In our classrooms

Building Resilience Through School Camp

As camping season begins over the next fortnight, our students will have the exciting opportunity to participate in school camp experiences. Camps are an important part of a child’s learning journey because they provide opportunities for growth that cannot always be replicated in the classroom.

Research consistently shows that outdoor education and camp experiences support the development of resilience and confidence while also strengthening students’ social skills. When children step outside their comfort zones and navigate unfamiliar situations, they begin to understand that challenges can be managed and overcome. Camp experiences are an integral part of our wellbeing program.

For many students, camp may be the first time they spend a couple nights away from home. Others may need to persevere through activities that feel difficult or work closely with peers in new situations. These moments encourage independence and help students build emotional strength over time.

School camps also create lasting memories and strengthen friendships. Students learn to support one another as they work together, solve problems, and share new experiences. The sense of achievement students feel after camp often carries back into the classroom and positively impacts both wellbeing and learning. Plus, we have a lot of fun!

We encourage all families to support their child’s participation in camp, as these experiences play an important role in developing resilient, capable young people who feel connected to their school community.

Recognising All Who Nurture and Care This Mother’s Day

This Sunday, we acknowledge Mother’s Day and take the opportunity to recognise the many different people in our community who care for, nurture, and support children in meaningful ways. For some, this day is filled with celebration and gratitude. For others, it can bring a mix of emotions, including sadness, longing, or reflection.

We recognise that families come in many forms, and the role of a caring adult in a child’s life may be filled by mothers, grandmothers, step-parents, foster carers, guardians, or other significant people. Each of these relationships plays an important role in shaping children’s sense of belonging, safety, and love.

At school, we see every day the impact of these caring connections. The encouragement children receive at home helps them to take risks in their learning, build confidence, and develop resilience when things feel challenging. These quiet, everyday moments of care are often the foundation for a child’s growth and wellbeing.

As we approach Mother’s Day, we encourage our community to hold space for both celebration and compassion. We hope families are able to connect in ways that feel meaningful to them, whether that is through shared time, a simple gesture of appreciation, or reflection.

We wish all members of our community a gentle and thoughtful weekend.

Maddie Witter

Principal

In Prep

Firefighter Visit

This week, our Prep students enjoyed a special visit from local firefighters as part of our People Who Help Us topic. The firefighters taught us about fire safety, including the importance of having a safe meeting place and what to do in the event of a fire. Students listened carefully and asked many thoughtful and interesting questions throughout the session.

We are excited to welcome the firefighters back next week when they will bring their fire truck. Students are looking forward to exploring inside the truck and hopefully having a turn using the hose!

You can support this learning at home by:

• Discussing and practising your family’s safe meeting place in case of an emergency.
• Talking about trusted community helpers and the important jobs they do to keep us safe.

In Grade One

This week in Mathematics, Grade 1 students have been strengthening their knowledge of place value and representing numbers in varied ways. We have been practising partitioning numbers into tens and ones and writing these in expanded form as number sentences (for example 34 is 30 + 4). Students have also been building confidence ordering, reading and representing numbers using hands-on materials and mathematical thinking strategies.

You can support this learning at home by:

• continuing to explore tens and ones by using bundles of pop sticks (using rubber bands) grouped into tens alongside loose ones and matching these to two-digit numbers made with playing cards.
• looking at a 100 Chart and identifying numbers that come before or after any given number.
• writing two and three-digit numbers, practising number formation and showing numbers with correct place value position (e.g. 16 is not written as 61).

In Grade Two

We are celebrating Mates Day on Friday, May 8th. It's a special day in New Zealand (and some Australian schools) to celebrate friendship, kindness, and being a good mate. The Year Two students will participate in Mates Day to learn ways they can be a good friend. Each student will embark on a ‘secret mission’ which will involve students doing kind things for their allocated student. These acts of kindness will be revealed at the end of the mission and feelings shared about how these special acts made them feel.

You can support this learning at home by:

• keeping the conversation going about how your child can navigate healthy friendships. What are some things they need to start doing to show that they are a good friend? This reflection process will help build self-awareness around the kind of friend they are. Encourage kindness, patience and acceptance.

In grade three

In Grade 3 we have been working very hard on developing our multiplication skills. We can express an equation using arrays and use strategies such as repeated addition and skip counting.

