Wales Street Primary Newsletter

Principals Report

SCHOOL CAMP

On Monday morning, an extremely excited group of Year 4 students boarded the bus for Camp Arrabri in Warbuton. They all had an amazing time and really enjoyed the activities and adventure. Camps are one of those special extra-curricular activities that allow students rich experiences that just are not possible within the normal school environment. 

Thanks to the staff for the many hours of work that has gone into this camp to allow this to happen and to our families that have allowed us to plan and prepare a fantastic three days for our students.

SCHOOL REVIEW

As part of our ongoing commitment to providing the best possible learning environment for our students, we are undertaking a school review next week. Every four years, all Victorian Government schools are required to review their performance. The review is conducted by an external reviewer, the Senior Education Improvement Leader from the department and external challenge partners. This is a valuable opportunity for us to reflect on our practices, collaborate with teachers, students, and families to identify what works well and where we can improve, and to plan for the future learning, growth, and development of our students and school community. 

 

The second day of our review, Tuesday 25th March, is a field work day. This includes teacher forums, student forums, education support forums and a parent forum. The parent forum is a great opportunity to provide feedback to the review panel from a parent perspective. The parent forum is at 2:45pm-3:15pm.

 

If you’re available and would like to attend, please let me know via a quick email to robyn.owens@education.vic.gov.au.

 

 

SCHOOL COUNCIL 2025

Thank you to Amy Patterson & Paul Cortissos, for nominating and joining our School Council for the next two years. This year we did not host an election as the number of nominations in the parent member category was less than the number of positions available. 

 

Our first School Council meeting was held on Wednesday 19th March at 6.00pm in the staffroom.  At this meeting, we will elected our School Council office bearers including our School Council President.  A special thank you to our retiring members, Kellie Marks and Suzi Sagar.

Congratulations to our new office bearers:

School Council President: Davor Stanic

Deputy president: Ed Rutherford

Secretary: Nadia Cooke

Treasurer: Amy Patterson

 

At this meeting we established our sub-committee structure.These committees are open to all members of our school community to join. It is great to have a mix of parents and carers from across the school on each of these. All our school council members also serve on at least one of these sub-committees. These meetings which are twice per term.

Please email the school if you would like some more information.

  • Finance  - convened by Pina Tarquinio & Amy Patterson
  • Wales Street Social - convened by Paul Cortissos
  • Policy, Strategic Planning & Buildings & Grounds - convened by Luisa Kalenjuk

 

A Special Thank You to Our Retiring School Council President

Kellie, as you step down from your role as our School Council President, I want to take a moment to express the school's deepest gratitude for your dedication, leadership, and unwavering commitment to our school community.

Your vision, passion, and tireless efforts have made a lasting impact on students, parents, and staff alike. We appreciate the countless hours you have devoted to making a difference and have fought hard to get projects off the ground such as Nature Play, the Imagination Garden and leading our masterplan vison for our school. Your leadership has been inspiring, and your kindness and generosity will always be remembered. We wish you all the best in your next chapter and hope you take pride in all that you have accomplished.

 

With heartfelt appreciation on behalf of the Wales Street Primary School Community

 

PRIVACY INFORMATION

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Department of Education’s Privacy Policy.

Please take time to remind yourself of the school’s collection statement which is included in this newsletter.

For more information about privacy, see:

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Pages/Schools-Privacy-Policy-information-for-parents.aspx

 

SCHOOL TOURS FOR 2026 ENROLMENT

This term we will host a number of tours of our school with a particular focus on students beginning school in 2026. If you know of a family with a child ready to start school, please encourage them to go to our website to find out about the tour dates and times for this term. I am pleased to say that our school continues to have a strong reputation in our local community and people attending the tours often share the good things they have heard about our school.

 

SAFETY AT OUR SCHOOL CROSSINGS

Our school crossing supervisors have raised concerns that some cars are doing U turns near the school crossings while children are crossing the roads.  A reminder that this is not a safe practice, especially when children are using the school crossings to ensure they arrive safely at school.

 

SCHOOL GATES

I kindly remind all students, parents, and staff that the school gate - GATE 2 (the coded gate on Speight Street),must remain closed at all times for the safety and security of everyone at school. It is also not an avenue of early entry into the school grounds for students to be entering before 8:45am.  If a student needs to be at school before this time, they need to enrol in TheirCare.

 

Keeping the gate closed helps us ensure a secure environment and prevents unauthorised access. We appreciate your cooperation  and thank you for your support in maintaining a safe school community.