Principal's Report

Dear Members of the Glen Waverley Primary School Community,

I trust all is well with you and your family and welcome to this fortnight’s newsletter where so much is shared about our fabulous school.

As per usual, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me on 9802 9938 or via email at frank.catalano@education.vic.gov.au.

The end of another school term is almost here! 

I realise that I say and write the following at the end of each term, however, I am genuine in asking; “Where has the term gone?”

Term Two has certainly been another great one for our school community. It has been wonderful to witness the children continue to grow and prosper, not only in stature but also academically, socially, and emotionally. I look forward to next week as we culminate Semester One whilst also prepare for the commencement of Semester Two. As per usual, a sincere thank you to all of the members of our school community for the manner in which you continually assist, support and encourage the children and staff. 

Please be mindful that school concludes at 2:30pm next Friday (24th June) and recommences at 8:50am on Monday 11th July.

Council of International Schools (CIS) Virtual Review of Anfield School – Hong Kong

As communicated recently, last week I had the pleasure of working with a team of educators from China, Singapore and Thailand as we reviewed Anfield School which is located in Hong Kong.

Anfield is a privately owned primary school that is located at the Worldwide Gardens, Hong Kong. In fact, right on the edge of a forest; incidentally one morning the school went into a short lockdown as a monkey decided that it was a good idea to jump out of a tree and onto the playground!

I take sheer delight and joy when working with other CIS schools as you always learn something which can be used to further improve our school. One of the main highlights for me is the school’s wellbeing program. Anfield dedicates the first 15 minutes of each day to a robust wellbeing program where the children share how they are ‘feeling’ and most importantly, also discuss how they will either maintain a positive outlook or work towards one. The older also children create wellbeing posters or calendars as means of continuing striving for a sense of calm and happiness.

One of the goals in our School Strategic Plan is to review and develop our school’s approach to wellbeing, I look forward to sharing this in due course and perhaps our school may adopt a few things from our colleagues in Hong Kong! 

Novel Coronavirus Update

Once again, it is very pleasing to note that the number of confirmed cases throughout our school has been rather minimal with only a few cases spread throughout the year levels. Naturally, this is a result of everyone being vigilant by ensuring the children remain at home if they are feeling unwell and also utilising the Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT’s). Once again, thank you everyone for the manner in which the entire GWPS community have supported one another. 

Congratulations to Shaya

Shaya (Year 4) recently competed in the Wordsmith writing competition which is run by Australian author Michelle Hamer, an award winning Australian author and journalist. Michelle has published more than 20 books and her novel, Gucci Mamas was an Australian bestseller.

The theme was to write about "What Matters?". Shaya chose to write a fictional story combined with what matters the most to her which is "Compassion."

I am thrilled to announce that Shaya won first place in the Year 3/4 category and received 4 "Daisy" books which is part of the Australian Girl series written by Michelle.

Naturally this is an amazing achievement and something that we are all incredibly proud of.

Well done and congratulations Shaya – keep up the fabulous attitude and passion towards your writing and learning!

Traditional Indian Dancing

Congratulations to Ananda (Year 4) for participating in a recent Kathak concert. The event was open to children and adults and was exceptionally well attended. 

Ananda mentioned that she really enjoys dancing and celebrating her cultural heritage.

Included are some photos for everyone’s enjoyment. 

Well done and congratulations Ananda as you should be very proud of yourself and your achievements! 

A new addition to our school newsletter 

Aditi (Year 6) is an avid artist and recently she approached me with the idea of including something new and different in our school newsletter, below is what she wrote:

Hi everyone!! My name is Aditi from 6A.

Ever since I could, I have loved to draw and paint. I am sure that there are so many art lovers just like me in our GWPS community but there were always times where I would try and follow a tutorial, but it was always hard to copy all the instructions. So, I created a simple and fabulous tutorial myself. 

From this edition of our GWPS newsletter I will share some of my drawing tutorials with you all. Hope they help to get some inspiration. Good luck artists!!

Student Reports and Student Led Conferences

Our wonderful teaching staff have been incredibly busy over the last few weeks writing the children’s reports. Your child’s report is a means of us, as your school, to inform the children and their respective families of how they are progressing, but also indicating what they have accomplished, areas for future growth and, most importantly, how we can work together for the educational, social, and emotional development of the children. 

