News from HWPS

Dear Families,

Our Grade 6 Graduation Celebration on Monday evening was a highlight of the 2021 school year.

Much planning went into organising this very special evening for our students and we were fortunate to be able to host the event onsite and invite families to join us for the celebration.

It was an evening of mixed emotions as our students delighted us with their singing and funky dance moves and confidently and articulately presented their reflective speeches focusing on the experiences, friendships and learnings from their time at primary school. It was truly an evening to remember.

Today we said a final farewell to our Grade 6 students and wished them good luck for the future. Over the past 7 years these remarkable young people have had wonderful opportunities and faced different challenges. Throughout their schooling and particularly over the past 2 years they have demonstrated enormous courage, enthusiasm, gratefulness, positivity and resilience. They are and outstanding and talented group of young people who have actively contributed to our school community as leaders and role models. It has been a pleasure to watch them grow and learn over their journey through primary school. They are curious, confident and connected and ready to achieve excellence as they tackle the next stage of their learning journey.

We are all very proud of their achievements as individuals and as part of the 2021 graduating group.

I also had the privilege of introducing our 2022 school leaders to the community at this assembly.

Congratulations to the following students:

School Captains (Charlotte T / Ashkan B)

Vice Captains (Lila F / Darcy F)

House Captains:

Bradman: Elodie P & Will A

Fraser: Adele P & Anastasia M

Freeman: Charlie B & Ollie E

Rafter: Grace V & Jessie M

Leaving Hawthorn West

I would like to acknowledge those families who will be leaving our community this year and thank them for their valuable support and contributions to Hawthorn West. Many of the families who are leaving us today have had a long association with the school and volunteered many hours of their time to help make HWPS the great school that it is.

Farewell and best wishes to the following families:

Grade 6 families:

Fanning

O'Byrne

Stewart

Joyner

De Matteo

Bourne

Cornelius

Harris (T)

Jacobsen

Davis

McNamara

Skinner

Somes

Varyiamis (O)

Higgins (A)

Coveney

George

Hoskin

James

Knott

Lake

Matthews

Panoussis

Rogers

Gomme

Greenwood

Mitchell

Day

Athanasiadis

Giffard

Harris (S)

Sklavounos

Tucker

Xu

Dimova

Stevenson Kotsos

Foundation - Grade 5 families

Paice

Abbott

Curry

Armstrong

Beckers

Mendelson

Muthaya

Vourtsis

Behera

Pimpalkar

Fox

Lo

Stone

Trinh

White

On Friday we bid farewell to Linda Hudson who will retire after 13 years as the Business Manager at HWPS. Linda has made an outstanding contribution to our HWPS during her time at the helm. When Linda commenced working at HWPS, the school had an enrolment of 350 students across 15 classes. How things have changed! In her role, Linda has overseen HR and all things financial. She has continually updated her knowledge and practices to ensure that the ever changing DET policies were implemented in a timely manner. That is not the sum total of Linda’s role, in fact, she can turn her hand to anything – a ‘Jill of all trades’. She has worked with 6 Principals during her time at the school and managed challenging fiscal and HR decisions. On behalf of our community, I would like to thank Linda for her leadership, financial acumen, commitment, dedication, organisation, support, friendship and strong focus on ensuring HWPS is the best school it can be.

Linda will be very missed and we wish her all the very best for this next exciting stage in her life.

As the year draws to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the HWPS community for your significant and ongoing contributions and commitment to our school.

Thank you to our dedicated, caring and professional staff who have worked tirelessly to provide the best learning environment for all students.

Thank you to our families for all that you have done to encourage and support your children and our staff during this disrupted year.

Thank you to our School Council. It has been another challenging year and this dedicated group of councillors have met on a monthly basis with a focus on the continual improvement of the learning and physical environment for our students.

I would like to thank Gabbi Lorenzetti for her leadership as School Council President. Gabbi’s leadership has ensured that all views and opinions are considered and valued

Finally, it has been a busy year at HWPS and it is now time for all of us to take a well-earned rest and spend some relaxing time with our families and loved ones.

On behalf of the staff at Hawthorn West Primary School I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy holiday with family and friends.

We look forward to welcoming you back for an exciting 2022.

Warm Regards

Glenys

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