Hello Everyone,

Not long to go now!

Last week l mentioned a change on the horizon regarding the 2022 Victorian Government Schools Agreement. Although this signals some changes to how State Government Schools work, we will still be taking our students to camps. 

In fact, school camps for both Year 3/4 and 5/6 have already been booked for 2023 and you can find these dates on our school calendar on our website where all upcoming events are noted as they are confirmed. 

I mention the change in legislation to our community because it’s good to keep people informed so you have insight into the factors we must consider when planning.

For information go HERE

Speaking of being informed, included in this newsletter is the class staffing for 2023. You'll note Ms Downes is not noted on this list. Ms Downes will be with us on staff in a specialist role, however which Specialist role is yet to be confirmed.

I’d also like to introduce our new LOTE teacher for 2023, Ms Lin.

Ms Lin is a native Chinese speaker and has much experience teaching Mandarin. Ms Lin is featured in our Staff Profile this week.

Assembly

Due to swimming which began on Tuesday 6th of December, we've made some changes to Assembly times: 

Wk 10  Fri 9.12 

2.35pm Whole School Assembly

Class Student

No Assembly

Wk 12   Mon 19.12 

2.35pm Final Whole School Assembly - No Students of the Week

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program

A message from our Horticultural Specialist, Nikki Browne:

This year in the garden has been a highlight for the children and myself. It's abundant with life and produce, growth with constant changes. The genuine care the students and volunteers have given , is a reflection of this garden. It has encouraged all to learn, immerse, understand and respect the food we grow, nature and ecosystems. I have personally been moved by the children this year, their curiosity, enthusiasm, and care.

A message from our SAKGP coordinators, Ms Woodhouse and Ms Easterbrook:

Dear Parents, Guardians and Chicken Lovers, 

We would like to pass on our sincerest thanks to everyone who has volunteered their time to look after our chickens this year.  We really appreciate the community effort that has kept our girls happy and healthy.  

While the students are on school holidays, the chickens do stay at school, so our feathered friends will require volunteer carers for this time. As the weather becomes warmer, it will be vital to give them adequate water and food and protect them from pests by locking them in their pen in the afternoon.

If you can volunteer any time over the holidays, it would be greatly appreciated.  We will be using the SignUp app to organise a roster.  You can access the ‘Holiday Chicken Care’ SignUp HERE.

Our SignUp is structured so that you are responsible for the chickens for the full day, but this only requires one visit in the morning (at or before 9am) and one visit in the afternoon (between 3pm-5pm).  Please feel free to volunteer for as many days as you like.

Further information on how to care for the chickens can be found HERE.

Thank you!

Monica Woodhouse and Amy Easterbrook

SAKGP Co-ordinators

Wednesday 14th December Carols  - 5.30 - 6.30pm

I’ve often made requests from our community via the newsletter and it is always incredible to see what comes back. This request is different - I (STILL!) need a Santa.

Each of our year levels will be singing a Christmas Carol so there's only 7 carols in total. It would be great to start the show off with a Santa and wrap it up with a Santa - perhaps throwing lollies out to the crowd..? Know anyone who might fulfil that role..? No, I don't have an outfit to lend you but I’m sure we could find one. 

Thank you!

The inaugural Year 2 Big Day took place last Friday with rave reviews. It would not have been possible without the adept support of the following parents:  

Laura Adamson                          Em Beard

Luna Lu                                     Catherine McGrath

Naomi Chua                               Fiona Guo

Anwyn Walta                              Kristy Clark

Xiaohe Zhuan                             Cuiping Jiang

Jackie Zhuang

Thank you also to the ladies who run the Second Hand Uniform shop: Larissa King, Sharyn Frawley and Kelly Baird who keep many of our students clad in full uniform at prices which are appreciated.

The second of our two ‘Step Up Program’ sessions occurred on Wednesday, 23rd  November. This session is for our Foundation students for 2023. It  involves representatives speaking from various organisations we collaborate with including:

PFA                                              Anthony Hall and Emily Beard

Team Kids                                    Suskia Malufu

PSW (Primary School Wear)           Anna Dimos

Each of these people donated their time for free. Thank you to everyone who came together to make this a very informative and therefore successful session.

Our Students

State School Spectacular

On Saturday, 10th September, several students from WPPS took part in the State School Spectacular. It has to be seen to be believed, if you’ve never been - you MUST go! If you can’t wait that long you can have a look at it on the telly as it is being broadcast soon.  A message from the State School Spectacular Team:

We are pleased to announce the details of the broadcast of this year's Victorian State School Spectacular. Please make a note of it on your calendar.

