Dear KPS Families,

Welcome back to Term 2! I hope you all had a wonderful school holiday break, with a lot of rest, relaxation and a visit from the Easter bunny!

All students have come back to school with a positive attitude towards their learning. It has been lovely to see them settling easily back into classroom routines.

This term is a longer term consisting of 11 school weeks. In saying that, already three weeks have gone by, which only leaves us with eight weeks of the term. A lot will be happening in this term including Education Week, assessment and reports.

I would like to extend my appreciation to all KPS students and families for their support and well wishes in my recent marriage. On the school holidays, I was fortunate to marry my partner David in a beautiful ceremony at Beaumaris. The day and celebration was absolutely perfect.

Easter Bonnet Parade
We finished last term with our highly successful event of the Easter Bonnet Parade. Each year, we are able to raffle more prizes due to the generous donations of our community. A VERY BIG thank you to you all.

Thank you to Michelle and Tamara for their support to put the raffle prizes together. We outdid ourselves this year with 35 easter basket prizes.

ANZAC Day Service
Karingal PS held an ANZAC Day service on Thursday 24th April. Our service was led by our school leaders. It was lovely to see the respect paid by all our students in the honouring of our ANZACs.

House Cross Country
All students participated in House Cross Country last Friday. It was extremely impressive of all our students who gave their best effort and contributed to their house points. Students were very supportive of each other and cheered on their house mates at the finish line.

Thank you to Miss Holmes for her organisation of the cross country and to all staff for their support.

KPS Trivia Night
After success last year, it is with great excitement Karingal PS will be hosting their second Trivia Night...TRIVIA NIGHT 2.0
Tickets as they are selling fast.
The Trivia Night will be hosted by...MYSELF and BREIGH!!!
I have created questions in numerous categories ready for a night of ENORMOUS fun.
Please rememebr to bring on the night:

• extra $$$$$ for raffles;
• gold coins for bottle toss;
• thinking caps;
• FUN, FUN, FUN

Mother's/Special Persons Day
Mother's/Special Person's Market Stall was held on Thursday 8th May. Thank you to our parent helpers for creating a welcoming and exciting stall for students to buy great mother's day gifts.

Mother's Day morning tea wil be held in the new hall on Monday 12th May. We look forward to all the mother's/special persons that will be joining us for the morning.

Mother's Day raffle will be drawn on Monday 12th May at the morning tea.


Happy Mother's Day to all our mother's/special persons. Enjoy your time on Sunday.

Education Week
Next week we celebrate various cultures during Education Week. There are many activities the students will be involved in, including Japanes Day with students from Karingal Heights Primary School joining us.
Please make sure you allow yourself some time after school on Wednesday to journey around the classrooms and experience activities from different cultures.
Friday morning is our 'Walk Safely to School Morning' - meet at Frank Street Reserve and enjoy a refreshing walk to school.

School Jumpers
As the weather is turning colder, children will be needing to wear jumpers. It is an expectation that school jumpers or navy jumpers are to be worn. If your child/ren does not have an appropriate jumper, please come and see the office.
If children choose to wear non school jumpers, they will be replaced with a school jumper during the day and returned at the end of the school day.

Stay safe and take care


Samantha Cooke
Principal

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CONGRATULATIONS to the following students who received a classroom award at assembly:

• P1A - Ollie; Wynter
• P1B - Carter; Luna
• 34A - Tamikah
• 34B - Scarlette; Robbie
• 56B - Ruby W; Max G

CONGRATULATIONS to River for demonstrating our RIPRR Values and receiving an award.



CONGRATULATIONS to Max and Ruby for being selected from the 'Good Deed' box and helping out around the school.

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Happy Birthday to the following students:

MAY	STUDENTS
2nd	Izaac D; Dathan M; Ivan T
3rd	Phoenix I
7th	Olivia M
12th	Lily K; Rayden T
13th	Evelyn D
14th	Cohen C
15th	Vikram D
17th	Kalesia
20th	Tyson K; Daisy I
22nd	Lyla B
23rd	Will J; Autumn L
25th	George S
27th	Mia G
28th	Sonny J
29th	Amaya H
31st	Tremaine B

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On Wednesday 30th of April some of our Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 students went to Ballam Park to compete against other schools in our area in the District Field Athletics.  The students represented our school well and put in an amazing effort.

