From the Principal

Dear families,

District Cross Country Champions – Eight Years in a Row!

Congratulations to all of our Willy Kids who represented Williamstown Primary School at today’s District Cross Country Carnival. We are incredibly proud to announce that WPS once again finished as overall District Champions!

This achievement marks an extraordinary milestone for our school — eight consecutive district titles, the longest winning streak in recent history. It is a remarkable reflection of the commitment, resilience and determination consistently shown by our students.

A huge congratulations goes to every student who competed today. The way our Willy Kids supported one another, encouraged their teammates and represented the school with pride was outstanding. Their efforts and sportsmanship were something to celebrate.

An extra special achievement was seeing Willy Primary take out first place in 4 of the 6 races across the day, with a large number of our students now progressing through to the Divisional Cross Country Championships. We wish all progressing students the very best for the next stage.

A sincere thank you also to Paddy and Sarah for the incredible organisation, preparation and training support they provided our students in the lead up to the event. Their time, encouragement and dedication played a significant role in today’s success.

We are extremely proud of all of our Willy Kids and the positive way they continue to represent our school community.

Walk Safely to School Day – Friday

Next Friday, provides a wonderful opportunity for our Willy Kids and families to promote healthy habits, road safety awareness and active travel.

We encourage students and families, where possible, to walk, ride or scoot to school safely on the day. Even parking a little further away from school and walking the final part of the journey can make a positive difference.

Walk Safely to School Day is a great reminder of the importance of:

• being active each day
• developing safe road crossing habits
• reducing traffic congestion around schools
• supporting student wellbeing and independence

As always, we ask all members of our community to continue modelling safe behaviours around our crossings, driveways and surrounding streets, particularly during busy drop-off and pick-up times.

We look forward to seeing plenty of Willy Kids travelling actively and safely to school next Friday!

Student Leadership Excursion to Parliament House

Next Wednesday, I will have the pleasure of accompanying our Senior JSC representatives and House Captains, alongside Lisa Leydin, on a leadership excursion to Parliament House.

This excursion provides a fantastic opportunity for our student leaders to observe a sitting day of Parliament and attend Question Time. The experience directly supports the Year 5/6 Inquiry unit and will help deepen students’ understanding of government, leadership and civic responsibility through authentic real-world learning.

I would also like to sincerely thank Melissa Horne for extending this opportunity to our students. Melissa will meet with our group and provide a tour of Parliament House following Question Time.

I know this will be a highly engaging and memorable experience for our student leaders, and I look forward to seeing the insights and understanding they gain from the day.

Industrial Action Update

As you may be aware through recent media publications rolling stop works organised by the AEU were placed on hold for 2 weeks. Currently this hasn’t included the planned half day stop works for our school’s area, scheduled for the morning of Thursday 4th June.

At this stage school reports will not have teacher comments included as part of the industrial action. We will continue to ensure our school community is kept informed throughout this process.

Please note that the school’s planned curriculum day on Monday 25th May is not impacted by the industrial action and will continue as planned. Staff will continue to use the day to review assessments and triangulate data which is still a requirement of this year’s semester 1 reports.

Warm regards,

Mat Montebello