Across Oliver's Desk 

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Woori Yallock Primary School prides itself on its ability to adapt and embrace change, COVID-19 has taught us all that this CAN be possible, not without its challenges, but something that we should all be very proud of achieving.

As a school, we have had several changes, almost daily, to the restrictions and requirements outlined by Department of Education, one more notably than others, are the changes to the parent payment for 2022.  At Woori Yallock PS we endeavour to keep our parent payment/contributions as low as possible, making primary school very feasible for parents, we do this whilst ensuring that the children can make the most of their academic learning.  We are very wary of the fact that students have spent a lot of time in remote learning, and therefore, book pack contributions for 2022, have been significantly reduced. 

As you are all aware, education is free, however, the school invites you to make a contribution that will ensure our school can offer our students the best education and support possible.  The generous contributions that you all make, ensure that we can continue to provide these extra services that our school has to offer. Schools do rely on the wonderful contributions of parents.

Woori Yallock PS manages its finances extremely well, which in turn has meant learning conditions for our students are the very best.  Just to mention a few, we have modern devices funded by the school (almost a 1-1 ratio), we have extra teacher aides to work with students that don’t qualify for funding, we introduced science as a specialist area and we keep class sizes as low as possible, we have funded graduations and uniforms, and end of year celebrations for the children.

The government funding to our school does not increase for 2022 and therefore, if our school contributions are decreased, so is our ability to offer those ‘extra’ services and facilities.

I understand that many have experienced financial strain over the last 2 years, and we greatly appreciate any contribution that can be made to our beautiful school.  As always, we are here to help, if you would like to chat further about contributing, please do not hesitate to contact myself, Flick or the office staff. 

The Woori Yallock Community House

Our school has a brilliant relationship with the Woori Yallock Community House. WYCH is a fantastic facility that runs great community events. I encourage you all to have a look and see what programs and courses are currently running. Or to just drop in and have a friendly chat with Sonya or Robyn.

I would really like to thank WYCH for everything that they do for our school but particularly the effort that went into making sure we received a new fridge! Robyn (pictured below) worked hard with Veronica to secure funds from a grant.  A huge thank you from everyone at our school!

After school pick up

The only thing that is better in remote learning time is the after school pick up.   As we get back to normal next week, so will the busy pick up at the end of the day. To manage this we have gone back to two different pick up times.

• Students with surnames from A – K pickup time is 3.05
• Students with surnames from L-Z pickup time is 3:15

If there are parents that really need to be in the different time slot please just call the office and we will organise it. 

Access to the school by parents

On Monday 8th of November parents will again be allowed to go into the school and wait outside school classrooms to drop off and pick up their children.   To access the building and go inside, parents will need to prove to the office that they have had at least one dose of vaccination and are booked in for a second. After November 29th only double vaccinated parents will be allowed into the school buildings.  Whenever parents enter the school buildings, they will be required to QR code and wear a mask. These are Government requirements that we believe will be in place for at least most of 2022.

Prep transition activities and dates

We finally have conformation that these can go ahead! Jess Howe will be sending out further information to parents soon!

Friday November 12th        9:30 – 11am

Friday November 19th        9:30 – 11am

Friday November 26th        9:30 – 11am

Friday December 3rd          9:00 – 11am

Tuesday December 7th (step up day)      

 9:30 – 12:30pm

Breakfast Club

Breakfast club will begin again on Tuesday the 9th of November. 

Accolades for our school

Last week I had a call from my boss to say that the Area Executive Director of the Outer East schools (Clayton Sturzaker) is highlighting our school to David Howes.  David is the Deputy Secretary and basically the CEO of education in Victoria and reports directly to the minister.

We are being highlighted because all of our data (learning, welfare and attendance) has improved again, which is incredible considering the pandemic. This demonstrates what an awesome job our teachers, tutors and aides have done during the past two years.  It was a wonderful phone call and very proud moment for me to know that we are again being presented as one of the top performing schools in the state. Go WOORI! 

Goodbye to Lisa Tanner

Unfortunately our long term wonderful parent and before and after school boss, has decided to move on and work in early childcare.  Lisa has worked at the school tirelessly for over ten years, arriving first in the morning and leaving last at night.  Lisa began here when the school ran before and after school care. She then continued on when CIRE took over the contract.  In all of that time Lisa has always been regarded as WYPS staff member.  There will be hundreds of our children both past and present that will be sad that Lisa is moving on as they will now have to find someone else to shoot hoops with!    I can’t thank Lisa enough for everything she has done for our school. 

I’m sure you will all join with me in wishing Lisa every success in the future! 

Staffing

We are almost finished with staffing for 2022. I will be listing what grades the teachers are taking in the next newsletter. We will be growing one grade next year and we are pretty much at capacity! Having said that, we will remain a medium sized school and will not increase in size after this year unless there was a big housing development in Woori Yallock itself. In 2022 we will have:

• 4 prep grades
• 5 grades of 1/2 students
• 5 grades of 3/4 students
• 4 grades of 5/6 students

I hope you all get time to enjoy the weekend’s freedoms and cup day!   

If you can remember to escape to the wonderful world of a book! Mary Menta has recommended ‘the huntress’ by Kate Quinn.  

Which I’m going to start this week.

See you all very soon!