Principal's News

Welcome Back

Welcome back to Term 2, we have hit the ground running and enjoyed a fantastic first week back in our classrooms. It is wonderful to touch base with our students and families and the school is a hub of activity. We have also enjoyed some really nice weather this week allowing us to work outside and complete our Anzac assembly and enjoy our sport and physical education programs. 

Importantly, I hope your family enjoyed a wonderful school holiday and Easter break, perhaps with the opportunity to overindulge in an Easter egg or two. My family and I spent some time visiting family down in Torquay, taking in some of the surfing at Bells Beach whilst also trying to create a challenging (yet rewarding) Easter egg hunt. 

We have an incredibly busy and engaging Term 2 planned, there is plenty to look forward to and plenty of opportunities for our students to develop in and out of the classroom with a range of excursions, activities and events planned. As always, we are really looking forward to working closely with you over the weeks ahead and welcome your input and support. Please come and say hi if you see me in the school grounds, I have really appreciated the opportunity to strike up an informal conversation and find out what is important to you and your child.  

Term 2 – Staffing Update

I would like to formally acknowledge and welcome Morioka Sensei into the role of Assistant Principal, Morioka Sensei will provide input in our fortnightly newsletters whilst also having a very active presence in the leadership of our school and all staff are looking forward to the opportunity of working closely with her. The school has a significant body of middle leadership and a very talented staffing profile and these talents have seen have Miss Molloy move into the Physical Education role and Ms Campbell take on the Teaching role in Year 5/6. 

The school is looking to conclude the recruitment process to support the teaching vacancy in Year 3/4 created by Morioka Sensei’s move into the Assistant Principal and we will look to share this news with our school community once it is finalised. 

In the interim, we are making a deliberate attempt to ensure we are covering this class with staff that have strong Japanese language and a significant knowledge of the school, where possible, we are attempting to minimise any disruption and provide a consistent platform for students to continue to thrive in the Year 3/4 program.  

Anzac Ceremony

The school recognised the importance of Anzac Day by hosting a special Assembly on Thursday morning. During this time, students marked the significance of the day by laying wreaths that were made in their classrooms, under our flagpole. Our School Captains provided information on the Ode of Remembrance and In Flanders Fields whilst reciting these poems. We were thrilled to be joined by students from our Kindergarten who also joined us for this assembly. 

Emily (Year 5) and Isabella (Year 4) recited Anzac poems that they had written and entered into the Goldstein Poetry competition, both students were finalists in this competition and are to be congratulated on their writing and the delivery of this to our Assembly yesterday.

Student Free Day

A reminder that we have a student free day scheduled for Wednesday 18th May. During this time, all staff will be undertaking professional learning focussed on Units 7 and 8 of the Department of Education and Training Respectful Relationships program, a program that our school is widely recognised as leaders of within our school network. On this day, Camp Australia will be open and available for families to book their child in for the day should this be needed. 

Additionally, the Department of Education and Training provides all teaching staff with a Professional Practice Day to support the planning, preparation and assessment requirements aligned to their role. During this term, teaching teams will be working collaboratively on these days: 

  • Year 3/4 Team – Tuesday 14th June
  • Prep – Wednesday 15th June 
  • Year 5/6 – Friday 17th June
  • Year 1/2 - Tuesday 21st June 

These days will be covered by relief teachers and will not result in any loss of learning time. Each term the school leadership team also meets to plan for the term ahead, analyse data, trends and evaluate impact, this provides an important opportunity to work together to ensure we are promoting consistency in all our teaching, learning and wellbeing programs. The school leadership team will meet together on Monday 20th June and relief teachers will be provided to classrooms on this day to minimise any disruption. 

Morning Routine

From Monday 2nd May, we will make some changes to the manner in which we start our school day. All school gates will be open from 8:45am with a Yard Duty teacher on duty from 8:45am – 9:00am meaning that students are welcome to come into the school grounds and begin their day supervised in the school during that time. Staff and families have identified that students have demonstrated increased independence and resilience by taking themselves to their classrooms in the morning, so we would like to maintain this aspect of our morning routine. 

Parents are welcome to bring their children into the school from 8:45am onwards each morning but we would ask that students are still independently entering the classroom and taking themselves to class; staff will be available should any students have any difficulties with this. We look forward to allowing students the opportunity to have a quick run around or a chat with a friend in the school grounds before the day formally begins. 

We would also ask that parents leave the grounds promptly at 9am as we are using the school grounds for more outdoor classes, in line with safe COVID management practices.

