Assistant Principal's Report
Leasyl Richards - Curriculum

15th September

Shark Stalls

The second annual Shark Stalls (mini fete) was held this week in the glorious sunshine. The Year 5 and 6 students have been eagerly preparing their stalls and their products and there was much excitement in the air. Students in other year levels wandered around purchasing experiences and products. A massive thank you to the Year 5 and 6 teachers and to Mrs Jansen and Miss Robison who co-ordinated the Shark Stalls for their year levels. A humumgous thank you to Mrs Daw who oversaw the event – which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The dedication of our teachers to ensure our students get to experience learning in a real life situation is amazing.

Footy Colours Day

Today we had our annual Footy Colours Day. A huge thank you to Blake Drury (North Melbourne Kangaroos AFL footballer) who came along for a question and answer session. It was lovely to see our students parade around in the footy colours of their favourite AFL team. Congratulations to the winners of the staff footy kicking competition - Mr Symonds representing Year 3 and Ash reprsenting OSHC.

Year 3 Camp experience

Last week the Year 3 students enjoyed our first ever Camp experience day. The purpose of this day was to give the students an opportunity to have fun doing some camp-like activities and to stay late at school, replicating camp.

Students participated in a variety of activities during the day– shelter building, team building activities, billy cart making and driving. After decorating biscuits for afternoon tea the students competed in a scavenger hunt looking for their constructions that they had made earlier in the week. Following a pizza dinner students lay back in the classroom watching the movie Spy Kids. Just before 9pm the students were picked up to go home. As they left the building I noted the tired eyes walking out the door- the busy and exciting day was over.

The students had a ball – in the words of a few of them “Miss Richards, this is the best day of my life!”

A massive thank you to the Year 3 teachers (Miss Boydell – Learning Leader, Miss Dent, Miss Peters and Mr Symonds) who came up with the idea and organised the day to ensure maximum enjoyment was had by all. A big thank you to Winter (one of our ES staff) for staying to help look after students.

Australian Mathematics Competition

This year we had 126 (66 Year 5 and 60 Year 6) students undertake the Australian Mathematics Competition. The AMC is an engaging 30-problem competition that demonstrates the importance and relevance of mathematics in students’ everyday lives.

Our students have performed exceptionally well in this competition.

Year 5

Best in School/ Prize	1
High Distinction	8
Distinction	19
Credit	23
Proficiency	8
Participation	7

Year 6

High Distinction	7
Distinction	17
Credit	25
Proficiency	10
Participation	1

Congratulations to the following students who achieved a Distinction

Year 5 - Vinuli, Aldrich, Oliver C, Christine, Angela H, Anna, Jodies, Patrick, Carol, Amal, Leandro, Ethan S, Zac V, Sarujan, Andrew W, Kingsley W, Derek, Oscar Y Nini

Year 6 – Ruoting, Kingsley C, Aiden E, Liyana, Nathan G, Ronav, Sophia, Claire, Jeremy L, Curtis, Sam, Tyler, Abir, Ethan T, Zoe, Isabella, Ethan Z

Congratulations to the following students who achieved a High Distinction

Year 5 - Ally, Xinyan, Aryan, Jason, Jeremy X, Jed, Aaron, Ken

Year 6 – Anuksha, Billy, Olivia, Shawn, Lucas, Focus, Hebbe

A huge congratulations to James Z in 5TL who received the Award ‘Best in School’ and a prize. James and his parents will attend a ceremony at Wesley College where James will be awarded his prize. Well done James.

Students were presented with their certificates this week.

Literature Sleuths – Year 6 Debate

As part of our enrichment program the Year 6 Literature Sleuths participated in a debate of which I was privileged to adjudicate this week.

What an impressive group of students we have at WHPS. They were passionate, well researched and confident.

After reading the book Anne Frank’s Diary (which was referenced in the debate by a number of the speakers), the students were presented with the debate topic – The effects of World War Two are far greater than the Covid pandemic.