Principal's Report

Dear Parents and Carers,

Open Day & School Tours

We have already had strong interest in our school for Foundation 2025.  A large number of future families having already taken a tour of Belgrave South and have registered their intention to enrol. 

If you have a sibling starting school next year, please make sure that you collect an enrolment pack from the office.  If you have friends with kinder aged children, please encourage them to contact me to arrange a time to take a tour.  I would be delighted to show them around our school. 

A Great Fete!

Our fete last weekend was a wonderful success.  The sun may was shining and so too was our community.  People turned out in droves to support our wonderful school.

An event on this scale requires a massive effort and our organising committee have worked tirelessly to make sure every detail of our fete was meticulously planned and flawlessly executed. Lynn Bok, Karen Penwarden, Luke Hansen and Kelly Papatolicas again coordinated the large portions of a most successful event and I owe them a great deal of gratitude for their commitment to our school and community.

I would like to acknowledge the exceptional efforts of our stall captains and the fete committee members who have worked tirelessly to make sure that Stax-A-Fun 2024 was a huge success and a fete to remember.

I am indebted to the amazing team of people who led the set-up and pack up of the fete, they worked late into the night on Friday and reappeared before daylight on Saturday morning. They know exactly what needs to be done and where everything needs to go in readiness for the day and did an amazing job. 

I would also like to thank the many parents and friends that took on the role of stall helpers to run the many school run stalls on the day.  An incredible effort for which I am incredibly grateful.

Thank you to all of our parents and friends who generously donated hamper items and raffle prizes. Your generosity is what supports our efforts to raise funds to be able to improve our school.

Last, but by no means least, thank you to everyone who came to the fete.  It was great to see so many families and their friends make the most of the day.  With your support on the day, we were able to raise over $24,000. 

Welcome to the Team

We warmly welcome some new members of staff to our teaching team for Term 2 2024 – Cassandra Hubalek and Ellen Holland. 

Cassandra and Ellen will both be joining the Grade 4 Team for the remainder of the year.  Cassandra will be replacing Suzanne Boatto, who accepted a Literacy Coaching position in the Southern Region and Ellen will be team teaching with Megan Jaworski to replace Ms Eldridge (Gaulke) as she commences her maternity leave.  Mrs Eldridge will be with us for the first week of Term 2 before commencing maternity leave unless the new arrival has other plans over the term break.  Ellana McGeehan will also be with us for Term 2 to support the Grade 4 students. 

We are very excited to have them join us at Belgrave South and collectively they bring a great deal of expertise in teaching and learning.  You will begin to see their faces around the school as they start building relationships with our students and their connection with our parent community and staff team. 

Marcia Williams will be on long service leave in Term 2 and we wish her all the very best and look forward to her return in Term 3.

Fun Run and Cross Country

It was wonderful to see our students participate in our Fun Run and Cross Country events on Wednesday. The joy on the faces of our kids all proudly wearing their house colours and the excitement of our parents being able to watch their kids participating was the highlight of my term! I would like to thank Mr A for organising a wonderful sporting event for our kids and I thank all of our parent helpers and Grade 6 students who helped out manning checkpoints and marshalling age groups at the starting line.  Thanks to Mrs James for time keeping at the finish line. 

Buildings and Grounds Development

The new ramps and stairs around The Bartley Learning Centre are well underway.  We are waiting on the installation of the hand rails and balustrades in the coming weeks.  Further concrete paths alongside the oval and playground will be poured over the school holiday period and we will have new garden beds to plant up and our landscaping club will have plenty of new places to design when we return next term.  It is brilliant to see this work finally taking place to renew another part of our school grounds.

Annual privacy reminder for our school community

Our school collects and uses student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy and the Schools’ Privacy Collection Notice. 

Our Photographing, Filming and Recording Students Policy describes how we collect and use photographs, video and recordings of students. The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn. 

We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use ICT safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. 

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. 

Helmets, Scooters and Bikes 

We have noticed that there is a growing number of scooters being used by students to ride to and from school.  It is great that our students are staying active and developing their independence by riding bikes and scooters to school each day.  I ask families of students riding bikes and scooters to have conversations with their children about road safety, appropriate use of footpaths and how to ride or scoot safely.  I also encourage parents to make sure that helmets are being worn by their children at all times.

I also remind our students that bikes and scooters are not to be ridden in the school grounds before school and after school for the safety of other students and parents. Thank you for your support in helping us to remain safety conscious.

Thank you for a wonderful term.  Have a wonderful holiday break with your families, stay safe and I look forward to seeing you all next term.