At Wembley Primary School, we acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which our school sits, the Woi-wurrung and Boonwurrung people of the South-Eastern Kulin Nation.

We celebrate and respect the oldest continuing culture and recognise the importance of education in truth telling, equity and justice.

We pay our respects to Elders past and present and recognise and value the learning that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, colleagues and community bring into our schools.

Welcome to the 2025 School Year!

On behalf of Wembley Primary School, I would like to warmly welcome you all as we commence a new year of learning.

It's a pleasure to introduce myself to you as Acting Principal, for Terms 1 and 2, whilst Vassie takes her well-earned Long-Service Leave during this opening semester. I have been part of the Wembley community for over 10 years now, commencing as a Grade 3 teacher back in 2014 - it's a community that I feel privileged to be part of and wish to continue to serve.

For those that don't yet know me, please feel free to come and introduce yourself when you see me in the yard during the morning, or at the end of the day. It's my mission to get to know as many of you as possible during my time in the role!

~ Katie McClue: Acting Principal ~

New Build and Landscaping

Those that have visited us onsite will have seen the enormous amount of progress made over the school holidays in relation to our playground. The footprint of our old building has now been returned to our students as play space and it is simply incredible! Playtimes have already felt more relaxed and we hope to see this have a positive influence over lunchtime incidents. There continue to be some small works required, but we are getting closer to practical completion.

Grant, our Buildings and Grounds Manager, has now commenced the next stage of landscaping, which will see him plant a range of native trees and greenery in the central flower beds. Over time, we will see these trees grow to provide some natural shade in this area of the school.

On Thursday 13 February the school will welcome Minister Melissa Horne in order to formally declare the building open. We will hold a short ceremonial assembly in the morning once class rolls have been taken - families are very welcome to stay and join us on this occasion. We will send out some further information on this at the start of the week, but the opening ceremony will commence at approximately 9:10am. Vassie will also be joining us - I'm sure you will all look forward to seeing her back on school grounds.

Classroom Routines and Procedures

This week, classes have been busy establishing some of their fundamental routines and procedures. Clear expectations, routines and procedures form part of the Department of Education's 'Positive Classroom Management Strategies' framework, which is based upon 8 evidence-informed practices that create safer, more purposeful learning environments supporting student learning, wellbeing and behaviour.

After a considerable amount of upheaval throughout the course of the school build, we, as a school, are committed to establishing an improved sense of safety and order for our students this year, so these routines are considered a critical building block to achieving this. Staff have committed to setting and working towards a fortnightly goal in relation to each of our routines and procedures. This fortnight, staff and students are focussed on their morning line-up and class entry routine.

As part of our community, we are hoping that parents and carers can help support us in achieving our first goal by being aware of what this routine and procedure involves, and encouraging your child to meet the expectations.

Time	Cue	Student Action
08:54	Music Plays	Students move towards designated classroom line-up/entry point Classroom teacher moves towards designated classroom line-up/entry point Parents/Carers farewell their child
08:55	Bell #1 Rings	All students should be at their classroom line-up/entry point Classroom Teacher opens classroom door and greets students as they enter or (dependant on location of classroom) Classroom Teacher walks student line into building
		Students follow specific classroom 'settling-in' routine (see example from 2D below)
09:00	Bell #2 Rings	All students should be inside classroom and ready to learn All parents and carers should be external to the classroom (unless an agreed upon adjustment is in place/prior arrangement)

Overall our students and staff have done a magnificent job during the opening two weeks - we'll be sure to showcase some student work in our next newsletter. Well done to everyone!

School Council Elections

This year we have a number of School Councillors coming to the end of their term of service, so we will very soon begin the process of calling for nominations and self-nominations from those that are interested.

If you are interested in the idea of being on School Council, but are unsure as to what this entails then I encourage you to reach out to either a current councillor, Beck Thomas (our School Council President), Helen Harris (Vice President) or myself.

On Monday 10 February we will send out information via Sentral about this process, and open the call for nominations. Interested parties will have a week to register their nomination. If this is you, then I strongly encourage you to look out for the communication, as the whole process is tightly governed, with no wriggle room if you miss the associated deadlines!

General Reminders

This year we have improved some of our behaviour and wellbeing processes, and wish to adjust our Code of Conduct forms and ICT Acceptable Use Agreements accordingly. These forms are in the final stages of being refined and will be sent out to families as a priority - we are hoping these to be completely ready by Monday 10 February. At the same time, we will send out the remaining paperwork - ie: walking permission/photo permission etc.

Key dates can be found on the specific page, however there are three significant dates that parents need to be aware:

Week 3: Meet & Greet (Wednesday 12/Thursday 13 February)

Week 5: Curriculum Day (Wednesday 26 February) - this is a pupil free day

Week 6: School Photos (Monday 3 March) - information to come

Use of School Skip Bins: a friendly reminder that the skip bins, located near the PE Hall on St Leonards Avenue, are for school use only. We have had reports of some vehicles dropping off personal waste - whilst we don't expect that this would be a Wembley family, we felt it was important to share and spread the word, incase a friend, or friend, of friend needs to hear this message!

Disabled Parking on St Leonards Avenue: please ensure we keep this space protected for those that need it. We do have families requiring access to this space this year, and ask that only those with permits utilise the space.

TheirCare