From the Principal 

Diana Ellis

Mathslympics

Yesterday the Mathslympics came to Woodend Primary School in a flurry of excitement, anticipation and celebration.  See pics on the Mathslympics page.

From the first sound of the “Chariots of Fire’ to citing of our Ode, the passing of the Olympic torch and the lighting of the cauldron, the day was filled with fun and exemplary sportsmanship as our Mathsletes conquered the great Maths challenges. 

Mr. Bromley even composed a song to the soundtrack of Eye of The Tiger. The song had a Maths Flair and even accompanying movements that looked like Maths symbols. 

The lyrics are included below.

Family Maths Night

Following on from our Mathslympics was our Family Maths Night. We were overwhelmed by the number of families in attendance, around 170 adults and 200 students. 

Lead by our Maths Learning Specialist, Mr. Condon, it was a proud demonstration of what we are achieving here at Woodend Primary School in the Maths space. Last night was a great example of students and parents being positively engaged in Maths.

I would like to thank Mr. Condon for the professionalism and expertise he brings to our school and the mammoth task it was for him to organise the Mathslympics and the Family Maths Night. Both events were a huge success because of the comprehensive planning that went into these events. I would also like to thank all of our WPS staff who went above and beyond to make the activities for both events, engaging for our students and parents. Our staff attend these nights (without overtime) because they want the best possible opportunities for our WPS students and parents.

Thank you to the people that have already taken the time to send feedback about the night, we appreciate it. If you have any feedback (positive or constructive) from your children about the Mathslympics Day, or from you about the Family Maths Night, we would really appreciate hearing from you.

As part of our Family Maths Night, we had an estimation activity in every year level. Thank you to all of the people that had a go.

The winners were:

In our next newsletter, Mr. Condon will have a follow-up report from our Maths night with links to all of the resources.

100 Days of school

Last week our Foundation students celebrated 100 Days of School. A great deal of effort was put into making 5 and 6 years olds look like they were 100. We loved the different perception of what they looked like and what it meant. One of the priceless comments was "When I am 100, I will be retired and I will sit on the couch and eat cheesecake all day long and watch the news.”

Carlsruhe Television stars

Last week, myself and several of our Carlsruhe students, spent a big portion of the day being filmed and interviewed by popular television show 'The House of Wellness', one of our sponsors for the Carlsruhe Fair. Whilst I was not overly keen on being filmed, the students loved the experience and showing our beautiful Carlsruhe Campus. The filming focussed on all of the activities and learning experiences at Carlsruhe, including the care of the animals and outdoor environment. We are yet to be advised of when the segment will air on television.

In the interests of safety, we recently removed all of the wood from the old woodshed and then removed the woodshed before it fell over. We are hoping we will be able to purchase a new woodshed with financial assistance from the Woodend Rotary Club.

Carlsruhe History

In my research, I discovered several facts about Carlsruhe’s history. In 1837 Charles Ebden came to the area and accessed pockets of pastoral land. Charles was from England but had completed some of his schooling in Germany at a place called Carlsruhe, hence how Carlsruhe, Victoria was named. In 1855 school number 115 opened, with 20 students. The schoolhouse was built between 1862 and 1872. Unfortunately, in April 1969 the school closed but thankfully it reopened in 1984 and became part of Woodend Primary School.

I have attached a picture of our Carlsruhe building during the time that it was closed. It was boarded up and was overrun with long, dry grass. 

We are blessed to have Carlsruhe as our second campus and appreciate the beautiful place it is now.

Be Kind 

In the Foundation classes they have been focussing on being Kind. The book Hugosuarus was used to reinforce the concept and then the students drew some pictures of Hugosuarus and some speech bubbles with acts of kindness.

Times tables and arrays Year 3

During Maths sessions in Year 3 there is a strong emphasis on making arrays and building timetables knowledge and skills. Every day I have had a stream of students coming to my office to show me their work and tell me about the patterns they are noticing. 

Refugee workshop

At Woodend Primary we always promote inclusivity of cultural backgrounds. This year's student cohort includes some refugee students from Syria. All of our staff and students have been doing their best to support our refugee students and make them welcome, even with the language barrier.

