Week 2, Term 1

CAMPS, SPORTS & EXCURSIONS FUND (CSEF) 2026

School camps provide children with inspiring experiences in the great outdoors, excursions encourage a deeper understanding of how the world works and sports teach teamwork, discipline and leadership. All are part of a healthy curriculum.

CSEF is provided by the Victorian Government to assist eligible families to cover the costs of school trips, camps and sporting activities.

If you hold a valid means-tested concession card or are a temporary foster parent, you may be eligible for CSEF. A special consideration category also exists for asylum seeker and refugee families. The allowance is paid to the school to use towards expenses relating to camps, excursions or sporting activities for the benefit of your child.

CSEF payments cannot be used towards voluntary school charges, nor towards books, stationery, school uniforms, before/after school care, music lessons, etc.

The annual CSEF amount per student is $400 for primary school students.

HOW TO APPLY:

New applicants should contact the school office to obtain a CSEF application form.

If you received CSEF funds at your child's school in 2025, you do not need to complete an application form in 2026 UNLESS THERE HAS BEEN A CHANGE IN YOUR FAMILY CIRCUMSTANCES.

You MUST complete a new application form if any of the following changes have occurred:

·        NEW STUDENT ENROLMENTS; your child has started or changed schools this year.

·   CHANGED FAMILY CIRCUMSTANCES; such as a change of custody, change of name, concession card number, SIBLING/S HAVE MOVED ONTO SECONDARY SCHOOL (and need to be deleted from your Application) OR NEW SIBLING/S have commenced school this year.

We cannot apply for the CSEF on your behalf - check with the school office if you are
unsure.

Applications must be received by 30th April, 2026.

NO LATE APPLICATIONS CAN BE ACCEPTED

FunRaisers

One of the ‘Play is the Way’ games being played around school this week is ‘Piccadilly Circus’ which is an energetic, and often noisy, game that requires students to be good communicators and work in a cohesive team to be successful.

Hello from the Prep rooms!

We have had a lovely start to the year, and the Preps have settled beautifully into the school year. We appreciate your support in helping your child arrive each day feeling prepared, calm and ready to learn.  Our Grade 6 Buddies have been incredible, helping us during recess and lunch and supporting us to feel safe and confident in the school yard.

This week, we have been busy learning the routines and rules of school and working together to create our class agreement, helping to make our classroom a happy and safe place to learn and grow. We have also enjoyed getting to know each other better by sharing our “All About Me” bags and finding out more about what we like and enjoy.

In Literacy, we were introduced to Milo Monkey and are excitedly meeting the characters he invites to his birthday party as a way of learning the letters of the alphabet, the sounds they make, and how to write them. So far, we have met Sally Snake and had lots of fun exploring the letters M and S. We enjoyed identifying words that begin with these sounds, practising how to write the letters, and especially loved making the character.

In Maths, we explored patterns through singing pattern songs, creating patterns with body movements, and designing patterns using a range of materials including natural objects, blocks, shapes, pasta and pom poms. We even made our own ‘patternpillars’!

As part of our Wellbeing program, we were introduced to the Golden Rule, “Treat others as you would like them to treat you” and discussed different scenarios to decide whether they followed the Golden Rule.

Next week in Literacy, we will meet more characters invited to Milo’s surprise birthday party and begin exploring rhyming words and nursery rhymes. In Maths, we will start learning about time by exploring the days of the week, the months of the year, and sequencing daily events such as brushing our teeth.

A reminder to please book a time for your child’s Prep Assessment Interview (Wednesday 11th, 18th or 25th of February) if you have not already done so. Please refer to the email sent earlier this week for booking details or see us if you need help.

Have a lovely weekend, 

Nicole and Laura

Hello Parents and Carers of Grade 1 and 2! 

It has been fantastic to see all of the smiling faces of students returning to school this term. This term, we began our school year by getting to know our routines and settling in with some fun games and activities to start the day. We are also sending students home with our “All About Me Bags”. These are for students to put items into and bring back to school. This term, we have also worked together to create Class Agreements to help build a happy and safe space.  

In Literacy, we have started looking at our Big Question Time activity for the term. Our big question is “How can we contribute to our community?”. Students have been looking at the definition of a community and what it means to be a part of a community. The story that we have been reading in relation to this is “The Enchanted Wood” by Enid Blyton. This is about three children who discover a magical forest near their home called the enchanted wood.  

