Last Friday, our Grade 5/6 students celebrated International Women’s Day. Thank you Mrs Farrelly, Ms Lee, Ms Thomas and Ms Calderwood for organising a day of fun activities to promote Marching Forward in 2025.

International Women's Day (IWD) has been around for over a hundred years, as have many of the issues still impacting women's advancement. Since 1911, IWD has belonged to all who care about women's equality. Celebrate women's achievement. Raise awareness about discrimination. Take action to forge gender parity. All IWD activity is valid, that's what makes IWD so inclusive.

Last Thursday night, Kerry, Mrs Dwyer, Mrs Farrelly and I were invited to Women’s Health and Wellbeing Barwon South West screening of the ‘Equal Contest’. I highly recommend watching this documentary. It is an authentic example of ‘marching forward’ in Regional Victoria. The film/documentary demonstrates true inclusivity in action, as well the frustrating barriers that continue to arise for women and gender diverse people as they strive for equality, and the power of community to enact change.

I am proud to share that Warrnambool East PS are proud partners of Respect 2040.

Respect 2040 is a regional partnership that aims to end violence against women in the Barwon South West region of Victoria.

How does Respect 2040 work?

Partners work together to change attitudes, norms, and practices that lead to violence against women
They build workforce capacity to take action to prevent violence against women, girls, families, and communities
They develop resources to support decision-makers and grassroots organizers

And, I am honoured to represent WEPS on the Executive Governance Group – which is R2040’s strategic arm, made up of senior management from R2040 partners, responsible for leadership, advocacy and governance of the partnership and its regional strategy.

https://respect2040.com/ for more information

Next Week is Harmony Week, the celebration that recognises our diversity and brings together Australians from all different backgrounds. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.

While Harmony Week celebrates Australia’s rich cultural diversity, it is also important to focus on the urgency of combatting racism wherever and whenever it arises.

As a daughter of migrant parents, my family will be forever indebted to Australia for the opportunities it gave my grandparents, parents, my sister, myself and my extended family.

My dear grandfather researched countries during the 1950s, looking for a country that was going to hear their voice, provide choice, freedom, stable work and education, not only for his young family, but for future generations. He took a considered interest in Brazil, Canada and Australia. My dad recalls him talking about Australia regularly and finally making the decision that it was the right choice. I will forever be grateful for his educated decision to migrate to this wonderful country (I must find the details about how he did this with no internet or TV).

In 1962, my young parents, my dad’s siblings and his parents arrived at the Migrant Camp in Bonegilla, now a fascinating place to visit and a part of Australian history. https://www.bonegilla.org.au/

After some time at the camp, where they always talk of being treated fairly and justly, they settled in Geelong. My mum recalls the beautiful meals they had, so different, yet so delicious – there she learnt how to make Shepherd’s pie, and it’s still one of our favourite family meals. They had no English, no knowledge of culture and no definite plans. But what they did have was hope, work, a second chance and a lot of good people around them. When I speak to my 85 year old dad about their experiences, I love watching and listening to him tell, retell and tell us again about the ‘good people’ around them. So many stories, so much laughter, so much joy, yet it was the biggest risk they would ever take as a young family.

My mum and dad have never talked about Australians being racist towards them, they only recount the ‘good people’ that came into their lives, the friendships they made, how lucky they feel to still celebrate their culture, their religious beliefs with freedom and, in their eyes, no discrimination.

I feel so incredibly privileged to be in the position I am in now - principal of Warrnambool East PS. I am living the dream my grandfather had for his future family, and I can proudly say my sister and cousins are all doing the same. Unfortunately, my grandfather passed away when he was 67. He would be so unimaginably proud to see the lives of his 14 grandchildren, 21 great grandchildren and 1 great, great grandchild are now.

A photo of me and my grandfather (Deda), who made the brave and bold decision to migrate to Australia with his wife, 7 children and 21 year old daughter in law (my mum). My mum’s parents didn’t want to miss out on the ‘good life’, and joined them 2 years later.

Warrnambool’s multicultural populations has grown rapidly in the short 10 years I have lived in the community. I am excited to see these changes happen through our enrolments, and I am so proud to share we have 40-50 students with English as an Additional Language (I’m not counting the many other cultures we have within our community – 2nd, 3rd, 4th generation or more). I love that we use the word ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’ on a daily basis.

My hopes and aspirations are to support our families to tell stories like the ones my mum and dad tell. Those of joy, laughter and only good people. I am asking our community to reflect and commit to being the joy, laughter and good people to surround our diverse community. Let’s talk about it in our homes, let’s talk about it in our social circles, let’s talk about it in our communities and let’s shout it out loud and proud in our wonderful school.

At WEPS, we commit to influencing the positive change we need in our community, so that every young person and family that belongs to Warrnambool East PS, and the wider Warrnambool community, only experience the ‘good people’. At WEPS, we commit to stamping out racial discrimination or abuse.

Please wear orange (staff, students and parents) to school next Monday and join us in celebrating our wonderfully diverse community, taking this as an opportunity to learn from each other to strengthen our commitment to stamping out racism.

Lastly, I would like to congratulate our grade 3 and grade 5 students for taking NAPLAN in their stride and taking a ‘matter of fact’ attitude to completing the tests this week. We still have Numeracy to do next week. NAPLAN is one test on one day of the school year. Yes, NAPLAN gives us an indication of how we are tracking as a school, to check on our teaching practices, and one of many ways we ensure they are making a positive impact on student learning.

There are so many wonderful things happening within and around our school community. Let’s embrace the celebrations together and make a true difference.

We continue to promote high expectations of our whole school community every day and ensure we take a zero-tolerance approach to any form of disrespect, violence or abuse. We are a school, supporting little and young people navigate their social, academic and emotional responses. Things will and do go wrong. Please trust that we follow through and ensure support for everyone! I will not shy away from stating that we achieve our greatest outcomes when families work with us. So again, let’s commit to uniting and committing to making an impact in true partnership. I look forward to seeing all who can make it on Friday next week in a touch of orange.

Banjo Funnell	Logan Gardiner	Valerie Shoesmith
Max Steele	Adhya Arun Appu	Tyson O'Farrell
Toby Drumm

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