After a very successful couple of weeks of grade 1/2 swimming, I was elated to receive feedback from a number of community members at the pool about the exceptional behaviour of our grade 1/2 students and the way our staff care and interacted with the students at the pool. One person even took the time to phone the office to share their very positive feedback about our staff and students.

I want to acknowledge that going to the pool each day is a big task, but our teachers continued to support, smile and make sure every child had a positive experience. Congratulations to the 1/2 team! This week Aquazone host our Grade 5/6 students until the end of term.

From 2023, each government school is allocated a minimum number of placement days to host, depending on school size and location. This is designed to share responsibility for hosting Pre-service teacher placements more equitably and provide fairer access to graduate recruits. We are very proud to be involved in supporting the development and experiences of pre-service teachers as they complete their undergraduate studies and thank Ms Ali Smith for co-ordinating their placements at Warrnambool East. This week we warmly welcome

Andreas Kousis – 1/2W
Andrew Jones – 3/4 S
Nishadhi Siriwardena – 3/4 L
Evelyn Hiscock – 5/6D

The Victorian Government's school dental van program provides free dental care to all students at Victorian government primary and secondary schools. The commitment includes 250 school dental vans, with screening and treatment to occur on school premises. We are fortunate to have the Dental Van at East this week (and last week). Tooth decay is one of the most prevalent disease in Victoria with almost half of all children affected. And dental conditions are the highest single cause of preventable hospitalisations for kids under 10, so it is great to know we are making a contribution to changing these statistics. Well done to all our students who have had a visit to the dental van.

Last week we acknowledged Harmony Week by wearing orange, school captains hosted assembly and our students participated in different activity to gain a deeper understanding of what Harmony Weel is - the celebration that recognises our diversity and brings together Australians from all different backgrounds. We were privileged to hear some of our lovely students speak about their different backgrounds and we learnt that we have a number of students in our school who speak more than one language. As a school community, I believe we are very respectful of cultural diversity and embrace opportunities to learn, understand and know more. We will keep strengthening our connections and create opportunities to share, celebrate and learn even more together.

This week we were celebrating our amazing little prep people with their families. We had a lovely evening together, eating pizza, prep people showed off their classrooms and workbooks and parents had a ‘back to the classroom’ session with their teachers (while the preps had a dance party with Mrs Milich, Mrs Baulch and Mrs Dwyer).

Congratulations to all our very important little people (and their mums/dads/carers) on almost completing a whole term at school. Let’s keep going and celebrating all the wonderful achievements along the way (there will be many, many more).

This week we also shared a lovely advertisement for Foundation 2024 on our school facebook page. Please share the post with family/friends who have a prep person next year.

We have a busy end to the term next week…

Monday night – Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander family night 6-7.30pm
Tuesday night – School Council AGM 7pm
Thursday - Easter Hat Parade/Family Picnic and last day of term 2 (see calendar for times)

We look forward to seeing all who can attend on Thursday. Families will be welcome to take their children home at 2pm (at the conclusion of the picnic), the school day will officially end at 2.20pm. If you are taking your children home early please sign them out at the office.

I wish all our students, parents, families and staff a restful term break and very Happy Easter and look forward to seeing students back at school on Wednesday 26th April.

Backflips Against Bullying