Dear Parents and Carers
I’d like to thank you all for the support you have given the school this year. It has gone so quickly and the children have achieved so much. I was very proud of the progress shown in the reports for students that went home on Monday. It was very obvious from teacher comments that there was a lot of effort put into learning over the past 6 months. I was particularly pleased to see the progress that students have made with their Literacy and Numeracy. I would encourage all families to keep their children in a good reading routine over the holidays – for the younger ones reading to them every night and for the older ones, reading every night before going to sleep. As I often say to the students – the more your read then more you learn. Students can also continue practising their recall of basic number facts, including practising their times tables, if they are at that stage.
It is at this time of the year that we say our goodbyes to staff who are moving on. This year there are more than is usual. The following are the farewells that I made at the End of Year Celebration on Friday evening:
- Miss Annabelle Oag – returning to her home town of Adelaide
- Mr Blair Ranford – taking up a teaching position at Yokine PS
- Miss Ellie Frere Harvey – taking up a teaching position at Highgate PS
- Mr Damien McDaid – taking a Mathematics teaching position in a secondary school
- Miss Bianca Matthews – taking a year of Leave Without Pay
- In the last few days we have learned of the following:
- Mrs Karen Rundle – taking up a Specialist teacher role at Riverton PS
- Mrs Jeike Benschop – taking up a teaching position at Hollywood PS
- Ms Rachel Yee – taking up a teaching position at West Leederville PS
- Mrs Melissa Darby – has finished her contract with EVPPS
- Miss Jemma Satie – taking up a new position at another school.
I thank each and every one of the staff that are moving on and wish them the very best of luck in their new positions. I thank you for all that you have done for the East Victoria Park School community and especially for your dedication to our students. You will all be greatly missed.
We have secured some great incoming teachers and I will introduce these teachers to the school community early in 2022. We ran a thorough recruitment process at the end of third term this year (knowing that we potentially had a number of staff leaving) and we have secured some high quality staff. In that process we were able to employ:
Miss Emma Van Brakel – Emma returns as a permanent member of staff after a number of years on temporary contracts. We are delighted to now have Emma as a permanent member of staff.
We were also able to secure the following teachers on contracts for 2022:
- Mr Luke Cutler – Luke taught in Room 1 this year, taking over from Ms Melissa Chan when she went on sick leave and then Long Service Leave.
- Miss Eloise Moody – we now have Eloise fulltime and she will be teaching a class.
- Mrs Martha Walters – will be returning to continue the Science Specialist role
- Ms Renee Doring – returns as Kindy 2B teacher.
We have also secured the employment of a highly experienced upper primary teacher and an experienced Physical Education teacher.
We have employed Miss Keeleigh McCauley for next year – she has been working two days a week in the Year 1/2 with Mrs Krieg this term and will commence fulltime next year.
Class Lists
We have worked further on class lists this morning at our final Staff Meeting for the year and they are close to being finalised. They will be published to the school community on Monday, 24 January. I will communicate further to the school community via Seesaw and the school website as to how this will occur, closer to the time.
As is usual, in a school our size, our class structure for 2022 will include a number of composite classes (where there are 2 year levels in the one class). These occur in government schools across the state as we are funded on a per student model rather than as a year level. We are also governed by class size. Kindy is 20, Pre-Primary is 27, Year 1 – 3 is 24 and Year 3 – 6 are 32. In addition, we are also a local intake school which means if a family resides within our school boundary then they are entitled to a place in our school. What all of this means is that our enrolment numbers from year level to year level do not always fall neatly into a class structure that does not include composite classes. Teachers are trained to teach composite classes and the Department provides additional curriculum support materials to assist teachers. We place each student carefully into their next year’s class. The staff and administration team spend a considerable amount of time trying to get the balance of each class right.
Year 1 and 2 Playground
The Year 1 and 2 playground is progressing more quickly than we could have imagined. We are very much hoping that it will be ready to be opened some time in Term 1. In recent weeks 7 reasonably advanced trees have been installed, and in the not too distant future they will provide a canopy of shade for the new structures.
Once completed I am hoping that families can use the playground as a meeting place after school, especially those parents of our younger students. For many people, lifelong friendships are made with other parents, when your children begin school. The one stipulation is that as the playground is purpose built for 5 – 8 year olds so younger children will need to be closely supervised by their parent or carer.
Sadly, the playground contractors have reported a number of vandalism incidents in the past week. They have had machinery damaged and newly installed elements of the playground destroyed. If you live near the school and notice anything suspicious, please call School Watch on 1800 177 777 or the Police on 131 444.
I would like to wish all EVPPS families a safe and happy Christmas season and hope that all enjoy some rest and relaxation over the holiday period. For those not returning I wish you all the best at your new schools. To those that are returning I look forward to seeing you all when school recommences. The School Office reopens on Monday 24 January and the first day for students is Monday 31 January 2022.
Kind regards
Kim Knowles
Principal
17/12/2021