Welcome to the New Connect!

Our school’s Connect Newsletter has existed in various formats over the years. Following a recent review, we’re excited to introduce this new and improved format.

We hope you enjoy the refreshed Connect, and we look forward to sharing a new edition with you each fortnight.

Our newsletter has always had one important purpose: helping us stay connected as a school community. We hope this new format continues to do just that, keeping you informed, celebrating our school community, and sharing the wonderful things happening across our school.

School Review Process

This week our School Review of the last 4 years and planning process and development for the next 4 years commences with a Pre-Review Meeting. We will be joined by our School Reviewer- David, and Senior Education Instruction Leader – Mary, and school leadership team for a discussion about student learning progress, wellbeing and community connection over the last 4 years. This meeting will form part of the School Review Process where we have 2 full days of workshops, observations and meetings to help evaluate performance and identify school needs to then formulate strategic goals and key improvement strategies to work towards for the next 4year school improvement process.

The 4 Year-School Strategic Plan, is then broken down into bite size workable components each year through our Annual Implementation Plan which focuses on a 1 year implementation stage. There are 4 Annual Implementation Plans to every School Strategic Plan cycle.

After our Pre review meeting this week we will have 2 full days of classroom visits and observations, conversations with student groups, teachers and parents. These will take place on the 17th and 19th of November.

The review process is always a great opportunity to celebrate achievements and successes of the school and also importantly identify and plan for improvement where identified. It is very exciting to engage in conversations and be a part of building our school community’s next stage of growth and development.

Upcoming STUDENT FREE DAY - MONDAY 2nd NOVEMBER

Japan Branch Out Tour has commenced

On Tuesday morning at 5am our Branch Out Japan touring party departed for their 2 week adventure. Students in Grade 5/6 have been working all year in preparing for this incredibly rich experience and will spend a week at our sister school experiencing a very different school day to the one they have here at Warranwood. Can you believe students in Japan have a 20 minute lunchtime play period and then gather in working teams to mop, sweep, dust, polish and generally clean their school for 20 mins every day! Every Day!!! This could catch on! Lol!

After visiting Lilyvale, our sister school, the students will be heading off on an adventure visiting Tokyo, Nara, Kyoto to see shrines and temples, markets, Disneyland and Universal Studios and many other wonderful opportunities.

We look forward to hearing all about the amazing experiences and building upon our relationship with our sister school. We will of course welcome them to visit us again next year and have host family opportunities to care for the students while they visit.

Welcome to Warranwood Chelsea - Our New Prep Teacher!

Last week we welcomed our new Prep teacher Chelsea to Warranwood as Sam Fensham’s replacement whist she is on family leave with her new little bundle of joy Kaylee. Chelsea has settled in quickly and worked with Elise over the holidays to ensure she could hit the term running. Please say hello if you see her and make her feel welcome. We are very lucky to have you Chelsea and welcome her to our Warranwood community.

Pre-Spring Fair Working Bee - Thank you!

Last Sunday we held a Working Bee to help spruce up our school in preparations for our Spring Fair and 30th Birthday celebration on 7th November. Lots was achieved by our crew of helpers on the day, and we managed to complete all jobs set for the day with lots of mulch and sand being moved, paths cleaned and tidied up, seats painted and our BBQ area getting the once over to clean and prepare for the big day.

A huge thanks and appreciation to the following families who were able to come along and make a huge difference:

Janes Family, Baruma Family, Dolman Family, Siew Family, Caudry Family, Andrews Family, Crowe Family, Shaw Family, Ryan Family and Ash Franklin.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT - WAKIKIRRI

I am delighted and very excited to announce that our Warranwood Wakikirri Team have been awarded the NATIONAL SPIRIT OF WAKIKIRRI AWARD. This is to acknowledge and appreciate the incredible teamwork, respect and care they demonstrated towards each other and the other schools throughout the State heats and National performances. Anyone who was able to attend the performances and witness our students’ perfected skills on stage and the way they managed the demands, and entire experience throughout would know what I mean when I say this is well deserved. Such a prestigious acknowledgement to celebrate our student’s dedication, skills and camaraderie on display throughout the Wakikirri experience.

I’m also delighted to announce that our own Jacinta O’Leary has been awarded a LIFETIME TEACHER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD for her work and commitment to the Wakikirri STORY DANCE movement, giving students and young people opportunities to grow and develop through this incredible learning experience using music, dance and movement along with teamwork to help students be their best and share important stories. The dedication and talent that Jacinta brings to the Wakikirri experience is recognised by the leadership team at Wakikirri for her service over the last 25 years of engagement in the program. Congratulations Jacinta - we are delighted that you have been recognised for your passion towards and love of performing arts.

The award announcements for Warranwood and Jacinta begin at around the 24-minute mark.