Principal Team's Report

Another busy fortnight at The Springs is behind us, with the week ahead (the last week of term) looking just as exciting.

Over the last fortnight, we have held an 'out of uniform' day, attended the National Young Leaders Conference (Year 6 selected students), enjoyed the Book Fair, held Year 5 NAPLAN practice sessions, attended the Koorie Cultural Day (eligible students), learned all about community helpers and hosted interschool sports against Chairo. 

It seems like such a simple thing, but 'Out of Uniform Day' always brings excitement and smiles. Thank you for your gold coin donations - we raised $740, which will be used to make the hampers for the Easter Raffle.

National Young Leaders Conference 

Mrs Jackie Pope attended the National Young Leaders Conference at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre with our School Captains and Vice Captains Ben, Charlotte, Lacey and Jack.  This day consisted of keynote talks, multimedia presentations and interactive learning for young people who aspire to lead themselves and others. The highlights of the day included hearing from Australian swimming superstar Cate Campbell and ex-Australian Cricketer Damien Fleming and getting to network with other Victorian aspiring leaders.  We are extremely proud of how these students represented our school on the day.

BOOK FAIR

Our Book Fair is always the highlight of the first term for many and 2022 did not disappoint!  The Book Fair was visited by students, families and staff with lots of excited chatter and sharing of new books.  We thank our staff members who volunteered their time both before and after school, purely to bring the joy of reading and books to our students and families.  The success of the Book Fair will see approximately $2,000 worth of exciting new titles for our Library and classrooms.  We look forward to seeing all of the new purchases that will appear in the coming months.

Prep Community Helper Day

Wow!  It was fabulous to see a vast variety of dress-ups and different community helpers on this day.  The corridors, classrooms and playgrounds were full of students representing the members of our community that help us.  Everything from police, firefighters, SES, medical, to teachers, builders and supermarket workers.  The Prep team arranged for students to enjoy a full day of learning about how these important members of our community can help us.  Students loved the Police car, especially the siren, and they enjoyed the day's activities. 

School-Wide Positive Behaviour

Throughout the term, the School-Wide Positive Behaviour team has worked hard with the staff to set up positive acknowledgments for students demonstrating our school values of Respect, Responsibility and Resilience. There are already 497 positive acknowledgments in Compass.  Please keep an eye on your child's profile to track their behaviour at school.

NAPLAN

NAPLAN is an annual assessment for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.  It tests the types of skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. The assessments cover skills in reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy.  This year, students will complete NAPLAN online, with the exception of Year 3 Writing.  Over the fortnight, Year 3 and Year 5 students have been able to practice the online environment of NAPLAN.  The purpose of the NAPLAN practice sessions was to familiarise staff and students with the online version, the formatting and the types of questions.  It also served the purpose of trialing our ICT capacity to have all students online at the same time.  We can happily report, all went well and we expect things to run smoothly in Term 2 for NAPLAN.  All students in Years 3 and 5 are encouraged to sit NAPLAN, however, we do recognise that it is not suitable for some.  If you believe your child should not sit NAPLAN, please contact your classroom teacher to discuss.

Emergency Drill

Emergency drills are an important aspect of ensuring a safe and orderly environment for all members of our learning community. Each term, Victorian schools practice an emergency drill.  These are often announced to students just prior.  Students and staff follow set procedures that have been trialed and tested over many years.  When the school runs an emergency drill, a notification is sent to the parents shortly afterwards. Classroom teachers also debrief with their class upon returning.  Often the kindergarten and maternal health nurse will join us in drill practice.  At Pakenham Springs Primary School we take great care to ensure these practice drills are kept calm and as brief as possible.  In an emergency drill or an emergency situation, parents cannot collect their child/ren until the emergency/emergency drill has ended or the Chief Warden (person in charge, likely the principal) gives permission.  This is standard procedure to ensure duty of care and accountability for all staff, students and visitors onsite.

Save the Date

Easter Bonnet Parade and Open Afternoon - Wednesday 6th April 

Come along and visit our classrooms!  Be amazed at the learning and growth of your child. Take time to enjoy the terrific writing displays in our corridors and in the front entrance of the school.  Here, you will find a sample of student writing using our Writers Workshop model of plan, draft, edit, revise, publish.  Classroom doors open at 3.15 pm.  Don't forget to purchase a sausage and a drink and visit your child's specialist classrooms too.  Please note that all visitors entering Department of Education buildings (i.e. classrooms) must be fully vaccinated.

End of Term Colour Run

On Friday 8th of April, we will hold our annual Fun Run with a difference this year! Taking on feedback from parents and students, this year is a Colour Run!  

On this day, students are asked to wear House colours, or clothes that are appropriate for receiving a colour explosion!  White t-shirts show the colour best (please note that the colour powder may stain).  Safety information will be distributed separately to families - please contact your classroom teacher if you do not wish for your child to participate in the colour explosion (they will still do the Fun Run, just not with the colour powder).  

We look forward to a fun and colourful end to the term!

A reminder that we have an end-of-term finish time of 2:30 pm next Friday 8th April 2022.  

The leadership team wishes you a very safe, happy and healthy holiday break and we look forward to seeing everyone return to school on Tuesday 26th April for a fantastic Term 2.