From the  Principal 

Gratitude

I hope you don’t ever tire of me sharing how grateful I am for your children. Or for you. Or for the wonderful staff we have to care for our students. 

CPS is truly a great place to be and we are focused on maintenance and improvement always. We are a high-performing school. The numbers clearly show this to be true. And it is the combined effort of the school and the families that make this so.

I encourage everyone to continue supporting our great school by 'talking it up' around the dinner table, social functions you have, the chats you have with families and friends. Spread the good news about our children and our school. They, and the staff, are really worth celebrating. 

In times where social media tends to ‘tear down sandcastles - let's be the one who builds and not destroys’.

Celebration

What a fabulous Prep Expo we held last week. Feedback from our prospective families was extremely positive and many parents/carers commented on our amazing grade 6 leaders who conducted walking tours of our learning spaces and facilities. We were able to offer some different perspectives of what Carnegie PS offers, including a current parent. Thank you for your contribution, Elle Cato. We value your effort to share perspective and insight.

How We Support Children

How do we support students who find the curriculum more challenging than their peers?

 At CPS, we offer:

• Documented adjustments for students requiring support and extension in lesson planning. 
• Digital learning programs to work at the individual level of children. 
• Individual Education Plans 
• Tutor Learning

Our teachers use assessments, data and their observations of students to predict and plan for students who will need support in lessons. They are also skilled in checking for understanding throughout lessons. 

When a child is consistently experiencing difficulties, they may require more support than a teacher is able to provide whilst instructing the rest of the class. This is why we provide additional education support at our school. Our Learning Intervention / Tutor Learning Initiative was running for students in Years 3 and 5 for three days a week in Term 1 and will continue for the remainder of the year with students from other year levels. Students have been carefully selected for this support. They work in small groups with a highly experienced teacher daily during school hours, following evidence-based approaches. Each group has goals that they are working towards and will undertake assessment on a regular cycle to monitor their progress. 

Baby News

We are excited to farewell our Learning Specialist, Kate Lawerson. Kate, her husband, Luke and daughter, Alma are preparing to welcome a new baby later in June. Kate’s last day at Carnegie PS is next Wednesday, 24th May. We wish Kate and her family all the best as they grow from a family of three to four.

Our Wonderful Staff

Today is Education Support day to honour and recognise the extraordinary contribution education support staff make to public education. We acknowledge our ES staff who work tirelessly to support our students across all year levels. Our students and teachers are very fortunate to be supported by the Education Support staff we have at Carnegie PS. We acknowledge our ES staff who work tirelessly to support our students across all year levels and in our office.

Special Events at CPS

Thank you to the team of CPS staff who went above and beyond in attending our year 6  camp earlier this term. Special thanks to Sue McGregor who led this camp assisted by Jenni Spataro, Emma Whitby, Elizabeth Harley, Allison Fisher, Joel Pollard and Kae Slattery. By all reports, our students had  an amazing time and really cared for each other as they challenged themselves to new levels. 

Last week the year 4 students visited Scienceworks where students visited the planetarium explored how the four seasons are caused by the tilt of the Earth's axis combined with the Earth’s orbit around the Sun and how the seasons and length of day vary across the Earth, from the poles to the equator.

This week our year 3 students will head over the Westgate bridge and visit Werribee Zoo. This excursion will provide students with a close up opportunity to see  animals and plants of Africa and Australia to complement their classroom learning.

All of our year 3,4,5, & 6 students participated in our school cross country event at Lord Reserve last Friday. Special thanks to Mr Pollard and Mr Hodges for their coordination of this event including the spectacular weather. All teachers had roles to play to ensure the event ran smoothly. 

We look forward to more special events as the year progresses.

All of the above events can only run effectively if we have support from you, our parents and carers. We ask that you respond in a timely manner when you receive a Compass notification regarding an incursion or excursion. Please see below for our processes.

Compass Excursions and Incursions Reminders

We aim to push incursion/excursion notifications to parents at least a fortnight prior to the event taking place. This gives parents and carers some time to make payment and give consent via the Compass app. We have a cut-off date of 2 days prior to the excursion to enable us to finalise arrangements with regards to staffing, payment and risk analyses. The event is then locked and no further payments or consent can be completed. Leading up to that cut-off date, the organiser of the event sends a couple of email reminders to the families that have not paid. At the same time, classroom teachers remind students to ask their parents and carers to complete the process online.

NO payments or consent can be processed after the cut-off date.

There may occasionally be extenuating circumstances, but on the whole no payments or consent can be made after the cut-off date.

If you have any questions about these processes, please do not hesitate to contact either Karen BG or myself.

Mother’s /Special Person’s Day Stall

Thank you to the parents who so generously gave their time to support this annual tradition. It was a beautiful sense of community with many happy children selecting gifts for a loved one.

Safety

I have had reports from our school crossing attendants that children are not getting off their bikes when crossing at the intersection. Would you please talk to your children about safety when riding to and from school and being respectful of our community helpers when children are asked to get off their bikes? Thanks in advance.

Flu and Covid

Once again, we are heading towards a serious INFLUENZA/COVID season. We have had significant absences over the past week. If your child is presenting with any symptoms, we request that you keep them home from school and seek advice from your medical practitioner. 

Additionally, if parents/carers have these symptoms. Please drop off and pick up your child/ren from the school gate.

Karen Roberts