A Message from Vassie 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land, the Wurundjeri, Woi Wurrung and Boonwurrung Peoples of the Kulin Nation and pay our respect to their Elders, past, present and emerging. Aboriginal people have a deep and continuous connection to the place now called Victoria. Aboriginal people have lived in the Maribyrnong River valley for over 40,000 years.

2023 MUSIC CONCERT

We look forward to celebrating our students performing arts skills during our Music Concert this Friday! We would like to thank Gina Tan, Alison Briskey, Renee Johnson, Performing Arts Captains, Amelie and Audrey, and the concert committee for their planning and oversight of this concert. 

Date: Friday 11 August  (rehearsals on Thursday 10 August)

Location: Wembley Primary School Gymnasium

Performances:

• 9:15am - Performance 1: Little Red Riding Hood (Prep-Year 2 Surnames A-L)
• 10:00am - Performance 2: Little Red Riding Hood (Prep-Year 2 Surnames M-Z)
• 12:10pm - Performance 3: Singing in Harmony (Years 3 & 4)
• 2:40pm - Performance 4: Battle of the Bands (Years 5 & 6)

Tickets: Thank you for purchasing your 2 x tickets per family which can be used for each concert. Tickets will be sent home on Wednesday 9 August with the eldest child in the family. If children are absent on Wednesday, the tickets will be sent home on Thursday. 

We ask that parents line up at the hall and on St Leonards Avenue 15 minutes prior to the concert. Staff and students on the performing arts committee will greet you, mark your ticket and usher you to be seated. All seats are accounted for and as such we will ask for there to be no gaps between seats. 

Seating: Two seats per family will be provided. Toddlers may sit on parents laps. 

Costumes: Students' outfits are to feature their house colours on the day as long as it's school appropriate and sensible for their performance (no face paint). Students may wear their outfits to and from school.

NB: There will be no assembly on the day to accommodate performance timings.

We thank you for your support and look forward to celebrating with you on the day!

PRINCIPAL'S DAY

A message from School Council President on behalf of School Council - 4.8.23

Dear Vassie, Katie, Mel, Joel & Lindsey,

Today on Principals Day 2023 we acknowledge the hard work and leadership you all provide to the school and community in both the learning and wellbeing space.

It is in these environments that we see teachers of all ages and backgrounds become empowered to learn, prosper and strive for better results for their students.

The enormous amount of planning and consultation involved with the Capital Building Works wouldn't be possible without the leadership from you all, the result is going to be amazing!

Thank you for going above and beyond for all of our children at Wembley Primary School.

Kind regards,

Beck Thomas

THANK YOU

Thank you to the students, staff members, parents, and members of School Council, that shared kind acknowledgements regarding Principal's Day on Friday 4 August. It's very much appreciated. I know that I speak on behalf of the Principal Class team, Katie, Joel, Lindsey and Mel, when I say that it is a great honour and privilege to serve our Wembley PS students, and we couldn't do it without the passionate and dedicated team of leaders, teachers and ES staff, that we are fortunate to work with each and everyday, in partnership with the parents of our students. 

PREP 100 DAYS OF SCHOOL

Congratulations to our wonderful prep students, teachers and parents on reaching 100 days of school on Tuesday 1 August. It was wondering seeing our students celebrate this special milestone in their lives, and in their education! It is as much a celebration of the students as it is for their teachers and loved ones, and we hope that all families enjoyed marking this special occasion. 

YEAR 2 SUNNYSTONES CAMP

Congratulations and well done to our year two students, teachers and families who attended their very first camp to Sunnystones in Bacchus Marsh this week. They enjoyed bushwalking, hut building, ropes courses, damper, and toasting marshmallows. We're very proud of our students for their independence and resilience, and we're sure that all campers slept very well over the weekend. Thank you once again to the staff members and parent volunteers who kindly attended to support and honour this camping experience for our students.

