Wyndham Vale Primary School Newsletter

Principal's Message

A message from our Principal

Dear Families

 

In this, our last newsletter for term one I reflect on how much we have achieved over the course of the first nine weeks of school.  Our foundation students are now well settled and are already making great gains in their learning, whilst the rest of the school have also embraced the lessons in their classroom readily.

 

School finishes early today

A reminder that your children need to be collected at 2.30pm today as school is closing for the term one holiday.  

 

REMINDER:  Pupil Free Day

At the end of week two in term two we have a pupil free day.  On Friday, April 26 – the day following the ANZAC Day public holiday – teachers will be in volved in some planning for the rest of the year.  NO STUDENTS are required at school.  

 

NAPLAN

Our Naplan testing is now complete and is in the hands of the external assessors.  As mentioned earlier, reports indicating student achievement as a basis of this assessment will be back in school in late term two or early term three.  We will send this home to you as soon as we have them available.  

 

Community Picnic

What a fabulous event this was and was well supported by our school community.  It was lovely to see so many people here enjoying the stalls and the sunshine, and we trust that you got to enjoy some of the activities created by our classes for you to experience.  I personally enjoyed ensuring that Mr Barton got thoroughly wet when it came to his turn in the dunk tank! Thank you to our staff for their support of the pupils in preparing for this.  

 

 

 

School Council Election of Office Bearers

At our school council meeting held on Thursday, March 14 the election of office bearers took place.  Congratulations,  and thank you,  to the following:

President:  Sharon Gatt

Vice President:  Katrina Volkerts

Finance committee convenor:  David Sivaraj

 

Other members of school council include:  Linda Scullin, Sal Farfalla, Uday Nadella, Mel Egan, Chris Sutcliffe.  As the school principal I am automatically an executive member.  Any of the above people are happy to receive your questions and input to assist with ongoing school improvement.  

 

Harmony Day

It was wonderful to recognise the many different cultures that make up Wyndham Vale Primary School at our Harmony Day Parade last week.  Harmony Day is but one of many opportunities to say all are welcome here.  The parades showcased many different costumes with numerous other students showing their support by wearing orange for the day.  We have several photos related to this event later in the newsletter.  Our thanks to Sal Farfalla for his organisation of the day.  

 

Fun Run

For the first year our fun run wes presented as a colour run and students certainly came home looking a lot different to how they started the day.  The staff did enjoy squirting the paint at the students as they ran past as well.  This annual event is a fabulous fundraiser for our PE department and we thank you for your support.  Student prizes should have been ordered by now via the online platform.  Organisation of events such as this are a mammoth undertaking, and we need to thank Mr Edwards for his work in this space.  The day ran very smoothly thanks to your efforts – even with the rescheduling to avoid the predicted thunderstorm that never showed up!   Again, I encourage you to hunt down the photos of the day later in the newsletter.  I’m sure you will agree that it looks like fun for all involved.  

 

Badge presentation 

We were exceptionally proud – and certainly privileged – to present badges of office to our student leadership body for 2024 at the assembly held a fortnight ago.  Some of these children are only eight years old, but they still had the courage to make a speech to a gymnasium full of close to 1,000 people. For those of you who were able to attend: thank you for your support.  I am sure you will agree with me that if these young people are representatives of community leaders in the future then our country is in good hands!   We have a photographic representation which you will find when you check out the Harmony Day and Fun Run photos.  

 

Student safety 

In line with our ongoing commitment to Child Safety, we like to remind everyone about our school’s child safety policies (links to these policies are below). As a community, it is really important that we are all vigilant about child safety. Our students have the right to be safe and feel safe when they are at school and when they are online. We encourage students to speak up if there is anything that doesn’t feel quite right and we take all matters of child safety seriously. This includes any behaviours that don’t seem to be aligned with our Child Safety Code of Conduct, for example, adults or staff members privately messaging students on their mobiles or other devices. This should not be happening, and we regularly provide appropriate training for our staff and volunteers about these expectations. 

 

I would also encourage you to have conversations with your child/children on a regular basis about personal safety. Here are some useful parent resources that you might like to read and also links to our school’s child safety policies:

 

At school we implement programs to support students to feel safe and comfortable at school. I encourage you to have a conversation with your child/children about the learning that they are doing as part of the Respectful Relationships and Resilience Project programs which are timetabled weekly. 

 

If at any time any parents have any questions or concerns that they would like to raise, please feel free to contact me or a member of our leadership team. We always welcome any ideas about how we can improve our child safety practices at Wyndham Vale.

Congratulations!!

 

Miss Powell, partner Ash and big brother Artie are excited to share that baby Angus arrived safely on the 14th of March. They' all home safe and thoroughly enjoying the quality time together.  

 

Have a fabulous holiday break everyone.  I look forward to seeing you back ready for another term of student learning on April 15.  

 

Kind regards 

 

Sue Seneviratne

Principal