Term 2 Week 6

Assistant Principals Report

Message From Ms Shevani Moodley

Term 2 Week 6:

Dear Families,

Welcome to Week 6! We are officially halfway through a busy, productive, and one of our lonest terms of the year. As the weather changes, please make sure you are looking after yourselves and taking ample rest when unwell.

Embodying our Values

Students at Williamstown North Primary School are active students, who love spending their recess and lunch playing sport. Soccer, football, and basketball are enjoyed by students in many year levels and played alongside each other across the different areas in our school. It’s lovely to see students bonding over their favourite sports and encouraging each other to get involved and play fairly.

Lately, we have had reports from students and parents of some upsetting ‘banter’ and the taunting that comes with either not scoring a goal, not blocking/defending a goal, or not winning overall. On more occasions than we’d like, these reports also include comments made about students’ skin colour, and religious/cultural beliefs.

We are working tirelessly to reduce the number and nature of reports from students by getting all our teachers to discuss, teach, and celebrate examples of good sportsmanship and integrating our school values into all lessons. We are also engaging with the Department of Education’s Respectful Relationships coach to upskill our staff on ways to combat and support our students manage instances of racism as our school and the Department of Education is committed to ensuring students from all backgrounds feel safe and connected at school and can achieve their best.

Also remind children that teachers on yard duty will have one of three coloured vests:

Yellow = a Williamstown North Primary School staff member
Orange = a Casual Relief Teacher (CRT) who has been placed on yard duty as an additional support to the teachers or replacing a staff member that is absent
Pink = an Education Support (ES) member.

To support developing a strong sense of inclusion and sportsmanship, we encourage you to also have conversations about these themes. What does being a team player look and feel like? How can we give everyone the chance to get involved? What does playing fair mean? And how do we respect and celebrate the many nuanced cultures and religions that make up the Williamstown North Primary School community?

The Victorian Department of Education have great resources that can support in these spaces.

On these websites, you will find a wealth of information and advice that can support families and students discuss, understand, and mitigate instances of bullying; cyber, racist, and covert bullying to name a few. There is also information and advice sheets on being a bystander and how to respond when someone you know is being bullied.

As always, if you have any questions and/ or concerns, please reach out to your child’s classroom teacher.

Nude Food

Following on from our school captain’s messages and Richard and Bec’s assembly announcement, a big thank you to all families that have embraced the Nude Food movement this week. On Friday, we would love to celebrate our 150th year by recreating the amount of rubbish that our school would’ve generated 150 years ago… zero! We’ve also asked students to create posters, informing our community about the importance of being sustainable, which will be displayed around our school.

Fundraising Efforts

Thank you very much for your generous support of the Mother’s Day fundraiser where 100% of the proceeds from the Mother’s Day stall and breakfast will go to one of the dedicated charities who are working tirelessly to support women and children experiencing domestic violence. As a community, we raised a total of $1,700.00 that will be donated to Safe Steps. We would also like to thank the 'dads/special persons' who assisted with the cooking and serving of the breakfast on the day.

Kind Regards, Shevani Moodley - Acting Assistant Principal

Recognition & Congratulations

I would like to recognise and congratulate our fantastic Year 3 teacher, Mr Andrew Papadatos, who is being recognised this week at the Department of Education’s ‘Secretary’s Marrung Awards’ which celebrate the unique knowledge and skills that Aboriginal staff and allies bring to the department, to create better educational outcomes for Aboriginal students.

At his previous school, Andrew led the improvisation of an inclusive First Nations environment by redesigning the school’s totem poles as part of a grant from the Aboriginal Community Partnership Project.

We can’t wait to tap into Andrew’s skillsets in raising the profile or First Nations people and culture at WNPS as he undertakes the role of Marrung Champion at our school. Congratulations Andrew! - Regards Richard Buckingham

Gardening Working Group

Are you a green thumb? Do you love gardening? Do you have sometime to volunteer at school? Do you have a Working with Children Check (WWCC)?

There will be a number of ‘gardening’ things happening at the school this term. Below are some of the items that will take place.

Pruning of trees and this will be completed by a qualified arborist according to the annual audit.
Relocating of seedling shrubs that we planted last year.
New trees planted on Melbourne Road frontage and Freyer Street corner
Mulch spread over numerous areas of the school
Watering of new plants at least 3 times a week until fully established
Seedling beds to be planted out and someone to look after these planter boxes
Other items as needed (weeding, general cleaning, etc).

We are trying to get a working group established. If you can help and have time to assist, please send your email address. Ideally, the group could meet and be assigned ‘duties’ during the week and complete a list of required jobs.

If you have any questions, please contact Belinda via her email address and we will endeavour to answer your questions. Belinda's email address is Belinda.gill@education.vic.gov.au Looking forward to hearing from you.