#5 Important Dates

Thursday 6th April - Easter Raffle drawn

Thursday 6th April - Colourful Clothes & Crazy Hair Day - Fundraiser Royal Children's Hospital - Gold coin Donation

Thursday 6th April - Whole School Assembly 9:15am

Thursday 6th April - Last day of Term - 2:30pm dismissal

Friday 7th April - Good Friday

Monday 10th April - Easter Monday

Monday 24th April - Teacher Professional Practice Day - no students at school

Tuesday 25th April - Anzac Day

Wednesday 26th April - First day of Term 2

Wednesday 26th April - Prep 2024 Enrolments open

Tuesday 2nd May - Prep 2024 School Tour 9:30 - 10:30am

Tuesday May 9th - Prep 2024 School Tour 9:30 - 10:30am

Friday 12th May - Application for Year 7 Placement  2024 forms due back at school

Tuesday 16th May - 2024 Prep Information Night

Tuesday 16th May - School Council meeting 6:00pm

Tuesday 23rd May - Prep 2024 School Tour 9:30 - 10:30am

Tuesday 30th May - Prep 2024 School Tour 9:30 - 10:30am

Monday 5th June - 5/6 Camp #1

Friday 9th June - Curriculum Day (no students at school)

Monday 12th June - King's Birthday Public Holiday

Tuesday 13th June - 5/6 Camp #2

Tuesday 13th June - School Council meeting 6:00pm

Friday 28th July - Prep 2024 Enrolments Due

Tuesday 15th August - School Council meeting 6:00pm

Tuesday 12th September - School Council meeting 6:00pm

Tuesday 17th October - School Council meeting 6:00pm

Tuesday 14th November - School Council meeting 6:00pm

#5 Message from the Principal

School building improvements

Last year we were successful in our application for a Department of Education toilets upgrade grant of $500,000.  The staff toilets and student gym toilets are getting total makeovers to provide fresh and sanitary facilities.  Over the past eight months we have met with the architects and the Victorian School Building Authority to develop the scope of works and the designs.  Our students provided their ideas about the student toilets being gender and ability inclusive and this is an important feature of these new toilets. 

Children and young people are becoming aware of their gender identity at younger ages, and this too is our experience at YW.  New research shows that all-gender bathrooms support positive mental and physical health for gender-diverse students and helps to reduce bullying behaviours.   These bathrooms will be for every student to use, regardless of gender and ability.  The central stall will be larger with handrails both sides.

Students who wish to use toilets labelled boys or girls can use the bathroom areas located near the drama room and near art room 1. 

The staff facilities will have a gender-inclusive bathroom and a female bathroom.





Wall Art

This week sees our Junior School Council wall art project is coming to fruition, with painter Jason transforming the classroom wall near the OSHC gates on Powell St.

The JSC researched and developed a design in 2022 and Jason has been here all week creating it.



A safe and happy holiday

I wish you all a very safe and happy holiday for the next two weeks and see you back in Term 2 on Wednesday 26th April



#5 Dont forget to remember! Early pick up this Thursday!



#5 Outside School Hours Care

Our OSHC provides before and after school care for up to 195 students and is wholly run and operated by the school.  As the service has grown over the past years, so have the administrative, staffing and safety requirements.  Parents would use a vacation care service if this was available but under the current model, this cannot be provided.

A working party has therefore been established to review the provision of service and develop the plan to transfer to a third party operator.  The working party consists of parents who are users of the service Andy Sutherland and Kris Daw, our business manager, Raelene, and principal, Karen. 

The working party will use the Department of Education OSHC guidelines to ensure that the OSHC service meets our students’ and families’ needs and that quality of care and staffing is maintained.



#5 Before and after school supervision

Yarraville West Primary School’s grounds are supervised by school staff from 8.45am until 3.45pm. Outside of these hours, school staff are not available to supervise students.

Parents and carers are responsible for the care and supervision of students:

  • travelling to and from school
  • outside the times of school supervision before and after school

Please supervise your child before and after school at these times.  The OSHC service Ph 9314 9738, has places at before school care if you cannot provide supervision before 8.45am. 

 

 



#5 Year 6-7 Transition for 2024

All parents/carers of Year 6 students will receive a Placement Information Pack in the first week of Term 2.

This pack includes the Application for Year 7 Placement 2024 form, which will need to be returned by May 12th.



#5 Communicating with the office

We have noticed an increase in parent calls and emails to the school requesting that office staff pass on a message to their child, eg remember that Nan is picking you up.  Please prepare your child in advance so that they know what the daily arrangements are, as this is not a school responsibility. 

We also have calls from parents wanting students to be ready for collection at the office.  This number of calls is significantly high on a Friday or the day before a public holiday.  We understand that appointments sometimes must be made during the school day and students therefore must leave school early.