YEAR 3 CYC PHILLIP ISLAND CAMP

Our year 3 campers have enjoyed their camping experience, with the fairy penguins being a highlight, closely followed by movie night, a disco, activity rotations of the mechanical wall, giant swing, low ropes, flying fox, trampolines, pedal racers and archery. Our campers are due to return on Wednesday 9 August at 3:00pm. Thank you once again to the staff members and parent volunteers who kindly attended to support and honour this camping experience for our students.

NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST BULLYING

Friday 18 August is National Day of Action Against Bullying. In the week leading up to this day, all students will be engaging in lessons about what bullying is and how we all can help to create safe and inclusive environments that prevent bullying.  Please visit the wellbeing tab for more information.

SCHOOL WIDE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR SUPPORT

Current Whole School Behaviour Focus - Being an Upstander

This week we have introduced our next behaviour focus: ‘Being an Upstander’ as part of our focus on the value of inclusion this term. Students have been learning about what it means to be an upstander - a person who speaks up and acts to support another person or cause. They have also been learning about what is means to be a bystander.  Students are learning about different ways they can safely be an upstander, from more overt actions like speaking up when they see someone being mistreated, to more subtle, but still effective actions like telling an adult if they see someone being mistreated or checking in on someone if they see them being mistreated. Please visit the wellbeing tab for more information.

We thank Melanie Irons, Lindsey Delooze and Tom Penberthy for their leadership and oversight of School Wide Positive Behaviour Support. 

UNIFORM REMINDER

We have noticed that some students have not been wearing full school uniform. Teachers have been reminding students to ensure that they wear uniform every day with the exception of if/when they are attending a school sports day. Please ensure that your child/ren is wearing full school uniform, at all times. We also remind parents about the pre-loved clothing rack, and lost property, which can be found in the main building.

2024 PREP ENROLMENTS

Last week we sent enrolment confirmation letters to the families of our 2024 prep students. Congratulations to our students and families on this milestone. Transition sessions begin later this term. We thank Joel Magnabosco, Prep-Year 2 Assistant Principal, for this oversight on the prep transition process. 

YEAR 6 TO 7 SECONDARY SCHOOL TRANSITION

Congratulations to our year 6 students who have been offered, and accepted their secondary school placements for year 7. We thank Renee Johnson, Kristen Kosowski, and the year 6 teaching team for their support and oversight of this important process. 

We ask parents to ensure that they've accepted their child/ren's offer, as soon as possible. See the Sentral email from Renee Johnson for more information. 

2024 STUDENT NUMBERS

It's that time of year when the leadership team begin working through 2024 planning, class structures and recruitment processes. As we begin the planning process for 2024, we would appreciate parents notifying the school if your child/ren will not be returning to Wembley Primary School in 2024, as soon as possible.

Please contact the school office on 9314 7054, or alternatively on wembley.ps@education.vic.gov.au to inform us if your child/ren will not be returning to Wembley PS.

YEAR 3 PARENT INFORMATION SESSION - 1:1 DEVICE PROGRAM

Thank you to the parents that attended the 1:1 devices parent information session on Wednesday 1 August. We thank Katie McClue and Kristen Kosowski for planning and facilitating this session. 

We understand that not all families could attend so we have recorded the session.

In the links below you will find a recording of the information session, the slideshow presented on the evening and a video of some wonderful students putting their voices to the 1:1 program.

Recording of Information Session

1:1 Device Program Slideshow

Let's hear from our students

I will be sharing ordering details when the Wembley PS/CompNow Portal is finalised.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to reply to this email or I can be contacted directly at: kristen.kosowski@education.vic.gov.au

SPORTING EVENTS

Well done to our students, staff members and parents who have attended and supported the various sporting events such as football, soccer, netball, 800m trials. We are very proud of our students for their teamwork, resilience and effort! Please visit our social media pages for photo highlights. 

