Principal's Message

Dear Families,

Term four is well underway – just a reminder that your son or daughter will need a hat when they are working or playing outside.  This needs to be an official school hat or a broad brimmed, navy blue one.  No other hats or caps are acceptable.  

REMINDERS:

• Next Monday (November 6) is a Curriculum Day and NO STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED AT SCHOOL
• Next Tuesday (November 7) is a public holiday for the Melbourne Cup and school is closed for the day.

Driving and Parking around the school

One again we need to remind drivers of the need for safety around the school.  In the past week we have had incidents of near misses when drivers are not giving way at the roundabout or double parking, and earlier this year a child was hit at the roundabout on the corner by a driver who failed to give way.  The speed limit is also 40kmh when going past the school at the start or the end of the day.  I know you may be in a hurry but for the sake of ten or twenty seconds please slow down a bit.  Otherwise, a young person may be seriously injured or even worse – it could even be your own child.  We do have descriptions and in some cases number plate details of offending cars which we can hand over to authorities if needed.  

Curriculum Days for 2024

To assist you with your planning for next y we provide the following information around our curriculum days for 2024.  These dates have been endorsed by our school council and no children are required at school on these days.

Day 1 - Monday 29th January 

Day 2 - Tuesday 30th January  (All students commence school on Wednesday, January 31) 

Day 3 - Wednesday 14th February 

Day 4 - Monday 4th November (Day before Cup Day) 

We also have an additional proposed date for a teacher professional practice day – which we are entitled to one of these as per the most recent teaching award.  This Is tentatively set for Friday, April 26 – the day following the ANZAC Day holiday.  This date will be confirmed following approval or otherwise at our next school council meeting.  

Voluntary Parent Contributions for 2024

School council has confirmed that the voluntary parent contributions for 2024 will remain at $180.  This is a parent payment towards the cost of supplies used by your child at school.  Further information will come out in the next newsletter, and this money is able to be paid from late January next year.  

2024

Student placement

We have already started planning for the next school year.  This is inclusive of staffing, class sizes and compositions, and room placements.  In mid-November we will be asking children for feedback on five children they believe they work well with – and would therefore like to be in a class with next year.  We encourage you to have a conversation with your young person about this at home.  Note that we are asking children to identify people they work well with – this may or may not be a best friend.  Best friends are sometimes a distraction! Children will be given at least one of the people on their list, although many will get more.  I’m sure you can appreciate this is a big jigsaw puzzle, and can be very complicated to organise.  

From time to time parents may have comments about their child’s placement for the upcoming year.  Should you wish to share some information in regards to this it needs to be put in writing, placed  in an envelope marked confidential and addressed to the Principal or emailed to the school with ‘class placement – CONFIDENTIAL’ in the subject line so that it can be considered.  Correspondence  received after Friday, November 10 WILL NOT be considered.  Please remember this as we need time to set up the classes and late adjustments are sometimes impossible.  NOTE:  requests for a particular gender or teacher will NOT be considered.  

Last day of school for the year

To assist you with your forward planning a reminder that the last day of school for the 2023 school year is Wednesday, December 20.  School will finish at 1.30pm on this day – following a whole of school assembly.  

World Teachers’ Day

Last Friday was World Teachers’ Day and we took the chance to recognise all that our teachers do for the students at this school at two different assemblies (based on the timetable) where teachers were recognised, some thinking about them shared by a student and the staff were presented with a small token of appreciation.  I would like to extend my personal thanks to the staff for all the efforts they put in supporting the learning and wellbeing of the children at WVPS.  

Foundation transition

Parents of students who are commencing school with us in Foundation in 2024 will have received communication about our upcoming transition days.  These valuable sessions give the youngest members of our school community  a chance to experience school and gives teachers a chance to begin to establish what teaching plans would be best suited to individual pupils.  Children who have not yet been enrolled will not be able to join us for these sessions.  If you have, or know of, any young child who will be starting school with us next year and they are yet to enrol, please contact our office for enrolment information without delay and this ensures we include them in our plans.  This is inclusive of families who already have other children at the school.  We cannot assume that your younger child will attend just because they have older siblings here.  

Students moving to other schools

From time to time parents feel a need to move their child’s school.  This is a natural part of the ebb and flow of any student population within schools, and we totally understand that family circumstances sometimes have evolving needs.  Therefore, we do ask that if you know that your child will not be at WVPS next year you please inform the office as soon as possible – it would also be helpful if you could let us know the name of your son or daughter’s new school (if known) so we can send the correct paperwork on to them.  Your child will NOT be disadvantaged in any way if you let us know that they will not be with us in 2024.  

Have a fabulous (long) weekend everyone.  Let’s hope the weather is kind to us over the next few days.  

Congratulations

Georgia Webb, her husband Taylor and son Hughy , welcomed the safe arrival of their baby boy, Raffy who was born on 20th October 2023.

Kind regards

Sue Seneviratne

Principal