2011 Newsletter 37 - Doncaster Primary School

“Pleasure in the job putsperfection in the work.”AristotleCore PrinciplesWe have considered the foundationson which we will build our reformagenda. Now I want to turn to thefundamental principles on which westand in education policy and whichwe will pursue throughout ourstewardship of the Victorian LearningCommunity.This Government has three, nonnegotiableeducation principles. Theseare:1. choice2. local decision-making3. school-community integration.Choice: all students, all schoolsThe Minister for Education is theMinister for all Victorian students – ingovernment, Catholic andindependent schools.While I have particular responsibilityfor the delivery of a strong and highperforming government schoolsystem, I want to support all schools torespond to the choices made bystudents and their parents and toprovide high quality options thatstudents and parents want to select.We must build confidence and engageparents and students in the sharedenterprise of providing consistentlyhigh quality education for all Victorianstudents, regardless of the school theyattend or the sector it is in. We knowthat the results of Victorian studentsare among the highest in Australia.The latest NAPLAN results confirmthat while improvement is patchy, wedo perform above the nationalaverage on most measures and equalthe national average on the rest.This reflects the combinedcontribution of all Victorian schoolsand I am pleased to be Minister forsuch a diverse and high-performingsystem.In the context of our principle ofchoice, I also want to point out thatmany government schools areac hieving impressive results inNAPLAN. Doncaster Primary School,Fish Creek Primary School and DonaldPrimary School, among many others,are achieving NAPLAN results that areamongst the highest in the nation.Schools are adopting innovativeapproaches to education, like openlearning spaces and newtechnologies, and working withcommunities to provide earlychildhood services.In addition we have world classspecialist government schools like theJohn Monash Science School andMaribyrnong Sports School and fourselective entry secondary schools. Thisdiversity is something we will continueto foster.In September we announced a $2.5million grants program to enable moregovernment schools to develop aspecialisation in a field of their choice.We also recently announced theestablishment of the new Bio21science school in Parkville, and earlierthis year we supported WerribeeSecondary College to become the firstgovernment secondary school to offerthe senior International BaccalaureateDiploma.Our commitment to a high quality andincreasingly diverse governmentschool education system is clear. Thisis because we believe thatspecialisation and diversity not onlypromote choice, but enable schools todevelop their strengths and that thissupports higher standards and betteroutcomes for all students.Complementing these reforms is ourcommitment to lift non-governmentschool funding to 25 per cent of therecurrent cost of educating a studentin a government school. Weunderstand the sacrifices that parentshave made to ensure their childrenparticipate in a high quality education.This commitment characterises qualityeducation systems and we want tofoster this.We have also recently contributed tothe Commonwealth's (Gonski) reviewof funding for schooling, articulatingthe importance of choice, coherenceand need. This included questioningwhy the Commonwealth provides 10per cent of the cost of schooling for agovernment school student - less thanit provides for those students in highsocioeconomic status non-governmentschools. It sets out our position tomove, over time, to more coherentfunding conditions and to enhanceCommonwealth funding to all schools -not reducing the funds available nowor in the future.Many of you will have been throughseveral changes to funding andrecognise the importance ofPage 2transitional fairness. Any move fromold to new arrangements must enablestable planning for schools. Irecognise the significant opportunityfor sustainable reform ofCommonwealth school fundingarrangements and I intend torepresent the interests of all studentsand all schools as that debatecontinues.Whether a government or nongovernmentschool, our goal is toensure that every parent has a choiceof high quality education.Congratulations to the team atDoncaster Primary School for suchoutstanding teaching.Congratulations to our students onthese brilliant results!STAFFING for 2012At present, we are interviewingteachers for positions for next year.This process will not be finalised untilnext week. Our learning communitywill be informed regardingorganisation for 2012 in December.‘THANK YOU’ MORNING TEAA Thank You Morning Tea will be heldon Tuesday 6th6December, at 11am,for the many parents, CRE staff andKids Hope Mentors who helpthroughout our school.Invitations were sent home earlier thisweek.OUR TRADITIONAL END OFYEAR CONCERTYou are warmly invited to attend ourEnd of Year Concert on Tuesday 20thDecember. Please refer to the flyerincluded in this week’s Bulletin.OUR ‘TRADITIONAL END OFYEAR HAMPER’This week, each family receivedinformation regarding donations offood and toys for our hamper. Raffletickets were are also attached to thenotice.Thank you in anticipation of yourgenerosity!TIMELINE for the END of theYEARPlease note our dates section in theBulletin each week, as this time of theyear is always very busy!LEVEL 1 (PREP) SWIMMINGPROGRAMThe Swimming Program for children in