A Warm Welcome to our Weeden Heights Community

Hello to the Weeden Heights PS community.

It is great to have some lovely warm weather but I hope you all survived the storms ok. We had a leak at school!!! Also I just wanted to say a huge congratulations to all of our swimmers who competed last Friday. I was so proud of how the team encouraged and supported each other and they certainly gave their very best. The day was magnificent and a huge thanks to the wonderful parents who assisted. By the way…..Weeden Heights PS were the overall winners for our district. Woo hoo! Amazing and I loved being there with the students and watching them swim. Well done team.

School Council Elections

I have sent you an email calling for nominations to fill the 2024 school council positions that have become vacant via COMPASS. We completed our final school council meeting with the current school council this week. The new council will meet in March.

Please consider if you are interested in making a difference for the school and our students. Nominations close on Monday 26 February as I have not received one nomination yet! Paper versions for parent nominations are also available at the main office and they are also attached in this newsletter.

The following positions will be advertised as vacant:

Parent Category for School Council for 2024: 4 positions (2-year term),
Department of Education and Training (DE) Member Category on School Council: 2 x 2-year terms

If you have any questions around becoming a part of School Council then please speak with the current School Council members. It is an excellent opportunity to participate in your child’s school.

Thank-you to our exciting and valued School Councillors

On behalf of our school community, I would like to thank the following School Councillors for their amazing work over their two-year term: Karen Jansen, Sharlina Lingam, Ana Marsh, Mayur Deivasigamani and Emma Harper

They should all be very proud of the work completed on council and in the sub committees along with their generous commitment of time, advice and expertise.

Family Fun Night

We are looking forward to seeing you all at our Family Fun night next Thursday from 5.00pm. Everyone should have received a paper flyer this week as we would really love our whole community there on the night. There will be a BBQ and an oval full of games and fun for the family (earthballs, laser tag, inflatables and more!). You are welcome to bring your own dinner and don’t forget a rug or some chairs to sit on as well. We really hope that everyone has the chance to catch up with each other and especially introduce themselves to our new families. There are many new students, not just in prep, but across the whole school to welcome into our community.

Sunsmart Hats

Students must wear a school uniform brimmed hat until the end of April. Please assist by ensuring your child has protection from the sun by having his/her hat at school, reinforcing the importance of wearing a hat and of course please apply sun cream before your child comes to school each day. We do have ‘a no hat, no play’ rule at Weeden Heights PS so it should be a great encouragement for your child to remember.

Uniform Reminder:

At assembly, we talk about school pride and in particular school pride attached to the wearing of our school uniform. As a reminder, our school council recommended school uniform is:

Uniform	Boys	Girls
Shoes	Enclosed Black shoes or White Runners	Enclosed Black shoes or White Runners
Bomber Jacket	Maroon poly/cotton with blue emblem & striped trim.	Maroon poly/cotton with blue emblem.
Sleeveless Vest	Blue monogramed polo fleece vest worn at any time during the year.	Blue monogramed polo fleece vest worn at any time during the year.
Summer	Sky blue polo shirt with school emblem and signature trim. Navy shorts or pants. White socks	Check poly/cotton dress in school colours or Sky blue polo shirt with school emblem and signature trim. Navy skort, shorts or pants. White socks
Winter	Navy tracksuit pants. Sky blue polo shirt with school emblem and signature trim. Grey or Navy Socks	Blue tartan pinafore/skirt with a pale blue skivvy /or long or short sleeved WHPS monogramed t-shirt and blue tights (wool or ribbed tights but no patterns, prints or sparkles) with the WHPS monogramed bomber jacket Or navy tracksuit pants with the WHPS monogramed bomber jacket and sky blue polo shirt with school emblem and signature trim. Grey or Navy Socks
Hats	Maroon and school logo legionnaires, broad brimmed hat

Hair to be tied back if below the shoulder
No jewellery except for plain gold or silver stud/sleeper earrings and a watch
Year 6 students have their own signature school t-shirt and rugby jumper
NO SMART WATCHES OR DEVICES THAT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET (or can take video or photos)

We expect our students to take great pride in their appearance as this directly impacts on the image of the school. No one should be wearing a WHPS summer dress with coloured leggings or a different coloured long sleeved t-shirt under a WHPS short-sleeved t-shirt at any time. Nor should students wear coloured socks other than white (or navy with track pants).

Please support the School Council's uniform policy and ensure that your children are in the correct uniform.

Reminder: Student Supervision

It is terrific to see how enthusiastic our students are to be at school. However, I would like to remind families that the school grounds are not supervised by staff until 8.45am each morning and are unsupervised after 3.45pm each afternoon. It is inappropriate for students to be in the school grounds unsupervised before and after these times so please ensure that your child remains safe by arriving at school as close to 8.45am as possible and collecting your children at 3.30pm.

It is really important to have the children in a routine back at school so please remember that learning begins at 9am in the classrooms. If you arrive late then your child will be unsettled for the day. They will not know the outline for the day or session and it puts them behind right from the start of the day.

Parents are welcome to supervise their children playing on the grounds after school hours. We do understand that unexpected incidents happen to cause late pickups but please call the office should this occur. Out of School Hours care is available from 7.30am – 8.45am each day and 3.30- 6.00pm should you need the service.

Student Accident Insurance/Ambulance Cover Arrangements and Private Property Brought to Schools

This is a reminder to our community that parents/guardians of students, who do not have student accident insurance, are responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for their injured children, including the cost of ambulance attendance/transport and any other transport costs. Parents/guardians can purchase insurance policies from commercial insurers to protect their child while at school.

Parents/guardians and DE employees should also note the Department does not hold insurance for personal property brought to schools and it has no capacity to pay for any loss or damage to such property.

Staff Leadership Team

If you have any concerns regarding anything related to your child’s schooling then please see your child’s classroom teacher. Level co-ordinators are also available to assist where necessary to help clarify the answer to any questions that you might have.

Level Coordinators who have this responsibility in 2024 are:

Junior School (Prep – Year 2) – Melinda Michalski
Senior School (Year 3 – 6) – Aarti Arya

Aarti is also our Learning Specialist and she can support you with any information about our curriculum or programs.

Information Nights 2024

At the beginning of every year, we conduct information nights and the 2024 sessions were conducted at school on Wednesday night.

The information that will be presented is relevant and critical to your child’s year level. The teachers are currently completing the grade information books for each year level and these will be available for you via School Stream and on our website soon.

Facebook, Instagram and COMPASS!

Please like us on Facebook and follow Weeden Heights on Instagram as we post many of our activities up there and you can keep in touch with what is happening. The posts also make great conversation starters at the dinner table. Search for us at Weeden Heights Primary School (Vermont South).

We are always adding posts and updates to our social media exposure to keep you up to date and so that you can see the exciting things happening at our school. Share our page with family as well and they can also see what we are up to at school.

Communication with and from the school is vital and it is always an area we are working on. This year we have introduced COMPASS for nearly everything (QKR will be used occasionally) and I thank you for your patience as we iron out any issues. Yes, there have been a few but you have all done a fabulous job booking interviews online and ordering food. Don’t forget to check the news stream for updates. The app also sends you emails and alerts so I hope that this assist you in keeping on top of everything that is coming from school.

See you all at the family fun night!

Kylie Campbell

Principal