Principal's Column

It is hard to believe we are already at the end of Term 1! For a relatively short term there has been a lot that has happened - the announcement of our student leadership team, Family Picnic, Year 6 camp and Gala day, our first P-6 Cross Country, Harmony Day celebrations, NAPLAN and an abundance of learning. 

END OF TERM 1 & START OF TERM 2 LOGISTICS

• Thursday 28th March (this week) is our final day of Term 1. Students finish @ 2.15pm. 
• Monday 15th April is the first day of Term 2. School starts @ 9am

STAFFING UPDATE

This week we will be farewelling two of our wonderful teachers as they commence family leave. Mrs. Stephanie Wilkins and Mrs. Megan Sutcliffe both finish with us on Thursday as they await the upcoming arrivals of their babies in May.

Next term we will be welcoming Charlene Cruz and Alicia Richards to Westgrove! Charlene will be joining the Year 1 team and providing teacher release and Alicia will be working alongside Cara Wicking (PW) and Amber Karutz (2K) on a Friday. In addition, Emily Parsons will be teaching 2P full-time.

NAPLAN

Over the last two weeks our Year 3 & 5 students have participated in the national NAPLAN assessment. They partook in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions and Numeracy assessments. Our students did extremely well in their engagement with the assessment and demonstrated resilience and perseverance throughout the testing period. Student results will be shared with families once it is received later in the year.

HARMONY DAY CELEBRATIONS

This year the theme for Harmony Day was 'Everyone Belongs'. Last Friday 22nd March we celebrated Harmony Day with our community. We welcomed families into our classrooms to share stories about the cultural heritage, read books and to engage with students in a classroom activity. We encouraged students and families alike to dress in orange or their cultural dress as part of our celebrations. It was wonderful to see our community join us throughout the morning, there were many smiling faces from all members of our community! We would like to thank Mrs. Morton and our staff for the organisation of the celebration.

TERM 1 STUDENT ATTENDANCE CELEBRATION

Yesterday we celebrated those students who achieved 90%+ attendance for Term 1. We had 327 of our students who reached this milestone and attended lunch with the principals. This term these students were put into the draw to win a canteen voucher and the lucky winners were Matilda, Deng & Jackson. We would like to thank our families for their support with promoting the importance of school attendance. 

WHOLE SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY

Last Thursday we held our annual Cross Country event. It was quite exciting that this was the first time that our whole school has participated in the event. Our Year 3-6s went in two groups to Galvin Park to participate, whilst our Year P-2s engaged in the event at school in the afternoon. Last Friday at assembly students who placed first in their category were presented with a medal and those who placed 2nd-4th were presented with a ribbon. It was great to see the family engagement and support in this event! We would like to thank Mr. Armstrong for his organisation and our staff who enabled the day to happen.

2025 PREP ENROLMENTS

It is hard to believe we are already talking about 2025! 

Our Prep enrolments will open at the start of next term (Monday 15th April) for 2025. We encourage families to contact the office for an enrolment form and to get further information about the documents you require to enrol your child. Should you know anyone outside of our school zone that may be interested in enrolling at Westgrove, please direct them to the office for an Out of Zone application form. 

At the start of next term we will announce school tour dates and times.

SCHOOL COUNCIL UPDATE

On Tuesday 12th March we held our Annual General Meeting (AGM), where office bearers were nominated. We are pleased announce the following:

• School Council President: Karlie Miles
• School Council Vice President: Stewart Greig
• Treasurer: Laura McCleary

YEAR 4 CAMP

Our Year 4 Camp is scheduled for Wednesday 5th June - Friday 7th June. It is not too late for families to pay a deposit to secure your child's spot! Further information can be found on Compass or by contacting the office.