The end of year is fast approaching with a range of emotions filling the air at PDS. As our prekinder orientation programs prepare to begin, we have a number of existing and new families joining us for the very first time which can understandably be an exciting and daunting experience for children (and parents!). Hopefully the experience is a positive one for all. We look forward to you joining us to share the journey ahead, working in partnership, to support and educate ‘our’ children together.

Our Year 11/12 children who are finalising assignments and completing exams will no doubt be experiencing similar emotions as they consider what comes next for them, whether it is joining the workforce or continuing with their education.

Amazingly, at the other end of our school, we have over 30 Year 9 and 10 students currently undertaking work experience. This is a fantastic learning experience and opportunity to get a taste for the ‘real world’.

For the year groups in between it’s business as usual. Teachers continue to offer as many rich and engaging opportunities across the many curriculum areas as possible, with a goal of having them ‘ready’ for the next year’s teacher. Students will be busily completing assignments and striving to do their personal best to contribute towards their end of year results.

As a school we are continually aspiring to grow and improve. On Tuesday night our whole teaching staff gathered to explore this year’s staff and family satisfaction surveys. In some ways this is like our staff receiving their end of year report! Our performance is measured both by our colleagues and our families that have completed the survey. 

The responses were interrogated thoroughly as staff looked for patterns, wins and areas for growth and improvement both in the short term and long term.  It was pleasing to see positive family responses highlighting staff expecting students to do their best, teachers encouraging children to think to think and parents feeling able to talk with teachers about concerns relating to their children. One of the more obvious areas identified for improvement was making sure we have as many families as possible complete the survey to ensure we are getting the big picture. 

This year only 29 families completed the survey. Whilst this information was still valuable and certainly not dismissed, we were all in agreeance that we would like to hear form more parents. 

When we are unsure about anything it’s human nature to come up with our own justifications as to why something has happened – teachers are no different. We know from experience these are simply guesses, based on our own experiences and may be completely off the mark. Was it: the majority of families are happy and didn’t feel the need to complete the survey; families don’t feel that anything will come from their response; only those with a bug to bear give feedback or jump on Facebook; did we not advertise it enough; people are too busy; we didn’t offer a reward or a chance of winning something by completing the survey (certainly has enticed me at times to complete a survey to win a new pair of shoes or a holiday to the Maldives); people come in and speak to us if they have any worries; we should have put it on Seesaw; or was it that the survey was too long? 

Unfortunately, we have no control over the length of the survey as it is a system based one. However, we do have the opportunity to increase the number of participants we have next year. Your opinion matters to us and we would love to hear from you. Stay tuned for a short survey to help us understand why you did or didn’t complete the survey as we would certainly aim to have significantly more responses in 2024.

As a school we continue to promote and celebrate our focus value for the term, respect. To support the age-old sayings that you have to give respect to get respect and that respect is something you earn, earlier this week Mr Hughes provided secondary students the opportunity to identify and share evidence of how our staff have shown respect to them and these insights were shared during our secondary assembly. It certainly put a smile on many faces to hear :

• Respecting everyone’s ideas and making everyone feel like they have a say. (Ms Lutwyche)
• Moving around each market store encouraging and being enthusiastic about each year 8 group products (Mrs Popowski)
• Listening to a student who was wrong, but she still listened and suggested a different way to do it. (Mrs Maclachlan)
• Acknowledging your hard work. (Multiple)
• Encouraging. Asking for ideas/thoughts. Helping. (Mr Owen, Miss Schake, Ms Murphy, Mrs Redman)
• Listening And Asking questions about our weekend. (Mr Owen)

Earlier this week our renovated and transforming secondary courtyard space turned into a buzzing market courtesy of our Year 8 and 9 students. The space resembled a smaller version of the well-known Salamanca Market. The place was buzzing as students from across our school participated in a variety of activities and games and had the opportunity to purchase a variety of inexpensive homemade wares including scented lip balm, photo booth bookmarks, t’shirts and pet rocks just to name a few.

I would like to thank and congratulate our Arts Department who launched the inaugural PDS Arts Festival during the week.Without our innovative, commited and dedicated staff, events such as this would not take place.This showcase of our talented artists took place after school hours, offering families the opportunity to enjoy a visual and musical treat. 

This afternoon our Year 5/6 students had the opportunity to meet with Braddon’s Federal member, Gavin Pearce. On their recent visit to Canberra, and Parliament House, our Year 6 students delivered a collaborative art piece they had created as part of the ‘Art in Parliament House Program.’ This piece now hangs proudly in Gavin’s office in Canberra. Students shared their Canberra experience and a Powerpoint presentation with Gavin and the Year 5/6 classes. As a sign of gratitude, Gavin presented all contributing artists with a certificate of appreciation.

Yours in partnership,

Matthew Perry