To ensure we as a school community can do the best to support our refugee families, our staff have engaged in a professional learning to build our understanding and awareness of the many, many challenges faced by families when their life is torn apart because of conflict in their home country. Often, they have witnessed horrendous atrocities and have had to be uprooted from their home and even country, often fleeing with nothing and then ending up in refugee camps for many years with no identity and no autonomy over choice in their lives. Whilst many of us hold the perception that coming to a new country is a new chance for them in a safe haven, we often overlook things such as the trauma they have endured and the possible behaviours that can play out at a later date, the loss of family members and the loss of the community and connections they had in the refugee camp. Often, they come to a new country and are placed in communities where there are no other people from their country, they do not have a licence to work and they do not speak the language of their new country. In many cases, because they have been in refugee camps for so long without any access to the outside world, they have not dealt with things like living in a house and maintaining it, finding transport, pouring fuel in a car or even grocery shopping. Things that might seem mundane and onerous to us, could be absolutely overwhelming for refugee families. 

I would also like to thank the many members of our school community that have reached out to all of our new families at WPS.

Child safety and wellbeing at Woodend Primary - information for families and the school community

Woodend Primary School is committed to providing an environment where students are safe and feel safe. We have a zero tolerance for child abuse and are committed to protecting children from harm. Our comprehensive child safety framework outlines our school’s strategies to support student safety and wellbeing. The framework includes the following policies, codes and procedures:  

• Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy 
• Child Safety Code of Conduct 
• Child safety Responding and Reporting Obligations Policy and Procedure 
• Complaints Policy 
• Student Wellbeing and Engagement Policy 
• Bullying Prevention Policy 
• Volunteers Policy 
• Visitors Policy 
• Digital Learning Policy 
• Yard Duty and Supervision Policy

We are also committed to continuous improvement of our child safety framework. We are currently reviewing our child safety policies and practices to ensure they are up-to-date and effective. Copies of all policies will be uploaded on our school website or available in hard copy from the office. Our students and families are important partners in this process. We welcome your feedback or ideas on ways we can improve our approach to child safety and wellbeing

Our students and families are also important partners in providing a child safe environment and keeping our students safe. This newsletter reminder is one of the ways we ensure our school community is aware of:

• our commitment to child safety, and 
• how to provide feedback or raise child safety concerns.

If you have any concerns or feedback about child safety at any time, please contact the Principal. Any child safety complaints or concerns are treated seriously. For more information about our school’s complaints process you will be able to access our Complaints Policy on our newly developed website or as a hard copy from the office.

Meeting with Rotary

Last week I had a meeting with some members from the Rotary Club of Woodend. Our objective is to support one another with planned projects. The Rotary Club have offered to provide some financial assistance to go towards our Memorial Garden Project and/or a new shed at Carlsruhe.

I will keep you informed when we have an update from Rotary.

Shoes On Project

In return for some financial assistance for our projects we have offered to help Rotary with one of their projects. They are running a program called 'Shoes On' where they are collecting children’s shoes for disadvantaged Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. The Rotary Club will personally deliver the shoes. 

We are asking for your help with this project. If you have any children’s shoes, that are in good condition, we would love you to donate them. We will have a collection box at the front office.

Homework and Dress Code Policies

At Woodend Primary School we have a Homework Policy. Our current policy states that there are expectations around students completing tasks at home such as reading, practising spelling words and number facts/times tables. 

Whilst the homework is not compulsory, we do recommend the above activities. Recently our Year 3 teachers sent out some home learning tasks and this caused contention far greater than was expected. Some people made their views very clear about their opposition to homework and said their children simply would not be doing the tasks. Other parents wanted copious amounts of worksheets (this goes against our current policy and teaching philosophy) and other parents said we were not giving enough homework or extending their child enough and they wanted a lot more.

Please remember, we all have a responsibility for teaching children. It is not solely the schools responsibility. If  your child needs extra practise of concepts, then we recommend that you also access some extra work for your child on the many websites and apps available of through practise books that can be accessed at places like Big W.

If you are wanting to help your child but not sure of the areas that your child needs support or extension, get clarification from your child’s teacher.

We know that many of the local secondary public and private schools no longer have homework expectations in Year 7. We are due to review our policy and it will be taken to School Council next week along with the Student Dress Code Policy.

If you have any feedback that would help us develop our new policies, please send your feedback to me before next Monday July 19

Principal

Diana Ellis