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 wonderful 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 

National Simultaneous Story Time

On Wednesday 27th May, our school participated in this year’s National Simultaneous Storytime, sharing in the wonderful story Luna Roo: The Kangaroo Baller. It was fantastic to see the rich and engaging learning experiences taking place across the school as students connected deeply with the story and its important themes.

Throughout the day, the students explored concepts such as persistence, confidence, resilience, self-belief and striving towards personal goals. These learning experiences provided strong connections to both English and Inquiry learning, while also encouraging thoughtful discussion, creativity and reflection.

Some highlights from across the school included:

• Prep students making thoughtful text-to-self connections as they reflected on their own experiences and feelings 
• Year 1 students designing Australian animal trading cards linked to both the story and their Inquiry learning 
• Year 4 students reflecting on and writing about their own personal milestones and achievements and 
• A vast array of rich classroom discussions, vocabulary development and purposeful writing activities connected to the themes and messages explored throughout the text.

A sincere thank you to Mrs. Stefanidis for leading this initiative and the staff for planning and delivering engaging and rigorous learning experiences that enabled the children to connect meaningfully with the story and with one another. It was wonderful to see such enthusiasm, creativity and collaboration across our school community.

Student Voice and Agency in Action

At our school, we strongly believe that when students are empowered to contribute ideas, lead initiatives and take meaningful action, they develop the confidence, responsibility and leadership skills that help them thrive both within and beyond the classroom. Student voice and agency are about ensuring that children are active participants in shaping their learning and contributing positively to their school community. When students are given authentic opportunities to lead, make decisions and influence outcomes, they develop a stronger sense of belonging, purpose and ownership.

Across the school, it has been wonderful to see students embracing opportunities to lead projects that make a genuine difference to others. Two recent student-led initiatives are excellent examples of this in action: 

• Funky Feet Day - yesterday, our CIS Captains along with the Service Learning Junior School Council, implemented our annual Funky Feet Day, where the children and staff were encouraged to come to school wearing their funkiest socks, shoes, boots or footwear creations. This exciting event is being held to raise funds for our Australian-sponsored child, Caspian. Through this initiative, the students demonstrated leadership, public speaking, writing skills and compassion with an overarching attribute of global mindedness and a commitment to supporting others less fortunate than themselves. 

May I take the opportunity to thank our student leaders for their enthusiasm and creativity in bringing this event to life.

• Recycling initiative: Another wonderful example of student agency, Saras in Year 2 has launched a recycling initiative connected to the Container Deposit Scheme. Saras is encouraging all members of our school community to bring eligible recyclable cans and bottles to school, with funds raised going towards the purchase of an LED screen for the gym. 

To make things even more exciting and ambitious, Saras’ goal is for the collected containers to eventually stretch far enough to circumnavigate the school oval! This initiative highlights the power of student leadership, environmental responsibility and community collaboration.

In terms of learning, Saras presented his idea at a school assembly, where he spoke in front of approx. 1,000 people. He wrote his speech, a Compass Post and worked with Sabrina to create an advertising poster. It is quite evident that so much learning has occurred! 

Both of these projects are wonderful reminders that our students are capable of extraordinary things when provided with opportunities to lead, contribute and make a difference. Below are some photos of our Funky Feet Day and we look forward to seeing our community continue to support these fantastic student-led initiatives.

insert photos from Funky Feet Day

Thank you to Samali

At our school we are extremely fortunate to have so many parents that are willing to support the children with their learning. Recently Samali (Uvin's mum in Year Prep) visited the Preps to share some science experiments with the students. Sumali is currently completing a PhD at Monash University and worked as a scientist in Sri Lanka. 

Sumali introduced the students to the exciting world of science, explaining how scientists and engineers use curiosity, creativity and their problem solving skills to investigate questions and develop solutions. The children were highly engaged as they learned about scientific thinking and asked thoughtful questions about how things work.

Thank you very much Samali as the children thoroughly enjoyed your visit and we all appreciate your willingness to contribute to the children’s learning!

Alumni Visit

Last week I had the pleasure of hosting an ex-student, Athena and her partner Timon at our school. Athena left our school in 2011 and returned to Taiwan and as she is now back in Australia, she was very keen to visit her primary school. Below is an email from Athena which I would like to share with the school community: 

Dear Mr. Catalano,

Thank you so much for leading us through the school 15 years later! It was so nice to see all the familiar parts and of course the upgrades as well! I’ve let my mum and brother know that I’ve visited, they’re both really excited and happy to hear about all the changes. 

I didn’t figure out when we were doing the school tour but Mr. Pride was Allen’s (my older brother’s) teacher! Please tell him/Mrs. Pride he says hi! 

Timon: I really liked how colourful the school was and that there wasn’t any space without a purpose (walls full of writings, images and paintings; outdoor area plastered with things to do). When comparing it to his old primary school, he says that his primary school feels like a grey hospital leftover from WW2, although it should be better nowadays. Schools in east Germany mostly have the same structure due to socialist GDR.

I’ve attached the pictures from the tour below, we’re excited to see the newsletter! 