Please find us on Instagram at: @wembleyps4788

And via our official Facebook Page: Wembley Primary School (link here)

GROUNDS IMPROVEMENTS

From Monday to Wednesday of this week, we are undertaking some grounds improvements to the school entrance near the year 3 portables and adventure play area. We timed these works in line with the year 3 camp as there will be minimal foot traffic.

As a result this entrance to the school will be closed from 4-9 August inclusive. We ask that families use a neighbouring entrance during this time. We thank Grant Hobson, Grounds and Maintenance Manager, for overseeing these works. 

INCLUSION AND ANTI-RACISM

We would like to take some time to advise you that from Term 3 onwards, we will commence a body of work within the school as part of developing a proactive approach to responding to, and providing education around racism. The Executive Leadership Team has attended two training sessions with the Centre for Multicultural Youth around building anti-racism culture policies, processes and lessons. The lessons shared in classrooms will be focused on lesson planning from the program, SSUTR-Schools Standing up to Racism.

We will be developing a vision, action plan, resources, lessons to be embedded across the next 5 years. 

Please visit the wellbeing tab of the newsletter to read more about how we are supporting the learning and engagement of students and community around a focus on anti-racism. 

ART THERAPY

Wembley is excited to welcome Heshanthi Munasinha to our school over the next 12 weeks as she begins her placement as an Arts Therapist. Arts Therapy combines art with counselling practises to support the mental health and wellbeing of the participant. 

Wembley’s existing Social and Emotional Learning program with be bolstered by the addition of Heshanthi and it will directly compliment some of the learning that all students across the school engage in across the year, particularly those that sit within our SWPBS and Respectful Relationships program. Some of the topics that participants in the Arts Therapy program might engage in include:

• Resilience

• Empowerment and Personal Strengths

• Controlling strong emotions

• Emotional Literacy and Expression

• Calming and Kindness 

The Arts Therapy sessions will take place during the school day and will be supervised by Tom Penberthy and members of Wembley’s leadership team as well. The students who will participate have been identified by our Wellbeing Team as well as classroom teachers, and their participation is voluntary. Permission notifications will be sent out to families this week via Sentral. 

If you would like further information or have any other questions then please reach out to Tom Penberthy (thomas.penberthy@education.vic.gov.au)

CAPITAL WORKS BUILDING PROJECT UPDATE  

We are making progress in our Capital Works Building Project. Please visit the Capital Works project tab for an update of the works to occur over the next month.

PREP PLAYGROUND

Our prep playground was returned to us on Monday 7 August, following the most significant in-ground works to date. It was wonderful seeing students enjoy the playground. 

OVAL REINSTATEMENT

Our oval will be reinstated with safety mulch in the next fortnight, which will enable us to open it up to our students for the remainder of the year. In late December they will lay grass and enable it to catch and grow over the summer break ready for 2024. 

THANK YOU

In our most recent site meetings over the school holidays and just this week, we communicated the importance of understanding that this is a live site, and that we must protect the safety first and foremost, and also the access of all students into our minimised playground footprint in the interim during the capital building works project.

We are working daily with the project manager and site manager regarding the project and look forward to moving into the new building in mid 2024. 

We thank our students, staff members and parents for their ongoing patience and resilience. 

LUNCH TIME CLUBS

See below for lunch time clubs that are in place to support student play and socialisation in light of the minimised yard space, as a result of the capital works project. 

COLD AND FLU SEASON

As we move into prime cold and flu season, we wish to remind families of the importance of prioritising your health and wellbeing.

We ask parents to keep children home from school if they are unwell, and return to school when they are feeling healthy and well. 

We thank all staff for supporting the health and wellbeing of all students, with particular acknowledgement of Kathy in the first aid room for her care, consideration and communication with students, teachers and parents.

Teachers are continuing to ensure that students are sanitising regularly, air purifiers are on in each room set to the highest setting, and our cleaners are continuing to clean all spaces in the school thoroughly, and wipe down high touch surfaces.

We thank you in anticipation of your understanding, cooperation and support, in protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of all community members.