Principal's Report

Welcome to the final newsletter of Term 2. On a personal note, my initial seven weeks in the school has flown-by. I feel settled and welcomed and am looking forward to a full-term in the school in Term 3. I want your feedback on how we are going as a school and have created a short survey here for you to complete. Thank you in advance for your contributions. 

Feedback from our students, staff and families is integral to my decision-making and leadership approach. I would like to summarise the feedback I have gathered this term and discuss future actions that will developed in response to this. 

School Upgrade Building Project

On behalf of the ‘Major Projects’ sub-committee of School Council, I shared a survey recently, asking for feedback regarding the $9 million funding project to upgrade our school with a ‘competition grade’ gymnasium. In summary, from the thirty-seven responses received:

• Over 60% of respondents said that ‘improved specialist learning spaces’ are the most important educational opportunities that could arise or be improved at the school as a result of the building project. 
• Over 78% of respondents said that a ‘shared sports facility’ is the most important opportunity that could arise for the school and the broader community as a result of the project. 
• 35% of respondents said that the gymnasium would be best utilised as a multi-purpose sports stadium, with around 20% of respondents preferring a focus on either a ‘multi-purpose music and performing arts centre’ or ‘a space less-focused on one specific use’.

We also received a raft of constructive ideas as to how we ensure the projects supports the school to be more inclusive, welcoming and diverse. Thanks too to the participants who have expertise in being able to support the project.

In terms of next steps, the school will now complete the first phase of the ‘asset management planning’ project, in consultation with the Victorian Schools Building Authority (VSBA), with support from our School Council. 

‘Meet the Principal’ Feedback

In my initial period in the school, it has been important to spend time with all our staff and as many of our students and families as possible. Throughout this process, I asked two key questions:

• What makes our school great?
• What can make it even better?

The overwhelming feedback on ‘what makes our school great?’ was that it was our people that make us great; students, staff and community. Our staff culture is strong and centred in inclusiveness and collegiality, whilst our community values engaging with the school. Our families told me that their children love coming to school; they have built great relationships with their peers, and they love their teachers. 

The feedback on what will make our school better was invaluable. There was minimal mention of student learning and wellbeing, which I take as a positive. There was some commentary around student behaviour, and we have already implemented a new ‘student re-direction’ system for unacceptable behaviours, alongside a new positive-recognition behaviour program, to address this.

There was consistent feedback around the need for improved home-school communication and I hope we are already seeing some improvement in this area. Compass will become a key communication tool for us, as will our new newsletter format. More importantly, the visibility and availability of Georgia and I, as your Principal Class team, alongside the professionalism and willingness to open classrooms of our teachers, will support ongoing improvement in how the school communicates with our community.

There were also multiple references to how we communicate. This included a focus on the need for more positive home-school partnerships and more respectful interaction between families and staff. This extended to the need for improved relationships and interactions between families from our school.

So how do we make our school ‘even better’? To me, the key is how we, as the adults in the school and the community, work better together. Moving forward, I expect two key mindsets of the adults in the school and broader communities:

1. Assume positive intent; I can guarantee you that every staff member and every member of our school community wants, more than anything else, for our students (and ourselves!) to have a great day, every day. Everyone is doing everything they can to ensure this! 
2. Act with kindness; in the brilliant words of Maya Angelou, “…people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Be someone who makes someone else feel good, through your words and actions. 

All Victorian Government Schools, including Caulfield South Primary School, have a ‘Statement of Values’ policy, outlining expected behaviours of staff, students and community members. I recommend that everyone takes a few minutes during the upcoming school holidays to familiarise themselves with this policy (we have attached this as a page within this newsletter). When Term 3 begins, (on Tuesday 11th July, remember that the Monday is a student-free day), I know our staff and community will return with a mindset that will assume positive intent in everyone and we will continue to build a culture of acting with kindness. Let’s make sure that our students, staff and families have a great day, every day. 

Thanks for your ongoing support and keep doing your best.

Rohan Cooper

Principal