blic holidayA warm welcome to our community

Teacher Industrial Action

I am confident that you have all heard about the negotiations of a new agreement between teachers (including ES staff and principals) and the state government. Protected industrial action will occur on Tuesday 24 March, so there will be many disruptions to schools and I imagine, traffic in the city.

At this point of time the WHPS union rep has indicated that there will be no striking from union members from Weeden Heights PS. Classes and programs will operate as they usually do however, in support of their colleagues you will see the many of the staff wearing red on that day.

I think you will all agree, staff in schools work incredibly hard and I expect a whole lot more from my staff than other schools so that we meet the needs of your children. There is potential for further action and in the future, it could involve our staff. I will give you as much notice as possible should this be the case.

School Council

On Monday night, we had our first meeting with the new School Council. The councillors were inducted with the new members through the AGM where office bearers were elected.

I would like to congratulate the following council members who were elected to the following office bearing positions:

President: Gavin Hodgins
Vice- President: Rowena Crandle
Treasurer: Daniel Rodger
Minute Secretary: Sarah Mcdonell

The school council also operates with sub committees and their main role is to advise council through their research and investigations. Parents are more than welcome join sub committees and you don’t need to commit to being on school council either.

Please come and speak with Gavin, our president, or a council member if you are interested in being involved in a sub- committee:

Grants and Grounds Development
School Promotions, Fundraising and Community Building
Education

We welcome our parents and the council would greatly appreciate input from the wider community.

School Fees are now due

A huge thank you to all of our families who have paid their contributions and school fees. It has been wonderful to see so many families opt for the payment plan if paying has been a challenge. School Council has always been very generous in giving parents plenty of notice in the year prior to begin to pay contributions.

Weeden Heights absolutely relies on parents paying their students fees so we can provide our students with the broad range of activities in the curriculum for all students. The students access the materials in their classrooms, art room, use the PE equipment and sports uniforms, create experiments, build in STEAM, access the online programs via the licences etc so the curriculum fees really are essential for everyone to pay.

Regardless of what parents read from the government, students are not funded for everything. The notion of ‘free education’ is correct however the only free part is that the government provide families with a building (school) and teachers. There are extensive costs to learning. Parents need to contribute to the cost of their child(ren) to interact with the curriculum programs and learn in their ‘free classrooms’ and receive ‘free instruction from the teachers’.

Please assist your school in forwarding your fees so we can maintain our incredible programs and facilities. Weeden Heights has continued to be ranked in the top 20 government schools in Victoria and our broad ranges of programs on offer. We are one of the first primary schools in Victoria to have virtual reality headsets. We are trying to run a kitchen/garden program along with an art room, STEAM room and PE program.

Your parent contributions (building fund, library fund etc) from the past along with careful planning and budgeting have helped patch the mess we were left with after the capital works and allowed us to move forward and have learning facilities for learners of this century (while leading the way). Parents have contributed to:

Computer leases & I pads
Sails in the outdoor learning classroom
Artificial turf at the front of the school
Artificial turf with the gameboards near the hall
Replacement sails
Sails over the sandpit and the retaining walls near the sandpit
The storage shed at the back of the school when we lost all the under school storage
Leaf cleaning costs up to $8000 per year which comes from the building fund
New library shelves to house our books
Laptops
Equipment for the TV studio
The pebble mix coating at the front door which is resurfaced each year
Electronic sign
Handyman services
Etc etc.

We are fortunate to have our school building and staff provided for our families but schools do need parent fees to be paid to conduct all activities. Please finalise the payment of your 2026 fees or speak with our business manager about a payment plan to suit your family.

Prep 2027 Tours and Enrolments

We have had many calls and visits already for information regarding enrolments at Weeden Heights Primary School for 2027. Tours and enrolment information is available now and we have started tours this week with the captains. If you are an existing family, please complete your enrolment form on the INSIGHT platform. Amanda in our office will be able to assist if you are experiencing any difficulties.

If you know anyone who requires assistance with 2027 placements, please direct them to call our office to book a tour date and time. As you will be aware from information sent home through the kinders, you need to be enrolled in a school by Friday 31 July 2026. Thank you for helping us with this process.

Parent Association/ Parent Group/Parent Association

Thank-you to the wonderful parents who have shown great interest in our PFA. The parents have met to conduct their AGM and have organised all the events for the year.

The PFA warmly welcome anyone who would like to join them to support the school and most importantly our students. They hope to raise a lot of money for the school and are busy organising their Family Movie night where they will screen Zootopia. They hope to see you and your family there on the night. Stay tuned for the up-coming events across the year.

Student Absences from School

One of our improvement strategies in the strategic plan is to improve student attendance due to the significant absences of our students at Weeden Heights PS. The Department of Education is following our attendances closely and this week I received a report on every student who has had more than five absences. There are thirteen students already on the list which places them in danger in the chronic category for the rest of the year and we have two students who are on attendance plans. Many of these students have had up to 10 days absent.

You should be all aware, a student missing one day a fortnight will miss four weeks in a year, and more than a year of school by the time they reach year 10. Twenty or more days absent in a year is categorised as chronic absence.

We need to improve student attendance across the whole school. ‘It is not okay to be away’ is the focus from the department and their policy states:

In accordance with the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic), schooling is compulsory for children and young people aged from 6 to 17 years unless an exemption has been granted.

Parents/carers must enrol a child of compulsory school age at a registered school and ensure the child attends school at all times when the school is open for instruction.

Family holidays during school terms are not an approved absence. Please do not organise holidays during school times or delay returns to school as the term dates for school years are well published. I would greatly appreciate your support with this.

There are a few families that have already asked teachers to provide class work while they take a family holiday. The teachers are not obligated to provide work or correct any work when a family has chosen to keep their child out of school. Please take a look at our school Attendance Policy

Students at Weeden Heights PS are expected at school every day unless they are ill.

End of Term Assembly

Parents are reminded that this term will conclude on THURSDAY 2 April at 2.30pm. Please note the early closing time. We will conduct our end of term assembly from the hall and parents will be welcome to attend from 9am. This is a little different from the past as we will be having an EASTER BONNET PARADE. It will be a great way to start the holidays. Students will be dismissed from their classrooms at 2.30pm.

Term two will commence on Monday 20 April 2026 after a two-week break. Anzac Day falls on Saturday 25 April, but there is no substitute public holiday.

Please take the school holidays to relax with the family as it has been a big term for everyone. I hope that you all have a very Happy Easter and enjoy a wonderful two-week break. Please stay safe and healthy.

Until next time…… (and see you at MOVIE NIGHT!)

Kylie Campbell

PS. Don’t forget that Friday 27 March is a student free day. All staff will be on site however; students are not required.

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