Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome back to Term 3 and I hope that everyone enjoyed their holiday break. This term we would like to welcome new students and families to Woodend Primary School. All students have quickly settled back into the routine and already made a solid start on their new topics for this term. A Unit Newsletter will be sent home via Compass over the next week, filling you in on what the students will be learning .

Parent Teacher Interviews

Thank you to all parents, students and staff for their involvement with Parent Teacher Interviews. We always encourage strong communication between home and school for the best possible outcomes for the students. It was fantastic to hear about the hard work and personal achievements students have made during Semester 1 and we are looking forward to sharing future achievements during Semester 2 at various Open Sessions planned – more details will come. Please remember though, we encourage parents to make regular contact with their classroom teacher about their child’s progress.

Soundwaves

Next Wednesday after school, staff will be participating in a Professional Development session on our Spelling Program, ‘Soundwaves’. Spelling is taught using a combination of strategies and Soundwaves focuses on learning the different letter blends that make various sounds. Explicit sounds are taught and then students practise these daily through their writing, reading and short games and exercises.

Building Works

Over the holidays our netball courts were resurfaced. We are currently obtaining quotes so we can get some line marking done to include netball lines, as well as various games such as Four Square and Down Ball. The maintenance period for the garden has now finished and the new handrail for the steps leading to the Art Room is underway. Some of the synthetic grass areas above the Netball Courts has sunk and work will be done in the near future to rectify that. School Council and I are continuing to communicate with the Department on the best solution for the decking areas to the new portables and will keep you updated.

New Building Opening

At this stage Mary-Ann Thomas will be visiting the school at 9.00am pm Friday 9th August, to officially open our new hall/music room and works completed from our Capital Works project. More information will be provided.

Parent Surveys

As we are always striving to make continual improvements on all aspects of our school, we endeavour to offer various ways the school community can provide us with feedback and have input.

One way is through surveys. In the upcoming weeks we will be sending out 2 different surveys. One is the Parent Opinion Survey which is mandated through the Department. This will go to a random sample of families. You will be sent an email with a link to complete the confidential survey. These results are sent to the department and then anonymous data is provided to the school, so we can celebrate what we are doing well and set new goals on areas we can improve in.

The School Council would also like to get your opinions on voluntary funds, and will be issuing a survey to every family next week about this very important subject.

The survey only has 10 questions and most questions only require you to tick a box. It will be anonymous and should only take a few minutes to complete.
Your views are important and this is a chance to have your say (we want to hear from you whether you pay the voluntary fees or not).
As a token of our appreciation, all families who complete this survey, will be put into a draw for a Family Movie Pass.

The school depends on the money from voluntary funds to help support your children’s education. If you could spare a few minutes to complete the survey and help us determine the best way forward, it would be greatly appreciated

Somers Camp

Somers Camp this year the camp will be running from November 19th until 27th November. Unfortunately the camp does clash with our Year 5 Urban Camp. This does not prevent our Year 5 students from putting in an Expression of Interest to attend Somers Camp, but they will need to give some consideration, that if accepted to Somers, they will miss out on the school camp. Below is the information put out by Somers Camp.

If you would like to put in an ‘Expression of Interest’ for your Year 5/6 child to attend please hand it to the office by tomorrow, Friday 19th July.

DATES: 19/11/2019 to 27/11/2019
COST: $260.00 (includes transport, accommodation & pocket money)

Somers Camp is situated on Westernport Bay, 80km from Melbourne (Melway Map Ref 193 H9).

The camp provides an opportunity for social interaction between children drawn from many schools and presents a variety of challenging situations through outdoor education and contact with the local environment. The nine day commitment is essential if the social aims are to be achieved.

Chess

We currently have a group of students who are keen to start up a Chess Club. We would love to be able to enter a team in the local school’s Chess Competition in early August. If anyone has any Chess sets they could lend or donate to the school that would be greatly appreciated. We are also keen if there are any parents who would like to help teach students how to play Chess. Please contact me if you are interested.

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