Assistant Principal's Report

Welcome to our second newsletter of Term Three. We have had another great fortnight at DPS.    

School Review 

As part of the School Review process, panel members visited classrooms earlier this week. They were impressed with many things they saw such as engaged, well behaved students as well as teachers who were kind, confident, organised and knowledgeable on the topic beings taught. Many classrooms were colourful, vibrant, contained samples of students work as well as anchor charts for students to use when they’re not sure what to do or need assistance. A huge thank you to the students and teachers for their commitment to improving our school. We conclude the Review process next Wednesday 2nd August. 

Parent Feedback

Thank you to the 100 families who returned the form last week asking for parent feedback as part of the School Review. It was great to have a large sample to analyse and many interesting points were raised. We have started to collate the information and we will give a full round up in the next newsletter, but I will say the feedback was overwhelmingly positive with many grateful families expressing how much they love DPS and everything the school has to offer. 

Two of my favourite comments were, ‘the best thing about DPS is the great teachers, admin and leadership team as they are approachable and professional’ and ‘ this school provide great communication with the use of Compass and Seesaw (Prep) applications’.   

The first question asked parents to list the reason they chose DPS as the school for their child/ren. The most common response was that it was close to home, the second most common response was that DPS came recommended by someone they know and the third most popular response was our facilities, playground, oval and environment. The second question asked parents what they felt was the best thing about Doncaster Primary School and the most common response was the staff, the second most common response was the school environment  and our facilities. Other responses included the multiculturalism, the school culture and the range of learning experiences provided by DPS.        

Once again a huge thank you to all of the families that replied with their feedback. 

NAPLAN Results

Last Friday we sent individual NAPLAN results home to families. These will also be uploaded as a chronicle to Compass by the end of the week. Though many of our students performed extremely well under test conditions, the NAPLAN does not assess all of the things that makes students unique. These tests don’t show that some of you love to sing, are good at drawing or can teach others how to use a computer program, that some of you can dance with grace or speak confidently to a large group. They do not show that your friends count on you to be there for them when they are sad. The scores you get from these tests will tell you how well you did on that day, but they will not tell you everything. The work you do every day of the school year tells us a lot more. We are very proud of our Level Three and Five students for all that they are. 

School Tours

We have been hosting two School Tours a week due to the demand of families moving into the area and hoping to join us at DPS. It has been a great chance for our students to shine and show off the best parts of DPS and we have had a number of mid year enrolments as a result.  We are in the process of organising our Prep enrolments for 2024 and have a healthy number of enrolments already. If you have a child who will be attending Doncaster Primary School next year in Prep and you haven’t enrolled yet, we would encourage you to collect and fill out an enrolment form from the office and return it along with all of the relevant documentation as soon as possible. If you have any relatives or friends who are interested in enrolling Preps into Doncaster Primary School in 2024, can you please encourage them to contact the School Office. We’d love to take them on a School Tour and enrol them thereafter.   

Policies

Please remember to regularly check our school website for these policies:

• Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy
• Child Safety Code of Conduct
• Complaints Policy
• Child Safety Responding and Reporting Obligations Policy and Procedures
• Volunteers Policy
• Visitors Policy
• Student Wellbeing and Engagement Policy 
• Bullying Prevention Policy
• Digital Learning Policy

If you have any questions regarding these policies, please contact the School Office. Hard copies are also available upon request. 

Attendance

Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education. Students learn new things at school every day. Attending and participating in school will help your child develop:

• important skills and knowledge to help them learn
• social and emotional skills such as good communication, resilience and team work.

There is no safe number of days for missing school. Each day a student misses puts them behind.

At DPS, we have noticed that there are some students who have been missing quite a lot of school and this is concerning. If your child is having time off school, please let the classroom teacher or the School Office staff know. We are finding that students attendance is having a significant impact on their learning and the quality of their education. For example if a student is only attending school 70% of the time, then they will only have access to 70% of the educational activities and content on offer. 

Tips to help improve your child’s attendance

• Talk to your child about school and how important it is. You can ask them how they feel about school, what they liked and if there are any problems.
• Set a good example. Show them how you keep to your own commitments.
• Encourage your child to take on hobbies that your child enjoys such as sports and clubs. This will help them develop positive relationships outside of the classroom.
• Have a set time to do homework and go to bed.
• Leave all technology out of their bedroom.
• Pack their school bag the night before with everything they need.
• Have a set time for breakfast.
• Plan to meet up with a friend so they can travel into school together.

IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS 

Kids Help - kidshelpline.com.au phone 1800 55 1800 

Parent Line - betterhealth.vic.gov.au phone 13 22 89 

Headspace - headspace.org.au phone 1800 650 890 

eSafety Commissioner - esafety.gov.au - Advice for parents and carers to help children have safe experiences online 

Have a great week ahead DPS families,

Carly Epskamp