Principal's Message

Curriculum Day Friday March 6

A reminder that the Friday before the Labour Day long weekend is a school curriculum day.  No students will be at school on Friday 6th March. Teaching staff will be participating in professional development activities.  Enjoy the extra long weekend break. 

I will be away from school next week for four days while I'm on Long Service Leave.  Mr Lockhart and Mr Iser will be in charge. I will be back the following week.    

New School Gymnasium

Over three years ago we were successful in obtaining a super grant of $35,000 to go towards a new gynmasium facility for our school.  This work was put on hold while we had the opportunity to participate in a major capital works program.  Thanks to several dedicated staff members, who have donated their time, the new gymnasium is now in a position to be used by students and staff. Unfortunately, Wedderburn P-12 College is not in a position to make the new gymnasium available for general public use. While we genuinely appreciate the strong community interest in the facility, as a school site we are bound by strict public liability requirements, Child Safe Standards, and duty of care obligations that must place the safety and wellbeing of our students first. These requirements, along with necessary site security and supervision protocols, mean access to school facilities must remain tightly controlled. For these reasons, the gymnasium is not available for community hire or general public access. We appreciate the community’s understanding that these decisions are guided by our responsibility to ensure a safe, secure, and compliant learning environment for all students and staff.  We did discuss community use aspect at our most recent school council meeting last week and we came to the conclusion that we can not open the facility to the community. 

School Staff Pay & Conditions

This is an information piece from the AEU - Australian Education Union .

As parents and carers may be aware, staff at our school who are Australian Education Union (AEU) members have been negotiating, alongside teachers, education support staff, assistant principals, and principals from public schools around Victoria, with the state government and Department of Education for improvements to pay and employment conditions. Negotiations have been occurring over the last seven months, and the state government has not made any offer at all to this point in time. Currently, Victorian public schools are the lowest funded in Australia and there are significant staffing shortages across Victoria. Victorian public school teachers are also the lowest paid teachers in Australia, with many education support employees and school leaders paid less than their colleagues in other state and territories who do the same role. AEU members are seeking pay increases and reductions to excessive workloads, with the aim of ensuring the retention of existing employees and the attraction of the next generation to enable the ongoing provision of a high-quality education to students. Because there has not been any offer, AEU members are undertaking a vote to endorse industrial action, with the union calling a statewide 24-hour stopwork for Tuesday 24 March, should the government not respond properly to key claims. The AEU has written to our school council outlining some of the issues that school staff need resolved, including school funding and staffing shortages, as well as pay and conditions. The union acknowledges that a decision to stop work is not one to be taken lightly and regrets the impact it has on students and their families, with the state government able to avoid such action if a fair and decent offer is made to employees. If the industrial action goes ahead, we will provide our school community with all the information needed to manage the situation. It goes without saying that as a school community we support all of the staff in our school and expect them to be paid reasonably and have fair conditions of work. You can read the AEU’s letter here.

*What this information means is that we may have some staff taking action on the 24th of March.  It is an individual decision by union staff members.  Staff who strike do lose a days pay.  Unfortunately, these teachers will not be replaced on a strike day.  We will be giving families a weeks notice if there is going to be a strike. 

The Golden Spoon - Eat Learn Wedderburn

We are very excited to officially launch our much anticipated cookbook, 'The Golden Spoon'. The cookbook has landed in draft form.   We have several copies you can view at the school office.

This hardcover is professionally bound, with coloured photos and almost 200 recipes. This coffee table cookbook, celebrating 160 years of Education in Wedderburn, is filled with treasured family recipes, college and community photos, as well as history of education in Wedderburn.

A very big thank you to all of the sponsors for making the project possible, as well as everyone who has contributed to the book. 

We are running an early bird price of $35 per book, or 3 for $100 . 

Early bird date closes February 27th. After this date, books will be $40 each. 

Please use the link below to place your order, or you can pick up an order form from Wedderburn College. 

You can order and prepay for your copy now.   It is a professionally  bound, hardcover cookbook with coloured photos, almost 200 recipes. 

Please note, this is a preorder only and will not be reprinted. Expected deliver May 2026.

https://docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLSf151UVbmk.../viewform...

School Fete - Easter Extravaganza

We have commenced planning for the annual Easter School Fete. The fete will be held on the last day of Term 1, Thursday 2nd April, commencing at 10 am. As it is the last day of our school term, we will finish the fete at 2:00 p.m. followed by presentations. School will finish at approximately 2:30 p.m. We will be asking for donations, stall holders and volunteers. Our Parents & Friends Association has already started with our annual Mega Easter Raffle.  All friends, families and community members are most welcome to attend.   We have booked 5 massive rides that will be free of charge, once again.  More details will be released to the community over the next few weeks. 

Wanted Donation of Old Shoes - Repeat. 

Still require about 20 pairs of no longer used shoes.

Wanted shoes or boots with character,  If anyone has some old shoes that are being a pain in the neck at the back door, are taking up valuable space in the shoe basket or need to be moved on from the kids room or the walk in robe please consider donating them to the school.

I need 15 pairs or 30 shoes all together for a visual display around the school.   They can have holes in them but they must look like a shoe or a boot.   They will not be returned and they will not be worn by anyone.   They can be of any size and colour.  Please send them to the front office for Mr Forrest.