Message from Principal Sally

Biz-E-Kidz

There are some location changes for those students who use our after school care. A detailed explanation of the move is in the Biz-E-Kidz section towards the end of this newsletter. 

Nicole Arnold, Bastow Intern

Welcome to Nicole Arnold who will work with us for the next four weeks as part of the Bastow – Unlocking Potential – Intern program. Nicole will work with the leadership team in order to gain greater insight into the processes of leading and managing a school.

Nicole has been an educator for over twenty years, having worked at Bacchus Marsh, Footscray North, Williamstown and currently Yarraville West Primary School. She is music trained and taught music and EAL for a short time but have predominantly been a classroom teacher. After leading numerous teams, she realised her true calling was leading Literacy.

She has coached teachers in Literacy at Yarraville West for the past seven years, taking on a dual role as Assistant Principal P-2 curriculum over the last three. Maintaining the two roles has come with challenges; however coaching has allowed her to be in classrooms with kids and mentor and plan with teachers, which is such a privilege. Nicole is passionate about the latest research into reading and reading difficulties, and understanding the implications of the science on our practice.

Nicole says,  she is looking forward to meeting us and says she feels very lucky to have the opportunity to work with Sally, the leadership team and the broader NMPS community, as she ventures into the next stage of my leadership development. Please make sure you say hi when I am out and about the school.

Participation in Leadership Conference

Last week, members of our leadership team attended the Education State School Leadership Conference – Leading Learning for Excellence. We were fortunate to have to opportunity to attend workshops facilitated by world leaders and covering a range of topics including ‘Student voice, agency and leadership’ - Dr. Russell Quaglia; ‘Leadership and change: System to school’ – Richard Gerver and ‘Visible Learning’ – Dr. John Hattie. The sessions were thought provoking and engaging and offered us the opportunity to reflect on the practices at our school that aim to foster global excellence.

Standing Up to Racism

Recently,  we have been working with some families regarding a racism accusation that was brought to our attention by a student. This student had ‘stood up for a peer’ when they heard unacceptable racist slurs.  The students and families understood the requirement for swift action and worked with us to ensure the students understood the seriousness of the situation.  

The positive bystander action of our student demonstrates that our students feel safe to call out these behaviours. A program called Building bystander bravery created by the Department of Education. For further details see here: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/news/archive/Pages/soar.aspx