Message from the Principal 

PETER PAN PRODUCTION 

The countdown is on….four more sleeps to go! Our dress rehearsals went really well and excitement levels are very high across the school. We have had lots of positive feedback about the move to a whole school production and one of the best parts is that our Prep – Year 4 students will be in the audience on one day to watch the show and then perform on stage on the other day and night. These are the sorts of events that create really special experiences and memories. Good luck to all of our students and especially our main cast members.

VICTORIAN STATE SCHOOL SPECTACULAR

The countdown is on to the Victorian State School Spectacular! This week our students will attend two full day dress rehearsals before two big shows this Saturday at Hisense Arena. Thank you to Kate Stewart for organising this and Gemma Correzzola and Suzie Hussein for attending with the students. 

Good luck to everyone involved and as the saying goes “Break a leg!” The show is also broadcast on free to air television later in the year, so keep your eye out for that as it is great to see the amazing talent of students from all of our State schools. 

MUSIC & PERFORMING ARTS AT GREENHILLS….PLUS SO MUCH MORE

Our recent Choir Camp, and of course our State Schools Spectacular and whole school production of Peter Pan really highlight the incredible music and performing arts opportunities that our students get at Greenhills. This is balanced with a rich array of sporting, artistic, language, extension, support and leadership opportunities across all year levels. I think it is fair to say that a strength of our school is the broad educational experience our students are provided with. There is something for everyone and we ensure that it isn’t one of these areas that dominates over the others. A balanced education like this is really important for primary school students. It allows them time and space to find out about the things they like to do, the things that bring them joy and the things that they can shine in. Thank you to all of our staff who go above and beyond in making sure there are so many core and extra-curricular offering and opportunities.

NAPLAN 2022

The 2022 NAPLAN results have just arrived. On an initial look, we can report that pleasingly our 2022 results indicates that 59% of our Year 5 students are in the Top 2 bands of NAPLAN in Reading. This has been an area we have targeted and our School Strategic Plan goal of 55% by 2023 has now been reached! (This percentage has grown from 53% in 2021, 43% in 2019 and 45% in 2018). We now need to spend some time digging a little deeper before we provide a detailed summary to our staff and school community. 

The NAPLAN summary reports for students in years 3 and 5 have also sent home this week. 

iPad INFORMATION NIGHT

Thank you to David Symeonidis & Jon McFarland for facilitating our iPad Information for our Year 2 families moving into Year 3 next year. Once again, we have developed improved systems and organisation for this roll out.

Our Years 3-6 iPad program is an incredibly important part of our school. It has been developed and strengthened over the last few years and built on the very successful 1:1 Netbook program that was introduced over 10 years ago. This process of development has included parent, student and staff surveys and when we moved across to iPad’s a few years ago, parent and staff surveys were also used to inform and guide our decision making. In fact, it was parent feedback via a survey that was the main reason we extended the program to include Years 3 & 4 and not a broader roll out across the entire school. 

Over the next few weeks more details including the ordering process will be sent home to our current Year 2 students so that we can ensure as smooth a set up for 2023 as possible. I take this opportunity to thank again those families that have donated an iPad/s to the school. These devices have been added to the school fleet so that those families who are unable to provide their own device can have access to one at school. This year we have also purchased a bank of 20 iPads for use in our Prep – Year 2 team. This will be extended by another 20 devices in next years budget. This is really important to us for many reasons, one being so that we can move our continuous reporting plans further forward. 

TERM 3 DATES

Last day of Term 3 - Thursday 15th September

3.30pm Dismissal

Assembly at 2.45pm

TERM 4 DATES

Monday 3rd October - Term 4 starts

Monday 31st October - Curriculum Day

Friday 5th November - Trivia Night

Thursday 15th December - Graduation

Friday 16th December - Final Assembly

Monday 19th December - Pupil free (Professional Practice Day)

Tuesday 20th December - Last Day 1pm Finish

James Penson

Principal