You can support this learning at home by:

• discussing times when you use multiplication in your daily life. There are plenty of great opportunities to put our skills into action and it can be very helpful to see and understand when we need to draw on this knowledge.

In Grade Four

In Year 4, we have continued our Integrated Topic ‘Celebrating Me, You, Everyone’. Students have been exploring their own diversities and connecting to their roots. We have been reading about different cultural events and comparing and contrasting them. 4LS have worked with buddies to compare all of their wonderful differences and some similarities!

In Maths, we have been working on multiplication and division strategies, for example, spitting two-digit numbers and area models. Students are learning how their division facts are connected to their times tables using fact families and methods such as skip counting. To build fluency, we are doing times tables daily and using word problems.

You can support learning at home by:

• Practising times tables and their corresponding division facts. You can also make it more FUN by playing games with them - they can teach you some they have learned in class!

In grades 5 and 6

This week Grade 5 and 6 have begun work on fractions.

In our CONNECT sessions, students have started working on their Prime Minister projects with a partner. There is a lot of research and discussion involved in this phase as students learn what their chosen Prime Minister is known for, what they achieved and a little further into Australian politics. Students will be creating a poster and making a presentation to their class in the coming weeks.

In grade 5

Grade 5s are beginning their learning with a focus on equivalent fractions, ordering on a number line and counting by fractions, before they move on to addition and subtraction of fractions.

In grade 6

Grade 6 have begun their learning with revision of addition and subtraction of fractions and will be moving on to multiplication and division of fractions. This is a great topic of interest and some of our students are working on using solving algebraic fractional equations! Parent can look out for incidental moments of learning at home with fractions - cooking, sports games, slicing pizza/sandwiches or cutting cakes.

You can support this learning at home by:

• Supporting your child in spotting and using fractions in everyday activities such as cooking, sharing food, measuring ingredients, or keeping score during sports games.
• Asking your child questions about their Prime Minister research and discussing what leadership qualities or achievements make an effective leader.
• Encouraging presentation skills at home by practising speaking clearly, making eye contact, and sharing their research with family members before presenting to the class.

In Physical Education

This week, we successfully held our annual House Cross Country event. It was wonderful to see so many students demonstrating perseverance, resilience, and encouragement throughout the day. Congratulations to all students who participated, and a special congratulations to those who qualified for the District Cross Country event. We would also like to sincerely thank our parent volunteers for their support in helping the day run so smoothly.

We have also officially begun our Term 2 Interschool Sports program, with students participating in netball, AFL, soccer, and softball. It has been fantastic to see students representing the school with enthusiasm and sportsmanship.

Hoop Time trials have also commenced. If any parents or community members are interested in volunteering as a coach or scorer for the competition day, please contact Tayla Sjogren.

In Art

There has been much excitement in the Art room as students create a gift from the heart for Mother’s Day, to say thank you to the special people that take care of them. It has been very heartwarming to see the enthusiasm, and care taken to get their piece just right. Year 4, 5 and 6 have been inspired by the fabric flowers of Australian artist CJ Hendry to create their special piece. We were all very excited to learn that she had a pop-up flower shop at Chadstone this week with her fabric creations available for purchase just for Mother’s Day if you want to check it out. To all the Mums, Grandmas and carers I wish you a lovely day!

In our staffroom

Wellbeing at GIPS: The Berry Street Education Model

This week, we’re focusing on the Berry Street Education Model, one of the key approaches we use to support student wellbeing and engagement in learning.

The Berry Street Education Model helps students build self-regulation, relationships, and stamina for learning. It recognises that children learn best when they feel safe, calm, and connected. You may hear your child talk about strategies that help them feel “ready to learn” as these are part of this approach.

In classrooms, this can look like:

• Short “brain breaks” to help students refocus
• Strategies for managing emotions and energy levels
• Building strong, predictable routines
• Developing positive teacher-student relationships

By explicitly teaching these skills, we support students to better understand themselves and take an active role in their learning.

At home, you might support this by:

• Encouraging regular routines
• Talking about feelings and how to manage them
• Noticing and naming when your child is calm and ready to learn

Helping children feel safe and regulated is a key foundation for both wellbeing and academic success.

