About

Welcome

Vision Statement

We strive to develop compassionate global citizens through shared values and high expectations who think creatively and are responsible and caring life long learners.

Acknowledgement of Country

We wish to acknowledge the Boonwurrung people as the traditional owners of the land on which we come together and pay our respects to elders past and present.

Staff

Foundation Team

Alice Roberts, Stacey Jones, Rebecca Uccello, Zoe Richey, Shelley Alderman, Kellie LeCerf

Year 2 Team

Samantha Walsh, Anna Macrae, James Neale, Rosslyn Rosenberg, Samantha Beckhouse, Spencer Daly

Year 4 Team

Tamara Greene, Zoe Summerfield, Katrina Sands, Abby Chernishoff, Briony Beaver, Eliese Catterick

Year 6 Team

Leah Clarke, Hally Dalton, Joel Wylie, Stephanie Guest, Andrew Henry, Monica Waterworth, Nicole Trevaskis

Specialists Team

Therese Sakamoto, Elle Taylor, Jaclyn Morgan, Louise Jenkins, Helen Trend, Lindi Morrison, Susan Grostate

Technician

Sam Moriarty

History

Derinya Primary School first opened its doors to students in February 1971 under the leadership of Principal Angus McPhail. There were 8 teachers and 214 students at the school, most of whom relocated from neighbouring schools. Of the 214 students, 50 of them were new Preps.

Originally called Overport Heights, the name was changed to Derinya following confusion between Overport Heights Primary School and nearby Overport Primary School. The name was chosen from a short list and means ‘an egg, new life’. Other potential names on the list included Brownlow Heights and Sweetwater Primary School.

Derinya had five different Principals in its first five years, before the arrival of Principal Barbara Hogg followed by Rod Tacon who led the school from 1977 through to the late 1990s. Mrs. Jenny Roth stepped into the Principal position in 2001 and led Derinya for the next twenty years.

As we look back on the first 50 years of Derinya Primary School, we see a school that has constantly grown and evolved to suit the needs of local community. The buildings and grounds have continually evolved over the years and the student population has consistently grown from that initial 214 to around 900 today.

Student Leaders

Derinya Primary School offers many opportunities for student leadership both formally and informally. At the end of year 5, students are given the chance to submit a written application for a variety of leadership positions that are held for their year 6 year. These include: School Captains, Learning Leaders, Wellbeing Leaders and the full range of subject based leadership positions. The student leadership body is supported by the Student Voice Team.

When decisions need to be made about school facilities, programs and fundraising, our Student Voice Team (SVT) lead the way. Every student, from F-6 gets to use their voice and have their say in lessons guided by the SVT members. These ideas are by kids, for kids. We use fair voting to help us make decisions and to make sure everyone’s ideas are heard.

Each year, the SVT works on 4 student-voted projects in the areas of fundraising, school facilities, sustainability and student learning. We know that we can make the greatest impact by working together and the feeling of achieving our yearly goals is absolutely amazing.

School Council

Welcome to the start of the new school year in 2023. I would like to extend a warm welcome on behalf of the School Council to the Derinya Primary School community. In particular we would like to welcome all the new families and students attending this wonderful school for the first time in 2023.

As a school council our aim is to represent the wider community and uphold Derinya’s values of friendship, responsibility, respect, integrity, humour, optimism and resilience. Our objectives are to:

• Assist in the efficient governance of the school
• Ensure that its decisions affecting students of the school are made having regard, as a primary consideration, to the best interest of the students
• Enhance the educational opportunities of students at the school and ensure the school and the council complies with any requirements of the Education and Training Reform Act.

We trust that your experience at Derinya will be one that sets the foundations for a lifetime of learning for your children and builds a sound platform for community connections well into the future. The Derinya community has a proud history of fostering participation and there are many opportunities to get involved. From Community Connect, fund raising, DKD, working bees or helping out with class excursions, our community functions best through collaboration. We would love you to get involved and share in our enthusiasm in celebrating the wonderful vibrant community Derinya is. For more information please contact the staff in reception.

Danny Alcock
(School Council President)
On behalf of Derinya School Council

Policies