During numeracy sessions, we have been exploring place value. Students have been playing different place value games which have required them to identify numbers in the tens and ones places. We have also engaged in games and activities that have required students to practice their counting and comparing and ordering two-digit numbers.

For our wellbeing sessions, we started with playing Piccadilly Circus, which is part of the Wilson Games. We have also been looking at what it takes to treat others as you would like to be treated as part of our school philosophy. We read a story called “Do unto Otters” by Laurie Keller, and students did an activity which required them to make otters.

It has been a great start to the school term and we look forward to the term ahead. 

Have a great weekend!

Lauren, Claire, Sarah and Peter

Hello and welcome from the Grade Three and Four community! 

It has been lovely to hear the classrooms and school yard filled with excited chatter and laughter as the children began the 2026 school year. They have been busy getting to know their new teachers and classmates and participating in a range of games and activities to learn about one another and form connections with new people.  

We began the year by establishing and practicing class routines and expectations and worked together to create our Class Agreements to help build a happy and safe space at school.  

This week, in Literacy, we began our novel study of Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. This is an adventure story about eleven-year-old Michael, who falls overboard during a family sailing trip and washes up on a remote Pacific island. Throughout the week we have been revising the structure of a narrative, the four sentence types, and practicing writing sentences using adjectives.

During numeracy sessions, we have been learning about place value by reading, writing, comparing and partitioning numbers during games and activities. It was lovely to see students explaining their thinking to the class and trying new strategies. 

As part of our wellbeing program, students have been focusing on the golden rule, Treat others as you would like them to treat you, by discussing what this means in our classes and drawing how we would like others to treat us.  This enables us to have a safe and harmonious classroom where everyone can learn. 

We were all very excited to beat the heat when we began our swimming lessons this week. This will continue over the next few weeks, so please make sure your child has their swimming bag on Mondays with a towel and bathers and ensure all items of clothing are named.  Next week will also be a busy week with the swimming carnival on Friday. Please remember to ensure that your child has a packed rashie, and about the importance of wearing it. It might also be a good idea to pack extra food and water, as sometimes swimming creates a BIG appetite. A special thank you to Carly for organising our swimming program and for getting in the water to help us with our swimming skills!  

In the classroom we will continue our work on place value in Maths, delve further into narratives when studying Kensuke's Kingdom in Literacy and students will write about what they love about Dja Dja Wurrung Country when writing their own Acknowledgement of Country.

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Sally, Louise, Jay and Carly

Hello everyone and welcome to 2026!

It’s been wonderful getting to know our classes over the past week and a bit. We’ve been focusing on establishing our classroom routines and creating our Class Agreement — a document written and signed by all students. This outlines the expectations we have for one another to foster a positive and respectful classroom environment.

There’s always a lot of housekeeping in the first couple of weeks of a new year. We’ve been busy setting up laptops, creating a meaningful Acknowledgment of Country, preparing House Captain and SRC speeches, and writing letters to our future selves – these have been sealed in the back of students’ learning journals to revisit later in the year. 

Please note that House Captain and SRC speeches and voting will take place early next week. We’ll also be swimming again on Monday. A quick reminder to check your child’s uniform — it’s amazing how much students grow over the summer break! With the warmer weather, some may need a uniform top-up or adjustment.

We started Week 2 with a trip to the pool! It was fantastic to see students participating enthusiastically in the program, even if the water was a little chilly. We’ve also continued exploring our Play is the Way program, supporting students to become empathetic, independent, self-managing, and self-motivated learners.

This term, we’ll begin our inquiry into The Age of Exploration, investigating the history and impacts of colonisation. Students will be encouraged to consider multiple perspectives and use their critical thinking skills to unpack key historical events.

In Mathematics, we’re starting the year by looking at data representation. Students will collect, interpret, and display data accurately, learning to select the most effective ways to present their findings.

We hope everyone has settled into their new classrooms and school routines. We can’t wait to see what 2026 brings! Have a great weekend.

Swimming Grade 3-6 

Following a great start this week, Gr 3-6 Swimming Lessons continue on Mondays in February at the Castlemaine Outdoor Pool. Please remember your sunsmart swimming top. Parents and carers are required to walk the class to the outdoor pool and back – please contact your class teacher if you can help. Monday, 23rd February will be our water safety day and your child can bring additional clothing to wear over their bathers on this date. We also encourage students to go without their goggles on this day to simulate scenarios that might happen when we’re not expecting or prepared to enter the water.

