Message from the Principal 

Thank you to everyone for a great term and it has certainly flown by. I have been very proud of the effort that our students have put in and the way we have resettled into a more normal school year. I would like to give a special shout out to our Year 2, Year 1 and Prep students. This term is the longest continuous time these students have been on-site at school since they started at Greenhills!

Overall, we have had a very successful term. We have achieved so much already and really set the scene for a GREAT 2022. One of the biggest bright lights through this term has been evident in the positive, calm and encouraging attitude of our staff team. The staff have been working hard to ensure that all students are connected, engaged and challenged. I would like to use this newsletter to formally thank each and every one of the GREAT Greenhills Primary School staff for their professionalism, dedication and commitment to not only the learning, but also the wellbeing and welfare of every student.

A big thank you too to all of our parents and carers for your support of our school. We have completed many Parent Helper Induction sessions and look forward to really welcoming this part of our school back in Term 2. 

It’s always hard to pick a highlight but for this term it is walking anywhere near our Prep students. They are always so excited, wave hello and have so many questions. Their enthusiasm and energy is always something to be celebrated and never taken for granted.

SMILING MIND LAUNCH

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WE LOVE TO READ

With everything that has gone on over the past couple of years, our school has always kept focused on how important reading is. At Greenhills we love to read! This school holidays is always a GREAT chance for parents, carers, staff and students to get lost in some great books.

A big shout out to Jen Ellis for organizing our Bookfair last week. It was wonderful to see so many families take a moment to come and book shop in the Library and as a result of your support we raised $6605. This is an awesome result and all of this money will be spent on new books for our school library. We really do have such a well-resourced library and this is something we are very passionate about and proud of.  

SCHOOL COUNCIL NEWS - 2021 ANNUAL REPORT

The 2021 Annual Report was endorsed by School Council last week. The report is a mandated document that must be completed before the end of April each year and submitted to DET. It includes a summary of school performance including Parent Satisfaction, School Staff Survey, Teacher Judgement of Student Achievement, NAPLAN, Learning Gain Yr. 3- Yr. 5, Average Number of Student Absence Days, Students Attitudes to School - Sense of Connectedness and Management of Bullying and a Financial Performance & Position commentary. 

Over the next few newsletters I will publish some of the main sections of the report, starting with the ACHIEVEMENT summary section:

2021 NAPLAN data highlights the large percentage of students in Years 3 and 5 achieving in the Top 3 bands in Reading & Numeracy over a 4-year average. These average percentages are as follows: Year 3 Reading: 89.3%, Year 3 Numeracy: 82.0%, Year 5 Reading: 81.5% and Year 5 Numeracy: 77.4%. These results are all well above the State average and importantly also above the similar school average. The highlight of the 2021 NAPLAN data was the increased percentages of students in the Top 3 bands in Reading. This was 93.0% in Year 3 and 85.3% in Year 5. This indicates that our sustained focus on reading has had strong impact on raising student academic achievement and outcomes. Pleasingly the Year 7 transition results also reflects positively on the teaching of Reading in the Year 5 & 6 area as well. It should be noted that there was a small decrease in the percentage of students working in the Top 3 bands in Numeracy. This is now being addressed through a detailed and extensive professional development plan which will provide a core focus on this curriculum area across the school. 2021 NAPLAN Data also indicates strong levels of Medium Gain across all curriculum areas but poorer high gains in other areas including Reading (17%) and Numeracy (18%). This High Gain is at a lower percentage than Similar Schools.   The Teacher Judgement Data as outlined in this report correlates to the NAPLAN results. Teacher Judgement showed a very large percentage of students as working at or above age expected standards in English and Mathematics. This was 94.5% in English (Prep to Year 6) as compared to the State average of 86.2% and 93.8% in Mathematics (Prep to Year 6) as compared to the State average of 84.9%.AIP goals and actions associated with achievement were partially met and completed in 2021.This includes teachers demonstrating a growing ability to articulate the “why” and “how” or the evidence base behind their teaching. Evidence of this includes PLC minutes, the use of professional reading references such as Booker et. al. and a slowing down of the need to plan too far ahead at any one time. Students supported through the Program for Students with a Disability all showed satisfactory progress in achieving their individual goals as identified in their Individual Education Plan.

LOST PROPERTY

We have a large number of items and in particular items of school uniform that get handed in each day. If these are labelled with your child’s name, then it is easy to return these quickly. However our pile of un-named or unidentified clothing gets bigger by the day so we need your help. Please make sure you have labelled all uniform items with a permanent marker. (I think we might also include a Sharpie as part of our Prep Information packs!) 

Next term, I will be working with one of our students who had the brilliant idea of making a space for us to neatly hang lost items of clothing and we will also be running some second hand uniform stalls and online sales. 

ANZAC DAY

Each ANZAC Day, the Greensborough RSL Sub-Branch invite our school to attend the ANZAC Day Memorial Service on the 25th April. The Service will be held at the Greensborough War memorial Park, 203 Henry Street, Greensborough commencing at 9.10am and concluding around 10am. If your family is attending, it would be GREAT for them to wear Greenhills School uniform as a mark of respect. Any of our Year 5/6 leaders who attend will also be able to lay a wreath on behalf of our school community.