Principal's Report

Welcome To Our new Newsletter!

Welcome to our first newsletter of the year, and a very different looking one at that. I trust that you will find some very noticeable benefits to the iNewsletter platform, such as easy reading on tablets and phones, navigation between different content items, more student voice and contributions and the presence of more interactive and visual material within. I encourage you to engage with the different sections so that you can learn about the various happenings in our school and stay abreast of updates. We will be monitoring the length of engagement through an analytics tool (de-identifiable data) to help us curate the newsletter over time to contain more of the content that you engage enthusiastically with and less that you don’t. Should you have any specific feedback about it I’d encourage you to be in touch with the office or myself so that we can continue to refine all aspects of it going forward. 

I do hope that if you are one of our many new families, you are settling into the school, finding points of connection and that your children are enjoying being here with us. For all new families across the school, I strongly encourage you to come along Friday afternoon for a sausage ($2ea to cover costs) and a chat at 3:30pm, run by our thriving Dads' Club. It will be an all-important chance to meet others, enjoy some of the Art Trail and learn a thing or two about parent involvement opportunities. 

This and many other things are on the horizon and provide us with things to look forward to, with some important reminders regarding them below. 

ART TRAIL THIS FRIDAY!

Our 2021 Art Trail Inspired by First Nations Artists will finally take place this Friday from 3:30pm - 4:30pm after many postponements. Please join us after school for an outdoor trail of your children’s art from last year which will be placed around our school. Aside from the New Families BBQ, there won’t be refreshments or food provided as planned due to current restrictions, and we do implore all attendees to wear masks, as you enjoy this revised event. A huge thanks goes to Dani Peebles for her persistence, flexibility and organisation of this event! Our Parents’ Association and Dads' Club also continually contribute time and energy to these events and I thank those involved, particularly thank Mark Alexander and Jane Holroyd, for their ongoing commitment.  

CLASS COORDINATORS

A huge thank you to the many nominations for the Class Coordinator role for 2022. We have a large number of parents ready to liaise with the teachers and support your fellow parents in keeping connected. For those that have volunteered, we will be in touch shortly to organise a catch-up and talk about initial opportunities. We are still looking for volunteers for the following grades: 

• Foundation A, B, C
• Grade 1A
• Grades 2A and 2D
• Grade 3D
• Grade 5B
• Grades 6A and 6C

You don’t have to have done the role before, and you can also share it with someone else if that’s helpful. Any questions please be in touch with the office. 

2022 YEARBOOK?

Hampton Primary School has not previously had a Yearbook published and I am interested to learn if any parents would be inclined to work with the school to see this come to fruition. A Yearbook is a fabulous way to remember highlights from the year, can be a keepsake to reflect on for many years to come, and is far less labour intensive than has previously been the case. Any interested parent volunteers do not need to be graphic designers or publishers, simply be prepared to liaise with school staff to consider appropriate content, gather photos and review drafts. If you are interested please email the school at hampton.ps@education.vic.gov.au.

GRADE 6 STUDENTS

Our Grade 6 Leaders for 2022 have already begun their work in representing our school on a recent excursion to Hampton RSL and many leaders have been working with staff to enhance their areas of responsibility within the school, as evident in this newsletter.

Every one of our Grade 6 students is a leader this year, title or not, as role models for other students and are to be thanked and congratulated for how wonderfully they have supported their buddies in the first week of school. Without them, our Foundation students would not have been as confident, engaged or had anywhere near as much fun. All of our Grade 6 students can be identified by their new polos and jumpers which arrived this week; thank you to Jane Radman for her work in coordinating these; they look brilliant! I encourage you to look to them for guidance and to set a wonderful standard over the course of this year.

Sincerely,

Josh Sheffield