Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back in 2025. It has been great to see our Prep students commence school this week and settle into school so quickly. We have also had our new 3 and 4 year old groups begin at Warekila and Seedlings and welcome new families to our community. The connection between our kinders and school has a strong impact on the ability for students to make successful transition between kinder and commencing primary school.

This Friday we will be hosting our first assembly of the year at 3pm in the gym. We encourage all families to join us as our student leaders provide a great overview of the achievements of students across the school. Beforehand we also have local MP Nick McGowan who is making time to come meet with our Grade 6 leaders to share his own story of leadership to kick off the year!

Welcome BBQ

Our Whitehorse Family Network have begun planning a number of events throughout the year starting with our Welcome BBQ on Friday 21 February. Information for ordering sausages can be found on Compass

Getting to know you Interviews

Our Getting to know you interviews will be held on Monday 3 March and Tuesday 4 March. Families will be able to make a booking on Compass from 9am on Monday 17 February. Our Specialist Teachers will also be having open classrooms during this time so families can drop in and learn more about our specialist programs. We look forward to having all families join us over those two days. If you need any assistance, please contact the office.

Parent Consent on Compass

A friendly reminder to families to regularly check Compass to provide consent for across school events (Kitchen Garden, Local Excursions). This will support the school as we transition to towards reducing the number of paper based consent forms.

Entering and Exiting the school

Over the holidays our maintenance team repaired the school gate adjacent to the oval which is now locked as we have had a number of unwanted visitors accessing our school with vehicles. We ask that students and parents do not jump the fence and utilise the pedestrian pathways located around the school.

School Code of Conduct

We ask all families to take time to review Whitehorse Primary School’s Code of Conduct found on the policy page of our website.

We kindly ask that families take the time to review this information carefully. The code of conduct supports our school values of Respect for Self, Respect for others and Respect for your School.

Student Uniform Policy

At the start of the year it is important as a school that we are consistent with expectations for students in relation our uniform policy. I have attached a copy of our student uniform policy which is also available on the school website. We encourage all families to review this with your child. If there is a valid reason for your child being out of uniform, we ask that you communicate this to your child’s teacher.

Access to all school policies can be found at https://www.whitehorseps.vic.edu.au/page/346/Policies .

School Council

Parents have been informed via Compass the process for School Council election in 2025. Please read the information carefully and reach out if you have any questions.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Andrew Den Elzen

Principal

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