To help minimise the interruptions for admin staff and for students and teachers, we would appreciate that you collect your child at 3.30pm or at a pre-arranged time, eg 1.30pm.  That way your child knows what’s happening and our office staff need only assist you in signing out your child.

 



#5 2024 Prep Enrolments

Please see the flier for our Prep 2024 Information Night. Additionally, we will be running tours from 9:30am – 10:30am on the following dates:

Tuesday May 2nd

Tuesday May 9th

Tuesday May 23rd

Tuesday May 30th

Please book your tour via the follow booking forms:

Tuesday May 2nd

Tuesday May 9th

Tuesday May 23rd  

Tuesday May 30th  

Please note tour spaces are limited, therefore we ask that each household only books in for one tour to allow access for as many families as possible.
Please see the following key dates for Prep 2024 enrolments:

Enrolments Open: Wednesday April 26th, 2023

Enrolments Due: Friday July 28th, 2023

For any further enrolment enquiries please contact our school office on (03) 9314 7714.



#5 Wellbeing Update

YWPS Recess & Lunchtime Clubs

At Yarraville West we have a range of clubs on offer for students to participate in during recess or lunch. This year we have Bryce our music teacher running Ukulele Club for grades 2-4 and Janet one of our grade 2 teachers running a Yoga Club for our Prep-2 students. These clubs have already been very popular.

There are times when the yard can be quite an overwhelming place for our students. Our school library is open every lunchtime for students to use as a place to sit and read, draw or play some chess. This year we have also opened up the Italian room for students in Years 3-6 as a quiet space. The space is available at lunchtime from Wednesday to Friday.

For a timetable of what clubs are on offer each day, please click on the 2023 YWPS Clubs.

 

Autism Awareness Month

April is Autism Awareness Month, a time to promote understanding, acceptance, and inclusion for those on the autism spectrum. It’s a great opportunity to learn more about autism. To help teach our children about autism, NeuroClastic has written a neuroinclusive story titled My Brain is Autistic. This story is for kids and adults and helps us to understand how autistic brains are different.

We have many neurodivergent students at our school and developing an understanding and awareness of autism helps us to celebrate the strengths of children on the autism spectrum.

 



#5 National Ride2school Day

What an amazing day the students and staff had at Yarraville West Primary School on Friday 24th March. You had to keep your wits about you to not be run over by all the bikes, scooters, skaters, and walkers actively making their way to school!

On the day a total of 176 students and teachers either rode their bike, scooter or skated to school and 243 people walked! What an amazing effort; the two bike storage areas were full!

With the support from many local businesses and a donation from a family within our community, there was a total of twenty-two prizes to give away. All students and staff who actively came to school that day went in the draw to potentially win a prize.

Prizes included gift vouchers, bike service vouchers, and drink bottles. As well as numerous bike accessories including a helmet, lights, several bike pumps, bells and horns, handle grips with tassels, a bike safety kit, stickers, and puncture repairs kits.

Let’s hope that as many of us as possible can continue to actively come to school regularly supporting our physical health, mental wellbeing, and the environment by putting less cars on the road.

A huge thank you to the family from our school community all the local businesses who were generously able to support us on the day:







#5 GRIP Student Leadership Conference

Hello my name is Alex and I am reporting about the Grip leadership conference that all 5/6 Junior School Councillors and School Captains attended. We all met at school by 8:35am on Tuesday 28th March to slowly walk to the train: 26 students attended. We got off at Southern Cross station. From Southern Cross station we walked to the Melbourne Convention Centre. When we arrived we met with 215 other schools with their Junior School Council representatives.

The conference started at 9:15am with the first session being “How to be an others first leader”. At the conference we played many educational games and watched some films to determine the emotions of the people and how we can play our part as students to create better schools. At around 2:30pm we returned to Southern Cross station and hopped onto the first train back to school. We all had a great time and learned a lot about our leadership responsibilities.

Alex 








#5 Happy Holidays from the Art Room



#5 Harmony Day



#5 Pop Up Food Relief Markets

Yarraville Community Centre will be hosting a food relief market for those in need of assistance with food and essentials. The market will be held in the car park located at 59 Francis Street between 10am – 12.30pm on  Wednesday 19th April, Wednesday 17th May. If anyone is in need, they are welcome to come by and select their own free produce from the stalls and get access to any of the support services available.






#5 SPORTS


Maribyrnong Swifts
We have the last 4 spots remaining on our Junior teams - in the Under 12/13 team for girls born in either 2010 or 2011.
No previous experience is needed, making this a great opportunity to get involved in soccer, especially with the World Cup only months away.


This age group is a key area of focus as it is an age when we start to see a drop off in girls participation in sport. We encourage girls to join a team and enjoy playing soccer!






Seddon junior Football Club: 



#5 VFLW & VFL Good Friday- Easter Egg Hunt