Friday 16th September - Whole School Assembly 9:15am
Friday 16th September - Last Day of Term - 2:30 Dismissal
Monday 3rd October - First Day Term 4
Tuesday 4th October - P - 2 Water Safety Program starts
Tuesday 4th October - Sex Ed Australia Parent Info Evening 6:30pm
Monday 17th October - Prep Transition #2
Tuesday 18th October - School Council
Wednesday 19th October - 3/4 AFLW Clinic
Monday 24th October - Bully Zero Parent Session 7-8pm
Wednesday 26th October - Bricks for Kids Grade 2
Friday 28th October - P-2 Athletics
Wednesday 16th November - Pupil Free Day
Monday 21st November - Prep Transition #3

The term is almost over and what a spectacular week it has been.

Our Art Show returneth in all its glory.

This was our first on site whole school event post remote learning, and the warmth and excitement and love in the air was palpable, from the gallery, the performance space, the cinema, to the sweetshop, bbqs, and of course, the playground filled to the brim with happy happy children.   

The extraordinary transformation of the Gym and adjoining rooms to a giant arts space is always an awesome sight.  

What an arts team - Lence, Jo, Ralia, and Bryce – we are so fortunate to have their incredible talents to guide our children to design, create and perform. 

What a classroom teaching team we have also – their students' art pieces were inspirational, unique, at times funny, and poignant.  

I cannot thank everyone enough for being 100% there to celebrate the Arts AND our community connections.  So many parents said to me that they were SO HAPPY to be back at school for this special event, and also many were awed at their first ever live Art Show (our preps, 1s and 2s).

Special thanks to Kevin Foss, our resourceful maintenance tech (and Dad of Alice), for all of the behind the scenes set up/pack up, and for cranking out snags in the afternoon.  And also the many parents who volunteered with baking, set up, bbqing, tidying up, advertising, shopping, etc  It all cannot happen without you. 

Farewell to Shirley

A sad week for all of us with Shirley’s last official canteen day today.  I wonder who got the last toasted sandwich or Frozen Juice Cup?  Please drop into the Gym foyer to see the photoboard and sign the message book for her.  You are all welcome to join us (as always) for assembly tomorrow at 9.15 where we will formally farewell her as a community.

And goodbye to…

The Carr family have half left us already and Friday is Benji and Penny’s last day with us.  Penny has worked as a teacher on staff this year in the Tutor Learning Team, and Benji has been a proud member of Grade 5-6 Mary.  Good luck on the south side of the city!

Specialist programs

YWPS will introduce Digital Technology in 2023.  This specialist program will support the implementation of the Victorian Government Schools Agreement requirement that primary school teachers have a maximum of 21.5 hours of face to face teaching.

The programs for 2023 are: Digital Technology, Music, PE, Italian, Visual Art, and Drama.

Digital Technology will require considerable resourcing to establish, as the devices we have (desk top macs) are very old.  We are looking at developing an appropriate teaching and learning space that will accommodate programs such as robotics and coding.  These need floor space, rather than a lab set up, and a combo of ipads and mac computers.  It’s an exciting step for our staff and students, and one we have been thinking about for a while. 

2023 Planning

If you know that you will not be returning to YWPS next year please let us know asap.  This helps with our class placements, staff numbers, and room allocations.

Happy holidays, everyone.  I hope you stay safe and well and be ready for a big last term for 2022.

Karen

Our School Council meets twice each term.  Here is the latest report from our President, Kristine Daw.

Happy Spring!

It is hard to believe that we are already at the end of Term 3, and we have only another 12 weeks left in this school year!

Term 3 has certainly been a busy time at the school.

At the start of the term, we held the Comedy night at the Yarraville Club, and I am delighted to say, we raised over $8,000 for the school. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this wonderful event.

We have also had the Father’s Day stall and the Indigenous plant sale, raising money for the school. I hope everyone loved the presents they received.  The Events Committee did a great job at organising the stall – thank you.

