We are in the last two weeks of what has been an extremely busy term.  We will finish off next week with our Year 5/6 students heading to camp.  We hope they have a wonderful time.

Hats

Term 4 is a hat term.  Please ensure your children are wearing a sunsmart school hat or they will be asked to sit in shaded areas for the duration of playtimes.  This is an ongoing issue for some of our students and causes some distress, so it would be great if everyone can have this sorted out before the beginning of term 4.

Road Safety and parking

A reminder to please use the crossing when bringing children to school or during pick up times.  The speed hump near Arklay Rd is not a crossing and we see too many people using it as such.  This behaviour is very dangerous, so we ask you to use the crossings to keep all in our community safe.  It is also worth mentioning that we still have a number of parents holding up traffic in the afternoons by leaving their cars in the drop off zones.  This is an illegal practice and may attract a fine.  In the interests of safety, we ask all to follow the road rules around our school.

End of year raffle donations

We will be holding an end of year raffle again in Term 4.  If your business would like to offer up a prize in exchange for some advertising in our newsletter or at assemblies, please speak with the office.  We want to try and make it the biggest raffle we’ve ever had.

Staff leaving and returning

We say goodbye to Lorna Naidu and Tamyrha Tuaoi who have spent time at our school as Education Support Staff.  Lorna mainly worked with the older students and Tamyrha was involved in Community Connections, Breakfast Club and student engagement.  We wish them all the best in their new roles and thank them for all they have done for our school.

We also welcome back Donna Payton next week after a short stint at another school.  She will continue to work in the Wellbeing role alongside Emma Stott.

Social Media and Devices

Many of the issues we have to deal with at school that are related to students saying unkind things to each other or students using violence can be traced back to their use of social media and unsupervised use of devices.  Many students are accessing spaces such as TikTok and Snapchat, when the rules for signing up to these accounts does not allow anyone of Primary School age using these platforms.  Much of the content on these devices can contribute to students developing a lack of empathy towards peers and some of the trends that can occur can be quite dangerous for young minds.  There is also a lot of inappropriate discussion that happens when children are playing online games that may need to be monitored.  I would suggest ensuring that you have parental controls activated on your devices to ensure you are monitoring what your children may be doing online.

Last day of term

Next Friday 19th September is the last day of term 3.  School will be dismissed at 2.30pm on this day.

Have a wonderful weekend

Darryl Spiteri

Principal

Congratulations to 1G who achieved the best attendance for the week ending 5th September, 2025.

Congratulations to 34G who achieved the best attendance for the week ending 12th September, 2025.

Well done and congratulations to 34G for achieving the best attendance overall in Term 3, an amazing effort!

PRIMARY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education. Students learn new things at school every day – missing school puts them behind.

If your child is sick or absent, you are required to notify school as soon as possible on the day of absence using one of the following methods:

1. Online: log the absence directly using Compass.
2. Telephone: the school office and let the staff know your child’s name, class, date of absences and reason.

Notifying the school of your child’s absence either prior to, or on the day that they will be away, helps ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and will fulfil your legal responsibility.

Why do I need to notify the school if my child is absent?

Schools need to know when and why a child is absent and you need to know if your child isn’t at school.

If your child is absent on a particular day and you have not contacted the school to explain why, the absence will be marked as unexplained.

This system also promotes daily school attendance. Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education, they learn new things every day – missing school puts them behind.

What is your responsibility?

You are legally required to ensure your child attends school every day or you must provide an explanation for their absence. You should let the school know in advance of any upcoming absences or let them know in the morning if your child won’t be at school. Avoid making routine medical and dental appointments during the school day or planning family holidays during the term.

Recognising great attendance and punctuality.

Our attendance target is 96%.  Each week, we reward the class with the highest attendance (which includes getting to school on time!), with our school mascot, Ripwell in their classroom for the week.

2025 Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey:

WE WANT OUR PARENTS / CAREGIVERS / GUARDIANS TO TELL US WHAT THEY THINK!

Our school is conducting the annual Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey offered by the Department of Education and is seeking your feedback. The survey is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behavior, and student engagement. The survey is optional and confidential; however, we encourage and appreciate your participation.
Our school will use the survey results to assist in identifying areas for improvement and professional development needs in the school, to target school planning and improvement strategies.

The Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey will be open online from Monday 18 August to Friday 19 September 2025.

All families are invited to participate in the survey. Instructions will be available on COMPASS.

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones.

The online survey will be available in English and 10 other languages including Arabic, Greek, Hakha Chin, Hindi, Japanese, Punjabi, Simplified Chinese, Somali, Turkish, and Vietnamese. Resources are also available in additional languages to assist parents / caregivers / guardians who speak a language other than English at home. Please reach out to your child’s teacher, or the school directly for survey guides in your language.

The results of the survey are used to plan improvements across the school. This year we have introduced services such as Occupational Therapy and Psychs in Schools as a result of information from this survey. We value your feedback and want to ensure you, and your children have the best possible experience at our school. We thank you in advance for taking the time to fill out this survey.