Shaye Bradbury

Focus the Learning: Co-planning Learning Objectives

At our school, we are strengthening our use of co-planning as a key part of the Focus the Learning dimension within Victoria Teaching and Learning Model 2.0. This collaborative approach ensures that teaching is purposeful, explicit, and aligned to clear learning objectives that are understood by both teachers and students.

Co-planning involves teachers working together to carefully design learning sequences, identify the most important concepts, and agree on success criteria before instruction takes place. This shared process helps ensure consistency across classrooms and year levels, while also supporting high-quality explicit teaching practices.

When learning objectives are clearly defined and collaboratively developed, teachers are better able to break down complex skills into manageable steps. This allows for more precise instruction, targeted questioning, and timely feedback that supports student understanding. It also helps ensure that all students, regardless of their starting point, are supported to access and achieve the intended learning.

Importantly, co-planning strengthens teacher clarity. When educators share a deep understanding of what is being taught and why, lessons become more focused and responsive. Students benefit from this clarity, as they are more likely to understand what they are learning, what success looks like, and how to improve.

As part of our continued work with VTLM 2.0, co-planning learning objectives is helping us build greater consistency in explicit teaching practices across the school. This shared commitment is strengthening student engagement, improving learning outcomes, and supporting a strong culture of professional collaboration.

We are proud of the ongoing work of our teaching teams as they refine and embed these practices to ensure every lesson counts for every learner.

Shanae Hill & Maddie Witter

In our community

Walk or Wheel Fridays

A reminder that every Friday until the end of Term 2 will be ‘Walk or Wheel (WOW) Friday’! We encourage all students to ride or walk to school. If you need to, you can drive closer to school and walk or wheel part of the way. If your child is younger, you can park your car and ride or walk with them.

The Environment SALT will be collecting data on how many students have walked or wheeled to school and the winning class each week will be awarded the Golden Boot! There will be more prizes for term winners.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone walk or wheel to school tomorrow.

Remember to keep your eyes on the road!

Grade 6 SALT (Student Action Leadership Team) Environment Team

Cyber Safety Webinar

The second webinar in the Cyber Safe Parents series is coming up on May 20.

AI is becoming a big part of the online world our kids are growing up in, but it can be hard to keep up. This webinar is designed to make things clearer for parents, without the tech talk.

You’ll come away with practical tips to help your child question what they see online, recognise when something might not be real, and build strong thinking skills they can use every day. It’s also a great chance to feel more confident supporting your child as technology continues to change.

Whether you join live or watch later, you’ll gain useful, real-world strategies to help keep your child safe and informed online.

The details:

🤖 AI & Critical Thinking

When: May 20, 2026 @ 7:30pm AEST

Can’t attend live? Register to receive the recording and resources to watch at a time that suits you. To keep our link secure, please visit Compass for the registration link.

Premiers' Reading Challenge

The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge is now open and Glen Iris Primary School is excited to be taking part!

The Challenge is open to all Victorian children from birth to Year 10 in recognition of the importance of reading for literacy development. It is not a competition; but a personal challenge for children to read a set number of books by the 4th of September, 2026.

Children from Prep to Grade 2 are encouraged to read or ‘experience’ 30 books with their parents and teachers. All children who complete the Challenge will receive a certificate of achievement signed by the Victorian Premier and former premiers.

This year’s Challenge theme is ‘Stories to discover. Stories to tell’. Stories can inspire and challenge us, and help us grow. They open our eyes to new worlds and new ways of thinking.

In the coming week, your child’s username and password will be attached to their take home reading diary.

To learn more about the Challenge, visit Premiers' Reading Challenge | vic.gov.au

You can also contact one of our Challenge Coordinators at Mary-Anne.Jansen@education.vic.gov.au (Prep to Grade 2) or Charles.Collopy-White@education.vic.gov.au (Grade 3 to 6) with any questions.

Happy reading!

Safe Travel to School Survey

Glen Iris Primary School is participating in the City of Boroondara’s Active and Safe Travel to School program. This aims to create a safer travel environment for students and families walking and riding to school.

Parents and families are invited to take part in a school travel survey. This is a great opportunity for you to have your say into road safety around our school.

Please click here to access the 3-minute safe travel to school survey:

GIPS PRIMARY SCHOOL

This survey will close on Friday 15 May 2026.

