Across Oliver's Desk 

Dear Parents,

Last year I talked about how hard it is being a Carlton supporter but that’s totally not true this year. I’m so looking forward to Sunday where the blues will have a big win over Mrs Symes Tigers! 

This term has been a long 11-week term but it does seem to have gone fast (that might be because I had the first 4 weeks long service leave). It’s been a very successful term. Beside all the fun things like, Cross Country, Life Saving and CPR incursions and the Speaking Competition. Our students have again shone with lots of growth in Reading, Writing and Numeracy. Our Blitzmaster Hall of Fame wall is really starting to fill up again. We have never had so many students doing so well. With all the new facilities it is a pleasure to come to work everyday. 

CURRICULUM DAY

The curriculum day for term 3 has been postponed and is now Monday 5th of August. I apologise to anyone that booked for the OSHC program. 

150 YEAR CELEBRATIONS

As the second oldest school in the Valley we are really looking forward to our birthday. See the flyer below. If you know of past students or staff members please remind them of our up-coming big day.

This week’s local history

Around 1857 miners arrived in the Valley and in 1863 gold was found in the Warburton/Millgrove area and later at Hoddles Creek. Hoddles Creek was quite a large gold mining centre. There were in fact three separate townships and three hotels, and over 3000 Chinese miners alongside lots of Europeans. 

There was an old track that went down to where the hotel is now, along Allsop’s Road, and continued up the hill to Launching Place. Traces of this track are still discernible.

John Allsop and his wife, Mary, were amongst the very early settlers in Woori Yallock. He was a bullock driver taking the trip from Melbourne to Coldstream and was the first bullock driver to go up to Warburton with supplies. A track had to be cut as he went through. 

REPORTS

Flick, Rachel and I have been reading student reports over the past two weeks and there are a few things that I thought about as I was reading. Firstly, teachers spend lots of time assessing student learning using a variety of strategies and this approach really does provide an accurate and holistic over-view of where students are placed on the continuum of learning. 

Secondly, teachers then use the information collected, as well as their thorough knowledge of every student, to write reports that are truly individualised and aimed at providing a clear picture of how every student has progressed in their education journey. 

It should be acknowledged that teachers spend many hours going over assessment data and writing student reports in their own time, often at home and usually on weekends. We are so very fortunate at WYPS to have dedicated and ‘student centred’ teachers who work very hard each and every day to provide our students with such great learning opportunities. There is no doubt that we are very lucky to have outstanding dedicated teachers. 

This year we have again blended ongoing work samples with the normal reports. 

We are hoping that what we have done is given parents a more complete picture of student achievement and next steps for improvement. 

I must admit that I have loved reading the half year reports because they are so positive and show how much students are improving and how much they love their teachers and their school. 

Reports go out on compass this Friday.

 SPEECH COMPETITION 

At WYPS we value the teaching of public speaking. As we are with most things, we teach public speaking in a sequential, practical way. 

Our speech competition highlights the progression and the complexity of expectations at every level. I know other schools would love to have the level of excellence our students show in the school final. Amelia Niemeier, Evelyn Pratt, Chelsea Bonfield, Ella Robinson and Evie Brown, in fact all our grade 3’s were simply amazing, but I was so proud that we have grade 3 students talking for over 2 minutes without notes on passionate, worldly topics. Every year level was impressive and I could see how much work had gone into the speeches. 

Our school has won the Yarra Valley Inter-school speaking competition 8 times out of 9. We came second and third last year! This year we are hoping to go one better to be on the winners list again, unfortunately it is only for year 5 or 6 students. I’ll certainly let you know how we go. Congratulations to Mila Robertson and Molly Benson for being our representatives for the competition this year. I know they will represent the school with great distinction. 

I’m simply in awe of the risks some of our kids take while speaking in front of so many people.

I hope to have some of the speeches uploaded to our website sometime soon so that you can all see just how amazing these speeches are. 

I would like to thank our teachers and parents for how well taught and prepared all the students were.

Congratulations to all the finalists that competed on Friday. You are all winners.

GRADE 3

GRADE 4

GRADE 5

GRADE 6

Our junior school will have their own school competition in fourth term. 

STEPS WINNERS

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to do a steps winner’s morning tea this week but we all do one early term 3. The following students are our winners. Congratulations to them for being so wonderful in class.

EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNERS

The excellence award goes to the student the teacher has judged as the best student for the term. Taking into account, the school’s values, academic growth, persistence and manners. 

The following are this term’s winners, wh were presented with their awards at Friday’s assembly at 9:10am. 

Badge Code

White =          1st time winner             

Green =          2nd time  winner

Pink =             3rd time   winner 

Yellow =         4th time   winner 

Orange =       5th time  winner  

Blue =       6th time "(We have only had one student receive the blue badge)

Please remember Friday is an early finish. Students will be dismissed at 2:30pm. 

I hope all our families have a wonderful winter break. My only apology to you is sorry that the Blues are playing so well. Thank you as always for your wonderful support of great school!