greek.

An invitation to the survey with a link and password has been sent out via Compass as newsfeed.

Please contact me if you would like more information:

james.penson@education.vic.gov.au

HILAT Focus: Pursuing Goals

At Greenhills, we want our students to take ownership of their learning by setting goals, making plans and reflecting on the progress they make along the way. Our weekly reflection question is a simple way to continue these conversations at home and encourage children to think about how they can keep growing as learners.

Week 6 – Using Feedback

What feedback have you received, and how has it helped you improve your progress?

James Penson,

Principal.