Principal's Report

Welcome to our second newsletter of Term 2. It has been a busy start to the term, with lots of learning and wellbeing news to celebrate. 

Drum Corps

Congratulations to the Caulfield South Primary School Drum Corps, led by Mr. Sandy Hood, for their performance at the ANZAC Day commemorations last week. This program builds great pride in our school, and I was particularly pleased to see many returning students join the march with our current group. 

On Time, In Uniform, Best Manners

To begin this year, and reinforced at the start of this term, I asked our students, staff and families to focus on these three simple steps to ensure we are giving our best effort at school every day.

1. Our first bell goes at 8:57am; all students need to be at their line-up area at this time, ready to be in their class learning at 9:00am sharp. Also note that our yard is not supervised until 8:45am; students must be supervised by a parent or carer if they are in the yard before this time (and similarly beyond 3:45pm). 
2. We have a uniform that we are proud of. The navy blue and gold colours of our school really stand out. Every child should be in a complete school uniform every day. Our staff have particularly pointed-out that some students are not wearing a school jumper. We will be enforcing our uniform policy and please do not hesitate to contact us if cost is a prohibitive factor in your child/ren wearing the correct uniform.
3. Good manners don’t cost a thing. Ask someone how their day has been. Open a door for someone and let them go through first. Pick up a piece of paper off the ground, even if you didn’t put it there yourself. These simple steps will help make our school a better place. 

Community Events

Information was shared via Compass yesterday regarding upcoming events at our school, including a 2025 Prep Information Night, the ‘Annual Report to Community’ and community consultations for our upcoming DE School Review. We hope to see as many of you as possible at these events. 

Student Wellbeing

Student wellbeing is an ongoing focus at our school. We continue to build our student wellbeing team and work with external agencies to ensure that our students are well supported. Some recent updates in this area include:

• The appointment of Labreni Pappas as our Learning Specialist (Wellbeing) and Elizabeth Saddler as our Education Support Team Leader, joining Georgia Despotellis and Lauren Jordan (Social Worker) as our ‘Student Wellbeing Leadership Team’. 
• The engagement of an ‘Inclusion Outreach Coach’, who will work with our school to improve our inclusive practices. 
• The engagement with the ‘Student Youth Focus Services’ team from Glen Eira Council, to provide quality professional learning to staff and to build support programs for students. 
• The resumption of the ‘Peacemakers’ program, providing our students with peer-to-peer support in the playground at recess and lunchtime. 

Student Absence Learning Plans

To ensure continuity of learning during periods of extended absence, we have developed ‘Student Absence Learning Plans’, for students who will miss any extended period of school (beyond one consecutive week).

These plans will have a range of activities for students to complete during this absence period, with the expectation that, upon their return to school, they will share their learning with their teacher and their class. 

Please ensure that you notify your classroom teacher and our office of all absences, as well as lodging these on Compass. The Absence Learning Plan will be signed-off by the student, a parent, the teacher and myself.

Continuity of learning is incredibly important in the academic development of our students and the implementation of student absence learning plans is one of many strategies we employ to secure this.

Thanks for your ongoing support and keep doing your best.

Rohan Cooper

Principal