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

As you would be aware, there seems to be an increase in the number confirmed cases throughout Victoria which is also being reflected in our school with some of the staff and children testing positive. May I continue to encourage everyone to keep a very close eye on the children and to:

Conduct a RAT if your child has 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 and we will inform the Department of Health.

I will continue to keep our school community informed through Compass Posts.

Fun Run Update

It certainly was rather sad and very disappointing that we had to postpone the Fun Run, however Monday’s weather was extremely cold and very windy which would have made the event quite unsafe for everyone. Nevertheless, we now have the opportunity for the Fun Run to be held on Wednesday 7th December – fingers crossed that the weather is kinder to us next time!

In terms of our school’s fundraising efforts, I am thrilled to announce that our school community has raised a staggering $51,027.99 which will be used to purchase 7 new drinking fountains. I am also delighted to announce that School Council have agreed to contribute the funds to purchase an additional 4 fountains so that all of the drinking fountains throughout our school will be updated.

From this point:

The prizes have been entered and should arrive before the end of the school year
As the drinking fountains come with a different coloured end, our Student Voice Captains Krisha and Akain are surveying all of the children, who will provide their input as to which colours, they would like to order
Once this information is obtained, the fountains will be ordered and hopefully they will arrive before the end of the school year.

Once again, thank you everyone for all of your efforts with this initiative and we look forward to the Fun Run occurring on Wednesday the 7th December, the prizes arriving soon and the fountains before the end of the school year.

Congratulations to the following children

Ria (Year 6) has been singing for several years and has participated in numerous events within and beyond our school such as the Victorian State School Spectacular (VSSS). In fact, Ria represented our school as part of the VSSS as follows:

2019 – Mass Choir
2021 – Principal Choir and
2022 – Principal Choir.

To acknowledge Ria’s achievements, commitment and dedication, our school organised a commemorative plaque for Ria. Well done, congratulations and thank you Ria for your contribution to the VSSS and please keep working hard on developing your amazing singing voice!

Hirun (Year 5) loves participating in various athletics events such as the:

State Combined event at Albert Park – Hirun competed in the Under 12’s:
100m – placing 3rd in the heat
800m run – 5th
Discuss – 3rd
Long Jump – 2nd and
Hurdles – 1st.

Overall, Hirun finished 15th out of 60 participants across the state.

Hirun also placed 3rd in the under 12, 4×100m relay at the Box Hill relay carnival on Sunday, where he represented the Knox athletes club.

Well done and congratulations Hirun as it is fabulous to see your athletic ability continuing to develop – we all look forward to hearing all about your achievements next year as well!

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

Dear Mr Catalano,

On the 20th of November I went to the Victorian Qualifying Competition. It was a competition for you to qualify in other events. There is a rule you have to qualify and you have to be 11 or over. I qualified for 3 events, the 50m Backstroke, Butterfly and Freestyle.

I was so nervous on the day because I was aiming for a competition that you have to qualify it was called the Victoria Metro Long Course Championship. At the moment I only qualified for two events, the 50m Freestyle and Butterfly, I was aiming to qualify for the backstroke as well.

These are my results,

50m Freestyle 33.54 PB Already Qualified

50m Butterfly 37.74 Already Qualified

50m Backstroke 40.23 PB Qualified

I achieved two PB’s and I also qualified for Backstroke because I got the qualifying time.

After the competition I was happy and very proud, however I still have some competitions to go. I also have many things to qualify for. I have a big competition coming up soon called the Victorian Sprint Championship. I already have three qualifying times and I am going to keep trying to qualify for other such as the Victorian Metro Long Course Championship.

I am trying my best and look forward to sharing more about my journey.

Thank you for reading

Kind regards

Joshua

Sahana (Year 5) is an avid dancer who also studies the Kannada language at the Victorian School of Languages (VSL) on the weekend. Recently she participated in an event where students from the VSL shared some of their cultural dances. Sahana and her 3 friends performed exceptionally well to an audience of approximately 2000 people. Over the last 8 to 10 weeks, the girls practiced regularly in between their tight school and other activities schedule and on the night were simply amazing!

Congratulations and well done Sahana as not only it is wonderful that you have the opportunity to share your cultural heritage and talents, it is also fabulous that you are able to do so in front of so many people. Please keep up the fabulous connection to your heritage and your passion for dancing!

Chess Team Update

As reported throughout the year, our school chess team has had a phenomenal year with a magnitude of outstanding individual and team results achieved. In order to acknowledge the children’s commitment, endeavour and the manner in which they represented their family, themselves and our school, a celebratory lunch was held this week. The children received a certificate and also a trophy whilst enjoying a scrumptious pizza lunch.

May I take this opportunity to thank the numerous parents who were able to attend the luncheon whilst also acknowledging their commitment and efforts throughout the year as well as it is appreciated immensely. Well done and thank you everyone!

Our Junior Team (Years Prep to Three) will be participating in the Northern Star Junior Primary Final on Tuesday 29th November, good luck to everyone involved and I look forward to reporting how the team goes in our next newsletter.

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 – https://www.glenps.vic.edu.au/page/59/Prospective-Families.

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.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING STUDENTS WHO RECEIVED A PRINCIPAL’S AWARD RECENTLY:

Prep A

Jamie, Soha, Owen, Fabiana, Ishana, Samiksha, Ayyub and Jacob for learning all about doing words which are called verbs
Rishaan, Tyler, Saaral, Saanvi and Myraa for letting learning all about procedural writing
Soha, Onalee and Ray for making enormous progress with their maths skills and knowledge
Saaral, Samiksha, Ishana and Tyler for writing their very own books
Rishaan for receiving a certificate from the Australian Abacus Academy for completing the Starter level. Well done Rishaan!

Prep D

Eric for writing a very detailed procedural text all about how to make a pirates hat out of paper

Minadi, Tulara, Jayrene and Aneel for being very responsible members of our school community
Jayrene for receiving a certificate from her Bollywood class for dancing

Gabrielle for learning all about composing and decomposing in Maths Innovations
Jessica for making the most amazing progress with her ability to read with fluency and comprehend
Tevin for building and programming a Lego Extreme Four Wheel Drive car and then programmed it to do some amazing things such as going over humps and climb a tree!
Jittipad, Thinuli and Sanuli for writing very persuasive texts about increasing the number of hours the children are to be at school

Juliana also for learning all about composing and decomposing in Maths Innovations
Siya for making the connections between 2D and 3D shapes
Arnica for writing a book about the four seasons and her very own sticker book
Tianna, Elina and Sakthi for being wonderful friends
Jasleen and Tiana for creating the most elaborate and beautiful mandalas for my office

Joshua for making the most amazing progress with his writing. His latest narrative is 9 pages in length!
Maddie and Sevin for learning all about composing and decomposing in Maths Innovations
Sevin for writing a very persuasive letter regarding additional sports equipment in classrooms

Akira and Evin for developing a video for our sister school

James and Eliana also developing a video for our sister school
Agam 3B Himansh 3D for building the most amazing and incredible laser dog out of humongous Lego pieces

Thinuli and Stuti also for developing a video for our sister school

Linh and Dinuk also for developing a video for our sister school
Aaria, for writing a very detailed report about herself for her pen pal in Nepal
Tharshanna for being a wonderful friend
Methasha 3D for receiving a medal from Aerodynamix Gymnastics club for a recent club event

Sara and Xinyi also for developing a video for our sister school

Fin for making the most amazing progress with his writing
Vedanth for being a wonderful and very supportive friend

Frank Catalano

Principal