Dear Parents and Carers,

We are into the final week of term and are looking forward to finishing the week with our end of term assembly at 2pm with students being dismissed at 2:30pm. Camp Australia will be providing OHSC for families who require this service after school.

The last few weeks at Whitehorse has been a fantastic celebration of community. We had the Winter Solstice festival on Saturday 21 June which was well attended by families past and present and successfully coordinated by our Whitehorse Family Network. We were also grateful to celebrate Literacy at Whitehorse Primary School through our Literacy Safari last Tuesday. Thank you to all the families that attended and our staff who put together a great afternoon to demonstrate the high quality learning of our students in Literacy.

This week it has been great having our Grade 1 and 2 students attending our Kitchen program. Although this program is aimed at our Grade 3-6 students we welcome the opportunity to expose our students to the program before they formally begin. Thank you to the numerous parents who give up their time to support our Kitchen Garden program and to Deb and Ashley for their flexibility during these weeks.

Student Reports

A reminder that Student Reports go live on Compass today for families. Our staff have spent many hours working through, assessment, moderation of learning and construction of feedback so that families have a clear understanding of their child’s strengths and opportunities for future learning. We encourage all families to take time to read the report alongside their child and utilise our Term 3 Interviews as an opportunity for further discussion and celebration of student achievement.

Production

This week information went home in relation to our production rehearsals and production day via Compass. Thank you to the families who have taken the time to read the information thoroughly and ask questions about the program and timing. Some families have been asking about the rationale for daytime events and whilst historically schools have run a number of events outside of school hours and even longer camps, these events are no longer possible without significantly increasing costs to families.

The current Victorian Government Schools Agreement put in place arrangements for all staff to be paid for working additional hours beyond their normal hours which impacts on a range of extra curricular events such as camps, productions, graduation, carols etc. Schools have been grappling with how to balance the running of these events without passing on significant additional costs to families. This has meant for some schools, camps have ceased running or been offered every second year, events have been cancelled or moved during the daytime which is the path our school has gone down while consulting with school council.

I encourage any families with questions to reach out to myself and as always we will continue to try and run as many events putting students at the centre of the decisions we make.

Holiday Program - Questacon, F-2 space

Over the next two weeks the gym flooring will be remediated as part of our building works. Camp Australia will be setting up in the Questacon/F-2 Space over the holidays. We are hopeful to have full access to the gym at the start of next term.

I am Mindful - Wellbeing Program - Parent Forum - Tuesday 22 July - 7pm

Next term some of our Grade 5/6 students are participating in the I am Mindful wellbeing program which is a school based program aimed at helping students to build their own mental health toolkit and coping plans. We encourage all families to join us online for this event. A link will be shared on Compass for parents to attend.

Chess

Last week, A Chess Victoria Zonal Inter-school Tournament was held on Thursday 19 June 2025, and we came in ranked 6th amongst the 20 Schools that Participated (based on taking the top 5 students of each school).

A total of 110 players competed and each one competed in a total of 7 rounds with progressively matched difficulty, i.e. players were paired

with the stronger opponents as they won, and difficulty levels were reduced in case of losses. 0.5 points are awarded in the case of a draw.

Each WPS chess player competed very well and the top 5 collectively earned 21.5 points The scoring for each player in our team was:

5 - Kayaan P

5 - Liam Y

5 - Shaaz H

4 - Izyan H

2.5 - Jacob T

2.5 - Jonathan T

Well done to the students and their families for supporting on the day

Grade 3- 6 House Athletics

Preparations are well underway for our House Athletics which will be held at AC Robertson Athletics Track in Ringwood on Wednesday 30 July. We also have a backup date for 8 August if required at Hagenauer Reserve. Information will go out on Compass at the beginning of next term. We hope families can join us on the day!

Enjoy a well deserved break and we look forward to welcoming families back on 21 July.

Whitehorse Whisperer

We actively support the development of the whole child by delivering life-long learning skills including relevant academic, social and emotional skills.

Issue 10 · 02 Jul 2025

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