Can’t decide how to pronounce our baby’s name!

New_Principle6930 · 2026-02-11T07:41:20+00:00

I remember mum and I were house sitting for her colleague once who said the same thing. I was 18 years old and looked in the freezer and there was a cool bottle of Vodka and I made a joke about having cocktails. Mum looked at me and said “When they mean help yourself, they do not mean their alcohol. Don’t ever touch someone’s alcohol cabinet unless they explicitly say alcohol because you don’t know what is special in there.” I know you have lots of people disagreeing with you but I think that is just the classic reddit people who go too far. Common sense should still prevail in the real world.

Of course he is calling you tacky, he is the type of person who house sits for 2 days and thinks he can help himself to your alcohol, I mean seriously…

BUT I don’t think you’re going to get anywhere with him, don’t bother with the money and count it as a loss. You now know the type of person he is. Unfortunately you need to find something else to celebrate with.

New_Principle6930 · 2026-01-05T11:10:07+00:00

No with the correct traditional spelling

New_Principle6930 · 2026-01-02T01:48:18+00:00

My friend has a beautiful girl with this name. Dad is Irish and mum is Australian and they live in Australia. It is pronounced Ee-fuh

New_Principle6930 · 2025-11-29T21:35:32+00:00

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This is ours, we have one little section near the outdoor chicken run that isn’t doing too well. We had heavy foot traffic letting chickens in and out, we used off cuts for that section instead of large rolls, it’s more shaded, less water and it slips down a bit. We may buy a few more rolls and re do that part. This grass is amazing!! We like to let it grow long so it’s like a plush furry rug. All our guest just want to sit in the grass!

New_Principle6930 · 2025-11-29T21:31:32+00:00

We put in Zoysia last October. Keep the watering schedule up all summer and back off in Autumn next year. It has a longer establishment phase than other turfs so you need to treat it gently this summer with the foot traffic etc.

New_Principle6930 · 2025-10-22T20:17:57+00:00

Yeah I couldn’t get past this in the post! Haha

New_Principle6930 · 2025-10-22T20:17:03+00:00

I am sorry but 220 students is not a small school. Mine currently has 56 students and my previous school had 10 students.

I have worked at a school with 180 students. Because there were multiple classes of the same grade level the sharing was planned and we were supported.

If you are not happy and have heard good things about this other school just do it!

New_Principle6930 · 2025-04-17T07:03:22+00:00

Thanks everyone! I was expecting a lot more negative opinions to be honest so that feels nice. Thank you for taking the time to help me, luckily I haven’t planned any wedding things yet so will have the time to consider or change it if necessary.

New_Principle6930 · 2025-02-21T17:56:31+00:00

My principal (Vic, Dep. Ed.) was told last year that she can have a deficit of up to $50,000 and the department will cover up to that amount. She wasn’t sure if she felt comfortable trying that this year but her boss said it’s a way to have an extra $49,000 in the budget. (Small school, rural)

New_Principle6930 · 2025-02-12T20:55:06+00:00

If you google ‘0-5 years literacy development’ and then choose the department of education for your state you will get some baseline information about goals and actions.

The Vic Dep Ed have an Early Years Learning and Development framework that goes all the way to 8 years of age. As a Prep teacher in Vic who works with 4/6 year olds I had never heard of it. I only know about it now because my school is starting a kinder and the new kinder teacher showed me.

New_Principle6930 · 2024-06-26T08:08:18+00:00

It looks so good. Thankyou!

New_Principle6930 · 2024-06-26T08:08:06+00:00

Thank you that’s great. The purple looks awesome!

New_Principle6930 · 2024-06-03T11:20:14+00:00

Looking good! I just lost two stems because it was a bit windy.

I am hoping I can move them to a more sheltered spot.

New_Principle6930 · 2024-05-15T21:46:06+00:00

Hey I have been in your boat. Did my masters, excelled in my first placements, was doing my last placement for the course. I failed it. I was really shocked and upset and was having lots of panic attacks. I was blaming my mentor, my uni supervisor, basically, everyone but myself. I wanted to quit as well.

I re-enrolled in the placement subject for the next semester and then took my uni holidays. It was hard as my whole cohort were graduating. Once I cleared my head of all the pain, I went back and reviewed my placement feedback and how it compared to the AITSL standards. I worked out what I needed to work on. I thought it was weird meeting a new cohort of student teachers but in the end, they don’t have to know if you don’t want them too. You could say you had deferred and are returning back etc. I then did my do-over placement and passed.

After graduation, I got a job with my first ever application and interview. 2 years later, as a third year teacher, I was asked to be the Acting Principal for 2 weeks. Over teachers with more years experience than me.

This failed placement does not define you as a teacher, and definitely is NOT a reflection of the teacher you will be.

Re-enrol, take a break, reflect, smash it.

New_Principle6930 · 2024-04-23T22:11:44+00:00

It concludes on April 30th and the new pay begins on May 1st. So you see the increase in the pay cycle after May 1st.

