Woodend Primary School Newsletter

From the Principal, Diana Ellis

Voluntary Fees

Recently our School Council conducted a survey on Voluntary Fees.  The return rate was one of the best we have ever had and I would like to thank you for this valuable feedback. I would also like to thank our School Councillor’s Richard Padgett and Shayne Summers for all of the work they have done behind the scenes to get this important information.

Below is an appreciation from SC:

  • A huge thank you to everyone who returned our voluntary fees survey.
  • We’re enormously grateful to you for sparing the time to share your views on this important topic. Whilst the data collected from the set questions alone will be valuable in guiding us, many of you also provided some great suggestions. Thank you.
  • The sub-committee formed to look at this issue will be meeting shortly to go through the responses with a view to presenting the findings and recommendations to School Council in October.
  • Should you wish to provide any further feedback about voluntary fees, or any other issue you think the School Council should consider, please contact us via email at woodend.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au
  • The draw to win a family movie voucher will be drawn during the first week of term 4.

School Council Report

The last School Council meeting was held on Monday 9 September. At the meeting there were a number of items relating to school operations, such as insurances, finance and policies.  There were two policies approved by the council;

  • The Sun Smart Policy
  • The Attendance Policy 

The council signed off on a Handbook for school council. The School Council Handbook was developed by Richard Padgett. A great deal of time went into creating this document and I would like to thank Richard for all of his efforts.

 

The council also had further discussions on ways of better engaging our school and broader community. As a result, a subcommittee for Communications and Engagement was identified as a starting point. We would like to put a call out to those of you who work/ have skills/ interest/ passion in communications and engagement to join the subcommittee. If you are interested please contact us at woodend.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au 

 

Jen Henderson - School Council President 

Naplan

Our NAPLAN results have arrived and we are hoping they will go home tomorrow. We are pleased with our school results overall but the message I would like us to get out to our students is that regardless of what the results say on paper, students need to be reminded that it is only one measure of their performance and we are proud of them for giving it their best shot.

Travel Expo

This Friday afternoon we have our much anticipated Senior Unit Travel Expo which has been widely advertised on our Facebook page. Although it is being presented by the Senior Unit we welcome all members of our school community to be part of this event. The senior students have done a lot of work and looking forward to proudly presenting.

R u OK Community Lunch

Today a number of our students were involved in the R U OK Community Lunch. A group of our senior unit students were involved in the hospitality side of things by serving people their lunch and helping to clean up. Another large group of students attended to perform two beautiful songs that went hand in hand with the theme of the day.

It is important that we continue to address mental health issues such as anxiety and depression and that we work on building a culture of resilience. Far too often we do too much for our children which develops a sense of learned helplessness. We too often use the term bullying when it is just normal relationships playing out and mutual conflict. Too often we talk about students suffering from anxiety when they are just anxious, which is a normal emotion we all deal with. Too often we let children blame others instead of also asking them what they were responsible for.

Anxiety and depression are real and need to be acknowledged but we can also play a big part in helping our children have the skills required to get through this challenging thing called life.

 

I have attached the Bounce Back strategies we use at school. These were developed by educational psychologist Helen McGrath.

Bounce Back focuses mainly on the teaching of coping skills to help children and young people respond positively to the complexity of their everyday lives. In other words, children are taught how to 'bounce back' after experiencing sadness, difficulties, frustrations and hard times.

Further information can be found at https://www.bounceback-program.com/

Basketball

This week we had our staff versus students basketball competition. Whilst the students seem to have the upper hand in our annual tug of war competition, the staff seem to have the upper hand at basketball. The students loved seeing a number of our staff participate and guest appearances from Mrs. Minchew and the very popular Mr. Bromley in his flairs.

Family Maths Night

As advertised this week, our Family Maths Night will be on October 30th.  The purpose of the night is to provide ideas of how parents can support their children at home; to build a positive culture around Maths; to demonstrate how we teach Maths and to engage parents in their child’s learning.

Grandparents Day

On Friday October 25th we will be having our Grandparents Morning. This will be run in conjunction with the 'National Ask Grandparents not Google' campaign being run across Australia. We want to acknowledge the skills and expertise Grandparents have and to encourage more conversations between children and grandparents. Classrooms will be open for parents between 9.00 and 10.40 and we will be involving grandparents in our reading and writing activities. Further information will be in the newsletter at the beginning of the term. If your children do not have Grandparents to invite, they can of course ask other significant elderly people that are part of their life.

Senior Unit - Art 

Last week in the Art Room students form the senior Unit were very engaged in their tasks – constructing bathing boxes similar to those we see down at Brighton and also making products with clay.

Assembly

On Monday, Woodend PS were delighted to take part in a whole school incursion by Cultural Infusion. 

The theme of the incursion was entitled 'Indigenous Infusion With True Culture'.

 

Due to Year 3 camp and a number of other school events, there will not be an assembly next week.

School will be dismissed at 2.30 on Friday 20th September.

ASD - Planning A Successful Transition to Secondary School

The Macedon Ranges Autism Network invites you to participate in this free workshop for staff and parents of children with Autism who are transitioning to Secondary School in 2020.