Principal's Report

Dear Parents and Carers,

Last week was a fantastic week celebrating Book Week and the theme “Reading is Magic”. These words certainly reflect the passion for reading shown by our students, staff and parents. Across the school we had so many students dressing up and sharing their love of reading. This was also demonstrated by the number of families attending our School Book Fair across the week. The funds raised from the Book Fair support the school in continuing to modernise our Library Book collection and promote a love of reading with our students.

Our School Reading approach has also been a topic amongst families. This week I was speaking to a parent who was asking about our Reading Recovery program. Whilst we don’t use the words Reading Recovery we have a Literacy Intervention program for students with additional needs that is embedded across the school. A number of our Education Support Staff are trained in the use of MiniLit (F-2) and MacLit (3-6) and work with small groups of students across the school. We also have our Leading Teacher Richard Fly who provides Intervention and support for a number of our students in both Literacy and Numeracy. It is always great seeing the growth that students make and our results certainly reflect that these programs are effective in supporting our students.

On Sunday I was also able to spend some time at our Seedlings Father’s Day BBQ which was a successful event run by our Seedlings Committee. It was great to see a number of families on the day and younger and older siblings being a part of the event.

School Review - Term 1 2025/School Policies

This week, I received confirmation that our school will be having its School Review in Term 1 2025. This process will commence in Term 4 this year where we will coordinate a number of opportunities for parents, staff and students to have input into the successes of Whitehorse Primary School over the last 4 years and to identify areas for future focus and growth which will support the creation of our next School Strategic Plan (2025-2029).

Another part of the School Review process is a Department requirement to review  a number of school policies. Over the upcoming weeks I will inform the community via Compass and Newsletter of any changes to school policies which provides an opportunity for parents to provide feedback or ask questions in relation to any of these policies.

Curriculum day - Monday 26th August

On Monday our Teachers and ES staff participated in a Curriculum Day. This day started with a Coffee Van to thank the teachers for their dedication to Reading which has shown some real positive results in NAPLAN over the last two years. The Curriculum Day focused on developing our understanding of upcoming changes to Disability Inclusion as well as continuing to develop our approaches to Writing Moderation, School Wide Positive Behaviour and the Big Ideas in Numeracy. It was also great to see a number of our students out riding bikes and playing basketball around the school with their friends throughout the day.

Father’s day stall

This Friday (30th August) our Whitehorse Family Network will be holding our annual Father’s Day stall. Thank you to Lene for coordinating and our parent volunteers who will be assisting on the day.

District Athletics

Today we had approximately 50 of our Grade 3-6 students participate in our District Athletics Carnival. Thank you to Mr Scarfo, Ms Ranson, Cathie and our Pre Service Teacher Natasha for supporting the students on the day. It was great to hear from a number of students that they had a great day and it was also highlighted how supportive and enthusiastic our students were towards each other. Overall we finished 5th on the day and 4th on aggregate which is a result to be proud of.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Aidan Z in 12B who will be travelling to Italy to compete in the World Skate Games from 30th August. Aidan will be competing against competitors more than twice his age which is a great achievement and recognition of the dedication and skill that Aidan is able to demonstrate in skating. We wish him all the best and look forward to hearing about his adventures when he returns to school.

Enjoy the rest of the week and wishing all the dads and special p a happy Father's Day!

Andrew Den Elzen

Principal