Principal's Report

By Frank Catalano

Dear Members of the Glen Waverley Primary School Community,

I trust all is well with you and your family and welcome to this fortnight’s newsletter where so much is shared about our fabulous school.

As per usual, if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to see me at school, or contact me on 9802 9938 or frank.catalano@education.vic.edu.au.

Covid – 19 Update

It is quite concerning that there seems to be an increase in the number of confirmed cases throughout Victoria which is also being reflected in our school with some of the staff and children testing positive. May I encourage everyone to:

Conduct a RAT if you have any Covid-like symptoms
Keep your child/ren at home if they are unwell and
Inform our school if your child/ren tests positive – if this is the case, learning from home will be made available.

Halloween and Melbourne Cup Dress-Up Day

Congratulations, thank you and well done to Vedanshi and Daivik (both in Year 6) for instigating the Halloween and Melbourne Cup dress-up day as it was fabulous to see so many of the children (and staff) take the opportunity to not only dress up but also have a great deal of fun doing so. Below are some photos for everyone to enjoy!

Fun Run Update

As communicated in a recent Compass post, due to the very wet weather, we have had to postpone our school fun run to Monday 21st November. Please refer to Mrs. Anderson’s post for additional information.

Chess Team Update

Our Chess Teams continue to participate in various tournaments and represent themselves, our school and their families exceptionally well as indicated below:

Northern Star Junior Primary Zonal

Congratulations and well done to our Junior Chess Team:

Reyashi (Prep)
Thehan and Samuel (Year 1)
Aibel and Aadyah (Year 2) and
Yehara (Year 3)

Who participated in the Northern Star Junior Primary Zonal event on the 3rd November where they placed 3rd out of 15 schools.

Samuel, Aadyah and Yehara were selected for the Junior Primary State Final to be played on the 29th November
Samuel received a bronze medallion in the Year 1 category and
Yehara also received a bronze medallion in the Year 3 category.

Chess Victoria State finals– Team comprised of Nikhil (Year 6), Vidushi (Year 5), Omika (Year 6), Vikas (Year 5), Amaya (Year 2) and Naveen (Year 1)

Competition had 18 schools competing and our GWPS team won 6 out of their 7 rounds, losing only to the ultimate winners Glendal Primary.
Despite finishing second in a very close contest , 4 of our kids (Nikhil, Vidushi, Vikas and Omika) won board prizes for their top performance.
It was a tremendous performance from our young team to become State Runners up after replacing some very good experienced players from last year’s team.

Northern Star Chess Primary Open State Finals - Team comprised of Nikhil (Year 6), Vidushi (Year 5), Omika (Year 6), Thineru (Year 6) , Vikas (Year 5), Amaya (Year 2) , Shaheli

(Year 2) and Naveen (Year 1)

This tournament was a star studded event and had the top 82 Primary Students in the State across 37 schools. GWPS was represented by 8 students thereby accounting to almost 10% of the top Primary Chess Players in the State. This itself is quite significant and a reflection of all the hard work put on by our team to give their utmost best.
The team finished second place but by the thinnest of margins (1.5 points) to Trinity Grammar.
Again we had a number of team and individual medal winners who were rewarded for their amazing achievements.

Nikhil – Team Silver Medal and Bronze Medal (Grade 5-6)
Saheli – Team Silver Medal and Silver Medal (Prep-Grade 2)
Vidushi - Team Silver Medal
Vikas - Team Silver Medal
Amaya - Bronze Medal (Prep-Grade 2)
Naveen- Bronze Medal (Prep-Grade 2)

This is such a fantastic result and congratulations to all the children involved. Your chess skills continue to amaze me and I look forward to having a special celebratory lunch with you all soon.

Below is a reflection from Thineru in 6C

This years’ experience was priceless. We managed to place in the top circle of Victorian players. We managed to place our school in second place in Victoria. Which is a huge achievement, but made it even bigger was the fact that we managed to do this amazing feat twice!

The best part was that even though we never became first place, the entire time we could feel one another’s efforts. Supporting each other . That was probably the best part. Playing alongside the second best team in Victoria. It was an eye opening experience and I recommend you to try it too. Who knows! With you our team might manage to get that evasive first place!

Thank you to everyone involved especially all of the parents who assisted in lots of ways – we really appreciated it!

Congratulations to the following children

Veer (Year 2) – for placing first in the recent National All Styles karate championships in the 7 Years and Under section. This is the third time Veer has placed in first position and will participate in the national championships shortly. Well done and congratulations Veer as this is a fabulous achievement and something that you should be incredibly proud of – we look forward to hearing how you go at the national championships.

Joshua (Year 5) – is an avid swimmer and recently he sent me the following email:

Dear Mr Catalano

On the 6th of November, I went to the Metro Junior District Competition. Before this event I went to the Metro East District Competition, The Metro East District competition is where Victoria Metro East people compete against each other and whoever gets in top 10 gets to represent the Metro East, I qualified in 2 events the 50m Butterfly and 50m Backstroke.

I swam against the other Metros sections, Metro West, Metro South and Metro North, and represented Metro East.

On the day I was so nervous and excited.

These are the events and my times.

50m Butterfly: 36.59 PB

50m Backstroke: 41.39PB

After the competition I was so proud myself especially for 50m Butterfly for getting a 3 second PB.

Furthermore, I have lots of competitions coming and I will be back soon to share more about my journey.

Thank you for reading.

Kind regards,

Joshua

2023 Enrolments

I would like to remind families with children who will be beginning school in 2023 that we are taking enrolments now and that they are also closing rapidly as we only have a very small number of positions available. I strongly encourage you to ensure you return your child’s enrolment form to Daniel, Daria or Julie in the main office as soon as possible.

We also ask that members of our school community assist us by informing any of their neighbours of the enrolment procedures and direct them to the office to collect an enrolment form or our school website – www.glenps.vic.edu.au . School tours are available every Tuesday morning commencing at 9:30 and also upon request. Please call the school on 9802 9938 to book a tour.

Prep Transition Session

On Tuesday 8th November we held our fourth Prep Transition session where the 2023 Prep children were provided with the opportunity to experience our specialist programs – Physical Education, Mandarin, Visual Arts and Music. Whilst this was occurring, their mums and dads learnt how we use our school’s Dash Robots to teach various concepts. Below are some photos of the children’s parents using the robots with the help of the students in Year 5C.

A sincere thank you to the numerous parents who were able to attend the session, 5C for their outstanding support and guidance and to Mrs Caruso and Mrs Bailey for their fabulous leadership and coordination.