Newsletter – Week 8, Term 1, 2022 – Message from Admin Team, Mr Ramsey, Parent-Teacher Interviews Student Half Day, NAPLAN Online 2022, Faction Swimming Carnival, Swimming Training, Harmony Week Competition Winners, Canteen, Community News – Support for Children on the Autism Spectrum, Wembley Junior Football Club, Redhage Basketball

Message from the Executive Administration Team

Dear parents and caregivers

We are nearing the end of an eventful first term, with just over 2.5 weeks to go until the school holidays. While we are experiencing challenges, the community, staff and students continue to rise to these, ensuring that our school feels calm and importantly, open for learning. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Leadership Team Change: 

Further along in this newsletter, you will find a message from Deputy Principal Alan Ramsey who is leaving Wembley PS at the end of this term after 13 years at the school. First as a teacher, followed by his transition into school leadership in 2017, Alan has been a much loved member of our school community. He has always put students at the heart of everything he does and has achieved amazing outcomes for so many families as a result of his dedicated and caring approach. He has contributed significantly to many initiatives and school events, including being on the School Board for the past five years.

While this news will be disappointing for many, parents and carers will also appreciate that there comes a time in your career where a new challenge or context is what you need to move forward in your professional growth. Alan has given so much to our school, he now feels ready to move to a new school where he can contribute to a new community and group of students. I have worked alongside Alan for over four years and we have made a great team, enjoying many laughs along the way. It takes courage to step away and take on new challenges. So although I am sad to see Alan go, I am also proud to call him a trusted colleague and friend and wish him every success in his new school in Term 2. Although restrictions are in place and assemblies are not possible, we will be find a creative way for the community to send Alan off in style in Week 10.

Deputy Principal Appointment:

I am pleased to announce that Ms Stacey Hunter has been appointed to a 12 month fixed-term contract as Deputy Principal, commencing Term 2. Stacey is a highly experienced educator with experience in school leadership as deputy principal and principal in the Wheatbelt region and Perth Metro area and 15 years teaching experience prior to entering leadership positions. Stacey was also successful in being selected for the Department of Education’s highly competitive Aspirant Principal Preparation Program in 2020.

Stacey is an experienced Student Services Deputy Principal focused on positive student outcomes and will begin meeting with the leadership team this week to start the transition process for handover.

I know you will make Stacey feel very welcome as she settles into her new role at Wembley PS.

COVID

Positive cases:

If any member of your household tests positive, including parents/carers, your WPS child/ren or their siblings, please continue to notify the school as soon as possible. The preferred communication is to wembley.ps@education.wa.edu.au or the SMS attendance system.

The school email address and text message system are monitored over the weekend to ensure we can remain responsive to any cases that require close contacts to be identified.

Should close contacts be identified, we notify those families affected by text message and email as soon as practicable.

If there are no close contacts identified, this is because the student had not attended school while infectious. Usually this has occurred as parents/carers kept their child home when unwell or the family had already been in isolation. The infectious period does include the two days before symptoms develop.

It is important to note that all members of a household must isolate for the full seven days if there is a positive case from the date of the positive test, regardless of whether anyone is testing negative or asymptomatic.

Thank you everyone, the community has been absolutely amazing over the past few weeks and we really feel like it is a team effort keeping the number of cases as low as they have been, considering the size of our school. It’s no-one’s fault when they do get COVID; it’s extremely transmissible and everyone is trying to live their lives the best they can while keeping their families safe.

Teaching and Learning

Loose Parts Play:

The Year 1s were lucky enough to enjoy a Loose Parts Play incursion last week. Loose Parts Play is a type of play that supports invention, creative thinking, imaginative role play, problem solving and offers a sense of wonder to children. Students use a range of materials and objects that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways.

We have a dedicated storage area near our junior playground to house items for loose parts play that students can access during break times. Thank you to the Year 1 teachers who have been working with our dedicated parent volunteer Natalie Cox to build up the loose parts play area again to build on the momentum from the incursion. They certainly had lots of fun getting creative outdoors!

 

Engagement and Relationships

Parent-Teacher Interviews:

Please see your email for information on how to book your 10 minute telephone interview with your child’s teacher. Although we would have greatly preferred to have conducted these face-to-face, restrictions have not made this possible. Consideration was given to online video meetings, however we needed to make the format accessible to the entire community and prevent teachers having to operate across two modes of interviews. This would have been very challenging for teachers due to the tight time frames for the interviews. It is important to note that the interviews are about how your child has settled into the term and provide a chance for both the teacher and parent/carer to discuss important aspects of your child’s learning progress rather than being focused on school work samples or portfolios. If the teacher does discuss any work samples that illustrate an example, these can be shared on request.

Year 4-6 Swimming Carnival:

Our Year 4-6 faction swimming carnival is this Friday 25 March at HBF Stadium. Spectators are welcome as it is outdoors and there is space to physically distance. We will be asking parents and carers spectating to adhere to the stadium’s 2 square metre rule in the stands and wearing masks as an additional protective measure as much as possible as we are in the very high caseload setting.

We can’t wait to see our students in the pool! It is forecast to be hot so please apply sunscreen before school. We will have sunscreen available for re-application and students must have their hats. There is shade in the stands. Parents and carers, please assist by naming all items, including hats, towels, goggles and bags.

School Board Parent Representatives:

In May, the terms of three (3) current School Board parent representatives are expiring; School Board Chair Professor Tama Leaver, Jeff Gidman and Darren Westphal.

Both Prof Tama Leaver and Jeff Gidman intend to re-nominate for their positions on the School Board. Darren Westphal has decided to step down from the board at the end of his term in May after three years on the School Board. All these members have been outstanding in their contributions during their tenures.

The process from here is to call for nominations to join the School Board as a parent representative. Should there be more than three nominations, including those from Tama Leaver and Jeff Gidman, an election will need to be held and all parents will be given the opportunity to vote via a secure link.

Nomination Information and Process:

The WPS School Board is an unincorporated Board. Board members participate in school governance by supporting the principal and school staff to implement the strategic directions outlined in the Department’s 2020-24 strategic directions Every student, every classroom, every day and Building on Strength and the WPS Business Plan 2020-22 to achieve year on year improvement.

• Endorsing and reviewing the school budget and Business Plan
• Processes to review school performance
• Processes to determine satisfaction levels
• Reporting school progress and achievement and endorsing the Annual Report
• Input into policy development
• Communicating with the broader community the functions of the Board.

The Board is seeking nominations from parents with diverse skill sets. We are about to begin the development of the next School Business Plan and will continue to work on policy reviews and two improvement strategies; communication and a buildings and grounds master plan.

Please submit your nomination via this link: https://forms.office.com/r/rEPGpaabi7.

Nominations close on Monday 28 March at 4pm.

On the form please include: name, occupation, year levels of children at WPS, and a brief description (no more than 150 words) of the skills and expertise you would bring to the Board. Board members who are renominating also need to re-apply.

 

Yours in learning

The Senior Leadership Team

Tamara, Milani, Alan, Rachel and Natalie