From the Assistant Principal 

Elissa Campbell

Welcome back to Term 2, we hope students and their families were able to spend some time together over the holiday break. We have an eleven-week term in front of us with many exciting learning opportunities and extracurricular activities planned across all year levels. From our Cross Country, Lapathon, Year 3-6 swimming program, Year 3 camp. 

Facilities and Grounds

You may have noticed some progress has been made at both campuses over the holiday break with our VSBA 'Shelter in Place' works. There are still more works continuing throughout the semester and we are working with contractors to attempt to minimise disruptions where possible. However, unfortunately next Wednesday we will be unable to conduct our planned whole school assembly due to some work taking place in our hall. 

We have also commenced external painting work and you will begin to see areas of our school gradually transformed with a fresh coat of paint. Parents of our F-2 students may also have noticed that over the holidays we had carpet tiles laid in their child’s classroom, we hope that the new carpet, along with some other measures we have added over the last year will improve acoustics, sound levels and warmth in these rooms. Some works will continue over weekends as well as during the week so please be aware of this if you intend to visit the school grounds out of school hours.

Cross Country

Next Wednesday, weather permitting, we will be holding our whole school Cross Country from 9am – 10.45am. All families are welcome to come along and cheer their child on at this event. F-2 students will be running on our oval and 3-6 students at Gilbert Gordan Reserve. For more details about this event please see Mrs Connell’s report later in this newsletter.

ANZAC Day 

Next Thursday is ANZAC day and our School Captains will be representing our school at the Woodend RSL ANZAC Day Service. All students and families are invited to attend and participate in the march prior to the service. If you would like to come along, we will be meeting at the Clocktower at 11am in preparation for the march which begins at 11.30am. The service commences at the Woodend RSL at 12pm.

Curriculum Day

While our students enjoyed an extra day of holidays, our staff returned to school on Monday to undertake professional learning. The focus of our learning was around our instructional model for teaching mathematics. Our model is designed to support deeper levels of thinking and reflection for students and allow them to explore the four maths proficiencies of Understanding, Fluency, Reasoning and Problem Solving during maths lessons. Our learning on the day was supported by Renee Lardner from the Maths Association of Victoria. We hope to share some of the exciting learning that is happening in our Maths classrooms at our Family Maths night later this year. 

We are looking forward to continuing our learning journey alongside our students and families throughout Term 2.

Assistant Principal

Elissa Campbell