The term is now beyond the halfway mark and the school has well and truly picked up its pace, returning to what I would consider to be the vibrant place that you expect to see in a pre Covid school. This means we are now looking at ways that we can continue to interact and learn together as a school community. There are a couple of events that stand out for the remainder of the term and as a principal I am looking forward to seeing these come to fruition.

Kindness Festival

We are going to be running our very first Kindness Festival at school, beginning Friday 18th March. It will run for a week with a closing assembly on the 25th March where students will showcase the activities and work they have created for the week around the theme of kindness. Friday 18th March is National Day for Action Against Bullying and Violence. Harmony Week also begins on the 21st March and our staff decided it would be great to acknowledge these two very important events and develop a Kindness Festival.

Eliza and Nikki have worked hard to develop this idea and the staff are really looking forward to putting our school value of ‘Kindness’ into action to help embed a culture in our school where students value and understand the importance of being kind in our everyday lives and the positive impact that has on the people around us. From my perspective I lead with the core belief that kindness is the most important aspect of being part of a community and that with kindness we can improve the world around us and the lives of the people around us.

Weather permitting, we will have an open assembly on Friday 18th March at 9:15 to kick off the festival as a whole school. Parents are welcome to attend this assembly.

Warrandyte Festival

There is a lot of excitement around the school about the annual Warrandyte Festival on Satruday 19th March. Of course, the anticipated parade and magnificent float that Eliza has been constructing are sure to impress the judges on the day. We also have a great show on the main stage after the parade for our families and the community to enjoy. Kevin has been working hard with the Bushband and after 2 years of not being able to perform on the main stage, Kevin and the students are very excited. Kirsty has been choreographing dances and teaching all the students Advance Australia Fair in Auslan for us to perform on stage.

Warrandyte Primary Food Stall at the Warrandyte Festival

We have our FOWPS team working incredibly hard to get our regular WPS food stall up for the Festival. Linda Nolte has taken over the role as President of FOWPS and is doing an amazing job filling in forms, seeking compliance and coordinating the day. We are also incredibly lucky to have Vy Costen cooking for us so that we can try something new, selling Banhmi on the day as well as as our traditional cakes/slices. Of course, the stall will be selling the very popular Fairy Floss, as we have done in the past. A lot of work has gone into making this stall a fundraising success and I thank everyone involved in its implementation.

We still require more volunteers to help with the WPS stall at the Warrandyte Festival. This is an important fundraising event that benefits our students and school community.

We will need some support (and muscle power) loading all equipment onto the vehicle, at set up, pack up and unloading. Please note set up has to occur between 7:30-9:00AM on the Saturday and pack up is at 5:00-6:00PM. Only one registered vehicle permit holder will have access to the WPS stall area which we are arranging.

Thank you to those families’ baking goods for our stall. We need volunteers to help pack baked goods into the required packaging. If you are available to help pack goods please contact Terri Fernando via Messenger or the FOWPS Facebook page. We also need more volunteers to be on the stall selling goods as well. The FOWPS group will ensure you are well prepared to do this role and it’s a great way to meet others and engage with the community.

Please complete the volunteer roster available here. Many hands make light work.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HXUGIIlmS81Ufzj2_uLZJheuuWifqjIXGet4jD4_aYI/edit The document will be updated soon to allow for those that can help with loading, set up and pack up.

Finally, if anyone has a portable hot water basin system available, can you please contact the school and let us know. We are now required to have access to hot/warm water with a basin as sanitising hands is no longer considered enough for health and safety reasons. If there are any campers out there with portable basin, we would be very appreciative if we could borrow this for the day. Hiring a unit will cut into our profits.

As we prepare for the Warrandyte Festival next week will be a busy one so enjoy the additional day of rest on Monday and if you are lucky enough to be getting away, enjoy your time as a family and travel safely.

Take care,

Nieta

OHSC