Visiting local MP for World Children's Day

As a way to celebrate World Children's Day the Junior School Council will be meeting with State local MP, Nicole Werner, this coming Monday. They JSC will enjoy an afternoon tea with Nicole and the ask Nicole to join us for our Assembly to talk to the students about having a voice and the ways that they can help to support or encourage change for matters that are important to them.

The JSC have surveyed their class4es to create a list of charities that were important to them. this list was slimmed down to three charities that the school will support. The selected charities are Blue Cross, Starlight and Environment Victoria. On Wednesday 20th November (next week), the students can wear free dress and bring a gold coin donation. They will be able to take their donation to the office and select which of the 3 charities they would like to place their coin. In this way we are encouraging children to think about issues that are important to them.

You can find out more about World Children's Day as https://www.unicef.org.au/world-childrens-day

Change in our Relocation School on Extreme Fire Danger Days

A new relocation plan has been put together and signed off on by the Regional Director to provide WPS with a school that can cater for our numbers in the event that we have to relocate in the bushfire season. In the past we have relocated to Templestowe Heights, but as they have grown in enrolments and we have grown in enrolments too, the regional office has decided to relocate us to Templestowe Valley Primary School. The distance to the school is the same and their principal, David, has kindly offered several classrooms, the library and an indoor hall for us to access on any relocation days. Attached is a new graphic that outlines the process and offers a little more detail. We will

New Departmental Communications Policy - Right to Disconnect

With the new legislation in place now, employees are given the right to disconnect from receiving, responding or writing emails or taking calls from parents or colleagues of a school community outside of their usual hours. This revised policy outlines the following;

The right to disconnect legislation makes explicit that all employees have the right to refuse to monitor, read, listen to or respond to contact that occurs outside their working hours from their employer or a third party (such as a student or a parent), unless that refusal is unreasonable.

We ask that you allow us 2 – 3 working days to provide you with a detailed response to general queries. We will endeavour to respond to urgent matters within 24 hours where possible.

For any urgent matters that are deemed to require immediate action I ask that you email me directly after hours at nieta.manser@education.vic.gov.au . My role is not necessarily covered by this new legislation and where appropriate, I will respond as soon as possible.

2025 Prep Transition

We have begun our formal transition for our 2025 Preps which our first session taking place this morning. There were some very eager children with huge smiles, and some were a little more hesitant. We always anticipate a range of emotional needs at these transitions. By conducting 4 sessions across the term, we usually find that the students become very familiar with each other and get to know the school's spaces and classrooms better. Part of a positive transition is communicating to families and offering a range of ways to support a child that is struggling with transition. Sometimes individual transition plans are needed as an additional support.

Whilst feeling anxious about such a big change in their world is a normal part of any childhood, there are times this anxiety takes over and makes it very hard for them to say goodbye to a parent, who is able to help them regulate. We do use Winston a great deal for this transition period, and this includes at the beginning of the year. We also offer alternatives points of drop off if the big crowds and noise levels is a concern for a student. If your child is transition next year into Prep and you have any concerns, please don't hesitate to come and see me and can talk through how best to support.

Next year the Prep double classroom space will be opened up and carpeted for students to have an open learning space. With carpet we will reduce the noise levels as well

Parent Requests

As we have more grade 6's going out than preps coming in next year, we will drop in numbers. There are some additional enrolments across other levels coming in next year so I anticipate around 194-196 enrolments from the 203 this year. We will be running with a 9-classroom model. This has been done to ensure class sizes remain lower than the state average. This comes at a cost in relation to other resources and you can help by supporting the school with the voluntary contributions for 2025.

The children have all made their buddy hand requests and it is now open for you to put in a request for consideration. You can email me at nieta.manser@eduction.vic.gov.au by the 25th November outlining what your request is and what the academic or social/emotional benefit might be to granting this request. You do not have to send a request and ask that you consider any requests carefully to ensure the friends you are seeking to have in a class are not impacted negatively as a result.

'Meet the Teacher' is Friday 13th, when all children will get to meet their teacher and spend some time as a class.

Staffing updates

As happens every year we have some changes to staffing to announce. A couple of weeks ago I received the very sad news that Stephanie Chivell has been offered a job at Balwyn North Primary School as a Learning Specialist. This is a huge loss for our school but a win for BNPS. I am personally very sad to be saying goodbye to her but am pleased she has been given a chance to build her capacity as a leader and we all wish her luck as she begins a new chapter in her career. We will still see Steph around next year as a parent in the community.

