Principal Team's Report

Welcome, everyone to the new school year, and a very warm welcome to our new families joining the school community for the first time.   We welcome 94 students to their ‘first’ year of school and an additional 24 students to other year levels which brings our enrolment to 706 students.   I would like to extend a warm welcome to our new families and encourage you to become involved in school activities.  Our 'Meet and Greet' was a lovely start to the year and we hope you enjoyed popping into the classroom.   We look forward to a happy and productive year and having a strong home and school partnership to support your child’s academic and personal development.

As we start the new year, our teachers have been revisiting our school values of Respect, Responsibility and Resilience.  They have also spent time this week explicitly teaching students how to display and use these values in the classroom.  Teachers have also focused on setting up strong expectations for learning. 

In 2023 we have two large focuses in our Annual Implementation Plan and they are to improve the teaching and learning in Mathematics and continue to work on well-being with Respectful Relationships and School Wide Positive Behaviour.  Students are already being acknowledged for showing our values with Froggy Dollars and they are striving to achieve their bronze, silver and gold certificates. 

Reports 2023

In 2023 students will receive a Progress Report at the end of Term 1 and Term 3.  Full reports will be provided at the end of each semester.  As always we encourage you to contact the classroom teacher at any stage if you have questions.  All staff are available via email through Compass. 

Swimming Program 2023

This year, we are adding a Swimming component to our Health and Physical Education program for our students in Years 1-4.  This will run during the beginning of Term 2, with Year 1 and 2 students taking part during week 2 (1st May-5th May) and Years 3 & 4 during week 4 (15th May-19th May).  Consent forms for this will be added to Compass shortly. We are aiming to keep the costs of these lessons as low as possible to enable all families to take advantage of the opportunity to develop these important life skills. 

New Agreement in Victorian Schools

2023 sees the first full year of the Victorian Schools Agreement.  This has brought with it some challenges as you may have heard regarding 'time in lieu' for school staff.  This is now an entitlement but unfortunately has not been funded.  For this reason, you will see some changes throughout the year as we minimise the out-of-hours expectations on staff. We are committed to ensuring resources go to our students and we appreciate your understanding as we reduce our out-of-hours commitments and create events during our working hours where possible. 

School Council

School Council nominations closed this week and I thank those who nominated.  A ballot will be held next week for the community to vote for parent representatives.  School Councils play a key role in Victorian government schools.  Participating as a school council member is a rewarding and challenging experience.  The School Council supports me as the Principal to provide the best possible educational outcomes for students.   Our ballot will close on 01/03/2023 - 4.00pm.

Don't forget your hat!

We encourage all parents to have a chat with their child/ren about wearing our uniform with pride.  A reminder that hair colour should be 'natural' and jewellery should be minimal under our dress code regulations.  A SunSmart (broad-brimmed or legionnaire style) hat is mandatory for all students during Term 1 and Term 4.  Students without a hat will be directed to sit in an undercover area during break times.

Annual privacy reminder for our school community

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.

Please take time to read our Schools' Collection Notice,

We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use ICT safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using ICT, please contact the school. 

For more information about privacy, refer to: 

Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. 

This information is also available in ten community languages:

• Amharic
• Arabic
• Dari
• Gujarati
• Mandarin
• Somali
• Sudanese
• Turkish
• Urdu
• Vietnamese

We are very much looking forward to a busy and productive fortnight ahead, take care.

The PSPS Leadership Team