Principal's Report
Here we are at the end of Term 1! It has certainly been a jam-packed term.
It’s hard to believe our Prep children have nearly finished their first term at school and what an incredible job they are doing. They have settled into school life and are making amazing progress. We are very fortunate that our local pre-school teachers do such a fantastic job of preparing the children for school life.
Our Grade 6 students are at the other end of their journey, in their final year of primary school. They have had a very busy this term spending a week in Canberra where they experienced various activities. At the beginning of next term, we will be sending out the secondary school transition forms. This brings with it the realisation that their time at primary school is nearing the end.
Leave
I will be taking leave for the first three weeks of Term 2. During my absence Dale Adams will take on the role of Acting Principal and Joe Greige will be Acting Assistant Principal. I am very confident that they will both do an outstanding job in their respective roles.
School Council
Last Monday night we held the first meeting of our new School Council. This year we welcomed three new members: Sam Bell, Christopher Dart, and Keri Spence. I would like to thank our retiring members, Lachlan Challis and Beena Logan, for their contribution to the School.
The first task for the new council was to elect office bearers. Congratulations to:
President - Allison Harvey
Vice President - Anthony Stanley
Finance Sub-Committee - Aaron Hawke
Community Engagement and Sustainability Sub-Committee - Nadia Mecoli, Bec Gray, Anna Graham and Keri Spence
The Community Engagement and Sustainability subcommittee will focus on organising events for the School including fundraising events and other social opportunities for families to connect. The group are already planning to organise some of our favourite events from previous years including the Comedy Night (Term 3), the Trivia Night, and the Movie Night.
If you are interested in joining the Community Engagement and Sustainability sub-committee, or have some good ideas, you can email Nadia at nadiamecoli@gmail.com
Family Picnic
Thanks to our Community Engagement sub-committee for organising last Friday’s Family Picnic. We had a fantastic turn-up. The event provided families with a great opportunity to catch up with other families and hopefully meet and connect with new families.
We have a few items that were left at the School after the picnic – if you recognise these items please collect from the Senior School office by Friday 4 April.
Compass Chronicles
Beginning next term, we will be using the Chronicle function on Compass to send behaviour newsfeeds to parents. These messages will be to let parents know about things their children have been doing at school. They will be colour coded:
- Green is a positive thing your child has done or has been doing,
- Amber is something of concern that the teacher wants you to know, or
- Red is a significant behavioural issue.
These chronicles will allow us to have an ongoing profile of how each child is tracking. Overwhelmingly our children at Preston are well behaved so we envisage we will be posting a lot of Green chronicles.
Farewell
At the end of the term, we are saying farewell to Karen Jones. Karen has worked at Preston for many years as a Casual Relief Teacher. She has taken on various roles including daily, and sometimes longer, replacement of teachers who are away. She has also done a lot of longer-term placements when teachers have been on long service leave.
Karen began her association at Preston when her children started school; both have now completed university degrees and are working.
On behalf of the staff and students I wish Karen all the very best in her retirement and hope that she and her husband Terry have many years enjoying their retirement years together.
Assessment Portfolios
All students have been doing assessment tasks recently for their portfolios which will be sent home at the beginning of next term. We have purchased different portfolios this year so hopefully parents will like them.
Ride To School Day
Friday’s Ride to School Day was an overwhelming success. We had a huge number of students who rode their bikes and scooters to school. Our aim is to continue to encourage students to Walk or Wheel to school as often as possible. This will reduce the number of cars we have around the school in the morning and afternoon.
As of next term we are dedicating every Friday to walking or wheeling to school. Friday will become WOW Day. Every child who either walks or wheels (scooter or bike) to school will receive a token for their grade. The grade with the most tokens at the end of the term will receive the Golden Boot Award. This program is being run in conjunction with the Darebin Council.
We hope that lots of children will not only walk or wheel to school on a Friday but other days as well. Don’t forget if your child rides their bike or scooter to school, they MUST wear a helmet and they are not permitted to ride bikes or scooters in the school grounds.
Dress Up Day
Huge thanks to all the families who supported the Junior School Council's fundraising event last week. We raised $792.75, which has been donated to the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal.
Holidays
As always, as the term draws to an end, the children are starting to get tired. The two-week break is a good opportunity for them to relax and recuperate ready for next term.
Friday is the last day of Term 1 and school will finish at 2.30pm.
Parents, please ensure you are not late to pick up your child as some children become quite upset if their parents are not here to pick them up on time.
I hope all families have a safe and enjoyable holiday and we see you back at school ready for the start of Term 2 on Tuesday April 22nd at 9.00am.
Don’t forget week 1 of Term 2 is a three day week as Friday April 25th is the ANZAC Day public holiday.
Regards
Janet Paterson,
Principal.