Principal's Message
A Thank You to our Amazing Community
As the Principal of the school, I am so proud of what our school has achieved in 2020.
It has been said time and time again (within the media) that 2020 was a challenging year. However, as a school staff we reflected upon 2020 from a different point of view. We saw 2020 as a time to reflect upon what is important to our school, and what actions we need to take to continue driving our school forwards.
2020 presented our school with unique opportunities to forge even greater, and more open, relationships between parents/carers and teachers. 2020 presented our school with the opportunity to apply blended learning across all curriculum areas. 2020 also presented our student body with an opportunity to have an even stronger voice about the future directions of our school.
As we look forward to 2021, our planning for an improved curriculum is again considerate of what is important for our school community.
Our school's Guiding Principles are a set of standards to which we aspire. They complement our school values, but they also highlight that in everything we do we consider the Three Pillars of our Learning Community:
- Students: our students are at the centre of everything we do
- Staff: building staff capacity to achieve our guiding principles is paramount
- Community Partnerships: our positive school-wide culture for learning is supported through effective partnerships with our families.
Therefore, we would like to say thank you to every single member of our school community. Thank you for supporting each other. Thank you for inspiring our staff to reach even greater levels of curriculum. Thank you to our School Council for being a logical, thoughtful, and strategic driver behind what it is that we do every day.
Through a sustained focus upon continuous improvement, our recent Annual Implementation Plan (yearly goals and review) was recently presented to DET Region, with extremely impressive results. Through all data-sets collected our school showed strong growth in comparison to cohort matched schools, stanine groupings, and schools beyond our localized setting.
We can't wait to see what 2021 brings, and are excited about the opportunities to continue improving the learning environment for our students and families.
Introducing our 2021 School Captains
Yesterday we were fortunate enough to come together for our first school-wide assembly of the term. It was a wonderful opportunity for our current 2020 School Captains to refelct upon their leadership highlights from the year, and also the opportunity for our 2021 School Captains to be introduced to the community.
Each School Captain was elected through a peer voting process, which took place early last week. Congratulations to all students who nominated and presented a leadership speech.
The nomination and election process for our additional 2021 Student Leadership roles will be held in early Term One.
The extracts below are a personalised introduction to each of our 2021 School Captains:
Ollie M: I was really excited to hear my name called out as Captain yesterday. I am looking forward to the opportunity to learn how to improve my public speaking skills. I really want to give back to the school, and make a difference in 2021. To everyone else who nominated for the role of Captain, I would like to say congratulations. Everyone's speeches were so amazing, and everyone in Year Six is deserving of being a leader.
Renair D: I only joined USPS in Year Four, so I was very surprised that I was elected by my peers. I really enjoy USPS because the community here has always been very welcoming. The teachers and staff have always helped me, and in 2021 I want to give back by helping other students at our school. Thank you to all of the other Year Six students for supporting me to genuinely feel part of this school.
Madi R: I am very honoured to be selected as a School Captain. USPS is my second school, and I love it because the teachers and students here are very kind and caring. In 2021, I want to help younger students with their learning, and be an inspiration to other people who might want to be a School Captain in the future.
Tess M: I'm really excited for 2021. I can't wait to be a positive role model for all of the younger students. I am looking forward to helping the teachers, and I will work hard to make our school a better place. My message for all of our students is 'Alone we are strong, but together we can be more powerful and achieve great things.'
Congratulations to our UNSW ICAS Achievers
This year we had a number of students who took part in the UNSW ICAS examinations.
To date we have only received results for English and Mathematics, which were presented at yesterday's final assembly.
