LPS eNews
8 October, 2026
Principal's Message
Welcome back for the final term of the year. We especially hope our twelve new and returning families have a great start at LPS. Please read the Communications page in this eNews to familiarise yourself with how we'll communicate with you.
With new security in place on our website, eNews is back up and running. This week, we'll recap some special events from the end of last term, as well as looking forward.
Thank you to the fantastic helpers from Parents Group, who finished last term on a high note with Footy Pie Day and the Father's Day Stall. With plans for this term including some 'familiar favourites', please check out the Contribute: Parents Group page.
In this eNews, we're sharing some photos of our Grade 5 camp in mid-September. Our students had a thoroughly enjoyable few days. School camps rely on staff making themselves available to supervise these excited students. Thank you to some energised staff for making the camp so successful for our Grade 5 students: Arna Moore, Jana Loucas, Anna Cosgrove, Samantha Gray, Kathy Dedes, Damon Burns, Jayde Fielding, Matthew Arnott, Natalie Kiriati and organiser Chris Rodgers.
Some updates on staff changes:
Tomorrow, we say farewell to Charlotte as she transfers to a school much closer to her new home. Charlotte has been such a positive, professional presence in the office and we wish her all the best for her next step.
Ethan Duffy, one of our regular CRTs, is now a member of our P.E. team. Welcome also to Hannah Justice and Sam Newdick, who recently joined our Education Support (Aide) team.
Our updated staff list can be found here.
With 2027 just around the corner, and a teacher shortage still in full force, we need to finalise student numbers:
Is your child starting Prep next year? We have completed our Prep enrolment process, so please let us know urgently if you still need to enrol.
We are also trying to finalise our 2027 Grade 1 - 6 enrolments and staff needs. If your child is leaving LPS this year (except for Grade 6 students), please email our office, as this information affects our staffing.
Finally, as we head into our School Review this term, we're grateful to the sixty-four families who completed the 2026 Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey last term. Adding to the survey results, some parents also volunteered to have individual conversations about their views on LPS in 2027 - 2030. Thank you everyone; your feedback and suggestions were very worthwhile.
Kim
Our Vision: Learn • Thrive • Contribute
Communication at L.P.S. (especially for new families)
For information about how the school operates, please see our 'Starting at Laburnum Primary School' page, which includes the A - Z of Useful Information for Parents. This important document was updated in December, and can also be located on our website under the Enrolment tab. Everything on our website can be translated into your home language.
As part of our International Student Program, we employ a wonderful Chinese-speaking staff member. Please contact Hui Lin via a message to our office if you need her Mandarin translation skills. Hui Lin works Mondays and Thursdays, and is invaluable during Parent-teacher Meetings.
For families who need other language translators, we employ either in-person or phone interpreters from the Department of Education's dedicated service. Please let us know if you need to use this resource to meet with our staff.
To regularly communicate important information, we use both LPS eNews (our electronic newsletter) and Sentral (for most emails to and from parents). Please ensure you read any messages sent by the school. LPS eNews is emailed to all parents/carers fortnightly and contains essential information about important dates and events. The eNews archive is found on our website here.
A reminder to all our new families to create their Sentral Parent Portal accounts as soon as possible, as this is the school's main avenue for communications to specific families, as well as excursions, student reports and parent-teacher meetings. You can also email your child's teacher about non-urgent matters through Sentral.
Instructions and access codes have been sent home with your children. The Sentral Parent Portal is also used to upload documents, and includes the 2026 School Map and Parents Group minutes each month.
LPS eNews usually contains a combination of these pages:
- Principal's Message
- School Council Update from the School Council President
- What's Happening? from the Assistant Principals
- Learn, about academic news
- Thrive, for wellbeing news
- Contribute: Parents Group news
- Contribute: Community information
- Thrive: Superstars, recognising those who have wonderful achievements to share
- Priority Projects: where we update you on projects that are improving our school
As well, all year levels and specialists regularly share their news in these pages:
- Prep
- Junior School - Grades 1 & 2
- Middle School - Grades 3 & 4
- Senior School - Grades 5 & 6
- Specialists
We hope that you'll be using these resources to become more familiar with our school.
