READING IN SCHOOL
Our students have been working very hard to improve their reading skills.  You may have noticed some changes in the way we’re teaching reading in our school. These changes are part of a statewide commitment to ensure every student develops strong reading skills that will support them throughout school and beyond.  You might hear the words UFLI, DIBELS and Word Origins being used at times by staff and students.  These words are used to refer to ways of teaching, learning and assessment processes in classrooms across our school.

Learning to read is a skill that must be taught—it's not something we’re born knowing how to do. That’s why our teachers are using high-quality, evidence-based strategies to help every child become a confident reader.

Our students are learning to read through structured and explicit literacy teaching. This means they are building foundational literacy skills step by step, with each new skill reinforcing the last. This approach helps students grow into capable, independent readers.

Thank you for your ongoing support as we help every student succeed.

WEATHER CHANGES
With the weather starting to change and we see a bit more sun peeping through the rain clouds, school sport changes also.  Soccer finished up last week with many of our teams having small get-togethers to celebrate their season.  Thank you to all the coaches and parents who have helped our school sport teams, we could not enter teams into rosters without your support.  A big thank you to the Dare family for once again donating soccer medals for all our players.  This is a very appreciated gesture of kindness and our young people are so proud to get their medal.

2026 CLASS PLACEMENT
2026 planning will commence very soon.  This week students will have received a form asking for family input into class construction for next year. If you wish to fill out this form, I encourage you to have a guiding conversation with your child/ren about who they work well with in class, not just who is their friend.  If you do not wish to return the form that is fine as I do believe class teacher know students very well.  Class teachers have significant input into class configurations in the first instance which is followed up be members of the leadership team having input.

If you have a particular concern regarding teacher placement for your child, please make an appointment time to speak with me before the end of this term. Whilst I appreciate some parents may prefer particular teachers, there are many considerations that need to be taken into account when constructing classes.  However I do recognise, at times there are particular reasons for a teacher placement request that need to be considered.  We aim to have our class construction completed early in term 4 to allow us to start transition processes for identified students.

SCHOOL OPENING TIME
A reminder that our school does not open until 8:40am, with duty of care concluding at 3:30pm each day.  Teachers do not assume duty of care for students until 8:40am.  Please do not drop students off at school before this time as there is no adult supervision.  As we are an inner city school, we often have unknown adults walking through our school grounds who may approach students who are without supervising adults. The request to not drop off students before 8:40am is in the interest of student safety. Early morning duty starts at 8:40am on the basketball courts.   

OPEN CLASSROOM & SAUSAGE SIZZLE
Our Prep – 6 classrooms will be open for parents to speak with teachers and view student learning as part of our Reporting to Parents process.  This will be on Tuesday afternoon in week 9, 16^th Sept from 3-4pm.  Literacy and numeracy work will be open for viewing, as well as access to student books for other curriculum areas.  There will be a free BBQ provided by LIFT so come along, grab a sausage and pop into classrooms, we’d love to see you!

Kind regards

Ms Nichole Todd
PRINCIPAL