Principal's Message 

Julie Crawford 

Welcome back to Term 3. We have already packed so much into the first three weeks and have lots of great learning planned for the next seven weeks! Our Prep-2s have been enjoying their gymnastics program at Eclipse Gymnastics and our Grade 3-6s have been preparing for their upcoming Athletics Sports at Proclamation Park in Ringwood.

Mini Olympics day

What a highlight it was to see the pure joy and sense of community with our Mini Olympics day!  It was so wonderful to see our older students supporting the younger members of their Tribe as they completed all of the fun events – swimming, obstacle course, equestrian, dove making, break dancing, volleyball, soccer and carpet bowls.  There was much laughing, encouraging, cheering one another along. A beautiful opening ceremony and closing ceremony which included a mass break dance and medal presentation book ended a perfect day! A huge thank you to all of our athletes who did their personal best all day, our teachers and support staff and parent helpers. An extra big thank you to Mrs Goodwin who organised such a wonderful day for us, Mrs Salisbury for creating our medals, Olympic torch and amazing cauldron and eternal flame, and Tim for being our MC for the event! And a special shout out to Tash W, who used her extraordinary creative skills to create the amazing Bunjil mascot costume, choreograph the breakdance for the whole school and entertain us with a solo dance performance at the closing ceremony! Thanks Tash!

Term 3 – Big Idea – Respect

In Challenge Based Learning our Big Idea this term is Respect.  This will align with the implementation of our School Wide Positive Behaviour with the expectations that everyone has the right to feel safe, everyone has the right to feel valued and everyone has the right to learn. To tune in to this big idea, our Grade 5/6s were very fortunate to participate in the Courage To Care program in Week 1 of the term. The program was facilitated by a group of volunteers, some of whom are survivors of the holocaust. The focus of the session was to understand the effects of stereotyping, racism and discrimination on others and the ways of being an upstander, rather than a bystander, in situations when you see these things occurring. We look forward to a term of important learning across all levels about respecting ourselves and others. 

Upcoming Professional Practice Day – Friday August 9th

Many parents of students in Prep – 2 may have heard their children talking about the new phonics program called UFLI that has been implemented this term.  It is a systematic phonics program that supports students to develop a strong foundation in phonics and spelling which will underpin their literacy growth in future years. Six teachers completed the day’s training in the last holidays, with the remaining staff attending the training on our pupil-free Professional Practice day this Friday.

Planning for 2025

Although it seems early to be thinking of 2025, planning for next year is well underway. Offers for our 2025 Preps were made on Monday using the new online system. If you have a sibling attending Wonga Park next year, please contact Kerry or Lesley to complete the enrolment process. We also welcome any further inquiries regarding enrolments for Prep 2025.

100 Days of School

Congratulations to our 2024 Preps who celebrated 100 Days Brighter today.  We are so proud of the way that our preps approach their learning and the growth they show every day! You are all superstars!

Book Week

Book Week celebrations including the Book Week parade, author presentation and writer’s workshops by Cassy Polimeni, will all be happening very soon! We are very excited that Cassy, whose most recent book, The Garden at the End of the World (on the honourable list in the 2024 Children Book Awards) will be visiting to inspire our young writers! Students will also have the opportunity to purchase a signed copy of her books!

Parent / Student / Teacher Conferences – 7th and 8th of August

Our upcoming parent/student/teacher conferences will be a great opportunity for students to proudly lead the conversation about their learning with their parents and teachers. It is a celebration that students prepare for, deciding on the learning they would like to share, and thinking about the ‘next stretch’ that will see them continue to improve and grow. We are very proud of how invested and insightful our students are about their learning and know how much they enjoy the opportunity to celebrate their learning journey with their parents! Parents can book a conference time on the Sentral parent portal. 

Parent/Carer Opinion Survey 

Last week, the Department of Education Parent and Carer Opinion Survey was distributed to a random sample of WPPS families. The survey is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, and student engagement. The survey is optional, but we encourage and appreciate your participation.

Our school will use the survey results to assist in identifying areas for improvement and professional development needs in the school, to target school planning and improvement strategies. Our school staff are also currently participating in the DET's School Staff Opinion Survey and likewise we value the voice and input of our staff in developing our future directions and improvement strategies. Earlier this year, our Year Four to Six students completed the Student Attitudes to School Survey too, giving our young people a chance to share how they feel about their learning, connectedness, and safety.

Pop Up Canteen

Thank you to everyone who supported our first pop-up canteen. It was very successful and all money raised will be going towards the new playground that we are hoping to install in January at the top playground near the front gate. We had aimed to have our canteen fortnightly but due to some special events and pupil-free days, our dates for the next four canteen days are:

Week 5:  Friday, August 16th

Week 6: Friday, August 23rd

Week 8: Friday, September 6th

Week 9: Friday, September 13th

The Trybooking link and menu items will be distributed in the week before each canteen day. 

Good luck, Dulcie!

Congratulations to Dulcie, in 4A, on her selection in the Victorian School Diving Team! 

Such a wonderful achievement! We are all very proud of you Dulcie, and wish you every success! Everyone is so excited to celebrate with you and hopefully get to see you in action with some videos from the event. Dulcie was interviewed and you can see that interview in the Grade 3 and 4 page as well as the Specialist page.

Thank you to everyone in our community for your ongoing support in so many different ways! We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful community here at WPPS!

I will be taking a short long service leave this week. Thank you to Adele Brice who will be filling in for me in my absence and to Terri Gioia who will be in the AP role for the week.

Regards,

Julie