Principal's News

Swimming

We are really excited to be returning to the swimming pool and beginning our 2022 swimming program next week. 

Miss Molloy has worked extremely hard to secure a program that is both beneficial and affordable utilising funding provided by the Department of Education and Training to offer the program at a subsidised cost for all families. 

Please ensure your child has all swimming gear packed and ready for their first lesson on Monday, once students get into the routine of the program it should be a smooth transition for them. Having school uniform and clothing items clearly named will help reduce the collection of lost and unclaimed clothing (towels, underwear, socks). Please assist your child with helping to be responsible for their belongings over the two-week period. We are also reaching out for any parent volunteers that might be able to assist us during our program. Please be in contact with our office, Morioka Sensei or myself if you are able to help. We look forward to getting started on Monday and enjoying a great two weeks of water safety and swimming to come.  

Special Visitors

We enjoyed a wonderful visit from some of our kindergarten students this week who took the opportunity to pay a visit to our school library and work with some of our student leaders. It was exciting to renew a really strong partnership between our school and kindergarten and we look forward to continuing to promote these opportunities as mutually beneficial for our school and the kindergarten. 

Lost Property

A gentle reminder that our lost property program runs on a platform of trust and understanding from all families. Do please make use of this if your child has lost an item of school uniform but please only remove your own child’s clothing items. Lost property is not a trade and upcycle program, it exists as an opportunity to locate lost items of clothing which will take particular precedent over the duration of our swimming program. 

Our wonderful PFC is also very open to seeking support from any parent or family that would like to coordinate a second-hand uniform sale, as there are many items currently available that cannot be accessed through the Office. This is a great opportunity to support fundraising for the school and also to find a new owner for unclaimed school uniform. Please contact the Office or PFC to offer your time.

Thank you! 

Just a very quick but important note of thanks for your support and kind words in my absence last week. I did find it extremely difficult to have a week away from our school, our students and staff. I kindly acknowledge the wonderful work of our staff and Morioka Sensei in leading the school in my absence. Thank you to those families and students who have reached out, I am happy to report that I did experience very reasonable COVID symptoms and am fortunate to be feeling healthy and back on my feet. 

Student Attitudes to School Survey 

Caulfield Primary School values student voice as a means to improving student engagement, wellbeing and quality instruction and we are conducting a survey to find out what our students think of our school. 

The AtoSS is an annual student survey offered by the Department of Education and Training to assist our school to gain an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. Students in Years 4-6 will be asked about their thoughts and feelings in relation to their school, their learning, peer and family relationships, resilience, bullying, mental health and wellbeing, physical activity, and life in general. The data is de-identified and provides an important piece of comparative analysis to compare changes over time and look at how our students are engaged with their school, wellbeing and learning. 

Education State Conference

School Principals throughout Victoria will come together next to attend the Education State Principal’s Conference on Monday 30th and Tuesday 31st May at the Melbourne Convention Centre. Hosted by the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership, this 2-day event brings together our state’s principals for the first time since 2019.

Together, we will be aiming to learn from, empathise with, support and acknowledge each other in our work as education leaders. Our collective efforts will contribute positively to the learning and wellbeing of every student in every school. The core themes of the conference are designed around learning and wellbeing, education and the community, education for reconciliation and transformative possibilities of inclusion. I look forward to sharing with staff and our school community the key learning taken away from the conference. 

Democracy Cakes, sausages and Fundraising 

My sincere thanks to all parents and families that supported our election day fundraising. Thank you to families that baked, cooked and volunteered their time throughout the day, a massive achievement and a great embodiment of our wonderful school community. 

Thank you to Kylie and Jenni for once again pulling us altogether, I have heard rave reviews of our bacon and egg rolls, cakes and sausages and this all culminated in us achieving a fundraising result of over $2600. An amazing achievement. Well done everyone!

Naplan

Congratulations to our Yr. 3 and Yr. 5 cohorts of students that have participated in NAPLAN online over the past 2 weeks. It is important to note that NAPLAN is a snapshot of where students are performing at the time of the test and is just one aspect of the school’s assessment and reporting. NAPLAN test results are used by the school to discuss student progress and strengths and weaknesses in our teaching programs and we can also look at trends that are emerging or developing in terms of our data and measure growth that has occurred in matched cohort data from Year 3 to 5. We are really proud of our students and the manner in which they applied themselves over the testing period and the wonderful support that they enjoyed from our Year 3/4 and 5/6 Teaching teams and from our families. 

National Reconciliation Week

Yesterday (Thursday) the school acknowledged National Sorry Day and will highlight National Reconciliation Week which begins today and flows into next week. National Sorry Day acknowledges and raises awareness of the history and continued effect of the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from their families, communities, and culture. The first National Sorry Day was observed in 1998, a year after the first “Bringing Them Home” report — the result of a government inquiry into the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families. Among that report’s recommendations was the consideration of an unreserved apology and a formal apology that was delivered in 2008 by the then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. National Reconciliation Week, Friday 27 May to Friday 3 June 2022, celebrates and builds on the respectful relationships shared by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other Australians. The dates commemorate and bookend two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey – the successful 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision. During my teaching in the Year 1/2 classrooms this week, we looked at the importance of the Acknowledgement of Country and discovered some further information about the Bunurong people, who are the traditional owners of the land that our school was built upon. 

Pre-Service Teachers

I would like to acknowledge and welcome to our school three Pre-Service Teachers that are working with us at the moment, Olivia Fleming working alongside Mrs Newman, Luna Rahman working with Miss Ryan and Andre Kousis working alongside Miss Gianarelli. Throughout their time with us they will shadow our classroom teachers, be involved in planning, assessment and supervised teaching to support their growth and experiences. We formally welcome Luna, Andre and Olivia to the school and know that they will learn a lot from our three experienced teachers. 

Education Support Day

On Monday 16th May we came together to celebrate our hardworking Education Support Personnel.

The focus of the international ESP Day is to let ES staff know how much they are appreciated and highlight the value of their work. None of the work that we accomplish at Caulfield Primary School could be undertaken without the wonderful support of our Education Support staff and we kindly acknowledge the significant contributions they make to our school and our students and thoroughly appreciate their work. 

Education Week

Staff and student have enjoyed activities which focused on ‘150 Years of Public Education’, commemorating the past, celebrating the present and imagining the future this week. Students in Year 3/4 have completed rotation activities that have celebrated some of the unique aspects of public education including using a fountain pen to complete some literacy activities. 

Walk Safely to School Day

Congratulations to all students and families that took the opportunity to walk to school and enjoy a wonderful breakfast organised by our PFC. When tallying up the percentages and the winning class, I am very proud of our Prep C class who were announced as the winning class, they will work with our school leaders to have some student voice and influence to confirm their reward to recognise this achievement. 

Edward Strain

PRINCIPAL