For me, student reports are a time to celebrate and acknowledge how far the children have progressed over the course of the semester. A reminder that the children’s reports will be distributed next Friday via Compass and the Student Led Conferences will be held throughout the first few weeks of Term Three. 

I look forward to receiving some feedback about the children’s reports and also partaking in some of the Student Led Conferences. 

Vacation Care Program

Once again, our school will be implementing our very own Vacation Care (Holiday Care) program during the forthcoming holidays. Included in this newsletter is an overview of the program and the associated costs. Please be aware that ALL FAMILIES are entitled to a 50% rebate (which is not means tested) plus a further rebate which is determined by your family’s 2020-2021 annual taxable income. If you have any questions pertaining to the Vacation Care program, please do not hesitate to contact or see Meththa (OSHC coordinator) or me at school. 

Principal Awards

Congratulations to the following students for receiving a Principal Awards recently: 

Prep A

• Shawn, Fabiana, Onalee, Myraa, and Max for writing recounts about the Fire Ed incursion 

• Soha for being a Litter Monitor in her class and completing an amazing Badge!
• Tyler for producing a fantastic piece of learning illustrating a clean environment with no litter and a messy environment with litter.
• Ayyub for writing a letter to GWPS about why it is important to keep the ELC clean
• Jacob for making a super drawing about keeping the environment clean.

Prep D

• Eric for writing a book all about how to protect the environment 
• Aran, Zoe, Eva and Shivane for writing terrific recounts about the Fire Education incursion 

Prep E

• Prabhav, Mevinu, Dev, Abisshna and Reyashi for learning how to measure using a ruler and then arranging objects in order from highest to lowest 

1B

• Sam shared his outstanding writing, reflecting on the Year 1 excursion to CERES.  Sam used time connectives to order the events of the day and precise adjectives to describe the experiences, he particularly enjoyed the “sparkly chickens.”

• Nyshita, Anusha, Kivain, Cian, Nivaishna -  Sharing their amazing learning about bees, writing information and drawing diagrams to help readers understand what bees are and what they do

1C

• Ngo-Chi and Eesa for writing amazing reflections about their excursion to CERES 

1D

• Jamie, Zaiden and Marvika for learning about the number 50 
• Chloe and Siddharth share different ways to use the partitioning strategy to help them accurately and efficiently add two digit numbers together. 

1E

• Reyansh, Nivan, Devanshi and Manuth for writing great recounts about their excursion to CERES 
• Dhrisha and Sithuki for making excellent progress with their maths by learning all about partitioning 

2A

• Anya and Shruthi for writing a card for my office 
• Anjaliya, Madie, and Tahlia for writing various procedural texts 
• Mindi for making excellent progress with her Maths skills 
• Anya and Pooja for making excellent progress with their writing and for having their stories featured in the Kids Corner section of this newsletter
• Anya shared her fabulous mathematics learning, where they have been exploring the features of a graph about birthdays to deepen their understanding of the months of the year. 
• Pooja and Mindi shared their amazing writing where they were experimenting with adjectives to bring their writing to life. 

2E

• Khwaeesh -  She and created an environmental poster to help other people make good choices for our environment. She made this poster because she is a Sustainability Junior School councillor who like to lead with the environment in mind. 

4A

• Ranuga- Won the basketball grand final with his team “Wantirna Wasps” under 10s A team.  They defeated the Knox City Cougars, who were undefeated all season

4D

• Siyona for receiving a trophy from Brainobrain. Siyona came first place in an Abacus competition. 

5C

• Fin, Mathushaa and Vedanta -  these three mathematicians shard their outstanding division learning, each sharing a different strategy for calculating division equations. 

End of Term One Reminders

Please be aware of the following reminders pertaining to next Friday and the first week of Term Three:

Next Friday:

• Is the final day of Term Two and the children will be dismissed at 2:30 pm. 
• Our After School Care Program will subsequently commence from 2:30 pm.
• The last day of each term is also a “free dress” day and
• On this day, we will be hosting a Jump Rope for Heart Fitness Challenge for all the students. A gold coin donation is requested to raise funds for the Heart Foundation.
• An end of term assembly will be held from 1:40 pm on Friday 24th of June, where the Kiwanis Terrific Kids and Principal Learning Awards recipients for Term Two will be announced. 

Term Three: 

• Is scheduled to commence on Monday 11th July at 8:50 am. 

Take care everyone and wishing the entire school community a safe and happy final week of term and Winter school holiday break,

Frank Catalano

Principal