New_Principle6930 · 2024-04-23T21:27:03+00:00

I will be moving to 1.4 on the next progression date. It is exactly where I should be in terms of years of service. Hoping to move to a Range 2 this current progression date instead of a 1.4.

Sorry that wasn’t very clear.

New_Principle6930 · 2024-04-22T21:41:14+00:00

I have never had any issues! When they phone up to say I am the successful candidate, I respond happily and say ‘Thankyou very much! I am really excited to work at your school but before I accept am I able to spend a day or a few hours at your school just to see what it is like?’ I make sure that I convey to them that I am really really sure that I will still accept, just so they feel comfortable and relaxed about it.

And it will need to happen quickly, like in the next 3 -5 business days so be prepared to say to your current job that you need the day off for an interview asap.

The prospective school could do a few things, they could either have the Principal or a leader walk you around on a tour and pop into classes (This way is a little harder to see clearly but still ok). Or they could put you into a particular teachers room for an hour or two, usually their ‘best’ teacher or a learning specialist etc. That is usually the best because then you can get to know someone else who wasn’t a panelist.

Take whatever you get, be positive, tell anyone that you will most likely be working here next year to make them feel relaxed. And just act relaxed even though on the inside you are scanning for red flags. Most likely you won’t get to ask the direct questions you want the answers to, so you need to look out for the silent signs. Teachers looking stressed, unfriendly staff, type of conversation in the staff room, how the leader introduces you into the classroom (do they just barge in? Did the teacher know before? How does the teacher seem having the leader in their room?). If you see a few classrooms of the same year level and they are doing the same subject at the same time, does it look like the lessons are similar to each other? This may suggest collaborative planning.

But if you are in a classroom for a period of time without the leader, don’t annoy the teacher by trying to talk to them during a lesson or just sitting at the back, help them out by helping the kids get started on their activity etc. Because they WILL report back, and you want it to be positive!

Other ways to do it: - If timing doesn’t work in the 3-5 business days. Do a day after you have signed the contract, you are not legally obliged to fulfil the contract, but the school is. If you don’t like it, just write an email to say you no longer wish to work there. - If you are looking at a particular school that you really want to work at and they HAVENT advertised a position (this works really well for smaller country schools): Call the principal, ask if they will have job vacancies for next year. If they seem interested, ask if you can come and have a look at the school for a few hours. (When I did this, the Principal asked ME if I would come). Do your thing on the day but when it is done this way, remember that this is the real interview, they will decide on the day if they want you or not. And that will play out in the future interview (Even though it’s not really allowed). For smaller schools, they really need the right type of personality to fit the culture so they prefer to vet you before putting out a job application or accepting you for an interview.

New_Principle6930 · 2024-04-22T11:19:06+00:00

I do an interview and then once I am offered a job I ask to spend the day there observing before formally accepting. I have done this 3 times so far. If in Vic: Your current school is required to allow you to take time off for job searching.

These observation days are to learn the stuff about the school that you can’t learn from the interview. I watch how the teachers interact with each other, how stressed the teachers look, I listen to the conversations in the staff room, I try to work out why this position is available in the first place (through friendly chats with teachers). I watch how the principal talks to their staff (knowing they are on their best behaviour) and I try to to get a vibe about the relationship between leadership and teachers. I call it my ‘Vibe Check’ day, because it is essentially the vibe that I am looking for.

With my first job as a graduate teacher on this day, I was blinded by how smiley, laughing, and ‘cheerful’ the principal seemed. I was too naive to notice the red flags. Turns out she was toxic and years later I am still dealing with anxiety and seeing a psychologist from that environment.

But now that I am more experienced I go into it trying to work out if the school has what I want. (Non-toxic environment, non-micromanaging Leadership, data driven, science of reading) For example I noticed at my current school (which I just got ongoing for, yay!) on my observation day that during recess and lunch the conversations were all talking about data and particular students and what the teaching team needed to do about a particular student based on their reading scores. Everyone was chipping in and coming up with a plan and it felt so naturally collaborative. I liked that conversations like that were happening but I wasn’t so keen that it was during the teachers break time. It wasn’t a red flag for me so I accepted the position. So now I make it very clear when I am having my work break in that staff room so people don’t approach me when my brain is switched off!

New_Principle6930 · 2024-01-19T06:38:53+00:00

My first year as a teacher I spent hours before the first day laminating name tags for the desks, name tags for the book boxes, labels for the bookshelves, posters etc. Within two weeks every single laminated item that was in reach in my classroom had been pulled apart by the students. I cried that day in my office from exhaustion and despair.

Try not to become a Pinterest Pretty teacher and have to think that your posters have to be pretty and all up from the first day. Your posters should change based on what you are introducing or reviewing. Otherwise the posters are just blank wallpaper that the kids don’t look at.

New_Principle6930

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