Across Oliver's Desk

This will of course be our last newsletter for the year.  I would like to thank parents, students and staff for what was a year we will never forget. Even with lockdowns we have much to celebrate and I could not be prouder of the results we have achieved together.

Step up day on Tuesday was a huge success.  I had so many children telling me how excited they are about next year. 

CAPITAL WORKS

I have to complete a large pre building works document for the Department.  We will be sending out a survey monkey survey next week to allow parents to have an input.  I would greatly appreciate if you could the questions in the survey which will help me get a feeling of what the community is looking for in terms of the school’s learning spaces.

A big thank you in advance as I know this is such a busy time of year.  I still have to say that I’m so excited that we will be getting some state of the art facilities for our students to work in, although obviously that will not happen overnight. 

MARY MENTA

Our famous Mrs. Menta has passed a major milestone and has been teaching at Woori Yallock P.S. for 30 years.  Mary has taught generations of our local families.  Mary is directly responsible for basically teaching our community how to read, write and calculate in math.  There have been countless times when I have taken a parent on a tour who says, “Mary taught me when I was in Prep”. Mary’s amazing memory in these situations never lets her down as she can remember all of the thousands of students she has taught.

As a community we owe Mary a lot for her dedication to the school.  As I often say, Mary is Mrs. Woori Yallock. 

Thank you Mary for everything you have done for our great school. We hope you will be around for many years to come as there are a lot more children that need your wonderful help to learn to read.

KYLIE DAVEY

As Kylie’s daughter Matilda moves to Secondary School next year we will be saying goodbye to our School Council President.

Kylie has been our School Council President for the past three years and has been an active member of our School Council for nine years. She ran our Parents and Friends club for five years and was also part of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program when it was first introduced into the school. 

Kylie was part of the school when it was only 160 students and was badly underperforming. In her role on School Council she has overseen a huge improvement reform agenda, which the school went through.  Her legacy is huge and she leaves the school knowing that it is an outstanding learning facility. 

Under Kylie’s leadership, council was reformed making sure it focused on what was important; student outcomes! She is an articulate, passionate, hardworking individual that the school owes a lot too.

I do believe that our recent announcement of 10.5 million dollars to rebuild the school all started with the work of Kylie Davey, Mel Mclaren, Kate Russell, Danny Hyndman and Brendan Fitzpatrick many years ago.

Thank you Kylie for not only being a support to me but for doing something really special for a whole school community.  I will still be calling you for advice next year!

OUR 2021 SCHOOL LEADERS 

It was a pleasure for me to announce our 2021 school leaders at assembly today. I would like to thank all of the students that applied for positions and I look forward to their leadership even if they weren’t successful in obtaining an official role. 

The following students were successful: 

Leadership Positions

School Captain's 

                    Lucy Pritchard & Layla Wotherspoon

Vice School Captain's                       

                                    Charli Gaylard & Ruby Gates

ICT Leader                           Jason Western-Pittard 

Wildlife Leader                                   Emily Bentley

Environment Leader                  Jessica Nettlefold

JSC Leader                                              Sarah Hade

Science Leader                                Josiah Crowley

House Captains 

Myan                        Kyra Cathie & Dylan Gvozdich

Toolebewong                              Blayden Tamme & 

                                                            Kane Verstraten 

Barraring                                 Liam Vandenboom &                                                                              Eli Dare

Barak                                          Hayden Paterson &                                                         Tayte Hubbard 

WOORI YALLOCK EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNERS 

The following students are our grade Excellence Award winners for the term.  This is a huge honour and I congratulate them all for being the best student in the grade for the term. All our winners will be displayed in the foyer of the school for all of term one and each students will receive their excellence award badge. 

Prep A            Thomas Brubacher              

Prep B            Abby Lindsay                                    

Prep C            Judd Curnow

Prep D            Hannah Johnson

1/2A                Jaxson Maloney

1/2B                Teahn Nelson

1/2C                William Graham

1/2D                Malachi Syme

1/2E                Mia Crowley

3/4A                Reegan Hubbard

3/4B                Ruby Hannaford

3/4C                Chloe Van Der Zwart           

5/6A                William Plant-Buttle

5/6B                Emily Bentley 

5/6C                Samara Kuth

5/6D                Charli Gaylard

STAFFING NEWS 

Unfortunately next year we are saying goodbye to Elisha Dedman, Jolene Clark and Lisa Hughes. 

Elisha will be moving to Queensland in the New Year, which is a huge loss for the Victorian teaching system.  Elisha was amazing through remote learning and led the staff with her incredible IT skills.  She is much loved by her students and families and I thank her for her dedication this year. 

