A Message from Vassie 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land, the Wurundjeri, Woi Wurrung and Boonwurrung Peoples of the Kulin Nation and pay our respect to their Elders, past, present and emerging. Aboriginal people have a deep and continuous connection to the place now called Victoria. Aboriginal people have lived in the Maribyrnong River valley for over 40,000 years.

WELCOME BACK 

We would like to warmly welcome our students, staff and parents back to school for term four. Our staff are very much looking forward to the fun learning opportunities planned for our final term of 2023. 

The grass on our oval has been reinstated and is back! It's been fantastic seeing students enjoy the oval, and we once again thank the staff members and parents who assisted us in taking groups of students across to McIvor reserve last term whilst we had reduced oval space.  

Term 4 is full of exciting extra curricula activities and experiences for our students. Our Year 5 students will be heading to Camp Kangaroobie on Monday 23 October. We thank the year 5 teaching team for their time and effort that has gone into planning this camping experience. We also thank the parent volunteers. Term four is often consumed with assessment, reporting, recruitment, class building, camps, transition sessions, year 6 graduation, and more! A fantastic term indeed. 

Within the transition space, our 2024 preps will commence their school transition program, and our Grade 6 students will prepare for their Grade 6 graduation and transition to secondary school. Also along the way we will have our Year 1/2 swimming program, and a few incursions and excursions lined up.

Wishing all Wembley PS community members a wonderful final term of 2023. 

NO HAT, NO PLAY - Sun Smart - Hats for Term One and Term Four. 

A reminder that all students are required to wear their broad brimmed hats for outdoor activities, this includes recess, lunch and physical education lessons. Students without hats will be required to refrain from play, and stay in the shaded areas of the school-No Hat, No Play. Sun screen is also available for our students, however they are welcome to BYO and apply sunscreen at school. Students will be required to wear their hats from all term when involved in outdoor activities or outdoor recess, in line with our sunsmart policy. Students will have a grace period for week one of term whilst they dust their hats off, however from next week all students will be required to wear a broad brimmed school hat. 

2024 STAFF RECRUITMENT PROCESSES

Over the school holidays we advertised vacancies for the following positions. Some are substantive processes and people have been acting in roles, and others are new positions. We will be shortlisting applicants, and holding interviews over the next 3 weeks. 

• Assistant Principal 
• Learning Specialist 
• Classroom Teacher
• Language Teacher - Thank you to the families that completed the language surveys. Given the community surveys responses, we have advertised 4 different languages that came back as having the strongest support/preference, and will appoint the strongest applicant. The following languages were advertised - Auslan, Spanish, Mandarin and French. 

2024 YEAR 6 SCHOOL CAPTAINS

We would like to congratulate the year 5 students who have applied for year 6 school captaincy roles. 

I will be shortlisting applicants next week, and interviewing shortlisted applicants together with Renee Johnson and Tom Szanyi in Week 3. Reading through these applications has been a wonderfully inspiring experience, and reinforces our sense of pride in these remarkable young people. Wishing students all the very best!

2024 CLASS FORMATION

Our teachers are currently beginning the process of forming 2024 classes.

During the next two weeks, beginning Monday 9 October, children will have the opportunity to nominate 5 students who they would like to have in their class in 2024. This is an opportunity for them to have authentic agency within our class allocation process, however, we ask for students and families to think carefully about other students they would like to be placed with, considering those they work well with and have positive relationships with.We will ensure that each student will be placed in a 2024 class with at least one of their choices. If you wish to discuss potential friendship choices with your child/ren prior to them being asked to nominate other students, please do so before next week.

We understand that this may appear early to consider this, however our planning requires us to begin class formations to plan for student handover in advance and finalise our staffing/workforce plan.

Should parents have further information around your child’s learning needs for 2024, that your child’s teacher is not aware of, please put this in writing for consideration by Friday 20 October. Please email any information to the school email account, wembley.ps@education.vic.gov.au and address to the ‘Principal class team’. Please state your child’s name and year level for 2024. Your email will be acknowledged as received and the information that you provide will be taken into consideration.

Our teachers are committed to creating an environment where your child can thrive and reach their full potential. We appreciate your trust in our knowledge and judgement when it comes to selecting the most suitable class for your child's learning needs.

2024 STUDENT NUMBERS

It's that time of year when the leadership team begin working through 2024 planning, class structures and recruitment processes. As we begin the planning process for 2024, we would appreciate parents notifying the school if your child/ren will not be returning to Wembley Primary School in 2024, as soon as possible.

Please contact the school office on 9314 7054, or alternatively on wembley.ps@education.vic.gov.au to inform us if your child/ren will not be returning to Wembley PS.

2024 PREP TRANSITION

We have accepted 99 prep enrolments for 2024. In the final week of term three, we held small group transition sessions for our incoming prep students, to enable the students to begin building relationships with students and staff members, and familiarising themselves with their new school. 

Throughout Term Four we will host prep interviews, a parent information session, whole class transition sessions, prep family gathering. 

We thank Joel Magnabosco, together with Lindsey Delooze and Hannah Tabart, for leading this process. 

SCHOOL REVIEW - VALIDATION DAY 

All Victorian Government Schools, engage in a school review every four years, to reflect on the last School Strategic Plan, and set goals for the next School Strategic Plan. 

We thank the parents that completed the survey last term feeding into school improvement, and the staff and students that have provided feedback in the form of focus grpups and surveys. 

Next week, on Wednesday 11 October, we will have our Validation Day which is the first day of our school review process. 

Members of the Executive Leadership Team, together our School Council President, Beck Thomas, Senior Education Improvement Leader (SEIL) Natalie Bakai, Challenge Partners, Sarah Nightingale (Principal, North Melbourne Primary School), Rebecca McMahon (Assistant Principal, Moonee Ponds Primary School), and our school reviewer Di Matheson will meet for the first of 4 days of our review process. 

SCHOOL DEVICES - SMART WATCHES

We remind students and parents that students are not to contact one another during school hours via their smart watches. We remind parents to contact the office if they have messages to pass on to their child during school hours and it'll be passed on via the office and classroom teacher/s. If your child contacts you, we ask that you don't respond and contact the office or your child's teacher to check in. 

UNIFORM REMINDER

We have noticed that some students have not been wearing full school uniform. Teachers have been reminding students to ensure that they wear uniform every day with the exception of if/when they are attending a school sports day. Please ensure that your child/ren is wearing full school uniform, at all times. We also remind parents about the pre-loved clothing rack, and lost property, which can be found in the main school building near the office.

SPORTING EVENTS

Well done to our students, staff members and parents who have attended and supported the various sporting events. We are very proud of our students for their teamwork, resilience and effort! Please visit the student celebration tab of our newsletter, and our social media pages for photo highlights. 

Please find us on Instagram at: @wembleyps4788

And via our official Facebook Page: Wembley Primary School (link here)