Before School Care   

A quick reminder that students that are entering the school before 8:45am will be directed to Before School Care. The school does have a duty of care for all children during this time and formal supervision and Yard Duty does not begin until 8:45am, so please do not leave your child unattended in the carpark areas or around the school before 8:45am. 

The Before School Care program provides the opportunity for the school day to begin earlier for all families and this should be utilised in the event that you need your child to attend the school grounds before 8:45am. 

School Events

Term 2 is an incredibly busy term in and out of the classroom and we are delighted to be supported by the ongoing work of our Parent and Friends Club. Some of the events that we are hosting throughout Term 2 are identified below, we welcome your support and appreciate the wonderful work of our Parent and Friends Club to support our school. 

We are looking forward to running a Prep Open Day for prospective parents on the 7th May and we are currently selling raffle tickets for our Mother’s Day raffle with 15 prizes on offer. We are also a polling base for the upcoming Federal election which provides an important opportunity to fundraise with a sausage sizzle and cake stall offered throughout the day. 

Term 1 Parent Survey

Throughout first term we took the important opportunity to gather some feedback to review some of our work that we were focussing on in and around the school. Thank you to those families that shared some of this feedback with us. We will continue to seek input from families as a means of working collaboratively and in partnership together. The results from our Term 1 survey are provided below:

 

NAPLAN

From the 10th May, students in Grade 3 and 5 will complete NAPLAN testing as a means of measuring literacy and numeracy skills that are essential for every child to progress through their schooling. Students will complete online testing in the area of reading, writing, conventions of language and numeracy. These assessments provide an opportunity to understand how students are performing and it provides the school the opportunity to reflect on our teaching and learning programs and ensure we are providing outstanding opportunities for our students to learn and progress. 

Over previous weeks, students in Grade 3 and 5 have had opportunities to undertake online testing to simulate the NAPLAN experience and teachers have provided a terrific platform for our students to be comfortable with the tests and the conditions in which they are undertaken. 

While nothing further is required to be done by families or at home, we ask that you take an interest in your child during this time and see how they are doing and give them an opportunity to focus on other areas of their schooling, social and sporting activities to provide a nice balance and a holistic focus for your child. The Department of Education and Training advocates that NAPLAN is environment for schools to reflect on their programs, teaching and learning and instructional approach. It provides a benchmark to review, reflect and improve, it is not intended to be a high stakes testing environment for students.

COVID Restrictions/Update: 

A reminder that the school is currently operating with the most recent update of Covid restrictions and guidelines identified below. Please ensure you and your child are familiar with these processes. 

  • Face masks: 

From 11:59 pm Friday 22 April, face masks, while recommended, are not required in any school setting. This means students in grades 3 to 6, staff and visitors in primary schools are no longer required to wear face masks. Any student or staff member who wishes to wear a mask may do so, including those who are medically at-risk.

  • Screening requirements: 

Students and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19, and have completed their 7-day isolation period, now do not need to undertake rapid antigen test (RAT) screening for 12 weeks after their release from isolation. This was previously 8 weeks.

  • Household contacts: 

Students and staff who are household contacts of a COVID-19 case are no longer required to quarantine. They can return to school as long as they undertake rapid antigen tests (RAT) 5 times within their 7-day period and wear face masks indoors if they are aged 8 and above unless they have a valid exemption. If any household contact returns a positive RAT result during this period, they must isolate for 7 days and not attend school.

  • Vaccination requirements for visitors to schools: 

Parents, carers and other adult visitors (not performing work) are no longer required to show evidence of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

  • RAT screening program extension reminder: 

The supply of RATs will continue for the first 4 weeks of this term, we will keep you informed of our next scheduled distribution of these upon receiving our next delivery.  

  • Air Purifiers: 

We have now installed air purifiers into every classroom in the school, this means we have provided all high density areas and all classrooms with air purifiers supporting the health and safety protocols promoted by the Department of Education and Training, these will assist us as we move into the cooler months.  

Building and Grounds

Have you seen our new shade sails? Installation was completed over the holiday break and when we break through the next few months of autumn and winter these will be great additions to our school grounds as we move into the warmer months of the year. 

We are also in the process of repairing our retaining wall and sleepers in our courtyard and will have this work finalised over the coming weeks. Sincere thanks to Ken Fretwell for managing this process.

 

Follow Us

We went out and took the opportunity to introduce ourselves to social media by starting an Instagram account, this account will be used to promote school events and have an improved digital presence. You can follow our movements by networking with @caulfieldps on Instagram. 

 

 

 

Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing everyone next week.

 

Edward Strain

PRINCIPAL