Curriculum Update

Literacy Update - Book Week

What a wonderful week we have had celebrating the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book Week, which celebrated its 80th year this week. The theme is ‘Book an Adventure’, and we have definitely jumped headfirst into the theme this week. 

In case you haven’t heard, the Picture Book of the Year was ‘Truck Cat’, and we’ve included a list of the winning books below. Our school has been lucky enough to purchase copies of nearly all of the nominated books for students to enjoy and borrow through our school library.

To celebrate this week, there have been many amazing events held across the school, and lots of fun, action-packed activities have been enjoyed. 

Reading and Writing Together is Magic: 

Reading and Writing Together is Magic took place on Wednesday evening for the 36th year of this special Willy North event! The night was hosted by our Year 6 students, and I am sure we can all agree that they did an absolutely fantastic job! We are all very proud of them. The quality of poetry presented on the night is a credit to all students and reflects the hard work and effort they have put in this term. We also congratulate any student who participated for the first time, including our Preps who shared their My Teddy Poems, what a big achievement! Thank you to the families who attended the night, and a huge congratulations to all students who participated!

Book Fair:

We’ve had a really successful Book Fair, with students excitedly exploring new titles during their library sessions. A huge thank you to all the families who visited the Fair throughout the week, and to Sue Smith for organising this great addition to our Book Week celebrations.

The Book Fair's last sessions are 3.30- 4.30pm, Thursday 21 August, and 8.30- 9.30am, Friday 22 August. Purchases can be made using cash or credit cards, but we ask that you bring smaller denomination notes where possible.

Books can also be purchased online through a portal. The portal closes at 8:00am on Friday 22 August. The library will be automatically notified of any purchases through the portal, and books will be delivered to students’ classrooms as soon as we can. Please note you do not need to bring the receipt to the library; we will be notified by Lamont.

Lamont Book Fair Portal: https://payments.lamontauthors.com.au

Book Week Activities:

Across the school this week, there have been many fun activities planned and organised for students to participate in and engage with. Each morning, a new ‘Story of the Day’ has been posted, where different teachers have read one of their favourite stories to the whole school.

We’ve had a return of our famous ‘Masked Reader’ competition, where each class has worked hard to guess both the teacher and the book the famous quote came from. The answers are always revealed on the Friday morning of book week, right after our costume parade, and I’m sure the celebrations will be heard all the way up Melbourne Road. If you’d like to play along at home, here is a link to the competition: https://youtu.be/JqkcxUI7x4c. 

Our Prep to Year 3 students participated in a silhouette hunt, where they raced around the junior playground searching for the silhouette of famous characters from the stories we all love and adore. They then worked hard in small groups, pairs, or as a whole class to correctly identify each silhouette. There were virtual author talks available for every class. 

Our Year 5/6 students participated in an online writing workshop with Jacqueline Harvey, which focused on crafting unique characters, writing captivating opening lines, and building engaging plots. Students across the school participated in Literacy-themed Escape Rooms, where they worked hard in small groups to solve challenging puzzles. But most importantly, students engaged in daily lessons focused on celebrating the Children’s Book Council of Australia short-listed books.

This year, we put a new twist on our annual door design competition. Instead of decorating doors with characters, classes were challenged to bring to life a famous setting from a book or a landmark that tied in with the theme, ‘Book an Adventure’. It’s been wonderful to see the creativity and teamwork on display.

Finally, Book Week will finish up with our much-loved Book Week parade. A huge thank you to our parent community for helping bring the costumes to life. Your support makes this event so special. Our teachers are also planning on joining in on the fun!

We hope your child had a wonderful week celebrating, and came home with lots of tales about the fun they had at school. 

A big thank you to all of the teachers who were involved in the organisation of Book Week and RWTIM!

Kaitlyn Hayes

P-6 Literacy Leader

Williamstown District Athletics

On Wednesday 13 August, fifty-three of Willy North’s best athletes attended the Williamstown District Athletics, competing against a range of local schools.

Students competed in a range of events including, 100m, 200m, 800m, hurdles, relay, long jump, triple jump, high jump, and shot put.

All of our students displayed excellent determination, positivity and sportsmanship, each competing to the best of their ability.

Congratulations to all of our competitors, and a special good luck to those who have qualified for the Division Athletics event.

Williamstown North Primary School placed first in overall points rankings, which is a huge credit to the efforts of the students involved. Well done!

Shannon Carroll

Physical Education Teacher and Sport Coordinator