A Warm Welcome to our Weeden Heights Community

The countdown is on until the end of the year! I am sure that everyone is ready for a well-earned rest and catch up with families and friends over the holiday period. We all deserve a bright and happy 2024 full of fun. It will be wonderful to have our building back in 2024 and see the finish of the capital works project. We look forward to spending the money that has been fundraised for extra materials and resources for our school. It is exciting and will be amazing.

School Review

On Wednesday, we completed the final day of the school review. The reviewer will now write up his findings ready to present to the department and the community. We also developed the direction that will be in the Strategic Plan by negotiating the goals and targets that will be achieved in the next four years.

It was a fabulous experience and reaffirmed the great work that is completed by our students, staff and parents in the community. There is so much to celebrate! I would sincerely like to thank all the people in our community who participated in the school review. You were all so positive and supportive of our wonderful school. Our students are impressive and I am incredibly proud of the staff and our school. Thank you so much to all our parents who endorsed the school so positively to the reviewers. I appreciate the time that you took to share your thoughts.

All conversations were about making our school even better so BRING IT ON! We are up to the challenge of improving the capacity of our students.

2024 Whole School Structure and the Bright Beginnings Program

On Thursday and next Tuesday, students will participate in our whole school transition sessions. They will have the opportunity to meet with their new classroom teacher as a part of the Bright Beginnings Transition Program. The whole school transition program at Weeden Heights is outstanding and by starting the year before, our students are well ahead and beginning to develop solid relationships to be ready for learning at the start of the year.

Students were also able to meet some of the new students who are starting at Weeden Heights PS who will be a part of their class next year. I have thought long and hard about the structure for next year as we have had two solid years post covid and prioritised keeping cohorts together. It is now time to support our students to continue developing their social skills and be challenged by other students. Therefore, the structure involves multi aged classes next year (please note these are not composite classes as our students have personal learning plans and working well beyond the year levels of the grade they are actually in).

The 2024 structure for Weeden Heights is as follows:

Classroom Teachers

Prep/1: Mrs Melinda Michalski– Room 3
Grade 2: Miss Samantha Walls Room 4
Grade 3/4 L: Mrs Anne Lee Room 6
Grade 3/4 C: Ms Sarah Crookes - Room 7
Grade 5/6 A: Mrs Aarti Arya– Room 8
Grade 5/6 S: Mr David Saville– Room 9

Specialist Teaching Program (Prep – Year 6)

Inclusion/Wellbeing Leader /STEAM and Kitchen/Garden specialist: Mrs Solange Nancarrow
Extension and Enrichment /Tutoring: TBC
Physical Education - TBC
Performing Arts and Visual Arts: Ms Kate Phillips
Language (French): Mrs Delphine Todd

I am very excited to include a new inclusion/wellbeing position to support Marika in her Wellbeing Officer capacity. Mrs Nancarrow will be working with staff to develop the Wellbeing curriculum, work with families to support the inclusion of all students which includes EAL students and students with disabilities. She will also be following up with students who have attendance issues. This position has been created by the new Wellbeing Funding that the Department has finally allocated to inner east primary schools (inner east schools are the last schools in the state to receive this funding allocation).

As I write this you will be aware that we are saying a fond farewell to a few teachers at the end of the year:

Kathy Cheng has done a fabulous job this year and is a valued member of the Weeden Heights PS team. She is choosing to extend her teaching skills overseas next year and hopes to be teaching English. We wish her all the very best and hope to see her as a replacement teacher before she leaves Australia (and maybe see her back at school when she returns in the future)
Joshua Goldsmith has obtained a full-time position teaching Physical Education at Kerrimuir PS. Josh has a big sporting coach background and will enjoy the challenge of teaching all the levels across a primary school. Good luck!
Leah Maarse has worked part time at Weeden Heights and will now take a fulltime position at Pinewood PS in a grade. Thanks for your energy and expertise Leah!

We wish our staff all the very best in their new positions and we are very proud as ‘system leaders ‘ to promote excellent teachers in our education system.

