Principal  Message

Hello everyone,

I had written a lovely message all ready to send on the Principal Message page, when I heard the news of our 5-day lock down.  Our new normal is to be able to take the changes and adapt as quickly as we can and over the next 5 days I have no doubt that we will do just that. A letter has gone home explaining what will happen during school hours on Monday to Wednesday next week. There is an expectation by the department that teachers provide short activities for students learning from home and these will be upload via Compass on Sunday afternoon/night.

Vulnerable students and students whose parents are both essential workers can opt to have their child/ren supervised at school and there will be teachers and ES staff here who have volunteered to come to work to allow that to happen. I will also be here each day so please touch base with me if you need anything.

Now, here is what I had written for you this morning...  

It has been a real pleasure to walk through the classrooms this week and see the students engaging in their learning. There are two types of noise in a classroom. One is noise from students talking over one another and is usually an indicator that students are off task. The other is commonly referred to by teachers as 'positive noise' or 'the learning buzz, which is more conducive to being an atmosphere where students are engaged in their learning and discussing with their peers and teachers their thoughts and ideas about the topic/subject being covered. As I've walked around the classrooms this week it has been wonderful to hear the 'buzz' as the children collaborate, share ideas and work in small groups. To be this settled by Week 3 is a great achievement.

This week we had an unexpected visitor turn up at the office. Julie had been a student at WPS in the 1950's and wondered if she might look around as she was curious to see how much had changed.  The first thing she asked was where was the bell and when I showed her the bell mounted in the office, she couldn't believe how much smaller it was than she'd remembered.  The bell used to hang outside the stone building and she still remembered the sound it made. After walking around the buildings, she said that her four years as student at Warrandyte Primary (they moved out of the area after the bushfire's) were her happiest childhood memories. What was really lovely was that she felt the calm and happy energy she remembered from all those years ago was still present today.  It was really lovely to hear about how much she valued her time at this school some 65+ years later and a reminder of how precious the primary years are.

Monday morning assemblies have been running and will continue to run at the beginning of our week, so if you are able to attend we would love to have our families there as we prepare for our week and celebrate our achievements. This week we presented the 2021 school leaders with their badges and discussed what it means to be a leader. The badge is an acknowledgement of their leadership but it is what they do and how they try to make a difference in the school that will make them a leader.  The school leaders have taken their responsibilities very seriously and I look forward to working with them this term on their ideas and duties.

Our School Captains, Joe and Charlotte also talked to the children about what kindness might look like in our school and how important it is to show kindness in all that we do. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwAYpLVyeFU&list=PLE8F0F3tI6mVBSSrbLXl8zsE3DQThqGKU

The link above was a clip that was shown and some of the classes re watched it in their classrooms to talk more about how daily acts of kindness impact the world around us.

Take care and stay safe.

Nieta Manser

Acting Principal