Back to School Welcome

I would like to extend a warm welcome to our new and returning families. I hope the holidays were restful and that everyone is recharged and prepared for a productive school year. We have several new staff members who are joining us this year (including myself) and we sincerely welcome them. New staff include:

Anita Colebrook (FC), Beck Tinkler (1FT), Joshua Fairey (2F), Carolyn Watt(3W), Danielle Marshall (6GM), Kate Richards (6KR), Nicole Eckardt (Tutor), Melissa Lindsay (STEM), Laura Pierce (Performing Arts), Ruth Harrop (Education Support)

On Monday, calls for nominations for vacant School Council positions were advertised. We would like to thank our parent representatives Aaron Hunt, Michael Tracey, Elissa Gale, Heath Venn and Mal Falanga whose tenures expire in March 2023. Both departing School Council members as well as those who have not been members of School Council previously are encouraged to apply for the vacant 2023-2025 parent representative positions.

I would like to thank our wonderful Year 4 teachers and students for their resilience, flexibility and responsiveness last week when making a change to our classroom allocation for the remainder of the school year. From all accounts, the new, larger learning spaces are flexible and engaging.

We have a few minor process/procedure changes that we will be implementing across the school. We encourage families to make contact with, and introduce themselves to their child/rens classroom teacher.

The preferred method of communication is through the COMPASS school management tool. Instructions for how to contact staff via COMPASS are included in this Newsletter. Whilst emails have been used previously, for staff contact, it is safer and more efficient to be using this internal school system. When issues arise that parents/guardians need to contact the school, we remind families to firstly contact your child’s classroom teacher, followed by the year level team leader. For issues that remain unresolved both the Assistant Principal and Principal can be contacted at williamstown.north.ps@education.vic.gov.au or by calling the general office. We also remind families to please login to COMPASS and check for important updates, permission forms etc. as COMPASS is where all documentation is delivered to families.

From next week, we have minor changes to our recess and lunch eating times to ensure we are operating within the Victorian Government School Agreement 2022 guidelines.

Recess will now be between 11.00am-11.20pm whilst lunch eating time will be between 1.20pm-1.30pm. Lunch break will take place between 1.30pm and 2.30pm.

Our school Newsletter format will also look a bit different. Newsletters will be distributed weekly with alternating Principal and Assistant Principal reports. Each week we will also hear from one of our four curriculum professional learning communities (Literacy, Mathematics, Wellbeing, Student Voice and Agency) as well as an overview from one year level of the goings on in that area of the school.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has so warmly welcomed me into the Willi North Primary School community. I am thrilled to be leading this outstanding team of teachers, students and families.

Richard Buckingham - Principal

Privacy Notice

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy. Please take time to remind yourself of our school’s collection notice, found on our website willynthps.vic.edu.au in the Policies section. For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. This information is also available in ten community languages:

* Amharic * Arabic * Dari * Gujarati * Mandarin, *Somali * Sudanese * Turkish * Urdu * Vietnamese.

CSEF Applications

For families with a current Health Care Card, Government funding is available for a Camps/Sports/Excursions subsidy of $125.00 per child. Please complete an application form available from the office. If you have received this payment previously, there is no need to fill in a new form unless you have a child to add who has started school recently. Please send the form in to the office with a photocopy of your Health Care Card.

Child Safe

Williamstown North Primary School is committed to a zero tolerance of child abuse and creates an inclusive school culture that promotes child safety for people of all cultures, abilities and diverse backgrounds, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

For further information, please go to http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au

Foundation News

It has been a pleasure to welcome the youngest and newest members of the WNPS community into our classrooms this week. Our Foundation cohort have had an absolutely wonderful start to their schooling. It all kicked off with the Prep Playdate, on the Friday before school. It was fantastic to see students so excited to explore their new playground and reconnect with their kinder peers.

Week One provided lots more opportunities for friendships, laughter and play. Students have spent time getting to know their classmates and teachers, learning about our school values and practising those all-important school skills. We’ve tackled learning tasks which required students to be confident and give learning their best effort. If you’re walking past the JLC, you’ll see snippets of the amazing work being produced in windows and we always welcome the community in to explore the classrooms further.

Our Preps have now met all of their specialist teachers and are keenly participated in their first specialist sessions. It has been exciting to hear students greeting each other in Japanese and applying their knowledge of ‘cool colours’ to their classroom artwork. Families can engage with the WNPS Art Room through the Instagram handle @willynorthps.artroom

Finally, the highlight of first week was reconnecting with the Year Six buddies. Preps proudly showed their buddies around their classrooms and participated in a range of games and activities.

We also want to congratulate our Prep families on their transition to school! We’ve really enjoyed getting to know families and look forward to working closely with the Foundation community throughout the year.

Wellbeing News

In our school’s Wellbeing Scope and Sequence, a focus across all year levels is the use of “The ZONES of Regulation”, designed to foster self-regulation and emotional control.

Our goals for the ZONES of Regulation are for students to:

Identify emotions and reactions related to the specific ZONES.

Identify their triggers and how changes within emotional states and physical environments can influence what ZONE they’re in.

Identify appropriate strategies and/or use of tools to self-regulate behaviour/s.

The ZONES describe how our brain and body feel.

Green Zone – Like a green light “GOOD TO GO!”

Blue Zone – Body running slow, such as when tired, sad, sick or bored.

Violet Zone – Stop, seek help, don’t know what to do/confusion.

Yellow Zone – Proceed with caution and slow down.

Red Zone – Extreme emotions, out of control, trouble making good decisions, must stop.

ALL ZONES ARE OKAY, and different ZONES are expressed throughout the day.

The ZONES displayed can depend on the intensity of ones emotions.

Our students will learn to use strategies and tools to get into the green zone

This is a visual tool you can also use for all family members. Any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact Giorgia or speak to your child’s classroom teacher/s.

giorgia.moss@education.vic.gov.au

CALLING VOLUNTEERS FOR THE 2023 CLASS REPRESENTATIVE PROGRAM!

Your class needs you! Each class requires two parent volunteers to facilitate The 2023 WNPS Class Representatives Program. This program has three important components:

1. Supporting Education: Class Reps distribute the eNewsletter to give parents the information and tools they need to support and build on what children are learning at school,

2. Social Interaction: Class Reps help to foster relationships between parents by organising social activities for their class; and

3. Supporting Teachers: Class Reps communicate information regarding classroom activities and provide teachers with additional resources and support when required.

Being a Class Rep is a fantastic way to meet other parents and contribute to the life of the school. We welcome expressions of interest in becoming a Class Rep by emailing wnpsclassreps@gmail.com

Class Rep Coordinators Georgie and Sheena are happy to answer any questions! We are excited about helping to facilitate the 2023 Class Rep Program!