A Message from 

Vassie Vatsilas-D'Arcangelo

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.

Welcome to week nine. With only two weeks to go, we have much to celebrate and be grateful for. We have had continued engaging learning experiences, excursions to the zoo, NAPLAN, junior school council speeches, Breakfast Club, WPA AGM, Easter Raffle preparation. School Council, Student Support Group meetings, and more. We thank everyone for their partnership in supporting all students at school. 

I enjoyed visiting 1C to answer questions about the building works! See the Capital Building Works Update tab for more information. 

End of Term One - Thursday 6 April at 2:30

Term One concludes at 2:30, with an assembly at 2:00pm on Thursday 6 April. 

We welcome all parents to come along to join in the celebration of term one, the SLAA awards, and the drawing of the Easter raffle!

We invite all parents and students to purchase raffle tickets for the Easter Raffle and thank the volunteers in the WPA for coordinating such a special and delicious fundraiser. Thank you to our Wembley community for your donations!

Term Two - Monday 24 April

Term two begins on Monday 24 April at 8:55am. 

Tuesday 25 April is the Anzac day public holiday and school will not be operating. 

We will be having an Anzac Day assembly on Monday 24 April at 3:15pm. Parents are welcome to attend. 

Code of Conduct - Students, Parents/Carers and Staff Members

A philosophy of values, loosely translated as a community code of conduct has been drafted in line with DE (Department of Education), Community Safety Orders guidance. This code of conduct was approved at the February School Council Meeting, and aligns with our school values of respect, inclusion, resilience and empathy, and the DE values of responsiveness, integrity, impartiality, accountability, respect, leadership and human rights. We ask all community members to take the time as a family to read this code of conduct which supports our community in working in partnership to support us in achieving our mission of empowering all students to become successful, independent, lifelong learners. 

You can find the Code of Conduct for Students, Parents/Carers, Staff Members here: https://www.wembleyps.vic.edu.au/uploaded_files/media/code_of_conductstaff_parent_carer_student.docx1.pdf 

School Council 

On Monday evening we held our last School Council meeting of the 2022 Council, and the first of the 2023 Council. We thank all School Councillors for their voluntary contribution in supporting school governance and school staff in fulfilling our mission of empowering all students to learn at high levels to become successful, independent, lifelong learners. 

Thank you to the 2022 School Councillors

• Parent volunteers:
• Wes Burgoyne-School Council President
• Helen Harris-Vice President
• Beck Thomas-Treasurer
• Bec Holder
• Bridget Horton-Co-opted Community Member
• Lachlan McCallum
• Lisa Filippin 
• Staff volunteers:
• Adriana Jankulovski-DE employee
• Taxia Katsouranis-DE employee
• Renee Johnson-DE employee
• Terry Lawless-Co-Principal
• Vassie Vatsilas-D'Arcangelo-Co-Principal

We thank councillors whose tenure on council has come to an end, Bridget Horton, Renee Johnson and Wes Burgoyne. 

Thank you to Bridget who has filled the community member vacancy for the 2022 School Council and has contributed to the school in a voluntary capacity on School Council, as a member of buildings and ground subcommittee, education and policy subcommittee in the past, and as President of the WPA. We thank Bridget for her contribution and look forward to continuing to work in partnership with her as parent, and as WPA members. 

Thank you to Renee Johnson, our remarkable year 5and 6 learning specialist, who filled the employee vacancy for the 2022 School Council, and has made a contribution to buildings and grounds subcommittee. Renee will continue to contribute to Wembley PS as year 5 and 6 sector leader supporting and inspiring students, staff members and parents in her leadership and SC role. 

Thank you to Wes Burgoyne who has served on School Council for 7 years, and the last 3 years as School Council President. Wes has made a significant contribution to the school, together with his partner Ainsley, throughout the years that their children Jenna and Spencer attended Wembley PS. Wes’ unfailing sense of calm, integrity and leadership has been a great support, and has resulted in learning, teaching, financial, buildings and grounds improvements, which past, present and future students will be beneficiaries of. We wish Wes and his family all the very best for the future. Wes will receive a letter from the Minister of Education for his contribution to Wembley Primary School's, School Council. 

2023 School Councillors

We welcome to council our parent and employee members of the 2023 School Council. 

We proudly welcome Alice Taylor, Paul Meissner, Katie McClue and Lindsey Delooze as new members to School Council. 

