A Warm Welcome to our Weeden Heights Community

A warm welcome to our community

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and got to spend some time with their families. As usual our calendar is action packed and this week we acknowledge the amazing parents and community members who volunteer in our school. Thank you! If you did not know, it is Volunteers Week. Our great country, relies on amazing people to volunteer their time from the coast guard to meals on wheels, CFA, St Johns Ambulance, dog walkers in shelters, Kids Coach Mentors, in schools, local sporting clubs etc etc. Volunteers are everywhere and they are so generous with their time. Please take a moment to thank them.

Next Week is Education Week!

This year marks 150 years of public education in Victoria.

In 1872 the introduction of the Education Act made Victoria the first Australian colony (and one of the first jurisdictions in the world) to offer free, secular and compulsory education to its children.

Being a forerunner of free, secular and compulsory education is one of Victoria’s greatest achievements.

Before 1872 most children living in Victoria were enrolled at government-aided institutions, others attended independent or church schools. A few were educated at home by tutors and, at a time when schooling was neither compulsory nor free, some received no formal education at all.

The 150-year anniversary of public education is an opportunity for us to commemorate the long and proud history of high-quality education in Victoria and to reflect on our own engagement with the state education system.

Weeden Heights PS will be celebrating 150 years of public education by :

Monday	Dress Up Parade during Assembly Students will wear clothes representing all the decades from the 1800’s until	In the Classroom: Students and teachers investigate how school has changed across the decades and complete a class activity
Tuesday	Grandparents Morning Tea Invitations have been sent out for our grand parents and significant grand parent figures to come along to school and share their stories. Do not forget some extra playlunch to share with your guests!	Open Night 6 – 7.30pm Activities in rooms Lego competition and voting Performances by students Performances by the choir Classroom activities Showcasing our talented students and classrooms
Wednesday	Simultaneous Reading Across the school and state, we will be involved in reading the book ‘Family Tree’ all on the same day and the same time! The school has purchased hard copies of this book as well so students hopefully will borrow and bring this home to share as well.	Cross Country Good luck Weeden Heights PS! Wishing our students all the best as they represent our school.
Thursday	Old School Games : Students will be playing old school games outside at playtime with their teachers. There will be skipping, marbles, hopscotch, four square, Jenga, yo-yos, skittles and ring toss. Should be loads of fun
Friday	Kinder Session Mrs Michalski has invited our local kinders to participate in a special session in the classroom

To get involved in the celebrations on social media use the hashtag #schools150years.

For more information and to see a selection of digitised records from Victoria’s oldest schools visit vic.gov.au/150years.

Capital Works at Weeden Heights PS

Our exciting journey has started! This week a few of our beautiful trees have had to come down. While we love them, they have caused many problems blocking the gutters, lifting concrete and opening up the walls with their roots. Some will be replaced with more appropriated sized natives but the one near room four and the library courtyard should never have ever been planted that close to a building. Not sure what they were thinking at the time but we are rectifying the issue now.

Tectura, our architects, presented the plans and concept drawings at school council on Monday night. We are just crossing our fingers that prices do not escalate too much in the current environment so that stage one can be implemented. There is some use of wood, and the colours reflect the green of the trees, grey of the building and the blue highlight colour used throughout the school.

Our school really deserves a ‘freshen up’ and we are looking forward to the new roof.

Curriculum Day

Last Monday, was a curriculum day for the staff. The focus was on our writing program and enhancing the teaching of writing. Teachers were a part of a learning walk at a local school and completed a Q & A about writing approaches and strategies to support all learners. The afternoon was spent, strengthening our own VOICES writing approach which focuses on the six essential traits of writing.

It is exciting and energising for teachers to have the opportunity and time to watch other teachers teach. It is the best way to learn, reflect and enhance. We have set ourselves some goals and have already started working on these through our weekly staff meetings.

Arriving Late

There are many students regularly arriving late each day. Please ensure that your family is organised and arrives before 8.50am. Learning begins promptly at 9am in each classroom. When a child arrives late, they disrupt the learning of all the students in their classroom. Students feel anxious as they are entering a room late and will not know what to do as activities and learning has commenced. The teacher has also settled into their teaching and won't be able to spend time with the late student catching them up with the work and expectations of the learning session. Lateness is formally recorded with the department and forms a part of your child's school report.

Student Safety

This is a reminder that the staff car park at the front and back of the school is out of bounds for all pedestrians (students and parents). There are staff leaving at different times and the driveway at the front car park is steep with low visibility due to the bend. It is far too dangerous for pedestrians to use. Also please be very careful when walking on the footpath near the driveway as there are cars exiting and I have noticed that a couple of parents are using it to turn around in.

PFA Mother’s Day Stall

A huge thank-you to our PFA and the volunteers who put together a wonderful stall of delights for our students to purchase. There was also a very popular raffle with lovely prizes available. Thank-you also to the parents who helped with our students purchasing items from the stall. We hope that all our wonderful mothers and mother figures had a wonderful day on Sunday (and got very spoilt!).

NAPLAN Exams

Well done to all of our students who completed their NAPLAN exams this week. Thank you to our teachers, students and visitors for staying quiet to allow our year 3’s and 5’s to focus and do the very best that they could.

Both year 3 and 5 were sitting the NAPLAN exams for the very first time. Our year 5 students missed their year 3 exams in 2020 due to lockdowns and remote learning. There are a lot more firsts to come with our up coming camp. Years 3, 4 and 5 will head off for the very first time. It will be an exciting time for many.

Annual General Meeting

This year our Annual General Meeting was held after our school council meeting on 16 May. The 2021 Annual Report was presented to the community, which highlights our successes during a most difficult and challenging year. For anyone who missed out, the 2021 Annual Report is currently available for our community on our website and available for anyone to read. There are some amazing results especially when you compare our performances to other schools. We are very proud of our achievements!

Enrolments for 2023 - Looking for successful learners to join our team!

This is a reminder for our existing families (and please pass onto your neighbours), that enrolment forms for 2023 Foundation year students are now due. Our highly successful Bright Beginnings transition program commences at the end of term 3 and we do not want our future students to miss the opportunity to attend. Please contact either Kerryn or Cindy in the office and collect an enrolment form for your pre-schooler. The enrolment for is also available from the website. Thank you.

Do not forget it is Walk to School Day tomorrow! Students will be also wearing ‘crazy socks’ so it should be loads of fun. Just a reminder that students in years 4 – 6 will be competing at another school for interschool sport so they will need to bring along a spare pair of school socks and I feel it is important to represent our school in the uniform that we wear with pride. As soon as they get back to school, they can pop on their ‘crazy socks’.

Until next time……

Kylie Campbell

Principal

Futures are Bright at Weeden Heights!

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