Principal's Report

Dear Members of the Glen Waverley Primary School Community,

I trust all is well with you and your family and welcome to this fortnight’s newsletter where so much is shared about our fabulous school.

As per usual, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me on 9802 9938 or via email at frank.catalano@education.vic.gov.au.

Swimming Programs 

Once again, thank you to the families who have supported our school’s swimming programs as I do recognise, they can be an additional burden to the usual family routines. Overall, I felt the programs have been very successful and look forward to the Year Prep and 1 program culminating shortly. 

District and Division Swimming Sports 

Congratulations to the children who participated in this event recently, below is a report from Ms. Lawlor, one of our PE teachers about the District event:  

On Wednesday 21st February, 10 students from Years 5 and 6 competed at the Waverley Central District Swimming Carnival. All 10 students were very excited and represented our school with pride. 

 

4 students qualified for the Division swimming carnival which is being held on Friday 1st March – congratulations to Shiv, Oscar, Patrick and Amelia. They competed together in a medley and freestyle relay, where they placed 4th and 3rd in those events, making it to Division. They all were able to qualify in one of their individual events as well.

 

Oscar and Shiv placed 3rd and 4th in 50m Breaststroke.

Patrick placed 3rd in 50m Butterfly and Amelia placed 4th in 50m Backstroke. 

Division Report – below is a report from Mr. Addison who accompanied the children to this event:

Dear families,

 

We are very excited to share that on Friday 1st March, Amelia, Patrick, Oscar (all in Year 6) and Shiv (Year 5E) competed at the Monash-Waverley Division swimming event at Monash Aquatic and Recreation Centre. They attended this event having qualified after their great performances at the district swimming event a week earlier.

 

All four students represented our school in the mixed 200m freestyle relay as well as the mixed 200m medley relay while also each competing in an individual event. Congratulations to Amelia (50m backstroke), Patrick (50m Butterfly), Shiv and Oscar (both 50m breaststroke) for their great determination and effort in their events, with Oscar finishing 2nd in his heat and falling just short of reaching the Eastern Metropolitan Region finals.

 

A special mention should also go to Kesar (5D) who started at Glen Waverley Primary School last week, having qualified for her previous school’s relay team. While not representing Glen Waverley PS she still made an effort to come and say hello and cheer us on while also showing great determination and effort in her swim.

 

Thank you to Miss Lawlor for her efforts in organising our students for the district and division swimming events and to all of the families that came and supported our students.

 

We were very proud of all the students who represented our school with great respect and integrity. Well done!

Prep Family Lunch

Friday 23rd February marked a significant milestone for our Prep children as it was their final day of being dismissed at 1pm. To celebrate this and to practice having lunch at school, we held a family lunch/picnic which was an enormous success. Thank you to the mums, dads and grandparents who were able to attend as we really appreciate your efforts. 

Below are some of our Prep Lunch Learning Samples:

Victorian State School Spectacular

Congratulations to the following children who have been selected to represent our school in this year’s VSSS. I look forward to seeing their skills and talent develop throughout the course of the year and then performing at John Cain Arena on Saturday 14th November!

Mass Choir:

Year 3: Theo, Evelyn, Methuli, Aneel, Jayrene, Ngo Chi, Minza, Nathan, Oliver, Aaradhya, Ritisha and Sithuki

Year 4: Radinsa, Rehmat, Pavirna, Sarah C, Shanosh, Javis, Yug, Arjun, Asees, Kate, Rudra, Yenuk and Timmy. 

Mass Dance:

Year 5: Thinuli, Thamika, Jaik, Aaria, Dwij, Meshavi, Krisha, Adrisha, Akaine and Emilia.

Year 6: Maahi, Alyssa, Anuki, Hansiga, Diyoni and Esandi. 

I am also thrilled to announce and congratulate: 

• Akshara (Year 4) and
• Ayaan (Year 6) 

who have been selected for VSSS Choir which is a fabulous achievement and one that requires an enormous amount of commitment and use of personal time. Congratulations everyone! 

Congratulations and well done Akeesha

It is always an absolute honour and thrill when I receive emails from the children particularly when they complete something quite special such as Akeesha has done:

Dear Mr. Catalano,

I hope you are doing well. 

I am writing to inform you of my recent hair donation for the second time.

I am pleased to share that I have cut approximately 44cm of my hair to support individuals in need.

As you may recall, I previously donated my hair to help provide wigs for those undergoing medical treatments that result in hair loss.

I believe that donating my hair is a small yet impactful way to make a difference in someone's life.

It is a gesture of solidarity and support for those facing challenging circumstances.

I wanted to inform you of my decision and the length of hair that I have donated, as it has resulted in a significant change in my appearance. I value your understanding and support for this cause.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to continuing to contribute positively to our school community.

Sincerely,

Akeesha

Akeesha, it is wonderful that you continue to be aware of the needs of others and are willing to support them at all opportunities. I cannot express how proud I am of you and look forward to this continuing in the future – well done and congratulations as this is fabulous!   

Alumni Visit

On Wednesday afternoon we held a reunion for the 2023 Year 6 graduates and as per usual the children were fantastic as they reconnected with their primary school friends and teachers. The children spent time catching up, which was followed by some games and then a celebratory dinner which consisted of pizza and a drink. Thank you to all of our graduates for making the time to attend and we look forward to hearing all about your achievements in the future. 

School Council Update

Thank you to the members of our school community who nominated for this year’s School Council and to all of the members of our school community who voted in the election process. I am very pleased to announce the composition of the 2024 School Council is now complete and is as follows: 

Parent Representatives:

• Aditya Sathe, Poonam Virk, Jessey Kaur, Suresh Ramachandraiah, Kurian Cheriyan, Gopinath Subramaniam, Rahul Tanna, Vinita Aggarwal, Jay Shah and Praveen Jain. 

Staff Representatives:

• Roland Lewis, Peter Shen, Daniel Addison, Amanda Seach and myself.

I have also included an overview of the role of the School Council compared to that of the Principal.

Principal Awards

Congratulations to the following students for receiving a Principal Award recently: 

Prep A

• Meena, Elaine and Milan for writing fabulous recounts about their Prep Family Picnic 

Prep C

• Hareem and Kiyan for learning about the letter M including writing and or drawing lots of words and pictures that start with M. 

2A

• Abisshna, Fatima, Ray and Owen for learning all about the High 5 Steps and most importantly, the children showed me how they would use them. 
• Aria, Hinaya and Arthur for making great progress with their writing skills

2E

• Jamie for completing a very thorough overview of her personal strengths 
• Shenelle for being an amazing friend 

3B

• Sithuki and Arjun for learning about the importance of looking after their body! 
• Prayag for writing a beautiful card about a secret project that we have planned for our school. Well, it is not really a secret because quite a few people already know!
• Jahnavi for also writing a beautiful card for my office 
• Zaiden for being a very responsible member of our school community  

3D

• Aneel and Reyansh for making outstanding progress with their writing as featured in the Kids Corner section of the newsletter. 

3E

• Sineysha for continuing to make excellent progress with her writing skills. 

4F

• Pooja for drawing a very elaborate poster about US, for her Mind, Body and Us class. 

• Suditi, Pranit and Sevin for creating a very elaborate presentation using Keynote to convince me to support their idea of wanting to watch a PG rated movie on camp. 

5A

• Kyra for continuing to work very hard on her home learning. It is always completed to a very high standard and to the best of her ability. 

6E

• Chris and Nathan for building and programming a very elaborate robot that is capable of picking up objects and also sensing light. 

Wishing everyone a safe and happy fortnight, 

Frank Catalano

Principal