Principal's Message

2025 School Theme - Why Team, Why Team Westbreen

Principal’s Message

Dear Westbreen PS Families,

We are nearly at the end of 2025. We have so many things to look forward to for the remainder of this term. Students will start to celebrate and reflect on the successes of this year and look ahead to 2026.

Respectful, Safe, Engaged: Shared Expectations to Support Student Behaviour

The Respectful, safe, engaged: shared expectations to support student behaviour statement was released on the 10th of November 2025 by the Department of Education to support positive student behaviour in Victorina government schools.

When schools, families and students work together, we achieve the best outcomes. These partnerships are essential to creating school environments that support all students belong, learning and thrive.

At Westbreen Primary School all students are expected to be respectful, safe, and engaged. These behaviours help make our school a place where everyone can achieve their best. Over the weekend, all families received information regarding the behaviour expectations for the remaining three weeks of the year. Thank you to those parents who have shared this letter with their child/children and for your support of these expectations.

How Parents and Carers Can Help

As a parent and carer, you play a vital role in helping your child to understand and meet shared behaviour expectations.

By modelling and encouraging positive behaviour, you can help your child build the skills and habits they need to be successful at school.

You can see the Respectful. Safe, Engaged: shared expectations to support student behaviour statement on the department's website. This outlines the shared expectations and how you can help.

We will also be updating our Statement of Values and School Philosophy (which was reviewed in May 2025) in the new year to reflect these new behavioural expectations.

Further information, resources and support are available at Supporting positive behaviour in Victorian government schools.

2026 Enrolments

Thank you to all the families who have already submitted their enrolment forms! We encourage our 2026 Foundation families to visit the office to complete the enrolment process by filling out the school enrolment form and providing evidence of their child's date of birth and immunisation record. To assist with planning, we kindly request that parents finalise their enrolments by the end of this term. If you have any questions or need clarification regarding the enrolment process, please contact Ms. Kerry Parfett, our Community and Enrolment Facilitator.

Semester Reports

We are approaching the end of semester two which means your students will be receiving another semester report. This will be made live in the final week of the term and will provide judgements on student achieve in the key learning areas that are covered each week. The end of year report provides the chance to celebrate all the learning success and to reflect on all the achievements in 2025. We encourage you to read the report with your child to share the learning journey and to discuss all the amazing things that have occurred in 2025.

2026 Staff Teams

We have been working very hard on the workforce plan for 2026. We are extremely lucky at Westbreen to have outstanding teachers in every classroom who provide excellence learning experiences for all our students. Our 2026 foundation team has been confirmed, and they successfully ran the Foundation Information session this week. It was another huge success, and the 2026 foundation students will have a fantastic first year of school at Westbreen. Adria Quinn, Lauren Scalzo and Dilara Sahin will form our foundation team in 2026 and will continue the wonderful work from 2025. The remainder of the staff teams will be announced in the final week of the term once our Step-Up day has concluded.

2025 Student Exits

We ask that you let us know if you are moving or have enrolled in another school in 2025. We require this information as soon as possible to establish grade structures for the start of the new school year. If your child is currently in Foundation- Year 5 and will not be at Westbreen Primary School in 2025, please notify westbreen.ps@education.vic.gov.au in writing as soon as possible.

Transition to 2026

It's that time of the year when we start preparing and organising class placements for 2026. This process is crucial as we want to ensure that each student is in an environment that supports their learning needs.

We will begin by grouping students based on their friendships, using a sociogram filled in by the students as stated through communication this week. Your support in having preliminary conversations with your child about this is greatly appreciated. We believe involving students, parents, and staff in this process will result in the best outcome for our students.

Here are the criteria we consider when establishing classes:

The children's individual learning capabilities
The known social, emotional, and physical stages of the individual child
Friendship groupings, ensuring that each student is placed with at least one friend from their sociogram
Balancing the number of males and females in each class
Addressing the needs of English as an additional language learners and other special needs
Creating classes with similar educational and behavioural profiles
Anticipating growth in class numbers
Ensuring compatibility of sub-groupings
Considering the students' ability to cope with change.

We will be having a Step Up Day in the final week of the term where students will find out their teacher for 2026 and who will be in their class. This will occur during the final session of the day and will be a highlight of the final week of 2025.

Daniel Taylor

Acting Principal

The Victorian Government acknowledges Aboriginal Traditional Owners of Country throughout Victoria and pays respect to their cultures and Elders past, present and emerging.