And finally, the Art Show, the first whole school event, since 2019.

What a success it was.  It was truly amazing to view some incredible ideas and artwork, and every student should be very proud of their efforts. I know you will all agree when I say, we have some very talented students at the school.

A very big thank you to the teachers (especially the Arts teachers) and the Events committee for putting on a wonderful event. Apart from the art, the dessert bar was also a huge success.

As a Council, we continue to work on various projects across the school.  The sensory courtyard continues progressing, and we will be holding a working bee in October. If you can assist, we would appreciate your help.

This term marks the end of the canteen as we know it.  For the past 27 years, Shirley has run the YWPS school canteen, and she is finally hanging up her apron. Words cannot express the heartfelt thank you’s from the school community.  Please join us at the school assembly on Friday to farewell Shirley.

The Council is still finalising details for the Canteen in Term 4.  We are looking to move to an online system, and we will notify you once everything is in place.

It has been a whirlwind of a year, and next term will be another busy one.

I hope everyone has a wonderful break during the holidays, and hopefully, we get some warmer weather soon.

Working with a dedicated group of staff and parents is a pleasure, and I look forward to the remainder of the year. We also invite new parents to the school to join these sub-committees as we work together to provide further opportunities for our students.  Please get in touch with the school for more information.

Kristine

Kristine Daw

School Council President

In Term 4 the school will be engaging with a company called Bully Zero. Bully Zero works to prevent and reduce bullying through evidence-based education, advocacy and support for all communities across Australia. They operate on the front line, delivering educational programs that inform and empower everyone to put an end to bullying. As seen on Ten News, Sky News, The Project and more, Bully Zero has presented to over 400,000 parents, children and teachers, and is a Trusted eSafety Provider.

Bully Zero will be running three different workshops to support our students, staff and families to obtain a deeper understanding of bullying. These sessions will run over the course of 3 days – October 18^th, 21^st and 24^th.

The workshops we will be engaging with include:

Understanding Bullying – All Students will participate in a 1 hour session

 Young people are provided with evidence-based information on bullying, the different types of bullying and its impact on young people. Participants are also taught a variety of strategies to help them assess and respond to bullying situations, whilst also identifying and understanding the role of bystanders.

 New Beginnings – Year 6 Students will participate in a 1 hour session

 This program is designed to support Year 6 and 7 students transitioning from primary school to high school, with the aim to help and support them through the uncertainty and challenges such as bullying that may arise during this period.

 It Takes a Village – 1.5 hour Staff Information Session / 1 hour online Parent Session

 This session is aimed at Teachers and Parents and recognises the importance of the whole school community coming together to help recognise and prevent all types of bullying. This session provides understanding of bullying behaviours with strong focus on cyberbullying and cyber safety.

 Information regarding the date, time and link for the Parent Session will be sent out early next term.

If you have any questions regarding the Bully Zero Program please contact me via the front office.

Kind Regards,

Jayne Simmons

P-2 Assistant Principal

Any student or staff member who tests positive to COVID-19 must now isolate for a minimum of 5 instead of 7 days. If they are asymptomatic, they may return to school on day 6. If they are symptomatic, they must remain in isolation until day 7.  If they have symptoms after 7 days, they are strongly advised to stay home until their symptoms have resolved.

I have a home in a lovely place the humans call Laverton with other homing pigeons and random birds. I want to go back there but simply ruffling my feathers is fairly painful because the sheer distance I flew hurt my wings and I had never flown that far without moral support from the other pigeons. There is this human that always feeds us and cares for us. The people in the office seem to think he is coming for me.

Several phone calls ensued between the humans in the office and somebody at the other end of the telephone cable. At long last the human that cares for me came. Relief! This wacky adventure now comes to an end.

Spring has sprung and the sun is out, along with increasing UV rays. As per our Sunsmart Policy, students need to be wearing hats as of the 1^st of September.