Principal's report

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung People of the Kulin nation; past, present and those who will walk with us into the future. We acknowledge the rich and unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and seas, educational practices and the hopes of all First Nations Peoples. We do this in the spirit of reconciliation as we move to a place of justice and partnership - together we work, learn, play and care for one another and this land.

Thank you

It has been a really busy and active start to Term 4 and there are so many people in our school community who I would like to express gratitude towards. Our school community and culture is built upon the hard work and effort of staff members and parent volunteers.

A huge thank you goes out to everyone who has been involved in supporting our school community and students in so many ways. I cannot list all of the contributions but some of them are:

• Thank you to Jo Sahhar, the P&F and all the parent volunteers who made the Colour Run possible.
• Thank you also to all of the students and families who fundraised for this event.
• And a huge thank you to the teachers who volunteered to get slimed, this is something none of us will ever forget.
• Thank you to Sarah Butler, Cheryl Henry-Wild and Jodie Piper for making our student involvement in the Victorian State School Spectacular Choir possible
• Thank you to all the families who came along to the working bee a few weeks ago. You all worked so hard and it is the biggest working bee we have had in a few years. We will definitely have another one early next year (and we have a Volunteer Week at the end of this year for any parents who are keen to pop in and do any of the jobs listed to help the school out).
• Thank you to the families that have been hosting Megumi.
• Thank you to White sensei, Hiromi sensei and Megumi for all the extra work you have put in to preparing for our Branch Out Japan Study Tour.
• Thank you to our amazing Foundation Team for making the first transition session for our 2025 Foundation students a great success.
• Thank you to the Year 2 team for planning and running a really successful day camp.

Production in 2025

2025 is a whole school production year again!! The dates booked for the production are Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st August.

Year 1-3 Playground

As you may have noticed, Year 1-3 Playground has been out of bounds for the last week or so.  This is due to the drainage works that were completed underneath in preparation for the removal of the playground and the installation of the new playground.

This work is due to begin next week and with everything going to plan, our students will be able to enjoy the new playground before the end of November.

Our Year 1 and 2 students were involved in the choice of colours on the new playground as well as sharing their ideas and thoughts about what makes a great playground and I am sure they will be very excited to see the planning they were involved in come to real life.

Into the Wild

We were incredibly proud as a school to have the Into the Wild production take place a couple of weeks ago. This production was written, produced, directed and performed completely by students. The only staff involvement was in the supervision of rehearsals and working out some of the logistics of when the performance would take place.

The performances by the students was absolutely amazing and they made us proud of their resilience, talent and bravery. Bravo to the producers of the performance Maiya and Mika and to all of the cast and back stage crew involved.

Branch Out Japan Study Tour 2024

Next week our Branch Out Japan Study Tour 2024 students and staff will be heading off to our Sister School in Japan. Alongside 2 staff and 10 students from Warranwood PS, we have 3 staff and 15 students travelling to Japan for this amazing opportunity.

Alongside White sensei and Hiromi sensei, I have had the great privilege to attend this trip. We have all spent a huge amount of time preparing for the trip, the students have worked on their language and cultural understanding, and preparing emotionally for a huge adventure.

By the next newsletter, I will be submitting my page from Japan and look forward to sharing with you part of our journey.

On returning to school our 15 travelling students will be visiting the other classes around the school to share what they learnt, the challenges they faced and the great moments that were head.

Next year we are hoping to host Lilyvale as they come to visit our school (for the first time since 2019) and we are all already looking forward to planning our next visit to Japan in 2026.

Somers Camp 2025

Evey second year we have the opportunity to send approximately 10-20 students from Year 5 and Year 6 to Somers Camp. Somers Camp is a 9 day camp on the Mornington Peninsula that is owned and operated by DET. Students have the opportunity to attend the camp alongside other local schools.

The camp is a great opportunity to get to know other students, build resilience and independence and have a great time.

Next year the camp for Maroondah and Yarra Valley schools will be from the 6th May to the 14th May. We always aim to get as many spots as possible allocated for our school but if we have more interest than availability we will have a selection process or lottery system (will provide more information about that at a later date). The cost of the camp is $350.

For current Year 4 and Year 5 families please keep an eye out for further communication that will come out via COMPASS.

Host families for Megumi

We are still looking for a host family for Megumi for 3 weeks in December (1/12-21/12). If you are able to host Megumi during this time or would like further information then please contact  White sensei via email: jessica.white@education.vic.gov.au

We are kind. We are resilient. We are respectful.