The results were awarded according to the following criteria:
- High Distinction- top 1% of students
- Distinction- top 10% of students
- Credit- Top 25% of students
- Merit- Top 35% of students
- Participation- 65% of students
| English | Mathematics |
|---|---|
| Tess R- Merit | Angus C- Participation |
| Leigh P- Credit | Anna C- Participation |
| Anna C- Credit | Fern M- Participation |
| Jack VH- Credit | Ethan C- Participation |
| Evie E- Credit | Evie E- Participation |
| Abbey G- Credit | Tess R- Merit |
| Alfie S- Distinction | Leigh P- Credit |
| Will C- Distinction | Jack VH- Credit |
| Alfie S- Distinction | |
| Will C- Distinction | |
| Abbey G- Distinction | |
| Ellouise B- High Distinction |
Upwey South Has Got Talent
We would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who entered our USPS Has Got Talent via video through Google Classrooms. There were many outstanding videos and the level of talent was absolutely amazing.
Congratulations to our senior school winners:
Charlie S and Zane W- check out their video below.
Congratulations to our junior school winner:
Lily H- check out her video below.
Extend OSHC Holiday Program Hours
We are pleased to say that we have confirmed with Extend OSHC the hours of operation for our school holiday program. These are detailed below:
Holiday Care (hours of service 7:00am - 6:30pm)
Service in operation: Monday 21/12/2020 – Thursday 24/12/2020
Service closed: Friday 25/12/2020 - Sunday 10/01/2021
Service in operation: Monday 11/01/2021 - Wednesday 27/01/2020
The service will then resume school hours of operation from Thursday 28/01/2020:
Before-school care: 7:00am - 8:50am
After-school care: 3:30pm- 6:30pm
Return to School Dates- 2021
Please refer to the 'Calendar of Events' for details of the return to school, and known events which are occurring across Term One.
Last week we held our Transi
Acknowledgement of our Year Six Graduates
We were so fortunate to be able to share our Year Six Graduation in person with parents/carers. Please take the time to refer to the article reflecting upon graduation, within the Year Five/Six pages.
Community Engagement Projects
As a school we are extremely proud of the effort our students place upon engaging positively with their community.
Even though the end of the school year is upon us, our students have continued to commit the time to engage with our community.
Three recent projects are outlined below:
Upwey Township Group- Bollards Project
As you would be aware from recent newsletters, a number of our students have been selected to have their artwork permanently on display within Main Street Upwey.
Tomorrow (Saturday 19/12/2020) the Upwey Township Group are holding a grand unveiling which will involve a number of our students being presented to the community. The official ceremony commences at 9:30am, so take a look if you are in the area.
We will provide photos of these amazing artworks in the new year.
JSC Foothills Community Care Christmas Reverse Advent Calendar
Our students continue to amaze us with their levels of involvement, and desire to make a difference for those who are less fortunate.
Recently, our JSC (led by Alice and Lolly) arranged for 14 baskets of donations to be provided to the Foothills Community Care Christmas Initiative.
Check out the Junior School Council page for a detailed update.
Promoting the Christmas Spirit in our Local Area
One of the great features of our school is the community spirit we have in abundance! We are very pleased to say that through the efforts of one of our past families, the businesses in the Upper Ferntree Gully strip have got together to promote some Christmas cheer. Attached below is a combined schools tree, which has been created with Christmas wishes from Year Three-Four students from across our immediate area.
Keeping Aware of Information Relating to School
As a school we work hard to keep our families informed of happenings across the school. We acknowledge that receiving information in a timely and consistent manner can help to alleviate the pressures which come from managing a busy family calendar.
Communicating via Compass
All of our school notifications are sent via the Newsfeed within the Compass app. There is also a calendar of events within the app, which sends push notifications to users to remind them of school events.
In 2020, we are also utilising Compass for families to consent and pay in order for their children to take part in school events. The uptake and comments from families thus far is that it is so easy to do, and helpful to be able to consent at the push of a button.
In order to filter notifications which are received, you will notice that we send out notifications which are year level specific. This means that sometimes not all notifications are sent to all year levels.
Communicating with the School Administration Team
We look forward to partnering with you in 2020, and welcome your input:
USPS Inbox:
upwey.south.ps@education.vic.gov.au
Damien Kitch (Principal)
Damien.Kitch@education.vic.gov.au
Clare Bennett (Business Manager)
Clare.Bennett2@education.vic.gov.au
Janette Clarke (Office Manager)