Please speak to the office if you would like more information.

X-FACTORY – School Performance 

We are conscious that we have had a lot of extra-curricular activities happening this term and this not only puts extra pressure on staff and students who are involved in the performance, but also a financial burden on families.

We have therefore decided to postpone our X-FACTORY EXTRAVAGANZA school performance until Thursday 23 October 2025.

This will give the performing students and organisers extra time to finesse the production as well as additional time for families to purchase tickets.

This event is to give students the opportunity to perform to the school and wider community. It is also about bringing the community together and displaying our school culture.

We are also hoping, if we can get a full house, the proceeds from the ticket sales, will not only cover the costs involved in running a production like this such as stage, audio equipment and chair hire, but also raise some funds that we can use towards school improvements and facilities.

However, we do also realise that for larger families, $10/ticket can work out to be expensive. Therefore, we have now included the following family package options to include a more cost-effective option:

General Admission $10 per ticket (adults and children)
Family of 4 (2 Adults, 2 Children) – $40 per family
Family of 5 (2 Adults, 3 Children) – $40 per family
Family of 6 (2 Adults, 4 Children) – $40 per family

Tickets must be purchased prior to the event via Compass Tix (Posters with the QR code are displayed around the school and have also been sent home via Compass and DoJo). Please ensure you choose the correct package for the number of adults and children in your family as your seat allocation will be based around this, and entry will only be applicable for the number stated on your ticket.

If you have already purchased tickets, they will automatically be transferred to the new date.

Ticket sales will close on Wednesday 15 October, unless sold out prior. Seats are limited so please get in quick.

Thank you for your continued support of our school.

SCHOOL UNIFORM SALE!  DOBSONS!

Dobsons is the official uniform supplier for our school.

Caroline Springs Store (Opposite Bunnings)
12 Panamax Rd, RAVENHALL VIC 3023
Phone: (03) 8348 5477
Email: carolinesprings@dobsons.com.au

Store Open Hours

Monday – Friday: 8:30am – 5:00pm
Saturday: 8:30am – 2:30pm
Sunday: Closed

Physical Education 

Foundation students have been continuing to develop their fundamental movement skills in PE. Over the next few weeks, our focus will be on learning how to kick a round ball. Students are practicing important steps such as keeping their eyes on the ball and stepping beside it before kicking.

To support their learning, students take part in a variety of fun games and station activities where they can practice these skills in different ways. These stations give students lots of opportunities to be active, build confidence, and enjoy working with their classmates.

STEM

This term in STEM:

Preps have been learning the basics of programming by giving sequential code to a Blue Bot.

Year 1s have investigated light and sound including designing and making instruments.

Year 2s have been fascinated by the world of Rube Goldberg and his crazy machines.

Year 3/4s have been learning about materials and their properties, a highlight was designing and making a bungee cord for an egg.

Year 5/6s have explored electricity gaining an understanding of how electricity works by creating simple circuits.

Music

These kids were dancing in Music. They look so cute.

The caption could be, Prep students enjoy making up their own dances to popular music.

Students performed for other students. Students enjoyed making up their, own moves to familiar songs.

Our Learning in Prep

Term 3 has been very busy in Prep with the students enjoying a range of engaging and hands-on activities in the key areas of Literacy and Numeracy. 

LITERACY

In Speaking and Listening, students have had opportunities to build their skills in forming sentences and expanding on their ideas by adding verbs. Our weekly Grammar lessons focus on building their oral language skills through using visual prompts to guide our discussions. Students have become more confident to share their ideas and understandings with their peers. 

In Handwriting, students have continued to work on developing their fine motor skills, pencil grip and the formation of letters. We have also started to write short simple sentences using dotted third paper to guide position and size of letters and this has seen improvements in our students’ handwriting.

In Writing, students have been exploring recount writing and had an opportunity to write about the excursion to the Ballarat Wildlife Park. Students were encouraged to include details about where they went, what they saw, how they got there and who went with them. In the second half of this term, we have been learning about procedural texts. This is a type of text that tells us how to do something. Students enjoyed being involved in a shared writing experience and following the steps to make Fairy Bread. 

Through daily reading, students are practising a range of important early reading strategies, such as start at the left, point to each word, sound out the letters and blend.  Students are enjoying reading decodable texts in class and have shown improvements in their reading stamina. 

In our UFLI Phonics sessions, students have been continuing to work hard at segmenting and blending sounds to write and read. We have now covered all the common sounds of the alphabet and will soon start learning about digraphs – sounds that are written with 2 letters like ‘sh’ ‘ck’ and ‘th’.

Numeracy
During Term 3, our Prep mathematicians have been busy exploring lots of exciting Numeracy concepts through a range of hands-on activities.

• Length: We have been measuring the length of different objects in our classrooms. Students have compared the length of different items and explained which ones were longer and shorter.
• Division: During our division unit, students learnt about the difference between equal and unequal groups. They learnt how to share by ones to make equal groups.

