Dear Families,
What a busy term it has been so far and so much to share with you all.
Premier’s Reading Challenge
I would like to congratulate all our students on their commitment this year. Reading has and will continue to be our focus as we want to ensure that ALL our students are ‘balanced readers’. This involves, explicit teaching of decoding, fluency and comprehension. We are happy to announce that 100% of our students have successfully completed the Premier’s Reading Challenge which closed on the 4th of September. I would to congratulate and thank everyone for all your hard work.
Principal’s Position Announced
I’m pleased to announce that I have been given the opportunity to lead Virginia Primary School as Principal for the next 5 years. On a personal level, I feel privileged and am excited to lead a school that I hold so closely to my heart. I am passionate about EVERY student belonging and being part of a positive learning environment which enables ALL students to excel and reach their full potential. Some people may call me biased, but I truly believe we have something really special out here at Virginia; a community that is passionate and there for one another and a group of dedicated staff who are passionate about student learning. We have a positive culture whereby we all lift each other up.
On a professional level, whilst I believe and our data, priorities and extra-curricular opportunities say we have made fantastic progress as a school community, I look forward to continuing to improve my leadership and our school as there is opportunity and scope for further growth.
I am excited to continue to lead our school improvement work with such a dedicated team of educators and hardworking students within a supportive and close knit community.
Sports Day
As we have previously shared, our Sports Day is scheduled for the last day of this term and our students have been busy preparing for it. Sports Day is an opportunity where our community can get together and enjoy the day, however unfortunately due to current circumstances, and the restrictions in place in regards to social distancing requirements, it will have to look differently.
We have had to make the difficult decision to have a ‘closed in-school Sports Day’ with no spectators. This decision wasn’t made lightly whereby social distancing would be challenging to monitor. We are grateful for our Governing Council’s support and understanding around this matter.
Sports Day is an event that our students really look forward to and one we didn’t want to deprive them of. We would be disappointed if we had to cancel on the day due to community members not abiding by the difficult decision to have a ‘closed in-school’ Sports Day. We understand it will look differently without the presence of our families, however the decision was made with our students’ best interest at heart.
As we want to ensure that we keep our community involved and informed throughout the day, we have had to think differently and creatively. We will be sharing some live streaming and regular updates (opening, singing of chants, events, and announcement of the winning house team) via our school’s Facebook page. As previously mentioned on many occasions this year, COVID has definitely thrown us some challenges, however ‘together’ we manage to push through them.
Even though this is not what we anticipated, we will ensure that our students have an exciting and fun Sports Day! Notes will be sent out shortly about pre-ordering sausages as this is something that our students also look forward to. Sausages will be ordered and served through the canteen.
Again, we thank you for your cooperation and understanding. We will keep you informed if any changes arise as we understand that our Sports Day is a community event.
Year One Phonics Screening Results – AMAZING NEWS TO SHARE
We have once again administered the Phonics Screening Check (PSC) and believe it is absolutely worth mentioning the results. The PSC is an assessment measuring a student’s ability to be able to transfer known graphemes (letters) to decode known and unknown words. We are excited to share that at Virginia Primary School 92.8% of our year 1 students achieved Standard of Educational Achievement (SEA), decoding 31 words or higher and 34.6% of our year 1 students achieving 40 out of 40. This is the highest that our school has ever achieved.
It is also important to acknowledge that the students who didn’t meet SEA have demonstrated strong growth from the beginning of the year.
We would like acknowledge the hard work that teachers, parents and students have invested towards intentional and targeted learning. Congratulations to all our year 1 students, you should all be very proud of yourselves.
2021 Enrolments/Preparation
We are beginning to look at numbers of children for 2021 so that we can begin looking at our class structures later this term. As we are zoned and there has been a significant increase in parents wishing to enrol their children here, it would help our planning if you know of any changes for next year (if you are moving etc.) if you could let the front office know as soon as you can.
Also, if you know of any families considering enrolling at Virginia for next year, could you please let them know to contact us as soon as possible.
Thank you for your help.
Swimming
Swimming notes will be sent home next week. Swimming is part of the Physical Education curriculum. Although costs for swimming have increased for our school, we have further subsidised so that the cost can remain the same as last year. If there are any issues or concerns, please contact the office so we can support you.
Book Week Parade
Planning and preparation has begun for Book Week. We are hoping that Term 4 will look differently in terms of social distancing restrictions. The Theme for this year is ‘Curious Creatures, Wild Minds’. Looking forward to seeing what costume ideas our students (and staff) come up with.
Parent Survey
We value parent input and are always open to feedback that will enable us to continue to move forward. It is pleasing to hear what is working well and what is appreciated so that we can ensure that this is maintained. We would appreciate it if you could spend some time having a look at the Department's Parent Survey and share your thoughts. We have the link down below for you to access.
If you require any assistance with it, please come and see our front office staff who will be more than happy to help out. We are also happy to set up a laptop at the front office for parents to access.
We have had several new enrolments and is always pleasing to receive warm feedback from our new families about the positive school culture here at VPS, whereby student well-being and learning is our core business.
We have two weeks left of learning until the students and teachers get to have a well deserved two week break. We couldn't be prouder of the work ethic demonstrated by everyone. Great Job everyone!
Learning Together, Learning For Our Future.
Warmest Regards,
Voula Pounendis