Start Time:  7PM

Start Date:  17 December 2022

Channel: Channel 7

Location: Victoria only

It will also be streaming nationally on 7plus for 30 days from the broadcast date.

www.7plus.com.au

Victorian  Premiers Reading Challenge

Message from Mrs Skantzos and Mrs Gledhill:

Well done to all students who participated in the Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge. The following students were congratulated for their outstanding achievements in VPRC 2023 and received a badge in assembly on Friday2nd December 2022

Foundation Damian H FA and Edward C FB

Year 1 Ben I 1A Cherish C 1A

Year 2 Oliver C 2A and Lexi W-H 2A

Year 3 Sara G 3B  and Isabella X 3B

Year 5 Ella D 5A and Emily B 5B

You were one of more than 66,000 school students who completed the Premiers’ Reading Challenge this year. Together, at Wattle Park Primary School we read more than 3900 books - a real achievement, and one that took lots of library loans, night lights and page turning.

Thank you to all the parents, carers, teachers, librarians and our school community who encouraged the students to complete the Challenge and helped build lifelong literacy skills.

We hope you enjoyed discovering new story adventures in this year’s Challenge and look forward to you joining in again next year.

Congratulations,

Mrs Skantzos and Mrs Gledhill

Wednesday, 30th November - Foundation Billy Cart Incursion

A message from our Foundation Leader Ms Catherine Churchward:

Foundation students were lucky enough to be visited by Supreme Incursions for an action-packed billy cart session. The students investigated the fundamental properties of motion and learnt how these influence design and performance. They explored the push and pull forces and were challenged to work in teams to design cars, scooters and more! So much fun was had by all! 

Swimming

A message from our PE Teacher, Mr Nic Lindsay;

Dates: Tues 6th to the 16th of December (Year 6 not attending on the 7th and 13th. This will be reflected in the cost for your program)

Time: The times below are the time that these year levels will be in the pool swimming

9:20am               Foundation

10:05-10:50am   Years 3 & 5

10:50-11:35am   Years 1 & 2

11:30-12:20pm   Years 4 & 6

If you are walking with your child's class (or catching a bus for the Year 1 and Foundation students) you will need to arrive at school 20 min prior to the start of the swimming lessons. 

Cost:  Refer to COMPASS pay

Spectators: Spectators are allowed to come and watch their children complete their lesson

Walking Helpers: We require a ratio of 1 adult :10 students for supervision purposes when walking to and from the school.  Classroom teachers have communicated to their parents/guardians to request assistance. 

Nicholas Lindsay

Running Club - 8am every Thursday morning

Continues to be a raging success. Thank you to Ben Beard, James McGinnes and Rachel Crilly who possess unrivalled training and running abilities and make it all happen. 

Session Outline

• 8am arrival @ top oval
• Group warm up /activities
• Course running - along school boundary, 3 groups including adult supervision
• Group warm down

Running Club is open to students of all ages and abilities. Any students that arrive late are to wait at the top oval for collection.

Final session for the year on Thursday, 15th December.

Our Staff

Continuing getting to know our staff at WPPS, we introduce our new LOTE teacher for 2023 Ms Sabrina Lin:

Hi Wattle Park Community,

大家好(dà jiā hÇŽo – hello everyone)! I am Lin laoshi. I am very excited to be the LOTE-Chinese teacher at Wattle Park Primary School next year.

I have been teaching Chinese in language schools for over ten years and have a PhD degree in drama education. I enjoy playing games, dancing and role playing with my students and I love reading stories to young children. We are going to have a lot of fun (and drama!) in class!

In my leisure time, I like watching movies, camping and travel with my family and especially cooking and tasting delicious food. How about you? Please tell me what your favourite Chinese food is when you see me at school.

This is a little bit about me. I am looking forward to meeting all of you next year. Before that, I wish you 圣诞快乐(shèngdàn kuàilè - Merry Christmas) and 新年快乐(xÄ«nnián kuàilè – Happy New Year)!

Sabrina Lin

Staffing for 2023

Learning Assistants

               Jo Gleeson
               Deb Alderson
               Sue Wilson

FA            Catherine Churchward

FB            Robyn Heeps

1A            Amy Easterbrook

1B            Kathy Skantzos

2A            Philippa Statkus

2B            Sam Teng  - Mon, Tue

                Anna Saaksjarvi - Wed, Thu & Fri

3A            Dominic Monea

3B            Emma Tan

4A            Kim Duong

4B            Monica Woodhouse

5A            Kathryn Kelly

5B            Nic Lindsay

6A            Julie Gledhill

6B            Cynthia Tuck - Mon

                James Feather -  Tues, Wed, Thur &  Fri

AP             Richard Abell

Principal    Steve Donohue

ART           TBC - Tues, Wed & Thurs

PE             TBC - Tues, Wed & Thurs

PA             Sylwia Michalska - Tue, Wed & Thurs

LOTE         Sabrina Lin - Tues, Wed & Thurs

SAKGP      Nikki Browne - Horticultural Specialist - Mon & Tues

SAKGP      Carolina Trantino - Gastronomic Specialist - Mon & Tues

EAL          Annmaria Antonino - Fri

Tutor        Program Karl Jenkinsen - Mon & Tues

Tutor        Program Monika Stzendur - Fri

Notices

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.