The Principals’ Perspective – 13th November 2014 Congratulations to the Year 5 and 6 students who competed in the 2014 Australasian Problem Solving Mathematical Olympiad. The Year 6 team has been awarded a ‘Certificate of High Team Achievement” for achieving a team score in the top 25% of team Division J. Congratulations to Dominic Beech who achieved a perfect score of 25/25. There were only 125 students who achieved this out of 29,981 participants in this division. Jamie Garnham and Rohan Hodges had overall scores in the Top 10% of all participants and Andre Tchakerian, Chris Buckley, Josh Briant, Joshua Kok, Florian Osang and Adam Rabl had overall scores in the Top 25% of all participants. This was an outstanding achievement by all students. Congratulations to Sophie Aston for winning the State Rotary Public Speaking award for primary school students on Tuesday night. It is the first time it has been held across all districts in the State. Sophie placed 1st from 11 entrants across all districts. Thank you to the families who have notified me that their child/children will not be returning to Surrey Hills PS next year. This information is important as I finalise the 2015 home-group structures and staffing. We have a number of new families seeking enrolment, so accurate numbers are important to ensure that our classes remain small across all year levels. Small classes enable the strong focus on core literacy and numeracy skills to have the optimum effect, particularly in the Early Years. If your child has a particular learning need that may impact on their class placement, please put your request in writing to the Principal for consideration by Friday 21 November. I am unable to accept late requests as teachers will have commenced the placement process. Students will be given the opportunity to submit friendship groups to provide teachers with information that may assist them in this process. In allocating students to classes we want to provide the best learning opportunities for students through grouping students to allow them to work with and learn with others, build social skills and strengthen resilience. Marg Staley Principal Jen Sutherland Assistant Principal