A Word from the Principal 

A Warm Welcome to our Weeden Heights Community

A warm welcome to our community

I hope everyone is well and getting excited as we only have an ‘action packed’ three weeks ahead until the end of term.  I’m looking forward to some great weather with Spring arriving on Friday 1 September. 

School Production – Thank you for the Music!

Purchase your tickets ASAP for Tuesday 12 September

We are on the count down to one of my very favourite Weeden Heights PS events…. the whole school production!  Please make sure that you clear your commitments for that night as the students will have worked well over a term to show you their learning.  Crossways is a fantastic close venue which  allows for over 1000 attendees so there will be plenty of seats for grandparents, family and friends. 

Mrs Lee, our fantastic Arts teacher, has written her first school production and if you love music from the past decades then this is the production for you.  I promise you will be singing along and tapping your feet.  There is music for everyone.  Mrs Lee harnessed the talents of a choreographer so you will also see our students involved in more dancing than they ever have been.  It’s exciting!

The production will feature items from grades,  the choir and even the staff will make their way onto the stage for brief performances.  All students have bought their base costumes to school and will participate in a full-dress rehearsal on Thursday 7 September at school.  There will be a rehearsal at Crossways on Tuesday 12 September during the day so please bring your excursion permission notices back to your child’s  classroom teacher.

While the performance at night forms a major part of the students Performing Arts mark on the end of year report, we really hope the students have fun and create a great memory with their classmates and their wonderful school. 

Father’s Day Stall

On the weekend, it will be Father’s Day!  Hopefully you will celebrate the wonderful father figures in your life. 

Tomorrow, the PFA will run a stall so that our students have the opportunity to purchase items that can be given as gifts on Sunday.  A big thank you to the PFA for organising the stall and thanks to the parent volunteers who are supporting the students to complete their shopping. 

I would like to thank all fabulous ‘father figures’ who are our dads, grandfathers, stepfathers, uncles and community members that continue to contribute to our school.  Without the efforts of these ‘father figures’ we would not have some of the fabulous things that we do at Weeden Heights PS.   Thank-you! 

We really hope that all our families spend some quality time together to celebrate on the weekend! Happy Father’s Day!

Annual Parent Survey

Thank you to the parents who have already participated in the annual DE parent survey.  The last day to complete the survey is Friday 8 September.  All families were sent a survey link via an email and I always offer the survey to all the Weeden Heights PS families as we value your opinion and thoughts. If you have a moment, we would greatly appreciate your input. 

School Review 

The school has performed incredibly well and we have just received feedback that we have passed the first part of the school review.  The review process is slightly different this year with Minimum Standards being assessed by the VRQA.  They look at all our policies, emergency management, how we meet the Child Safety Standards, managing contracts, managing visitors and teacher training in first aid etc.  I was delighted to receive the following email:

Dear Kylie,

I am very pleased to confirm that Weeden Heights Primary School has now been assessed as fully compliant with the Minimum Standards for School Registration (including the new Child Safe Standards), noting that Curriculum and Student Learning Outcomes will be assessed as part of your final review. 

Congratulations! I would like to thank you for your hard work during the Minimum Standards Compliance Assessment. It has been a pleasure working with you and supporting you with this assessment. 

Congratulations and thanks again for all your wonderful work. 

All the best for remainder of the 2023 school year and the future.

Nina

Advisor | School Compliance Unit | Operational Policy, School Engagement and Compliance 

The second component of our 2023 School Review commences next term with an externally appointed reviewer, our Senior Education Improvement Leader and two current principals that I have selected as challenge partners. Our role is to assess the school’s performance over the four years of the current Strategic Plan and commence the big picture planning for the period 2024-27.    They will work with myself, Mr Gavin Hodgins as our School Council and parent representative, Mrs Aarti Arya our Learning Specialist  and our School Improvement Team member  Mrs Melinda Michalski, to evaluate our school’s performance during the past four years.   An important part of that process will be an analysis of our data and the feedback collected from students, staff and parents during Term 2 and 3. Reviewers will also speak with staff, students and possibly parents as part of the process pf review. 

A school review occurs every four years in every government school as part of the School Improvement process.  I am currently completing all the extensive analysis of the school data to present to the review team and examining the effectiveness of our school with school leaders.  I look forward to the review process so we can obtain a different perspective on the work we complete at Weeden Heights Primary School and receive feedback which will challenge and affirm our future planning and work.  I am very proud of all our work at school  and we have achieved incredible results over some very ‘trying’ years.   

Planning  for 2024

Preparations for 2024 are well underway and my leadership team had a planning day on Wednesday to consider many exciting things, for example furniture to enhance the learning environment at Weeden Heights.  I continue to need your support so that the I 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. Also, if you have not yet enrolled at school or one of your neighbours has not yet enrolled, then please do so asap as this does affect grades. 

Please do not leave it to the last minute to indicate your intentions as it does have a profound effect on the proposed budget.   Having accurate student enrolments is critical in establishing a sound  and balanced budget.

End of Term 3

The last day of term 3 is Friday 15 September and officially school will finish at 2.30pm.  We will all be in our footy colours as PFA are running a footy day.  Please remember that if you can’t pick your child up at 2.30pm then please book them in for OSHC in our hall. 

Parents are of course welcome to attend the assembly that will commence at 2.15pm.    There will be several end of term special awards and presentations. 

Until next time……

Kylie Campbell

Principal

Futures are Bright at Weeden Heights!