Message from the Executive Administration Team
Dear parents and caregivers
What a relief it has been to ditch the masks this week and welcome parents and caregivers back onto communal verandahs and into classrooms as parent volunteers! A wonderful result for the State that we have avoided any further ongoing restrictions that significantly impact schooling. I thank you again for your support over the past few weeks as we have contended with an ever changing landscape.
Our Year 3 and 5 students had a very smooth start to NAPLAN testing today with no technical issues or problems encountered. While I’m sure there were a few nerves, all students gave their very best and approached the testing with great courage and resilience. Great to see our students drawing on their CARES values, and thank you parents and caregivers for your help over the next two weeks with getting your children to school on time, rested and charged up with lots of healthy food to keep energy levels high.
Learning Environment
In this digital world, our students are growing up in an environment far different to the one many of us, as staff and parents, grew up in. The challenges faced by both students and therefore parents and caregivers can be complex. As a school, our aim is to be proactive in our approach to cyber safety education to keep students safe online and provide students with the knowledge and skills needed at the developmentally appropriate time. We use a number of resources to teach children about cyber safety including the eSafety Commissioner website, which also has a great section for parents: https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents. I would also recommend the Beacon app, developed by Telethon Kids Institute for a trusted and reliable source of information.
This year, we have partnered with ySafe again, a leading company who offer cyber safety education to schools across Australia. On Friday, our Year 6 students attended an interactive and engaging session with two presenters from ySafe which was relevant to their age group and the issues they may face such as navigating digital messages between peers. Our Year 5 students are scheduled to have a similar session in Week 6 to complement the work being done by teachers in this space.
I am also pleased to confirm that a parent session hosted by ySafe will be held at Wembley PS in the coming weeks. Please save the date – Tuesday June 1 at 6:30pm in the school undercover area. A registration link is being created by ySafe and will be available for parents to reserve their place soon. Access to ySafe’s Cyber Safety Hub will also be made available for parents following the event.
Community Engagement
An aim of the School Board is to keep the community informed about school policies that are reviewed and endorsed through discussion and consultation at the Board level. All school policies are periodically reviewed according to a set schedule to ensure that school operations and procedures are clear and effective.
In 2019, a significant body of work was undertaken around community engagement and school culture by a School Board sub-committee in partnership with the staff, Board and parent focus groups. A number of these policies will be reviewed throughout the course of 2021. At the School Board meeting held on 30 March, 2021 there were two policies, ‘Talking With My School’ and ‘Complaints Management’, re-endorsed and I would like to draw your attention to their location on the Policies page on the school website: http://www.wembleyps.wa.edu.au/policies/. Currently, the ‘Good Standing Policy’ is under review and the community engagement board sub-committee is considering changes to make the process clearer for students, teachers and parents.
I would also like to celebrate the very positive external Public School Review Report that is now available on the school website. As you would be aware, every 3-5 years, all Independent Public Schools undertake this rigorous process of school self-assessment and review. The report reflects the commitment of our senior leadership team and staff in partnership with our community through the School Board and P&C into making WPS an engaging learning environment that focuses on the whole child through academic, social and emotional learning. The recommendations made by the reviewers were self-nominated by the school as areas we wish to continue seeking to improve on and strengthen, as set out in our Business Plan. Work has already commenced on many of these this Term. I encourage you to read the report, located here on the school website.
Collaborate, Connect, Communicate.
Yours in learning
Executive Admin Team
Tamara, Alan, Rachel and Melinda
Parent Help Full School Song: Calling all Song Writers, Lyricists and Poets
We are embarking on a very exciting time in our school culture by writing our own school community song to replace the School Creed. The culture of the school has seen significant change over the past several years: the joy that the new faction names have created in our community, revamping our CARES values by adding Courage and Equity and the community collaboration that occurred with the writing of the Community Engagement Plan, it is now time to create some community music!
Currently the song features ideas from the Year 6s about their own school experience. We would like to extend this to include lines about CARES, Faction Icons (Jackson, Winton, Stanley, Farmer) and school community experiences.
We are in need of two lines. Each line needs to be 8 beats long and they need to rhyme with each other. Submissions due by Friday 4 June 4pm. (Term 2, Week 7). You can submit your two lines here: https://forms.office.com/r/usFnphKfrr
If you have any questions or can help with the production of this song, please email katherine.goyder@education.wa.edu.au
Kate Goyder
Music Specialist
P&C Meeting TONIGHT
Everyone is welcome to join us at the P&C meeting tonight at 7.30pm in the school library. The meeting is expected to take no longer than one hour.
Wine and Paint Night
Thank you to all the mums who tapped into their inner artist and shared lots of laughs at our ‘wine and paint’ social evening. Cabernet & Canvas guided us step by step through painting the Perth skyline against a Van Gogh-inspired sky, and everyone took home a colourful masterpiece at the end. Keep an eye out for our next community engagement event!
Tiffany Fox
President
Kindergarten 2022
Applications are open for Kindergarten 2022. If your child is born between 01 July 2017 to 30 June 2018 they are eligible to enrol for 2022. Applications close on 23 July 2021. Please download an application from our website.
Pre-primary 2022
In Term 3, 2021, closer to the issuing of Council Rates Notices 2021/22, parents of our existing kindergarten students will receive in the mail relevant documents for enrolling in pre-primary 2022, until then no action is required.
Canteen
Meet Granny Tan
This is Julie, fabulous creator of our noodles served on Thursdays, regular canteen volunteer and a doting grandmother to two WPS students. We all think she’s pretty special.
Granny Tan’s Minced Pork Noodles are a huge hit with students, staff and the clever volunteers who choose to help out on Thursdays just to smell (and taste) these emerge from the kitchen.
$5.80 on Quickcliq or cash sales at the canteen.
Volunteers
It’s no secret, we really can’t operate our canteen without parent help.
Every Friday between 8.45am and 9.30am we need help putting stickers on bags, making pikelets or wrapping forks in napkins. If you can help, please just stop in, tea and coffee are always available and if the timing is right, the muffins might be coming out of the oven.
If you want to learn some tricks of the trade or have a foodie question, come in for a two or three hour shift and whilst that time zooms by, we can chat all you want about ingredients, methods or helpful hints.
Sign up here it’s guaranteed good fun!
Friday Snack Box
It seems they’re a hit!
Keep an eye on the P&C Facebook Page, Quickcliq welcome message, chalkboards and class notifications for what’s coming up.
Mother’s Day Tarts
Thank you to everyone who purchased breakfast tarts last Friday, sent messages and snapshots of their kids serving them to Mum on Mother’s Day. You made us smile brightly!
Book Club
Thank you for all the Book Club Orders. They will be distributed this week.
Jill Jordan
Library
State Cross Country for Years 3-6
The State Cross Country will be held on Thursday 12 August at McGillivray Park/UWA Sports Park, in Mt Claremont.
Entries are due by 2 August. Below is the link to the website for details. Any questions please email Mr Bowman: Jonathon.bowman@education.wa.edu.au
https://www.schoolsportwa.com.au/interschool/primary/cross-country/
Jonathon Bowman
Physical Education Specialist
Celebrating Success
Congratulations to Uma C. and Lachie P. who have been selected to play hockey for SSWA under 13s.
Uma and Lachie are products of local club YMCC and have been playing hockey since Year 1. They have also represented the school strongly at interschool events. Well done Uma and Lachie!