CNPS Bulletin 2024 | november

CNPS SCHOOL VISION: To build a community of curious, creative and engaged learners who are empowered to meet the challenges of our rapidly changing world. Collectively we will work with our students to become responsible global citizens who have the skills, knowledge and personal attributes they need for their future.

Wominjeka, everyone! As the year races toward its conclusion, we’re thrilled to share all the incredible achievements of our school community and the exciting plans for the year ahead. This is our second-last newsletter for 2024—a time to reflect on our journey, celebrate our progress, and look forward to an even greater 2025.

Term 4 is always bustling, and this year is no exception! Thank you all for your understanding and patience as our staff work tirelessly to ensure a smooth end to the year and seamless preparations for the next. Let’s dive into everything that’s been happening at Coburg North Primary School.

Berry Street Education Model – Transforming Classrooms

This year, our staff participated in fantastic professional learning through the Berry Street Education Model. Teachers have embraced the strategies and are already incorporating them into their classroom practices.

Some of the approaches now embedded across CNPS include:

• Morning Circles to foster a sense of community and connection.
• Ready-to-Learn Scales and plans to help students prepare for successful learning.
• Calm Corners as safe spaces for self-regulation.
• Restorative Chats to address challenges and rebuild relationships.

These strategies are becoming a cornerstone of how we run our classrooms, creating a supportive and inclusive learning environment. We’ll continue to embed these practices as part of our ongoing commitment to student wellbeing and engagement.

The Resilience Project – Empowering Students with GEM

Another highlight of the year has been The Resilience Project (TRP), a brilliant program that has enabled our students to practice Gratitude, Empathy, and Mindfulness (GEM) alongside developing Emotional Intelligence.

This highly engaging initiative has seen continual improvements, with students actively participating in activities that build resilience and foster a positive outlook. TRP has quickly become a valued part of our school culture, and we’re excited to continue this transformative program over the next five years.

Writing Progress – A Step Ahead

This year, our Writing GVC team has done incredible work developing a Writing GVC and a writing moderation document aligned with the Victorian Curriculum’s new English 2.0 standards. These resources are already making a noticeable impact, with students showing great improvements in their writing. We’re excited to build on this foundation in 2025, rolling out these tools across all year levels.

Reading Assessment – DIBELS

Our focus on phonics in Foundation to Year 2 is producing fantastic results, as evidenced by our DIBELS data. We’re committed to continuing this work in 2025, emphasizing a systematic synthetic phonics approach.

Next year, we’ll further enhance our instructional practices by incorporating Explicit Instruction and consistent Engagement Norms across the school, aligning with the latest research in the science of learning. These exciting developments will help Reading Assessment – DIBELS

Our focus on phonics in Foundation to Year 2 is producing fantastic results, as evidenced by our DIBELS data. We’re committed to continuing this work in 2025, emphasizing a systematic synthetic phonics approach.

Next year, we’ll further enhance our instructional practices by incorporating Explicit Instruction and consistent Engagement Norms across the school, aligning with the latest research in the science of learning. These exciting developments will help ensure all students have the foundational skills they need to thrive.

Coaching Program – A Transformative Journey

This year, we launched an exciting new coaching program in partnership with STEPLab. STEPLab is an evidence-based platform that provides targeted feedback and professional development opportunities for teachers, helping them refine their teaching practices through clear, actionable steps.

The program has been a resounding success, with our teachers embracing the opportunity to grow and improve their craft. Working closely with our Learning Specialist and Leadership Team, teachers have honed their skills, ultimately enhancing the learning experiences of our students.

We’re thrilled to continue this journey next year, further embedding STEPLab into our professional development framework. The enthusiasm and commitment of our teachers to this program have been inspiring, and we can’t wait to see the impact as we continue to strive for excellence.

2025 Class Sizes and Structures

Planning for next year is well underway. Each year, we carefully consider how to best structure our classes while navigating the challenges of funding constraints.

