As our school year draws to a close I would like to say thank you to staff, families, and parent volunteers for all you do to make our school extra special.

I am pleased to share that our final fundraising tally from the colour run is over $23,000! This money will fund both the upgrades planned for “the street” and purchasing a performing arts stage set up, with money left over to support future initiatives. Well done to our school community for an incredible fundraising effort and thank you to the staff and families for your support.

Thank you to the following parent volunteers who organised and ran an absolutely fanatastic colour run day: Kellie Najjar, Jenny Kusterman, Rebecca Hopper, Louise Scanlon, Allison Till, Jess Simmons,  Xavier Anderson, and Kimberly Bates; as well as ex-Woodend students who came back to school to help out: Taylor Gunton, Ella Gunton, Liliana Quinton, Ella Kliems-Carlaw, Tamsyn Speck, Leah Speck, and Ella Vaccaro. Special thanks to staff members Mr Henher, Mrs Apparicio, and Ken. I think we can all agree that colour run was such a fun day for our school community.

In addition to our colour run rundraiser, in the past few years we also have raised $8000 via our Credit Union SA School Community rewards program – we have raised $18,000 in total since our school joined. This program allows school family, friends, and supporters to nominate Woodend to receive rewards simply when banking with Credit Union SA. You can find out more about this program here. Thank you to those in our community who support Woodend with this initiative.

There are so many opportunities for parents, carers, and members of our community to support Woodend School. We have school committees such as governing council, OSHC, grounds, finance, healthy eating, and sport; parent network initiatives such as Gift Stalls, fundraising, community events; class room helpers and excursion helpers; kitchen garden helpers; canteen helpers; sport team coaches and coordinators; STEAM week presenters; working bees; and so much more… and we have many staff members also volunteer a lot of time outside of the classroom. So much of what makes Woodend special would not be possible without the volunteers who give their time, energy, and expertise. On behalf of our school community I would like to say thank to you everyone who volunteers at Woodend. We are truly grateful to you.

Early at the start of our new school year, I will share information for parents who would love to get more involved at Woodend. Please stay tuned for more information about our school committees and our Parent Network. Please also save these dates: Parent Network will be hosting a sausage sizzle on aquaintance night, Tuesday 7 February to welcome all families back for a new school year, and hosting a parent presentation with SA Senior Australian of the year 2022, educator, author and counsellor, Mark LeMessurier on Wednesday 8 March.

Finally, thank you to our community for a beautiful finish to this year at our year end fireworks celebration night. Thank you to canteen staff and volunteers, to our wonderful performers, and to the parents who bravely joined in for a performance this year. Shout out to Woodend Staff on your performace too – I am not sure who was the winner this year in our years long parent vs teachers fued… I guess we will have to meet again on the stage next year for another go!

Happy Holidays to Woodend Families. See you back in 2023!

karen gunton

Woodend Primary School Governing Council Chairperson