Paul fills the elected parent vacancy, and Alice fills to the 2023 co-opted community member vacancy. 

We welcome back Lisa Filippin and Russell Hunt who were elected to fill the parent vacancy. 

Thank you to the 2023 School Councillors

• Parent volunteers:
• Beck Thomas-School Council President
• Helen Harris-Vice President
• Paul Meissner-Treasurer
• Alice Taylor
• Bec Holder
• Lachlan McCallum
• Lisa Filippin 
• Russell Hunt
• Staff volunteers:
• Adriana Jankulovski-DE employee
• Katie McClue-DE employee
• Lindsey Delooze-DE employee
• Vassie Vatsilas-D'Arcangelo-Principal

Our next School Council meeting is scheduled for Monday 15 May at 6:00pm in the staffroom. Visitors are welcome. If you would like to attend as a visitor, please contact Mandy Pilkington, Business Manager, by COB 4:00pm, Thursday 18 May. 

Cross Country - Friday 31 March 12:00-2:00pm

Next Friday 31 March 2023, the Year 3 - 6 students will be competing in our annual Cross Country event at McIvor Reserve. Students that are turning 8, 9 or 10 years of age this year will be running a 2km track and students that are turning 11 or 12 years of age this year will be running a 3km track.

The results of this event will determine which students qualify to compete in the Westgate District Cross Country race that is being held later in Term 2.

There is no cost for the day as we will be walking to McIvor Reserve. Children will leave Wembley at 12pm (after lunch) and will return to school at approximately 2:00pm.

All children are expected to be properly attired (Wembley t-shirt, shorts/dress, runners, drink bottle, and hat- to be worn during waiting time), and be prepared for inclement weather.

We are also looking for 4-5 parent helpers to stand on the course to guide and encourage students- please make contact with me via email if you are willing and able to help (jonathan.gill2@education.vic.gov.au). 

All other parents are welcome to come and watch the event!!

We look forward to a positive and engaging day.

Sentral - payments update

We are pleased to share our school bank details so that parents can make payments without having to pay any fees. 

Whilst Sentral offers easy and convenient payments for excursions, camps etc. via Credit Card or Direct Debit, charges apply which go directly to Sentral.

A new addition to all payment requests which will incur no fees, will be the display of the Wembley PS Banking details if you wish to pay via direct bank deposit included on all excursion notifications and reminder emails, an example can be found below:

E.g. payment: The cost for this activity is $10.00, this can be paid via the Sentral Portal: https://wembleyps.sentral.com.au/portal2/#!/login 

or by using the below banking details:

Name: Wembley PS

BSB: 063 181 

Account: 10056072

Please use student name as reference

Breakfast Club - Thank You

We would like to thank all volunteers for assisting in our Breakfast Club, supported by FoodBank. Breakfast Club operates on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning from 8:30-8:55am. We thank Lindsey Delooze for working with all adult and student volunteers. 

We received an acknowledgement from Hon. Melissa Horne MP for participating in this valuable program! We also received a surprise donation of $2000 worth of items from the Good Guys to use on new equipment for breakfast club. A wonderful (yummy) community building program for all. 

Fundraising Ideas

We thank Mel Irons, Assistant Principal, who has been working with myself, School Council, the WPA, staff, students and parents to capture ideas for fundraising targets. Thank you to the arents who completed the survey. We have 97 parents who completed the survey to date. We have exciting things coming to Wembley PS thanks to your generous fundraising contributions! See the 'family engagement' tab of the newsletter for more information!

NAPLAN testing - March 15-17

We thank Katie McClue, Kristen Kosowski, Lindsey Delooze, Renee Johnson, Adriana Jankulovski and the extended year 3 and 5 teaching teams for supporting students in NAPLAN testing. We congratulate our year three and five students, and want them to know that whilst NAPLAN will assess their knowledge in literacy and numeracy, it doesn't assess the many wonderful things that make them special and unique! We always have been and always will be very proud of all students, and their effort, each and everyday. Please see the Learning and Teaching tab of the newsletter for more information regarding NAPLAN. 

SENTRAL APP

We are pleased to share that there is a Sentral App, which can be downloaded from the App Store, for ease of access to all things Wembley, such as the newsletter, markbook reporting, key dates, payments, etc. all at your fingertips. 

Please contact Kristen Kosowski if you have any questions regarding this app.