Today, students visited their new classes for 2025, meeting their new teachers and classmates to establish connections and build relationships. Teachers have provided a welcome letter for students and families which has been added to their take home envelopes.

Supporting Your Child

We encourage parents and carers to have a positive and supportive conversation with their child about their new class. It’s normal for children to experience a range of emotions after a transition visit. Many will feel excited after meeting their new teacher and classmates. However, some may feel upset or worried about their placement, which is also natural.

Please reassure your child that their current teacher and school leaders have carefully considered the best placement for their learning and wellbeing. If they have concerns, encourage them to speak with their class teacher who will provide further reassurance.

Rest assured, children generally adapt quickly to new learning environments and develop new friendships. As the new school year begins, we encourage students, teachers, and parents to focus on fostering positive relationships.

Important Notes:

• Class placements are final. Moving students affects multiple class groupings, and for this reason, we are unable to accommodate placement changes.
• Our teaching and leadership teams have worked diligently and thoughtfully over many weeks to create balanced classes. We kindly ask for your support of these decisions.

Staffing Update

We welcome the following teachers to Craigburn for 2025:

• Katherine Hagias. Katherine has taught in the early years at Seymour College for the past four years and is excited to be joining us at Craigburn teaching Receptions.
• Bec Drozdoff. Bec has extensive teaching experience in the early and primary years of schooling and is looking forward to teaching Year 1s next year.
• Natalie Shearer. Nat is an experienced primary years teacher who will be working in tandem with Pearl Somerset teaching Year 5s.

We also retain the following contract teachers for 2025:

• Jodie Fischer
• Sophie Sutherland
• Jimmy Marin

We farewell the following teachers and thank them for their contributions:

• Laura Fazzalari: We extend our best wishes to Laura is leaving to prepare for the arrival of her baby in February/early March.
• Kieran Buhagiar: We thank Kieran for teaching the Year 6s while Andrea Grant was on leave and hope to see him working with us next year as a TRT.
• Claire Loveband:We thank Claire for teaching in tandem with Anita and the Year 2s this term, and hope to see her working with us next year as a TRT.

Teaching Staff List for 2025

Reception

• D20: Brooke Hamden (MTF) / Jess Watton (WTh)
• D21: Katherine Hagias
• D22: Genna Dow

Year 1

• E23: Bec Drozdoff
• E24: Crystal Thanawathik
• E25: Chloe Bremner

Year 2

• A1: Tahlia Woolford
• A3: Anita Wright (MTF) / Emma Bower (WTh)

Year 3/4

• C14: Veronica Khalaf
• C15: Renae Humphrys (MTWF) / Chantelle McMahon (Th)
• C16: Rebecca Hepworth (MTWTh) / Chantelle McMahon (F)
• C17: Sophie Sutherland
• B13: Steven Webster

Year 5

• B11: Pearl Somerset (MTW) / Natalie Shearer (ThF)

Year 5/6

• B8: Andrea Grant
• B9: Mark Lemmey
• B12: Tristan Fergusson

Specialist Teachers

• German: Carly Smith (D18 – TWThF)
• PE: Karen Pettman (Gym/Courts/Oval – TThF)
• Performing Arts: Jimmy Marin (F26/27 – MTThF)
• STEM: Jodie Fischer (A7 – 0.4), Additional staffing to be confirmed (0.6)

Leadership

• Deputy Principal: Nicky Taylor
• Principal: Paul Luke

We look forward to an exciting and successful 2025 school year.