Principal's

Message

NAPLAN

Last week, our year 3 and 5 students sat the NAPLAN tests in Writing, Reading, Language Conventions and Numeracy. The staff and I were very impressed with the calm manner in which our kids approached the tests. They also managed to apply themselves and sustain their focus very well. We are proud of each and every one of them. As you know, NAPLAN is ‘one test on one day’ and does not define a child’s level of achievement. Nor does it reflect a child’s creativity, curiosity, talents or social and emotional intelligence. We utilise NAPLAN data to inform new strategic goals, in conjunction with many other forms of data. We will let parents and carers know when results are returned to the school and are ready for collection. A huge thankyou to Johanne Abbott and Andrew Beattie, who coordinated NAPLAN this year.

SCHOOL COUNCIL

I would like to officially congratulate and welcome the following members of our SMPPS community to School Council for 2023. Thank you to those members who have also taken on a role as office bearer or sub-committee convenor:

Parent Reps: Nicole Le Pou (President), Freya Owen (Vice President), Katrina Walker (Treasurer), Langford Sue, Anna Barden, Louise Pedersen and Leila Greenfield

DET Reps: Christine Priddle (Secretary), Trish Wan, Terena Harrison, Nicole Arnold (Executive Officer)

Sub-Committee Convenors:

Finance – Katrina Walker

Environment & Facilities – Langford Sue

Community Engagement – Louise Pedersen

Wellbeing – Trish Wan

In the next newsletter, the sub-committee convenors will introduce themselves and talk a little about the purpose and functions of each sub-committee. Parents and carers from our community are encouraged to join these sub-committees, apart from Finance which has separate terms of reference and restricted membership. Each sub-committee meets 7 times per year.  More information to come!

FAMILIES AND FRIENDS

Many of you are probably wondering what’s happening with Families and Friends this year. The AGM was held on the 9th of March. As we had no nominations for office bearers, we were unable to continue with the meeting. The school council has discussed the issue and is looking at all possible options. Community engagement is critical to SMPPS and we are committed to finding the best way forward to make this work. There will be an update regarding next steps, by the end of next week.

STORM YESTERDAY

What a morning it was! Thank you, parents and carers, for being patient at drop-off and helping us to get all of the children inside safely. We had a number of parents volunteer to stay and help in supporting kids inside – THANK YOU! It was definitely an experience to remember. I’m sure all the kids quite enjoyed a morning of shoes off in the classroom! It was quite surreal to then watch our grade 5/6s sailing in full sunshine later that afternoon! 

DIVISIONS

Congratulations to those students who competed in the Beachside Division Swimming Carnival. Ms Osman and the parents who came in support were very proud of the way these students represented themselves and SMPPS. An incredible achievement to have made it through to Divisions! Well done to Tex, Rupert, Bronte, Jayla and Will. 

Nicole Arnold

Principal