• Mass: Students have been learning how to describe the mass of objects using the words lighter and heavier. They used equipment to measure and compare the mass of two different objects.
• Chance: We have been learning about chance and the language we use to describe the likelihood of an event happening. Students used the words will, won’t, and might to talk about events and explored the terms certain and impossible to explain if something can or cannot happen.

Inquiry

This term, students have been learning about living things in our Inquiry unit, “It’s Alive!” They have been exploring what makes something alive and what living things need to grow and stay healthy.

Children described the features of plants and animals – like leaves, roots, legs, heads, and wings. They discovered how different animals and plants live in different places, like water or land, and how the weather and environment help meet their needs. Students explored questions like:

• What makes something living?
• Why do animals and plants live in different places?
• How does weather affect where things can live?

Students have started to understand how animals use their body parts to move, find food, and stay safe. They have also had the opportunity to explore what happens when a living thing’s home (habitat) changes and no longer gives it what it needs. Students visited the Ballarat Wildlife Park and observed animals in their natural habitats. 

WELLBEING

Students have been learning all about Gender and Identity. They have been developing an understanding of who they are and reflecting on what makes up their own identity. In our lessons, we have explored positive and negative gender norms, and students have been encouraged to celebrate and appreciate differences while showing respect for others and themselves. Throughout the term, students have also revisited our school values of Respect, Integrity, Persistence and Wellbeing. 

AUSLAN

This term, in AUSLAN the students have been learning how to sign the individual letters of the alphabet and how to sign the different emotions that we may feel throughout the day through the use of songs and our AUSLAN signbank. We have also linked our inquiry unit “It’s Alive” with AUSLAN and have been learning how to sign the different animals and their habitats that we learnt about at the Ballarat Wildlife Park. 

Sincerely,

Prep Team

Congratulations to the following students who received awards during our assemblies!

Keep up the great work!

Students of the Week – Ending 5th September

Students of the Week – Ending 12th September

Important Dates – Term 3

• Monday 15th September – Year 5/6 Camp – Ace Hi Ranch
• Wednesday 17th September – Year 3/4 Melton Network Maths Games Day (selected students only)
• Friday 19th September – Footy Day Fundraiser
• Friday 19th September – Term 3 Ends at 2:30pm

Important Dates – Term 4

• Thursday 23rd October – ‘X-FACTORY EXTRAVAGANZA ‘ – 6.00pm – 8.00pm 

Congratulations to the following students who are celebrating a birthday in August, September & October!

We hope you had a lovely day!

Siavii PD

Latisha 34F

Misha 34H

Katie 1A

Zoe 1D

Sherbir 56B

Elina PG

Ressarie 34D

Te Rina 56F

Gurdarshan 56D

Manraj Singh PB

Yuvraj Singh 34E

Kalolita 34H

Manvitha 56A

Eric 56F

Ekam Singh PE

Jayan 2E

Seerat 56F

Esmeralda 2E

Charles 34C

Aiden    PH

Erik        1G

Kaiah    34A

Isaiah   34A

Nathan 1B

Tegh Kaur 1B

Skyla 56A

Keyaanshi PC

Gurmilan PD

Steven 34A

Aizel      PB

Gurpal Singh 1C

Setaleki 34H

Archie  PF

Amir 34A

Ekamjit 56A

Tia PB

Elizabeth 1A

Aarika  2C

Josefine 1C

Qyra Havana Dacion 1F

Mahlea 2D

Gurmehar          PB

Blake PD

Oscar 1D

Lanston 2D

Ayla 1G

Adebia 34H

Maddy  34G

Sina       1D

Baneet 34H

Agampreet 34H

Sebastian PC

Satvika 1E

Tanvi     1G

Tarj        2B

Gurneet 34D

Vishvaas 34B

Ransher Singh  1B

Roger    1D

Raphael PF

Arahia  PF

Kayden 2B

Marc 56E

Saliha Zahid PE

Oliver   34E

Arya      34G

Affan     56A

Hope    PC

Rafaan 34H

Archer  1A

Alraav  34E

Kian PA

Jayda-Lee 2C

Robel    56E

Rayhan 56E

Virenpartap Singh PA

Philip    56F

Amber  PB

Kamya 34C

Othniel 1C

Dani 56D

Connor PH

Kush 1D

Tianalia 1G

Tasveer 56C

Saesha Krisha  34G

Navya  34E

Alexander 34G

Ishrat 56E

Prabhvir 34G

Eleanor PG

Keyock 1G

Ava 2A

James 56F

Iyra 2A

Japneet 34G

Rian 56E

Ruya 1B

Ryon 1G

*Please note that birthdays are only published up until the date of publication.  

If anyone would like to register their interest, via basketball.flames@outlook.com would be greatly appreciated.

Come along and try Karate! Increase your confidence, learn new physical skills and have FUN in a safe and nurturing environment.

THORNHILL PARK PRIMARY SCHOOL GYM – WEDNESDAYS 4PM (AGES 4+)

To register for 2 FREE SESSIONS, please call 0407320333 or visit our website www.artofdefence.com.au