Principal's Report

16th December 2022

Year 6 Graduation Night

The Year 6 Graduation was last night. l would like to thank Erin Bartleton for all her work in organising the event with the support of Bec Brown, John Stewart and Nathan Stockton. I would also like to acknowledge the input of all the teachers, support staff and most importantly, the families who have been so influential during primary school years of these outstanding Year 6 students. Farewell to you all and best of luck with your secondary education. We will miss you!

Class Teachers and Staff for 2023

In 2023, we will welcome a number of new staff to the school as well as saying goodbye to some, while others are going on leave next year.

In 2023, we welcome Danielle Peters as a literacy leading teacher. Ailina Kumar, Daniel Symonds, Chloe Lim, Stephanie Cuddon as classroom teachers, and Janine Graham as a maths tutor. We also welcome Deb Round into administration, Michael Minenna as an ICT Technician, Nicola Jiang and Chyi Yong Loh as Multicultural / EAL aides and Paula Ruigrok as an integration aide.

Lexi Daw, Rachel Kelly, Bec Brown, Karina Ison and Meagan Baker will all be taking leave in 2023. We look forward to seeing them back WHPS sometime into the future and wish them all the best next year.

Alex Boylan will be returning from leave in 2023.

We will farewell long serving teachers Linda McKenzie and Wei Yu, and also say goodbye to Cath Chen who will be continuing her teaching career at Brandon Park PS. Andrew Sinclair who has been our ICT Technician is also retiring.

Thank you to Terri Jacobs as well who has been teaching 5LD this term.

We also welcome all our new Prep students and their families to our school community as well. 

Leadership 

Principal – Michael Ramsey

Assistant Principal (Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting) – Leasyl Richards

Assistant Principal (Wellbeing and School Operations) – Katrina Spicer

 Leading Teachers and Learning Specialists 

Leading Teacher (Numeracy) – Virginia Beshara                                                                                 Leading Teacher (Literacy Learning) – Danielle Peters

Learning Specialist (Digital Technologies) – Nathan Stockton

Learning Specialist (Extension and Enrichment) – Satoshi Okita 

Class Teachers (Year Level Leaders in Bold) 

PREP – Victoria Bruges-Cannon PBC, Mel Ciftcioglu PMC, Ailina Kumar PAK, Kathryn Watson / Alex Boylan PWB 

YEAR ONE – Danielle Greco 1DG, Laura Pugliese 1LP, Narelle Arzuman 1NA, Virginia Beshara 1VB 

YEAR TWO – Maddy De Groot 2MD, Chloe Lim 2CL, Erin Bartleton 2EB, Sandra Posocco 2SP 

YEAR THREE – Emily Boydell 3EB, Lizzy Dent 3LD, Danielle Peters 3DP, Daniel Symonds 3DS 

YEAR FOUR – Susie Modin 4SM, Megan Peraic 4MP, Satoshi Okita 4SO, Maddy Gallagher 4MG 

YEAR FIVE – Brooke Castledine 5BC, Amelia Robison 5AR, Sally Dwyer / Louise Connor 5DC, Tim Lee 5TL 

YEAR SIX – Fiona Pham 6FP, John Stewart 6JS, Stephanie Cuddon 6SC, Tanja Jansen 6TJ

Specialist Teachers 

Dan Slater - Performing Arts

Emma Roughton – Performing Arts  

Nicole Purcell – Physical Education

Renee Drury – Physical Education 

Kathy Orford – Visual Arts

Sandra Mazzocca – Visual Arts* 

Cathie Lording – French**

Lucy Lu – Mandarin**

Nathan Stockton – STEM

Briony Mason – Library***

*Ms Mazocca will also be teaching in 1VB, 3DP and 4SO one day a week while those teachers attend to their leading teacher and learning specialist duties. 

**From 2023 students will be taught Mandarin or French for a whole year, except for Prep, which will still have ½ year of each. Years 1, 3 and 5 will be taught Mandarin, while 2, 4 and 6 will be taught French.

