By Sahar Foladi
It’s the start of a new term in Victorian schools and start of a new aspect of life unlocked for preps as they discover new things in their first day of school.
Excited, nervous and overjoyed were the emotions of parents and children in Dandenong North Primary School (DNPS) as the teacher welcomed every student inside the classroom.
Mohammed dropped of his son Aryan to his classroom and said he’s very excited for his son to experience this new stage in his life.
“He is very excited and as parents we are excited too. His sister is also in the school she’s in Grade 2.”
Many children were second generation to attend DNPS as parents in this diverse community had great experiences.
Arman is one of those children.
“This is the second generation in our family to attend this school. My husband and brother in law studied here too,” Sakina Sheikh said.
“He’s bit excited and nervous to spend the whole day in school actually I’m excited for him too it’s his new step towards learning.”
Another parent attended DNPS in 1990 from Grade 1, graduated and went on to study in Dandenong High School neighbour to DNPS.
Acting Principal Paul Hilton said there’s 102 preps enrolled for 2023.
“We’re a school of about 800. Our preps might grow to about 110 to 111 because of all the new enrolments that are occurring over the next few days but it won’t reach 128 preps we had last year.”
Parents and children in Wooranna Park Primary School shared the same emotions with some parents even more nervous than their child.
“Harrison wasn’t nervous at all which surprised me I think I’m more nervous than he is but he’s definitely ready to start school,” Ms Trzeciak said.
Wooranna Park Primary School has welcomed 33 preps this year which is the highest for the school compared to last year.
“For us here all of our classes are multi age classes which is something Wooranna Park have done previously but we have that now from Grade 1 through to Grade 6,” Principal Amanda Ellaby said.
Ms Ellaby said their multi age strategy has been very well understood and received by the community.
“Knowing no matter what year level your child is in, our teacher is always doing their best to accommodate and understand where they are in their learning journey and what they need to teach them next.”
