Principal's Message

2025 School Theme - Why Team, Why Team Westbreen 

Dear WPS Families, 

School Highlights of Week 2 

Cross Country: Thank you to all the students who participated in Cross Country on Wednesday, April 30th. It was wonderful to see so many parents enjoying the day and attending the event. Hopefully, Waratah earns a few points!

The Election BBQ: Last Saturday, May 3rd, Westbreen Primary School hosted a BBQ in conjunction with the election, as our site served as a voting location. We were busy throughout the day, recording an impressive fundraising total of nearly $ 2700 for our school. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the following volunteers for their support on the day. 

Volunteers 

Thank you to the staff who supported the event, from Kerry and Jill's organisation on the day and the number of staff who helped with set up, cooking, serving and pack up - Well done Team Westbreen.  

School Values at WPS

As we move through the term, I would like to take the opportunity to highlight the importance of our school values and the initiatives we are implementing to uphold them. 

Respect, Care and Compassion, Cooperation, Responsibility, and Achievement

We love to see these values in action at WPS in the classroom and in the playground. We also run our Respectful Relationships program across the whole school, every Thursday afternoon providing an opportunity for students to promote and model respect, positive attitudes and behaviours. It also teaches our children how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence.

In a proactive approach we are also investigating this year, the opportunity to reward positive behaviours in the playground linked to house colours. Staff are working in conjunction with students on a process to acknowledge these behaviours, while undertaking the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support Framework training.

We currently have a framework in place to highlight the behaviour expectations of our students and to assist students in making positive choices whilst understanding the consequences of their actions when choices are made that do not follow our school values. We also facilitate restorative conversations between students and a WPS staff member if further coaching is required for students to ensure that they are always demonstrating our values.  

Below, are some examples associated with issuing students with a behaviour card based on our current behaviour system:

Examples of a yellow behaviour card: 

• Verbal altercation between students
• Unsafe play
• Behaviour that disrupts the activities of another  

If a student is issued with a yellow card, the student will be required to accompany the yard duty teacher present, for a period of the break time, to discuss what they could do differently next time. 

Examples of an orange behaviour card: 

• “Hands On” behaviours
• Disrespect to Staff
• Ignoring teacher direction from Level 1 - Yellow Card

If a student is issued with an orange card, students will be removed from the playground to spend time to reflect on their behaviour with a staff member and regulate.

Examples of a red behaviour card:  

• Damaging of property - toilets, broken chairs, tables, broken windows
• Bullying behaviour 
• Threatening behaviours toward staff
• Retaliation/Intent to hurt someone - e.g. kicking, punching
• Using items/equipment with the intent to hurt or harm others
• Disrespectful/Obscene language towards peers or staff
• Ignoring staff directions from Level 2 - Orange Card

If a student receives a red card, they will be immediately removed from the playground to the main administration area to complete a reflection process. The incident will be communicated with families, and the student will be removed from the playground at the next lunch and recess break. 

Thank you for your ongoing support with our desired behaviours at Team Westbreen. Could you please have a discussion with your child/ren around this as we continue to work together to create and maintain learning environments both in the classroom and outside of the classroom that we are all proud of. 

2026 Foundation Enrolments 

Enrolments for Foundation (Prep) 2026 are now open. Parents are invited to complete and submit their child's enrolment form via the school office. 

Enrolment forms can be downloaded from the website or collected from the office. 

Please ensure that your child's school enrolment form is accompanied with proof of their date of birth as well as their immunization record. 

For planning purposes, we kindly ask that parents finalise enrolments for Foundation 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 & Enrolment Facilitator, at Kerry.parfett@education.vic.gov.au.

Semester 1 2025 Reporting News 

I wanted to let you know about the changes to student reporting for mathematics in Victorian government schools.

The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) recently published its revised mathematics curriculum (Mathematics curriculum 2.0). 

All Victorian government schools will start using the Mathematics curriculum 2.0 in 2024 or 2025. At Westbreen Primary School we are using the revised mathematics curriculum for school reporting from Semester 1 2025. 

On your child's previous report, the teacher reported against the 3 strands of the achievement standard for mathematics (Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics and Probability). Under the Mathematics curriculum 2.0, your child’s teacher will report against the achievement standard, providing a single, aggregated score.

As the achievement standards reported on have changed, the first time you receive a report under the Mathematics 2.0 curriculum, it will only show achievement and not progress. For all reports after this, progress will be shown against the single achievement standard. 

The VCAA made these changes to help teachers plan their teaching and learning programs in mathematics, giving them more flexibility to support students to link ideas within mathematics and also with other curriculum areas. 

“Your School, Your Say”- Attitudes to School Survey (AtoSS) Years 4-6 students

The AtoSS is a voluntary student survey offered by the Department of Education every year to help schools and the department understand students' experiences of school. We will ask your child about their thoughts and feelings about their school, their learning, relationships with other students, resilience, bullying, health and wellbeing, physical activity, and life in general.

Our students will complete the survey on the following days:

• Monday, 19th of May- Years 5-6
• Monday, 2nd of June- Year 4 

We will be sending out a letter of consent this week to families. We are looking forward to the feedback from our learners. 

Disco - Friday, May 9 

I know that students are looking forward to this Friday, our 2025 School Disco! I'm excited to see everyone on Friday, May 9th, at one of our fun and fabulous community events for the year. A big thank you to all the volunteers and staff who are working hard to prepare for this event, from ensuring everyone's safety to decorating our Specialists Building to transform it into a fabulous dance floor.

Don’t forget your dance shoes!

Mother’s Day 

To all our mothers and special figures in our lives, we wish you a very Happy Mother’s Day this Sunday! Enjoy the chance to sleep in and receive well deserved special attention.

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the Westbreen Parent and Friends Group for offering our students the chance to buy special gifts for their loved ones this Thursday. We also extend our thanks to Ms. Kerry and Ms. Jill for their assistance in helping organise this wonderful event.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week of learning in Week 3.

Kind Regards, 

Justin Lania

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.