Across Oliver's Desk 

Dear Parents,

WELCOME BACK!

Welcome back to 2025, the year to not only survive, but thrive! We’ve had a great summer with only a little bit of work done to the school. You will notice that next to the basketball court we have put in a retaining wall to stop water from running onto the court and into our sheds. We have had some of our pavements painted and Mr Gibbons has two new sheds (well shipping containers) for his sports equipment. 

It has been a great start to the school year with everything running smoothly so far. As a community, we need to extend a big welcome to our new and returning staff. We welcome back Melissa Erickson (1C) & Bonnie McKercher (2C) & (3/4B). And a huge Woori welcome to our new teachers, Hayley Evens (3/4A), Maddie Holmes (5/6C) and Greg Malone (3/4D). We know that you will love our beautiful children and our gorgeous school. 

We also have four new teacher aides starting with us. Welcome to Charlotte Thornton, Kylie Lammertsma, Charlie Greenwood and Renee Cronshaw. Again welcome to Woori, we know you will love working at our beautiful school. 

Our 63 new Preps have made a fantastic start to life at primary school. They look so crisp, new and cute. They have already impressed their new teachers and have certainly made me laugh with their honest appraisal of everything. One of them told me after the first day, that he should be able to come to school every day! Another one told me that it was stupid that Donny Dog only comes on a Thursday.

We also had some new families move into the area and join the school, the following students started this week:

Cody and Lilly Davine

Lochy Lacey

Alandra Lehmann

Beau Fall

Micaiah Gueit

Annabelle Cannon

Charlotte Daire

Isla Duiker

Sienna Evans

Landon and Emily Jenkins

Lucy Azzalini

We welcome all those wonderful families to the wonderful Woori way!

HOP SKIP AND STEP INTO PREP

Just a quick look at how the Preps went in their first week at school:

ARRIVALS IN JANUARY

Two of our teachers had their babies over the holidays. 

A big congratulations to Sophie Young, Colson James Peters was born on the 12/1. Also a big congratulations to Nat Telpuk, Thea Louise was born on the 15/1. Both mums and their new arrivals are doing well. 

Our Woori family just keeps growing and growing. We are over the moon for our new mums and we look forward to meeting Colson and Thea in person soonish. 

2025 PRIORITIES 

The focuses for our school in 2025 are the following:

• Reading

• Spelling

Although we received some pretty decent results in Reading and Spelling (Numeracy and Writing were outstanding) last year. We feel these are areas that we want to keep trying to improve across our school. We will be trialling some new strategies and we hope that you will hear your child/children being really excited about what they are doing in class. 

PERMISSION AND PAYMENTS FOR EXCURSIONS

In the past we have at times been lenient with parents if deadlines for payments/permission slips have been missed. Due to the size of the school and the extra planning that needs to go into camps/excursions, we simply cannot do this anymore. 

Students that haven’t paid/returned forms on time will not be able to attend. 

We will always send plenty of notifications about deadlines. We also understand the cost of living crisis and how difficult things are for families. Natalie Potter our school’s Business Manager will always try to work things out for families in need. This however, needs to be done before deadlines have occurred. 

SCHOOL COUNCIL

It’s that time of year when we need to elect our new school council. There are six parents that are up for election this year with three of those parents not wishing to return to council because their youngest child is now in high school. 

If you would like to nominate for council, you just need to go to the office and fill out a nomination form. You can also nominate someone for school council but you do need the parents permission to be nominated. 

Parents on school council attend 9 school council meetings throughout the year as well as 9 sub-committee meetings. School council sets the direction of the school while checking policies, procedures and school finances, in line with department guidelines. We have had really wonderful, supportive and productive school councils in my time at the school. We have a lot to thank those councils for. The modern facilities we currently have although there is more work to be done. 

UNIFORM

A real push at the start of the year is to make sure we get our uniform right and that our students wear their uniform with pride. We have started the year well but I would like to remind parents that our uniform includes predominately black shoes, (see photo) with white or black laces. When everyone is in their uniform, the school always looks and feels so much better. 

GRADE 5/6 CAMP

Our grade 5/6 kids have successfully made it to City Camp for their 3 days of fun & exploration around Melbourne. Every year we timetable our 5/6 camps to be in first term to give our students the opportunity to bond as a group and to start off the year really positively. Here are a few pics of our first day.

BUSHFIRE AT RISK REGISTER

We have been identified as a school that closes on days that are deemed to have a fire danger rating of code red. 

Luckily there haven’t been any significant fires in our immediate vicinity this year as we have had a fairly mild summer. However, there is still danger in the coming months and this week really demonstrated that we can’t be complacent.

