Principal's Post
TERM 1: 2026 Week 7 & 8: reminders and critical messages
Principal's Message
I'd like to open this week's post by sharing thoughts for any of our Wembley families who may have relatives or friends in the Middle East, impacted by current events - please let us know if your family is impacted, so that we can support you and your child/ren to our fullest.
We will have a busy few weeks ahead, with NAPLAN operating over the next fortnight for our Year 3 and Year 5 students. The test window will open next week, with students' first assessment being held on Wednesday March 11th - with writing being the first focus. We wish all our students the best as they undertake this work and thank staff for their efforts in supporting the assessments.
I also wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the dialogue occurring in the news regarding possible strike action for teachers and staff. Potential strike action has been called for and, if passed, is planned for Tuesday 24th March. At present, the union ballot is still open and closes on March 12th - at which point schools will receive more direction. If the ballot returns a 'YES' vote, then strike action will be allowed and it is possible that many schools may close, depending on the number of staff who are union members. We understand the impact that such a decision would have on families, and that you will need as much warning as possible, should Wembley be indicated in this action. I will follow this short acknowledgement, with more substantial information next week as we are now starting to receive clearer guidance from the AEU.
My final message centres around encouraging responsible use of our Class Rep WhatsApp groups. We understand that many classes have WhatsApp groups, often in response to the WPA utilising the structure to support fundraising, as well as serving as a quick and reliable way for parents to share reminders about events. We fully support this! However, we also need to ask parents to exercise caution about using the stream for other purposes, for example: being conscious that if information is shared about an incident, or concern - the parents of impacted or involved children may also be a participant on the WhatsApp stream. It remains the school's responsibility to judge whether something meets the threshold for sending out formal communication, as well as determining the timing of this. In absence of such formal communication, then we ask parents not to take this into their own hands, as this can encourage the accidental sharing of misinformation, but also have a negative impact on members of parent and student community. Thank you for supporting us in this.
There are a number of important messages detailed below, so I do encourage you to continue reading, just in ensure you are fully informed and have opportunity to contribute.
We wish you well for the long weekend, and hope that families enjoy the extended time together. We'll see you on Tuesday morning!
Katie McClue - Acting Principal
Key Events (Week 3 & 4)
Week 7: 9/3 | M: Labour Day P/H (9/3) T: Divisional Swimming (10/3) W: NAPLAN Test Window Opens (11/3) |
Week 8: 16/3 | M-F: Neuro-Diversity Celebration Week W: Secondary School Transition Info Night Th: Year 1 Brick Works Incursion F: Harmony Day (20/3) |
| 🎉 Note: Monday of Week 7 is a public holiday - school resumes on Tuesday 10/3 🎉 | |
Critical Messages
Building names: We are looking to introduce some directional signage across the school this year, but before we can finalise this we would like to formally name some of our buildings. After all - we can't continue to call the 'new build' the 'new building' forever! We are looking to use a theme to link our building names together, so would love your input on this. If you have a moment, we'd really appreciate your input via this survey - https://forms.gle/YXkgzW5R
Parent Helpers - Whole School: This year we will run two parent volunteer structures:
1) Whole School Volunteers - https://forms.gle/T9SKenvCVGgMZkWt9
2) Classroom Helpers
Our classroom helper process will get underway in Term 2, across all cohorts - watch this space in the opening weeks. We now wish to seek parent interest in volunteering their support across the whole school. This might include: Library assistance, Publishing Team, Lost Property, Whole School Resourcing and Organisation, PE Resource Organisation, Supporting sports events (even if their child is not involved). If this is you - please complete the survey.
The survey will remain open for 2 weeks, after which Eileen Rawstron will be in touch. Eileen is a long standing volunteer, who continues to lead work in this space for us on a daily basis - she is simply wonderful, and I'm confident that many of you will already know who she is.
Harmony Week: We will celebrate Harmony Week at Wembley Primary School from the 16th to the 20th of March. During this week, students will engage with a range of mentor texts based around understanding cultures from around the world. We will also create a world map data display where students can share their family heritage. On Friday, students are encouraged to wear a splash of orange to highlight the day or cultural dress. During the day, Year 6 students will present their 'Stand Up to Racism' project to the rest of the school, and students will create a pledge against racism, which they will bring home on Friday.
School Council Nominations: Please ensure you vote! Voting instructions and ballot papers were sent home on Thursday afternoon - please contact the office promptly if you did not receive this correspondence. Voting will close Wednesday 11th at 4:00pm.
Lost Property: Please name all items of property with your child's full name and 2026 grade.
Furthermore, if your child does accidentally come home with someone else's property, or something that you know is not theirs, please do ensure that they return the items to school. It is important that we encourage this behaviour, in order to protect our students' belongings and to model the importance of demonstrating integrity.
Traffic Safety: Next week, we will be meeting with a representative from Maribyrnong Council, in order to seek support in managing traffic flow and traffic safety .
We ask all members of our community to continue doing their bit in making our surrounding streets safe for our students.
WPA: The WPA are still looking for class reps for the following classes - if you are interested, please send us an email to wembleyparents@gmail.com
1C, 2C, 3/4A, 4A, 4B, 5A. 5B and 6C
Easter Raffle:
You would have started to see the posters around the school for our 2026 Easter Raffle. Students will be receiving their raffle ticket booklets next week, if your child did not receive theirs, please let us know and we will help to get their tickets. Additional tickets will be available at the office. Please return tickets and monies to your classroom teacher or front office by Wednesday 1st April.
DONATION REQUEST - we are seeking easter themed items for our easter raffle, if you are able to donate items, please leave them on the tables outside the First Aid room. Thank you for your support.
