Principal's Report

Highlights of the year

Wow! It has been a busy, but great, year for the school and the school community, full of fantastic events and learning. Here are some of the highlights:

Term 1

Welcoming our new foundation students and their families, presenting our School Captains and Year 6 Leaders, forming our new Student Leadership Council, Creating Our Learning Community unit of work, district/regional swimming, hot shots tennis clinics, basketball clinics, school nurse visit, Japanese Language lessons for foundation parents, Nihongo Sports Night, Parents as Partners Night, introducing our new School Council, Year 5/6 interschool sport, visits from a number of Japanese Universities including Jissen University, Clean Up Australia Day, Kelly Sports, school working bee, Summer Gala Day, ICU Week, Harmony Day Celebrations, South Oakleigh College Cultural Festival and the Easter Raffle!

Term 2

Cross country events- school, district, zone and divisional; foundation excursion to Myuna Farm; Year 1 excursion to the Melbourne Zoo, Year 6-7 Transition information evening; John Monash Science School Little Scientists Program; school photos; Mother’s Day morning tea; book fair; NAPLAN; Year 5/6 excursions to South Oakleigh College; Box Hill Festival; Monash Reconciliation Art Exhibition; AFL clinics; interschool sport; Year 2 Woolworths excursions; National Reconciliation Week; student attitudes to school survey; Winter gala day; student reports, parent teacher interviews, SLC disco, e-smart parent evening, Watashi Mo’s ‘Kids Fun Day’, F-1 parent Japanese classes, Education Week, Year 3&4 excursion to IMAX and the museum, Japan Trip Meetings and ICU Week focusing on the Arts and Environment!

Term 3

COLC, Foundation Sustainability incursions, ICAS English, Science and Mathematics Competitions, K-F transition, Education Support Staff Week, school working bee, Shioya Junior High visit, athletics events- school, district, zone and divisional, Japan Trip preparation including a visit from Vice-Consul General of Japan Shunsuke Saito, 5/6 excursion to the Immigration Museum, NED Incursion, 3/4 Science Incursions, Year 5’s visit to Westall SC, Fathers’ Day event, Literacy and Numeracy Week open morning for parents, ICU Week- dance and games, Share and Show Night, Principal’s Day and Minato-Ku visit.

Term 4

Japan Trip, whole school photo, school working bee, Swimming, K-F Transition, World Teachers’ Day, Hot Shots Tennis, F-1 Cricket Clinics, Healthy Living and Growing 3/4’s, Year 5 Leadership Day at SOC, 3/4 cricket gala day, Junior Rockers performance, guitar group performance, F-1 Mini Boss incursion, 3/4 gala day against Clarinda, St Kilda Wellbeing sessions with Year 4’s & 5’s, Remembrance Day, 5/6 expo, Year 4 Rotary Scholarship, Taiko Drumming, School Captains speeches, Carols in the Park, HPS Christmas Concert, in-school transition, Foundation information night, Year 7 orientation day, Reports and Year 6 Graduation.

2019 Graduating Class

Tomorrow night we celebrate the achievements of our Year 6 students and their final year of Primary School at our Graduation Ceremony. The Year 6’s have been a fantastic group to work with this year and excellent role models to younger students. We are all extremely proud of the young people you have become. You have all come a long way, no matter how long or short your time at Huntingdale PS has been. Congratulations to Wendy, Yamato, Dhatrin, Riuroa, Tysei, Sara, Tamsyn, Zachary, Emily, Kimi, Hugo Y, Bobby, Livia, Sam Be, Koju, Sam Bo, Luca, Sam G, Daisy, Gabriella, Ben, Amy, Tamim, George, Alec, Robbie, Jerome, Masato, Kiara, Noa, Emerson, Richard, Katelyn, Madison, Asher, Diego, Mei, Mehul, Eric, Eunjee, Siena, Jasper, Hasiru, Genevieve, Nathaniel and Matthieu. We wish you all the best in your secondary schooling!

2020 Staffing and Classes

On Monday 16th December, students visited their new grades in our traditional ‘walk up’ morning. Our staffing and teaching profile is as follows for 2020:

Ruth Biddle	Principal
Naomi Mori-Hanazono	Assistant Principal
Eiji Nishikubo	Japanese Specialist Teacher- Arts, Music, ICT
Brett Herskope & Yukiko Shoya	5/6H
Pete Magart & Yukiko Shoya	5/6M
Linda Ooi-Chan & Yukiko Shoya	5/6O
Rebecca Wood & Yukiko Shoya	5/6W
Maria Mathews & Ryoki Fukaya	3/4M
Maria Perrella & Ryoki Fukaya	3/4P
Nick Tolliday & Ryoki Fukaya	3/4T
Alyson Wakely & Ryoki Fukaya	3/4W
Ryoko Yamaoka	3/4 Music
Nozomi Koyama	2K/2T
Tadashi Hanazono	2T/2K
Amelia Olsson	2OH + PE/Art English Specialist
Keiko Harada	2OH + Japanese Drama
Tomoko Smith	1S & 1M
Annika Matchan	1M & 1 S
Jo Ewart	1HE & FE
Hisae Hatigan	1HE & FHE
Moe Osugi	FO/FT
Dan Thomas	FT/FO

The teaching staff will be supported by ES staff Wakana Karchnak, Mayumi Cake, Honami Ando and Mayu Harada. Jenny Celle will continue as Chaplain, Gill Penfold as Office Manager, Rosella Dossi as Business Manager and Brendan Ariens as DET ICT support.

We have a number of staff leaving us at the end of this year. Erin Green will move to Murumbeena Primary School, Sarah Jang to Auburn South Primary Sch

Assistant Principal's Report

Wow! We have had many celebrations of children’s learning in December.

Grade 3/4 Play

I was invited to Grade 3/4 students’ play in Japanese. Students wrote their scripts using their creativity and proactively brought their costumes from home. They practiced in the groups and performed well. It was nice to see how many parents came to see it.

Christmas Concert

The Christmas concert was a success. Students and Teachers practiced hard leading-up to their performance on the night. Many families came and had a picnic before the concert. Santa was in the Japanese Fruits Garden before the concert. Watashi Mo had a baked sale booth. It was a great night. Everyone enjoyed watching their children’s performance as well as enjoying each other’s company.

Carols in the park

Our Choir and Taiko groups performed on 6th December in Oakleigh. It has become an annual event for us. We are so proud of them representing our school with their performances. Thank you Smith sensei and Hanazono.T sensei for leading the groups this year.

I hope you will have a lovely break with your family. I am looking forward to see you all next year.

Naomi Mori-Hanazono

Assistant Principal