Principal's Report

Dear HPS Community,

Welcome back to our year 5 cohort of staff, students and volunteers who return this afternoon from Alexandra Adventure Camp! We thank our staff and volunteers for the time out they have taken from their lives and families to ensure students have this opportunity. We hope everyone has a restful weekend and catch up on any lost sleep!!

Do you and your child know about our Enrichment Clubs?

Each break across the week, we have staff who provide an enrichment club for students who choose to attend. The purpose of these clubs can be to encourage a passion or develop a new skill, develop social opportunities and peer connections or simply to provide structure for students who may need it.

Timetables are displayed in classrooms and across the school to highlight when clubs are in action. Announcements are also made to invite interested students to attend. Why not join in the fun and share your talent!

Term 2 message to families from Minister, Ben Carroll

https://vimeo.com/933088690/2bf575e8ee

I know we are 4 weeks in to the term, and my apologies for not getting this to the community until now. Please take the time to listen to the Minister's term 2 message. HPS have recently upgraded security storage in year 5 and 6 classes to ensure the safe storage of mobile phones which enables students to focus during the school day on learning and making positive connections with peers.

Capital Works 

We are so grateful to have been allocated the remaining funds for our Capital Works building program that will see the development of new classrooms, STEM space and gymnasium. We thank our local MP, Hon. Anthony Carbines for his support to ensure our planning and design can continue to come to life! Stay tuned for further updates on the build over coming months. We are excited to continue our partnership with Tectura Architects to complete this build and provide valuable learning spaces and community resources that support our vision for teaching and learning at Heidelberg PS.

Mother's Day

What a great turn up to celebrate all our HPS mothers on Tuesday morning. I personally was very disappointed to miss it as it clashed with my attendance at a Principal Area Forum. Thank you to Emma-Jane, Yvette, Liusha, Himadi, Vickie, Sam, Jack, Amanda, Sue and Helen for providing such a fabulous event for our community to come together and highlight and acknowledge all the mums, step-mums, grandmothers, aunties and special people who epitomise all that mothers, and their love, stand for! We hope everyone enjoys their day on Sunday and that the kids step up to give a break to our Mother's Day VIPs.

Education Week

Next week we celebrate Education Week. Please see the Assistant Principal's section of this edition of Capers for further information.

I would like to highlight a few important dates:

• Foundation 2025 Student Led Tours - Tuesday 14th May, 9.30-11. No booking required.
• HPS community open afternoon- come and celebrate by visiting classrooms and seeing STEM in action across our school- Friday 17th May 2.45-3.15pm.

Assembly- change of day and time

We have reviewed the current assembly arrangements and are going to trial Monday morning assemblies from 27th May. By bringing the whole school community together at the beginning of the week, we hope to demonstrate the value of connection and setting a positive start to the week ahead. It is anticipated that by holding assembly at this time students will be supported to be more attentive and engaged. HPS community members are still of course welcome and encouraged to attend our assemblies. 

*Please note that Year 3, Room 19 swimming classes will continue as scheduled. If the trial is successful we will look to altering swimming lesson times into the future so as not to clash.

Pupil Free Day -  Berry Street Education Model Training

On Monday 20th May, all HPS staff will be involved in the first day of a four day training of the Berry Street Education Model (BSEM), an educator-designed and evidence-led framework that empowers teachers to create classrooms where every student is ready to learn and able to thrive. Building our staff's capacity through BSEM aligns strongly to the strategic direction we are taking after our recent school review, to optimise learning and wellbeing growth for our students.

BSEM provides proven strategies to be implemented in the classroom and empowers and equips educators to help all students succeed. It aims to increase the engagement of students with complex, unmet learning needs and successfully improve all students’ self-regulation, relationships, wellbeing, growth and academic achievement with pedagogical strategies that incorporate trauma-informed teaching, positive education, and wellbeing practices.

Schools that have applied the Berry Street Education Model have seen:

• improved student wellbeing and engagement to bolster positive behaviour
• better supported students who experience diverse and complex learning challenges
• increased teacher wellbeing, ensuring all staff feel equipped to deal with the diversity of student needs.

Smile Squad six month fluoride varnish visit

The Banyule Community Health Smile Squad team are heading back to our school in term 3 to complete six-monthly fluoride varnish applications for those students who have provided consent. Fluoride varnish applications help make sure students have the best chance of preventing tooth decay, so we’re excited to come back.

Consent for this fluoride varnish application was provided when students’ initial consent forms were returned. However, if anyone has changed their mind and do not wish to receive a fluoride varnish application, they can contact Banyule Community Health directly to let them know. Please contact the Smile Squad team via:

9450 2000

Upcoming Dates

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and a great week ahead!

Naomi Ivers

Principal

Heidelberg Primary School