A Message from Vassie
Vassie Vatsilas-D'Arcangelo - Principal
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land, the Wurundjeri, Woi Wurrung and Boonwurrung/Boonurung Peoples of the Kulin Nation and pay our respect to their Elders, past, present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within our school community.
Final Pupil Free Day - Monday 4 November, and Melbourne Cup Public Holiday - Tuesday 5 November
As previously shared in our term three newsletters, we have one final pupil free day on Monday 4 November approved by School Council, which will be a Report Writing Day for staff members. As such, school will not be operating on Monday or Tuesday. We will see students back at school on Wednesday 6 November.
TheirCare will be operating on the pupil free day to provide care for students, if required by families. Bookings can be made by directly contacting TheirCare on wembley@theircare.com.au, ph: 1300 072 410.
Halloween Spook-a-thon - Thursday 31 October - DRESS UP and CARVING INVITATION
We would like to remind all students, staff members and parents that on Thursday 31 October we will have our Halloween Spook-a-thon. Costumes are looking fantastic and Wembley is looking very spooky.
The WPA Spook-a-thon event will begin at 2:30pm and all parents and siblings are very welcome to attend!!
Please see the below WPA brochures for more information regarding fundraising and the carving competition.
I would like to thank Ghost Dad aka Tom Jecks, and the wider WPA for their planning, time, effort and coordination of this event...and visits to assembly.
We have had a great start to term four in officially operating from the new building, 2025 prep transition, district athletics, parent helper morning tea, year 4 and 5 camp, basketball team heading to the states, science incursions and year 1 & 2 swimming, teachers day.
I would like to thank Katie McClue for stepping into the Acting Principal role during the first two weeks of term during my leave. Katie demonstrated her strong leadership qualities in prioritising the learning and wellbeing of all students, staff members and community members. Katie was well supported by Mel, Renee, the office team, wider leadership team, teaching team, education support staff member and whole community.
I would also like to thank the students and parents for their well wishes and an enthusiastic ‘welcome back’ last week. My family and I enjoyed some time away in Queensland celebrating a family event and it was very enjoyable. It was also a great comfort to know that I had left our beloved Wembley Primary School in great hands.
2025 Acting Principal Role Advertisement
As we are in the process of workforce planning and staffing for 2025, I wish to inform you that I have decided that I will be taking long service leave for terms one and two of the 2025 school year.
By way of background, my family and I were planning to travel overseas for an extended holiday during term three and into term four of this year, however given the ongoing building project delays and Wembley PS work commitments, we chose to put this trip on hold, and now plan to travel in early 2025.
As many community members will understand, these decisions are never made lightly, however I trust that a suitable replacement will be appointed.
As such, an Acting Principal role will be advertised across the South West Victorian Region. Regional staff will form a panel and will fill the Acting Principal vacancy. The community will be informed of the outcome later this term.
Support for Auburn South Primary School
Our thoughts are with the Auburn South Primary School community given the accident on Tuesday. I have reached out to the Principal extending our deepest condolences, and offering our support in any way they may need, now and in an ongoing sense and they heal, recover and rebuild after such a devastating incident.
I know that these matters can impact us all in different ways and I urge you to seek support as needed.
https://www.beyondblue.org.au/
It also serves as a reminder of the importance of road safety. Please take care whilst driving and parking, and avoid distractions.
World Teachers Day - Friday 24 October
On Friday 24 October we celebrated World Teachers Day.
World Teachers Day is a special opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate our AMAZING teachers for the remarkable educators and people that they are. I'm sure that all community members are able to appreciate from a special vantage point the heart, passion, dedicated and intellect it takes to be a teacher. We are very proud of our teachers, and appreciate what they do each and every day for our students!
We thank our community members who were able to reach out to your child/rens teacher/s to acknowledge their contribution to your child/rens learning and wellbeing experiences, in honour of World Teacher's Day. Thank yuo to some of our year 6 and prep students who wrote speeches to share with our teachers at assembly and during our morning tea.
We celebrated our teachers with a special morning tea and some special student acknowledgements, and at assembly as a school community.
On behalf of our students, wider staff members and parents we would like to say an enormous THANK YOU TO OUR TEACHERS!
Congratulations to Phoebe Moore!
