Principal's Report

The last fortnight has brought with it a combination of exciting events and opportunities to celebrate. The Wonderful Women’s Day morning on Friday 6th May marked a year to the day between events that allowed us to have numerous families be in our classrooms. I do hope that many of you are able to join us next week for Education Week as per yesterday’s Compass post. Please also keep an eye out for other opportunities to be a part of school life, including those below and more to come in future editions. 

Last week also saw the students in Grades 3 and 5 participate in NAPLAN assessments. Our students are to be congratulated for the calm and confident manner in which they undertook the assessments, which were online for the first time. Our teachers in these year levels prepared students incredibly well and navigated the new online platform with aplomb and can be very proud of themselves and the students. Our Annual Report and School Performance Report for 2021 has also recently been finalised, which reflects our NAPLAN results and other key data sets from the year that was; I encourage you to review some key points outlined below.

PARENT EVENTS

Election Day BBQ & Cake Stall

We are looking forward to many of you volunteering to bake a sweet treat for the Cake Stall (drop off 8-9am & 3-4pm on Fri 20th May), or assist with cooking the BBQ or manning the Cake Stall. We also encourage all of you, as well as your friends and family, to visit the school to cast your vote and sample these delicious treats on offer.

Working Bee 

Tomorrow afternoon is our first Working Bee since 2019. Please join us with your children if you like in helping make our school more beautiful. You can sign up via this link.

Assembly

We are excited to be able to invite parents back to assemblies. Should the weather be fine and we be able to host it in the Quad/courtyard area, all families are welcome to attend and view it from the balcony. If the weather is unkind and we are in the BER, we ask that only families whose child is performing or receiving an award attend due to space limitations.

ANNUAL REPORT & PERFORMANCE REPORT

Annual Report

Each year we are measured against a range of data sets that are collected by the Victorian Government and Assessment Authorities to analyse our performance, identify strengths and look for opportunities to improve. These data sets are presented in both our School Performance Report and Annual Report and are shared with and endorsed by School Council.

Recently our 2021 Annual Report was finalised and highlighted not only our continued high performance but in many cases, improvement in areas such as the number of students deemed ahead of standard in Reading and Mathematics and out-performing our own 4-year average in 3 of 4 NAPLAN areas. Given the context of the past two years, this is highly impressive and reflects high-quality teaching and learning both on-site and remote and outstanding support from you throughout remote learning. I encourage you to view our Annual Report via the button below and be in touch should you have any questions. 

School Performance Report

Our School Performance Report is a secondary report that focuses on similar data sets and measures us against our own performance and other schools of similar demographic and size. This report unpacks many areas including academic performance, student, parent and staff opinions and attendance and wellbeing data to culminate in a rating for Hampton. This year we have been assessed as being in the Influence category, which, as you can see in the image below, indicates that our performance is high/very high and is continuing to improve, making us an influential school and system leader. This is something we can all be incredibly proud of and that should be celebrated. 

Our journey does not stop here though as we continue to strive to further enhance your children’s outcomes and experiences at our school. Again, should you have any questions I encourage you to be in touch. 

NEW 'HARMONY' ARTWORK

I am sure you have noticed the new installation near our front office signifying the diversity that exists within our school (photo above). We are proud of this diversity and know that it enhances our community. Dani Peebles (Art Teacher) has done an extraordinary job in designing and constructing this piece and we are incredibly grateful to her and know it will be valued by our community for years to come.

COVID UPDATES

Vaccination Requirements

Please be reminded that to volunteer at our school you must be fully vaccinated and show evidence of your vaccination status, along with your Working With Children Check at the office upon signing in. This does not apply to visitors. 

NEW FURNITURE

I am pleased to share that as we look to refurbish the Foundation – Grade 2 classrooms throughout the year, as an initial step we have purchased new tables and chairs for students in this area, as well as the majority of Grade 3 and 4 classrooms. This investment was well overdue and I am sure as you visit our classrooms you will notice the lift that they provide.

SOCIAL MEDIA OPPORTUNITY

We are looking to increase our engagement with parents and our community through social media channels to provide a more interactive and modern platform with which to share news, celebrations and events. If anyone in our community has an interest or expertise in managing social media pages and is keen to pick up a few hours of work a week, please be in touch with the office. 

GARDEN DONATIONS

Please keep donations coming in to plant in our garden beds as we seek to develop a flourishing vegetable, fruit and herb patch that students can enjoy and learn from. 

Any donations of the following are greatly appreciated and can be brought directly to the classroom or office: 

• Citrus trees: lemon, lime, orange or mandarin orange...
• Herbs: basil, spring onion, sage, dill, rosemary, parsley and mint...
• Vegetables: anything suits winter weather.

CELEBRATIONS

Congratulations to Wanda B (Grade 4) who recently competed in the School Sports Victoria Regional Finals. Wanda competed against students up to Grade 6 and in reaching the final had to beat many of them. This is a wonderful achievement!