A recap of the last fortnight provides many reasons to smile, we enjoyed a very successful Open Day on Saturday and my sincere thanks to all families that made time to attend our parent-teacher interviews throughout Thursday and Friday.

As I write this, we have our Year 5/6s putting forward some compelling Princes Park planning suggestions to Cr. Jim Magee (Mayor). A great finish to the school term.

On behalf of all staff, thank you to our families and school community for the wonderful support enjoyed throughout the first half of the year. I hope you are able to enjoy some time away from school and time together over the coming weeks. I am looking forward to watching a few more Carlton victories over the holiday break with my own children and watching some more exciting cricket as the Ashes continues.

We look forward to seeing everyone back together on the 10th July for the beginning of Term 3.

Open Day

Thank you to our student leaders, families and to Morioka sensei, Sakamoto sensei and Mrs Curlewis who helped contribute to a wonderful Open Day on Saturday, our second and final Open Day for the school year.

We had close to 50 people attend the day with school tours conducted and a very positive reception received for our teaching and learning programs and our student leaders who did a fantastic job presenting to an audience and informally interacting with visitors.

Additionally, a special thanks to the Parents and Friends Club and all parents that volunteered on the day and prepared and baked to support the cake stall and sausage sizzle. These efforts helped the school raise $855.50 for our Parents and Friends Club. A wonderful effort from everyone.

Working Bee

Thank you to parents and families that contributed to our Working Bee on Thursday afternoon, as a result of this we were able to prepare and create many items in readiness for our school production. We also had the opportunity to make light move of removing furniture from our three prep classrooms in preparation for new carpets to be installed next Tuesday. It will be lovely to welcome back our prep students in Term 3 to new fresh classrooms. All costs for this work was provided by the Parents and Friends Club and we are greatly appreciative to the whole school community for supporting these efforts and fundraising.

Staffing – Term 3

After a very thorough recruitment process, I warmly congratulate Miss Ryan who was appointed to the role of Learning Specialist – Literacy to our school. Miss Ryan has enjoyed a period of working in this position in an acting capacity and has provided her leadership to support the implementation of our Professional Learning Communities and our improvement work aligned to our Annual Implementation Plan. Miss Ryan is a wonderful teacher and the Learning Specialist role identifies and promotes exemplary teaching. Congratulations Krystal!

We are also excited about the opportunity to have Murray sensei continue into Term 3 in the Year 5/6 Team. Murray sensei will continue to replace Hughes sensei during a period of leave.

We extend our warm congratulations to Marta Campbell who was recently appointed to the role of Assistant Principal at Ripponlea Primary School after a period of acting in the role. Miss Campbell was a long-standing staff member at our school and we wish her all the best in her leadership role moving forward.

At the beginning of Term 3, Miss Ryan will enjoy a period of Long Service Leave, during this time her class will be covered by Tina Pyrcz, Miss Pyrcz has worked in the school throughout this year and has taken the opportunity to complete a detailed handover to support her students. We wish Miss Ryan all the best on her long service leave and look forward to welcoming her back in August.

Prep 2024

If you are enrolling a sibling or have plans to enrol your child into Prep in 2024 please step through the following information. Enrolments are currently open and we look forward to welcoming your child to our school community.

Contact our school to book a school tour with Morioka sensei or myself or to learn more about our school and the enrolment application process.
Download the Foundation (Prep) enrolment information pack from Enrolling in Foundation (Prep) (available from 24 April 2023)
Submit an enrolment application for Foundation (Prep) by Friday 28 July 2023
You will be notified of the outcome of your application by Friday 11 August 2023. If you receive an offer of placement, you should contact our school to accept the offer by Friday 25 August 2023
Take part in enrolment information and transition sessions during Term 4, 2023
Your child will start Foundation (Prep) from Tuesday 30 January 2024.

Enrolment applications submitted after 28 July 2023 will be processed by our school as they are received, in accordance with the department’s Placement Policy.

Parent-Teacher Interviews

It was great to see so many of our parents take the opportunity to attend our parent-teacher interviews on Wednesday and Thursday this week. I know parents appreciate the many hours of assessment reviews, moderation of student work, development of individual learning goals and feedback that take place to develop a student report. Our student reports are detailed, containing attendance information, celebrations of success and opportunities to further improve.

Reports were released for parent access on Monday, prior to our parent-teacher interviews. I extend my sincere thanks to our teaching staff that have worked to deliver such an engaging semester of learning for our students, they have delivered a comprehensive set of student reports to complement our parent-teacher interviews.

CPS Artists

We have plenty of wonderful artwork getting created in our classrooms and in our Visual Arts program, a walk around the school provides a great exploration of colour and content.

In our Prep classrooms, there is always great work up on display and Emma A’s (Prep A) Flamingo highlighted one of their literacy words of the week alongside showcasing some creativity.

Our Year 5/6s were busy this week creating designs for our Peter Pan production, these really jumped off the page and were vibrant and exciting, well done to our Year 5/6s.

Lunchtime Activities

Lunchtime does and will look different for every student in our school, whilst the sandpit can be popular, many students might engage in a game of cricket or kick the football, others may talk in small social circles whilst others may use our playground equipment. Whilst all of these options are popular, we recognise that playtime can be challenging, isolating or create uncertainty for some students. To that end, we have created a host of lunchtime activities that can be explored by our students, there are activities occurring throughout the week to ensure our students are engaged in their play and as a vehicle to support relationships and social interactions with their peers. A summary of these are shared in the infographic below.

So much happening in and around the school in a short two week window, a great reflection of a very busy semester. We look forward to seeing everyone in a few weeks.

Thanks again,

Edward Strain

Principal

Student Voice