At Wembley Primary School, we acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which our school sits, the Woi-wurrung and Boonwurrung people of the South-Eastern Kulin Nation.

We celebrate and respect the oldest continuing culture and recognise the importance of education in truth telling, equity and justice.

We pay our respects to Elders past and present and recognise and value the learning that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, colleagues and community bring into our schools.

Term 2: Week 1-2 Update

Welcome back! We commenced the new school term with only a short week, however this was the perfect mini transition back into our routines and expectations.

Week 1 saw us acknowledge a very important occasion - Anzac Day. Our Year 6 Captains ran an incredibly thoughtful assembly, supported by further Year 6 students who shared some of their poetry in recognition of the day. Our student body displayed exemplary values throughout, which allowed for a moving and poignant assembly.

Students have already jumped back into learning: this morning I walked through a Year 1 classroom, who were busy learning about special places, and were engaged in making collages of Uluru. Prep B invited me to watch them perform our School Song today, for which they have been working hard to learn and memorise the words.

This Saturday, Wembley Primary School will be used as polling location for the election - we’d like to thank our WPA for organising a team of volunteers to run a sausage sizzle and bake sale fundraiser, to keep spirits high whilst waiting in line, but also continue their efforts towards raising valuable funds for our school. Whilst our parent volunteers will be onsite earlier, the polling station opens at 8:00am - 6:00pm.

As you all know, Term 2 is a reporting term, so I’d like to finish with a final word on curriculum. This year has seen Wembley implement two mandated changes to curriculum, following Department of Education state-wide guidance and direction. The first was a change in reading instruction, requiring all government schools in Victoria to implement systematic synthetic phonics approach, nested within the concept of teaching the ‘Big 6’. The essential elements of reading are known as the ‘Big 6’ (Konza, 2014), each of which should form part of a structured literacy approach. These are:

Oral language – knowing and using spoken words to express knowledge, ideas and emotions

Phonemic awareness –which is the knowledge of sounds (phonemes)

Phonics – knowing the sound (phoneme) and letter (grapheme) relationships

Fluency – reading accurately and at an appropriate rate with expression

Vocabulary – understanding words in isolation and in context

Comprehension – making meaning from text which includes developing knowledge of grammar

Wembley Primary School utilises the resources of a program called ‘Little Learners Love Literacy’ in order to deliver a systematic approach to teaching phonics. This adjustment in practise is largely relevant to the junior years (specifically Prep - Year 2). We understand that some parents have made some enquiries about this adjustment, so we’d like to share with you that we will distribute some additional explanatory information in order to help you understand these changes, as well as implications for take-home reading materials.

In addition, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority began the slow process of reviewing and refining the Victorian Curriculum, with the new Curriculum website (Curriculum 2.0) being published in June 2024. The curriculum refinements affect all learning areas, but the expectations around school implementation of the changes have been staggered. Full implementation for Maths and English were mandatory for 2025. Whilst the core strands and topics of learning within subjects have largely remained the same, the expectation around when certain content areas are to be taught has been adjusted - ie: much of the pre-existing content relating to addition/subtraction/multiplication and division of whole number, has been moved lower down the curriculum, so that it is taught earlier. These adjustments will have some impact on reporting progress this year, particularly for Semester 1, and for this reason we will put together a more in-depth piece of communication to explain these changes and any possible impact they may have on your child.

We anticipate being able to share both pieces of communication with families by mid-week 3, so that this is received well-before reports at the end of this term.

Finally, Sigrid Nicolaisen of 3C is making a hairy sacrifice and joining the World's Greatest Shave! Big or small, every donation counts to help beat blood cancer and sigrid would love your support.

You can help Sigrid make a difference by donating to her fundraising page. https://www.worldsgreatestshave.com/s/19628/20142/e

Thank you for assisting us with a smooth start to the term - we look forward to all that is to come over the next 8 weeks!

~ Katie McClue: Acting Principal ~

Prep 2026 Enrolment:

We have commenced our Prep enrolment process for 2026, with tours running on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings at 10:00am. Tours are optional, and are often utilised by families who are new to our community and unfamiliar with our school. Exisiting Wembley families, or new families who are not interested in considering another location may not feel a tour is necessary. Prep enrolments are zoned, and we encourage all potential 2026 families to cross-check their residential address on the ‘Find My School’ website: https://www.findmyschool.vic.gov.au/ Families who are out of zone may still attend a tour, and completely an application to enrol form, however placement is not gauranteed. All enrolment forms must be received by the school Friday 25 July.

All Prep enrolment information and forms can be found on our website.

WPA

An enormous thank you to the WPA who organised our Easter raffle last term - through their efforts, we raised: $3,994.55, which will contribute towards completing our perimeter fencing and new shade provisions. They are already ‘back at it’ and are gearing up for a Sausage Sizzle/Bake Sale fiesta this Saturday, on Election Day.

With Mother’s Day on the horizon (Sunday May 12th) the WPA have been busy planning our usual Mother’s Day gift stalls - these will run on Friday May 9th. We will have a small number of gifts available to support students whose families may be unable to fund this opportunity themselves, as well as a few more ‘special person’ gifts, for our diverse family units. This approach to inclusivity and diversity will be echoed within classrooms in the lead up to the weekend. If anything in relation to this day has a significant impact on your family, please reach out to your child’s classroom teacher so that they can be supportive and make any necessary adjustments. We will send more specific information closer to the event.

We are also working closely with them on the idea of some form of Fete for Term 4 - the finalisation of this idea will be taken to our next School Council meeting, after which we will share further details with our community. A BIG BIG thank you to everyone from the WPA for their support and efforts thus far this year.

Uniform

Our uniform supplies, Spartan School World, will be moving to new premises in Braybrook. All going to plan, the last day of trading for the Niddrie store will be Friday July 4th (Last week of term 2). The week of Monday July 7th to Friday July 11th will be used to relocate the stock and install it into the Braybrook store, consequently no uniforms will be available for purchase that week. Online ordering will remain available, but orders will not be processed until the new store opens.

The new store will commence trading from Monday July 14th. The second week of school holidays. Trading hours will be Mon/Wed/Fri. 9.00am to 5.00pm plus the first Saturday of each month. 9.00am to 12.00pm. Currently the Niddrie store operates half days, so these are now extended hours. As more schools are included in the store they anticipate increased trading hours will follow over time. As usual, the store will trade full time over the back-to-school period.

The new store is located in the Central West Shopping Centre. Shop D6, 67 Ashley Street, Braybrook. Currently the travel time between the school and the Niddrie store is 24 minutes or 18.6 km’s. The travel time to the new Braybrook store will be 12 minutes or 4.1 km’s. A much improved result for the school community.

General Reminders

Year 6-7 Transition: Term 2 marks the beginning of the Year 6-7 government secondary transition process. Beginning in Week 1, Year 6 families will receive the parent information pack, including their pre-filled Year 7 application, which all families must complete and return by Friday 9th May.

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