Newsletter – Week 1, Term 1, 2022 – Message from Admin Team, Gifted and Talented, Canteen, 2022 P&C News, P&C Class Representatives, Student Accounts, Library, Scholastic Book Club, Kindy Shirts, Before School Swimming Training, Faction Swimming Carnival Yrs 4-6, Years 4-6 Interim Swimming Lessons, Traffic Wardens Needed, Young Engineers Club, Mark Lee Football Coaching, Chess Class, Redhage Basketball, Tennis Club

Message from the Executive Administration Team

Dear parents and caregivers

Kaya (Hello) and Wanjoo (Welcome) back to the entire school community. It was a wonderful atmosphere as we opened the gates yesterday and many excited young people streamed in, eager to see their friends and meet their teachers. I thank parents and caregivers for assisting to make the first day back at school so positive. I know how much work goes into the transition into a new school year and all the preparation with resources, uniforms, haircuts, new shoes and lunchboxes. Hands up if you left any of those until last week… maybe that was just me!?

Our staff were also thrilled to welcome our students back to school and had a fantastic day yesterday. On Thursday and Friday last week, we engaged in professional learning as a staff on a range of key focus areas for the school. These included student health and well-being, making ‘Connections to Country’ for our community as we progress our Reconciliation Action Plan, connected practice in mathematics, planning teaching and learning programs for Term 1 in collaborative hubs and ensuring we are ready to provide learning at home should the need arise throughout the school year.

We enter the third year of the pandemic in 2022 though it is likely to be the first year we experience ongoing disruptions to our regular way of life. This won’t be without its challenges but as a wider system and school, we feel prepared and ready to adjust operations to ensure we keep students safe, connected and most importantly, learning.

As outlined in the Term 1 Operations Plan, we have implemented a range of strategies which can be progressively scaled up as the risk increases. The approach is layered and is assisted by everyone in the community to ensure we keep transmission limited. We need your help to ensure that school stays open, we have the least disruption possible and students and staff are protected. So, how can you help?

• Keep your child home if they are unwell or exhibit any cold/flu symptoms. Wait to send your child back until they are healthy.
• Wear your mask to enter any indoor area of the school and preferably outside as physical distancing is difficult when you are talking and socialising with other parents.
• Stay connected to the school and breast of communications by subscribing to the school newsletter on the homepage of the school website, subscribe to your child’s class blog and engage with Seesaw.
• Inform the principal if you or your child tests positive for COVID-19.
• Be patient and understanding should there be a staffing change in your child’s classroom. If staff need to self-isolate or quarantine, your child may have a different teacher or EA for a short amount of time.

The ventilation assessments have been completed and we now have air purifiers for the classrooms and areas designated as requiring these. These are mostly in the older parts of the school with less than adequate ventilation (rooms along enclosed junior verandah block and Kindy C/D). Existing mechanical and natural ventilation will be in place in all other learning and office areas.

Staffing: A welcome to the following staff members, new and returning to Wembley for 2022:

New

• Mr Jordan Tait (Room 1, Year 3)
• Mrs Bettina Martin (Room 24, Year 5)

Returning

• Mrs Ceri Carter (Room 6, Year 2)
• Ms Marissa Gell (Room 2, Year 4)
• Mrs Milani Grace (Deputy Principal, Monday-Wednesday)

New role

• Congratulations to Mrs Natalie Mueller who steps into her first Deputy Principal role on Thursdays in addition to her classroom teaching role from Monday-Wednesday. Mrs Mueller will share leadership responsibilities for Kindergarten and Pre-primary with Mrs Rachel Cusack (K-2).

Learning Environment

Pop Up Fairy Village and Tinker Garden: Last year, parents Natalie Cox and Caroline Read started a small world play area in the grassed Grantham St section of our junior playground. Julia Foulsham has also joined the group and together they are collaborating to provide our students in the early years with some open ended play opportunities at break times. The pop up village is back by popular demand! Take a look at what the Year 1-2 students created today! Thank you to those parents who are partnering with us to make our learning environment engaging for our students. Watch this space, there is more to come!

 

Engagement and Relationships

Attendance:

We have an SMS system for attendance. If your child is away for any reason please SMS 0447 932 933 by 9:30am with the following simple details only:

Child’s name, room number, brief reason for absence.

An automated SMS will be sent to Parent/Guardian contact #1 at 10am each day if your child has been marked as absent by the classroom teacher and no reason has been provided.

 

Parent Information Sessions:

We will be holding face-to-face parent information sessions in Week 3 and 4 to ensure parents and caregivers have the opportunity to meet the teacher/s and hear about how their child’s classroom will operate in 2022.

Due to the current COVID situation, we ask that only one parent or caregiver attends and masks are worn. The rooms will be well ventilated and chairs will be physically distanced as much as possible in the particular classrooms. If you can’t attend, a PowerPoint presentation will be posted to class blogs to summarise the key messages.

The schedule for these sessions is currently being finalised and will be communicated shortly.

 

Term Overviews:

An overview of the teaching and learning for the term will be uploaded to class blogs by next Friday afternoon. These provide you with information on the skills and knowledge that students will be learning in Term 1. These are collaboratively developed by each year level with information added from our specialist teaching team.

Community Engagement

Student Leadership:

The Year 6 leadership assembly and badge presentation will be held on the school oval on Tuesday 15 February at 2:40pm. Parents of the Year 6 students are invited to attend.

Assemblies:

Due to the size of our student population, we will be moving to a senior/junior assembly model while we can still hold face-to-face assemblies. This will allow for better physical distancing. We will alternate between Senior (Year 4-6) and Junior (Year 1-3) every Tuesday at 2:40pm. It is likely that we will need to revert to a virtual assembly model at some stage. We will be guided by current health advice and Department of Education guidelines but will keep face-to-face as long as it is safe to do so. Our first assembly will be a junior student assembly on Tuesday 22 February at 2:40pm. Parents are welcome to attend but we ask that you maintain physical distancing, wear masks and view the assembly from the perimeter of the undercover area (side doors will be open). Our Year 6 student leaders will host each assembly on a rotating basis, taking turns to present the junior and senior assemblies.

P&C:

This year we will have a change in leadership in the P&C, which has been such a positive and productive partnership for so long at Wembley PS. The P&C is more than a fundraising body, it also serves to keep our community connected and thriving. A healthy and motivated P&C will be more important this year than ever. Tiffany Fox and Helen Gotjamanos have done a wonderful job in the role over the past two years and I truly thank them for their tireless work. It’s now time for new people to step into the role. I really encourage you to think about joining the P&C and potentially taking on an executive role. I look forward to working with both the P&C and School Board again this year to continue making Wembley PS a dynamic and progressive school for our students to attend.

Let’s have a wonderful year together as a community – ‘Collaborate, Connect, Communicate and Care’.

Yours in learning

The Senior Leadership Team

Tamara, Milani, Alan, Rachel and Natalie