Hello Everyone,

Thank you to everyone who worked themselves to the bone at our Great Big Working Bee on Saturday.

Each of these industrious endeavours are taking us closer to having grounds that require maintenance rather than the terra forming extravaganza we have undertaken over the last 10 months. The vision is to have grounds which are clean, flourishing, and tranquil - just the right environment for a safe and dynamic school!

A hearty thank you to the following people who  worked for a solid four hours to get so much done:

Our Students

Student of the week

All parents and carers are invited to Assembly. Any student who was awarded a ‘Student of the Week’ certificate last week and was not present at Assembly, will receive theirs this week.

  9.15 - 9.35 F- Yr 3 Assembly             2.35 - 3.00 Yr 4-6 Assembly

Class Student

Yr 5 & 6 Hoop time basketball: Regional Finals

A message from Cleo and Oliver from Yr 6:

On Friday 4th November, the Year 5 & 6 All Star boys and girls basketball teams arrived at Nunawading Stadium to play the Regional Finals of Hoop Time. 

The All star girls team played 5 games in total. Out of the four fixtures games we won three and then proceeded to the finals. After winning the finals the girls team made their way to State level! The first game we played was against Genazzano Junior School. We won that game 17 - 2, then our second game came and we played Malvern Primary. Unfortunately they didn't show up so we automatically won that game. For our third game we played St Annes Primary and sadly lost by one point 13 - 14. We then played Genazzano again and won. Finally came the finals, we played Donvale Primary and won 17 - 5. We were all so excited that we made it into State and so pleased with how we played. 

The All Star boys basketball team also played 4 fixtures games in total. Unfortunately we lost all of our games but we tried our hardest and the other teams were just better on the day.

In the first game we played against Mount View PS, we lost by 17 points but we tried really hard. They also had a 6 foot giant on their team and most players on our team could only jump up to his elbow. We played this school again in our last game and got within 4 points which was a massive improvement from the first game we played against them. Overall we played well and enjoyed the day.

The All Star Girls will be playing their State finals on Tuesday 22nd November.

Thanks for reading.

Cleo Torney and Oliver Sutherland (6B)

Maths Specialist

Learning Specialist

A message from our Learning Specialist, Ms. Philippa Statkus:

As part of my Learning Specialist role, I have had the pleasure of mentoring Adriana Bisognano throughout the process of completing her VIT Inquiry Project. This is a task that all graduate teachers need to complete as part of their professional development and growth in the early years of their career. Adriana’s inquiry question is ‘How can I support my students to be curious and analytical readers?’ 

This week, Adriana and I co-taught 2B in a lesson based on the text ‘Mr Huff’ by Anna Walker. Students worked together to code sections of the text, showing their understandings and wonderings using symbols. Throughout Adriana’s VIT inquiry project students have become deeper thinkers, and it has been wonderful to see their joy and curiosity as readers shine in every lesson. All the students in 2B are lucky to have been part of this project, and Adriana should be congratulated for her wonderful work. 

Running Club

Back by popular demand, Running Club will return Thursday 24th November. Running Club is open to students of all ages and abilities. The session, and groups, are tailored accordingly. Meeting point is Top Oval at 8am. Students are required to check in at top oval prior to participating or joining into the session. Any students that arrive late are to wait at the top oval for collection. Running Club will be held each Thursday morning, with the final session for the year being held on Thursday, 15th December.

Looking forward to seeing you at what will be a fun and rewarding session.

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden

The Year 3’s and 4’s braved showers and chilly weather this week to participate in our garden sessions. Across the classes, we were able to complete some very important garden maintenance. This included weeding the indigenous garden to clear space for future planting, turning over the soil in the chickens’ free-range area to clean out all the non-organic matter and clearing the veggie garden of foes, such as slugs and snails. We were lucky enough to have plenty of broad beans, sorrel, mint and parsley to harvest which was taken down to the kitchen and put to use straight away in our cooking. Students also had the option of demonstrating their learning by working in their garden journal, noting all the changes they see taking place in the garden.    

This week in kitchen, Carolina helped us make the tastiest recipes yet!  We enjoyed Broad Bean and Sorrel Bruschetta, Garden Salad with Butter Croutons and French Dressing, and Lemon Myrtle Tiramisu. The 3’s and 4’s worked hard shelling broad beans and chopping sorrel, herbs, onion and chilli.  They juiced and finely grated the rinds of lemons and made croutons by thinly slicing and toasting breadstick. The resulting dishes were delicious! It was noted in 4A that every available bite of each dish was eaten and when seconds of the tiramisu were offered, every hand at the table went up!   

