Principal's Report

NAPLAN Results 2025

Whilst we tend not to make grand public statements about our achievements in relation to NAPLAN results, the following is of great interest to our school community. The results at both Year 3 & Year 5 are exceptional and are summarised here for your interest.

The results clearly reflect the focus, diligence, capacities and professional dexterity of our staff across the school. We congratulate our students on their considerable achievements in 2025. The considerable focus upon numeracy, spelling and grammar, and punctuation over the last two years has borne superb results. Similarly our highly structured approaches to Reading and Writing with the introduction of a highly structured approach to phonic instruction in Foundation to Year 2 has clearly paid dividends in reading and writing at Year 3. Our focus here is continuing and is being expanded to other levels in 2025 and 2026. Similarly, we will continue our highly structured approaches to explicit teaching across all levels and in particular, reading and writing at Year 5, to expand our capacities in this regard.

Your Principal and Assistant Principal are heavily involved here on a daily basis. Students are assessed in five areas comprising reading, writing, spelling, numeracy, grammar and punctuation. Students are assessed against four levels of proficiency: needing support, developing, strong or exceeding.

The percentages below reflect the number of students in the cohort at Year 3 & 5 who have gained proficiency at either strong or exceeding. This is compared to ‘similar schools,’ made up of those in the Boroondara area and those across Victoria with similar socioeconomic attributes. The second comparison relates to those in the Network, which includes these schools and those more broadly in the Riversdale Network.

Year 3

Year 5

In the coming twelve months we look with great enthusiasm and anticipation about improving these results even further. Currently together with Ms Briggs and our Foundation to Year 2 teaching staff we have a Literacy Intervention Officer working one and a half hours each day with our Year 2 students in relation to handwriting, spelling, reading and writing. I will be expanding this to students in Year 4 in the coming weeks and I continue to monitor every student in our school with teaching staff.

Without hubris I believe our monitoring and connection to individual student achievement continues to be of a high order and enables timely and efficient intervention where needed. I look forward to building upon this matter further in the coming twelve months as I collaborate with each teacher at each Year level.

Victorian Championships - School Aero Aerobics Competition

Over the last term and throughout the student break our nine Aero Aerobics Teams have been immersed in preparing for the Victorian Championships Aero Aerobics Competition to be held next Thursday 31st July at Narrandjeri Stadium, Thornbury. This area has ballooned in enthusiasm and interest in our school. This is our third year in the competition and the results we have achieved are truly exceptional under the leadership, guidance and support of our Assistant Principal, Ms Georgina Kirwan. This has involved significant contributions with the organisation of costumes and ongoing practices and logistics. Last year one of our teams competed in the National Championships on the Gold Coast and achieved a sixth placing, against some of the most well-resourced and experienced Aerobics Teams in the country. It was an extraordinary achievement. We look forward to our nine teams performing next Thursday 31st July and wish them the very best in this competition. Again I convey our appreciation and the unerring efforts of our Assistant Principal, Ms Georgina Kirwan in bringing this to fruition.

If you are able to assist to transport our students to this venue next Thursday 31st July please contact Ms Kirwan at georgina.kirwan@education.vic.gov.au as soon as possible.

Foundation to Year 2 Reading

During the first week of this Term I have been highly immersed with our Year 2 students and specifically interested in their reading achievements and progress this year. The magnificent work undertaken by our Foundation to Year 2 teachers in relation to explicit and structured approaches to the teaching of phonics is clearly having a significant impact upon word attack skills and reading. I would ask that every parent devotes some time each day to ensuring that they read to their children and also listen to their children read. Please continue to ensure reading journals are returned to school every Friday and reading books are returned to school each day. 

100 Days of School – Foundation – Tuesday 29th July

This momentous day will be of great excitement and focus on Tuesday 29th July 2025. Our Foundation students will dress up for the day, be involved in a range of special activities and enjoy a class party. On the following Tuesday 5th August 2025 we will have a Special Assembly to mark this wonderful milestone. We look forward to our parents attending from approximately 9:10am on the day.

Parent Teacher Discussions – Wednesday 30th July 2025

We look forward to our teaching staff meeting up with all parents at our Parent-Teacher Discussions to be held on Wednesday 30th July 2025 between 8:30am and 4:30pm. If you have not booked a time on Compass, I would encourage you to do so and take the opportunity to share with your child’s teacher their Semester 1 Report. It will also be an opportunity for teachers to provide the NAPLAN Individual Report to parents of students in Years 3 & 5.

Parents are advised to enter the school through the main office via the front gates sign in and proceed to their child’s classroom or other areas to meet up with specialist staff. There will be no access through other gates over the course of the day.

Please be advised that this is a student-free day and students do not attend with their parents for these teacher discussions.

Pre-School Kitchen Garden Opportunity

It was wonderful for our pre-school students to be immersed in a Kitchen Garden experience on Tuesday 22nd July. These students and their parents joined with our Kitchen Garden Coordinator, Ms Leda Semercioglu and others including Ms Kirstie Briggs, Ms Hannah Scantleton, Ms Tina Casey and our Assistant Principal, Ms Georgina Kirwan to use produce from our Kitchen Garden to make and bake tasty pizzas for all involved. Again I convey our appreciation for the work and leadership of Ms Semercioglu and those who assisted to bring this Chatham first to fruition.

School Camp – Year 3 & 4 – Arrabri Lodge, East Warburton

On Wednesday I advised parents of Year 3 & 4 students about the impending School Camp for Year 3 7 4 to Arrabri Lodge, East Warburton. More information will be provided early next week. The purpose of my communication on Wednesday was to advise parents of the associated costs in order that they can plan for this exciting event to be held from 18th – 20th August.

Christopher Cotching

Principal