Multi-age Classes

Each year I also like to remind our families about multi-aged classrooms as we have always operated this way, not just due to our size but for the philosophical belief of the school

Weeden Heights operates with multi-aged classrooms. We do not have ‘composite’ classes. They are two completely different approaches and I explain this on school tours. Our approach at WHPS is ‘personalised learning’ so students are tested to find out what they already know and understand and then students have programs and approaches developed for them based around their next learning stage.

Composite grades only teach to the level curriculum of the grade so only two curriculum levels are taught in that classroom. If we only taught to a specific grade level, students would never be able to achieve results beyond their year level because we simply would not teach that curriculum.
Personal learning in a multi-aged classroom allows us to teach a child above or below the expected level of the curriculum. It is irrelevant what grade a child is in however grades simply group students who are roughly around the same age and stage in development. We have many year 6 students who are completing secondary school curriculum but this would not be possible if we only taught to the year 6 curriculum. There are many prep students who will receive results well beyond their expected level. This is only possible with our personal approach to learning. We should never have to say to a child that they are ‘only in grade 2 so you only get grade 2 work’. In a composite grade the two year levels are only given work of the year level.

At Weeden Heights our programs are based on student’s achievement levels which is how our students achieve the results that they do.

Grade construction takes hours. Students are asked about their choices for best learning partners and friends. Parent are consulted and requests considered as they are based on personal, social, physical or academic grounds. Grades are balanced between boys and girls and academic and social needs. Teachers also have requests and professional needs that need to be considered. We have to manage their roles in the school along with the grade they are allocated. There are so many considerations and this process involved the whole staff so it is not taken lightly. Every student is guaranteed at least one of their choices so it is difficult to hear from a parent that their child has no friends when they have received at least one person they named.

Please always be reassured that extensive thought goes into school structures and placements. Our focus is our students at all times and it is paramount that we work with you at home to ensure that we all cater for the learning needs of each learner in our school and not a ‘grade’.

Year 6 Graduation

Good luck to our year 6’s as they head towards their graduation next Wednesday. They have been extremely busy preparing for this very special night. I would also like to especially thank Mr Saville and Mrs Arya for overseeing the ceremony and thank the team of parents/guardians who have worked behind the scenes to make this a worthy event for 2023. It is always an honorable event and I look forward to seeing you there.

Christmas and Awards Night Celebration

Our Christmas Concert is being held tonight! See you all at 5.30pm out the front of the school hall on the artificial grass. Please bring along your picnic blanket or chair!

I would especially like to thank all the staff for putting together their class performance and thanks also to Mrs Lee for coordinating the whole concert.

The senior leadership team for 2024 will be announced and be ready for some exciting twists! There are also a few awards including our highly respected Eroll Linke Award and a few year 5’s will have the opportunity to join the leadership ranks. It is exciting!

Reminder: Professional Practice Day – Tuesday 19 December 2023

Please remember that students are not required to attend school on the professional practice day. Teachers will be using their professional practice day to plan for a great start to 2024 in their new teams. It will also offer an opportunity to support the new staff who are joining our team next year.

Final Assembly

The school will hold a final assembly in the hall on Monday 18 December at 3pm and parents are welcome. We will say a final farewell to our exiting year 6 students and wish everyone a happy holiday break. We have heard that many families are finishing early but we would like the opportunity to wish our students all the best and say goodbye to the exiting year 6’s.

For those families attending on Wednesday, the finish time is 1.30pm. If you are not available to pick up your child at that time then you will need to book them into the OSHC program for the afternoon.

I always thank our community on the final assembly for their incredible work and support over the year. If I don’t catch up with you before the end of the year, I would like to wish you all a safe and happy holiday break. Enjoy spending time with your family and friends. Merry Christmas!

I look forward to seeing you all back again next year!

Until next time……

Kylie Campbell

Principal

Futures are Bright at Weeden Heights!

Caring Casserole