Wonga Park Primary School News

Principal's Message 

Julie Crawford 

Welcome back to Term Three! After taking some leave at the end of Term Two it is lovely to be back – thank you Mrs Brice for stepping in for me over this time.  The first three weeks have been full of excitement and learning with our amazing preps celebrating their first 100 Days Of School, the Kid’s Disco, NAIDOC week celebrations, our new CBL Big Idea of Diversity, the P-2 Gymnastics program and outstanding individual and team sporting achievements. Congratulations to Harvey B on his incredible performance, coming 25th in the State Cross Country, to our Grade 6 netball team who have qualified for the State finals of the Victorian Netball Championships and to our Interschool sports teams who were successful in the district play-offs.

We also have lots of wonderful things to work on and look forward to for the remainder of the term including -

  • Senior Production – What A Knight
  • Book Week Parade and celebrations
  • Numeracy focus – challenging maths tasks
  • Literacy focus – writing, spelling, punctuation & grammar
  • VHAP – Victorian High Achievers Program – Maths, English
  • Grade 3-6 Athletics Sports
  • District Athletics
  • Grade 3/4 Camp – Phillip Island
  • Grade 1/2 zoo excursion
  • Father’s Day Breakfast
  • Learning Snapshots throughout the term
  • Adolescent Health Program – Grade 5/6
  • TRIBES
  • Respectful Relationships 
  • Friendology Program
  • Pyjama Day
  • Crazy Sock Day
  • Footy Day celebration 

As always, another fun filled, action packed term ahead!

 

Partners In Learning

We value greatly the partnership between our families and school to support learning.  The Wonga Weeklies, ongoing Learning Snapshots throughout the term, the Term 1 Learning Update and interview and the Semester 1 Report are all ways to help parents know what and how their child is learning and to prompt conversations that will support and inspire their learning. The upcoming three-way conferences are a valuable opportunity for students to celebrate their learning achievements and identify their future learning goals with their parents and teacher(s).  Please book a conference time on Sentral.  The dates for the conferences Wednesday 9th August (3:45pm – 8:00pm) and Thursday 10th August (3:45pm – 6:00pm).

 

Staffing Update

We welcome back Anita Beever from her family adventure to Uganda!  An amazing experience! Nina Gridchin is enjoying the sunshine on her long service leave trip to Italy and we look forward to seeing her back in Week 5. Thank you to Angie Dixon who has stepped in to be the classroom teacher in 6A.  We welcome back Bek Reynolds who is working two days a week in the Prep and Grade 1 tutor intervention program.  Emily O’Callaghan will also be working with our Grade 2 – 5 students in the tutor intervention program.

 

Building Update

We are very excited to see our performing arts building project proceed so quickly after almost three years in the planning!  It should be completed in the next month and will be a wonderful stand-alone space for our performing arts program, a need that was identified by the community and school council several years ago.  School council will consider on Monday night the possibility of roofing the outdoor decking and creating steps to enable outdoor performance to maximise the use of the space. We really look forward to the possibility that this space could be used for the Prep concert in Term 4  rather than us  hiring an external another venue. 

This wonderful addition to our school has been funded by locally raised funds and has only been possible with the generous support of our parents.  A huge thank you to our Partnerships committee for all of their important fund raising efforts and to families who have contributed to the Building Fund.  Your amazing support means that our current and future students will have a beautiful purpose built space to learn and perform!

I’m sure many families have seen the amazing transformation of the Welcome To Country Garden at the front of the school.  A huge thank you to parents Clare Colson, Stu McKenzie and Nathan Burkett who helped design and do the heavy work in the space and to the parents and students who came along to the working bee at the end of Term 2 to help with the planting, mulching and the creation of the path. There are a few final touches to be added before and special official opening celebration!  It will be another much-loved space for our students, families and community to enjoy. 

 

Reconciliation Action Plan – RAP

We are very excited that we are beginning to work with the Narragunnawali team to develop a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) for our school.  Our RAP will support our school to continue to build knowledge and pride in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, histories, cultures and contributions.  We are very fortunate to have our Grade 6 teacher Tim Phillips lead this important work. Please read more about this important work in the Marrung section of the newsletter and let us know if you would like to be involved in the RAP Working Group. 

 

NAPLAN

Next week our Grade 3 and Grade 5 students will receive their individual National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) test results.  NAPLAN is an online standardised series of tests for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 across Australia.  These were held earlier in the year in March.

These tests are a snapshot of a student’s learning in reading, writing, spelling and grammar and mathematics. We congratulate our students on putting in their best efforts in NAPLAN and all of their learning.

 

We are so proud of everything we do at WPPS and what a wonderful learning community we have. Our leadership team, teachers and support staff never stop striving to do the best that we for our students and families. Thank you again to all of our families for your ongoing support and involvement.  We are so grateful and proud of our school community!

 

Looking forward to a great term ahead,

Julie