Update on Compass Credit Balances for SSB and CSEF

We would like to advise of an issue affecting the display of credit balances in Compass relating to SSB and CSEF funds.

When paying for school events in Compass, families may choose to pay in full or use available credits such as SSB or CSEF. These balances are normally drawn from our CASES21 finance system and displayed in Compass.

The Department of Education has recently advised that the data feed between CASES21 and Compass is no longer providing real-time or reliable balance information. This occurred following a system issue in late October and, at this stage, there is no planned fix for this data link. As a result, Compass balances may not be accurate and are likely to show a higher amount than your actual available credit.

To ensure families are fully informed, if you have an SSB credit on your family account, we will be contacting you directly by email with your correct balance.

We understand this is not ideal and appreciate your patience while we manage this system limitation.

If at any time you would like to confirm your balance or have any questions, please contact the front office by phone or email.

Kind regards,

Joanne Hayes

Business Manager

Prep Enrolments are Now Open!

2027 Prep Enrolments are now open and close 31 July 2026.

This year our school is using an online system for new enrolments to Victorian government schools called VicStudents.   VicStudents is available for students who are enrolling in a Victorian Government School for the first time. This includes Foundation (Prep) enrolments for 2027.

VicStudents has been assessed by the Department of Education to a high degree of security in line with the Victorian Protective Data Security Standards and is compliant with ISO 27001, the leading international standard for information security.

To commence online enrolment: Visit https://students.educationapps... to create an account and complete the online application form. Please ensure that all documents required are attached to the application. This process can commence at the end of April 2026.

A Quick Reference Guide to using the online system is available here.

2027 Foundation (Prep) enrolment

Our school zone

Our school zone is available on findmyschool.vic.gov.au which hosts the most up-to-date information on school zones in Victoria.

Students residing within our school zone are guaranteed a place at our school, which is determined based on your permanent residential address.

Our school manages enrolments using the Placement Policy to ensure that students have access to their designated neighbourhood school and may enrol at another school, if there are available places.

For more information, you can:

• visit School zones for answers to frequently asked questions
• call the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) on 1800 896 950
• email the VSBA at vsba@education.vic.gov.au

2027 Foundation (Prep) enrolments

The Department of Education has released the statewide Foundation (Prep) enrolment timeline for the 2027 school year.

The timeline advises families when and how to enrol their child into Foundation (Prep) at a Victorian government primary school, including our school.

All government primary schools will follow the timeline in 2026 to support Foundation (Prep) enrolments for the 2027 school year.

You can find information and resources about the timeline, including factsheets and a poster at: Enrolling in Foundation (Prep).

What you need to do:

- Parents/carers can submit their enrolment applications from the start of Term 2, 2026. This follows the release of 2027 zones on the department’s

Find my School website and the publication of Foundation enrolment information packs.

- Enrolment applications from parents/carers are due by the last Friday of July, 31 July 2026.

- Schools notify parents and carers of the outcome of enrolment applications between Monday 3 August and Friday 14 August 2026.

- Parents/carers who receive an enrolment offer should respond to the offer by Friday 28 August 2026.

- Written appeals from parents/carers are to be lodged with schools by Friday 28 August 2026.

- Schools notify parents and carers in writing of the outcome of appeals by Friday 11 September 2026.

- Take part in enrolment information and transition sessions during Term 4, 2026. Enrolment applications submitted after 31 July 2026 will be processed by our school as they are received, in accordance with the department’s Placement Policy. Following 31 July 2026, we can only accept paper enrolments which can be found in the Enrolling in Foundation (Prep) pack.

2026 enrolments or Year 1-6 2027 Enrolments

Enrolment forms (for use outside of the Prep 2026 Enrolment Process) can be found here. They cannot be made on the Insight platform.

Walk-a-thon Totals

Dear Families,

Thank you so much for your generous support of our Walk-a-thon. So far, we have raised an incredible $9,835.77 toward our $11,000 fundraising goal.

We are now just $1,164.23 short of reaching our target, and we would love to see if we can get there with your continued support.

If you have been meaning to make a donation, there is still time to help us cross the finish line. Every contribution, no matter the size, makes a real difference for our school community.

Thank you again for your ongoing support and generosity,

GIPS