Assistant Principal's

Message

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Dear Families,

Jess Smedley in the Library

Our wonderful librarian, Jess Smedley, continues to find creative and engaging ways to inspire our students on their reading journeys. Two of her latest initiatives, Buddy Reading and Don't Judge a Book by its Cover, are encouraging students to connect with books, each other and new reading experiences.

Buddy Reading has been brought to life through a dedicated library display featuring two copies of the same book, encouraging students to sit together and share the reading experience. It has been wonderful to see the enthusiasm this has generated, including amongst some of our Year 6 boys!

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover is another clever initiative designed to encourage students to step outside their usual reading preferences. Jess has wrapped books in brown paper, leaving only a short, enticing summary to spark curiosity. The catch? Once a student unwraps their chosen book, they commit to borrowing it!

The result has been students discovering books and genres they may never have considered otherwise, broadening their reading experiences and fostering a sense of adventure in the library.

We are incredibly fortunate to have Jess, whose creativity and passion for literature are helping to nurture a love of reading across our school. Thank you, Jess, for making our library such an inviting and exciting place for our students.

Breakfast Club – An Urgent Call for Volunteers

Our Breakfast Club has become a much-loved part of the SMPPS community, providing students with a welcoming start to their day, opportunities to connect with peers and access to a nutritious breakfast.

We are now at a critical point in securing the future of Breakfast Club for 2027. Despite our previous calls for support, we have not yet secured volunteers to take over the coordination of this important program. With the end of the year fast approaching, we urgently need members of our community to step forward to allow time for a handover. Without this support, we may not be able to continue Breakfast Club next year.

To make the commitment more manageable, the responsibilities can be shared between two volunteers:

• Volunteer Coordination: Maintaining the volunteer roster, ensuring shifts are covered and organising supplementary supplies, with support from our school administration and wellbeing team.
• Foodbank Coordination: Placing regular food orders, organising deliveries and ensuring supplies are unpacked and stored appropriately.

Both roles are primarily organisational and can be undertaken separately.

Breakfast Club is a wonderful example of what our school community can achieve together. We would dearly love to see it continue in 2027, but we cannot do so without additional support.

If you are able to assist with either role, please contact the school as soon as possible. Your contribution could make all the difference in keeping this valued program running for our students.

Building a Culture of Kindness – Understanding and Preventing Bullying

This term, our wellbeing learning includes a focus on anti-bullying education, with an emphasis on developing the skills students need to build positive, respectful relationships.

At SMPPS, our school value of Be Kind underpins the way we teach students to interact with one another. Through our School-Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) framework and Respectful Relationships education, we explicitly teach, model and reinforce the behaviours that contribute to a safe, inclusive and supportive school environment.

An important part of this learning is understanding the distinction between bullying and the disagreements, friendship challenges and occasional unkind interactions that can arise as children develop their social skills.

Bullying involves an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical or social behaviour intended to cause harm. While not every unkind interaction constitutes bullying, all unkind behaviour deserves an appropriate response and provides an opportunity for learning and growth.

Our learning this term is tailored to students' developmental stages:

• Prep–Year 2: Students are learning to be Upstanders, recognising unkind behaviour and taking safe, positive action by speaking up, redirecting a situation or seeking support from a trusted adult.
• Years 3–6: Students are developing a shared understanding of bullying, recognising its defining characteristics and exploring strategies to promote respectful relationships.
• Years 5–6: Students will also explore findings from our recent Attitudes to School Survey, using student voice to identify practical ways to strengthen kindness and inclusion across SMPPS.

Our goal extends beyond helping students recognise bullying. We want to equip them with the skills to navigate friendships, resolve disagreements, demonstrate empathy and contribute positively to our school community.

Ultimately, we are building a culture where kindness is not simply expected, but explicitly taught, consistently modelled and positively reinforced.

Prep Transition – Welcoming Our 2027 Students

In Week 3, we welcomed several of our local kindergartens and their four-year-old kindergarten teachers to SMPPS as part of our preparations for the 2027 Prep cohort.

These visits are an important part of our transition process, providing opportunities to begin getting to know our incoming students, understand their individual strengths and support needs, and strengthen relationships with our local early childhood educators.

Building these connections early helps us plan for a positive and supportive start to school, ensuring our newest students feel welcomed, safe and ready to begin their learning journey.

As part of this ongoing community partnership, we are also looking forward to welcoming Apple Blossoms Kindergarten in the coming fortnight to explore our Prep learning and play spaces.

Our formal Prep transition sessions will commence very soon, and we are excited to begin welcoming our newest members of the SMPPS community!

Compass Updates

Compass is introducing several updates to its platform. Families are encouraged to familiarise themselves with these changes by visiting the Compass Family Guide.

Sam Smrekar Thompson

Assistant Principal