Principals Report

Establishing a learning community

We have had an incredibly smooth start to the year with all classes working hard to establish their new learning communities as they settle into their 2024 class groupings. As you can see from the slides below, we have been focusing on our understanding of the learner profile, how we learn best and coming together in our new learning community. All classes spend important time discussing and creating our essential agreements to guide our expectations for each other so that everyone can learn without distraction in a safe and comfortable enviroment.

INFORMATION NIGHTS

Thank you to our dedicated teaching staff who braved the heatwave this week to deliver very informative sessions about the teaching and learning programs at Wales Street Primary School. Lots of important information was shared by teaching teams about our style of teaching, the curriculum we deliver in each year level as well as our expectations of students both socially and academically.

The information shared from each team will be uploaded to the School Documentation tab on Compass for any parents who were unable to attend or for those who would like a refresh. Thank you to all the parents and carers who came along on the night. 

WELCOME PICNIC 

A reminder that we have our annual Welcome Picnic & Pre-loved Uniform Stall TONIGHT 6-8PM. It's a great opportunity for a relaxed catch up with old friends or making new connections if you’ve just joined the school. 

Wales Street Social - who organise this and other social and fundraising events - do need help with set up, running the uniform and drink stalls as well as packing up at the end of the evening. It’s not too late to volunteer via this link: 

https://signup.zone/8uhv38DPPyYDC3wDw

New Wales Street Social committee members are always welcome, if you’re interested in getting involved contact social.wsps@gmail.com 

WORKING BEE 

Working Bee – Sunday 3 March

10 am – 1.00pm

Come for half an hour, an hour or three! 

Great opportunity to meet new parents and the school community. 

There is lots of weeding, mulching and sweeping, watering and tidying of the grounds to be done. We also need to renew the sandpits. We can find everyone a job – no special skills needed. 

Bring brooms, shovels, wheelbarrows, gloves, water and a hat. 

Don’t worry if you don’t have tools. The school does have some equipment. 

Look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

On behalf of,

Building and Grounds Committee

HATS REMINDER

As we know, the UV rays in Australia are extremely dangerous during the months of September until May and can often be damaging and strong, even on cloudy days. 

Our teachers are consistently reminding students about the importance of wearing their hats while at play and most of our students are taking responsibility for their own health by adhearing to the rules. As a Sunsmart school, we want to ensure that all students are protected from the sun by wearing a broadbrim hat while outside during the day. 

However, there are still a number of students who are repeatedly either without a hat or are choosing not to wear it/bring it to school. 

We have created a Compass chronicle that will now inform parents/carers if their child is having difficulty following the Sunsmart guidelines and we would appreciate your support in this matter for the protection of  children from the dangers of melanoma in later life.

Curriculum day- Tuesday 12 March

A reminder that our second curriculum day is planned for Tuesday March 12 ( after the long weekend) and the focus for the day will be on a new social/emotional/wellbeing program- UR Strong. On this day, all staff will be trained to deliver the intensive program ready for term 2. A key component of the UR Strong program is parent participation so an information session will be delivered in term 2 to support school wide adoption of this program that will help build resilience and support your childs mental health. More details will be provided next term.

For those new to school, there will be no school for students on this day.  SAC is available on the curriculum day with limited numbers so please book in as soon as possible if required. 

Lastly...

For anyone who may have missed the news post on Compass earlier this week, we shared  the news that for personal reasons, our School After Care (SAC) Coordinator Vanessa Dalton has decided to resign form her position as coordinator. 

At Wales Street, we have been very lucky to have a school run program for so long with two Coordinators such as Vanessa, and Cangie Bevilacqua (who retired in 2023) both being integral in building up the much-loved School After Care program. Vanessa has been working at SAC since 2008 and Cangie worked at SAC from 2001-2023. 

With the departure of our longstanding SAC coordinators and due to the ongoing challenges of running an internal program, the School Council has decided to seek an external service provider to replace the SAC program. 

 We have begun the process of seeking expressions of interest from external providers and a thorough appointment process will be conducted by school council to ensure we find a suitable replacement service for our school community.

To reduce service disruption during this transition period, our previous SAC Coordinator Cangie Bevilacqua will be filling in for 5 weeks as the day-to-day manager of SAC during the tender process for the new SAC service provider. Vanessa has also kindly offered to work at a reduced time fraction to continue the administration of the program for the remainder of the term.

We appreciate and  thank Vanessa for her 16 years of service and the enormous contribution she has made to our school. Vanessa will officially leave her full time role as coordinator on 23 February.