Principal's Report

Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been wonderful seeing so many families around our school over the last few days as we held our “Getting to know you interviews” with families. Thank you to all the families that attended and our teachers who prioritise this time to support an effective partnership between school and home.

Furthermore, I have enjoyed speaking to families who are taking advantage of our open classrooms each morning which has enabled parents/carers, to explore their child’s classroom and develop a greater understanding of the great learning that takes place each and every day at our school.

2026 Open Afternoon

We also had our First 2026 Prep(Foundation) Open afternoon where we welcomed some of our local families to learn more about the school. These informal sessions are just to enable families and children to see inside a school and learn more about the great opportunities we offer at Whitehorse. We look forward to welcoming families later in the term for our Teddy Bear Picnic and some specialist open afternoons in Term 2.

Welcome BBQ

On Friday 21st of February we hosted our Welcome BBQ on the school oval. Thank you to our Whitehorse Family Network who provided sausages, drinks and Zooper Doopers for our community and gave up their time to run an important community focused event. I really enjoyed the opportunity speaking with a number of new families either to our school or kindergarten and hearing about the positive transitions for their children. We also thank Street Dance Studios who provided some great entertainment for our students to engage with.

Meeting with Year 6s

Each Friday I have been meeting with small groups of Grade 6s to give them an opportunity to ask questions and share ideas on how to make our school a better place. Students have raised ideas such as the moving of bins around the school to reduce rubbish and educating students about not playing ball games on the playgrounds all with the idea of making our school a safer place. I look forward to continuing to meet with the Grade 6s throughout the year!

JSC

On Friday we celebrated our Junior School Council members for 2025 with students from Foundation to Grade 5/6 being selected to represent their classes. Yesterday I was able to spend some time in one of our junior classes where it was great hearing some wonderful ideas from our Foundation students such as having more Fairy Gardens in the school. Mrs Liberatore will continue to work with our JSC students across the year to put their ideas into action.

School Review

Thank you to the families who gave up their time today to participate in our school review. We continue to value the feedback from the community and continue to reflect on the strengths and opportunities for our school now and into the future. I look forward to sharing more information with families once the review has been completed and we have put together our Strategic Plan for the next four years.

Students crossing local roads

Just a friendly reminder to families about the importance of road safety and crossing at the supervised crossing in front of the school on Junction Road. We have had some concerned motorists contacting the school about students who are crossing the road behind buses and having near miss accidents. We need to work together with our community to keep everyone safe.

Building Works - School Gym

I just wanted to inform the community that remediation works for the gym will commence in the near future as the Victorian School Building Authority has finalised the process of appointing a builder. Once I have clearer information around timelines I will share this with families. The aim is to minimise disruption to families however it is likely that sections of our staff carpark and the gym will be unaccessible for a period of time whilst those works are completed.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Andrew Den Elzen

Principal