Congratulations to all the students who competed on the day and a special mention goes out to students who came away with ribbons in their events. 

The following students came first in their event and have qualified to move on to the next level of competition (Divisional Athletics):

* Dathan - High jump
* Eliana - Discus
* Brock - Discus
* Harlee - 800 metres and long jump
* Pippa - Shot Put
* Tindra - Long Jump

What a wondeful achievement!  

Well Done!

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Quote of the Day:

Our garden is an amazing everchanging outdoor classroom for us to explore and enjoy each and every day!

It's our 1st Birthday!! 

I remember clearing a little patch for our Fairy Garden in April last year and promising Sam a beautiful Community Garden with a vision to engage our students "To sow, grow, nurture and harvest"...

Since then together we have planted a beautiful Perennial Butterfly Border full of year round colour, raised herb planters hosting basil, parsley, mint and thyme as well as a bed of strawberries! 

Our four amazing apple crates are brimming over with vegetables and herbs.

Snow peas are racing up our rustic Wonky Arch as Nasturtiums twist and tumble their way promising a riot of orange and yellow over the coming weeks! 

Our wok and salad combos are thriving as are chives, spring onion and newly planted potatoes, carrots and radishes! (I've never known children who enjoy munching on spring onion, but they do!!)

In colourful containers we have sown Loganberries, Daffodils,  Poppies and Sweet Peas as well as cuttings recently planted out by the students, learning how to create new plants from what we already have...

Year 3/4 students can now admire the beautiful garden bed they planted opposite their classrooms last term and a cheerful border has replaced a once bare Rockery! 

Our garden team now includes Julie, Jo, Emily and Michelle who joined us this week for the first time. Together we share the children's joy and excitement when they come into the garden asking: "What can we plant today?"  or "When can we get more seeds?" or "What's that flower called; is it edible?" 

We learn that leaves have different textures, some flowers are honey scented to attract butterflies and bees. We've discovered that some flower heads can be tapped gently to gather seeds and that some herbs remind us of pizza and pasta (basil and pizza thyme)!

Congratulations to Luna who has grown her own little veggie patch of snow peas, radishes and corn from seeds we gave her!

Well done to Jessica for looking after the Fairy Garden with some TLC...

Special note of thanks to David Adams who has kindly donated a much needed storage shed as well as his time to assemble it during the school holidays; much appreciated and already an integral part of the garden. 

Many thanks also to Frankston North Men's Shed for making gorgeous bird houses and a bird feeder for our garden and thank you Michelle for arranging this. 

Also during the school holidays Jo (grandmother to Darcy) stitched together lengths of bunting now decorating the garden adding colour, movement and a touch of whimsy!

Please visit our Community Garden; it is for us all to enjoy and to be proud of! 

Marilyn

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Another year...another fantastic Easter parade.

We finished last term with our highly successful event of the Easter Bonnet Parade. Wonderful child made bonnets were paraded with excitement.

Each year, we are able to raffle more prizes due to the generous donations of our community. A VERY BIG thank you to you all.

Thank you to Michelle and Tamara for their support to put the raffle prizes together. We outdid ourselves this year with 35 easter basket prizes.

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On Thursday morning the 24th of April, our Year 6 Student Leaders led an ANZAC Day ceremony in our hall.  With pride and respect, they paid tribute to the brave men and women who served and sacrificed our country. 

The ceremony included a commemorative address, the 'Ode of Remembrance', the playing of The Last Post and the Rouse, and a respectful minute of silence.

In preparation for the day, classes across the school explored the significance of ANZAC Day.  Students listened to stories, watched videos, and participated in thoughtful discussions about the meaning behind this important event.  

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Mother’s Day Raffle – Last Chance to Enter!

With our Mother’s Day Raffle being drawn this Monday, this weekend is your final opportunity to purchase tickets and return them to the office by Monday morning. Tickets are just 50 cents each!

