Principal's Report 

In what seems like a repeating dream, I find myself suddenly at the end of another school term.  I remember when I was young my mother telling me that time moves quicker the older we get, however the speed that our school terms seem to be passing by is scary.

I want to thank every single person who has contributed to Windsor Primary School during this term;  the teaching and education support staff, the staff with leadership or administration roles, our contracted student support service personnel, our parent community making toasties, distributing donuts, cooking sausages, organising book club and other Parent and Friends responsibilities, our School Council members, the students and the role that every single parent plays.  

This term does need a special mention to the circumstances.  While the remote learning phases of the past two years presented a challenge, that challenge was completely changing our practice, this year has been more challenging as it was meant to be a ‘return to normal’.  I look forward to anyone paying me a visit and telling me that 2022 has been normal for them.  Student absences, staff absences, the illness associated with these absences, no replacement teachers available, the continual demand to return to normal operations and the building project has put immense stress on the school and all of the staff.  

The respect that the school community has shown to the school and the staff in relation to these circumstances has been outstanding.  Windsor Primary School will always endeavour to provide a high quality education for all students regardless of the circumstances – however we thank you for your understanding of the circumstances.  I am not going to use the word unprecedented, but unpredictable.

Personally, I have had an interesting past four weeks.  I have had two weeks leave to catch up on a family vacation planned for August 2020 (guess why it didn’t go ahead!!) where my family and my sister in law’s family went to Hawaii.  Hawaii was great but the chance to spend time together as an extended family was the real winner.  The pandemic helped us further appreciate the importance of spending time with those important to us and this vacation helped us catch up on lost time (the weather and surf were appreciated too).  As soon as I was back, I was in hospital repairing a torn elbow tendon (not related to the vacation).

Both of these events have meant I have missed a significant amount of time from Windsor.  A big thank you to the entire staff for covering my absence, in particular Simone, Steve and Michelle.  While I may have been lying on a beach towel or a surgeon’s table, life at WPS marched on and so many people contributed to covering my absence.  

To give the staff an opportunity to ‘catch up’ has been a priority for WPS this year;.  Jake has caught up on a major European trip he planned to take a while ago, Laura has caught up with family (all living overseas) after longer periods than she is used to, Lily N has had the opportunity to have her first visit to Europe and Connie will have the opportunity to visit close family in Greece for the first time in two years.  While there is nothing more important than the learning of all the students at WPS, the wellbeing and the life opportunities of our WPS staff is also important.

Over the past six months Demos Diplaris has covered Jake’s absence.  His professionalism, concern for each individual student, educational expertise and proactive relationships with parents/carers has been outstanding.  We were also fortunate to have recruited Demos as he was the architect of the current interschool sport program we have in this area and was able to take on the Sport/Physical Education roles Jake was responsible for.  The good news is Demos will remain at Windsor for the first half of Term 4 covering further staff on leave.

I would like to wish everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday break, one without any infectious disease or virus, and look forward to seeing everyone again in Term 4.

Peter Seddon

Principal