A Word from the Principal 

A Warm Welcome to our Weeden Heights Community

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Congratulations and well done on your amazing effort of making it through term 3 with remote learning!!!   It has been a roller coaster of coming in and out of remote learning.  You have all done incredibly well and the teachers and staff have most definitely appreciated all of the support that you have provided at home in allowing your child to access the Google Meets and learning tasks.  I would also like to whole heartedly thank the staff for going ‘above and beyond’ to make remote learning as successful as it has been and also applying new techniques adding to the remote learning experience.  It is not an ideal learning for all but many of the students have continued to thrive. 

Students have said they are missing their friends so I only continue to encourage you to assist them in making social connections with their peers.  You all have each other contacts via the class representative so make a zoom date or allow your child to call on the phone.  It is critical that social connections are maintained and even more so as we head into the holiday period. 

We cannot wait to have the students back onsite at school but our direction comes from our State Government.   As you are now well aware, the details of our road map out of Stage 4 will be delivered by the Premier’s soon and then the Department of Education will set out the guidelines for government schools.  Stay tuned and I will provide information to you all as soon as I have it. 

Gratitude Wall

We are starting a community gratitude wall.   Each class has its own virtual gratitude wall that students are contributing to. We need to focus on the positives and be very thankful to our families and the people in the community who support us during these difficult times.  The staff and wellbeing team decided that we should have a parent community gratitude wall to add to the staff and students gratitude wall. 

Once completed we will print them off and proudly display them at school.  It would be terrific if you could take a moment to go up to the community gratitude wall link r8germtiycm72cpn and leave a message, that would be terrific. 

It’s easy to leave a message.  Go to the link, press the + symbol on the bottom right hand side and you can add a message.  You can include a photo if you like or a picture.  We appreciate your words mostly and look forward to reading them! 

Parent Information Night

It was great to see so many parents on line for the information session on Monday night.  We feel that our parents need support during these times as well.  A big thank you to Nicole for putting together her presentation.   Every parent has been forwarded a copy of the presentation through their email. Take a moment with a cup of tea and take a look.  It is really important information for you.

Whole School Production

I hope you are all still hearing your children practising songs and dances for the 2021 school production.  It is still on the forefront and we are pushing ahead.  Clearly the performance would have been in term 3 so our timelines are out but it will be done by the end of the year.  

Our leads have been working with Mrs Watts during individual Google Meets and have been filmed on green screen.  I will edit this material through the holidays and we will know on Sunday after the Premiers announcement how the grades will be able to complete their sections of the production.

It has been an absolute delight to work with our senior leads and see them performing.  They have done an incredible job and I believe we are really going to produce something special that we can all enjoy.

2022 Scholarships for Year 4 – 12 Students

Scholarships are available for Year 4-11 students, Year 12 students planning to undertake tertiary studies in 2022, and Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students planning on completing Years 11 and 12.

Year 4-12 student scholarships

The Department of Education and Training manages a number of scholarships which are available to students who are currently enrolled in Years 4-12.

Applicants for these scholarships are evaluated on their:

        * participation in school activities

        * community involvement

        * academic record for the current year.

Scholarships are either one-off payments or for the duration of the student’s course/study annually.

Applications for these scholarships, number of which have specific eligibility criteria, will open on 1 October 2021 and close on 28 February 2022.

For more information and a list of available scholarships visit the 2021 Student Scholarships for Years 4-12 Factsheet.

How to apply For information on how to apply visit the student scholarships web page https://www.education.vic.gov.au/parents/learning/Pages/student-scholarships.aspx?Redirect=

Workforce Planning 

Our indicative budget for 2022 will be released by the department next week so work will on the school budget will be finalised using actual figures and not estimated figures. Accurate information is critical in setting up the budget so we can accommodate for our students and their needs. 

If you intend leaving Weeden Heights and your children will be starting at another school next year, can you please let me know, in writing, so that we can make the necessary adjustments to our calculations and the Weeden Heights PS budget. 

End of Term 3 

We had our final assembly via the Google Classrooms on Monday and staff will say a farewell on Friday in the grade Google Meet. PS….it’s also footy day!  It is a chance to celebrate some of our achievements this term and to say farewell for the holidays. 

Please remember that the school will finish at 2.30pm. This is very important for the students that are in the onsite classroom so that the students can safely return home for the break. 

Please have a safe and enjoyable term break and we look forward to seeing you again soon and I guess we will have a better idea after the announcement on Sunday after the Premiers roadmap announcement

Thanks again for all of your ongoing support.  We are very lucky to have such a wonderful community who really pulls together in diverse situations.  You truly have been amazing and I am very proud to be a part of this community. 

Until next time…… continue to be optimistic, safe and strong

Kylie Campbell

Proud Principal

Futures are Bright at Weeden Heights!