Principal's Report

By Frank Catalano

Dear Members of the Glen Waverley Primary School Community,

I trust all is well with you and your family and welcome to this fortnight’s newsletter where so much is shared about our fabulous school.

As per usual, if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to see me at school, or contact me on 9802 9938 or frank.catalano@education.vic.edu.au.

International Schools Update

Sister-School Relationship

As mentioned in our previous newsletter, recently we had the pleasure of the Founder, Principal and Curriculum leader from the Jhapa Model English School, Nepal, visit us as we embark on the process of developing a ‘sister school’ relationship with our school. This week, the team reconnected with us by sharing aspects of their school and the Nepalese culture at Monday’s assembly. Then they remained to participate in a virtual CIS conference.

As we move forward with this relationship, I look to sharing what occurs with our school community.

Kansai International Academy CIS Accreditation Visit

As you may be aware, last week I had the pleasure of leading the CIS accreditation visit with Kansai International Academy (KIA), who are based in Japan. Overall, it was a very successful visit as the school has now been provided with additional recommendations for them to work through as they continue their school improvement journey.

One of the benefits of completing such reviews is that you can learn from colleagues around the world, with this visit I was extremely impressed with the school’s:

Global citizenship program which is taught through the International Baccalaureate approach and
A host of student wellbeing programs such as the use of the Zones of Regulation

School Chess Team Update

As mentioned previously, the children at our school never cease to amaze me! Our school chess team continues to go from strength to strength as indicated by the following results and email from Himath (father of Naveen and Vidushi):

Hi Mr. Catalano,

The following are the results of the two tournaments from last week.

Chess Victoria - Secondary School Finals

Team scored 23 out of a maximum of 40 points and was placed 12th equal among 29 schools. This is the first time that GWPS played in a secondary school final.

Individual performances (out of 8 points):

Omika 5.5

Nikhil 5.0

Vidushi 4.5

Naveen 4.0

Vikas 4.0

Amaya 3.5

Chess Victoria - Primary Girls Finals

Team scored 21.5 out of a maximum possible 35 and was placed third.

Individual performances

Amaya 5.0

Vidushi 5.0

Lesara 4.0

Thenugi 4.0

Saheli 3.5

Reyashi 2.0

Although this is not what we wanted to achieve, there are many positives from the event such as Saheli drawing a winning game due to lack of time against the 2020 Australian Under 10 Girls Champion, Amaya scoring 5 points and almost drawing with the eventual winner of the tournament. The improvement shown by Lesara and Thenugi, Reyashi who is still in Prep scoring two points in a final to name a few. Omika scoring 5.5 and top scoring for the team in the Secondary School Final is also a highlight.

The next two events are:

Northern Star Victorian Girls Final (Next Friday)

Chess Victoria Open Finals (First Week of November) where we get one more chance to represent Victoria in Cairns if we win the title.

We will keep you posted.

Thank you for all your support and encouragement.

Northern Star Victorian Girls Final

I am extremely proud to report that our school’s girl’s chess team placed 1st in the Northern Star Victorian Girls Chess Grand final! The girls scored 21.5 out of 28 points ahead of Banyule Primary with 20 points and Glendal Primary with 19.5 points.

Some of the individual results were:

Vidushi placed 2nd across all of the participants with a score of 6 out of 7.
Amaya with a score of 5.5 out of 7 won the Prep to Grade 2: Top Player award
Saheli with a score of 5 out of 7 won the Prep to Grade 2: Silver award
Thenugi with a score of 5 out of 7 won the Grade 3-4: Bronze award.

It is obvious that the results above are outstanding, and everyone involved should be incredibly proud. Well done and congratulations to the children involved as you all should be incredibly proud of yourselves – we certainly are of you!

Also, a sincere thank you to all the parents that assisted as your efforts are appreciated immensely too.

Northern Star Chess Semi Final

Congratulations to our Open Chess team as yesterday they participated in this tournament where they tied for 1st place with Trinity Grammar.

Quite clearly it was a gruelling and nerve racking tournament however not have the children done exceptionally well against formidable competition, they have now qualified for the grand final which is being played on November 7th.

Below are the children’s results and scores; out of a possible score of 7. The children in bold have qualified for the grand final.

Vidushi 6.0 (Girls Gold)
Naveen 5.5 (Prep to Grade 2 Gold)
Nikhil 5.5 (Grade 5 to 6 Bronze)
Thineru 5.0
Amaya 5.0 (Prep to Grade 2 Silver)
Saheli 5.0 (Girls Silver)
Omika 5.0
Vikas 5.0
Thehan 3.5
Aadyah 3.0
Thenugi 3.0
Sarvang 2.5
Lesara 2.0
Yehara 2.0

Children, I cannot express how proud I am of you as is the entire school community! We all look forward to hearing how you go on the 7th November – well done!!!