Wishing all the best to you and everyone at GWPS, 

Athena and Timon

Congratulations to the following children for their outstanding achievements outside of school

• Akira (Year 6) table tennis – Akira continues to make outstanding progress and excel in her chosen sport. Recently she participated in the Under 11 girl’s category at this Table Tennis Australia (TTA) NSW tour event where she placed 1st – winning the gold medal! 

For those who may not be aware, there are 4 national TTA tournaments organised by Table Tennis Australia, Akira has:

• Placed second (silver medallist) in the first event that was held in Perth in January 

  • 1st place (Gold medallist) in the second event, held in Traralgon in April and 
  • 1st place (Gold medallist) in the third event that was held in Goulburn, recently.

   

  The final event will be held in Queensland later in the year. 

Wow Akira, what an amazing achievement – well done congratulations, keep it up and we look forward to hearing and sharing your future achievements!  

• Klarissa (Year 5) keeps herself very busy by attending various events and activities, one that she is very passionate about involves model aeroplanes. Recently she sent me the following email of her latest achievements – participating in the Australian Open Plastic & Scale Model Championships:

For the entire Kings Birthday weekend, I had a hectic weekend! As once again, same as the Kings Birthday weekend last year, I again entered the Australian Open Plastic & Scale Model Championships in The Australian Model Expo 2026 at Sandown Racecourse. 

Last year, I received second place in the Junior Aircraft Open category. This year, I placed third in the same category and also received second place in the Junior Miscellaneous Open category.

For the Junior Aircraft Open category, I entered a Tiger Moth and a Corsair aircraft. Last year, I also entered these two aircraft in the Australian Air League Victoria Group's Scale Modelling Competition (receiving 1st place each as well as a third 1st placing for a tank).

In the Miscellaneous category, I entered a HMAS Collins-class submarine and a Ford pickup truck, which has a funny story behind it that I will explain later. They have not yet been entered in AALs comp as of yet. 

In the Aircraft Open category, my Corsair received third place, while my Tiger Moth received a commendation (finalist). In the Miscellaneous category, my pickup truck received second place, and my HMAS Collins-class submarine also received a commendation (finalist). I got plaques for the placings and certificates for the commendations. I also got some prizes. It was pretty exciting to again get placings in a national level competition at junior level.

Over the weekend, my mum and I spent a lot of time at the competition. On Saturday, we visited so to register in the competition and stayed for a little while because I was very nervous and wanted to see who I was competing against and see their models. This time I was more nervous as I had more entries and last year to compare against. Then, on Sunday, after my altar serving at church, we went to the expo and stayed for quite a while to watch the results being placed onto the tables. They usually do this at exhibitions so viewers can enjoy knowing before the expos are over, who won and were finalists. We also enjoying looking around at other displays and models, and also shopping at stalls.

On Monday, we collected our prizes at a presentation around 4pm. We were also there from about 1:00 pm helping out at our club stand encouraging people to join our club and talking generally to expo visitors.

The pickup truck has a funny story behind it. While I was building it, and I required some help to fit together & hold, I forgot to put the driver inside before attaching the roof. Once the roof was glued on, we could not remove it without damaging the model.

Instead of giving up, my mum said we needed to think outside the box. My mum gave me some examples so then I glued the figure to the front of the truck and turned it into a crash scene. I then added a police officer and a motorbike so that it looked as though the officer was investigating the accident.

It is a slightly dramatic scene, but it shows the importance of thinking outside the box and solving problems so to be innovators. 

My mentor at my club often comes up with creative ideas for his projects, so my mum encouraged me to take a page out of his book. 

Wow Klarissa, what a phenomenal achievement at a national level competition – well done and congratulations as we are all incredibly proud of you! Keep up the outstanding dedication and I look forward to sharing more of your amazing achievements in the future!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING STUDENTS WHO RECEIVED A PRINCIPAL’S AWARD RECENTLY: 

Year Prep

• Nilan and Rovin for working very hard to make very sensible choices in class and the yard. Well done boys - you are superstars!
• Kate and Aaradhya for learning about the importance of using their ‘protective shield’ as a resource to help them navigate difficult circumstances 

Year 1

• Caitlin, Michelle and Mary for making the most amazing progress with their writing skills 

Year 2

• Yug for making excellent progress with his learning as he is demonstrating fabulous retention of what has been taught and answers questions correctly in Mandarin 
• Hannah for continuing to make excellent progress with learning how to read and use braille to support her development 
• Tatiana, Sohana, Tanisha, Dulein and Bavitran for working extremely hard to develop their ability to write interesting sentences 
• Tanisha for attending her first chess tournament and for receiving a certificate 

Year 3

• Savik for making excellent progress with his Maths learning 
• Ava, Nithish and Vivaan for working very hard to improve their writing skills 
• Savik and Nik for working hard to improve their comprehension skills 
• Sasavi and Saanbavi for exploring the concepts of recycling at home and also at school 
• Nithish, Savik, Ava and Saanbavi for making excellent progress with their spelling skills 
• Sasavi for being a very supportive friend 

Year 4

• Ishana for writing a heartfelt poster to acknowledge Reconciliation Week 
• Lilian for being a wonderful friend 

Year 5 

• Oneli for writing a beautiful memoir for me and about me

Wishing everyone a safe and happy fortnight, 

Frank Catalano

Principal