Principal and Assistant Principal's Page

Principal's Report

Celebrating birthdays

We know that children like celebrating birthdays with their friends at school and will often bring ‘party bags’ to share with the class.  While this is a nice way to celebrate their birthday it does present some challenges with children then eating a lot of sugary items, particularly if there is more than one birthday celebration per week in your class. 

We ask that parents consider reviewing how much sweets they put in party bags. Have you considered put items such as stationary, little notebooks, stickers, balloons or whistles in bags as an alternative? Or having a balance of items that may include one or two sweets?

We ask our teachers to celebrate birthdays at the end of the day so that your child can take home the party bag and show you first before eating any items.

Monash/Manningham Principal’s Conference

After two stalled attempts in 2020, the Monash/Manningham Principal’s conference is finally going ahead on 5-7 of May, which both Naomi and I will attend. 

Every two years we have our conference which enables Principals in our area to connect and undertake professional learning together. 

Our keynote speakers, Dr Paul Browning, Sabina Read and Bruce Armstrong will focus on leading learning improvement, wellbeing and community relationship building.  We also will be undertaking work together in school groups focused on these themes.

Oakleigh Education Plan

The Oakleigh Education Plan (OEP) was endorsed by Education Minister James Merlino in 2020. Attached is the official fact sheet which I am able to share with the school community.

Huntingdale is working with South Oakleigh College and Oakleigh South Primary Schools in the key areas of STEM, Transitions and Language.

If you have any questions about the plan, please contact me.

Student Attitudes to School Survey

Our 2021 Attitude to school survey is an annual student survey offered to year 4 to 6 students by the Department of Education and Training. The survey will be implemented at our school soon. An Operoo notice was sent home to Year 4-6 families. If you do not want your child to participate you need to email the school by the end of the week.

The survey assists us in gaining an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. Our school will use the survey results to plan programs and activities to improve your child's schooling experience. The survey only takes 20-30 minutes to complete and occurs during your child's class time. Your child will complete the survey online during school hours using a purpose built secure online survey tool. 

Students’ privacy is our priority

Your child will be provided with a unique login to complete the survey. The student login is an assigned identifier that may be used by the Department to combine data for research purposes only. Your child’s privacy and the confidentiality of your child’s survey responses will be protected at all times. No identifiable personal data is included in the survey response file. This survey is not a test.

If you would like to know any more information please come and see me.

Cyber safety

I am aware that many of our senior students have social media accounts such as What’s App, Instagram, Face Book and Snap Chat among others. From time to time we have issues where students will write inappropriate comments to one another out of school hours. When we become aware of this we talk to the students involved and their parents. We also want to remind parents to:

• Talk to your child about appropriate ways to communicate on social media.
• Monitor how much time they are spending online.
• Monitor their activity on social media to check that it is appropriate and safe.
• Talk to your child if negative events happen online and how to deal with these.
• Remind your child not to share private information about your family or log on details.
• Remind your child not to talk to strangers online. There are many instances where strangers ‘groom’ children online, so it is important to have this conversation with your child.
• Talk to the school if you have any issues with online behaviour.

Walking home after school

It has come to my attention that several students who walk home after school are not leaving the school grounds at 3.30pm and stay to play with their friends until 3.45pm or later.

We ask that all students who walk home leave the school as soon as they are released from class as this is a safety issue. If students leave later, the crossing supervisors may have finished and there are less people around if your child needs assistance. Please remind your children to leave school promptly so they get home safely.

School Uniform & Accessories

As the weather gets cooler, it is a timely reminder that all students need to have a Huntingdale jumper or jacket to wear. Many students wear a long sleeve top under their polo shirt and this needs to be in the colours of navy, white or teal. Any stockings or leggings need to be in navy. Black is not our uniform colour, so please refrain from wearing black accessories. You can access our School Uniform Policy on our website.

Lighthouse Moments

Several years ago the School Council worked on a long term ‘Lighthouse’ vision for Huntingdale Primary School. This vision was created to highlight the direction of the school with input from students, teachers and parents. 

Each newsletter I will explain a part of our ‘Lighthouse Vision’. This newsletter I will focus on ‘Everyday Sustainability’.

As leaders of this country continue to debate Energy and Environment Policy, it will be the future generation that will ultimately become the custodians of the environment. “Everyday Sustainability” is Huntingdale’s commitment to teaching sustainability in the next generation’s daily life. This initiative builds on the many programs and activities that Huntingdale Primary is already involved in, and aims to consolidate these to a holistic whole school approach. Everyday Sustainability also looks at pro­viding greater transparency of sustainability through smart technology integration with energy usage, generation and storage monitoring, water and waste monitoring and environment and fauna audits.

School Photos

Just a reminder that school photos are on Friday 14th May. Students need to be in full school uniform for photos. Gill sent out order envelopes for parents and parents also have the ability to order online instead of using this envelope. If you would like a sibling photo order form please see Gill and the office.

