Principal's News & Events
Term 2: Week 6-10!
Thank you to all members of our community for another successful term! It's been shaped by many achievements, but all grounded in hard work and effort. I know many of these achievements will have been celebrated during our parent/teacher conferences this week.
School Improvement
Some of our leaders commenced their engagement with the 'Leading Literacy' course, run by the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Learning, focussed on developing a school-wide literacy improvement strategy. The Leading Literacy course is designed for vertical school teams to develop their knowledge and capability to plan and lead evidence-informed whole-school improvement in literacy practices and learning outcomes - our team has included: Alex Wignall as English Learning Specialist, Sofia Courtney as Acting Leading Teacher in CIA and Renee Johnson as Assistant Principal of CIA (Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment).
Next term, a number of our middle leaders will be participating in the McREL Balanced Leadership course. The course will span four days and will be shaped by the following themes:
- Leadership for better school performance
- Focusing on what matters most for student learning
- Inspiring and leading change
- Cultivating a purposeful school community
Buildings and Grounds
We have begun the process of re-developing our eating area, near the canteen, by inviting a conceptual landscape developer onsite to begin discussions. As a core 'hub' for our community and students, we are working with the WPA to give the area a bit of a face-lift. At present we are in the opening stages of this, and in due course will seek input from our students and community into it's re-design.
Well done to our Buildings and Grounds Year 6 captains, Mason Lee and Jacob Pham-Phu, who created signage and bins for the disco this year. This meant that we were able to collect and recycle the cans collected which both raises money for the school and keeps recycling out of landfill!
On the subject of bins, we are looking to improve our whole school bin system from Term 3 onwards. At present, many students seem to be confused by the colour system of the outdoor bins, and we often find that all bins are treated as 'General Waste', which impacts our ability to recycle. We will take steps towards re-allocating and re-signing outdoor bins, into two simple categories: general waste, which will be painted/coloured 'red' and co-mingled recycling, which will remain 'yellow'. Our blue bins will be re-painted in order to fit into this system. As we launch this change, we will let you know, so that you can support your child in the yard to dispose of their rubbish correctly.
Over the holidays, the Sports Hall toilets will be getting some TLC, with fresh and brighter coats of paint and new epoxy flooring. We hope that these changes make the spaces more comfortable for our students and improve their sense of safety.
Community
We firstly extend an enormous thank you to the WPA for their efforts this term - events have included the Mother's Day Stall, Scholastic Book Fair, Trivia Night and of course, the infamous School Disco - this year, under the theme of Neon Rodeo!
The Trivia Night pulled in just over $11,000 which was comfortably matched by the disco, which resulted in a profit of over $7000. Thank you, in particular to Russell Hunt, who took the lead in organising this event (as well as the role of DJ!). Thank you to Woodards Yarraville and our Wembley family, Leo and Katrina Dardha for their generous donation and sponsorship of the disco. The Neon Rodeo was graced by the talents of Zara Walsh, Millie Sutton and Cobi Tibben on wheels; our skating dancers wowed the crowd with some exceptional moves. This was then followed by a performance by our student band, The 'X', who hit out with their own rendition of a White Stripes classic, Seven Nation Army amongst a number of other songs.
Safe to say, the students had a wonderful evening and I'm sure it will be one of their highlights of the year.
We held a 'thank you' Parent Helper Morning Tea in the final weeks of the term. It was a pleasure to thank those of you who could make it, in person. It's always challenging to find a time that works for everyone, so if you couldn't make it, please know that we extend our thanks to every one of you, who has in some way supported the school and our students this term.
Term 3 will be an extremely busy one, with events throughout the entire 10 weeks. Some big ticket items to look forward to include, Book Week Parade, the Colour Run, Spanish Cultural Celebration Day, as well as a number of camps.
Thank you all for your support this term, and we look forward to seeing you all in July.
~ Katie McClue ~
