A warm welcome to our community

Well, it continues to be a very busy time of the year.

HELP REQUIRED – Gardens are full of weeds

We have extensive gardens at Weeden Heights and these help to make the school look wonderful. We also have our kitchen’s garden which supplies food for the kitchen classes. At the moment, these gardens are significantly overgrown and are beyond the student’s capacity to manage these during garden class and our gardening club. In many photos below, you will see the weeds are as tall as the plants and you can't see the soil. Mrs Nancarrow sent out a help notice via COMPASS this week asking for assistance with no responses.

If you have some time before pick up or drop off, even a spare hour or so, we would love to have your assistance. Your time would be greatly appreciated. Please come to the main office then we will be able to help you out with gloves, buckets and weeding implements.

Parents, Helpers and Volunteers in School

Please remember that parents are very welcome in our school. I have noticed that many of our classrooms are missing many parents that usually assist in classrooms. Our building works have now finished so please come back to help in classroom programs. Parents are amazing supports in classrooms and enhance the learning opportunities for all of our students. We love having you in the classrooms from prep all the way to year 6!

We also rely on our families to assist in the PFA and on school council. I really hope the Parent Reps are organising some play dates or dinners for the parents in their class as it does create a ‘great’ community. The staff would love our parents to have greater involvement in events, working bees, excursions, kitchen garden programs etc. Please consider popping in and being a part of your child’s learning program. You can make a huge difference to the student’s learning.

2025 Parent Contributions

The school fees for the upcoming year are currently being finalised and will be available for early next year. We will provide you with notice of the anticipated costs and we are very happy for our families to pay these next year as we usually do. Many parents also take the opportunity to pay before Christmas and get it out of the way. I’m also pleased to be able to offer the same booklist process as this year. It puts a lot of work back onto my staff at school however, it is convenient for our busy families and while helping to save some money, it also ensures that each student gets the correct books. We have terrible trouble with parents purchasing the incorrect handwriting books and reading logs. The school purchasing the materials helps to mitigate this issue. Please consider the option of obtaining supplies through the school.

As you consider the fees for next year, please remember that your contributions allow us to provide the broad range of activities in the curriculum for all students. The students access the materials in the art room, use the PE equipment and uniforms, create experiments, build in STEAM, access the online programs via the licences etc so the curriculum fees really are essential for everyone to pay. We are really fortunate to have our school and staff provided for everyone but schools do need parent fees to be paid to conduct all activities.

Wellbeing Activity: Mural

I am very pleased to announce that our year 4 and 5 students will be involved in painting a mural on 14 November with Australian artist, Kyle Brightside. Kyle has been commissioned to create an original piece of artwork especially for our school and the students will help this piece of work come to life. The external wall of room 9 will be painted and the design is incredible (but I don’t want to give it away yet as it will be a surprise for everyone!).

The story behind the piece of artwork might give you some ideas:

The design is amazing and I am thrilled that our students will get to be a part of an amazing piece of work that will look incredible. Stay tuned for the updates.

Hay fever and Asthma

Just a reminder that grass pollen season is between October and December. During this time there is an increased risk of seasonal asthma, hay fever and epidemic thunderstorm asthma. It’s more important than ever for families to manage any hay fever or asthma symptoms of their children, as these conditions can produce symptoms that are similar to coronavirus (COVID-19) such as runny nose, cough or shortness of breath.

The best way to reduce and prevent symptoms of asthma or hay fever and reduce unnecessary absences from school is to follow an up-to-date asthma action plan or hay fever treatment plan. If you child has a new Asthma Plan then make sure that school has a copy.

Our School Newsletter….Nokuna

We often ask the students if they saw their work in the newsletter and they generally say 'no' which really surprises us. I-Newsletter has allowed us to include a lot more of the visuals which the students love. I place the newsletter in the Google Classroom each fortnight so I encourage you to read the newsletter with your children and celebrate the work from the grades together. It is always important that they know upcoming events as well. Enjoy!

School Magazine

We are currently working on the annual magazine and the proof reading has just been finalised. This year the magazine features many visuals which will make an incredible keep sake. I would like to thank Delphine for all of her wonderful work in bringing this together. Thanks to the teachers also who have co-ordinated their classroom page. You will, once again, not be disappointed as the quality is impressive so please make sure that you fill out an order form for your copy. Many families have not yet purchased a copy so look out for your opportunity to purchase one soon. We have sold 46 copies out of 110 families. If a school magazine is not supported then potentially it may be something that we have to drop as it takes significant effort to construct so if the demand is not there, we will 'shelve it'. The school magazine symbolises a piece of the school history each year so it would be sad to see it disappear.

Curriculum Day – 4 November and Cup Day - 5 November

Just a reminder about the upcoming pupil free days. The curriculum day on Monday 4 November and there is a public holiday on the following day, Tuesday for the Cup Day public holiday. Students are not required to attend school on either of those days so please make sure you have care for your child on the Monday. Hopefully, you might be able to have a long weekend with your family!

On Monday, the staff won’t get a long weekend but will be involved in professional learning in the area of Assessment and Reporting. Teachers will be busy moderating learning tasks across teams and analysing assessment and data. This day will be invaluable to develop future teaching directions and assessing the needs of individuals.

We hope that you and your family are able to get ‘out and about’ to enjoy a long weekend! You all deserve it.

Until next time……

Kylie Campbell

Principal

Parenting Page

The quickest way for a parent to get a child's attention is to sit down and look comfortable - Lane Olingho