Across Oliver's Desk 

This will be our last newsletter for the year. I would like to thank parents, students and staff for what was a brilliant 2022, in terms of our results, it has been the most successful we have had in my time at the school. I thank staff, students and parents for making the school such a fun and vibrant learning community. 

Cancelled Christmas Carols

The only things we have really missed out on this year is our third term production, Grandparents’ day and our annual Christmas Carols night. I hope parents are understanding that with the total lack of parking, the weather and with limited space in the school, it just wasn’t possible for us to go ahead with carols this year. I promise that as soon as we can, we will re-instate these very important and fun whole school events. Next year we are also planning on having a Junior School Concert night.

Last Day of Term

The last day of term is Monday 19th December. Students will be dismissed at 1:30pm. The last assembly will be at 9am on that morning. At that assembly we will present our 4th term excellence and also have a last day tribute to our graduating grade six students. 

OUR 2023 SCHOOL LEADERS 

It was pleasure for me to announce our 2023 school leaders at assembly on Friday. 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: 

STEPS BOARD CHAMPIONS 

The following students were the term 4 class champions for the number of ‘steps’ on their class steps board. Each one of these students will enjoy a delicious morning tea with myself next week.

STAFFING NEWS 

Unfortunately, next year we are going to be without Rachael Falls, Amy Young, Katherine Clark, Katie Thatcher, Michele Callaway and Josie Venville. 

Firstly Katherine and Katie will be taking maternity leave for all of 2023. We look forward to seeing their new arrivals early next year, stay tuned for baby photos.

Rachael Falls is leaving us to take up a position with Eastern Libraries in a teacher position, she will also be promoting reading in the community. Rachael filled in for us last year and was brilliant this year teaching 3/4, we wish her all the best in her new role. 

Amy joined us through the year and has been in a tutoring role. Next year she will be joining Gembrook P.S. in the same capacity. We will miss her calm and friendly nature and we wish her well with her next adventure.

Michele has been with us since 2016 as a teacher aide. She has worked with many students in that capacity but has also taught lots of our younger students through a phonics program. She has been very much involved in craft club and our school productions. We thank Michele for everything she has done for our school and our students and we wish her well with her next adventures.

Josie has been a teacher aide at the school since 2018. Like Michele, she has helped many students and supported teachers throughout the school. Next year Josie will be working as an aide at Upper Yarra Secondary College. We thank her for her dedication to Woori Yallock P.S. and we look forward to hearing about the difference between working in these two settings.

On behalf of the whole school community I would like to thank them all for their great contributions and wish them all the best for their future endeavours in education. 

I hope you all stay in touch. 

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. I believe the Beattie family has had 23 years at the school with 6 children over that time, which must be some sort of record. The Lombardi’s and King’s have had four children graduate WYPS while the Hade’s have had three children graduate. 

I’m sure after 23 years Michelle and Damien will feel very strange not driving into our Kiss and Drop morning and afternoon. We wish all these wonderful families well going into the future and thank them for all their contributions to Woori Yallock Primary School: 

Beattie family (Ant)

Bald family (Kayla) 

Conway family (Max) 

Davies family (Lexi) 

Grimson family (Sophie) 

Hade family (Emma)

Hawkins family (Patrick) 

King family (Logan) 

Lombardi family (Christian)

Love family (Sunny) 

Monk family (Kaylee) 

O’Neil family (Jake) 

Ohlson family (Cash) 

Rossignoli family (Alex) 

Rottinger family (Liam)

Tamme family (Chelsea)

Thiedeman family (Mia)

Tye family (Abby)

Venville (Chloe)

We will miss you all very much. 

Plans for 2023

It is a shame that with all the rain we have had, the building project is behind by about three months. However, it is nice to see some progress happening at the moment. 

During January we will be constructing a new bike pump track at the back of the oval. This will be brilliant for our P/E program as we will be able to deliver bike education. We will also let students use the track during some of the break times and after school. 

We have several things happening over the January period, e.g., the bike track so I will be back at school from the 16th January if you need to speak to me. 

As I had said at the start of the newsletter, it has been an extremely successful year at our school even though the school is a construction site. I would particularly like to thank our committed school council and all the parents that have written beautiful things about our school. I heard a story about a tradesman who was working at a house in Burwood who has a connection to our school. When the owner of the house said she was a teacher he told her about his connection to Woori. She told him how well the school was known in education circles and that it was easily one of the best schools in Victoria. I would totally agree with her!

I wish you all a safe and happy Christmas and I’ll see you all in 2023.