We congratulate Phoebe who has been successful on her application for a short term vacancy for an Acting Assistant Principal role at Burnside PS for the remainder of term 4, 2024. Phoebe begins at Burnside PS on Monday.
We would like to thank Phoebe for her contribution to Wembley Primary School as Prep-Year Two Learning Specialist, and specialist team sector leader. Phoebe's emotional intelligence capabilities, strong knowledge or learning and teaching, and instructional leadership skills have made her a great member of our team and we thank her for leadership and support. We will farewell Phoebe at assembly tomorrow.
Phoebe will return to Wembley in 2025, in her Learning Specialist role.
Capital Building Works Update
It has been wonderful learning within our new building! We have tours being offered on mornings and afternoon for any parents interested. Thank you to those parents that have attended tours throughout the first 4 weeks of term.
The second stage of the building works are underway with the landscape design coming to fruition. Stage 1B of the landscape design including reinstatement of the athletics track, garden beds, vegetation, brick pavers, a fence, and synthetic turf for extended play spaces are happening-see below. This is due to be completed by December 20, 2024. As such, one of the classrooms on the ground floor will be used as a site office for term four, and will not be accessible or visible internally from students.
Year 5 Camp Kangaroobie
Our campers arrived safe and well to Kangaroobie, settling in with a welcome and cabin set up at Kangaroobie. They soon headed off on the famous beach walk and enjoyed a dip in the river and a game of MUGby! Wednesday night was an evening walk on the farm (the clearest night skies), and yesterday activities commenced (check out the photos on our Wembley Instagram stories. Thursday night was a Halloween party and disco!!
Our year 5 campers will return to Wembley on Friday afternoon. Thank you to the year five team for honouring this experience for our students.
RECYCLING WEEK 11-15 NOVEMBER
CLOTHES DONATIONS PLEASE FOR A CLOTHES SWAP!!!!
Thank you to Macy, Marlie and Rose, as supported by Sofia, Mel, Lou and the wider Wembley Waste Warrior volunteers for all their progress with sustainabiltiy and environment efforts.
See our website for a web page they've created to showcase their sustainability and environment efforts.
See the poster below capturing all information regarding RECYCLING WEEK AT WPS!
CYBER SAFETY - Alannah and Madeline Foundation esafety Digital Licence
An empowering 7News story has run this week to promote the 'launch' of the Alannah and Madeline Foundations new eSmart Digital Licence for lower primary program. It featured some of the video content the Alannah and Madeline Foundation captured with some of the Wembley students from earlier this year. Thank you to the families for consenting to this. thank yuo to one of our parents Simone Redman Jones, who is media and communications manager at the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, for inviting us to participate in the campaign.
See below I have attached a clip of the news story and included a link to the 7News Instagram post below (in case you also wanted to share it on socials).
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBtHIyrxbKX/?igsh=d3Nkb3czZWJrOTR6
Also the information about the eSmart program, including the latest program roll out can be found here.
Student acknowledgements
BASKETBALL - STATES BOUND
Congratulations to our basketball team. They played on Tuesday and won all games, made it to the semi final and won, and have made it to the states!!! An incredible achievement indeed and demonstrated great teamwork and our values of respect, inclusion, empathy and resilience. Thank you to KK for being their coach and supporting them in their training to assist them in reaching their potential as a team! Thank you to the parents for your support also.
REGIONAL ATHLETICS
Congratulations to all students on a fantastic day down at Keilor Athletics Track for Regional Athletics last week. Students all performed exceptionally well and encouraged each other through the testing conditions. There were some amazing performances by all and they shoukld be proud as we all are. Thank you to Gus for supporting our students to get get to this stage! Thank you to the parents for your support also.
Also Milana Farfaglia has qualified in the 1500m to represent Wembley Primary School at the State Championships!
PET RESCUERS-Thanks Macy and Sadie
Also Macy and Sadie were showcased in this article. Well done!
Macy and Sadie have recently been featured in an article. They took the initiative to reach out to Pet Rescue on her own (through their website bot!) to ask for a contact who could assist with the posters. They responded by emailing the parents to get consent, and from there, I'm told Macy selected some photos and answered a few questions.
https://www.petrescue.com.au/library/articles/using-creativity-to-help-homeless-pets
Congratulations Marlie - Netball Star!
Congratulations to Marlie Craig who has made it into the Indoor State Netball team. She will represent Wembley/Victoria and do them proud next February.