Our Vision: Learn • Thrive • Contribute
What's Happening?
2027 class placements
Many factors are taken into account when placing students in class groups for the following year. Underlying this process are our school values and, as Resilience is something we aim for all students to develop, mixing with different students each year is both desirable and carefully planned.
During Term 4, all students have an opportunity to nominate other children they would like to have in their class. We can usually guarantee that one of these requests is met. This process is undertaken with their class teacher at school, so parents do not need to make requests on behalf of their child.
If parents have a particular request that is separate to your child's own preferences, these should be made in writing by email to laburnum.ps@education.vic.gov.au and addressed to the Principal (not your child’s teacher). They must be received by Wednesday 4 November. These are then considered along with those of other families, teachers and students.
As in previous years, please do not ask for specific teachers for 2027, or make friend requests on behalf of your child, as these requests will not be considered. We also respectfully ask that your requests are reasonable. If necessary, please limit these to one or two requests per child so they can be manageable as we try to juggle competing and often conflicting priorities.
Due to the complex process involved, late requests cannot be accepted.
Our Vision: Learn • Thrive • Contribute
Senior School - Grades 5 & 6
Term 3 was a busy and exciting term in Maths! Students spent time building their confidence with fractions, decimals and percentages. They discovered how these different representations can be used to describe the same part of a whole. They enjoyed putting their learning into practice using toy catalogues, calculating discounts and exploring how amounts can be represented in different ways.
Students also explored chance and probability through games and experiments. They investigated how likely different outcomes were, used fractions to describe probability and created probability trees to explore the different outcomes possible.
A big thank you to all the parents/carers who joined us for our Inquiry Expo. The students were so proud to share their learning about native endangered animals and enjoyed having the opportunity to celebrate their hard work.
After such a busy term, and with a few tired faces after our school camp, we looked forward to a well-deserved Term 3 holiday break.
Grade 6
Summer Interschool Sports
Last term, Grade 6 students represented our school in basketball, cricket, tennis and volleyball. It was fantastic to see students not only developing their sporting skills, but also demonstrating the school values of Integrity, Curiosity, Resilience and Respect.
Across all four sports, students showed integrity by playing fairly, following the rules and taking responsibility for their actions. They demonstrated curiosity by learning new skills, trying different strategies and being willing to improve their game.
There were some challenging moments, but the students demonstrated resilience, encouraging their teammates and continuing to give their best, even when things didn't go their way. Most importantly, students demonstrated respect by supporting their teammates, opposition players, coaches and officials.
Our Grade 6 basketball and cricket teams have had a particularly successful season, with one basketball team and one cricket team progressing through to the next level of competition. This is a wonderful achievement and a reflection of the commitment, teamwork and determination shown by these students.
Congratulations to all our Grade 6 students who participated in summer sports. Whether they were competing on the court, field or tennis court, every student should be proud of the way they represented our school and lived our values through sport.
Curiosity • Respect • Integrity • Resilience
Thrive: Raising Children Network
Raising Children Network – Positive Family Relationships
The Raising Children Network is funded by the Australian Government and offers free and practical information to help parents and carers navigate the ups and downs of raising children. The information is up-to-date, evidence-based and reviewed by experts. With easy-to-digest information tailored to ages and stages, raisingchildren.net.au helps parents navigate the daily decisions of raising children and looking after their own needs. There are also ideas to help you support your child’s wellbeing and build strong, positive relationships at home.
Below is an article from the Raising Children Network about the benefits of connecting with your child/ren.
Positive Family Relationships: Why they are important and how to build them
Key points
- Children feel secure and loved when they have strong and positive family relationships.
