Dear Penbank community,

It’s been a wonderful week with so many parents coming into Penbank to have Parent Teacher Meetings. As we highly value the collaborative approach between school and home, please feel free to make a time with your child’s teacher if you missed this opportunity. We thank you for your input into your child’s education.

We had a very successful Open House last week, with many families from the Peninsula and beyond visiting our beautiful school. Across all three campuses, we had 280 visitors. A huge thanks to our teachers who were involved in presenting the learning to our very interested guests. We were grateful to have contributions from some Year 6 students and past Penbank students, now in Year 7. Our students shared their experiences of their Penbank journey with passion, confidence and pride. Some of our current families took the opportunity to visit our other campuses, especially our new Futures Studio at Senior Campus. Here are some pictures of Evie and Seb, who were inspired by the architectural concepts in the exciting new Year 10 building. Evie and Seb were lucky to chat with Joost Baker and Frank Burridge, the design team. Evie especially loved the fruit trees growing in the middle of picnic tables, the solar panels being used as shelter and the recycled broken clay pots in the yabby pond for yabby homes. We look forward to incorporating the concepts of the Futures Studio and Regenerative Futures Program into our students’ learning.

Lastly, we look forward to coming together as a community for our annual Harmony Day Picnic on Thursday 13th March 5 – 8pm. If you haven’t bought your tickets yet, please click here to purchase ……. Our Harmony Day Picnic is a fantastic way to come together to celebrate our nation’s diverse cultural identity. With the theme of Harmony – we all have a role to play, it gives us an opportunity as a community to inquire into the way we create inclusive, respectful relationships, learning and celebrating other’s perspectives and traditions. Building on over 65 000 years of First Nations cultures, Australia has become home to migrants from nearly 300 different ancestries. Australia’s immigration history has helped build our modern nation.

Harmony Week was inspired by the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (IDERD). While Harmony Week celebrates Australia’s rich cultural diversity, it is also important to focus on the urgency of combatting racism wherever and whenever it arises.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Warm regards,

Andy

ANDREA KHOZA (she/her)
Head of Penbank Campus - WOODLEIGH SCHOOL