Principal's Message
A message from our Principal
Dear Families
I am hopeful that you had an amazing extra long weekend, and were able to enjoy this extra time with your children, despite the fact that the weather was not overly helpful! I am sure you join me in looking forward to the return of the sunny weather…. We haven’t seen much of that of late!
Community picnic
It was cold, and raining, and all of our plans needed to be rethought as the classes were unable to set up their stalls for this event outside as was originally planned. It didn’t appear, on the surface, to be a recipe for success. However, despite all of this, the community picnic went ahead, albeit in a modified form. Stalls were inside the classroom, there were long lines for sausages, chips and coffee and there was a lot of laughter as numerous staff members were ‘dunked’ in the dunk tank. People also had the opportunity to visit the professional magic show in the gym. It was a fabulous feeling of community spirit and the event was a terrific experience despite the weather. THANK YOU to the organising committee…. A team of teachers who put in a lot of time to make sure this worked. Thanks also to the rest of the teaching team, the parents and friends group, numerous education support staff and our admin team who also stayed back to assist. Efforts like this make WVPS a terrific place to work, play and learn. We have some photos of this afternoon later in the newsletter under the School News tab.
Year two sleepover
This is planned for next Thursday (November 10) evening. We do require a response from everyone – even if your child is NOT attending. Please send this back tomorrow so we know not to chase you. We need accurate indication to ensure correct numbers of staffing in attendance – and the right amount of food is purchased! Once again, this would not be possible without the direct support of staff who have volunteered their time to attend.
Advance notice – Curriculum Days for 2023
School council has approved the following days as pupil free in 2023.
Friday, January 27
Monday, January 30th
(The first day of school for ALL students will be Tuesday, January 31st)
Wednesday, February 15th
Monday, November 6th (day before the Public Holiday for the Melbourne Cup)
Foundation class of 2023
Transition sessions for these little people are about to commence. School Council has also approved Wednesday as a day without school for this cohort for the month of February only. This means that the children in Foundation will attend for a full day but will have Wednesdays off for the month of February only. They will be invited to attend a meeting with their teacher on one of those days.
Last day of school
Please note that the last day of school for 2022 is TUESDAY, December 20. School will finish at 1.15pm on this day following a whole of school assembly, at which time we will say goodbye to the year six cohort of 2022. There will be NO lunch break on that day: children will need to have lunch when they get home. Our out of school hours care program will commence at this earlier time.
World Teachers’ Day
Last Friday we had the opportunity to celebrate World Teachers’ Day in Australia with our staff. This was our chance to publicly thank our teachers for all the additional things they do to assist our students to be the best version of themselves they can be. We held two assemblies (one for F-2, and another for 3-6) at which time we presented each teacher with a certificate, and a small gift. We had asked a child from each class what they thought their teacher would be if they weren’t a teacher – an provided this information on the certificate! I provide for you a sample below of what some of the children said…..
If my teacher wasn’t a teacher they would be…….
| Teacher | Grade | Comment |
| Mrs Smalios | FMS | A person because she wouldn't be a teacher |
| Mrs Callea | FRC | A construction worker because she is always working so hard |
| Ms Ryan | 1JR | A principal because she is fully grown |
| Mrs Hamilton | 2JH | An artist because the learning posters she makes for our classroom have really good drawings |
| Mr De Leonardis | 3LD | Simply AMAZING as always |
| Miss Casey | 3HC | A banana or a clown because she is funny |
| Mr Lubicz | 4AL | An AFL player because he says he is too old to play NBA |
| Ms Mclaren | 4MR | A manager of a cleaning company because she is a very clean person |
| Mr Evers | 5JE | A rockstar because he loves to sing in class and he used to be in a band |
| Mrs Varga | 6BV | A singer because she is always doing cringey stuff like singing |
| Mr Greene | PE | A worker on a Green Farm or even a Lettuce Farm |
| Mr Hortop | AP | A police officer because he comes to talk to people and that's what police do |
Reading Assessment for year one students – from 2023
The department is bringing in a new initiative to assess the reading ability of all year one students, in every government school, from 2023 onwards. This assessment, which is inclusive of phonics, helps identify gaps – and hence provide opportunity for intervention – before the child progresses too far in their schooling. This will be undertaken by the child’s classroom teacher, and will provide them with valuable additional information to support children moving forward.
Enjoy the upcoming weekend – following on from this very short school week.
Kind regards
Sue Seneviratne
Principal