Understanding Funding and Class Sizes

The majority of our funding comes from the Student Resource Package (SRP), which is primarily based on enrolment numbers. Unfortunately, our school receives minimal equity funding due to a low School Family Occupation and Education (SFOE) index—only $18,000 this year. This impacts our ability to maintain smaller class sizes.

How does the funding work?

• Most of our school funding (90%+) comes from the state government, known as the Student Resource Package (SRP).
• The SRP is primarily driven by enrolment numbers, with extra funding provided to students with additional needs (e.g. those from a low socioeconomic background).
• Most of the state government funding goes towards employing school staff (80% to 90%).
• The remaining funding is for day-to-day school operations (e.g., utilities, printing etc.).
• The SRP is a devolved funding model, where schools have autonomy to make hiring decisions, and are also responsible for managing the cyclical nature of their staff expenditure (as staff stay at the school and become more experienced, the staffing profile becomes more expensive).

We work hard to secure non-government income sources (e.g., TheirCare and Montessori) to increase our funding ability. We use a portion of the non-government income sources to cover additional staffing expenses where possible, such as lower class sizes and a more experienced teaching profile.

How does the school work out the class sizes for each grade?

The school uses the information from the VGSA (Victorian Government School Agreement) to determine class sizes. Unfortunately the agreement does not allow for a fair system in allocating class sizes for primary schools which results in student numbers in Years 3 to 6 higher than those in high school. The department guidelines on class sizes state that they should be planned on the minimum possible and planned on the following basis:

• Prep to Grade 6 (whole school) – an average class size of 26 provided that;
• The average class size of 21 is maintained at Foundation to Grade 2.

Therefore, based on our school numbers of 523 students, we are only required to operate 21 classrooms.

Let’s break this up to see how this works:

Understandably, over 31 students in Years 3-6 per classroom is not ideal. This is when school’s such as ours with low SFOE need to be creative in how to fund additional teachers. This often includes employing graduate staff when possible and looking into other funding avenues, such as the income we receive from Theircare (before and after school care) and the Montessori Kindergarten.

Looking at all these factors, as well as needs within our School Strategic Plan and student cohorts, we have decided to dip further into our SRP (staffing) budget and fund an additional 2 classroom teachers (above the minimum requirements) and keep the additional specialist STEAM to our program (Art, Music, PE, Italian and STEAM) using our existing timetable model. This reduces the average class size in Years 3-6 to 25-27 students. This comes to an approximate cost of $230,000 to the school.

What will the class sizes and structure look like for 2025?

Once the leadership team works out an idea on how the structure may look, it is then discussed with the school's consultative team and then widely with all teaching staff. Below is the agreed class sizes and structure for 2025.

Creating Class Lists

As we plan for 2025, the process of creating class lists has been more challenging than in previous years due to the significant number of parent requests we received. While we greatly value your input and understand that every parent wants the best for their child, managing such a high volume of requests has made this task increasingly unachievable. After careful reflection, we’ve made the decision that moving forward, we will no longer ask for parental input in this process.

Class placement decisions will continue to prioritise creating balanced and supportive learning environments, guided by our dedicated staff who know your children well and work tirelessly to ensure they thrive. We trust our teachers and leadership team to thoughtfully consider friendships, learning needs, and social-emotional growth when making these decisions.

Building Resilience Through Challenges

One of the most valuable skills we can equip our children with is resilience—the ability to face and navigate life’s challenges with strength and adaptability. While it’s natural to want to shield our children from difficulties, it’s often through these experiences that they grow the most.

At Coburg North Primary School, we believe that exposing students to manageable challenges, rather than removing them, is an essential part of their development. Life is full of ups and downs, and learning how to work through difficulties in a safe and supportive environment helps children build confidence and problem-solving skills.

As parents and educators, our role is to guide them, support them, and help them find the tools they need to overcome obstacles. At school, this means providing restorative conversations, calm corners for self-regulation, and structured environments where children feel safe to take risks and grow. These moments of support, paired with the challenges they face, help prepare them for a future where they can navigate relationships, adversity, and change with resilience and grace.