We will put on a special assembly towards the end of the year so the community can formally say goodbye to Steph who has been a much-loved member of the school over many years.

I also sadly announce that Maria Suhr-Hansen is also beginning a new chapter, looking for employment in outback rural schools. She will do a great job helping the students in these schools and they will be very lucky to have her. We hope to have Maria back at WPS again if she ever returns to Melbourne.

At this stage these are the only changes to staffing for next year, but I will keep you in the loop. We are currently in the interviewing phase of finding a replacement for the teaching place Steph's departure has made.

Canteen changeover

The feedback for the changing our canteen service provider to our local Biddick's Bakery has been overwhelmingly positive. We are excited to have formed a partnership with them and I have been nothing but impressed with how much they want to support our school and provide a variety of options for the canteen. The School Council has worked hard to make this all happen, and I want to thank them for finding ways to improve our school.

Just a reminder that from next Friday, 22 November, WPS will use local bakery, Biddick's Bakery, as supplier for lunch orders. Below is a menu of items that will be available to order.

You will also need to register a different ordering system known as Flexischools to access the menu and place your orders online (link below). A reminder also, that we will not be running an over-the-counter sales service for now as the school is considering ways we can incorporate an over-the-counter sales system that involves our students as part of our student leadership program in 2025.

Register at:

https://www.flexischools.com.au/parents

Christmas Celebration Event

Save the Date - 11th December & 5pm-7pm

This year we are going to run our Christmas night at Stiggant's Reserve again. We felt the additional space and undercover stage worked well last year. This year we have secured the African Drumming incursion to provide families with some additional entertainment. This is an interactive performance and was very popular at the Arts Festival so we are looking forward to having them return.

There will also be performances by students on the stage with Kirsty getting some songs together. Also, Chris Cavill will be running a signing group to perform on the night also. From Week 6, Chris will invite any students who would like to sing some Christmas songs with him to rehearse. We also have a special appearance by Kevin O'Mara, who will be performing with some grade 5/6 students on the night. There will be some commitment to attend rehearsals if your child wishes to perform in the group. We will be arranging for this time to be given in the last hour of the day so no core curriculum activities are missed.

Food, ice-cream and drinks will be available on the evening thanks to FOWPS. If you are able to help FOWPS on this night, please let Terri know. You don't have to be a member of FOWPS to help out at events or fundraising drives. This year we have been saving our FOWPS funds to purchase a set of laptops/tablets for the school and to create a recording space for a podcasting studio in 2025. Students will be able to record their work, run shows or create student reports on items of interest for all to listen to.

A reminder that the Community Carols is on the 14th December and there will be performances by Warrandyte Primary. Again, Kevin O'Mara has agreed to return for the carols and has lined up some WPS students to perform with him.

Christmas Raffle

Each child has been sent home with a book of raffle tickets to sell. There are 10 tickets and are selling for 1 for $2, 5 for $6 and 10 for $10. Each ticket sold goes into the draw to win a Christmas Hamper at the WPS Christmas Celebration Event. All students are asked to bring in a small gift or Christmas themed item to place in their Classroom Christmas tub for us to make up hampers. We ran one of these hampers drive a couple of Easter's ago and the students really enjoyed that.

There are more raffle books at the office if you want to sell more. You can also pay for your raffle tickets on Compass or at the office.

School Savings Bonus - upcoming information

Parent and carer School Saving Bonus code distribution

The Victorian Government is delivering the School Saving Bonus – a one-off $400 support for government school students from Prep to Year 12 in 2025.

From Tuesday 26 November 2024, you will receive an email from the Department of Education with your unique $400 School Saving Bonus code.

The School Saving Bonus will help families cover the cost of uniforms, textbooks, excursions, activities and more.

If you have multiple children enrolled in Victorian government schools for 2025, you will receive one School Saving Bonus code email per child. These emails might arrive on different days. Please make sure to check your spam/junk email folder.

Parents and carers can use the School Saving Bonus code in store at school-nominated suppliers. Parents and carers can also choose to access the School Saving Bonus online system, where they can allocate part or all the $400 bonus to use at school nominated-online suppliers or for school activities. To learn more about the School Saving Bonus, visit School Saving Bonus | vic.gov.au (www.vic.gov.au). A step-by-step user guide will be available on the webpage on 26 November.  

If you have not received your School Saving Bonus code via email by Friday 29 November, please contact the Department of Education by emailing school.saving.bonus@education.vic.gov.au .

Community Notices