Principal's Report

15th December 2023

Year 6 Graduation Night

The Year 6 Graduation was on Wednesday night. l would like to thank Tanja Jansen for all her work in organising the event with the support of Lisa Veitch, John Stewart, Steph Cuddon, Nathan Stockton and Dan Slater. I would also like to acknowledge the input of all the teachers, support staff and most importantly, the families who have been so supportive during primary school years of these outstanding Year 6 students. Farewell to you all and best of luck with your secondary education.

NAPLAN Results - Wheelers Hill is Number 1 !!

Some great news at the end of the school year. Our school's NAPLAN results are the highest of all government primary schools in the state. Number 1! This is a great achievement and one we should all be very proud of. NAPLAN results are not a measure of everything at a school, but a a very good indicator of the academic standards and reflect the effective and high quality teaching, learning and wellbeing programs we have at WHPS, as well as recognition of our highly competent teachers, leadership and support staff. We also appreciate the ongoing support of our families as well to achieve this, and of course congratulations to our amazing students as well for their terrific results!

A snip of the results are below, but there articles below listed as well, but they are behind a paywall.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/victoria-education/schools-hub/ranked-every-victorian-primary-and-secondary-schools-naplan-results/news-story/e4df6be93a2877bdaa43be05e11d9bda

NAPLAN results: Which Victorian public schools are doing better than private schools? (theage.com.au)

2024 Parent Payments

Parent contributions for 2024 are now open on Compass.

As the Department of Education only provides the school with a limited amount of student-based funding for a basic standard of curriculum delivery, we rely heavily on parent payments and voluntary contributions to develop and maintain the high-quality education programs, resources, facilities, and grounds the school provides. Parent payments help the school is so many ways, and do help with the success of the school, such as our high NAPLAN results as mentioned above. 

Therefore for 2024, we ask and encourage you to continue to make a generous contribution to our outstanding school as you have in previous years. Without your support and the subsequent lack of funds, we may have to reduce funding and cut several of our programs and resources. 

We have greatly appreciated your contributions in the past and hope you continue to do so through your financial support for the 2024 school year.  We look forward to a successful school year of teaching and learning in 2024 and thank you for your ongoing support.

Class Teachers and Staff for 2024

In 2024, we will welcome a number of new staff to the school as well as saying goodbye to some, while others are going on leave next year.

Listed below are the teachers and classes for 2024. We welcome some new teachers to the school in 2024. Lin Liu, Sarah Quinn, Haishi Qin, Jess Newbold and Brittany Testro. I’m sure you will make them all feel welcome at WHPS. We also welcome back Meagan Baker.

We farewell Daniel Symonds, Ailina Kumar and Lexi Daw in 2024. Thank you for your time at WHPS. We will miss you and best of luck for your future and at your new schools. Jo Goldie is also retiring and we wish her the very, very best for her retirement.

A number of other teaching staff are on leave in 2024, who have either had babies recently or are having a year leave without pay. We wish Brooke Castledine, Danielle Greco, Mel Ciftcioglu, Fiona Pham and Maddy De Groot all the best with their leave.

Thank you to our regular replacement teachers, Kerri Robertson, Terri Jacobs and Araxi Kalenderian for their work over the year, including longer stints in some classrooms. 

We also welcome all our new Prep students and their families to our school community as well. 

Leadership 

Principal – Michael Ramsey

Assistant Principal (Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting) – Leasyl Richards

Assistant Principal (Wellbeing, Inclusion and School Operations) – Katrina Spicer

Leading Teachers and Learning Specialists 

Leading Teacher (Numeracy) – Virginia Beshara                                                                                 Leading Teacher (Literacy Learning) – Danielle Peters

Learning Specialist (MSL) - Maddy Gallagher

Learning Specialist (Digital Technologies) – Nathan Stockton

Learning Specialist (Extension and Enrichment) – Satoshi Okita 

Classroom Teachers

PREP Victoria Bruges-Cannon PBC*, Lin Liu PLL, Narelle Arzuman PNA, Kathryn Watson PKW

YEAR 1 Sarah Quinn 1SQ*, Haishi Qin 1HQ, Laura Pugliese 1LP, Virginia Beshara 1VB

YEAR 2 Chloe Lim 2CL*, Sandra Posocco 2SP,  Sandra Mazzocca 2SM, Erin Bartleton 2EB

YEAR 3 Emily Boydell 3EB*, Lizzy Dent 3LD, Jess Newbold 3JN, Danni Peters 3DP

YEAR 4 Susie Modin 4SM*, Megan Peraic 4MP, Satoshi Okita / Rachel Kelly 4OK, Maddy Gallagher 4MG

YEAR 5 Brittany Testro 5BT*, Amelia Robison 5AR, Sally Dwyer / Louise Connor 5DC, Tim Lee 5TL

