A Message from Vassie 

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.

It's been a great big couple of weeks at Wembley PS with Athletics Day and Pyjama Day. 

We thank the students, staff members and parents that assisted and attended these events. 

Tomorrow, Thursday 27 July, is Waste Free Lunch Day! We thank our sustainability captains, Tilly and Lola, Mel Irons, Sofia Courtney, and the Wembley Waste Warriors Voluntary parent group for supporting us in planning this day. 

2023 MUSIC CONCERT

Wembley concert preparations are well underway. An email was sent today with relevant updates regarding ticketing, timing, and costumes.

Key information:

Date: Week 5, Friday the 11th of August 

(rehearsals on Thursday, 10th of August at school)

Location: Wembley Primary School Hall

Timings:

• 9:15am - Performance 1: Little Red Riding Hood (P-2 Surnames A-L)
• 10:15 am - Performance 2: Little Red Riding Hood (P-2 Surnames M-Z)
• 12:10pm - Performance 3: Singing in Harmony (Years 3 & 4)
• 2:40pm - Performance 4: Battle of the Bands (Years 5 & 6)
  Ticketing and Payment:
• $15 per family (not per student).
• Tickets will be opened for sale on Wednesday, 26th July and will close on Monday, 7th August.
• Payable only via the Sentral parent portal https://wembleyps.sentral.com.au/portal2/#!/login

Seating:

Two seats per family will be provided. Toddlers may sit on parents laps. 

Costumes:

Students' outfits are to feature their house colours on the day as long as it's school appropriate and sensible for their performance (no face paint). Students may wear their outfits to and from school.

NB: There will be no assembly on the day to accommodate performance timings.

Please note that there has been a slight shift in the order of the performances, with the concerts now running from Prep-Year 6 across the day as well as the P-2 performances being organised by surname for convenience of families with siblings.

We thank you for your support and look forward to celebrating with you on the day!

2024 PREP ENROLMENTS

We are currently conducting tours for 2024 prep families. This is a reminder to current families to enrol children of school start age at your earliest convenience! Enrolment forms can be found on the school website and/or collected from the office. Letters of enrolment offers will be sent to families in early August so we ask for all enrolments to be sent through with urgency. 

REPORTING - PARENT SURVEY

We would like to thank the families that were able to take the time to share some feedback regarding our reporting to parents processes, to assist us in celebrating, reflecting and improving our partnership between home and school, and also regarding our school day processes and changes that occurred this year as a result of the Victorian Government Schools Agreement. 

We are currently reflecting on the data and will use it to inform our future processes. 

Later this term we will seek feedback from our community regarding:

-Language at Wembley PS in 2024

-Communication at Wembley - regarding the use of Sentral, newsletter, social media and assembly

INCLUSION AND ANTI-RACISM

We would like to take some time to advise you that from Term 3 onwards, we will commence a body of work within the school as part of developing a proactive approach to responding to, and providing education around racism. The Executive Leadership Team has attended two training sessions with the Centre for Multicultural Youth around building anti-racism culture policies, processes and lessons. The lessons shared in classrooms will be focused on lesson planning from the program, SSUTR-Schools Standing up to Racism.

We will be developing a vision, action plan, resources, lessons to be embedded across the next 5 years. 

Please visit the wellbeing tab of the newsletter to read more about how we are supporting the learning and engagement of students and community around a focus on anti-racism. 

SCHOOL REVIEW

Some exciting news - we have been informed that our School Review will be held in Term Four, of this year. 

Every four years, schools move through a review process, in line with the Department of Education's Improvement Cycle. It's an opportunity for us to engage with our entire community in order to celebrate achievements and successes, as well as consider our improvement priorities for the next four years. 

At the end of the review process, we develop our School Strategic Plan (SSP), which outlines our intended direction, goals and key improvement strategies for the next four years. Every year, we develop an Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) which relates back to this SSP and outlines the actions we intend to take in order to reach our overarching goals. 

As part of this review process we will be engaging with students and our parent community; we will send further communication about what this will look like as we progress through the term. 

STAFFING UPDATE

Farewell Sophie

We thanks Sophie Robson for her contribution to Wembley PS. Sophie joined Wembley in January 2023, and is moving to the UK. 

Internal CRT's

We welcome Steph Kostas, Matthew Ross and Jenna Thompson, who have been employed for the remainder of the year, as internal CRT's (casual relief teachers) to support students regarding staff absences, and minimise the need to splitting classes. Steph was a pre-service teacher in Anna's year 3 class, Matthew was a pre-service teacher in Bella's prep class, and Jenna comes to us from Truganina South PS. 

Environmental Science-Bec Grieve and Laura Keays

We welcome Bec Grieve and Laura Keays who are teaching Environmental Science/Sustainability this semester, as a specialist;

This is in lieu of the French Language considering the recruitment challenges that were shared in term two. A survey will be shared with our community in the coming weeks regarding seeking input from parents, students and staff regarding language options and provision, to inform 2024 language program.

This week students have been engaged in learning about the living things surrounding us at Wembley Primary School, investigating and reflecting upon vegetation, creepy crawlies and bird life! 

CAPITAL WORKS BUILDING PROJECT UPDATE  

We are making progress in our Capital Works Building Project. Please visit the Capital Works project tab for an update of the works to occur over the next month.

Thanking you

In our most recent site meetings over the school holidays and just this week, we communicated the importance of understanding that this is a live site, and that we must protect the safety first and foremost, and also the access of all students into our minimised playground footprint in the interim during the capital building works project.

We are working daily with the project manager and site manager regarding the project and look forward to moving into the new building in early 2024. 

We thank our students, staff members and parents for their ongoing patience and resilience. 

Lunch time clubs

See below for lunch time clubs that are in place to support student play and socialisation in light of the minimised yard space, as a result of the capital works project. 

COLD AND FLU SEASON

As we move into prime cold and flu season, we wish to remind families of the importance of prioritising your health and wellbeing.

We ask parents to keep children home from school if they are unwell, and return to school when they are feeling healthy and well. 

We thank all staff for supporting the health and wellbeing of all students, with particular acknowledgement of Kathy in the first aid room for her care, consideration and communication with students, teachers and parents.

Teachers are continuing to ensure that students are sanitising regularly, air purifiers are on in each room set to the highest setting, and our cleaners are continuing to clean all spaces in the school thoroughly, and wipe down high touch surfaces.

We thank you in anticipation of your understanding, cooperation and support, in protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of all community members. 

WEMBLEY PS ON SOCIAL MEDIA 

We invite all community members to join in on the celebration of learning as we share key events, achievements and acknowledgements on our Wembley PS social media pages. 

If you haven't already, we invite you to follow along. 

A reminder that our school website, Sentral notifications and emails will continue to be our formal avenues of communication, whilst our newsletter will serve as a link between all platforms.

We ask that you take some time to familiarise yourselves with the Wembley Communications Policy, and the Code of Conduct-staff/students and parents, regarding the safe and respectable use of our chosen social media platforms. 

Communications Policy

Code of Conduct-staff/students and parents

Each school year we ask for permission to use our students’ images on various platforms, ie: newsletter and media release. This permission form addresses social media. If you don't wish for your child/ren to be included in social and hadn't indicated this on the consent form, please contact the school office on 93147054 or wembley.ps.@education.vic.gov.au to update your preferences. 

We look forward to continuing to engage with our community through these platforms, which will offer regular opportunities for connection and celebration. 

Please find us on Instagram at: @wembleyps4788

And via our official Facebook Page: Wembley Primary School (link here)