Principals' Update

School Tours

Over the past two weeks, we have conducted School Tours on Mondays for parents/carers of possible future students. The tours begin with a welcome and introduction from the Leadership Team, and then our highly articulate and knowledgable Year 5/6 students conduct a tour around the school buildings and grounds. The Tours finish back at the foyer, where the Leadership Team is available for any questions or queries. These tours are an for our Year 5/6 to demonstrate ownership of our school and for the prospective parents/carers to see how we nurture our students from Foundation to Year 6 to become individuals and confident young adults. We are incredibly proud of our Year 5/6 students as they demonstrate our school values and culture to the broader community.

Below is an email we received this week from a prospective parent who attended one of these tours:

Good afternoon

I attended one of the student-led tours on Monday at 11.45am.

I just wanted to say how amazing the two students were. They were so articulate, clearly loved the school and were proud to be students of Lee Street.

I’ve done several school tours and none left the impression that this one did.

Congratulations on developing such amazing future leaders!

Best Wishes

Trish

Educational Support Staff Day - Tuesday 16 May

On Tuesday, we celebrated our wonderful Education Support Staff at CNPS. The teachers provided a phenomenal spread for morning tea to honour and recognise the extraordinary contribution education support staff make to our school community.

Foundation Special Person’s Morning Activities (for Mother’s Day) - Friday

Last Friday, our Foundation students pampered their special person in their lives in preparation for Mother’s Day on Sunday. It’s great to see so many of the Mums and Special Persons who attended still sporting their manicures and rainbow nails. We hope all of our CNPS Mums and Special Persons had a wonderful day on Sunday!

IDAHOBIT Day Wednesday 17 May - Let’s Get Rainbow

Yesterday we all wore Rainbow for the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. Our school value of Inclusion was fully on display yesterday, we loved seeing the wonderful sea of colour in support for all members of our school community.

National eSmart Week 22 May - 28 May

National eSmart Week is back again, for the biggest and best year yet in 2023.  Featuring the theme “Be your best self online”, this year’s event invites children and young people to explore what it means to be a positive digital citizen.

This week-long event is a celebration of all the incredible work our eSmart schools and libraries across the country are doing to promote positive digital citizenship. This event allows teachers, library staff, parents, and students alike to develop new and important skills.

eSmart Week 2023 will feature a calendar of virtual events, and all registrants will receive an eBook containing in-class activities and resources.

Across the week, students will be encouraged to explore topics such as: 

What you can do and say to be positive online 

How algorithms, echo chambers and customised messaging impact our view of the world 

How to use technology purposefully  

How to use your agency to influence change in the online environment  

https://www.alannahandmadeline.org.au

COVID Cases

We have seen an increase in COVID cases across the school. We would like to remind all families to please be mindful of COVID symptoms. If your child shows any symptoms or is unwell, please conduct a Rapid Antigen Test and keep them at home. If your child does test positive for COVID, please notify the school so that we can watch vigilantly for symptoms within your child’s class.

We have reminded our staff to turn up the air purifiers in all learning spaces and offices. We also have plenty of RATs for those families who need to test family members.

Please note if there is a COVID case in the family, family members can continue to go to work and school if they are testing negative on a RAT.

National Walk Safely to School Day - Tomorrow

National Walk Safely to School Day (WSTSD) is an annual event when all Primary School children are encouraged to walk and commute safely to school. It is a Community Event seeking to promote Road Safety, Health, Public Transport and the Environment.

The objectives of WSTSD are:

To encourage parents and carers to walk to school with primary school age children and reinforce safe pedestrian behaviour.
To promote the health benefits of walking and help create regular walking habits at an early age.
To ensure that children up to 10 years old hold an adult's hand when crossing the road.
To help children develop the vital road-crossing skills they will need as they become mature pedestrians.
To reduce the car dependency habits that are being created at an early age and which will be difficult to change as children become adults.
To promote the use of Public Transport.
To reduce the level of air pollution created by motor vehicles.
To reduce the level of traffic congestion.

Staff Professional Learning

This week Trish attended Educational Global Education Union Conference in Portugal. This trip has been fully funded by the Vic AEU and we are excited for Tris to return and share her learning from the week’s event.

On Wednesday and Thursday Billy and Jesse attended the Respectful Relationships Modelling Respect and Equality pilot program training. The objective of the Modelling Respect and Equality pilot program is for schools to deepen their understanding of the link between supporting healthy masculinities and the prevention of violence against women and further embed a whole school approach to Respectful Relationships.

Casual Relief Teacher (CRT) Shortage

As you may be aware, there is currently a teacher shortage in Victoria. We are very fortunate at CNPS to be fully staffed at our school however, we are struggling to find Casual Relief Teachers (CRTs) when staff are absent. When a teacher is unwell, we try very hard to arrange a consistent (CRT) for the class but due to the shortage of CRTs across the state, arranging a consistent teacher for the class can be a challenge. There may be a possibility that no CRTs can be booked and in these situations we split a class across the upper year levels.

Principal Team

Rachel Corben and Jane Bilby

Special Person's Morning - Foundation