Across Oliver's Desk  

This will of course be our last newsletter for the year. I would like to thank parents, students and staff for what was a brilliant and incredible year for the school and I wish everyone a happy and safe Christmas. 

There are many highlights for the year that again demonstrate that the school is a high performing school. We received outstanding NAPLAN, student survey and parent survey results. We had teachers from as far away as Bairnsdale and Cobram come to the school to learn from us. If you want to see just how well the school is going, you only need to go to the ‘My School’ website and click on NAPLAN results are you will see how well the school has performed over the last few years. Another feather in our cap is that the school has been asked to present at next year’s Statewide Principal Conference. This is a real honour and something I will tell you more about next year.

I’m so proud of our staff, students, parents and our school council. 

Step up day was a huge success with so many children already excited about their new teacher and classmates. We believe we have next year set up really well.

Feedback from our new Prep parents about this year’s buddy tour videos has been really positive. 

ENTERPRISE MARKET DAY

Well done to the students, teachers and families for putting together our biggest Enterprise Market ever! The day raises a lot of money which goes straight back to families, making things cheaper for graduation and big day out. This year’s teachers and parents went above and beyond, and I thank them so much for making the day such a success.

OUR PARENTS ARE BRILLIANT

I need to thank all parents for helping with our Junior School Council small change push. That was a great idea from our JSC teachers, Steph Verhoef and Penny Fredericks because it raised enough money to buy the materials needed to build our new Ga Ga Ball Pit. Two of our parent dads Beau Dunstan and David Brain, spent a weekend (in the rain) building the pit. I can’t thank them enough for doing that. The kids already love the pit; it’s in use everyday. Over the holidays we will be leveling the floor and putting in artificial turf.

Thank you again to all parents for supporting JSC, but particularly Beau and David for their dedication to the kids.  

OUR 2026 SCHOOL LEADERS 

Jess Howe did a wonderful job of announcing our school leaders at a special assembly. I would like to thank all of the students that applied for positions, and I look forward to their leadership even if they weren’t successful in obtaining an official role. 

The following students were successful: 

Leadership Positions:

School Captains                  

Charlie Spicer   Dixi Schaak-Taylor   

Luca Cantwell   Tiah Bower    

JSC Leader                           

Summer Armstrong & Amelia Hughes

ICT Leader                            

Corben Zangmeister 

Animal Leader                      

Shaylea Greenwood & Jessica Turner

Environment Leader            

Zoe Bates

Science Leader                    

Keely Teunissen

Art Leader                             

Heidi Kent

Cultural Leader                    

Abby Lindsay

German Leader                    

Layla Fletcher

Peer Support Leader           

Amelia Hook / Mia Petersen

Sports Captain                     

Nate Hoorn & Zac Brandenberger

House Captains 

Muyan                                    

Asha Martin / Jett Palmer 

Toolebewong                        

Jaxon Stanley / Brodie Van Eijk

Birrarung                               

Ashton Barrott / Judd Curnow

Barak                                      

Shae Ferrari / Jobe Walsh

STEPS BOARD CHAMPIONS 

The following students were the term 4 class champions for the number of ‘steps’ on their class steps board. Each one of these students enjoyed a delicious morning tea on the last day of school, thank you Sandy for doing all the hard work.

STAFFING NEWS 

The school works hard to make sure we have the best teachers and leaders. Sometimes we have to share our good staff with the system. We are certainly doing that next year as you can see below. The following staff members will not be with us in 2026:

Flick has been doing a sensational job in her Acting Principal role at Gladysdale P.S. She has been asked to stay on next year and has accepted the Acting role. Flick has been my Assistant Principal for the last 9 years and has been at the school since 2010. Flick has virtually handled every position in the school and has served the school and community with distinction. I know many of you will be very sad that she will not be with us next year because of her beautiful positive nature. Although her time at the school is not over, we will miss her next year while she continues her leadership journey. 

Flick promises to make many visits to the school as a school mum! 

Lisa Syme has accepted a position at Upper Yarra Secondary College next year. Lisa started her teaching career at WYPS and has been an integral part of our school becoming the high performing school that it is. Lisa’s teaching craft is special and she is a natural born teacher. She will be sorely missed by staff, parents and particularly the students she has taught. Having said that, some lucky students will have the chance to be taught by her again if they are going Upper Yarra S.C. 

I thank Lisa for all her outstanding contributions over many years. 

We know we will still see her in teaching circles and that she will excel in her new role, but the school will feel very different without her.

The biggest thing for Lisa is that I know like me Woori is in her heart and she will never forget the school and her time here. 

Greg Malone has only been with us for this year. But we would like to thank him for his contributions this year. Next year Mr Malone will be teaching at Healesville P.S. We wish him all the best as he continues his career.

Ash Matthews joined our staff as a teacher aide throughout the year and has contributed to so many of our students in that short time. Ash will be missed by our students and staff. I would personally like to thank Ash for her time at the school and the dedication to the students she worked with. I would also like to wish her all the best with her next endeavour.

We pulled Craig Hall out of retirement to help with our Art program for this year. The students love his lessons and the vast amount of knowledge and creativity he has with Art. Craig will still help us out a little next year in terms of guiding our new Art teachers. We thank him for being such a wonderful staff member and we hope to keep hassling him even though he is technically retired. 

EXCELLENCE AWARDS

These students have won our final excellence awards for the year. The following students have been selected by their teachers for their consistent display of our school values of High Expectations and Respect. 

Badge Colours

1st time winner is White

2nd time winner is Green

3rd time winner is Pink

4th time winner is Yellow

5th time winner is Blue

FAMILIES THAT ARE LEAVING US

Every year we say goodbye to a few staff members, but every year we also have to say goodbye to families that we have also come to know and love.

Our school community will be losing the following families next year. Although some of these families have been part of our school community for well over

The Aitken family (Jamie) 

The Ames family (Jed) 

The Anns family (Kurtis)

The Azzalini (Lucy) 

The Bond family (Cayde) 

The Crowley family (Mia) 

The Darwall family (Oscar) 

The Duff family (Nalah) 

The Fruend family (Grace) 

The Gardner family (Lachlan)

The Harbrow family (Grace) 

The Hoxha-Cole family (Charlie)

The Lucas family (Anthony) 

The Miller family (Leyla)

The Mullan family (Carter)

The Neimeier family (Hazel and Amelia) 

The Nettlefold family (Eliza)

The O’Neill family (Levi)

The Patel family (Yanna, Kiya, Kiyan)

The Pritchard family (Joel)

The Snaith family (Alice)

The Uren family (Jacob)

The Whitehouse family (Nate)

We will miss you all very much. 

For myself I’m really looking forward to some quiet reading over the holiday break, I already have 3 books lined up waiting for me to turn the page (The Teacher of Auschwitz, Wendy Holden, Beneath the Southern Cross, Judy Nunn and The Inmate Freida McFadden). I also look forward to watching my son play in the Olinda 1st  in cricket over the January period, he made 73 on Saturday which was wonderful for me to watch. 

I plan to be back at the school on Thursday the 15th of January if you need to chat to me.

It has been another remarkable year at our school, and I particularly thank our committed school council and all the parents that have written beautiful notes to me and complimentary things about our school, Jade Vassallo was the one to bring me to tears this year. I know I say it all the time but I’m just so proud of our whole community. Thank you to everyone for making our school so special.

I wish you all a safe and happy Christmas and I’ll see you all in 2026.

Oliver Thockloth

Principal