Across Oliver's Desk 

Dear Parents and Guardians, 

I’m sorry we didn’t release the newsletter last week, we actually couldn’t because of the power issue everyone experienced in Woori. This is the third time in a week I have rewritten this newsletter, which demonstrates the day to day changes happening at the moment. 

Our Woori community is so brilliant and I thank everyone for their understanding through all the issues we had last week.   When Flick and I were at the front of the school on Friday to unfortunately turn people away.  I was so taken by the offerings of kindness from parents who themselves had no lighting or heating.   We have beautiful families here in this beautiful community as I’m sure you’re all aware. 

As we continue to be in such different times again. It is such a positive that at the moment COVID 19 is not present in our immediate vicinity and that the lockdown has eased.  One thing that school lockdowns have proven every time is that there is no substitute to face to face teaching.   Having said that I would like to again thank our wonderful staff for going above and beyond during remote learning.

I know that our staff are very glad to have all the children coming back to the place a lot of them feel is their home away from home!  Let’s hope that last pause is the final pause. 

Resilience Project Wednesday 16th of June

Time – 6:30 – 8:00pm

We were due to have Hugh Van Cuylenburg speak to us from the Resilience Project tonight. Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions, we are unable to hold this event onsite at the school. The session will now run via a zoom meeting. You don't have to have a booking to be able to access the session. You can access this session via the following link. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89826841714?pwd=dnFJL25iYnFYdGp2QVpTL2o2ZHhzQT09Meeting ID: 898 2684 1714

Passcode: 120518

If you are experiencing any technical issues, please email the school on 

woori.yallock.ps@education.vic.gov.au

This email will be monitored at the beginning of the meeting for 15 minutes to assist.  

The Resilience Project delivers emotionally engaging programs to schools, sports clubs and businesses and provides them with evidence based, practical strategies to build resilience and happiness. The Resilience Project has delivered programs to over 1000 schools around the country and worked with many elite sporting teams including Australian cricket, netball and soccer, NRL and AFL clubs. Through presentations, wellbeing journals, schools curriculum, teacher diaries and their App, The Resilience Project seeks to help all Australians become mentally healthy. Programs offered by The Resilience Project are based on the following strategies:

• Gratitude - Appreciating what you have, not begrudging what you don’t. 
• Empathy - Thinking of the needs of others/kindness.
• Mindfulness - Being present in the moment, not becoming distracted by unhelpful or negative thoughts. 

During the presentation, Hugh will share his experiences and combine them with practical strategies that can be implemented every day to improve our overall wellbeing.

This is a session not to be missed and we encourage you all to logon.

Please contact the school if you have any questions.

Speaking Competition 

We are still going ahead with our speaking competition this term as the students have been working on them for a while now.  The Preps however, will delay their competition till next term and the school final will be moved to the last week of the term. 

Classes will have their own grade competition and declare their class finalists. Finalists will then compete against other year level finalists at our school competition, which will take place during the last week of term. At this stage parents will not be able to attend the final but we are hoping restrictions may ease again on Thursday.

Every year I am amazed at how well our school prepares students for public speaking.  We do have a few whole school rules that help, students are not allowed to take notes or cue cards on stage, and our mantra is that, a speech is not a read.  Our teachers our highly skilled and explicitly teach public speaking strategies but also demonstrate what a good speech looks like and feels like.  We do also encourage parents to help at home. 

I know I crow about it all the time but it is no fluke that we have won the inter-school Yarra Valley Speaking Competition six years in a row. I’ll never forget when one of our grade six finalists, Serena, said to me after competing in the Yarra Valley final that she thought our school competition was harder than the inter-school competition. 

I wish everyone all the best for this year’s competition. 

Reports and Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent teacher interviews will most likely take place via online meetings next week.  We will keep parents informed about this through compass notifications. 

We will be sending home reports via compass during the last week of term. If you are having trouble accessing compass, please talk to Flick or Natalie at school.  

Last Day of Term

Just a reminder that we finish at 2:30pm on the last day of term.

Remember when life gets a little difficult, escape to the wonderful world of a book!

Oliver Thockloth

Principal