See below for more information regarding our school being on the Bushfire-At Risk Register.

School procedures for the bushfire season

The way schools in Victoria respond to bushfires is being constantly revised. 

Fire danger ratings and warnings are used in Victoria to provide clear direction on the safest options for preserving life.

Schools – and children’s services – identified as being at highest bushfire risk have been included on the Bushfire-At Risk Register (BARR) and will be closed on days determined by fire authorities to be Code Red. Our school has been identified as a school at highest bushfire risk and is listed on the BARR. 

Where possible, we will provide parents with up to three days notice of a planned closure following the issue of a Code Red warning by the CFA.  We will contact you directly by email, SMS or letter sent home with your child with advice on planned closures and will confirm the decision to close by 12 noon the day before the planned closure. 

Once confirmed, the decision to close will not change, regardless of improvements in the weather forecast. This is to avoid confusion and help your family plan alternative care arrangements for your child.

• No staff will be on site on days when the school is closed by the risk of fire. 

• Out-of-school care will be cancelled on these days. 

• School camps will be cancelled if the area where the camp is taking place is at risk. 

• There may also be changes to school bus routes. Depending on routes, this may also occur on days when the school is not closed. 

On these Code Red days families are encouraged to enact their Bushfire Survival Plan – on such days, children should never be left at home unattended or in the care of older children. 

For those of us living in a bushfire-prone area, the safest option when a Code Red day is declared may be to leave the night before, or early in the morning of the Code Red day.

As part of preparing our school for the threat of fire we have updated our emergency management plan; reprioritised any maintenance works that may assist in preparing for the threat of fire and cleared our school grounds and gutters.

What can parents do?

• Make sure your family’s Bushfire Survival Plan is up-to-date and includes alternative care arrangements for your children in the event that our school is closed. 

• Ensure we have your current contact details, including your mobile phone numbers.  Keep in touch with us by reading our newsletters, by checking our website, and by talking to your child’s teacher or any other member of the teaching staff about our emergency plans. 

• Most importantly at this time of year, if you’re planning a holiday or short stay in the bush or in a coastal area, you should check warnings in advance of travel and remain vigilant during your stay.

• If your child is old enough, talk to them about bushfires and your family’s Bushfire Survival Plan. 

• You can access more information about school closures on the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development website – see http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/health/pages/emergencies.aspx

For up-to-date information on this year’s fire season and Bushfire Survival Planning, visit the CFA website at www.cfa.vic.gov.au or call the 24-hour Victorian Bushfires Information Line on 1800 240 667.

WEATHER – HATS

In Term 1 and Term 4 our school policy is that all staff and students need to wear hats when outside at recess and lunchtime.  On days with extreme heat, we will ensure all of our students are drinking enough water and that they are in the shade on some days.

LIBRARY NEWS

Thank you for so many book donations over the last few months. Our library is looking very healthy again! We would love it if you could hold off on bringing in donations for the rest of the term while we catch up on cataloguing the books into our library. 

We are also always looking for volunteers – if you have some spare time, even if it’s once a fortnight could you please email 

katherine.clark@education.vic.gov.au 

with your availability. 

Happy reading! 

The Library Team. 

CURRICULUM DAY

We do have a curriculum day planned for Friday 28th February. We know that curriculum days are difficult for parents to navigate. However, these days are essential for us to make sure that our school learning priorities are going to be met. We invest heavily in our teachers, which in turn means that we are investing in our children. All curriculum days are approved by our school council. 

SCHOOL SPEED ZONES AND NO RIGHT TURN SIGN

A reminder to everyone now that we are back at school that the speed limit in the school speed zone during specified times from 8.00 - 9.30 am and 2.30 - 4.00 pm is 40 km/h. Also please remember the No Right Turn sign into the middle of the kiss and drop. This means you can only gain access to the kiss and drop zone from the top of the parent carpark. Please be aware that each year we consistently have marked and unmarked police patrolling the stretch of road outside the school. I know we live in a busy world and parking is a problem around the school. However, if everyone is patient, courteous and does the right thing around our pickup and drop off times. Life would be better for all of us. 

Over the holidays I had time to read two books. Crawl to Freedom (Darren Prickett), and The piano player of Budapest (Roxanne De Bastion)  

The stories of our first world war soldiers that escaped prison camps had me on the edge of my seat. Sorry that I didn’t really vary my reading diet, but I do love history. 

These photos magically made their way to me. Two of our teachers reading to their own children. It really is the best thing you can do as a parent (except for playing senior cricket with your son/daughter when they get to about 14. But that’s a story for another day.

(Jess Banfield and Jess Howe reading to their children).

See you around the school soon!