Newsletter Week 1 Term 1, 2023 – Message from Admin, Compass, Canteen, Children’s Crossings Unattended, Library Bookclub, P & C Association, Hockey Club

Message from Administration

Dear parents and caregivers

What a terrific start to the year we have had today! It was wonderful to welcome back so many smiling faces to school this morning. I also extend a warm welcome to all our new families who have commenced their educational journey at Wembley Primary School this year. We start the year with 802 students in Kindergarten to Year 6.

We have 45 students who are new to the school starting in Term 1 (excluding our Kindergarten students). We have a beautiful community at our school and I know that you will warmly welcome our new families and help them settle in during the coming weeks.

To our Kindergarten parents, your journey is just beginning, and we are so thrilled to have you join our school. Embrace the opportunity to become a part of our community. There are many ways you can connect, including parent volunteering in the classroom, the P&C and our canteen.

At the opposite end of the school, many of our Year 6 parents and caregivers are entering their 8^th and final year as part of our community. The final year of primary school is an exciting time for our senior students with lots of opportunities to grow and ready themselves for the next stage of their education. I encourage our Year 6 parents to also embrace being part of the community in the final year of their child’s primary schooling years and I thank the many parents who continue to give so much of their time to our school.

New staff: We welcome several new and returning staff to our school this year.

Deputy Principal – Mr Scott Sullivan

Kindergarten/Pre-primary – Ms Celeste Cunningham

Year 4 – Ms Ellen Lawless (Room 22)

Year 5/6 – Mr Jeff Cornez (Room 14)

Music – Ms Alana Porter

 

Returning staff

Kindy/Pre-primary and Year 2 – Mrs Jessica Ralph (PP4, Room 6)

Pre-primary – Sophie Hillen (PP2)

Year 6 – Mrs Michelle Lucas (Room 17)

Compass: As expected we have had a few glitches during our Term 1 rollover at the start of the year. There have been some delays in messages being received or viewed. We are working through these issues and hope to have these resolved shortly. Please contact the office on Monday if you are continuing to experience issues with accessing the system or viewing news feed items.

If you know your parent user name but have have forgotten your password, you can reset this on the Compass login screen. If this does not work, the office can send a password reset email to you.

It’s so important to ensure you have access to Compass in 2023 as all communication will come through the Compass portal. Events and excursion/incursion payment and permission has also moved to Compass. If you have a payment due, there will be a message visible on your home screen when you login.

Parent Information Sessions: We are finalising a timetable for face-to-face parent information sessions which will take place in Week 2 and 3. After three years of disruption due to COVID-19, we are thankful to be returning to our preferred format. These sessions will give you the opportunity to meet your child’s teachers and receive information about class programs, procedures and expectations for the year ahead. We will advise parents and caregivers of the relevant times this week.

 

2023-2025 Business Plan: This term we will be launching our new strategic plan to guide our school direction for the next three years. We have engaged in extensive consultation over the past 6-8 months and we are almost ready to launch the plan with the community. I thank parent Trisha Davies who continues to give her time so generously to support the school with graphic design. Our pillars for the next Business Plan are;

1. High Impact Teaching, Learning and Leadership
2. Inclusive and Supportive School Culture
3. Positive Community Partnerships

Each pillar has several strategies that will outline our intended actions for ongoing school improvement. I look forward to sharing these with you in the coming weeks.

Communication: Our regular newsletter will be issued fortnightly every Tuesday via Compass this year. The next newsletter will be in Week 3, on Tuesday 14 February. Those subscribing to our school website, may also receive the newsletter via their email subscription.

In between these newsletters being issued, you will likely receive updates from your child’s teachers via the News Feed, also on Compass. If there are any messages specific to your child’s class or year level, we will send these direct to the relevant groups through Compass.

We are looking forward to a wonderful year ahead, thank you for your support in making the the first day of school so successful.

‘Collaborate, Connect, Communicate and Care’.

Yours in learning

The Senior Leadership Team

Tamara, Milani, Stacey, Scott and Natalie