The Principal's Report

Education Week

A school is filled with character and the culture of a school is what greets visitors when they walk in the door. 

This week we celebrated Education Week with an Open Morning and Open Afternoon. 

Our current community took the opportunity to learn more about our programs, to see learning in action and to sit in the sunshine and listen to a number of musical performances. 

We were able to show our school off to prospective families and their children. Our many visitors took tours with our wonderful School Captains and Communication Captains. Our student leaders were stationed around the school to provide information about our many programs and the learning they experience at Boroondara Park PS. 

School Council members were able to take and accompany tours, giving the parent perspective of the school.

Staff and students welcomed visitors and shared their learning, explaining what was happening and why, in each of their classrooms and programs. Our students were able to answer questions about why they enjoyed school life and their learning, they reflected on what made this the best school for them. 

The feedback from prospective families highlighted the knowledge and strength of our student leaders as they were able to provide information about all aspects of Boroondara Park life. 

A huge thank you to all of our students and staff for their effort to provide an amazing learning environment on a daily basis. We are indeed lucky to be part of this community. 

Attitude to School survey

As a school, we work actively with our students to ensure they are provided with a learning program that can meet their needs. We value student voice and know it can improve student engagement, wellbeing, and quality instruction. We are conducting a survey to find out what your child thinks of our school. The Attitudes to School Survey is an annual student survey offered by the Department of Education and Training to assist schools in gaining an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. Our school will use the survey results as part of our student forums and conversations with students to further find out how school caters for their needs and how we can improve as a school. 

Students from Year 4 to 6 will participate in the survey. Your child will complete the survey online during school hours using a purpose built secure online survey tool.  It is important to note that we are not in any way “testing” your child. Your child has the right to refuse or withdraw from the survey at any point before, during, or after completion of the survey. It has been a good opportunity to for me to get to know our students more, by moving from class to class implementing the survey and talking to the students about their life at Boroondara Park PS. 

Your child will be provided with a unique login to complete the survey. The student login is an assigned identifier that may be used to link data for statistical and research purposes only. All responses to the survey are kept anonymous and personal identification data will not be recorded in the survey response file. This ensures that the confidentiality of your child’s responses is protected at all times.

This year the Attitudes to School survey is being conducted over the next two weeks. The survey only takes up to 20 minutes.  

The survey results will be reported back to the school before the end of Term 2. All survey data that is made available in reports are for groups of students only so that no individual student can be identified. 

The data from our Attitude to School survey is used as part of the Annual Implementation Plan for the school and will also form part of the school review which will take place in 2020.

If you would like more information, please speak to me or visit: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/management/improvement/Pages/performsurveyat.aspx

NAPLAN

Our students in Year 3 and 5 have participated in NAPLAN on two days this week. Their resilience has been evident, especially with disruptions - which you may have heard about in the media. 

Year 5 students have been given the opportunity to re-sit the Writing test and a number of our students and their parents will take up this offer next week. 

Canteen update

Our School Council has spent time this year discussing the options for our Canteen. This term we have put together a team of parents and staff to explore our options in detail. We have had feedback from parents wanting to know when the canteen will reopen and asking how we are going with the process. 

As a team we understand the importance of:

- retaining counter sales and the pastoral benefits 

- the Healthy Canteen Guidelines.

- online ordering systems which will support the work of a canteen manager therefore lunch orders must be ordered online only (emergency orders accepted)

- sustainable practices

- running a canteen from school as it keeps waste down and allows us to control use of sustainable items.

- acknowledging there are 5 star sustainable canteens out there and we will strive towards this but it will not be something we can implement from day one

- continuing meal deal days

- a canteen being financially viable. 

We have made contact with the ASCA who were established in 1979 and are Australia’s leading buying group and purchasing advisor for schools and school canteens. They have provided detailed information for us to enable a clear decision around our next steps. This included the fact that with a school population of 573, most schools would not have a full time canteen operation, this may be an outcome. 

The team presented their findings at our School Council this week. After evaluating all options we have made the decision to put together documentation that would support us to out-source our Canteen services. We have made contact with the Procurement Division of the Department of Education and Training who will now provide support and advice on our next steps. Once this information has been provided we will work to have all documentation for consideration by School Council at our next meeting. 

Athletics

Thanks to Cameron and our staff for putting together a wonderful Athletics Carnival on Monday this week. We appreciate the support of our parent volunteers who supported us in many roles. I heard about all of the adventures and successes. Be sure to have a look at the Sport and PE report for great action photographs of the day. 

Good luck - Senior Choir

We wish our Senior Choir the best of luck in the Boroondara Eisteddfod this Sunday at the Hawthorn Arts Centre. I am looking forward to hearing them sing and know that all in the community wish them a wonderful time.