We thank you for trusting us to guide your children on this journey and for partnering with us as we help them grow into confident, capable individuals.

2025 Teaching Staff

We’re delighted to announce our teaching teams for next year, which include a few new faces. At the same time, we are saying farewell to some staff members and we will like to thank them for their time with us.

Farewells

This year, we say goodbye to Feeona Stenton, Emmily Stenton, and Rocco Cascio. We thank them for their time within our school community. We wish them all the best in their future endeavours.

Welcomes

We’re excited to welcome Elizabeth Kemp, Caitlyn McVilly, Sylvia Zanati, and Yasmine Luu to Coburg North Primary School. These educators bring a wealth of experience, enthusiasm, and fresh ideas to our school, and we can’t wait to see the positive contributions they’ll make in 2025.

2025 Teaching Teams

• Foundation Team: Lucy Hughes, Annemie Hansen, Michael Hill, Hannah Rolls-Korin
• Year 1 Team: Annie Hansen, Berenice Ruiz, Caitlyn McVilly, David Bulley
• Year 2 Team: Taylor Reid, Nick Stubbings, Alex Svikulis
• Year 3 Team: Elizabeth Kemp, Grace Pear, Sophie Corbett
• Year 4 Team: Sebastian Fitzgerald (and TBC), Jasmine Tsiatsias, Jake O’Brien
• Year 5 Team: Sylvia Zanati, Ridah Hassan, Ben Smith
• Year 6 Team: Mandy Jones, Angus Kininmonth, Simon Presljak
• Specialists: Stephen Sharpe (Music), Brigette Pusello (Art), Kieran Kaufmann (PE), Elyssa Agnoletti (Italian), Kristin Davis, and Yasmine Luu (STEAM)

Statewide Transition Day

Students will find out who their teachers are during the Statewide Transition Day on Tuesday, 10 December.

Enjoy the last few weeks of school. I look forward to seeing you all at the school's annual Carols.

Monika

Child Safety and Wellbeing at Coburg North Primary School

The Victorian Government has announced new Child Safe Standards to further strengthen child safety across organisations, including schools. The new standards recognise the critical importance of families and the broader school community in maintaining and promoting child safety and wellbeing.

Coburg North Primary School is in the process or reviewing and updating our child safety policies and procedures to ensure they meet the requirements of the new standards. Draft versions of two important policies can be read at the links below:

Student Wellbeing and Engagement

Bullying Prevention

We are committed to continuous improvement in our approach to child safety and wellbeing and welcome feedback from families and members of our school community on ways we can further strengthen our child safety policies, procedures and practices.

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions, please contact Coburg North Primary School at coburg.north.ps@education.vic.gov.au or by phone on 03 9354 1660.

2024 Grade 5/6 School Production

It seems like it was a bazillion years ago, but it was only the second week of Term Four when the Grade 5 and 6 students performed ‘The Edvard J Gronk School of Academic Excellence’, this year’s CNPS production. Students in all Grade 5 and 6 classes were involved in making it the resounding success it was.

We had been working on the production since the beginning of Term Three. Each week, the lead actors were in rehearsals with Stephen and Simon. During Music, each of the classes rehearsed their scenes, planning how to deliver the lines and what movements and where on the stage we would stand.

The day of our performance, we had a dress rehearsal and performed for the school. This was the first time many of us had seen the backdrops and props, or even got into our costumes.

We (mostly) remembered our lines; we (mostly) remembered where we needed to stand and what we needed to do; and we had a great time performing for the audience.

All of the students involved, especially the lead actors, did a really amazing job.

Thanks to everyone involved -students, parents, teachers- for making this such a memorable event.

*Note: Stephen and Simon wish they had photos to attach to this article, but as always they were too disorganised to actually take any. Sorry :(

Grade 6 Oxygen Visit