The last couple of weeks has been all about connecting our school community. It has been great to come together for many different celebrations and events;

Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander family night – parents/carers and children enjoyed games, afternoon tea and lovely chats. Thank you Ellie Clarke and Bree Kavanagh for co-ordinating this event.

Dan Petro – we had about 70 parents attend a session with behaviour expert Dan Petro on ‘Making parenting a little easier’. Unfortunately, we could not record the session (presenter’s protocols) but we have sent the slides to all families. We hope to have Dan back before the end of the year.

Fathering Project – almost 200 fathers/father figures and children attended a fun filled night of paper plane making and flying and pizza. Huge thanks to James Chapman and our Wellbeing team (Kerry McCarthy and Lesley Keilar) for organising such a successful event.

Parent/Teacher Partnership meetings – thank you to all parents who either attended face to face or via phone conversation. These meetings are a part of our reporting process and it is essential parents attend (preferably with your child). If you couldn’t make a time on Wednesday this week, please make an alternative time to talk with your teacher. We appreciate the many families who made alternative care arrangements for their children to enable teachers to have focused time to discuss each child’s learning progress and areas to work on. I was very pleased to hear the number of appreciations our teachers received from families. We felt families made every effort to engage in respectful conversations and encourage you to keep the lines of communication open.

Celebrations

Congratulations to all the students who represented Warrnambool East Primary school in the Eisteddfod over the past few weeks.

And, our girls football team made it through to the Girls Regional Football Finals in Ballarat, representing Warrnambool East Primary School today (results are not yet in).

We pride our school on nurturing strengths and providing our students with opportunities to extend their interests through our extended curriculum – The Arts, Science, Humanities and Physical Education, then further this through experiences beyond the school environment. Congratulations to all.

Staffing update

Next term we have a few staffing changes with some teachers taking short and long term leave.

We wish Ms India Thomas and Ms Shannon Dillon safe travels as they are heading over the Europe for a couple of months. India and Shannon will return back to school from the beginning of term 4.

Congratulations Ms Terri Hibbert who has taken on a ‘Teaching Partner’ role with the Wimmera South West Area team. This means Terri will be working with a number of schools and support their school improvement journeys.

I understand this can be a frustration for parents and children, however it is important to remember our teachers make plans beyond school life, which we encourage and support. I thank all parents for being patient as we worked on making sure we employed the right people for each classroom (this is not always a simple and straight forward task). But, I am pleased to share we have filled all positions with high quality teachers;

1/2 F – Mr Adrian DeLandre (replacing Mrs Melissa Fisher while she takes maternity leave)

5/6 T – Katlyn Pitt and Bree Porter (replacing Ms India Thomas)

5/6D – Louise Mclean and Jess Turland-Rhook (replacing Ms Shannon Dillon)

3/4 H – Ms Emma Collishaw and Georgie Hall (replacing Terri Hibbert)

Congratulations

On behalf of our whole school community, we congratulate Mrs Melissa Fisher and partner Conor on the safe arrival of their beautiful baby boy Lenny Conor Fisher.

I wish everyone a safe and happy term break. Stay warm and enjoy your time together as a family.

Can you please help our Ninja Champ Lenny, get to the Ninja World Championships?