Leadership
What a Wonderful Year
As our last newsletter for the year, I would like to reflect on the incredible year for Newlands Primary School. It has been our first year since the Covid pandemic created such a significant disruption to schooling across the globe. It was wonderful to return to school and return to having teachers engaging with students in the classroom. While returning to school was a significant step forward, it hasn’t been without obstacles – teacher absence, student absence and the need to manage teacher shortages throughout the year, but we got there.
School Growth
The year saw our enrolments move past 300 students, a milestone. Seventy-five new preps kicked off the year, but they also started the year with new teachers. This year saw us grow our Leadership team by adding Jess as our Literacy leader. The school now has a strong leadership team guided by Luke, Graeme, and Jess to drive curriculum improvement.
Spanish
For 2023 we have also created a new position in our leadership team by appointing Luisa to the role of Spanish leader. This is another fantastic opportunity to maintain and build our dual language [bilingual] approach to the Victorian Curriculum.
Tuesday, December 20th Last day of Term 4 1:30 finish
Grade 6 Farewell 1 -1:30
2022 Highlights
Specialist Programs
As with Spanish, our Performing Arts program has become a positive element of our school curriculum. This year we added Raema as our STEAM specialist teacher. Her role has been extremely positive, lifted the children's interest in sciences, and has been wonderful to observe.
We employed Carol to deliver our music program in David Perry’s absence for the past 18 months. Carol has consistently provided a quality program culminating in a very successful school performance at Latrobe University.
Our performing arts – dance program was enthusiastically delivered by Laura. We saw our students engage in ‘Schools Spectacular’ and adapt their learning to support the school concert.
I want to acknowledge the Specialist team for supporting Carol in delivering our first concert since 2018.
Raul has been a great asset to Newlands. He has elevated P.E. and provides a range of activities with a higher level of engagement from students across the school.
Curriculum in General
Our teachers have provided all students a varied and stimulating curriculum this year. The teachers have worked as a whole school team to create opportunities for all students to experience success, be it in literacy, mathematics, the Arts, Sports, or exploring learning and showcasing these successes to their parents. So again, on behalf of the school community, we thank our teachers for their professionalism.
School Review
We concluded the year by completing the school review of our 2018-2022 School Strategic Plan. The review has provided us with an excellent opportunity to develop further many of the programs and directions for the next four years. The review has provided the school with a real possibility to build our curriculum further and give depth to all the great programs currently operating across the school.
Newlands Staff
There are many aspects of a school and how students are supported in their learning. At Newlands, we are lucky to have a supportive team culture. Every one of our teachers and ES staff has worked tirelessly to make the classroom and the programs engaging for all students. This includes our administrative staff and the OOSHC staff. Our admin staff were joined by Denise year, who has assisted Mandy and Bronia. Having such a front-of-house team like these three makes our jobs so much easier.
I need to acknowledge Courtney’s efforts to lead the OOSHC team. Her efforts to maintain the program while working with staff shortages have been extraordinary. She has done a great job stepping up and successfully fulfilling a very complex job making sure the school’s finances are accurate.
Building Works
The works finally started at the start of term four. The weather wasn’t kind, but we can see that the project is complex and the scale just to lay the foundations is massive. The term finishes with the contractors drilling the piers in readiness for the gym, admin wing building and the learning worlds.
Fundraising
Our PFA has worked hard this year to provide the extra funds to support our wonderful arts programs and the general classroom. This group of parents gives up their time at weekends and after school, so thank you. We have all benefited from their hard work, and we look forward to seeing the team grow now that we are out of the Covid pandemic restrictions.
Gardening Group
This year has seen our grounds somewhat decimated by the construction works. However, our loyal team of parents have maintained their endeavours to engage the parent working bees during the year: a great effort, so many thanks, one and all.
School Council
This is another group of parents and teachers who give up their time volunteering and supporting Newlands Primary School in pursuing opportunities to make Newlands a better place; again, thank you.
Staff Farewell
Daisy has been at Newlands for just over 12 months. She has been an excellent teacher during her time at Newlands. However, Daisy has decided to travel and enjoy exploring Europe. We wish her all the best.
Isabelle will be leaving us to have a baby in early 2023. We wish her and her partner all the best. We want to acknowledge all the great things Isabelle has achieved with the children during her time at Newlands.
Nikki has been granted 12 months of leave for 2023. We wish her all the best for 2023 and look forward to her return in 2024.
David P is leaving us to further his career at Traralgon Secondary School. He has been appointed as a Learning Specialist. We wish him well in his new role.
Rebecca P has been with us since term 2, replacing Imogen. We want to thank Rebecca for her contribution to our school and, in particular, her input to teaching the Spanish language at Newlands. We wish her all the best as she travels around Australia in 2023.
Welcome to new staff
Kate has been employed this term in the F/1 area. We welcome Kate to the Newlands teaching team for 2023.
Simon has joined us from Princes Hill PS, where he has worked as a classroom teacher for several years. We welcome Simon to Newlands and look forward to his input to grow our school and teacher knowledge and experience.
Katherine has joined us from Collingwood College. We welcome her to Newlands and look forward to her becoming a part of our school team.
Courtney has worked at our OOSHC program for several years and has done a fantastic job as an assistant and, more recently, as the coordinator.
Best Wishes for the Future
For those families not returning in 2023, including the Year six students, we wish you a great 2023. We hope you leave Newlands with fond and positive memories of your time with classmates and teachers.
Best wishes and thanks to our community
There are so many individuals and groups of individuals within our Newlands School community that we need to acknowledge for all the great work they have completed. It would be a very long list of people if I named every person, so I prefer to recognise and highlight some notable achievements.
What's ahead for 2023?
We can expect further works to continue until the end of the year. This will see great action and provide a sense of scale. Our specialist programs for Music and STEAM will be working out the classrooms due to the limitations of classroom space due to the construction works.
Luisa will be leading the Spanish programs. Her role will be to lead and support Spanish teachers to develop our dual language approach to learning further.
Our school art show will return in the second half of 2023. We look forward to this special event to showcase our students' wonderful and creative works.
On behalf of all the Newlands Staff, we wish you all the best for the festive season and a safe and restful holiday. We look forward to coming together again in 2023 for another exciting year of developing student learning and growth.