NAIDOC Celebration

Last Friday we celebrated NAIDOC Week through a day of wonderful experiences that were coordinated and organised by our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) Team. NAIDOC week celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This year’s theme was “For our Elders”.

Art: Students were involved in decorating a large artwork about the Wurrundjeri seasons of the year, and each student made a yarning stick. We can’t wait to display the Wurundjeri seasons artwork in our school for future generations to learn from and enjoy.

Cooking: We cooked bread using Indigenous ingredients cinnamon myrtle and strawberry gum.

Wayapa: Students learned about Wayapa, an Indigenous approach to mind and body (a bit like yoga). This rotation was run by a Melbourne based, Indigenous group of Wayapa practitioners.

Wanyara: Wanyara is the Yorta Yorta word for 'active'. For this rotation, students were taught how to play a range of Indigenous games. Like Wayapa, this rotation was run by a local Melbourne organisation of Indigenous people.

The day was spectacular and extremely educational for all. Thank you to our RAP Team, the Wellbeing and Inclusion Committee, the Parent Support Group and the many parents who helped out or donated materials. We would also like to acknowledge Kylie Hansen, Ben May, Mary D’Cruz, Brendan Opray, Erica Slocombe, Marnie Pascoe, Louisa Emslie, Alice Knowles and Krissy Fry for their contributions for the event.

We would also like to thank our Children for being superstars as they moved through each activity. “This is the best day ever (after the fete!)”

Principal for the Day

One of the silent auction items for the fete was Principal for the Day. The parents of Vivienne (34S) and Sophia (12J) won the bid for this item. Tomorrow Vivienne and Sophia will be Principals of Carlton North Primary School for the day. They will shadow the Principal Team, Rachel and Jane, and participate in the following important Principal roles and tasks:

morning yard duty from 8:45am - 9:00am
morning walk through to say good morning and welcome students to school
make announcements over the PA including a reminder that it is lunch order Friday and for lunch orders to be brought up to the foyer
managing the Therapy Dog in training, Tiana, and making sure that she is learning how to behave appropriately at school
hand out stickers and tokens to students who visit the Principal’s Office with great work
host morning tea for the CNPS staff at recess
teach Performing Arts for FE and FJ with Rachel in session 3 and session 4
attend a lunch walking meeting with Jane and Rachel
assist the SRC in setting up for assembly
presenting the Student of the Week Awards and birthday stickers
after school yard duty from 3:30pm - 3:45pm.

2023 NAPLAN Results and Changes to NAPLAN Reports

The school received the raw data for the 2023 NAPLAN this week and the individual student reports were delivered today. We are very impressed with the initial data and look forward to seeing how our students performed against students in similar schools and within our Yarra Network. We will be distributing these reports out to families of the students in Years 3 and 5 tomorrow. They will come home with your child in a sealed envelope addressed to parents and carers. Please see the information below about the changes to the 2023 NAPLAN results. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact the school.

Carlton North Primary School is Turning 150 and National Tree Day - Friday 28 July

Next Friday 28 July is Carlton North Primary School’s 150th Birthday. We are in the process of planning celebratory events for later in the year, however next Friday we will participate in a small number of activities to celebrate CNPS’ birthday. Rachel Snedden and the instrumental music teachers have been working with our instrumental students to learn the music for Happy Birthday - music arrangement by Rachel Snedden. The instrumental music students will play the Happy Birthday song to the school at the assembly as the rest of the school sings along.

We are also hoping to plant 50 tube stock native trees. We are currently engaging an arborist to identify appropriate areas to plant 50 tube stock trees around the school. These trees have been received as part of the Trees for School initiative through Greater Western Water. We are anticipating that each student at CNPS will be responsible for one of the trees and students will be planting a tree in a group of 5-6. We will be asking each group to keep an eye out on their tree and to make sure that it is cared for including watering and keeping it safe from harm.

Parent/Carer/Teacher Interviews Monday 31 July and Tuesday 1 August

Parent Teacher Interviews will be conducted in Week 4, on Monday 31 July afternoon (until 4:40pm) and Tuesday 1 August afternoon (until 6:40pm). Ten minute interview time slots will be available.

Bookings will open this Friday 21 July, including information on how to book. Please contact the office with any inquiries.

Staff Professional Learning

Be You - Responding to Self-Harm in Primary Schools.

Yesterday, Maddi and Jane attended the Be You - Responding to Self-Harm in Primary Schools. Be You is the national mental and wellbeing initiative for learning communities in Australia and they work in collaboration with Early Childhood Australia, headspace and Beyond Blue.

Occupational Health and Safety Planning Day

Jacqui is our school’s Occupational Health and Safety representative and today she spent the day out of the classroom conducting inspections of our buildings and grounds and planning for future work to ensure a safe workplace and learning environment for our students, staff and parents and carers.

Yarra Darebin Middle Leaders Community Of Practice

This afternoon Maddi attended the Yarra Darebin Middle Leaders Community Of Practice at Preston Polytechnic. This is a new branch to the Yarra Darebin Network supporting our Leading Teachers and Learning Specialists and building their leadership capacity.

Yarra/Darebin Principal Network Meeting Wednesday 26 July

Next Wednesday the Principal Team will be attending the Yarra Darebin Principal Network Meeting at Abbotsford Convent. The keynote speaker at this meeting will be Michelle Huggan, Manager of Disability Inclusion Implementation. Michelle will be speaking about the new Disability Inclusion Program that will be implemented in our schools next year.

The Disability Inclusion reform package is being introduced over a staged rollout between 2021 to 2025 as a new funding and support model for students with disability.

Disability Inclusion is introducing:

a new school funding model for students with disability, with 2 new funding allocations (Tier 2 school-level funding and Tier 3 student-level funding) to support inclusive practice in schools
a new Disability Inclusion Profile process to help schools and families identify the strengths, needs and educational adjustments schools can make to assist students with disability – this process will inform Tier 3 student-level funding allocations
new initiatives to strengthen skills and knowledge in inclusive education across the school system
additional regional disability support roles and dedicated implementation teams.

Love Maths Conference

On Friday 28 July Maddi, Billy, Emily, Carlye and Jacqui will be attending the Love Maths Leaders Conference at Moonee Valley Race Club. The following keynote session will cover the following areas:

Leading Improvement in Mathematics Teaching and Learning
How to Engage and Extend High Performing Students
The Six Best Indicators that Maths Teaching and Learning are Thriving at Your School
How Do You Play: Competitively, Cooperatively, or Collaboratively?

The presenters include:

Peter Sullivanan an Emeritus Professor of the Faculty of Education at Monash University.
Rob Vingerhoets is an experienced and highly effective educator who has worked with teachers and students in New York City, Beijing, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore and throughout Australia.
Michael Minas
Michael Minas is the director of Love Maths, an educational consulting organisation based in Australia.

We look forward to the team coming back and sharing their learning with the rest of the staff.

Principal Team

Rachel Corben and Jane Bilby

Carlton North Primary School

Respect | Trust | Inclusion | Resilience

Term 3, week 2 · 20 Jul 2023

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