Hello Everyone,

This is our final newsletter for the year.

Our school, as noted by not only my boss (who regularly acknowledges he really likes WPPS because he has no reason to visit!), but independently this year by a DET appointed reviewer, is noted as a success both academically and as a centre of teh community.

This cannot happen without you. Yes you.

So thank you to you - for all you have done. Be it part of the committee for the fete or managing to get your child to school on time. It all matters and it all helps make us the vital and dynamic school we are.

Some of our families leave us at the end of this year. Many after years of being part of our community.

A very special thank you to them:

Elki Breslin
Kelly Baird
Deb Gilbert
Anthony and Rosie Hall
Louise Laity
Jill and Jim Hole
Alex Vouzas
Macka

Volunteers - Thank you!
Our volunteers are essential to the success of many programs including the Year 3/4 Kitchen Garden program, reading programs in various classes and, of course, the industrious group who work themselves to the bone at working bees we have each term.

If  you’d  like to volunteer in 2026 please obtain a Working with Children’s Check and complete our Volunteers course:

2025 Fete Profit
Thanks to the amazing work by our Fete Committee and enthusiastic attendance of our local and broader community the Fete has netted a profit of $35,558.16

2026 Where our Year 6's go
As part of sending off our graduating Year 6 for 2025, you may be interested to know where they are going:

We had 39 students in Year 6 this year. In 2026 they will attend a variety of secondary schools:

Government Schools - 7	Independent/Catholic Schools - 10
Ashwood High school	Emmaus
Lyndale Secondary	College Camberwell Grammar
Box Hill High	Kingswood college
Camberwell High school	PLC
Canterbury Girls Secondary College	Wesley College
Koonung Secondary College	Caufield Grammar
Mount Waverly Secondary College	Sion College Sienna College
	Strathcona BGGS
	Carey Grammar

2026 Whatsapp 

WPPS uses several different ways to communicate to our school community, one of which is WhatsApp parent groups. 

In 2026 we will streamline our WhatsApp messaging by inviting everyone to join our ‘Wattle Park Primary School WhatsApp Community’. 

This eliminates parents receiving the same announcements multiple times and keeps messaging relevant to your child's year level.

The structure will operate like this:

Many schools around us use a similar structure and feedback has been very positive. 

As we commence term 1 2026 we will be transitioning from the 2025 WhatsApp groups to the 2026 WPPS WhatsApp School Community.

We aim to have this completed by week 2 of term 1.

Look out for links on Compass and QR codes on classroom doors to become part of  the 2026 WhatsApp Community!

Our Students
Our School Review occurred in Term 2 of this year. They occur every four years and the entire school community was invited to take part in some way.

The review came back to say our two stand out features were organisation and communication. They also highlighted various parts of our curriculum program including our Explicit Direct Instruction - a model for teaching reading and writing. 

They also reviewed our school values. As a result we condensed our 6 school values to 3.

Responsibility  - Resilience  - Respect

A large part of coordinating this change process was to have our students present them each week in Assembly. These videos rapidly became a hit with the students. 

To wrap the year we present some bloopers…https://youtube.com/shorts/s0EIOWkCLu8

2026 School Captains!
Thank you to our 2025 School Captains:

who did a marvellous representing our school for the year. Each one of these students was articulate under pressure, informed when asked questions and able to model exemplary behaviour at all times - and not all times were easy! Well done to Betty, Emilia Lachie and Will!

Congratulations to our 2026 School Captains!:

There were many possible students who could have done  this role in our 2025 Year 5 cohort. Well done to all who put their hat in the ring.

Our other school leadership positions will be announced next year.

Our Staff
Merry Christmas from us all!

Notices

NAPLAN March 2026 
          Resources - Free!
Year 3 NAPLAN practice site
Year 5 NAPLAN practice site
NAPLAN 2012–2016     
NAPLAN 2008–2011
         
          Resources - Paid
Rise+ –
EXCEL Test Zone

These platforms closely resemble current NAPLAN assessments. They offer timed test conditions, instant reporting, growth analysis, and rankings that compare your child’s results with other national test takers. 

• Blake’s Back to Basics NAPLAN (Officeworks, Amazon, Booktopia)
• EXCEL NAPLAN-style tests (Officeworks, Amazon)
• School Zone NAPLAN (Kmart, Target, Officeworks, Amazon)
• Test Mate NAPLAN (Amazon)

Upcoming

Mon 26.1 Public Holiday       WPPS Fete Term 1 Car park winner - Danielle Boer!
Tue 27.1 
     8.30 - 3.30 Curriculum Day -  Staff only
Wed 28.1 
     Students’ First Day, including Foundation
Thu 29.1
     No canteen today - begins next wk
Fri 30.1
     9.15 Assembly
     No canteen today - begins next week

Project Playground
Having a visual focus for our fundraising efforts is an important way to galvanise support for community funded projects.

You will notice we have a sign up on the corner of Banksia and Warrigal Road. The purpose of this sign is to:

• Let everyone know what we are raising money for (New playground)
• How to help (Donations can be made via the QR code)
• How much we have and how much more we need to go (About 80G)

This platform is live and the QR code can be used to donate (so feel free to donate!)  but given the proximity of the fete we will leave an official ‘Launch’ to a later date.

More information on ‘Project Playground’ on our website HERE

Running Club 
See you next year!

And for those of you who made it to the end - thank you once again for those of you who made it to the working bees!

Before:

After:

Steve Donohue

Principal

Wattle Park Primary School

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Suppport our local business!!!

Summer holidays are an important time for kids with asthma.  During all the festivities, please don’t forget to keep up your child's asthma management and medicine as prescribed. Good asthma management over the holidays means less time off school when kids return in the new year, and less time off work for you. To make sure your child stays as healthy as possible over the break and into 2026, you can take the following steps:   Check your child’s medicine(s) to make sure they’re still in date.   Keep using your child’s preventer medicine as directed over the summer holidays, even if they’re feeling well.    If you’re leaving the house or going on holiday, make sure you pack your child’s asthma medicine(s) and a spacer.   Book an Asthma Review with your doctor to get an updated written Asthma Action Plan during the holidays - you'll need this for Term 1 2026. Book in early as doctors can have limited appointments over the Christmas period.  Use Asthma Australia's School’s Checklist for parents and carers: https://asthma.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AA_BTS2022_Asthma-Checklist__digital.pdf To stay on top of your child’s asthma management, complete the Asthma Control Test for kids and get their asthma score here: https://asthma.org.au/asthma-control/

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