Principal  Message

Warrandyte Festival 

Being a principal in Warrandyte does come with some nice moments and one of these is watching children enjoying the Warrandyte Festival and all the spirit that brings. Once again, our school community demonstrated its strength and commitment to the Arts as we came together for the annual Warrandyte Festival. Our Art teacher, Eliza, did not disappoint with her fantastic float that was inspired by Claude Monet, the artist that the students are currently studying in their Visual Art lessons. We managed to keep the float dry and avoid the early morning rain and despite a lot of students having basketball grand finals that morning, we had a great turnout for the parade. 

The performance on the main stage later that day was also an amazing turnout with over 100 students on stage, including many of our Prep students. Supported by Chris Cavill on guitar and Nori Sato on the double bass, we are so blessed to have so many talented staff members that can teach our students. The children sang beautifully and had really listened to the feedback Chris gave them throughout the rehearsals to deliver a confident performance.  From Kirsty's amazing talents in performing arts and a collective love of music and performance amongst the staff, our students really do get the very best chances to explore and appreciate The Arts. 

I wish to thank Eliza, Chris and Nori as well as all our staff that attended the parade and performance. Even though they were all very keen to participate and be a part of the Warrandyte community, it is time away from their own family, so I want to acknowledge that.

Cybersafety - Raising kids in a digital world

This week the staff participated in a professional learning session around the very important topic of cybersafety. Your teachers have sent out a link to the webinar that Warrandyte Primary School offered parents to attend a couple of weeks ago. If you were unable to attend this webinar, I highly recommend you watching it over the school holiday period. There were a lot of relevant facts and statistics that relate to all our children. 

Most alarming was the statistic that by the age of 13 studies have found that 54% of children will have accessed some kind of pornography. More alarming was the information provided around what the first 10 topics offered are to a user on TikTok when they open up the app for the first time. You don't actually need an account to access TikTok, which makes this content even easier to access. The link for the webinar is below if you were interested in learning more.

https://www.informandempower.com.au/schools-webinars/community-webinar-march-20

Inform and Empower's mission is to create safer and more positive online experiences for students, and they focus on cybersafety and digital wellbeing. This program has been sponsored by Warrandyte Bendigo Bank and our teachers will roll out a series of online workshops and lessons across the year. There are parent resources also available on their website that you can access. 

Supervision in the yard

A few weeks ago, I sent a message to the community in relation to increased supervision in the yard during recess and lunchtime. This decision was taken as a direct result of data we had collected in relation to incidents that occur out in the yard. The type of information we gather includes the students involved, the nature of the incident, what the students said, who was impacted, how it was resolved or if it required escalation and where it took place. This data was able to show us that the majority of incidents were happening on the basketball court and last year when we were using the oval, this was also a hotspot. The junior playground also was highlighted, understanding that most of the incidents there are a result of young students still learning the boundaries and how to interact with peers.

I am happy to report that since we increased our supervision, the number of incidents in the yard has dropped by over 80%. I have been going out on most days myself and supervising hot spots in addition to the increased supervision. This reduction in physical altercations and negative verbal interactions has had a very positive impact on student wellbeing which is reflected by a smoother transition back into their classrooms after playing and hopefully children feeling safe and supported. We continue to remind the students to seek help from an adult and have found that with the additional supervision they are choosing to do this more. We will continue this strategy in Term 2. Whilst we cannot stop all incidents, simply because the students outnumber the number of adults considerably, we can be strategic about collecting and using data and evidence to support where, when and who supervision and support is delivered to.

School Council update

As you know we underwent a ballot for the one position that was vacant on School Council. James Dimmock will be joining our Council and we welcome him to a great team that works hard towards governing the school and providing valuable community feedback and support to the school. I would also like to thank Bec Chivell, who has completed her term on Council and acknowledge the support and work she did. Bec helped with marketing and buildings and grounds in her time on Council. 

The Annual General Meeting for Warrandyte Primary will take place on Wednesday 23rd April at 7pm in the staffroom. Anyone is welcome to attend to observe. This is where we elect the President, Vice President and Treasurer for the year and then I hand the meeting over for the 1st School Council meeting to begin at 7:30pm.

Schoolwide Positive Behaviour class rewards

It has been very nice to see our classes celebrate as a team when they collectively cash in their Positive Behaviour Acknowledgement Points to enjoy their agreed class rewards. For some classes it was free dress and a party and other enjoyed a movie. These points are genuine acknowledgements that are given to students who demonstrate behaviours on our Matrix. We celebrate the positives and in doing so encourage others to consider the decisions they make. What has also worked well is the schoolwide implementation of this system. Our specialists give points as well and, in every class, students have a consistent and systematic approach to behaviour expectations. There was a very calm transition back into school this year, and the staff and I believe that there is a direct correlation in the consistent and effective implementation of the Schoolwide Positive Behaviour program and students feeling safe and calm.  

I have been doing a lot of tours this term and I always tell them I am confident I can walk into any classroom and see that our students are engaged in the learning and interacting in a positive and friendly way. There has never been a time when doing a tour that I have been faced with anything other than great learning or activities taking place in the classrooms. I am also very proud that the students always say hello to me and smile to the visitors in their room when we come through. There seems to be a great deal of school pride, which shines through on the tours.

Have a really great holiday and Easter. We hope you get the chance the relax and spend time with family. We will see you all back here for Term 2. 

Take care,

Nieta