Principal’s Message – Newsletter 3 2026
Farewell to Sarah McIntosh
For the past 11 years, our school has been fortunate to have Sarah McIntosh working with families, students and staff as our School Chaplain and Student Welfare Officer.
Sadly, she will be finishing up at Boronia Heights Primary School on Wednesday 11th March to take on a similar role at James Cook Primary School in Endeavour Hills.
Sarah has been an important part of our wellbeing team and has supported so many students and families during her time with us. Her care, warmth and consistent presence have made a real difference and we are deeply grateful for the contribution she has made to our school.
While we are sad to see Sarah go, we are also very proud of her and pleased that she is taking on a role that will allow her to continue supporting young people in the Endeavour Hills community.
Moving forward, programs such as Kids Hope and free fruit in classrooms will continue as normal. The social skills will be changing to a new model with members of our Education Support team running a program called Social Stencil. This program will be similar to our reading and maths intervention programs whereby ES staff will work with small groups of children for a limited number of weeks based on the skills they need.
Kristy Foster remains the key contact person for families who may be seeking additional welfare support.
A card will be in the office for families to may wish to write a word of thanks to Sarah. If you can’t make it to the school to write in the card, please email to Tracey Holden tracey.holden@education.vic.gov.au and she can add your message.
Parent helpers
A very special “Thank You” to all the parents who came along to the parent helper course over the past two weeks. It was great to see so many parents learn about the ways you can support learning in the classroom.
We really appreciate the time you’re willing to give and the interest you’ve shown in getting involved. Your support makes things run more smoothly and it’s always good to have extra hands and friendly faces around the school. We look forward to seeing you in classrooms soon.
Rotary Youth Skills Shed on Sunrise
For the past two years, the Rotary Club of Boronia have partnered with the school to run a Youth Skills Shed program. You may have read my posts in previous newsletters about the work they do to teach children trade-based skills that lead into hands-on learning. Ray Seigersma, incumbent President of the Rotary Club, was instrumental in setting up this program, and last year was awarded $20,000 as a winner of the Westfield Local Heroes. To recognise his remarkable achievement, along with other winners of the award, the Sunrise program on Channel 7 are doing a special live cross during the weather report at 7:30am. Families are invited to attend the live event on Tuesday 3rd at Zerbes Reserve, Blackburn Rd, Doncaster East. If your child has been part of the Youth Skills Shed program, or you’re keen to support Ray and the school’s partnership with Rotary, please arrive at the venue between 6:30am and 7:00am. I’ll see you there!
Free resources for families of adolescents aged 10 to 14 years
The Department of Education has launched an Easing into adolescence webpage for families of students aged 10 to 14 (Grade 5 to Year 8).
The webpage has information and strategies you can use to help ease your child into adolescence and secondary school. These include:
- a guide to emotion coaching. Staff from The University of Melbourne’s Tuning in to Teens Kids program developed the guidance.
- how to support your adolescent with their studies and more generally. Parenting expert and clinical psychologist Andrew Fuller helped develop this resource.
Subtitles for videos by The University of Melbourne on the webpage are available in 10 languages. You can select your preferred language on the translations page.
For questions about these resources, contact the Strategic Partnerships, Transitions and Student Voice team. You can email them at Secondary.School.Transition@education.vic.gov.au.
Grade 4 Camp
The grade 4 camp to The Island in Cowes is happening next week from Monday 2nd March to Wednesday 4th March. There’s a lot of buzz and excitement from the students about going on their first school camp. This is an amazing experience for them and I’m sure they’ll love it. I’m also attending the camp on Tuesday night and Wednesday and I can honestly say it’s one of the best camps in Victoria. The facilities, activities, location and food are terrific. Camps are a great way for kids to develop independence, and it’s always a highlight of the year
Have a great week.
Mat Anderton
Principal