Principal's Post
TERM 2: 2026 - Week 2
Principal's Message
Thank you for supporting us in a calm and orderly start to Term 2. Despite only two weeks in, we already have much to celebrate!
Last Thursday, on a beautifully sunny day, our Year 3-6s participated in their Athletics Day, down at the Newport Athletics Track. The students were fantastic in their engagement, sportsmanship and behaviour - we are very proud of them all. A full report will be written up in our full newsletter - published in Week 5, but in the meantime we do want to extend our thanks to Laura and Ben, our PE teachers for their organisation and running of the event, our teachers and ES staff for their efforts on the day, and our parent volunteers.
Our Year 6 students have enjoyed a 2 night camp at Camp Manyung - they will be returning to school this afternoon. Reports thus far are that the students have thrown themselves into all the activities and demonstrated exceptional cooperation - there has been plenty of positive feedback about their engagement, which is wonderful to hear. Apparently the camp also receives a big 'thumbs up' for the food - a notorious villain of most school camps! We will write up a full report to publish in the mid-term newsletter, along with photos. Once again - an acknowledgement of the hard work and preparation of our teachers, which has enabled the camp to be a success; oftentimes, our teachers commit to spending time away from their own families and children to support such opportunities. We also have two wonderful parent volunteers on the camp and I would like to extend my thanks to them also.
I have a short update on the latest AEU Industrial action; at present, no agreement has been reached, so the following core actions will be undertaken by our AEU members at Wembley:
- A ban on 1 hour of meetings adjacent to the school day: teacher working hours remain the same, but they are not mandated to participate in the schedule of meetings that the school usually undertakes.
- A ban on responding to DET emails, aside from matters relating to child safety
- A ban on providing written report comments
- Regional 1/2 day work stoppages
The two actions that will have most impact on families are the ban on written report comments and 1/2 day work stoppages. In terms of reports: families will still receive an End of Semester Report for their child, but this will focus only on the provision of progression points and learner behaviour and effort. We will provide further explanation about this, closer to reporting time. We are not yet in position to share arrangements regarding 1/2 day stoppages, as we have not received any guidance at this stage, however our school belongs to the Inner West region and our stoppage is planned for June 4th. We will update families as soon as we receive information ourselves.
Thank you all - it's been lovely to catch many of you out in the school yard at drop-off and pick-up.
Please see below for a variety of reminders and announcements.
Katie McClue - Acting Principal
Key Events (Week 3-5)
Week 3: 4/5 | W: Year 5 Parliament Process Incursion Th: Year 6 Parliament Process Incursion Th: Spanish Professional Practise Day (CRT teaching Spanish) Th: Mother’s Day Stall
F: Curriculum Day #3- Responsive Teaching & SMART Goals: 🚨 Note - This is a pupil free day 🚨
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Week 4: 11/5 | M: Prep Special Person’s Morning 9-10am M: Year 1 Special Person’s Morning 9-10am Tu: Onsite Emergency Evacuation Drill (time TBC)
To note - Sat: IDAHOBIT Day (16/5)
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| Week 5: 18/5 | Th: Year 3 Professional Practise Day (CRTs in the classroom) F: 5/6 Winter Gala Day (22/5) F: Newsletter published
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Critical Messages
Legionnaire Hat: We wanted to let you know that we have added a Legionnaire Hat to our approved school uniform. The hat can be worn by any student, but has specifically been added in order to provide a more 'sport friendly' option for our students who are extremely active at lunchtimes, as well as students representing the school at sporting events, such as 5/6 Inter-school Sports. Where bucket hats tend to fly off, it often becomes more convenient for students to simply wear no hat at all! We want to promote SunSmart behaviour as well as reduce student/staff conflict on the matter.
We have a small number of the hats at the office for purchase, otherwise they can be bought directly from our clothing provider.
Evacuation Drills: We wanted to let you know that we will be running 2x evacuation practises this term. On Tuesday of Week 4, we will practise our on-site evacuation procedure and then on Friday of Week 8, we will practise our off-site procedure. We have deliberately placed the two in one term, to support our younger students in remembering instructions and so that they are provided with an opportunity to apply feedback or learnings from their first experience within a timely manner.
As always, we will send out supportive information to families, with social stories and teachers will spend time frontloading the class. We will send out this material next week.
Mother's Day & Special Person's Information: Due to Friday 8th of May being a Curriculum Day, our Mother's Day stall will be held on Thursday 7th of May - it will be a cash only stall. If you would like to volunteer please use the QR code below or visit: HTTPS://SIGNUP.COM/GO/VYQAIUX >>>> Dads, that's a call out for you!!!!
Classroom Helpers: At the end of last term we put a call out to parents who might be interested in helping in their child's classroom. Our teachers are in the process of organising their individual classroom rosters, and will be in touch with parents who responded to the survey in the next week - we are aiming for these processes to be up and running by Week 4.
If you missed this survey and would still like to volunteer your assistance, we ask you to now contact your child's classroom teacher directly.
Premier's Reading Challenge: The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge is now open and Wembley Primary School is excited to be taking part once again!
All children are welcome to join in.
This year’s Challenge theme is ‘Stories to discover. Stories to tell’. Stories can inspire and challenge us, and help us grow. They open our eyes to new worlds and new ways of thinking.
The number of books read can be varied for everyone's needs. Please feel free to contact our teacher, Chris Kane to discuss the possibility of a variation to the standard challenge rules if you believe it is required.
All children who complete the Challenge will receive a certificate of achievement signed by the Victorian Premier and former premiers. Usernames and passwords have now been distributed to your child's class - please reach out if your child has not brought theirs home. You can also learn more about the Challenge by visiting Premiers' Reading Challenge | vic.gov.au.
You can also contact Chris Kane as the Challenge Coordinator, with any questions you may have, or for assistance with using the challenge website.
Happy reading!