From the Acting Principal,
Victoria Graham
Dear Families/Carers
On Monday we wished Mrs Ellis a Happy Birthday and all the very best of luck for her future. I’m sure she is certainly enjoying some more tropical weather conditions at the moment than we are here, while she is in Bali and visiting some of the local schools there.
We would like to acknowledge and thank Mrs Ellis very much for, not only the dedication she has given to Woodend Primary School over the past two years, but to her extensive Professional career in education.
The Principal position has been advertised and hopefully the successful applicant will be commencing day one of Term 3. During the remainder of Term 2, I will be Acting Principal so if you have any suggestions, ideas or concerns, please come and see me. At Woodend Primary School we pride ourselves on our strong sense of community and having high expectations. All of the work we have begun this year as part of our four year Strategic Plan and our 2019 Annual Implementation Plan, will continue (business as usual so to speak).
Pirate Day - tomorrow 31st May
A reminder that tomorrow is Pirate Day, so please get your best Pirate costumes out and bring a gold coin donation for The Kids' Cancer Project. Don’t forget to enter the colouring competition. Instead of a class Assembly item this week, we will be holding a special Pirate item (a surprise).
Working Bee
Last Saturday the weather gods were on our side and we had the perfect weather for our working bee. We had a tremendous turn out of around sixty people and achieved an enormous amount of work around the school to improve safety and aesthetics –thank you to all. It certainly was the case of many hands make light work and we are always appreciative of whatever capacity and time people can donate out of our ever increasing busy lives. It was lovely to hear people make comments on how good our school is looking with our capital works being completed.
There are too many people to list individually, but here are just a few of the workers at work.
Jobs completed:
grates cleaned, mulch spread around playgrounds, toilet block area pressure washed, branches trimmed near bottom playground, paths swept and blown, sand raked back into long jump area, bench seat removed from outside library, plants planted, drinking troughs cleaned, burn off piles burnt, bollards set in place and anything else on the ' to do list'.
- Plant Label Art Competition - Please see the Garden Group's page for further details.
Learning Walks
This morning Woodend Primary School hosted Macedon, Gisborne, Darraweit and Riddells Creek Primary Schools to participate in Learning Walks. This is part of the 'Principal Community of Practice' of which Mrs Ellis and I are members. Last term, Mrs Ellis and I visited these schools to observe how Maths is being taught. Today, Mr Condon, Ms Meggs and Ms Marsh were included in the process so that we can develop and strengthen our teaching practice by observing and engaging in Professional discussions across our network.
First Aid
This Saturday staff will spend the day at school updating their Level 2 First Aid. We are required to update this every three years along with CPR and Anaphylaxis annually, to comply with OHS standards.
Congratulations
We would like to congratulate Mr Spilsted and his partner Samantha on the safe arrival of their beautiful baby girl Stevie. Mr Spilsted is taking the next two weeks on leave to spend some time with his new family. I hope he gets to do his fair share of nappies! While Mr Spilsted is on leave, his class is in the very capable hands of Mr Hemiak who is extremely familiar with Carlsruhe and Woodend Primary School.