Principal's Message

Dear Families

Just over two weeks to go until the last day of term.  A few things to note:

Last day of term

School finishes for the last day of second term on Friday, June 28 at 2.30pm, following a whole of school assembly.  Please arrange for the earlier collection of your children.  This day is also a casual dress day – a gentle reminder that there are to be no open toed shoes of bare shoulders on this day.  School resumes for term three on Monday, July 15, with students expected at school by 8.35am.  

Year four camp

A big congratulations to all year four children who participated in our recent camp- which returned from three days away last Friday.  Your behaviour was exemplary – and it appears a good time was had by all.  Thanks yet again to the attending staff who willingly gave up time with their family to attend camp so that we can provide this experience for our students.  There are photos of this fabulous event later on in the newsletter.  

Student reports

These are close to completion and will be released to parents via the compass portal in the last week of second term.  Parents will be given the opportunity to discuss these with their child’s class teacher in week two of term three when parent teacher interviews will be held.  The opportunity to book a place for these will be made available in the upcoming weeks.

Lost Property 

Our lost property pile continues to grow and at the end of term we will get rid of the large pile of unclaimed clothing.  It would be a good idea to take a look through the lost property box before this happens.  Its also timely to grab a permanent marker and rename all of your child’s jumpers/windcheaters/coats as the names will often fade or wash off, making it difficult to return lost items to their owners.  At times items are named – but it is very difficult to read.  If we can identify an owner, we will return items of lost clothing.  

Staffing

Staffing continues to be a challenge in many local schools, inclusive of WVPS.  Please be aware that we are continuing our active recruiting processes, but teachers are not easy to find in the current climate.  This is inclusive of casual relief teachers.  We often find that we are unable to replace our staff when they are absent which creates the need to split classes.  Whilst this is not our preferred option, we do ensure that, on most occasions, children are relocated to a classroom of the same year level as their own so that the teaching they are exposed to is relevant to them.  We thank parents for their continued understanding here.  

School Council

The next meeting of our School Council is next Thursday, June 20 in the staffroom.  Please see the office if you require further information.  

Holiday program

Later in this newsletter is some information about the holiday program which will be run onsite by our out of school hours provider, Team Kids.  If you wish to take advantage of this opportunity you will need to book in ahead of time to ensure your child’s place.  

Acting Principal

The regional office of the Department of Education is undertaking the recruitment process for the Acting Principal whilst I take some long service leave for terms three and four.  Applications for this role have now closed and interviews will be held in the near future.  These processes do take some time, and whilst we are hopeful of having an announcement for you prior to the end of term, this may in fact happen early in the new semester.  We will forward the information to you as soon as we are able.  

Emergency Evacuation

If your children come home next week and say that they had to evacuate please do not worry.  We will be running a drill to test our procedures.  This is an important process in school life as it gives us a chance to check that we are well prepared for this should the situation ever arise (highly unlikely!).

Enjoy your upcoming weekend everyone.

Sue Seneviratne

Principal