Principal's Message
Julie Crawford
We have had a very busy few weeks with our parent/teacher/student conferences, Prep – 2 Gymnastics Program, Book Week celebrations, Pyjama Day Graduation fundraiser and our Father’s Day Breakfast! It was lovely to see so many of our students sharing a fun morning of breakfast, activities and games with their dads, stepdads, grandfathers, uncles or significant males in their lives. We acknowledge and appreciate the incredible fathers and father figures who contribute to shaping the future of our students. Hoping the celebrations continued and all of our dads and father figures had a special day on Father’s Day!
Book Week Celebrations
Book Week celebrations around the country began with The Children’s Book Council of Australia announcing the winners of the 2024 Book of the Year Awards. 'Scar Town' by Tristan Bancks (Younger Fiction 8-12-year-olds); 'Gymnastica Fantastica' by Briony Stewart (Early Childhood Book of the Year); 'Timeless' by Kelly Canby (Picture Book of the Year) and 'Country Town' by Isodel Martyn (Factual Book of the Year).
Book Week has become a Term 3 highlight in schools around Australia and this year it was a very big week at Wonga Park with a Book Parade, Author Visit and diorama competition! Thank you to Mrs Dimitriou for organising such a fun Book Week!
Author Visit – Cassy Polimeni
It was wonderful to celebrate Book Week with a visit by children’s author, Cassy Polimeni, who has written two books, Ella's Amazing Frog Orchestra and The Garden At The End Of The World. Cassy loved the opportunity to talk about what it’s like to be an author and share where she gets the inspiration for her books. The students found it particularly interesting to learn about the Global Seed Vault which is central to her latest book.
Two groups of our Grade 2/3 and 4/5 students also had the opportunity to participate in a writer’s workshop, learning even more about what it takes to be a published author and having the chance to hone their story writing skills! We are hoping Cassy might be able to be part of a future Expressions program, sharing her talents and inspiring our young writers.
Book Week Diorama Competition
If you haven’t had a chance to see the wonderful dioramas that our students have created about a special book of their choice, please come down to the library or take a look in the office foyer and be amazed! They are so creative and will surely inspire others to read some of the book favourites that are depicted! Thank you to Mrs Salisbury and our Visual Arts Captains for organising the competition and congratulations to all of our budding artists who took part!
Scholastic Book Fair - 2nd – 6th September – in the BER
The library will host our annual Scholastic Book Fair in the BER for this week only (2nd – 6th September). The Book Fair is a mobile bookshop supplied by Scholastic with hundreds of quality children’s fiction, non-fiction, activity books and novelty stationery for sale. Payments can be made with cash or eftpos. Our school will receive Scholastic Reward points with every purchase made! The Book Fair will be open before school and after school – come along and find some great books!
We would love some parent helpers to help run the Book Fair before and after school each day. If you are able to help at any time, please contact the office.
Opening times are as follows:
Monday 2nd - 10am for set up in the Library area in the BER - 3pm - 4pm
Tuesday /Wednesday/Thursday - 8.30 -9am. and 3 - 4pm
Friday - 8.30 - 9am and then after to pack up the shelves ready to be collected.
Thank you for your support!
Celebrating our Reconciliation Action Plan
We are very proud of the work we have been doing to bring to life our Reconcilation Action Plan and embed the vision into our everyday thinking, planning and actions. Tim Phillips, our Marrung Leader was recently invited to share our RAP journey with other Marrung Leaders in the Manningham and Monash Network, and then with the Inner East Area Staff who were keen to see schools who are doing taking clear steps towards cultural responsiveness through their Reconciliation Action Plan. We are very fortunate to have Tim inspire us and others on this reconciliation journey and be such a great advocate for our school and our amazing teachers, ES staff, students and community.
Student Leadership
Supporting students to develop leadership skills and a willingness to serve others is something we value and encourage. Demonstrating responsibility and initiative and the ability to work with others is something that has been very evident over the term, particularly with our Grade 6 students who have been exceptional TRIBES leaders and buddies for our preps. Our Grade 6 Student Leaders have also been running some great lunchtime clubs in ICT, Art, Drama and STEM which have been loved by students across the school. Last week our Grade 6s participated in a whole day of leadership training with our WP staff and facilitators from Manningham Youth Focus, which culminated in running a variety of fun games our Grade 1 and 2 students. Our Student Voice Representatives have collected lots of great ideas for all sorts of lunchtime and recess activities that our senior students will look at facilitating in the coming months.
