Principal's Message

Welcome to School Year 2026

Welcome to 2026 at Wedderburn P-12 College  and what an exciting way to begin the year by fully testing out the air conditioners and keeping Kylie, our canteen manager, under pressure to deliver record setting number of icy poles! 

Thanks to those parents/carers involved getting Foundation, Yr 1 and Yr 2 students to their primary testing last week. Your cooperation has allowed us for a smooth start to the year.  

A huge and heartfelt welcome to our new students and families, especially the 15 new preps starting out on their 13 year educational journey. 

We are thrilled to start the year with strong and growing enrolments, exceeding student numbers not seen for over a decade between 210 - 216. Final figures will be confirmed soon, but this is a fantastic achievement and a powerful reflection of the confidence our community has in our school.

2026 is set to be a year of opportunity, growth, and outstanding learning — and we can’t wait to see what we achieve together.

Thank you for your ongoing support. Let’s make 2026 a year to remember!

There has never been a better time to be at Wedderburn College. 

Welcome to new staff Mr. Danny Martin (Maintenance), Mrs. Terree Thomas (Education Support) and Primary Classroom Teacher  Mr. Max Goggin. Absent - Primary Classroom Teacher Mrs Brianna Gleisner

School Calendars

The 2026 school calendar should be distributed this week to families. Please contact the school office if you missed receiving one after the weekend. 

Year 9 Hopetoun Camp

Year 9's are currently enjoying an awesome camp at Lake Lascelles - Hopetoun this week. Thankfully we weren't here last week for the record setting 48.8 C temperature day .  The students are enjoying and excelling at canoeing, team building and cooperation.  Today, Wednesday, is perfect weather for more canoeing. Other activities today include tie dying and a night visit to the pink salt lakes at Lake Tyrell, Sea Lake. Thanks to staff members Miss Van de Wetering, Miss Piccoli  and Mr Pearse for enabling this camp to happen. I am lucky enough to attend as camp cook!  Unfortunately we had to cancel the sand duning at Pine Plains as the national park was hit by recent bushfires.  

Overall a great experience and a great way to start the year. 

Five of our Year 9 students are missing from camp - but with very good reason as they are in Noorat at the Gnurad-Gundidj School for Student Leadership camp for all of Term 1. The five students include: Flynn Lonza, Jimmy Rollinson, Izayah Edwards, Charles George and Lily Finch. I'm sure these students will have an amazing experience in the western district. We cant wait to hear about their adventures. 

New School Gym

As you maybe aware there is a new gymnasium in the old foyer of Steel Stadium. This has come together thanks to several staff members who gave up three days of their holidays to put together gym equipment in this space.  We recieved a grant three years ago but were forced to delay the gym due to building works.      

Unfortunately I will not be in a position to open the gym up to community members at this stage.   It maybe something that we can look at down the track or possibly run some classes at a later date.  Thank you for your understanding.  Students and staff will be able to use the equipment once they have been signed off by one of our two gym instructors.  

Appointments for Principal

I apologise in advance, unfortunately I am the hardest person to pin down due to a variety of factors, such as meetings, pre-booked appointments and prior commitments. As per usual most of February is already booked out.  We do have two Assistant Principals who may be able to assist when I am unavailable. For curriculum and school related questions please phone the school office and ask for Mr Alexander Iser and/or for all student matters and school related questions please contact Mr Dean Lockhart. I cannot guarantee that we are available if you simply turn up to school as we are all involved in teaching classes this year and quite often have to step into classrooms to cover staff absences as well.

Please contact the school office 54943011 for all appointments.  

Early Learning Centre - Fire Rating

Wedderburn College is looking forward to the upcoming opening of Dupitjin Early Learning Centre (ELC).  This will provide a fantastic central learning hub on the one site for our community, with our school and ELC teams working closely together. 

We are in the process of aligning the College and Early Learning Victoria Dupitjin Centre’s bushfire mitigation processes.  Until this is completed, it may be necessary for the Early Learning Centre to close on Extreme Fire Days called in the Loddon Local Government Area.   

Classes at Wedderburn College will run as normal on Extreme fire days and students will be expected to attend, while Early Learning Victoria Dupitjin will be closed. 

Wedderburn College will only close if a Catastrophic Fire Danger Day is declared in the Northern Country Fire Weather District. 

We will advise you when alignment of the bushfire mitigation process for our school and the Early Learning Centre is complete. 

We understand that this difference may be confusing and inconvenient for families, particularly for those with children attending both the centre and school site and appreciate your patience. 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.  

Wanted Donation of Old Shoes 

Wanted shoes or boots with character (no football boots). If anyone has some old shoes that are being a pain in the neck at the back door, are taking up valuable space in the shoe basket or need to be moved on from the kids room or the walk in robe please consider donating them to the school.

I need 15 pairs or 30 shoes all together for a visual display around the school.   They can have holes in them but they must look like a shoe or a boot.   They will not be returned and they will not be worn by anyone.   They can be of any size and colour.  Please send them to the front office for Mr Forrest.

New Social Media Laws - December 10

How to support your child under 16 with the new social media age restrictions.

From 10 December 2025, the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 will require social media platforms to:

· prevent children and young people under 16 from having a social media account

· deactivate or freeze existing accounts held by people under 16.

Delaying access to social media protects the health and wellbeing of young people and gives them extra time to build real world connections and digital literacy skills.

The responsibility will be on the social media platforms, not parents, carers, children or schools, to implement these new restrictions.

Most popular social media platforms will be age restricted. These include Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Reddit and YouTube.

Messaging services and online games, as well as apps and platforms that support health and education, can still be used.

How to help under 16s prepare for the change

Parents and carers play an important role in supporting their children to be safe online.

To help get under 16s ready for the social media minimum age requirements, you can go to the eSafety website to learn more about the social media age restrictions and find tips on how to talk about social media age restrictions with young people.