Across Oliver's Desk 

Dear Parents,

WELCOME BACK!

I hope everybody had a fantastic holiday break and enjoyed time with family and friends. I’m looking forward to a great finish to the year.

We have a lot to look forward to this term including the following: 

• Grade Six Graduation at Killara Winery
• Christmas Carols and Grade 5/6 Christmas Market
• Grade 1 dinner at school
• WYPS Speaking Competition for Preps, Grade 1/2
• Grade 1/2 Zoo excursion 
• And much more!

Welcome to William who started with us on Monday and also Maverick and Zander that started at Woori late last term.  

PARENT SURVEY RESULTS

Our survey results for both students and parents have been really positive this year. I have already presented the student results to our school council and our student leaders. Next week I will present the parent results to school council. 

Please find a summary of the results below:

WORLD TEACHERS’ DAY

It was world teacher’s day on Wednesday.  We have amazing and brilliant teachers at our school that make sure our children are well taught. So if you get a chance, please thank our amazing teachers and remind them of how important they are to us all.

HATS/UNIFORM

A reminder that we require all of our students to wear hats at recess and lunchtime. If students don’t have a hat they are asked to be in an undercover area which limits what they can do during break times. This year our students have been really good upholding our uniform policy. There is still a small percentage of students who are not wearing black shoes and I ask for your support with this as having 100% of our students in full uniform upholds our school motto of ‘Take Pride At All Times’.  If there is a reason why your child is out of uniform can you please contact the classroom teacher to explain why. Thanks for your help with this.

NUMERACY IN THE MEDIA

In the media this week there was a lot about students in Victoria struggling with basic numeracy skills and being up to five years behind. When I was listening and reading some of this was thinking that is certainly not the case at our school. Most of our students have control of the basics by the time they reach grade 3. That is due to our students doing numeracy everyday and then Blitzmaster three times a week. Blitzmaster really does make sure that our students practice the four processes regularly. Our numeracy results are amongst the best in the state and proudly we are number one when judged against schools of the same size and demographic and in the top ten for all schools in the state. 

FOOTY TIPPING WINNERS

Congratulations to our footy tipping champions for 2022. Our parent/staff winner was Tracey Gardner who almost led the competition all year and won by 5.  A huge win.  Our student winner was Oscar Darwall. Both Tracey and Oscar received their trophies at our excellence award assembly. 

I hope to have a better strategy next year. Picking Carlton every week is not working for me. 

IMPROVEMENTS AT THE SCHOOL

I know our school is a bit of a mess at the moment with all the building works going on. However, through the holidays we had a lot of work done at the school which is all due to our hard working school council. The facilities committee led by Mary Menta in consultation with school council have worked hard for a long time to secure funds to make sure we improve our facilities. Over the holidays we have added to the deck of one of the portables so that all of the portables have an undercover runway that link to the main building. We have also upgraded the old shed to make it into a secure bike shed for the children that ride to school. 

Also it is great to finally see some real progress with our new building! 

Have a great week!

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