***New specialist subject from 2023

Student Support and Extension

Lucy Lu– English as an Additional Language (EAL) 

Jo Goldie – Literacy Tutor 

Kathryn McPherson - Literacy Tutor

Janine Graham – Numeracy Tutor 

Satoshi Okita, Nathan Stockton – Extension and Enrichment

Education Support Staff 

Larissa Clark – Business Manager

Sarah Gaffney – Administration 

Nadia Kypriotis – Administration                                                                                                                Deb Round - Administration

Nicky McLean – First Aid and Integration Aide

Paula Ruigrok –Integration Aide

Amy Lavin – Integration Aide

Winter Washington – Integration Aide

Chyi Yong Loh, Nicola Jiang - Multicultural Education Aides

Lamia Bouazza – Library Technician

Michael Minenna – IT Support

John Arboit –School Maintenance  

Sharyn Veale – OSHC Co-ordinator

Peter Osmond – Assistant OSHC Co-ordinator

End of Year Activities

Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th December - There will be no formal classes or learning activities on these days. If you choose to send your children to school they will be helping to move things between classrooms, and clean up around the schoolyard, gardens and buildings. School finishes at 12:30pm on Tuesday 20th December. Please note the earlier finish time.

Specialist Captains 2023

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected as Specialist Captains for 2023:

ICT: Billy H and Kingsley C

Visual Arts: Sienna L and Sophia L

Peforming Arts: Curtis O and Keira Mc

French: Ethan Zheng and Liyana Fernando

Mandarin: Ryan Y and Shannon L

Sustainability: Sophia L and Hayley Y

Library (new for 2023): Aarav S and OIivia Q 

Well done to you all. The students and teachers look forward to working with you next year and for your contribution to the school in your role of a specialist captain. 

2023 Parent Payments

Parent contributions for 2023 are now open on Compass.

As the Department of Education only provides the school with a limited amount of student-based funding for a basic standard of curriculum delivery, we rely heavily on parent payments and voluntary contributions to develop and maintain the high-quality education programs, resources, facilities, and grounds the school provides. 

Therefore for 2023, we ask and encourage you to continue to make a generous contribution to our outstanding school as you have in previous years. Without your support and the subsequent lack of funds, we may have to reduce funding and cut several of our programs and resources. 

We have greatly appreciated your contributions in the past and hope you continue to do so through your financial support for the 2023 school year.  We look forward to a successful school year of teaching and learning in 2023 and thank you for your ongoing support.

Farewell

A number of families will finish their time with Wheelers Hill when their child leaves or finishes Year 6 this year. Our best wishes go to these families for their support and assistance over the years.

To students who are leaving Wheelers Hill for a range of reasons, before the completion of Year 6, I wish you well at your new schools and I hope you and your families will look upon your time at Wheelers Hill Primary School with fond memories.

Thank You

On behalf of the school community and staff I would like to acknowledge some of the people who work around the school.

Many thanks to:

Our Administration Staff –  Larissa Clark, Sarah Gaffney and Nadia Kypriotis. Thank you to Nicky McLean for her support this year with First Aid. 

Our Education Support team – Lamia Bouazza, Kathryn McPherson, Amy Lavin, Winter Washington and Nicky McLean who give our teachers and students support across the school.

Our Out of School Hours Care and Vacation Care team led by Sharyn Veale with support from Pete Osmond and the OSHC team. 

John Arboit for the maintenance support he provides for the school.

Jo White as the library technician. 

Our DEECD computer technician, Dharaka Withana and our own technician, Andrew Sinclair for their invaluable expertise in ICT. Also to Nathan Stockton for his invaluable knowledge and expertise this year, especially with the BYOD program. 

Satoshi Okita for his work with the extension and enrichments programs this year.

Virginia Beshara for her work at the numeracy leading teacher. 

Our School Council and president Dina Pogrebnoy.

Our dedicated, invaluable, expert and hard working Assistant Principals Leasyl Richards and Katrina Spicer. 

I would also like to especially recognise and acknowledge the efforts of our teachers who work hard to help our students grow and learn. Thank you as well to our parents who support the teachers and school as well. Your commitment to your children's learning and ongoing support of the school is much appreciated. Thank you all again. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

School recommences on Monday 30th January 2023. We are aware some families may be away travelling for the first week or two of Term 1. This is not an ideal start to the year so we ask if you can, all children start on the first day back of term. However if this is not possible you will need to add the absence to Compass and provide a reason for the absence. 

Thank you again to all members of the Wheelers Hill community for your ongoing support. We have a such a wonderful school and community that we should all be very proud to belong too. As the school year comes to an end, I would like to wish all our students and families a very Merry Christmas. I hope you all have a relaxing and safe holiday break and I, and all the staff, look forward to seeing you back at school in 2023. Happy holidays everyone! 

Merry Christmas

Michael Ramsey

Principal