Principal Message
Hello everyone,
This week we saw the way a school has to adapt to suit the needs of the community. In this instance we needed to relocate yesterday to Templestowe Park PS due to an Extreme fire danger rating in the Manningham, Local Government Area.
I appreciate how patient our community was as the Department reached their decision to ultimately relocate and shut the Warrandyte PS site down for the day. I also acknowledge that the staff were once again required to be flexible and that they responded immediately to work towards making the day as successful as it could be under the circumstances.
I would like to thank Rhys Coulson, principal of Templestowe Heights PS who was so gracious in hosting our school and provided as much support as we needed.
School State Spectacular
Congratulations to our School State Spec performers (past and present students)
The news that our school has been selected to dance on the main stage in this years State School Spectacular show is such an achievement. This is a real privilege and tribute to Kirsty, who has passionately led this opportunity year after year.
We know that the talent she encourages and builds goes beyond the primary years. Last year we saw past student Cameron Poole perform as a principal vocalist at the SSS. We received news that on Monday tha past student, Izayah Khazour, has also been selected out of hundreds of auditions to be a principal vocalist. You may remember Izayah's brilliant performance as one of the Alladin characters in our 2022 Alladin musical.
Exciting still, is the fact that Zac Poole, in 4/5N, has also been selected from hundreds of other students to be a principal vocalist this year. As humble as ever, Zac has taken the news in his stride, but we are all incredibly proud of him and our past students.
Zac and Izayah had to sing solo songs and learn group dances to perform in front of a panel including the Creative Producer, Director of Dance and Director of Music, Chong Lim (all world renowned theatre creatives). They were successful, and on Monday they were offered "Principal Vocalist" roles which will involve singing solo lines in songs on the main stage.
Specifically, they will feature in a "Matilida Medley", "It's the Hard Knock Life" from 'Annie', and be in the lead ensemble for "Joy" and "Happiness" - two songs which our Mass Dance students will also perform on the arena floor. Zack and Izayah will join past student Cameron Poole on the mainstage. This will be Cameron's third Spectacular as a Principal Vocalist, having also represented our WPS Mass Dance team in 2018 and 2019. Along with our WPS Mass Dance team, they will perform two shows on Saturday, September 14 for a combined audience of over 12,000 people.
Managing Anxiety in children parent workshop
A reminder that we have Emma-Rose Parsons attending our school on Wednesday 6th March at 7pm - 8:30pm. Emma-Rose will talk to us about the signs and symptoms of anxiety in children and offer us practical tools to help support our children through it and build resilience. She will do a Q&A session from 8pm. We have had 65 bookings for the evening, so if you haven't booked yet, follow the link below. The session is free for all families.
School Review
We will be running a School Review this year, which part of the school mandated obligations and is based on four years of work that is driven by the Strategic Plan that was written at the last Review in 2020. Targets were set and Key Improvement Strategies were put in place so that the school could make a planned and deliberate approach to school improvement. I know that there is still so much work to be done, but I am looking forward to sitting in the Review in May to be able to celebrate what we have achieved at WPS.
We are also seeking your feedback as part of a Pre-Review process where I collate data, feedback and evidence of what we have and have not achieved.
We value your feedback and ask that you complete this very short survey which asks you to list 4 highlights the school has achieved over the last 4 years. We asked our School Council to also list what their highlights have been.
It was a very vibrant and positive conversation around the table.
- Revised Literacy program that is evidence based
- New Instructional models
- Arts Festival
- Winston - Prioritising wellbeing
- School community response to Covid
- Introduction of AUSLAN and building an inclusive program
- Transparency and clearer communication via weekly timetables for classes.
- Stable and progressive leadership
- STEM program introduced
After a rigorous discussion their top 4 were...
- Stable and progressive leadership
- Arts Festival (the Visual and Performing Arts programs)
- School community response to Covid
- The use of evidence based programs across the school including, Literacy, Intervention, a focus on wellbeing, instructional models
Below is an anonymous survey that will take less than 5 minutes to get the broader parent community feedback.
https://s.surveyplanet.com/bgdxsly8
As I said, we know we still have work to do so we would like to hear from you about what you think could be a strategic priority over the next four years.
I hope you have a great weekend.
See you on Monday
Nieta