Notification re: Measles and Chickenpox Reminder

Each term there is a reminder in the newsletter regarding Measles and Chickenpox. As you may or may not be aware, there are currently children in our school community who are receiving medical treatment.  The children participate in the normal school program without any major limitations when they are well enough to be here.  A major concern, however, is if these students develop measles or chickenpox, they can become seriously ill.  I seek your cooperation in preventing this situation.  If your son/daughter has or may have measles or chickenpox or is unwell, I request that you do not send them to school during this period and notify your class teacher and the office as soon as possible. Thank you for your support in keeping our school a safe place for all of our children.

Anaphylaxis and Allergies

We have a number of children in the school with anaphylaxis and allergies to a range of things.  We ask that all parents avoid packing nuts or nut related products in their child’s lunch.  This is will assist us all in keeping our environment safe for all of our children.   

Medical Plans and Update contact details

At school, we often need to contact parents for a variety of reasons. Over the break many families’ telephone numbers, home address and email addresses have changed. If you do change telephone numbers, email, and/or home address or there is an update on personal/medical/family situation, it is most important that you update this information in Operoo and contact Gill in the school office. An early reminder that we must have your correct email address as school reports will be emailed to parents. We thank you for your cooperation with this.

Have a great fortnight

Ruth Biddle

Assistant Principal's Report

School Cross Country

On 21st April, we held our annual school Cross Country.  The F-2 children completed their run around the oval while the Grades 3-6 children made their way down  to Davies Reserve,  It was lovely to once again have the parents cheering  on their children at each venue. Children were so proud of them self for their achievement. Thank you to Mr Herskope for organising and leading the event.

Taiko Group Performance

Our Taiko group was invited to perform at St Thomas More Primary School on Thursday 22nd April.  Well done to our Taiko Group for their first performance outside of our school in two years. Please see below the letter from their Japanese teacher.

“I just wanted to write to say thank you SO very much to you, and your students, for coming to visit us last week at St Thomas More. 

Your visit made our Japanese cultural day SO special and it was so valuable for our students and staff to meet you and your students and hear about the learning of Japanese at Huntingdale Primary School. 

Our staff and students have not stopped talking about the incredible Taiko performance and how friendly, polite and genki (energetic) your students were. The visit from you and our students was definitely the highlight of the day - hontou ni arigatou gozaimasu”.

Bilingual Book Fair

English Books

Scholastic Book Fair is back in 2021. This is a great opportunity for both students and parents to come and look over a selection of books sent to us by Scholastic Books which are for sale.

Japanese Books

Tetsuta Watanabe is a writer and translator of children’s books (English to Japanese) who lives in Melbourne.  This is a great opportunity to come a look over a selection of his books as well as books from his father, who is also a very famous writer and translator. The school will receive a commission, which we will use to purchase Japanese books for our library.

When :

Monday 10 May to Friday 14 May 

Place :

LIBRARY/STEM ROOM AREA -  NEW BUILDING (Enter via Grade FC/1C entrance)

Time :

Mornings: Monday to Friday 8.30am to 9.00am

Afternoons: Monday to Thursday 3.30pm to 4.00pm

During our book fair, we will give families the opportunity to “adopt a book”.  It’s simple….all you have to do is purchase a book during book fair and donate it to the school.  A special “adopt a book” sticker will be placed on the inside front cover with your family or child’s name.  It is a great way for our school to build up our library resources.

Parents Helper Induction Session

We will have a Parent Helper Induction Session on Wednesday 12th May from 9-10am in 3C’s classroom. This session will be run by Ms Alyson Wakely and Harada sensei. They will go through how our children are learning Literacy bilingually at our school. Parents can learn the reading strategies from CAFÉ menu. 

We would like to invite Parent to come and help our children’s reading in class. If you are willing to help out, please attend this induction session. We would like to remind parent helpers that they need to keep their WWCC up to date. If you haven’t got one as yet, you can easily obtain one at the post office.

Education Week

We will celebrate our Education Week from 24th to -28th May. This year’s theme is “Building Connections”, to recognise the importance of schools, families and community groups coming together to support learning. Building connections provides a richer and more diverse learning experience for all students. 

During Education Week, we will have

• Special Children’s Assembly on Monday 24th from 2:45pm (TBC) on the basketball court. Junior Bilingual Choir, Senior Choir and Taiko group will perform at the assembly.
• Open Day for our current parents on Tuesday 25th from 9:15am to 10:45am. You are welcome to come in to your child’s classroom. QR code will be provided before entering classes.

School Chaplain's Lunch time Club

Last Friday chaplain Carol Knox, who is replacing Jenny Celle while Jenny is on leave, ran a very successful lunch time club. The event was very popular with the kids, who participated in large numbers. 

Mother’s Day Event

Team Kids will organise a Mother’s Day morning tea for all the mums and grand mums at our school. 

Date: Monday 10th May

Time: 7:30am-8:45am

Place: Hall

Please enjoy the morning tea and have a relaxing time with other mothers. 

Naomi Mori-Hanazono

Assistant Principal