Broad Bean and Sorel Bruschetta

Ingredients

Broad Beans – peeled and shelled
Spring onion or chives – chopped finely
Parsley leaves and stem – chopped finely
Sorrel leaves – washed and loosely chopped
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
½ chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

Directions

1. Heat a frypan with oil.  Add onions, chilli and salt.  Cook for 1 minute.
2. Add broad beans, sorrel, parsley and pepper and cook on low heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally
3. Take off heat and add parmesan cheese.
4. Place on to bread slices.

Thank you to Carolina for the delicious recipes and Nikki for the amazing produce!  We’re so lucky to have you planning such enjoyable Kitchen Garden sessions.  We’d also like to thank our family volunteers for their time and support.  This week we even had family members generously helping out in more than one class which was wonderful! 

Our Staff

Continuing getting to know our staff at WPPS, we introduce our PE teacher and Specialist Leader, Mr Nic Lindsay:

Hello Wattle Park Community,

I have been at Wattle Park since halfway through 2018 and have been primarily teaching Physical and Education for the past 5 years. My love of sport and exercise has been a through line of my life, playing all sorts of sports from swimming and rugby to footy and athletics. Outside of sport I love to read (fantasy and sci-fi as my favourites).

My position at Wattle Park was actually the first teaching job that I ever got and it has been a joy to develop my practice here. I have also been working part time at other schools over the last four years.

This year has been an exciting year in sport and physical education with year 3 and 4 participating in new events and many senior teams making it to division or further. 

An enormous thank you to all the parents, teachers and members of the community that have helped with these events through the year. Without your help these events can't happen.

This has been a little bit about me so if you see me around the school feel free to say hi.

Nicholas Lindsay

Thank You!

A special thank you to Astrid Backburn and Ausign Australia. Astrid navigated a process that resulted in Ausign Australia creating a Wattle Park Primary School banner for our girls to hold up proudly in the Hoop Time State Championships Parade of Finalists.

Notices

Election day Fundraiser - a message from our PFA

Hi everyone, 

Our last fundraiser for the year, Election Day BBQ!  Saturday 26th November 

Please show your support by signing up for a duty (or two) to sell snags, donuts, soft serve!  We have a coffee cart and the Mega Christmas Seafood Lucky Tickets too!  We have a big day planned and we need your assistance.  Thank you! 

https://signup.com/go/upFLgez

COVID 19 

If you require RATs please make a request to the school office. HERE is information from the Victorian Government about ‘Managing illness in schools and ECEC - information for parents and carers’ . HERE is information regarding facemasks.

A summary below:

The Victorian Government has announced the end of the Pandemic Declaration and associated Pandemic Orders. The following settings, based on advice from the Department of Health, will apply from 11.59pm Wednesday 12 October 2022.

It is strongly recommended that students:

• who test positive to COVID-19 stay home and isolate for 5 days

• should not attend school after 5 days if still symptomatic

• who are symptomatic but have not tested positive should not attend school

• advise the school of the COVID-19 positive test result

• students who wish to wear a face mask should be supported to do so, and schools should continue to make face masks available for staff, students and visitors.

Where students become symptomatic at school they should:

• be collected by their parents/carers

• undergo testing for COVID-19

• Parents and carers will therefore be asked to continue to report positive student COVID-19 cases using the VicED COVID Tool.

Hats on from September!

This term all students must wear a WPPS school uniform hat when outside. This is part of our Sunsmart Policy to protect our students against UV radiation and the ravages of cancer - ugh! More information can be found on our website HERE. 

School Calendar

Please refer to the calendar on the School Calendar to find details about Term 4 dates, finish times and term holidays dates etc.

One more thing!

We are padlocking shut the gate to Warrigal Road after 9.15am every morning. It opens again around 3pm. We are doing this because we have a student who has a penchant for running out of the class and out of the school grounds. There are processes in place to ameliorate this issue but the safety issues are abundantly evident. Thanks for your understanding on this one.

Have a great weekend.

Steve Donohue

Principal

 

It’s that time of year - September, when all students are required to have on a hat for outside play.  Children will be required to play in the shade if no hat is worn, and being a Sun Smart School its important to have sun protection from now till May.

2. School Council Dates for 2022

Tuesday, 13th December, 7pm

3. Car Parking, Banksia Street

Parents, out of courtesy to our neighbours please do not park across their driveways in Banksia Street, when dropping off or picking up your children. Whitehorse Traffic Officers will be patrolling during these times.