Acting Principal's Message

Welcome to Term 4! I hope you all had a refreshing holiday break and enjoyed some quality time with your families.

This term promises to be fantastic, filled with many exciting events such as camps, new Foundation 2025 transition sessions, sport gala days, Tooraks Got Talent, a grandparents open morning, community coffee cart, Carols and Songs of Celebration, Year 6 Graduation, whole school disco, excursions, incursions, orientation for 2025 classes, and many more.

We’ve had a wonderful start to the term, with students quickly readjusting back to our school routines. We’re also excited to welcome some new students, and it’s heartwarming to see our current students showing them around, sharing our school values, and greeting them with such a positive attitude.

A reminder that on Monday 4th of November a whole school Professional Practice Day for staff will be held, which is a pupil free day for our school.  Professional Practice Days are for teachers to undertake professional learning/training to improve their practice. 

The work undertaken by teachers on professional practice days must be consistent with Departmental and school priorities and selected from the following areas:

• planning
• preparation
• assessment of student learning
• collaboration
• curriculum development
• relevant professional development
• peer observation including feedback and reflection

The difference between a ‘professional practice day’ (PPD) and a ‘curriculum day (both being pupil free) is that the Professional Practice Day agenda is driven by the teachers as they identify specific areas to refine their practice, whereas the Curriculum Day agenda is derived from the school’s Annual Implementation Plan to address areas as identified from student achievement data. 

Time in Lieu

We all know that teachers work many hours over and above their scheduled working week, but, over time, we have held an increasing number of school events after hours for the convenience of our working parents. For example, parent information nights, parent-teacher interviews, school productions, Carols and Songs of Celebration, Graduation, Soirees etc. With the continued State Government School Agreement, schools now have two options when planning extra-curricular events: they either re-arrange the events to occur within the teachers’ working hours (between 8:45 am and 4:45 pm Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and 8:45am to 3:45pm on Thursday and Friday) or the teacher must be given ‘time in lieu’. 

At TPS, our preference, so that time is not taken away from teachers being in their class (time in lieu means a casual relief teacher would be taking the class instead) so we are looking at how we might reorganize school events to minimize the requirement for time in lieu. For example, staff attending the school production, if required or an Art Show, welcome picnics, graduation, camps, maths nights, grade 2 sleep over etc 

 We thank-you in advance for your support with Time in Lieu and the timing of school events as we continue to navigate this space with staff and our community. 

Student Leadership 2025

Our Year 5 team are currently working on the selection process for our 2025 Student Leadership positions. We are encouraging all Year 5 students to apply for these positions of responsibility. In 2025 we are looking for students who 

• display a wish to represent our school as a leader, 
• follow the Toorak’s School Code of Behaviour,
• are an excellent role model for all students,
• show respect to all members of the school community,
• who wear the school uniform properly to school and school functions,
• exhibit a range of leadership characteristics, and 
• live and uphold our school values. 

We wish the Year 5 students all the best with their applications, and I look forward to interviewing our future school leaders. 

Please review our dates, further in the newsletter, so that we see you at key events. 

Kind regards,

Sharon Wildermuth

Acting Principal