2023 Enrolments

I would like to remind families with children who will be beginning school in 2023 that we are taking enrolments now and that they are also closing rapidly as we only have a very small number of positions available. I strongly encourage you to ensure you return your child’s enrolment form to Daniel, Daria or Julie in the main office as soon as possible.

We also ask that members of our school community assist us by informing any of their neighbours of the enrolment procedures and direct them to the office to collect an enrolment form or our school website – www.glenps.vic.edu.au . School tours are available every Tuesday morning commencing at 9:30 and also upon request. Please call the school on 9802 9938 to book a tour.

Also, if your family will be leaving our school at the end of this year, please ensure you email Daniel, our enrolment officer at, daniel.itsines@education.vic.gov.au or myself at frank.catalano@education.vic.gov.au by Friday 18th November.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING STUDENTS WHO RECEIVED A PRINCIPAL’S AWARD RECENTLY:

Prep A

Max, Ishana, Rishaan and Shawn for continuing to make outstanding progress with their writing

Hasan for making a phantom out of paper

Vinaiy for producing an amazing procedural text about how to make Oat Crispy Bites. Vinaiy followed the steps and even illustrated his learning!
Ali and Minadi For developing their understanding of fractions

Kisal and Sam shared their wonderful exploration of fractions by cutting shapes in half, labelling them with fractions and creating a ‘fractions picture’ with the piece they had creased.

Kian for a fantastic writing piece outlining a procedure of how to make a pizza with tomato, cheese and salami
Nathan for his fantastic writing about the procedure of making ‘Oat Crispy Bites’. His use of verbs and adverbs contributed to an amazing procedural piece.

Siddharth and Arnav shared their wonderful learning about fractions too. They have been exploring all the different ways to represent fraction using words, numbers and pictures. What amazing mathematicians!

Aadhavan for receiving a certificate from his Tamil club for placing 1st place in a performance which involved dancing and presenting

Anya for learning the importance of using descriptive language to enhance the author’s purpose
Pooja for learning about the importance of using different narratives
Mindi for drawing a very elaborate picture of the sun setting with 2 dolphins playing in the foreground

Jittipad for working really hard on his writing skills
Ajeet for being a very supportive friend
Oliver for receiving an award for being an exceptional author and Oliver shared his excellent Holiday recount, which included some very cleverly composed sentences and paragraphs. He managed to capture some key moments of his holiday, in particular the experience of falling asleep in the car and the feeling of surprise when waking up at your destination. Well done Oliver.

Sam for his wonderful writing about Max’s adventure. His use of descriptive words such as glared and destructive really helped paint a wonderful picture.

Amaya for continuing to work exceptionally hard on her learning. Recently she completed a 7 page report about the jungle and the animals that reside in them
Rehmat and Saheli for continuing to make exceptional progress with their writing. This fortnight I am featuring Saheli’s in the Kids Corner section of the newsletter
Kalana, Brian and Raidanne demonstrated outstanding use of adjectives to describe the sea and the people and places around the sea. They creatively used adjectives to create vivid descriptions the seaside.

Layla for her creative descriptive writing that really painted a wonderful picture in my mind!
Aadya for his descriptive writing about ‘The Orphaned boy of the Lighthouse’
Daham and Isa for their amazing problem solving skills during a maths session.
Rachel for making the most amazing progress with her writing. Her latest narrative, “Spaceship World’ exemplified not only her progress but also her commitment to improvement – well done Rachel and keep it up!
Vihas - For his wonderful writing about the Ginormous Beast! This piece included the use of some language to describe the fantasy like world where the Ginormous Beast lived!

Radianne - For her fantastic writing about the City Beach. Radianne included some tier three language which really gave me a great idea of what it would be like to be at the beach.

Helitha - For his amazing narrative about the little Australian Animals. This included some highly effective dialogue between the animals.

Eva, Trisha and Sevin for working hard to create their very own lemonade stand so they can raise money for charity

Throughout this year, Mckenna has been working hard at improving her English. This was shown today in how well she did on her Essential Assessment mathematics, she was able to read and understand most of the questions.
Rain, her classmate, collaborated and helped her understand tricky words, resulting in an outstanding score on her assessment.

Mihika for receiving two trophies from Caydan Karate, 1st place in Sparring and 2nd place in Grappling

Frank Catalano

Principal