Principal  Message

Hello everyone,

We have wrapped up the junior school swimming and I am certain most of the students in Prep, 1 and 2 will sleep well tonight. The 2-week program takes a lot out of them, but they enjoy the bus rides and socialisation in the pools and change rooms. Thank you to the parents who came to help as it really does help when it comes to changing and rounding them up. 

OHS at WPS

We had our Occupational Health and Safety audit this week, which I am pleased to say we passed with flying colours. There are few actions to follow up on but the staff were very supportive in the lead up to this audit and our Kevin was particularly helpful in clearing away years of rubbish in our storage and garden sheds. We disposed of about 60 old tins of paint from over the last 50 years or so (this was done in the correct way). Given we are such an old school and have such a huge school ground area, I was very pleased we scored so highly. 

Production has been ramped up a notch as Kirsty works tirelessly in school hours and out of school hours with rehearsals. The class items have so much energy and I can see that the cast have been working hard to remember their lines. 

Little Mermaid Ticket Sales

Save the date! Tickets to our whole school production of “Little Mermaid Jr” go on sale on Monday, August 12 from 10am. All tickets cost $20 (plus booking fee). See Compass for the link.

Students from Prep – Year 5 will arrive at the theatre to meet their classroom teachers at 6.50pm, with the performance starting at 7.30pm. Information about what to bring to the theatre, for both the dress rehearsal at GWPAC and the evening performance on Thursday, August 29 will be communicated to each grade by their classroom teachers next week.

Tackling on the oval

We have had an increase in reports and injuries related to tackling taking place on the oval. At assembly next week I will discuss with the students the reasons for our no tackling rule. For many of our older students, they don't see the harm as they tackle at Sunday football games. We will be discussing as a school the level of adult supervision on a Sunday football game versus playing on the oval at lunchtime. Even surrounded by coaches, assistant coaches, runners, umpires and dozens of adults, children can still get hurt. But the adults in a Sunday game provide a high level of risk management when the children are on the field. This level of supervision is simply unachievable in a school. Even if we have a yard duty teacher there, they may be distracted by another incident and so without a high level of supervision they begin to tackle. And then the tackles begin to become harder and harder. To quote a Grade 6 boy I spoke to today, 'when we tackle at school, we sometimes go way too hard'.  

I ask that you have a conversation with your child if they are tackling on the oval as no game is worth concussions, bruised bodies, broken bones or even hurt feelings. What play on the oval should look like is taken from our SWPBS Behaviour Matrix.

Our new Strategic Plan

Last term we had our schools 4 yearly School Review. What came out of that Review was very positive. The panel were simply amazed at the level of engagement and respect that was demonstrated as they walked through the classrooms and observed our teachers at work. We now begin moving forward with our new goals and actions to continue to improve student outcomes. 

We have 2 goals to work towards over the next 4 years.

Goal 1: Optimise the learning growth and achievement of every student.

To achieve this, we will implement the following Key Improvement Strategies:

• Build teacher knowledge and understanding of the Victorian Curriculum 2.0 as a developmental continuum. 
• Build and embed differentiation that enables, challenges and extends a diverse range of learners into teacher practice.

Goal 2: Optimise well-being for all students.

To achieve this, we will implement the following Key Improvement Strategies.

• Enhance teacher capability to implement High Impact Wellbeing Strategies
• Further develop staff capability to respond to learning and wellbeing needs of individuals and groups.

The goals are deliberately quite broad as we must be able to respond to the needs and context of the school throughout those four years. As part of the writing of the new Strategic Plan, we consult with our community. A survey will be sent out shortly asking for you input into the Vision for our school move forward.  Keep an eye out for the post as your input is valuable and genuinely sort after by the staff and I.

Have a great weekend and stay safe.

Nieta