Dear Duffy School Community,
Welcome to Week 3, Term 3.

It’s hard to believe we’re already in Week 3 — the term is certainly moving quickly! We began with a very productive pupil-free day, where staff engaged in rich professional learning, including support for our Unit of Inquiry with Dan Heap from the Academy of Future Skills, and writing development with our own expert, Catherine Nash.

We’ve already celebrated some key events, including French Day, and we’re now looking forward to the upcoming Winter Walk to School, Science Week, and the highlight of any school year — Book Week!

This year’s Book Week theme is “Book an Adventure”, promising a whimsical and fun celebration. We can’t wait to see everyone get into the spirit at our annual Book Week Parade — it’s always a much-loved event across our school community!

See information below in LIBRARY SECTION. 

Our Limelight preparations are also well underway, and excitement is building among our performers. Students have been out and about exploring learning beyond the classroom. Recent and upcoming excursions include the Combined Band Excursion, Year 5’s visit to MOAD, and Year 4 and Kindergarten’s visits to Questacon — fantastic opportunities to bring science and inquiry to life.

Looking ahead to Week 6, our Kindergarten students will lead an assembly focused on our school value of inclusiveness. In conjunction with this, our Cultural Integrity Group will be highlighting and celebrating the integration of authentic Indigenous content across our preschool and school settings — an important and valued part of our teaching and learning.

We’re also excited to welcome families into classrooms for Learning Journeys in Week 9. These will be held on Tuesday 16 September from 3:00–4:00pm and Wednesday 17 September from 8:30–9:00am, providing a wonderful opportunity to connect with your child’s learning and classroom environment.

Finally, our wonderful Year 6 leaders will be hosting Market Day on Wednesday 17 September — a much-anticipated event for our whole school community.

We look forward to a rewarding and engaging term ahead.

Warm regards
Katie, Arilia, Sarah, Fiona and Julian. 

Celebrating Learning at Duffy.

Thank you to everyone who supported our School Review last term. The process was extremely positive, highlighting our strong sense of community, inclusive practices, and commitment to student learning. In response, we’ve developed a two-page document titled “Communicating Together About Your Child’s Learning” which outlines how we celebrate and share learning here at Duffy. We look forward to continuing this important partnership with you. Today your eldest child will be bringing home a copy of this document. 

Our recent French Day was a fun celebration of French culture, creativity and cuisine! Students rotated through five different activities that brought French traditions and history to life. They designed beautiful bookmarks inspired by famous French artists, crafted traditional bilboquets (cup and ball) toys, created colourful stained glass window art, constructed impressive Eiffel Tower models, and contributed to our very own Duffy Cave Wall, inspired by the prehistoric art of the Lascaux Caves.

A highlight of the day was the delicious French lunch featuring fresh baguettes and croissants. A huge merci to the Stromlo High School canteen staff for preparing so many orders – your support was invaluable!

It was wonderful to see our students embracing the spirit of the day, many dressed  in French colours or creative costumes. Thank you to all the staff and families who helped make the day such a success!

Nominations are now open for the 2025 ACT Public Education Awards. These awards celebrate the outstanding people who make a difference in our public schools every day.

If someone at your school has supported your child, inspired others, or gone the extra mile, this is your chance to say thank you.

Nominations are open from 16 June to 25 August.

You can nominate more than one person, in any category.

To learn more and submit a nomination, visit: act.gov.au/community/honours-and-awards/act-public-education-awards

Let’s recognise the people who help our schools shine.

Each year, the Directorate surveys all parents and carers, school staff and students in years 4 to 12 about their experience of public education. The 2025 School Satisfaction & Climate Survey will be available online from 15 August to 5 September. The survey results will help us to continue to make quality informed decisions about how to improve our school. No personal identifying information will be provided to any school or college. 

For each child in their family who attends an ACT public school, parents and carers will receive: 

•  A letter about the student survey outlining the reasons for collection and privacy provision for the data; and 

• An email about the parent survey, including a unique link to access the survey. Genuine survey invitation emails will have the title "The 2025 School Satisfaction & Climate Survey is now open!" and will be sent from EDU Surveys with a 'from' address EDUSurveys@act.gov.au

If you do not receive the survey invitation, please check your Junk email folder first then contact your school. If you do not have an email listed with the school, please contact the Front Office. 

The Parents and Carers Survey is available online in 13 languages including Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Urdu, Vietnamese, Punjabi, Bengali, Spanish, Telugu, French and Italian. Respondents can select their preferred language when they start the survey. A shortened paper-version of the Parents and Carers Survey is also available in the following 5 languages: Dari, Dinka, Farsi, Karen and Mon. These surveys are available at the Front Office. 

For the results to reflect the opinions of our whole school community, we need as many parents and carers, staff and students as possible to complete the survey. Your feedback is important, and we hope you will take part

For more information, visit: https://www.act.gov.au/open/school-satisfaction-and-climate-survey-results

You may have noticed an Individual Student Reading Record coming home. 

That’s because the Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge began on Monday 10th February. 

The challenge is for students to read 30 books between the 10th February and the 12th September 2025. 

Books recorded as read can include:

-Novels and Novellas

-Non-Fiction Texts

-Graphic Novels

-Books of Poetry

-Audiobooks

-Picture Books

-Books read to students by someone else

-Books read aloud to a younger sibling/cousin

The Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge is turning 21 in 2025! For 21 years, the challenge has been encouraging students all over the ACT to spend more time reading. 

Last year, Duffy Primary School Students read over 11,000 Books, beating our 2023 total by over 1000 books! At Duffy Primary, teachers will be recording all books read to students in class, and students are encouraged to record their reading at home on the Individual Student Reading Record, to be returned to school by the 12th September. 

Parentline ACT

Parentline ACT offers free and confidential telephone counselling for parents and carers in the Australian Capital Territory. This service provides guidance and assistance on various parenting issues, ensuring you have the support you need with no appointment necessary. Parentline ACT is open on Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. For support, call (02) 6287 3833.