- Positive family relationships help your family members solve problems, work as a team and enjoy each other’s company.
- You can build positive relationships in your family with quality time, communication, teamwork and appreciation.
Why are positive relationships important for families?
Strong and positive family relationships are enjoyable for their own sake – it just feels good to be part of a warm and loving family.
But positive family relationships are important for many other reasons too. They:
- help children feel secure and loved, which gives them confidence to explore their world, try new things and learn
- make it easier for your family to solve problems, resolve conflict and respect differences of opinion
- give children the skills they need to understand and build healthy and strong relationships.
This is why it’s worth maintaining and improving the relationships you share with your children and other family members.
There are plenty of simple things you can do to develop positive family relationships.
Positive family relationships are an important part of strong families. Strong families grow from love, security, communication, connection – and a few rules and routines too.
Quality time and family relationships
Quality family time is about making the most of the time you spend together as a family.
How to make quality time happen in your family
- Use everyday time together to talk and share a laugh. For example, family meals and car travel can be great times to catch up on the day.
- Have time together when devices are turned off and out of sight. This helps to keep everyone focused on what you’re doing or talking about at the time.
- Have one-on-one chats with each family member to strengthen individual relationships. It can just be 5 minutes before each child goes to bed.
- Set aside time with your partner, if you have one. You could explain to your children that it’s good for your relationship with your partner to have this quality time alone together.
- Do regular, fun things together as a family. This can be as simple as a family soccer game at the local park on Saturdays or a family board games night each week.
- Have regular family mealstogether, and give everyone a role. For example, someone sets the table, someone clears the table, and someone washes up.
Positive communication and family relationships
Positive communication is about listening without judgment and expressing your thoughts and feelings openly and respectfully. It helps everybody feel understood, respected and valued, and this strengthens your relationships.
How to use positive communication to strengthen your family relationships
- When your child or partner wants to talk, try to stop what you’re doing and actively listen. Give people time to express their points of view or feelings.
- Be open to talking about difficult things – like mistakes – and all kinds of feelings, including anger, joy, frustration, fear and anxiety. But if you’re feeling strong emotions like anger, it’s best to wait until you’ve calmed down before talking about them.
- Be ready for spontaneous conversations. For example, younger children often like to talk through their feelings when they’re in the bath or as they’re getting into bed.
- Plan for difficult conversations, especially with teenagers. For example, sex, drugs, alcohol, academic difficulties and money are topics that families can find difficult to talk about. It helps to think through your feelings and values before these topics come up.
- Encourage your children with praise. For example, ‘It’s a big help when you bring the bins in without being asked, Leo. Thanks!’
- Let everyone in the family know that you love and appreciate them. This can be as simple as saying ‘I love you’ to your children each night when they go to bed.
Positive non-verbal communication
Not all communication happens in words, so it’s important to pay attention to the feelings that your children and partner express non-verbally. For example, your older child might not want to talk to you but might still come looking for the comfort of a hug sometimes.
It’s also important to be aware of the non-verbal messages you send. For example, hugs, kisses and eye contact send the message that you want to be close to your child. But a grumpy tone of voice or a frown when you’re doing something together might send the message that you don’t want to be there.
Positive communication can be about respecting someone’s desire not to talk. For example, as children move towards the teenage years, they often want more privacy. But you can stay connected with teenagers through everyday activities and planned time together.
Teamwork and family relationships
When your family is working as a team, everyone feels supported and able to contribute. It’s easier to work as a team when everyone understands where they stand, so it helps to have clear expectations, limits and boundaries.
How to encourage family teamwork
- Share household chores. Even very young children can enjoy the feeling of belonging that comes from making a contribution.
- Include children in decisions about things like family activities and holidays. Give everyone – including young children – a chance to have their say before you make the final decision. Family meetingscan be a good way to do this.
