Principals' message 

Week 6 news

With the end of week 6 we are now over halfway in Term 1, with four more busy weeks to go. There are a number of important events taking place over the coming weeks, including NAPLAN, Harmony Day and the Art Show. Our Year 5/6 children recently visited Collingwood College to learn about Secondary school and what can be experienced in the next stage of schooling. They had an excellent day and were great ambassadors for our school.

Next week the NAPLAN (National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy) testing will begin on Tuesday 15th March. These annual assessments take place every year for students in grade 3, 5, 7, and 9, and will assess reading, writing, language conventions/spelling and numeracy. The schedule for NAPLAN assessments is:

The NAPLAN is a good opportunity to take a snapshot of student ability and achievement on that day at that time. Many factors can influence a child’s NAPLAN results both for better or poorer, and we strongly urge all students to have a good sleep and eat breakfast before coming to school on the assessment days. At school we find the NAPLAN results a useful indicator and use them alongside classroom assessments to make professional judgements on student progress. We wish all participating students well and I know they will all try their hardest each day.

The Art Show is still scheduled to take place on Tuesday 4th April, with the art show committee meeting soon to continue organisation of the event. It will be a great evening and we are looking at further improving the event to allow for a more inclusive event for those families who are fasting for Ramadan. Final plans will be released to the community in the coming week. 

On Friday 17th March there will be a special morning assembly to announce our new student leaders for 2023. There were lots of excellent candidates for positions and the appointed students will be great representatives and leaders of our students this year. There has been some time since an assembly was last held and I am developing regular timetable for assemblies moving forward. Families are invited to attend the assembly which will take place at 9am on the soccer field – weather dependent!

We are continuing to improve the appearance and organisation of the building and learning spaces. Parents/carers may have noticed the bag hooks that have been installed outside the Foundation classroom. We will be adding further bag hooks outside all class spaces over the coming weeks to move bags from the floor and improve organisation. There have been some delays here due to the supply chain issues, but we hope they will be installed soon (Foundation parents please note a hook has been organised for every child, we are waiting for the remainder to arrive).

We have recently had some correspondence with the VSBA (Victorian Schools Building Authority) regarding the carpet in the 3/4D classroom. This floor was damaged by rain when the tree fell on the roof of the building previously. The room is safe and secure however it does need carpet again. I am expecting we will have the situation resolved soon and carpet back on the floor again.

Friday 10th March was our second pupil free day for the year and was used by teachers to undertake professional learning from ‘100 Story Building’ on writing. Over the past two weeks we have had ‘100 Story Building’ providing workshops to students on creating amazing writing with great results. Our education support team undertook learning on Individual Education Plans and neuro-diversity in schools. It was a very useful day and helps us to continue to work on improving student outcomes.

School Council

Thank you to those parents/carers who nominated for school council this year. At the closing of the poll there were three nominees who were appointed to school council:

• Hamdi Ali
• Michelle Scoullar
• Evelyn Tadros

I would like to thank all our school council members for their interest and participation in council over the past year. I look forward to working with our new school council  in the coming year.

-Nathan Moore ( Acting Principal) & Andrea Hennessey ( Assistant Principal)