We’re not only proud of our Grade 6 students, we also have students across the school who are demonstrating passion and initiative to make a positive difference. Congratulations to a group of our Grade 5 students who recently actioned their idea to raise money for the Blue Cross Animal Shelter in Wonga Park. After thorough planning, they set about making muffins, craft items and very cute looking dog biscuits and cat treats to sell to teachers and their Grade 5 peers. They made an amazing $270 profit which they have proudly forwarded to the shelter to support the great work they do to support animals in need.
Parent/Carer Opinion Surveys – closes Friday September 20th
A reminder that the DET Parent/Carer/Guardian Opinion Survey is still open for your feedback. All surveys are confidential and anonymous, yet provide us with incredible rich insights and perspectives which we value enormously. To date we have only had 15% or 21 of our 140 randomly selected families respond to the Parent survey. We thank these parents for their feedback, but would love to hear from more of our parents before the survey closes on Friday, September 20th. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.
Attendance Matters
Regular attendance at school is very important to ensure a child is able to thrive academically, socially and emotionally. Whilst absences for illness are unavoidable, the Northeast Region is working closely with schools to reduce the average number of student absences at all schools throughout the Inner East particularly when a student is heading towards over 20 days of absence for the year. The effects on learning and wellbeing should be a consideration when planning family holidays or other absences that are not related to illness or medical appointments. So much of learning is sequential, so absences mean that students can miss critical concepts resulting in gaps in their skills and understanding.
An example of this is the new phonics program, UFLI, that has been implemented in the Prep-2 classrooms. We have seen great success already in terms of student knowledge of letters and sounds and the ability to apply this in their writing, however, attendance is critical to ensure that students participate in this daily structured program. The success of this program requires students to be present every day to participate in the explicit teaching of each sound and the reviewing of that sound through over 300 exposures.
We ask that parents please ensure that all absences are explained via Sentral and that student attendance is a priority.
Congratulations – Thomas P
A huge congratulations to Thomas P who recently competed in the ACT Short Course State Swimming Championships at the Australian Institute of Sports where incredibly he came away with 7 medals – 1 gold, 5 silver and 1 bronze! What an amazing effort!
We wish Thomas all the best in the upcoming Victorian Short Course State Championships on September 6th. Go Tom!
Read more about Tom's swimming journey in an interview in the Specialist section of the newsletter. Be inspired by how hard Tom has worked to achieve his goals!
Victorian State School Spectacular
Congratulations to the 25 students, who have been rehearsing for several months to be part of the mass choir in the Victorian State School Spectacular, being held at John Cain arena on Saturday, September 14th.
The Theme for 2024 is All 4 One and is all about looking forward, supporting one another and is centred around unity, connection and working as one for a common goal. This year approximately 5,500 students, kindergarten to year 12, from over 400 schools across the state will take part in the show.
Hoping our students, along with Tim Phillips and Mrs Brice, have an amazing time being part of such a wonderful experience!
2025 Planning
2025 planning is now underway. We ask that if you and your family are planning on leaving WPPS at the end of 2024, please contact Kerry know as soon as you are in a position to do so (this excludes Grade Six students.) We are currently taking 2025 enrolments in year levels where there is space. We currently have a few spaces for Prep - please contact the office to book an individual tour.
Whooping Cough
Many schools have had recent cases of Whooping Cough over the last month. Please see the 'Health Information' tab in the newsletter for more detailed information regarding the protocols and policies around whooping cough. It is important to contact the office if your child or any member of your household is diagnosed with whooping cough so that the correct support and procedures can be implemented.
As we head towards the end of term, we look forward to seeing how the students in each level begin putting into action the learning and understandings they have built through their work on our Big Idea of Respect!
Enjoy the Spring weather and remember it’s time to find those hats again!
Regards,
Julie