Thanks to the generosity of our school community, we have some fantastic prizes up for grabs. The first prize is a $200 restaurant voucher for 2Elements at Karingal Hub.

This is just one of several amazing prizes. We’ve also received wonderful donations from Kazz, who has been incredibly generous in supporting this raffle.

We’d also like to acknowledge the fantastic efforts at the Mother’s Day stall yesterday. The children had a chance to purchase something special for their mums and other significant females in their lives. We extend our heartfelt thanks to Kazz and Kelly for the beautiful artwork they created to personalize many of the items on offer and also to Rhian for making the amazing heat packs.

THANK YOU to the following amazing parents and carers who assisted our students to make their purchases: May, Kazza, Toni, Amanda, Sarah, Tamara, Kelly, Laura and Mick. 

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Please make sure you read below for details on Education Week 2025.

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We have enrolled as a donation partner in the Container Deposit Scheme.

This allows you to select Karingal Primary School as the recipient of your refund when you return qualifying containers.

Please encourage your family members to support our fantastic school by choosing Karingal Primary School as the receipient of their refund

Our unique donation code is: C2000009959 

or you can use the following barcode:

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Dear local Primary School parents, and future McClelland College families,

I write to you today with exciting news about the McClelland Early Learning Childcare Centre which will be open at the beginning of 2026. The ELCC will be next to McClelland College on Belar Avenue.  

A builder has been appointed and clearing work will begin during these school holidays. Commencement will bring challenges as well as opportunities. The challenges will include the removal of the beautiful trees which are on this part of the property, as well as the temporary disruption to traffic flow on Belar Avenue. You will see in the map attached there are provisions for ELCC staff and parent car parking, so this should not affect current Belar Ave parking. We will be retaining the tree trunks and repurposing them for other college construction, student projects, and hopefully to use in the building of outdoor furniture like student seating. We will also be provided an additional 30 mature gum trees for planting around the college and ELCC site.

The opportunities include the employment and child enrolment openings which will be advertised around April and May by Early Learning Victoria. There will be advertisements for roles such as Early Learning Teachers, Educators, administration, and cooks. Job opportunities are advertised on the Early Learning Victoria website: Work with us | earlylearning.vic.gov.au You can also fill in an Expression of Interest on the website to stay up to date about Early Learning Victoria jobs as they become available. It would be great to see staff appointments from our within community at our new ELCC, so please consider applying.

McClelland College students will also have future opportunities at the ELCC for Work Experience, Structure Workplace Learning (VM), and School Based Apprenticeships in hospitality, business administration, as well as the obvious childcare. This is a very exciting privilege for our senior students.

Child enrolments for waitlists will be open soon for childcare and kindergarten places for 2026 commencement. The centre will also have spaces for services such as Playgroup and Child Maternal Health outreach, which will be communicated later.

Frankton Council have provided us with material regarding traffic and parking to support our community with the regular expectations, so please keep this in mind, particularly as we will have occasions where construction may temporarily increase traffic on Belar Avenue.

Council would also like to remind our community that Belar Avenue is ‘Permit Zone’, which they may have to reconsider once the ELCC is completed. The permit parking is only on the residential side of the street opposite the school, with the 5 minute drop-off and pick-up restrictions on the school side. Please do not park in this zone prior to pick up in the afternoons, and consider parking further away from school where it is permitted (eg Ballam Park) and having your child walk to your car, this will allow a greater turnover over vehicles looking to access the 5 minute parking zone, and assist with our neighbouring residents use of the road.

Whilst I have you, I would like to thank-you for attending our 2025 Open Night. Initially we had around 400 people registered, but on the night it ballooned to between 600 and 700 people. The feedback was exceptional with hundreds of primary school students excitedly getting around the college having a go at all of our amazing offerings. Thank-you to our staff who all gave up their family time to provide the evening and were so proud to show off their part of the school. In 2024 we had 9 Year 7 groups, and in 2025 we have 10 Year 7 groups; this Open Night has again demonstrated we are a school of choice for a large number of families, however we are also committed to the current size of our school, which is a perfect fit of offering every student their pathway choices, whilst retaining a community feeling where everyone is familiar. All families are welcome to book a school tour and come and see us during the school day. You will see our beautiful buildings and grounds, as well as walk through our calm and focused classrooms. All students in zone and siblings of current students will be offered a place at McClelland College, with consideration of out of zone enrolments.

