PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

International Visitors

Yesterday I attended a celebratory fish and chip lunch with our seven international students that are currently enrolled for Term 3. All seven students are boys that are currently with their parents on a working holiday from China. Other than one or two pairings that are brothers, these students are not known to each other and come from a range of different places in their home country. 

A special thankyou to Mrs. Tennant and our own Year 6 student Kimi, who are both acting as mentors to the students whilst they are here. A highlight of the lunch was how popular potato cakes with tomato sauce were.

ICAS Testing

This week has seen the beginning of our ICAS testing. On both Tuesday and Wednesday we had a large group of students who had enrolled to participate in the ICAS competition. Over 70 students participated in the English competition. 

Over the next two weeks we will have similar numbers representing the school in both Maths and Science. As the Principal, it was wonderful to see large numbers of students engaged in this activity in our staffroom. In early Term 4, we will present the results of the competition at our whole school assembly.

Tree Lopping

In late Term 2, the Department nominated tree surgeon completed an audit of all the gardens in our school. Last week McLeod’s Trees were sent out by DET to undertake works which included tree trimming, removals and mulching. We are now able to purchase a number of younger trees to replace those that we have lost. If you are a parent of a child that has voiced any concerns over the works completed, please share this information with them. 

Curriculum Day

On Monday 11th August our whole staff participated in a Curriculum Day. The morning session involved our staff visiting six different primary schools in groups of eight. We had a particular focus on explicit teaching and how students learn their reading and maths using the new Department expectations. Feedback from teachers was positive, with lots of new learning taking place. The middle of the day involved listening to our guest speaking Mark Squirrell (OAM), who is a former commando, humanitarian aid worker and someone who has climbed Mt. Everest. Mark’s presentation focussed on the importance of teamwork, resilience and care, which relates well to what we need from our staff each school year. 

Explicit Teaching

This morning four of our senior staff were involved in a Department visit to Lalor Gardens Primary School, where we took some observations and professional development on the importance of explicit teaching in junior year levels. This pedagogical approach is a new Department initiative in 2025 and is currently being trailed in our students’ classrooms. Several of our senior staff then attended the Whittlesea Network Principal’s Meeting at the Mantra in Epping, where we heard from our DET employees around expectations for 2026 and beyond.

Parking around the School

Ann Moritis, Kerrie Shelden and I met with the Whittlesea Council Traffic Management Team this week, who had a number of possible initiatives to share to reduce traffic and dangerous driving around the school at drop off and pick up time. In the next few weeks, I will share some of these ideas with you, as we work closely with the Council to improve these challenges around our school.