A Word from the Principal

Welcome to our school community

Hello Everyone. It's our sixth week at school and our preps are about to begin full weeks at school after completing all of their assessments. Don't forget it's a long weekend so no one is required to attend school on Monday due to a public holiday.

Congratulations to our New School Council

The School Council election process is now declared closed. The call for nominations for School Council closed last week and

We can now officially declare that following parents are now elected school councillors that represent the parents:

Simon Billingham (Parent Representative 2 year term)
Shivani Ghosh (Parent Representative 2 year term)
Mayur Devasigamani (Parent Representative 2 year term)
Gavin Hodgins (Parent Representative 2 year term)

Congratulations also to Aarti Arya and Belinda Davis who have accepted vacancies in the DET representative positions. Thank you.

The new council will meet for the first time on 16 March 2020. Please remember that if you would like to ever be a part of the meeting you are more than welcome or please speak with your parent representatives.

If you are interested in being on School Council then there is actually one vacancy that I would like to co-opt parents into. There are also a DET vacancies that staff can be co-opted into as well. Please let me know or one of the councillors know, if you are interested.

Exiting and Entering the School Grounds

This is a friendly reminder that when you enter or exit school, please use the pedestrian gates which are located at the front and the back of the school. It is unsafe and not appropriate for parents and students to be using the front and back car park driveways. I have received a few complaints about parent’s cars in the staff carparks and concerned about the amount of people walking on the driveways. Please keep our school a safe place.

Also, parents/guardians are not to park in the staff carpark at the back or front of the school. This is extremely dangerous areas at pick up and drop off times.

School Attendance

As it is term 1, I wanted to remind parents of the importance of attending school every day and on time. I have noticed several students arriving late regularly and we reported to you on the end of year student reports in 2019 about your child’s late arrivals to school along with absences.

One interesting fact relating to student attendance is around that the alignment of students’ attendance with Naplan results and student achievement. It is simple….. learning happens at school and if students are not here at school, it directly impacts on their learning achievements.

Last year our data indicated that there were year levels with high average absent days but we improved from the year before. Last year students averaged 10.3 days absent. We are currently have an average of 11. 1 days absent per student and it’s only March! The Coronavirus has had an impact on this figure.

Arriving late to school also creates an issue for students as they miss vital information and then disrupt the learning zone when they enter the classroom, distracting other learners. Classroom doors open at 8.50am to allow students to settle and start work straight away at 9am.

The data for student attendance is collected by the department. You will continue to receive this information on your school reports as attendance will affect the results your child achieves.

Here’s a guide Weeden Heights used to highlight absences & punctuality and was included in the final report for your child:

We do not expect students to come to school when they are ill and all of our parents appreciate students being kept home until they are well enough so that nothing is passed onto other students. However, I’m sure that we can all be organised, arrive on time and be ready to learn for 9am. Family holidays need to be planned for during school holiday times so that children do not miss out on vital and essential learning. I’m hoping that this is an area the students will all show improvement for 2019.

Prep 2021 Tours and Enrolments

We have had many calls and visits already for information regarding enrolments at Weeden Heights Primary School for 2021. We have several students enrolled for next year, and some already for 2022! Our tours will start soon and include our school Ambassadors. Enrolment information is available now.

If you have a child starting at Weeden next year or know anyone who requires assistance with 2021 placements, please direct them to call our office to book a tour date and time. Tours are conducted on a Wednesday at 9.30am. Thank you for helping us with this process.

Social Media

Please remember to check out our Facebook page and Instagram account as we have been posting many photos and information up so that you are of what our talented students and staff are up to. You are also welcome to leave a positive comment as students do like to read what you have written to them.

There are some fabulous pictures of our Family Fun Night and if you missed our assembly on Monday, there were several classes presenting their learning agreements.

Have a fabulous long weekend!

Ms Kylie Campbell

Principal

Futures are Bright at Weeden Heights!