From the Principal's Desk

Dear Parents & Families, 

What a wonderful year we have had!

I would like to thank the parents, families and community for sharing the educational journey with us, especially to those parents and community members who supported the school’s 80th Anniversary celebrations, covered books for our library, volunteered their time at the working bees, gardening club days, sport carnivals, fishing, basket weaving and supported the P&C with the various fundraisers throughout the year.  

I give my sincere thanks to our schools P&C, a fantastic team who bring a deep and sincere approach to their role and the support that they provide our school. Their ongoing commitments have already been immense. A huge thank you to our president Lisa Bassingwaite and the team, for their enthusiasm and energy for our school. Your unwavering support of our students is immense. It has been another brilliant year. Thank you!

To all our parents, our partners in learning, our partners in achieving, we are so grateful for everything you do to support your children’s education; and our school to achieve our collective vision. 

At the school’s Excellence & Graduation assembly I spoke about Windang PS knowing "that perfection is unattainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence”. Once again, I’d like to share with you what chasing perfection looked like throughout 2022.

Mrs Ashley Davies and Mrs Carinya Barkley were appointed as permanent Assistant Principals Curriculum & Instruction. This means teachers have been and will continue to be provided with extensive professional learning to ensure all our teachers are teaching children to read & write based on the latest research along with encouraging all students to love and engage with mathematics. 

Mrs Jess Buchelin, the school’s speech therapist continued to lead the school’s weekly Speech program; There is an extensive student nomination process and students are prioritised based on their need. This is the 2nd year we have had Jess lead the speech program with all students achieving enormous success; dare I say for some students this program has been life changing. This program will continue into 2023. 

This year we invested heavily in ensuring all Kindergarten to Year2 classes had access to the Australian Decodable readers online platform and hardcopy readers. This meant teachers had all the resources to teach all children to read based on the latest research of children learning to “crack the code” of reading rather than being faced with guessing words on a page. This approach is also aligned to the new NSW syllabi for English which was released this year. 

All teachers worked closely Anita Chin who is a mathematics consultant with enormous state, national and international credibility. As a result, all our teachers have revised their strategies to better teach mathematics along with incorporating some of Anita Chin’s flare that ignites passion with all things number. 

I’m thrilled to share that our weekly Music program with Mark will continue in 2023, Kindergarten to Yr2 will continue to participate in the ChIME program with Yr3 to Yr6 students attending weekly guitar lessons. This year, Miss Ferguson initiated and led the school Choir, it’s grown in popularity with approx. 35 students thus the School Choir will definitely continue. 

Raising and educating well-rounded children includes families and schools working and supporting each other. It also includes children having access to a rich curriculum with various extra-curricular activities to ignite and grow their passion for learning. Therefore, the school theme for 2023 will be based around everyone at Windang PS "knowing perfection isn’t attainable but if we chase perfection we will achieve excellence. 

What does this mean?

This means in 2023, all children at Windang PS will continue to access quality learning in the classroom, participate in rich music lessons, access quality play areas at recess and lunch, attend various excursions and camps; along with having opportunities to participate in Southern Stars and the South Coast Dance Festival. 

At Windang PS, we are strongly focused on providing our students with a well rounded education therefore we strongly believe our students will benefit enormously from learning a second language. There are many benefits to learning a second language from improving your memory, improving your academic results, to boosting empathy towards others to name a few. 

Therefore, I’m thrilled to share that in 2023 all students from Kindergarten to Year6 will participate in a weekly Italian Lesson. 

I extend my sincerest thank you and distinguished recognition of my teachers, Assistant Principals, School Administration staff, School Learning Support Officers, and Ancillary staff who are truly sensational and always go above and beyond to make our lovely little school such a great place to learn and grow. 

A message to our Year 6 Students; you have been an amazing group of students and I am so proud of your achievements over the years. Please remember that you will always be a part of the ‘Windang PS Family’ as you make your way to high school and in the world. Following our core values of safety always, united in learning, respectful and cooperative and fair in work and play. Enjoy everything that life has to offer you with an open heart, travel and see the world; it will help you to truly value what a great place Windang is as well as experiencing the many different and amazing cultures that are beyond our own very special country. 

Further congratulations to our recent award recipients at our School Excellence Assembly.  Please see the page in this newsletter dedicated to the award recipients. 

Thank you to the outgoing 2022 School Leaders and congratulations to the newly elected the School Leaders for 2023:

School Captains

Koa & Angus

Vice Captains

Annelise & Johnny

School Leaders

Lylah, Romeo, Chloe, Connor, Hunter, Reece & Scarlett.

Congratulations to all students on their hard work and achievement in learning and friendship this year. I am extremely proud of every student at our school. 

I am sincerely humbled as always, to be the principal of this fabulous school. I am extremely grateful for this community, staff and all the students who are both caring and focused. 

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 

Mrs Loreta Kocovska

Principal

Windang Public School