THE LINK

Principal's Report

Welcome to term 2! 

 

We hope all students and families had a lovely Easter and term break. I have loved hearing about the many adventures children have had over the holidays and those who enjoyed ‘chilling’ at home and not doing much at all. My family and I enjoyed some time away in Swan Hill and Geelong, then some down time at home was very much appreciated. 

 

It was so lovely to end the term with students getting creative in their ‘buddy sessions’ and creating their easter hats for the parade and I think we held the biggest Easter raffle every held with a grand total of $3335.28 raised for the grade 6 leadership project. Thank you to all parents/carers/grandparents and extended family members who came along to celebrate the end of term with us. It is just so wonderful to create opportunities to come together as a school community again. 

 

This term we welcome Mrs Suzanne Seniore to the grade 3/4 learning community. Mrs Seniore will be replacing Miss Lee, as she has taken leave to do some traveling overseas. We also welcome Mrs Georgie Hall who is replacing Mrs Hannah Davis as she is preparing to have her baby in the coming months and we also farewell Mrs Bec Etherton, who is looking forward to the arrival of her baby some time in May. We also have some lovely news to share as we congratulate Ms Flynn Gleeson (Grade 3/4 teacher) and Mr Karl Burton (PE) on their engagement.

 

Our staff always appreciate the opportunity to connect and engage in learning during our scheduled curriculum days throughout the year. On Monday this week all staff spent the day working at Deakin University.

 

On Tuesday our school captains Lexi, Lily, Ollie and Mabel did a wonderful job of representing Warrnambool East PS at the Warrnambool Anzac Day March and Service to commemorate all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations and the contribution and suffering of all those who have served. I would like to thank Ms India Thomas and Ms Shannon Dillon for co-ordinating our school leaders’ involvement and the laying of the wreath. 

 

We also commemorated Anzac day at our whole school assembly this week, with a reflection on our learning about Anzac and a moving bagpipe performance, by Tomas Tait (our school IT technician) in memory of the fallen soldiers. 

I also commend all our students on being so respectful during the assembly and taking such genuine interest in learning about the significance of Anzac day. I believe there was also some Anzac biscuit making happening this week, with the lovely scents coming from the staff room and grade 1/2 classrooms. 

 

For a short week, it sure had been busy start. Our foundation students began their swimming program on Wednesday this week and will continue to attend swimming lessons each Wednesday this term. There were some very excited little people anticipating the fun they would have during swimming lessons and I look forward to attending some of these sessions to check in on their progress. 

 

I would also like to congratulate Allesha Gardner and Jimmy Boxer for all their hard work in our Kitchen Garden.  Allesha entered us in the 'Grow it Local' Competition and we won the Homegrown Harvest Award and received an Honourable Mention in the Homegrown Hero Award.  

Head along and visit the WEPS Kitchen Garden page on Instagram and see all the wonderful things they do in their sessions.  https://www.instagram.com/weps_kitchengarden/

 

Next week we welcome Deakin University pre -service teachers

  • Grace Bennett – 1/2F
  • Kaitlyn Lane – 1/2H
  • Chelsea Eagle – 3/4H

Next week we are looking forward to the School Cross Country. Mr Burton has been busy preparing for this event and we would love to see as many parents/carers/family members as possible come along and support the students. 

 

Last year we outlined the changes in the Victorian Government School’s Agreement (which is now also implemented by Catholic and Independent sectors) in reference to Time in Lieu. That is, where a teacher is required to undertake a school activity outside the normal hours of attendance (i.e. in excess of the 38 hours or normal hours for a part time teacher) and, when this occurs, it will attract time in lieu. The Agreement defines school activity as a structured activity organised by the school such as a parent teacher meeting, camp, excursion, concert, parent information session, or after-hours sport. When we sent out our survey to engage parent voice in our camps plan, the most prominent response supported camps followed by a rest day, so that teachers can take a fraction of the time in lieu owed to them on this day. I am just reminding families that we would appreciate a commitment to this plan so that we are not needing to employ additional relief teachers on these days. We hope we have given families sufficient notice, to plan for rest days and organise care if required. 

 

We have been busy preparing for welcoming prospective families and students starting Foundation (prep) in 2024 to the WEPS school community. Please encourage family or friends to come along for a school tour and our information session. Please see the flyer attached for more information. All details are also uploaded to our school Facebook page.