Dear Parents and Carers, 

Oh, my goodness! What a morning! What more can us Melbournians tolerate? Pandemics, lockdowns, earthquakes and now storms! 

Hopefully everyone is safe and the damage to property is minimal. Large trees are essential to our landscape for our and our planet’s health, but they do pose potential risks and hazards.  

Fortunately, the school only received minor damage- the trees down the carpark driveway lost significant limbs and the willow tree near the dumper bins suffered damage. We lost a small tree in the garden facing the office.  The aluminium shed behind the chicken coop is gone and fortuitously remained in our school grounds rather than travelling over the fence to Cameron Close! 

With a dedicated clean up the school will be back to usual for the return of all students on Monday morning.  

The staggered return of the students this week has been such a success. Students have quickly embraced being back in their classrooms with their teachers and of course playing and socialising at recess and lunch breaks with their classmates. A special thank you to you the parents in support of our school and our logistic organisation.  

Changes to the school organisation for next will include all students being able to enter the school grounds at any particular gate and parents are permitted onsite also. Parents at this stage are not permitted to enter any buildings or classrooms.  

Communication with the office is to be by phone or email. This information will also be sent via a Compass email and a Konnective message.  

Our students have certainly learnt independence during these lockdowns, and it is wonderful to see students confidently enter the school grounds with no reluctance at all. Data collected over many years at Wattle Park Primary from student surveys overwhelmingly indicate that they see school as a very safe place to be.  

This morning I had a chat with one of our neighbours in Banksia Street, called Norma. Norma expressed to me most politely her dismay at the parking behaviours of some of our parents dropping and collecting their children from school. Parents parking in neighbour’s driveways (which means the residents can’t get to work!) parking on nature strips and parking in ‘No Standing’ zones. It has to stop! All of that parking behaviour is illegal.  

This morning I witnessed a near miss between two cars because of a four-wheel drive who had illegally parked on the nature strip and when leaving slipped in the wet conditions returning to the road and just missed smashing into another car! 

Please be aware that the school will be contacting Whitehorse Council bylaw officers to issue infringement notices and I along with the neighbours will be taking photos with the app ‘Snap, Send, Solve’ to send to Whitehorse Council of motorists who are not abiding by the laws.  

Please be respectful of our neighbours, they are part of our school community too.  

As a return to school treat, we have organised a free sausage sizzle day for students to celebrate! The sausage sizzle, comprising of bread and a sausage will be held on Wednesday 3rd November at lunchtime and cooked by the specialist teachers.  

It’s ‘World Teachers Day’ today. If you get a chance, I’m sure the staff would appreciate an email acknowledging their contribution to the education of the next generation. 

It will be just so overwhelmingly positive to have all of the students back on Monday. Can’t wait! 

Enjoy your first weekend of freedom. I’m certainly looking forward to a weekend barbecue with my two sons, one whom I haven’t seen for 8 months. Health and families are what’s important at this time. 

Warm Regards


Gayle 

Second Hand Uniform Shop

Thank you to the families that have donated so generously to our Shop.  The shelves are brimming.  Please hold off donating any more clothing at this stage.






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