Class schedule: 

3/4S depart 11:00, class 11:30, return 12:30 

3/4L depart 11:35, class 12:05, return 1:00 

3/4JC depart 12:00, class 12:30, return 1:30 

5/6R depart 12:40, class 1:05, return 2:00 

5/6PS depart 1:05, class 1:30, return 2:30 

5/6BN depart 1:40, class 2:05, return 3:00 

5/6HT depart 2:05, class 2:30, return 3:25 

House Swimming Carnival for all Gr 3-6 students on Friday 13th February. Come dressed in your house colours. This event includes ‘competitive’ 50m swimming strokes for 10-12 year olds (age at 31/12/2026), participation swimming strokes across the width of the pool and novelty team events in the shallow end. Every student in every event will earn points for their house team. 

(Goldfields Division Swimming for our select 10-12 year old students is on Friday 27th February.) 

School Sport Victoria Team Vic State Representative Teams 

The Team Vic representative program provides a development platform for Victoria’s emerging student athletes to participate in the annual School Sport Australia Championships. School Sport Victoria coordinates the selection process for Team Vic teams in partnership with relevant state sporting organisations which is delivered by a network of more than 140+ Team Vic Officials. Depending on the sport and team, the selection process involves: State trial(s), progressive or conference model, results from event(s), or based on rankings/results or talent identification. For further information and sports registration dates please see https://www.ssv.vic.edu.au/team-vic.

Please note that, for some sports, the registration closing date is February or March.

Castlemaine Gift Athletics 

Present the flyer below in the Community Noticeboard for free adult entry with a junior runner. There’s also a handful of flyer hard copies on the school office foyer table – please help yourself. 

Sunday 22nd February at Camp Reserve. Junior sprint heats for 5-13-year-olds begin at 10am. Turn up on the day. All junior runners receive some giveaways. The handicap final for junior heat winners will be on in the afternoon.

Welcome to or back to the Performing Arts program. It has been lovely seeing the students again and watch them settle into their new classes. I’ve been lucky enough to work with all of the grades except the Preps. I look forward to meeting them soon.  

I have focused on short, sharp games based around music, dance and drama and the 1/2 grades have enjoyed dramatic play. There has certainly been a great energy from the grades and the courage to have a go and support from their classmates is wonderful to see.  

In choir news, we have been invited to be part of the Castlemaine State Festival celebration. On Opening Night of the Festival, there will be a singing performance from students in the area, showcasing songs created for and by Nalderun and the Meeting Place kids over its fifteen-year history.  We have 25 spots that we can fill and I have had about 20 interested students. There is the possibility of a few more students to join us, so please feel free to talk to your child and see if they are interested in being part of this exciting performance opportunity.

Prep L

Max M - for your wonderful attitude to learning.
Herta B - for making sensible choices and being a great role model so early in the year.

Prep N

Scarlett C - for your enthusiasm and eagerness when discovering patterns in Maths.
Aggie B - for your kindness, fun and lovely manners that you bring to our classroom.

1/2 CS

Leo L - for the consistent way you are demostrating the Golden Rule.
Florence T - for the effort and creativity you are putting into your writing.

1/2 E

Bettie B - for being an upstander and making sure all your classmates feel included.
Oscar S - for the kind and caring way you included a classmate in a game with your friends at recess.

1/2 S

Digby F - for showing passion when engaging with your mathematics this week.
Nina P - for being kind and thoughtful towards others and helping them in the classroom.

3/4 J

William C - for your enthusiasm and passion when playing Super Mega Lucky Box.
Tait E - for the way you supported a peer and have been open to making new connections.

3/4 L

Mason C - for your honest, insightful reflections that demonstrate a commitment to personal growth.
Arthur C - for demonstrating compassion and empathy for a classmate.

3/4 S

Ella M - for the brave way you gave advice and support to your classmates when playing Piccadilly Circus.
Ru W - for the kind and caring way you helped a friend in need.

5/6 BN

Clem L - for the positive way you've started the year.

5/6 HT

Rafi A - for the way in which you have completed all the set tasks in a positive manner.

5/6 PS

Henry C - for kindly offering to support a classmate.
Thomas C - for the care and effort you put into your symmetry face and acknowledgement of country.

5/6 R

Dylan L - for always offering a helping hand and making time to politely say goodbye at the end of each day.
Taylah C - for showing strong focus in all our lessons this week and writing a passionate house captain speech.

Indonesian

Archer H - for making great choices in Indonesian and being an excellent listener.

Community Noticeboard