YEAR 6 Steph Cuddon 6SC*, John Stewart 6JS, Lisa Veitch 6LV, Tanja Jansen 6TJ

*Learning Leader of the Year Level

Specialist Teachers

PYHSICAL EDUCATION Nicole Purcell, Renee Drury

PERFORMING ARTS Dan Slater, Emma Roughton

VISUAL ARTS Kathy Orford, Meagan Baker

LIBRARY Briony Mason, Emma Roughton

STEMNathan Stockton

FRENCH Cathie Lording

MANDARIN / EAL Lucy Lu

LITERACY and NUMERACY TUTORS Janine Graham, Alex Boylan, Kathryn McPherson

LEADING TEACHER RELEASE Rachel Kelly, Maxine Gallagher

Education Support Staff 

Larissa Clark – Business Manager

Sarah Gaffney – Administration 

Nadia Kypriotis – Administration                                                                                                                Deb Round - Administration

Rachel Fleming - Administration

Nicky McLean – First Aid and Integration Aide

Paula Ruigrok –Integration Aide

Winter Washington – Integration Aide

Vanessa Chung - Intergration Aide

Samreen Naveed - Intergration Aide

Chyi Yong Loh, Nicola Jiang - Multicultural Education Aides

Lamia Bouazza – Library Technician

Michael Minenna – IT Support

John Arboit –School Maintenance  

Sharyn Veale – OSHC Co-ordinator

End of Year Activities

Monday 18th, Tuesday 20th  and Wednesday 20th December - There will be no formal classes or learning activities on these days. If you choose to send your child to school next Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, students will be involved in helping teachers clean up and move classrooms, environmental duties such as cleaning up around the yard and school and assisting teachers set up for the following year.. School finishes at 12:50pm on Wednesday 20th December. Please note the earlier finish time.

 Captains 2024

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected as captains for 2024:

WHPS 2024 School Captains

Specialist Captains

House Captains

Congratulations and well done to you all for being elected by your peers, or selected by your specialist teachers. The students and teachers look forward to working with you next year and for your contribution to the school in your role of a captain. 

Farewell

A number of families will finish their time with Wheelers Hill when their child leaves or finishes Year 6 this year. Our best wishes go to these families for their support and assistance over the years.

To students who are leaving Wheelers Hill for a range of reasons, before the completion of Year 6, I wish you well at your new schools and I hope you and your families will look upon your time at Wheelers Hill Primary School with fond memories.

Thank You

On behalf of the school community and staff I would like to acknowledge some of the people who work around the school.

Many thanks to:

Our Administration Staff –  Larissa Clark, Sarah Gaffney, Nadia Kypriotis and Deb Round. Thank you to Nicky McLean for her support this year with First Aid. 

Our Education Support team – Kathryn McPherson, Vanessa Chung, Winter Washington, Paula Rugirok, Samreen Naveed and Nicky McLean who give our teachers and students support across the school.

Our multicultural education aides Chyi Yong Loh and Nicola Jiang. 

Our Out of School Hours Care and Vacation Care team led by Sharyn Veale with support from Pete Osmond and the OSHC team. 

John Arboit for the maintenance support he provides for the school.

Lamai Bouazza as the library technician. 

Our DEECD computer technician, Dharaka Withana and our own technician, Michael Minenna for their expertise in ICT. Also to Nathan Stockton for his invaluable knowledge and expertise this year, especially with the BYOD program, STEM classes and enrichment.

Satoshi Okita for his work with the extension and enrichments programs this year.

Virginia Beshara and Danni Peters for their work as the numeracy and literacy leading teachers. 

Our School Council and president Dina Pogrebnoy.

Our dedicated, invaluable, expert and hard working Assistant Principals Leasyl Richards and Katrina Spicer. 

Thanks also to our parent helpers throughout the year, either spending time in classrooms or volunteering to go on excursions. 

I would also like to especially recognise and acknowledge the efforts of all of our teachers who work hard to help our students grow and learn very school day. Thank you as well to our parents who support the teachers and school as well. Your commitment to your children's learning and ongoing support of the school is much appreciated. Thank you all again. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

School recommences on Tuesday 30th January 2024. We are aware some families may be away travelling for the first week or two of Term 1. This is not an ideal start to the year so we ask if you can, all children start on the first day back of term. However if this is not possible you will need to add the absence to Compass and provide a reason for the absence. 

Thank you again to all members of the Wheelers Hill community for your ongoing support. We have a such an amazing school and community that we should all be very proud of and to belong too. As the school year comes to an end, I would like to wish all our students and families a very Merry Christmas. I hope you all have a relaxing and safe holiday break and I, and all the staff, look forward to seeing you back at school in 2024 for another great year. Happy holidays everyone! 

Merry Christmas

Michael Ramsey

Principal