Jolene will continue her career closer to home next year.  Jolene has been much loved by her colleagues, students and parents this year.  She started her teaching career in a year that no one would choose to have their first year in!  But she did a fantastic job with her students and we wish her all the best for a long and satisfying teaching career.  I’m sure she will never forget that it all started at Woori in 2020! Thank you for your dedication Jolene.

Lisa has been a teacher aide at our school for five and a half years.  Lisa is a seriously talented individual as she is a former nurse and is currently completing her teacher training. Lisa was made an offer that she couldn’t refuse and will be teaching (as part of the tutor program) at Gembrook P.S. next year.  We wish her well with her career in teaching and also thank her for her devotion to the children of Woori Yallock Primary School. 

I can announce that Vicki Athey has been successful in her application and will work with Jess Wallace in 5/6C next year, three days per week.  We welcome Vicki back with open arms and wish her all the best for the coming year. 

We have hired a number of part time staff to work in next year’s tutoring program and we are very pleased to announce the following successful applicants:

Natalie Turner, (3 days per week), Natalie has worked with us in the past and we are pleased to have her back in an official capacity.

Zena Earsman, (2 days per week), like Natalie, Zena has been working at the school in a number of various roles but we now congratulate her on being a regular staff member.

Lucie Aperloo, (2 days per week), Lucie is currently working at Yarra Junction P.S. but completed a teaching round with us in 2018. We welcome Lucie to the Woori Yallock .

Lucy Derix, (1 day per week) Lucy has worked at few schools in the Valley and has been at our school as a relief teacher.  Lucy is very pleased to be coming to us on a regular part time basis.

Stephanie Verhoef, (2nd semester) Stephanie is about to have baby number three and is therefore on maternity leave.  We hope to have Steph back part time to also be part of the tutoring program during 2nd semester.  

The tutoring program will be an in class program where these teachers will work with small groups of students that have identified gaps in their learning or need extension. This program is funded by the DET and has been announced for 2021 only. 

STEPS BOARD WINNERS

The following students are our steps board winners for the term and will be enjoying a scrumptious morning tea with me in my office next week.

Prep A            Mia Hannaford                     84

Prep B            Penny Fuhrmann                 76

Prep C            Rylea Coster                         77

Prep D            Jet Palmer                             83

1/2A                Jobe Ormsby                         78

1/2B                Lachlan Gardner                  78

1/2C                Milla Waterworth                  87

1/2D                Malachi Syme                       111

1/2E                Mia Crowley                          71

3/4A                Ashlee Paterson                  176

3/4B                Eco Schaak-Taylor              158

3/4C                Chloe Van Der Zwart           96

3/4D               Mila Dare                               189 

(The highest number in the school)

5/6A                Oliver Hill                               77

5/6B                Sarah Hade                           77

5/6C                Crystal Norris                      125

5/6D               Eli Dare                                 89                    

GOODBYE

Our school community will also be losing the following families next year. Some of these families have been part of our school community for well over ten years and it is sad to see them go. We wish all these wonderful families well going into the future and thank them for all their contributions to Woori Yallock Primary School: 

The Adams family (Tahlia) 

The Ashman family (Saylor) 

The Baldwin family (Scarlet) 

The Bronstring family (Stephanie) 

The Bryar family (Alesha) 

The Chinn family (Charlie) 

The Coreless family (Cooper) 

The Coulthard family (Coby and Jylah) 

The Davey family (Matilda) 

The Draper family (Lee) 

The Durran family (Maggie) 

The Greenwood family (Bailey) 

The Hobbins family (Macee)

The Hobbs family (Jai)

The Kingma family (Jack)

The Macinnes family (Blayke & Ryan)

The Marr family (Nicola)

The Plant-Buttle family (William)

The Prouse family (Dakoda)

The Tanner family (Nick)

The Thomas family (Charlee)

The White family (Cooper)

The Wigley family (Ryan)

We will miss you all very much. 

For myself I’m really looking forward to some quiet time over the holidays so that I can recharge my batteries and head into an exciting 2021.  Although I already have a few deadlines for the capital works program (good problem to have).

It has been another remarkable year at our school and I particularly thank our committed school council and all the parents that have written beautiful things about our school. I would also like to thank my brilliant, devoted staff team but particularly Flick for being such a wonderful, talented and loyal Assistant Principal. 

I wish you all a safe and happy Christmas and I’ll see you all in 2021.

Oliver Thockloth

Principal