Leadership updates and reflections
100 Days Brighter!– Celebrating 100 Days of School
What a wonderful celebration for our preps – 100 days at school! So much fun dressing up in their brightest sparkliest clothes and learning all about the number 100! And what magical memories they made sharing the day with their Grade 6 buddies who joined in the fun as they missed the opportunity for this special celebration when they were in prep during remote learning in COVID times. It was so successful to have our preps share this special day with their Grade 6 buddies that we are going to make it a new Wonga Park tradition! We are so proud of the way our preps love learning, take on challenges, find ways to solve problems, are curious and always try their best. They are superstars! And we are so proud of our Grade 6s who support and care for their prep buddies, helping them feel safe making their first year at school so special.
The Term Ahead
We have lots of wonderful things to look forward to this term across the school, there is Grade 3-6 Athletics Sports this Thursday, Prep-2 Gymnastics, a multitude of excursions and incursions, Book Week (kids, start thinking of your costume!), our annual Book Fair and an exciting Author Visit. We have nearly 40 students performing in the Victorian State School Spectacular on the 29th August, our Grades 3/4 and 5/6 are looking forward to Hooptime and we are organising our fabulous Dads and Donuts morning to celebrate Father’s Day with our dads and special people (Friday, 4th September)! A fun-filled term ahead!
Challenge Based Learning – Power
Our Big Idea of Power has been embraced with great interest across all levels of the school. While most of the learning happens within the classroom, excursions and incursions provide an important opportunity to enable children to have valuable experiences beyond the school to broaden their thinking and inspire curiosity and interest. Last week our Grade 1/2s had a wonderful day at the Melbourne Zoo with a particular focus around habitats and endangered species, while our Grade 5/6s loved learning about sustainable businesses from two guest speakers from Tread Sculptures and Wipwrk who have developed successful businesses recycling a variety of materials. In coming weeks our Preps will be visiting Healesville Sanctuary, the Grade 5/6s and Green Team will have an opportunity to work in the Regenerative Upcycling Solar-Powered Trailer, the Grade 3/4s have a Democracy, Community and Me incursion and the Grade 3/4s will visit Scienceworks! A busy term of learning about Power!
Production Announcement – Beauty And The Beast Jnr. is coming in Term 4!!
There was great excitement last week when Tim and Kristy revealed that Beauty and the Beast Jnr. will be our next amazing production. Interested Grade 5/6s have nominated for performance, stage crew, costuming and tech support roles with auditions for our leads beginning this week. All of our Prep – 2 students will complete the cast – what a wonderful opportunity to experience being part of such a wonderful production! Save the performance dates - Wednesday 11th November and Thursday 12th November.
Recent Industrial Action
I would like to thank our community for your support of our staff as we stood together through the recent industrial action to advocate for fairer funding and conditions for Victorian Government schools. We recognise that this action can be challenging for families and students, and we sincerely appreciate your understanding and support. Our dedicated staff did not take this decision lightly, and I thank them for their commitment to our students and to strengthening public education for all.
Prep 2027
We have been very pleased with the positive interest in our school, receiving over 100 enrolment applications for the 2027 Prep intake. Offers have been emailed to families today to fill our enrolment cap of 66 places. We look forward to finalising this process in the next few weeks and meeting our 2027 preps early in Term 4 as they being their transition program.
Our popular Storytime for pre-schoolers began last week! Such a lovely way to meet our teachers, make new friends and have fun learning about school.
Traffic Reminders
Last week representatives from Manningham Council and VicPol visited the school to observe traffic flow during the pick-up time. There was also a specific concern regarding cars overtaking the row of stationary cars waiting to enter the carpark, potentially creating a danger to oncoming traffic. They acknowledged the work that the school and parents are doing to manage this challenge by staggering arrival times and delaying arrivals before 3:20pm.
Some parking issues were observed particularly on the corner of Styles Court – please observe parking signs to ensure the safety of all. Manningham Council has advised that in the coming weeks roadworks around the Dudley Road intersection will temporarily impact access routes to the school. We will advise further once we receive more details.
Although traffic management is always a work in progress, the representatives reflected that the traffic flow at Wonga Park was better than many schools they have visited thanks to the support of our families. So, thank you to everyone for your patience, understanding and ongoing support to keep our Wonga Park community safe.
Parent Partnerships
Just a reminder that there are several opportunities for parent involvement in the coming week including a -
Cybersafety online workshop– tonight, Monday 3rd August, 7:30pm – ‘Balancing Life & Tech - Reducing conflict and restoring healthy screen balance.’ (Cyber Safety Project)
Coffee and Chat – Wednesday 5th August, 9:00am – 10:00am in the staffroom – all welcome.
Adolescent Health Parent Information session – Tuesday 4th August, 7:00 – 8:00pm - this online session is for parents of Grade 5/6 students ahead of the adolescent health program starting next week.
Have a great week
Julie