18 June 2025

From the Principal

When asked to “rate” our school, our community gave our school an average score of 4.6 out of 5, from 123 individual responses.

Thank you.

Reading the comments (I’ve read them all) and looking at the scoring was an extremely humbling experience and also one that I can tell you all the staff (I have already shared with them) are grateful for. We know that we have a supportive community, and we have built this up over time. Fostering mutual trust between home and school is an involved and committed process. One that we take very seriously and one that we have tried really hard to improve over the last decade.

Once upon a time, we didn’t get the same feedback. There was a lot more room for growth for our school. Now we know that, on the whole, we are meeting the needs of our community. Also, you know that we care, we try hard, and we will always try to improve and grow. Those statements are paraphrasing from your words.

The question we posed was: If you were talking to a parent with a child at a different school, would you recommend Cambridge Primary School? Offering 5 responses on a Likert-scale from ‘Absolutely NOT’ (1) to ‘Absolutely YES’ (5). A 3 score would be indifferent. For the maths nerds, the mean (average) was 4.58 (from between 1 to 5) and the mode (most popular answer) was “Absolutely YES (5)” with 89 responses. When I put this question into the survey, I had to dial up my own courage – asking an anonymous survey for feedback can be fraught with danger in the responses. I couldn’t have imagined that the results would be as strong in the positive. It can be a difficult task and process when you get different data back. We have never received “bad” data, but we have received less favourable. This shows that we have listened, and we have worked to improve and grow. It also shows that you see that we have.

Impressively, the tone of the feedback was superb. If you had feedback for us to improve, it was delivered constructively and in a way that we can understand and work through. In general, the tone of the comments was really mature. The entire process of this short survey (which was responded to by around 70% of families) has demonstrated that our community can have a dialogue about difficult ideas and undefined problems with maturity and with respect. Our improvement as an organisation is only the better for being able to do so. As such, I’d personally like to thank you all for taking the time to respond. We really appreciate it.

We know we don’t get everything right all the time. And if you do feel like something isn’t right, please let us know. From the 123 respondents, there were 3 responses in the negative about recommending our school. As 120 people feel different, I’m confident that there aren’t any major course corrections to be made. I do, however, have a lot of empathy for those 3 people – if my child was at a school that I didn’t like, but nearly all families were happy, it would be frustrating. As it was anonymous, we can’t reach out to you. So, if you are one of the 3, or you’re just unhappy with something, feel free to contact the office and we can have someone closest to the issue respond. Maybe we can’t fix things, but we can listen.

Tonight, the School Association will meet, as per usual. The biggest item we will discuss is the specific camp survey data. I’ll ask all committee members for their position. Any vote will not be binding, as the School Association’s role is not in the operations of the school. It would be difficult to have a significant charge to families without School Association support.

There are 3 possible outcomes from a process like this:

1. Our Community flatly reject the proposition.
2. Our Community nearly all support the proposition.
3. The proposition does not have enough support, at this time, to be entirely successful.

The first two situations are obvious. The third is less so. One example would be the change in uniform. We looked to change uniform in 2012 and then in 2015. At both times, the community did not fully embrace the proposition. However, in 2025, we have changed the uniform, and I have never seen more students at school in uniform. Additionally, we have had (can count on one hand) minimal complaints. Sometimes an idea needs more time to be successful.

I’ll write to you all by the start of next week with an outcome regarding a 2026 Camp. No decision has yet been made.

Either way the outcome falls, it will be really important to remember that a cohort of our families will be disappointed. Being empathetic, humble, gracious and mature in our response is not only most productive, but a fantastic modelling experience for our children.

See you all soon – Courtney

Uniform Stock

Thank you all for your patience. Right as we changed supplier, the Victorian Government offered families a uniform coupon, dramatically extending lead times with all suppliers.

We have more stock nearly with us, and a further order a few weeks away (which should provide a large on hand stock).

To be honest, we’ve been caught out by the fast adoption of the new uniform. We have sold more tops and jumpers than we thought we would sell for the whole year. Through what we have sold and what is about to hand, we are close to 2000 articles of clothing.

Our balance was to always try and not have large sums of school money held up in uniform stock, as we receive money in, we buy more. Unfortunately, the longer lead times have impacted the plan.

We should, for the second half of the year, have more stock. We will also be distributing a parent survey and order form for 2026 in Term 3. We will look to get that stock locked in with our suppliers and here on site early.

Thank you all for your patience. On the plus side – the kids look great!

From the SRC

SPEAK UP! Stay ChatTY Shorts Day (no money needed) on Friday June 20^th

Pyjama Day (Bring 5 Coins) on Friday June 27^th   - Raising money for Archie Bear’s 100  (Archie Green and the Royal Hobart Hospital)

Rose Bay High School Information Evening

Clarence High School – Free Film Screening

Let’s Celebrate!

Community Notice Board