Community matters
The school year has started with gusto and we have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunities to welcome families into our School during the first few weeks. Community matters at Castlefield and I am so grateful to our parents for engaging in coffee mornings, information sessions and social gatherings that have been on offer to date.
Lunar New Year
Commencing school on Lunar New Year gave us the opportunity to invite a group of lion dancers to bring prosperity and good luck to the 2025 school year. It was wonderful to have so many families join in the acknowledgement and celebration.
Welcome to Country
Our Welcome to Country performed by Jaeden William, a proud Yulukit Willam man of the Boonwurrung, acknowledges the commencement of the school year and the learning that will be taking place on country.
Our students have approached the year with a sense of purpose and have settledseamlessly into the routines, expectations, learning and fun that has taken place during the first few weeks. Our culture of connectedness has seen students spend time meeting new peers, making friends and getting to know the teachers.
Our students being ready, prepared, engaged, completing their routines and being reflective are the cornerstones of our Culture of Learning and we continue throughout the year to support and educate the students in how to be the most successful learners they can be.
Student leaders in both the Junior School and Middle School have been inducted at respective assemblies. We look forward to seeing what these impressive young leaders will contribute to our school this year. The Middle School Captains, Lenni and Arianna , addressed the Middle School with outstanding presence, inclusivity and vision for 2025.
Early Learning Centre
Bringing Melbourne’s arts and culture into Pre-Prep
Inspired by Melbourne’s vibrant arts scene, our Pre-Prep children immersed themselves in creativity through their very own ‘obliteration room,’ inspired by the Kusama exhibition. Some families even visited the NGV over the school break, allowing us to connect home experiences with classroom learning.
Together, the children joyfully contributed to a dot art installation, exploring the concept of infinity. Starting with a completely white space, they placed colourful dot stickers wherever they liked, watching as the installation transformed through collaboration and shared creativity. This experience beautifully highlighted the power of working together, echoing Kusama’s words:
"Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos.” Yayoi Kusama
Recycling with Purpose
The ELC promotes various recycling initiatives for children and families. The foyer serves as a recycling hub for collecting plastic bread tags for wheelchairs, soft plastics, beauty product packaging, glass bottles for deposit schemes, and cardboard for creative reuse. Additionally, the Take 3 for the Sea initiative encourages collecting at least three pieces of plastic during beach visits to protect marine life.
Early exposure to recycling can foster a sense of community and shared responsibility, empowering children to make positive change in their world. Engaging children in these activities helps nurture a generation that values sustainability and environmental stewardship.
Junior School
Inducting leaders
Recently, Junior School House leaders were inducted into their roles for Semester 1, 2025. It was quite a process from applying to becoming elected as a leader. At the first assembly of the year, students sat in their House groups and listened to the values of Clements, Jackson, Kennedy and Russell. The Girls Middle School and Boys Middle School captains read out the House pledge and encouraged our Year 4 students on their leadership journey.
Swimming
Our Years 1, 2 and 4 students are relishing in the opportunity to be in the pool, particularly on those super hot days. Our swimming program, run by Aquastar, is held in one of the two PE periods in the week over the course of the term. Prep and Year 3 students will have their swimming program in Term 4.
Reminders
Junior School children can only be picked up in the afternoon from one of three places: directly from their homeroom at 3.30 pm, from the roundabout, or from The Meeting Place. We want to ensure the safety of all our children and picking up from one of these three places means they are always under the supervision of a teacher. The Meeting Place is located in front of the Year 1 classrooms in East Quad and a teacher is on duty there until 3.55 pm each day. If you are running late or have a Middle School child picking up their Junior School sibling, this is the perfect spot to wait.
Middle School
Induction days
As we welcomed back our families and students, we started the school year with two induction days to kick off 2025. All students had the opportunity to get to know their teachers, learn all the areas, rooms and spaces around our campus and participate in many different events. From our Curious Minds Expo, scavenger hunts, cohort activities, Kahoot challenges and lots of sport, our students took part in all aspects of our program. Our Digital Learning Sessions ensured the students can effectively use and manage their devices for optimal learning, and our Culture of Learning sessions set a strong foundation for all our students ‘being ready, prepared, engaged and completing’ all classroom requirements in every lesson.
Camps
We are thrilled to see all our MS students head off to their camps in Term 1 for their special experiential learning. Fun will be had, challenges will be conquered, and friendships will be forged and grown as they embark on these amazing trips. We highly value the lesson, experiences and ‘outside of comfort zone opportunities’ that our outdoor education programs offer, and we encourage all students to come with a can do attitude, a thirst for challenge and some daggy clothes too. Between Phillip Island, Canberra, Rubicon Valley and Marysville, we have all adventures covered.
Our Year 5 students had a brilliant time at Phillip Island, playing mini golf, conquering the big swing, and surfing, just to name a few of the activities that they participated in.
Leadership induction
Our leaders are officially inducted. Congratulations to all our elected leaders on their formal induction assembly and good luck continuing to be the fantastic role models you are for everyone.
We congratulate our students on a fantastic (and warm) start to 2025 and we look forward to a successful year ahead.
Parking
Parking around the property is, at times, a difficulty. Our priority is the safety and wellbeing of our Haileybury community. Parents leaving via the South Road exit, please take care when turning onto South Road, particularly as the pedestrian crossing is so close to the exit.
Remember that all exits from the School to Villeroy and Rouen Streets close at 6.00 pm nightly. If you are attending an evening function, we encourage you to park on South Road and enter through the front gate.
There is no drop off/pick up zone in Rouen Street, with parking restrictions in place along one side at busy school start and end times.
There are clearly signed two-minute parking spaces outside Villeroy Street gate and this is to be used as a ‘kiss and go’ zone rather than disembarking from your car. Cars should not be left unattended.
Families are encouraged to use the South Road entrance as the preferred drop off and pick up location.
Please be considerate of the residents in the streets surrounding our School.
Haileybury Parents & Friends Castlefield (HPFC)
Second-Hand Uniform Shop (SHUS)
The Second-Hand Uniform Shop (SHUS) has been a thriving and busy place as the year commences and families are ensuring they have all the required items, plus spares! Thank you to the wonderful team of parents that volunteer to run this important resource for our community.
The SHUS is located near the Rouen St gate and is open at the following times:
Wednesday 8.00 am to 10.00 am
Thursday 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm
Katrina Manson
Head of Castlefield (Brighton)
