WELCOME TO THE 2023 SCHOOL YEAR

Welcome back to another new year at Wales Street PS and a special welcome to our new students and their families from Foundation and across the school and to our new staff members. We have had an incredibly positive and smooth start to the year with the students settling in quickly to the routine of being back at school in their new classes.

STAFF

This year we welcome the following new staff members:

Abbie Melchior: Foundation C

Samim Kashani: Grade 5B

Natalie Rambaldi: Grade 4C

Andrew Lyster: Grade 5A

Carmen Caruso: Italian (Fridays)

Megan Urban: Grade 5B Tuesdays & Grade 1C Wednesdays

Amaya Laucirica: Integration Aide

Curriculum day Monday 27th February: NUMERACY

I would like to introduce Dr Nathaniel Swain to our school community. Nathaniel is a passionate educator and has had many roles including class teacher, learning specialist, instructional coach, researcher, and his latest ventures are writing a book to be released this year, and a Latrobe University lecturer & researcher on the ‘Science of Learning.’ Wales Street Primary has been focused on the Science of Reading for a number of years now and have seen great results and confidence in our students. All schools in Victoria have numeracy as a focus for 2023. Nathaniel is working with our school to support us in refining strengthening teacher knowledge and understanding and refining our classroom practices across the school. The staff are excited to embark on this journey. We are fortunate that Nathaniel has been able to work around his University commitments to support us in our curriculum day on Monday 27th February. We are so fortunate that he is working with our school and look forward to a long partnership with Nathaniel over the coming years and he will be a parent at our school in 2024. We feel privileged that he thinks our school is wonderful.

Communication

Now that we are back into the swing of the school year please keep an eye out on Compass communication and Newsfeeds. Over the next week there will start to be events and activities that may need parent approval or payments.

Year level Information Nights for Parents

This year, we will be having our year level information nights on:

Tuesday 14th of February

5:00 – 5:45 Grade 1 Clyde Street Building Shared Space

5:45 – 6:30 Grade 2 Staffroom

6:30 – 7:15 Grade 3 Clyde Street Building Shared Space

Wednesday 15th of February

5:00 – 5:45 Grade 4 Clyde Street Building Shared Space

5:45 – 6:30 Grade 5 Clyde Street Building Shared Space

6:30 – 7:15 Grade 6 Staffroom

4:45 – 5:45 Specialist

Italian room

Art room

STEAM room

Performing Arts room

Thursday 16th of February

5:00 -5:45 Foundation Clyde Street Building Shared Space

Parent information nights are a great opportunity to learn about our learning programs and the important ways you can support the class teachers with your child's education.

Information will be shared collectively for the first 30 minutes, then staff will spend some time answering questions about year ahead. Parent Teacher Interviews will be held in week 7(week of March 13th) where individual discussions on student’s progression take place.

Privacy Policy

The Department of Education has provided

all schools with their Privacy policy to be

circulated annually to the parent

community. Please find the policy as an

attachment and in School

Documentation/Policies folder on Compass.

Mobile Phone Policy

All Victorian government schools are required to implement a local Mobile Phone

policy. There are DET and government guidelines regarding mobile phones and

messaging devices that we have included in the revised version of our Wales

Street Primary School Mobile Phone policy to reflect these changes. This revised

policy can be found on Compass under School Documentation.

All students who bring a mobile phone to school for safety reasons, will need to

collect and return a signed pink permission form to the office to register their

phone and it will be locked away during the school day. Please read the WSPS

Mobile phone policy and the WSPS Personal Property Policy so you are familiar

with the policy. Students can come to the office to collect a form to update our

records.

School Council

School Council Vacancies & Elections 2023 – Call for Nominations

Each year approximately half the members on School Council face election as

part of a process to ensure mentoring and renewal of this body. We have 4 parent

and 2 staff vacancies.

The role of School Council, the various categories of membership election and

calls for nominations for the 2023 election are detailed below. If you choose to

nominate, please attach a written paragraph about yourself that can be

published in the event of an election and for entry into the newsletter.

If the number of nominations exceeds the vacancies, then an election is

conducted for members of the School Council of Wales Street.

PS. Before considering standing for School Council, please consider the time

commitment, as it is an expectation that as a School Council member, you may

also be a member of one of the sub committees. Election Time Frame 2023:

Monday February 13th	Notice of School Council vacancies and calls for nominations Nomination forms on the website or copies at the front desk and attached to this newsletter
Friday February 24th	Closing Date for School Council Nominations at 4pm
Tuesday February 28th	Notification of School Council Elections if required
Wednesday March 1st	Display a list of Candidates, nominators, and seconder in the Office Foyer
Distribution of ballot papers by mail if necessary
Wednesday March 8th	Close of Ballot at 4:00pm
Friday March 10th	Counting of Votes and Declaration of the Poll
Wednesday March 29th	School Council AGM

Membership Category

Term of Office

No. of Positions

Parent Member

From after the day after the date of the declaration of the poll in 2023 to and inclusive of the date of the declaration of the poll in 2025

4

Department of Education and Training (DET) Employee

From after the day after the date of the declaration of the poll in 2023 to and inclusive of the date of the declaration of the poll in 2025

1

What is a School Council and What Does It Do?

All government schools in Victoria have a school council. They are legally formed

bodies that are given powers to set the key directions of a school within centrally

provided guidelines. In doing this, a school council is able to directly influence the

quality of education that the school provides for its students.

Who Is on the School Council?

• A Mandated Elected Parent Category

More than one third of the total members must be from this category.

Department of Education and Training (DET) employees can be Parent members

at their child’s school, as long as they are not employed at the school.

• A Mandated Elected DET Employee Category

Members of this category may make up no more than one third of the total

membership of school council. The principal of the school is automatically one of

these members

SunSmart - BRING YOUR HAT TO SCHOOL

Finally, we are a registered Sunsmart school which mean students need to wear a sunsmart from the start of term 1 into Term 2 (1st May) and again towards the end of Term 3 (1st Sept) until the end of the year. Please ensure hats are named so we can help lost hats return to their owner.

Children without hats will be directed to the shaded deck area behind the hall or the deck beside the oval. Hats are required for Physical Education classes and Sport.

Please note that all Lost Property can now be found in the hall. The tub is checked a couple of times a week and lost property returned to the owner if named.

School Values

Our school values are Respect, Responsibility and Kindness. Next week we will be focusing on ‘Kindness’ and it is ‘Random acts of Kindness week. Students will spend time during the week in reflecting on what it is to be kind and how they can show kindness. We have set up a kindness station at the front office where students are able to write on note to a friend and post in the box post box provided. I have a small team of grade 2 students who are passionate about being kind and caring and they will be emptying the post box on a Friday and deliver the messages to students in their classrooms. Hopefully spreading kindness across the school will become contagious.

Key Dates

Dates to remember

2023 Term dates

14-16 February

16 February

20-22 February

27 February

5 March

15- 27 March

17 February

3-5 April