Newsletter 7 – Week 7, Term 4, 2021 – Message from Admin Team, Personal Items List 2022, Kids Carnival, 2022 P&C Voluntary Contributions, Uniform Shop, Canteen, Luke Bartlett Leukaemia Fundraising, Young Engineers 2022, Mark Lee Football Camps

Message from the Executive Administration Team

Dear parents and caregivers

It was wonderful to see so many of you at the P&C Kids Carnival & Christmas Market on the weekend. It was a lovely, relaxed vibe with the animal farm, snow cones, bouncy castle, pony rides and mini train rides being super popular with the kids. What made the day, was the array of musical talent throughout the day and of course the appearance of Santa himself! It was such a great opportunity to connect as a community and meet old friends and hopefully a few new ones. The day would not have been possible without the tireless volunteer work of both Victoria Martelli and Bec Guy. Their aim was to provide an opportunity for community engagement and they certainly achieved their goal in spades. Thank you, Victoria and Bec, your partnership and support of the school community is so appreciated.

There were also many, many other parents who volunteered on the day, giving up a few hours of their time to make it all happen. It was lovely to speak to many of you who, like me, work full time and can only volunteer occasionally. Every little bit of time counts and is very much appreciated, so thank you. I can’t forget our dedicated Year 6 media team too; all our media captains gave up their Saturday to help with the AV and sound. Many thanks to you all and of course Mr Alan Ramsey who gave up his time to assist too. I look forward to many more opportunities over the next few weeks to connect with you as we wind down to the end of the year.

2022 Class Placements: Staff are currently working through class placements for 2022. The opportunity to send in requests to the principal closed on Monday November 22 as per notices in the newsletters. As you can imagine, it is a complex and time-consuming task. We do our very best to place students in learning environments in which they can thrive. The class lists for 2022 will be emailed to parents on Wednesday 15 December at 4pm.

Teaching and Learning

Talent Quests: Last Friday, an exceptionally talented group of Year 5 and 6 students took to the stage in front of hundreds of their peers, parents and staff to perform in our annual Senior Talent Quest. All students have the opportunity to nominate to perform in their musical talent of choice, either singing, or playing instruments, or in some cases both! They absolutely blew us away with their bravery, courage and talent. We went from Beethoven to Rick Astley, Green Day, Blur, Metallica, Coldplay and Elton John. Music specialist Miss Kate Goyder works so hard to encourage this creativity and create a learning environment that promotes The Arts through opportunities to perform on stage. Music education is highly valued at Wembley and the talent quests show the products of this environment. I take my hat off to all the students who performed, who no doubt spent many, many hours practising at home and being committed to private lessons as well. Well done to all the mums and dads for encouraging our students to pursue The Arts, it is certainly paying off! An extra special congratulations to our ‘Highly Commended’ acts – Poppy L (Year 5), Zephyr T (Year 5), Ollie P (Year 6), Isabella J (Year 6) and Olivia J (Year 6). Thank you to Mrs Mary-Anne Goyder and Mrs Nan Sheppard for being our esteemed judges on the day.

Our Year 3 and 4 students take to the stage in the Junior Talent Quest this Friday afternoon at 1:45pm. All are welcome to come along and support our students.

Leadership

Student Leadership: It’s that time of year when our Year 5s step up and put themselves forward to be student leaders in 2022. If you are a parent of a Year 5 student, you may have been coaching your child through writing their pitch or speech over the past few weeks. Your child may also have opted not to nominate for an official position and that is also completely okay too. As we say to the group, all students are leaders when they enter the senior school. Our younger students look up to our Year 4, 5 and 6 students as role models and want to be just like them. We strive for all our students to demonstrate our CARES values and model our school agreements, in the classroom, playground and community. If you can help us to reinforce this message at home, we would be grateful. Their positive actions and behaviours make a difference to our school culture and student well-being. Being a student leader with a badge does bring extra special recognition and responsibilities and we look forward to seeing who will lead the school next year. In Week 9, we will hold a Leadership Assembly to announce the new student leadership positions.

Community Engagement

Kiss and Drive Safety: Over the next two weeks, we will have buses arriving and departing all day for swimming and surfing. Please remain in your car when dropping off your child in the Kiss and Drive areas rather than getting out to open doors and say goodbye on the street. A quick kiss and hug in the car is the best way to keep traffic flowing and is much safer for all. Your child should also keep their school bag on the seat with them, rather than placing it in the boot, wherever possible to keep cars moving. I thank you for your assistance with keeping our Kiss and Drive areas moving swiftly and safely.

Connect, Collaborate, Communicate

Yours in learning

Tamara, Alan, Rachel and Kerry