- Let children make some of their own decisions, depending on their abilities and maturity. For example, you might let your 12-year-old child decide whether to walk or cycle home from school.
- Create family rulestogether that state clearly how your family wants to look after and treat its members. For example, ‘In our family we speak respectfully to each other’. Rules like this help everyone get along better and make family life more peaceful.
- Work together to solve problems. This involves listening and thinking calmly, considering options, respecting people’s opinions, finding constructive solutions, and working towards compromises.
Appreciation for each other and family relationships
Valuing each other is at the heart of positive family relationships.
How to show that you value each other
- Take an interest in each other’s lives. For example, make time to go to each other’s sporting events, drama performances, art shows and so on.
- Include everyone when you’re talking about the day’s events. For example, ‘What was the highlight for you today, Izzy?’
- Share family stories and memories. These can help children appreciate things that aren’t obvious or that they’ve forgotten – for example, Mum’s sporting achievements when she was younger, or the way they helped care for their sibling as a baby.
- Acknowledge each other’s differences, talents and abilities, and use each other’s strengths. For example, if you praise and thank your older child for listening to a younger sibling reading, your child will begin to see themselves as helpful and caring.
For more information, please visit raisingchildren.net.au
Our Vision: Learn • Thrive • Contribute
Prep
Wow!! What a busy and fun filled term 3! In week 6 we visited Chesterfield farm to learn about animals and what they need to survive. The students also enjoyed a tractor ride, petting the baby animals in the nursery, feeding enthusiastically hungry animals, watching a sheep dog show and learning about milking a cow. They even had the opportunity to milk one!
The following week included a journey of scientific discovery at the ‘Mad About Science’ incursion. Students enjoyed participating in fun demonstrations and learnt some interesting things about static electricity.
Book week dress up day was a real highlight of the term. Preps enjoyed dressing up as their favourite book character with many bringing their books with them. They really enjoyed showing off their costumes to the parents and other classes. There was a day of book related activities such as writing about who they were dressed up as and sharing their books with Grade four.
One of the most exciting parts of the day was when Dr Dray came and read a Fancy Nancy book to all the Preps!
In English we have used all these events as inspiration for recount writing. We wrote about each activity, ensuring that we sequenced the events in order and included interesting time openers, nouns, verbs and extra details.
And of course, Preps have continued to learn about Maths. They have been measuring height and length, comparing objects to find which ones are taller or shorter, longer or shorter or even the same.
Curiosity • Respect • Integrity • Resilience
The Fathering Project
The Fathering Project: Tumbling Towers Fun!
What a fantastic morning of fun, laughter and connection we had at our Tumbling Towers Fun! event last term.
Families came together to enjoy some friendly competition, with giant 
tumbling towers and pick-up sticks providing plenty of excitement — and a few dramatic moments as the blocks came crashing down! The event was a wonderful opportunity for dads, father figures and children to spend quality time together.
Playing games is a simple but powerful way to strengthen relationships. Through teamwork, shared focus, encouragement and plenty of laughs, families create positive memories and can enjoy being present with one another.
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us and helped make the event such a success. It was wonderful to see so many families connecting, supporting each other and having fun together.
We look forward to creating more opportunities for our school community to connect, play and grow together this term.
It's never too late to join The Fathering Project! If you would like to join, use the QR code below.
Our Vision: Learn • Thrive • Contribute
Specialists: Spanish
Spanish Language through culture and fun!
As time goes by, our students continue to make wonderful progress in their learning of a new language. Throughout the year, we have discovered many ways to connect with the Spanish language, and it has been wonderful to see that so many of our students remain highly motivated and enthusiastic about learning Spanish each day.
Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world and learning it opens endless possibilities. These possibilities help keep our students curious, engaged and eager to learn.
In this edition, I would like to share some of the exciting learning experiences our Grades 3-6 students have been involved in recently.
Celebrations from the Spanish-Speaking World – Grades 5 and 6
Students have been exploring celebrations from the Spanish-speaking world, with a particular focus on Spain, Peru and Bolivia.
