From the  Principal 

Diana Ellis

As I write the last newsletter for the year, I always find myself reflecting on what we have achieved during the year, the areas for improvement and the people behind our success as a wonderful school.

Time and time again visitors to our school and new staff comment on the warm, welcoming, helpful culture of our school. The culture of our school is something we are proud of and we work hard to continue to build this culture.

The biggest highlights for me this year were our highly successful Mathslympics Day and Family Maths Night and of course, the Carlsruhe Fair. Events of this scale require a wealth of preparation, ultimately underpinning the success of the events.

In order for our school to be so successful, it takes a community of people – our staff, students and parents. Our School Council, Parents and Friends, the Carlsruhe Fair Team and the many volunteers that help out with canteen, camps and excursions, sporting events, Garden Club, Carlsruhe Activities and in the classrooms. My sincere and heartfelt thanks goes to every person in our school community who has helped make Woodend Primary School the amazing place that it is.

On behalf of myself and our staff - Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou.

Staffing

10/12/2024

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Today our students participated in our Transition Program and spent time getting familiarised with their 2025 classrooms, teachers and peers.

We are sure you will understand and appreciate that the task of allocating students to classes is huge. Many, many factors are taken into account including the child’s, social, emotional and academic needs, friendship pairings, teacher pairings and most importantly, specific individual needs.

Every single student was paired with one or more friends from the friendships lists that they provided to their teachers.

Unless there are extenuating circumstances, no changes will be made to class lists. Every change creates a domino effect, resulting in students potentially being left without a friend.

Next year Miss Smith and Miss Cannon will be teaching our two straight Foundation classes. We are excited to announce that each Foundation class will be spread across two entire classroom spaces, ensuring large spaces to set up classroom libraries, developmental play areas and areas for small group work. We are also thrilled to announce that in 2025 there will be an added bonus of an extra teacher allocated to each Foundation class, providing additional support for our students and teachers.

Below is the complete list of all Woodend Primary School for 2025

2025 staffing profile and teacher allocations 

Diana Ellis – Principal

Elissa Campbell – Assistant Principal

Kylie Minchew – Leading Teacher (Inclusion and engagement)

Libby Tobin – Mental Health In Schools Leader

Canteen -Jenni Rossi

Library – Susan Machell

Computer Technician - Ben Colla

Education Support staff -Dannielle Saunders, Vanessa Keckses-Judd, Tamara Oldcastle, Nicola Stuart and Cath Pell

Office Staff - Sue Turner, Kerry Crosbie and Bronwyn Rumble

Crossing Supervisor – Chris Ingram

Tutoring Program – Pam Lenders & Iain Sparrey

School Cleaners - Mark & Taylah

At the end of the 2024 school year, we will sadly say goodbye to:

Miss Courtney Lawrence, Miss Julia Cameron, Miss Kasey Ward and Mrs. Sarah Cassidy.

We wish them well at their new schools and sincerely thank them for their valued and valuable contributions at Woodend Primary. 

We would like to welcome our new staff members: Christine Endress and Brenda Elliott.

Our 2025 School Captains

This week we interviewed our short-listed School Captain applicants and we have also been working through the process of appointing students to leadership positions for the following roles - Environmental Leaders, Wellbeing leaders, House Captains, Literacy Leader and Numeracy Leaders. Each year the final decision seems to get more and more difficult. In consultation with the current School Captains and the Year 5/6 teachers, we will appoint leaders for all vacant positions by the end of this week. 

We congratulate all applicants who participated in this process. The quality of the applications and speeches were outstanding. 

Remembrance Garden

This week our landscape gardener has really made some in-roads with our garden design. Our garden has two main purposes – to serve as a commemorative space at the north end, where we have our Gallipoli Oak and also as a sensory play space towards the south end. The first part of the design symbolises the Rising Sun. We will also have some ANZAC designed chairs that will also incorporate the Rising Sun and we will have a dining pod in the middle of the garden.

It is very exciting watching this project come to fruition as it has been planned for quite some time. 

On behalf of all of us here at W.P.S. we wish you a safe and joyous Christmas and holiday season.

For the students and families that are moving onto secondary school or another school, we wish you all the best and thank you for all you have contributed to our great school.

On a final note, I would like to express my greatest acknowledgement and gratitude to our wonderful staff who go above and beyond the requirements of their job every single day. Working in a school with over 400 students and all of our families is a very dynamic, ever-changing role. Our staff do their very best every single day to ensure our students have the best possible experiences. I simply cannot thank my staff enough for all that they do and hope they have a well-deserved break with family and friends.

Principal

Diana Ellis