Across Oliver's Desk 

Dear Parents,

Being Principal of high performing school is much easier than being a Carlton supporter, I’m so pleased that we finally won a game though! 

This term has been short, only nine weeks but it’s been a very successful term. Beside all the fun things like, the Slime Colour Run, Cross Country, 3/4 Camp and the Speaking Competition. Our students have again shone with lots of growth in Reading, Writing and Numeracy. Our Blitzmaster Hall of Fame wall has become two walls. We have never had so many students doing so well. With the building progress coming along, it is exciting times for our wonderful school. 

REPORTS

Flick and I have been reading student reports over the past week and there are a few things that I thought about as I was reading. Firstly, teachers spend lots of time assessing student learning using a variety of strategies and this approach really does provide an accurate and holistic over-view of where students are placed on the continuum of learning. 

Secondly, teachers then use the information collected, as well as their thorough knowledge of every student, to write reports that are truly individualised and aimed at providing a clear picture of how every student has progressed in their education journey. 

It should be acknowledged that teachers spend many hours going over assessment data and writing student reports in their own time, often at home and usually on weekends. We are so very fortunate at WYPS to have dedicated and ‘student centred’ teachers who work very hard each and every day to provide our students with such great learning opportunities. 

This year we have again blended ongoing work samples with the normal reports. We are hoping that what we have done is given parents a more complete picture of student achievement and next steps for improvement. 

Our parent and staff surveys with ongoing reporting have been very strong. 

I must admit that I have loved reading the half year reports because they are so positive and show how much students are improving and how much they love their teachers and their school. 

Reports go out on compass this Friday.

SPEECH COMPETITION 

At WYPS we value the teaching of public speaking.  As we are with most things, we teach public speaking in a sequential, practical way. 

Our speech competition highlights the progression and the complexity of expectations at every level. I know other schools would love to have the level of excellence our students show in the school final. Amelia Hughes, Dixie Schaak-Taylor and Abby Lindsay, in fact all our grade 3’s were simply amazing, but I was so proud that we have grade 3 students talking for over 2 minutes without notes on passionate, worldly topics. Every year level was impressive, and I could see how much work had gone into the speeches. 

Our school has won the Yarra Valley Inter-school speaking competition 8 times in a row. This year we are joining the Wandin Schools competition. We are hoping to do just as well against different schools. I’ll certainly let you know how we go. 

The grade five and six finals this year were exceptional and I’m simply in awe of the risks some of our kids take while speaking in front of so many people.

I hope to have some of the speeches uploaded to our website  soon so that you can all see just how amazing these speeches are.  I would like to thank our teachers and parents for how well taught and prepared all the students were.

Congratulations to all the finalists that competed on Thursday.  You are all winners.

Our junior school will have their own school competition in fourth term. 

GERMAN EXTENSION PLAY FOR 5/6 STUDENTS

We had a number of 5/6 students that were selected to do some extension work in German. On Tuesday that work cumulated in a play. The play saw the students learn a lot of extra German and as well as History. It was really well done and very entertaining.

Congratulations to all our students that were involved. Thank you to Frau Walter for organising the work. 

STEPS WINNERS

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to do a steps winner’s morning tea this week but we all do one early term 3. The following students are our winners. Congratulations to them for being so wonderful in class.

EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNERS

The excellence award goes to the student the teacher has judged as the best student for the term. Taking into account, the school’s values, academic growth, persistence and manners. 

The following are this term’s winners. Which will be presented with their awards at Friday’s assembly at 2:10pm 

Badge Code

White =            1st time winner             

Green =           2nd time   

Pink =              3rd time   

Yellow =          4th time     

Orange =        5th time   

Blue =              6th time

(Asher Crowley is the first student to receive a blue badge, well done Asher)

Please remember Friday is an early finish. Students will be dismissed at 2:30pm. 

I hope all our families have a wonderful winter break. My only apology to you is sorry about the parking. It will get better once the building is finished. Thank you as always for your wonderful support of great school!

Oliver Thockloth

Principal