A Word from the Principal

A Warm Welcome to our Weeden Heights Community

I hope that everyone is staying warm in this very cold and windy weather.  Thank you to everyone for following the covid conditions placed on schools at the moment. We do understand that it is really difficult to not come on the school grounds but hopefully things will change for all of us soon. 

I was really disappointed to find out that someone has bought their drill to school and stolen our school sign from the red wall and the student’s friendship tree sign this week after hours.   I have no idea why anyone would want something that is really only special to us.  We like people to use our grounds after hours so I am asking all of our community ‘to keep your eye’ on our school after hours.   We start at 7am and the cleaners finish at 8pm so it has happened sometime after that.  This is beautiful Vermont South and our school is very safe. I am perplexed!

School Events Update

The school has been watching all of the Covid updates closely and has relied on the Department of Education to guide us in our decisions.  While things in Victoria are improving with respect to the current climate, they may not have improved enough for our whole school production, We’re all going on an Aussie Holiday.   It is only a month away and restrictions will most likely not have lifted enough for us to gather and watch the performance at Crossways.     While the students will still be able to perform, we will not go ahead as a public performance.  Most schools have cancelled all performances completely but we are committed to whatever opportunity that we can provide our students. 

Our students will not miss out and Mrs Watts will continue to forge forward with rehearsals. The school will video the performance so that families will be able to purchase the production and watch from home.  It is not what we hoped for but the school will replicate as much of the experience as we possibly can.  There will be costumes, make up, songs, dances, grade performances, backstage crew, main characters and now….a lot of time put into videoing the performance. We hope that you understand and know that we are making the best of everything that we can to keep this event for our students.   It will be a fabulous show and something to look forward to.  I am confident that you will all support us. 

Since returning to school, we have also contacted Lady Northcote Camp and unfortunately they do not have any bookings left for 2021.  When we re-booked for the second time this year after the first lock down, we took their last availability.  We are incredibly disappointed but have secured our booking for July 2022.  Teachers are keen to provide our Year 3 – 6 students with a ‘home made’ experience back at school this year.  We have started discussions and hope to conduct some events in term 4 that will replicate some camping experiences.  There will be more details to follow once our program is confirmed and the office will be in touch soon about the money you have paid for camp. 

Thank you for your ongoing support and please be reassured that we are working as hard as we can to support our children to not miss out on some of these key experiences.  We are all looking forward to the Year 2 sleepover which is happening later this term on Friday 10 September!  Our camping program also continues in 2021 through the Year 1 late stay and Prep breakfast.

Capital Works Update

Last week, I sat on the panel to appoint an architectural firm to create the master plan for our school.  It was and experience however, I was really impressed with the companies that submitted their applications.   We would be lucky to have any of them.  They really challenged the panel and a decision was finally made.  I will let you know in the appropriate time who the successful tender company was.  Once they officially know the work will begin.  How exciting!

Annual Parent Survey (now known as The Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey)

Each year the Department of Education and Training (DET) provides an opportunity to provide feed back to schools.  Last year was an exception due to Covid and we had already given you our own survey about flexible and remote learning.  This year the DET survey is back on and our school would like to find out what parents/caregivers/guardians think of our school.   It is usually sent to a sample of randomly selected parents/caregivers/guardians (previously known as the Parent Opinion Survey) but at Weeden Heights, we give every family the opportunity to respond.   It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, student engagement and experiences of remote and flexible learning.  

Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.  All responses to the survey are anonymous. This year, the Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey will be conducted in the coming weeks and will be completed by families by Friday 3rd September.

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time  on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. These include: Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Somali, Turkish, Punjabi and Greek.  

As usual survey results will be communicated to parents/caregivers/guardians through annual reporting and the newsletter.  Our School Council also considers the data collected as well.   We look forward to receiving your feedback everyone and highly value the opinions of our community.

100 Days at School!

This week our foundation year level achieved a significant milestone.  Congratulations to our Prep students who have now been attending school for 100 days! That is a big achievement. The feature of the day was the preps dressing up as if they were 100 years old.  I was stunned how they stayed in character, acting frail as they struggled to sit on the floor or relying on their walking stick to move around the school. 

They celebrated with many special activities for students and engaged in fun numeracy and literacy activities involving 100.  Well done Preps! Parents should be very proud of these wonderful young people for what they have achieved so far in their schooling. 

Workforce Planning

Preparations for 2022 have already started.  It is that time of the year when I begin to work out staffing and budgeting for the next year.  I do need your support so that the leadership team and myself can make the best decisions for the school.

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.  If you also have a pre schooler starting school and you have not enrolled then please do so asap so that they are considered in the plan.   Please do not leave it to the last minute as it does have a profound effect on the proposed budget.   Having accurate student enrolments is critical in establishing a sound budget

Reminder about Personal Items bought to School

The Department of Education and Training (DET) does not hold insurance for personal property brought to schools. Anything that students or staff choose to bring to school is at their own risk.  Principals have been requested to remind students and parents/guardians of this and to discourage parents/students from bringing any unnecessary or particularly valuable items to school. Please try and avoid bringing these items as it can be most upsetting for all concerned if items go missing or are damaged.

Curriculum Day

Just a reminder that our school has a pupil free day on Wednesday 11 August, 2021. The whole staff will be completing professional learning to continue to enhance our writing program across the school. We hope to be visiting a local school to observe teachers in action and then work back at school to focus on our instructional models and teaching approaches.  Our whole school focus is on improving writing so this should be a sensational day and opportunity for the staff. 

Until next time…… stay safe and well!

Kylie Campbell

Principal

Futures are Bright at Weeden Heights!