Principal's Post
TERM 2: 2026 - Week 4
Principal's Message
It feels as through we have hardly said hello to our new Prep students for 2026, yet we have already begun our enrolment process for 2027! The last couple of weeks have seen us commence our Prep Tours and Information Sessions - it's been a pleasure to show prospective parents around the school, and to be greeted by our students who have all been friendly and welcoming. For exisiting Wembley families, don't forget that enrolment forms are due by July 31st!
Next week our teaching teams will begin to undertake their Professional Practise Days. This term, the teams will be using their day to focus on:
- SMART goals
End of Semester Reporting - Moderation
This work directly follows on from our Curriculum Day, held last Friday, which centred upon re-establishing SMART goals for our students and cohorts, initially in writing, as well as the concept of 'Responsive Teaching'.
There have been lots of extra-curricular events and activities happening over the past week including: our Special Person's Open-Mornings in Prep and Year 1, Mad About Science Incursions for our Year 3s and Year 4s, Hoop Time, and a Parliamentary Incursion for our Year 5 & Year 6 students. Our student-focussed newsletter is due to be published next week and will shine a spotlight on some of these events in detail.
I do want to specifically mention morning attendance: our first school bell rings at 8:55am, at which time we expect for all students to be onsite and lined up, ready to enter class. We understand how busy life is and how complicated mornings can be, however we have noticed lots of students being dropped off well past 9:00am. At this time, classes have already begun - we just wanted to bring this to your attention, so that we can work on this norm together.
Finally, it is Educational Support Staff Appreciation Day (ES staff) this Saturday May 16th. As a school we will celebrating these exceptionally dedicated members of our team across the week - starting from Monday May 18th. Melanie Irons, our Inclusion Assistant Principal, sent out a short note on Sentral sharing a number of ways in which you might consider sharing your appreciation of our ES Team - particularly if you or your child has been fortunate enough to be supported by someone on the team.
Katie McClue - Acting Principal
Key Events (Week 5-7)
| Week 5: 18/5 | Th: Year 3 Professional Practise Day (CRTs in the classroom) F: Year 4 Professional Practise Day (CRTs in the classroom) 5/6 Winter Gala Day (22/5) Newsletter published
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| Week 6: 25/5 | M: Year 1 Professional Practise Day (CRTs in the classroom)
T: National Reconciliation Week (26/5) Art Professional Practise Day (CRTs in the classroom)
W: Divisional Cross Country (27/5) Year 6 Professional Practise Day (CRTs in the classroom)
Th: PE Professional Practise Day (CRTs in the classroom)
F: Year 2 Professional Practise Day (CRTs in the classroom) |
Week 7: 1/6 | T: Prep Professional Practise Day (CRTs in the classroom)
Th: World Environment Day (4/6 TBC)
W: Year 5 Professional Practise Day (CRTs in the classroom) |
Critical Messages
School Photos: Have been distributed to classrooms, so your child should have come home with these. If you have experienced any problems, please contact the office who will direct your enquiry from there.
Evacuation Drills: Our students did a wonderful job on Tuesday, as we undertook an onsite evacuation practise. Thank you to all our parents who talked this over with their children, in preparation.
On Friday of Week 8, we will practise our off-site procedure. We have deliberately placed the two in one term, to support our younger students in remembering instructions and so that they are provided with an opportunity to apply feedback or learnings from their first experience within a timely manner.
Mother's Day Stall: Firstly, we hope that families were able to enjoy their Mother's Day weekends; it's a special day, but one that we also understand can bring up difficult moments for some. Thank you to our WPA for all their efforts - we wanted to share with you that the crew raised an approximate amount of $2000.
Morning Arrival & Gates: In addition to my mention of arrival time, please remind your children that once onsite, they must stay on school grounds for safety and duty of care reasons. We've had some reports of students, in particular our older cohorts, leaving school grounds after their parents have completed drop-off. For everyone's safety and to encourage positive role-modelling, it would be helpful for parents to touch base with their children about this.
We are also tightening up our process around locking our side street gates, to ensure student safety and to limit the risk of any students exiting school grounds once our school day has started. We will be aiming to lock our surrounding gates by 9:05am - however, the admin office exit will always be open!
School Volunteers: We are so lucky to now have a number of parents (and grandparents) helping out around the school, in a number of different roles:
- Breakfast Club
- Library
- Lost Property
- Classrooms
- Publishing .... and these are just a few examples!
They give up a lot of their time to support us, and it's incredibly important that our students make them feel welcome, by being friendly and treating all our volunteers with the same respect and manners they show our staff.
G.A.T.E.W.A.Y.S - We wanted to share some upcoming extra-curricular opportunities, run by GATEWAYS and open to students who consistently excel in the classroom. In particular, there are two science-focussed opportunities being offered at two relatively local schools: Dinjerra and St Paul's Primary School.
The opportunities can be accessed here: https://preview.mailerlite.io/emails/webview/1007306/186784623063205682
Classroom teachers may well reach out to specific families, but often work-pressures can interfere with this communication process, so we wanted to share the opportunities with everyone, so that families can access the nomination/enrolment processes themselves.
It is important to note that the experiences are specifically designed to engage students who consistently perform abovetheir expected level - if you are unsure about this, please get in touch with your child's classroom teacher.