From Spain, students learned about Las Fallas de Valencia, a famous festival in which enormous figures made from cardboard and wood are displayed throughout the city before being burned during a spectacular celebration in March. We explored how this tradition represents saying goodbye to the old and making space for new beginnings.
Students also discovered La Tomatina de Buñol, one of Spain’s most famous and unusual festivals. During this fun and colourful event, thousands of people take part in a giant tomato battle, a tradition that has become an internationally recognised celebration in the town of Buñol.
From Peru, we learned about Inti Raymi, an ancient Inca celebration that takes place in Cusco. The festival honours the Sun (Inti) and celebrates the winter solstice, reflecting the deep connection between Inca culture, nature and the sun.
Finally, from Bolivia, we discovered the Carnival of Oruro, a spectacular cultural celebration that brings together Indigenous and Catholic traditions. Students were fascinated by the colourful costumes, music, traditional dances and elaborate parades featuring characters such as angels and demons.
Our learning began by discovering each country and exploring the history and meaning behind these celebrations. Students watched short videos and participated in small group discussions, sharing what caught their attention, comparing these traditions with celebrations from their own cultures.
They then designed their own posters showcasing the celebrations they had explored. These colourful creations are now proudly displayed as part of a beautiful mural outside the Spanish classroom.
Discovering Spanish-Speaking Countries – Grades 3 and 4
Our Grade 3 and 4 students have also been busy exploring the Spanish-speaking world. They investigated different countries and learned about their location, capital city, currency, flag, traditional food, tourist attractions and important people.
Students worked in groups according to the country they were assigned and spent time exploring different aspects of their chosen country. They watched videos, discovered interesting places and landmarks, and discussed the similarities and differences they noticed along the way.
To conclude the project, students created a small country profile card summarising what they had learned. They proudly added their completed cards to their Spanish workbooks as a record of their learning.
It was a rich, engaging and enjoyable experience, giving our students the opportunity not only to practise Spanish, but also to develop their curiosity and appreciation for the diverse cultures, traditions and people of the Spanish-speaking world.
Curiosity • Respect • Integrity • Resilience
Contribute: Parents Group News
Family Photo Fundraiser
Need a beautiful family portrait? Book a professional outdoor session at Kalang Park, and 100% of the $30 fee goes straight back to Laburnum Primary!
When: Saturday, November 7th & Sunday, November 8th
Where: Kalang Park
Cost: $30 (includes your outdoor session + 1 high-resolution digital image)
Choose from over 50 poses; entire family or just the kids! No obligation to purchase extra photos.
Spots are filling up fast! Scan the QR code on the flyer to secure your time or go the links bellow to book your session:
Book here for Saturday, Nov 7th
OR
Mango Drive
The Mango Fundraiser is back!
Trays of Bowen Special (Kensington Pride) mangoes are available for pre-order now at $30 per one 7kg tray. To order please click on this link: www.trybooking.com/DPVJP
Orders close Friday 23rd October. Mango delivery to Laburnum PS is expected in late November, early December. The exact date will be confirmed.
Father’s Day Stall
Thank you to all the parents who came on the day to help out, the Fathers Day stall was a big success. A special shout out to Raylene.W, Leo W. and Brad B. who organised the Fathers Day stall this year.
If you enjoyed helping out, we do need more parents to join the Parents Group. There is no obligation to help or organise events however it is super fun and rewarding in so many ways.
Footy Pie Day 2026
We hope your child enjoyed their hot lunch at the end of last term! 292 pie orders were placed and a small profit of $238 was made. All funds raised by the parents group this year will go towards playground improvements.
Big thanks to all our volunteers who helped get the pies warmed up and distributed and especially to Nat L. and Jennie S. for organising the day.
Curiosity • Respect • Integrity • Resilience
Contribute: Community News
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