This concludes my first full year as principal at McClelland College. I am extremely proud of our college and have loved every day so far. Thank-you everyone who has made me feel so welcome from Day 1, what a wonderful community to be part of. If I didn’t meet you at Open Night, I look forward to meeting you in the near future.

If you would like to read McClelland College's Newsletter, please click on the link below:

https://newsletters.naavi.com/i/Na7aLjM/issue-3-2025/page/cover

Kind regards,

Laura Dowdell Spence

Principal

laura.spence@education.vic.gov.au 

McClelland College  ‪9789 4544 

31 Belar Ave, Frankston VIC 3199 

www.mcclellandcollege.vic.edu.au

 

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The Victorian Government is delivering the School Saving Bonus (SSB) – a one-off support of $400 for eligible government school students from Prep to Year 12 in 2025.

The SSB can be used for uniforms and textbooks until Monday 30 June 2025.

Any funds remaining after 30 June 2025, including online voucher amounts that have not been redeemed, will become a credit to use on school activities. However, the credit will not be available on your family account at our school until late July. To use any remaining SSB funds to cover the cost of school activities in July, please refer to the SSB online system and allocate the funds to school activities before 30 June 2025. To learn more about the SSB online system, download the step-by-step System guide for parents and carers (DOCX, 945KB) or watch this School Saving Bonus video. System guide translations are also available in 14 languages.

The Department of Education’s SSB contact centre will remain available until 30 June 2025. The contact centre can be reached by:
* completing the School Saving Bonus enquiry form
* calling 1800 338 663, between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm on weekdays.

After this date, please contact the office team for any SSB related questions.

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The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) helps eligible families to cover the costs of school trips, camps and sporting activities.

If you have a valid means-tested concession card, or are a temporary foster parent, you may be eligible. A special consideration category also exists for asylum seeker and refugee families. Means-tested concession cards must be valid on the first day of Term 1, 2025 (Tuesday 28 January 2025) or Term 2, 2025 (Tuesday 22 April 2025).

A student aged 16 years and over who is considered a mature minor and holds a valid concession card is also eligible to apply.

Eligible families will receive a payment of $154 per year for primary school students. The funds will be paid directly to the school to be used towards camps, sports and excursion costs for the benefit of your child.

If you applied for CSEF through our school last year, you do not need to complete an application form this year, unless there has been a change in your family circumstances.

If you would like to apply for the first time, please contact the school office and ask for an application form. Please return completed application forms to the school office as soon as possible.

 

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Term 2 Events still to come:

Week	Dates	What is Happening?
8	9th - 13th June	Monday: Kings Birthday Holiday Tuesday: Curriculum Day Wednesday: 56 Lightning Premiership
9	16th - 20th June	Monday: P-4 Swimming Tuesday: P-4 Swimming Wednesday: P-4 Swimming Wednesday: School Council Thursday: P-4 Swimming Friday: P-4 Swimming Friday: Newsletter emailed
10	23rd - 27th June	Friday: Assembly @ 2.45pm
11	30th June - 4 July	Thursday: Free Dress Day: PJs Thursday: Reports handed out Friday: Karingal's Got Talent FINAL Friday: Newsletter emailed Friday: Assembly @ 2.00pm Friday: Term 2 finishes @ 2.30PM

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In Loving Memory of Kayla Day (former student)

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Kayla Day (20 years old) who sadly passed away on Saturday 3rd May. She was deeply loved by family and friends and will be forever missed.

Kayla is a former student of Karingal PS. She has two siblings Hannah and Hunter. Hannah was also a former student and Hunter is a current student of our school.

During this unimaginable time, we are asking for support to help the family with funeral and memorial expenses. If you are able and feel moved to contribute, a GoFundMe page has been set up in Kayla’s honor:

? Fundraiser by Hanna Day : Kayla’s funeral and memorial service

Your kindness, support, and prayers mean more than words can express.

If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out.
Help is available. 

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