Starting Primary School
"You’re off to great places. Today is your first day! Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way! "- Dr. Seuss
Starting primary school for the first time is a big moment for all children and their families. Our Transition and Orientation program aims to provide our future Foundation students with all the support they need to flourish in their first year of primary school.
2025 Foundation Students Transition
DatesSession 2: Wednesday 6th November at 9:15 - 10:00 Session 3: Wednesday 13th November at 9:15 - 10:00 Session 4: Wednesday 20th November at 9:15 - 10:00 |
Classroom Orientation Students will attend school in groups of 20 to participate in a classroom-based activity for 40-45 minutes within a current Foundation classroom. Parents are encouraged to drop off their child and pick them up after the session is complete. Students need to attend all these transition sessions. |
Parent Information Sessions While your child is attending the transition program, we will be running parent information sessions to familiarise families with our school community. The parent sessions will be located in the Library. 6th November: Wellbeing and Inclusion at CNPS 13th November: School Information and Out of School Care 20th November: Mingle with other parents in our Coburg Crop with our current Parents & Friends (P&F) team. Second Hand school uniforms will be available on this day. |
Session 5: Wednesday 27th November at 9:15 - 10:00 |
Meet your Teacher and Classmates Students will spend the morning in their foundation classroom. They will meet their 2025 teacher and classmates. They will participate in some classroom activities and get to know their teacher. At the end of this session your child will receive a letter confirming their 2025 class and a ‘how to guide’ to help you book your child’s literacy and numeracy testing times for the start of the school year. |
Parents During your child’s last transition session, take a break, unwind and see you back at school at 10am. |
PARENT INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION
Communication: Parents will be required to connect to Compass to receive all school communication. Compass guides can be found on our Compass page in the parent section of this website. Compass will allow parents to receive the school’s communication and access to the school’s newsletter. Please contact the school's front office on 9354 1660, if you are having problems connecting to Compass.
Virtual Story Time
Staff that children will meet in the first year of school, will introduce themselves and read a story to them via our Story Time at CNPS page. We encourage all of our parents who have students starting Foundation to watch all of our stories. This will help children to identify our friendly staff that they will frequently meet while at school.
Click here to go to our Virtual Story Time website
You can also introduce your children to other staff members at Coburg North Primary School by listening to their favourite story told during our 2021 Book Week celebration.
Click here to go to our 2021 Virtual Family Reading Night
Story Time
In Terms 2 and 3 each year, members of our Foundation team run a Story Time session for children below school age. These sessions are held to familiarise themselves within a school environment whilst participating in activities such as reading circles, songs and rhymes, and play based social activities.
Sessions run every Wednesday at 2:30pm and conclude at 3:15pm. Places will be limited to 30. Bookings open every Monday at 10am through the office at 3954 1660.
Social Stories
A social story is a narrative made to illustrate certain situations that may cause anxiety for some children. They are a positive approach to allow children to get a better understanding of situations and how to deal with them.
Our Foundation teachers have created some social stories that may assist children with any anxieties they may have.
Our Social Stories:
- Welcome to Foundation
- My First Day at School
- Playing Outside
- Eating Time
- My Special Testing Day
- Going to Before and After School Care
Important Tips
- Social Stories are a positive approach which should be introduced to children in a calm and comfortable environment using a positive tone while reading.
- Children should never be forced to read a story.
iWonder Project
For our school community, children’s voices provide valuable feedback about what we can do to support children and families transitioning to school. Parents will be asked to have a conversation with their child about any wonderings they have about school. Children will draw their wonderings and have a personalised response from a current Foundation student. Parents will be provided with all the children’s wonderings and answers illustrated in our ‘Wondering About School’ ebook.
Information regarding the iWonder project will be sent out to enrolled families in Term 4.
PARENT INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION
Communication: Parents will be required to connect to Compass to receive all school communication. Compass guides can be found on our Compass page in the parent section of this website. Compass will allow parents to receive the school’s communication and access to the school’s newsletter.
Parent Information Booklet:
Parents can download our Parent Information booklet from Compass. This can be found in the news feed as well as in school documentation section (click on the people icon).
Please see the link below to see how to access the documentation on Compass:
How to access compass documentation
Parent Information Night
Our Parent information night is held during Education Week each year. The night provided parents with an opportunity to give families more information about our school’s vision for our students and all the great programs the school offers.
Parents and Friends Welcome:
Parents and Friends (P&F) will hopefully be able to welcome Foundation families at the traditional Welcome BBQ in term one which we host alongside the Reader Information evening. It is a great opportunity if you are new to the school to meet other parents, have a chat and get to know each other.
The P&F organise a number of events throughout the year to not only to raise funds but to grow school spirit which has been obviously very important to us over the past few years. Our last P&F fundraising event was the ‘Plants for Panels’ Spring Plant Market, which we ran for its second year online to raise funds to purchase solar panels for the school.
There are many ways to help out and get involved and we’d love to see new members join the committee. Find out more about the P&F on our website or email [email protected] to get involved.
AFTER SCHOOL CARE
Before and After School Presentation:
Parents are encouraged to look over the presentation from TheirCare who is our private OSHC provider. This presentation outlines their enrolment process, payments, absences, first aide/medication. This will be available on the school website.
TheirCare Presenation
School Tour
Please go to our School Tour page for more information