Hello Everyone,

Tonight we have our PFA lead Movie night. All funds raised from this event will go towards the restoration of the retaining walls in which we grow food for our Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program.

A reminder that this event is not supervised by any teaching staff. All children attending must be supervised by an adult.

School Calendar for relevant dates, incursions, excursions, times and events. Downloadable to your phone!

Saturday, 18th March  Great Big Working Bee - revised hours 10am - 12pm due to weather

Once a term the WPPS community gets together to work on our vast and beautiful grounds to create a calm and ordered environment to support our students’ learning,  safety and well being. The next one will be on Saturday 18th March. 

Click HERE to find out what we are going to do and how you can help.

Hope to see you there!  

Our Students
Education Perfect Championship 2023 – Results
The Education Perfect Languages Championship 2023 finally finished at 4pm on Tuesday 14th March. Congratulations to all Year 3-6 students who participated in the competiton. A big thank you to Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 teachers who supervised our students during this time.

As a result of the industrious academic rigour with which our students participated, we achieved the following:

1st for Chinese globally in the 101-250 students category out of 188 schools

• 3rd for Chinese in Australia out of 818 schools
• 9th overall in Chinese out of 1107 schools
• 85th overall globally out of 2532 schools

Our students earned:

• 2 emerald awards
• 4 gold awards
• 7 silver awards
• 16 bronze awards
• 28 credit awards

Certificates for our award winners will be handed out once they are sent from EP.

Education Perfect is a curriculum aligned teaching & learning platform for teachers, tutors and parents that Wattle Park Primary uses to enhance the students’ knowledge and use of the Chinese Language. You can find more information about it HERE. 

Year 2
Last Friday our Year 2 students attended an incursion to learn all about forces for our Science unit ‘Push-Pull’. Both classes had lots of fun and learned so much! Here are some great pictures from the day, along with some fantastic reflections about their learning by the students in 2A. We hope you enjoy reading all about forces!

Fridays - Assembly 9.15am
March 17th Assembly at 2.50pm due to NAPLAN

Returning to 9.15am next week

Student of the week
Well done to all our recipients for actively displaying our school values. Students who are not in attendance to receive their certificate will be awarded it at the next week's assembly.

Class Student

Notices
Thank you Sally Waller who saved our Canteen Convenor Charlotte from being engulfed by canteen orders last Friday when two volunteers went MIA.

2023 NAPLAN 
NAPLAN is a national literacy and numeracy assessment that students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sit in May each year.  The NAPLAN test window is 9 days. This is to accommodate schools that may have fewer devices. The NAPLAN test window starts on Wednesday 15 March and finishes on Monday 27 March 2023. It is the only national assessment all Australian students do. For more information please go HERE.

Day 1 - Wednesday 15th March - Writing Yr 3 & Yr 5

Day 2 - Thursday 16th March - NO NAPLAN (School Photos)

Day 3 - Friday 17th March - Reading Yr 3 & Yr 5

Day 4 - Monday 20th March - Conventions of Language Yr 3 & Yr 5

Day 5 - Tuesday 21st March - Numeracy

Day 6 - Wednesday 22nd March - Make-Up Day

Day 7 - Thursday 23rd March - Make-Up Day

Day 8 - Friday 24th March - Make-Up Day

Day 9 - Monday 27th March - Make-Up Day

Student familiarisation and practice tests
You may like to have your child practise some online NAPLAN tests at home. Click on the following link to practise.

• NAPLAN public demonstration site

This website is accessible to teachers, parents, caregivers, and students 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The site enables users to familiarise themselves with the types of questions and functionalities available in the online NAPLAN assessment. Login details are not required to access the site. 

ICAS Testing
We are delighted to inform you that  we will be participating in the world-renowned ICAS competition this year across Years 4 – 6.  

What is ICAS?  
ICAS (International Competitions and Assessments for Schools) is an online academic competition that is designed to assess students’ higher order thinking and problem-solving skills in English, Mathematics, Science, Writing, Spelling and Digital Technologies.  

Each assessment celebrates students’ accomplishments by providing opportunities for recognition and development. Every student who participates will receive a printed certificate and an online results report. Top performers will be eligible for medals.  

We encourage you to consider entering your child (Year 4-6 only) into ICAS this year.   

Learn more about ICAS here. (https://www.icasassessments.com/products-icas)  

How to participate in ICAS  
If you wish for your child to participate in ICAS this year, please:  

1. Read about ICAS subjects and prices here.

1. Read the terms and conditions here.

1. Go to Parent Portal to purchase tests here.

1. Enter our school’s access code –  DGX967  

1. Enter your child’s details, select the tests you would like to purchase, then proceed to payment.  

Please note that the ICAS tests shown for selection are at the school’s discretion.   

After payment is made via the Parent Payment System, you will receive an order confirmation email. Please keep this for your records.  

ICAS Results and Certificates 
We will notify you of the date(s) that we run ICAS at the school and when your child’s ICAS results are ready. You will have until July 31st to make an order and your child will be sitting the test/s in August. Once we have received your child’s ICAS certificate, we will send it home with your child. The back of the certificate shows ICAS results and the login details, “TAP ID and Pin”, that you and your child need to enter on the Results Portal.  

20- 26th March - Harmony Week 
In Celebration of Harmony Week, children will be wearing their school uniform with a touch of orange on Friday 24th March and participating in activities to celebrate cultural diversity.

We ask children to bring along an orange that will be cut up and shared on the day. Oranges can be dropped off in your child’s classroom where SRCs will collect or in the tub outside the office.

Australia is one of the most successful multicultural countries in the world and we should celebrate this and work to maintain it. 

Friday 24th March - Ride to School Day
National Ride2School Day is Australia’s biggest celebration of active travel and one of the best days on the school calendar. It is a day where students discover the joy of riding and kick-start healthy habits for the future.

National Ride2School Day will be held on Friday 24th March 2023. 

If you can’t ride you can scoot or simply walk on the day too.

Lost and Found
Our ‘Lost and Found’ looks like a second hand store with clinical propensity for hoarding! 

Please have a look if you have lost a uniform item. We have a process for Lost Property. It goes like this:

• Collect lost property from around the grounds
• Return any items with names in the appropriate teachers pigeon hole
• ‘Uniform’ items go in the Lost Property box
• Hard items (drinks bottles, lunch boxes etc) are placed on top of the fire hose box
• Once a week sort through the Lost Property Box
• Items with names: Put appropriate teachers' pigeon hole, or take to the classroom. 
• Items with no name: Use sticky tape to and label ‘NO NAME/ DATE’
• If, after a month, the item is still in LOST PROPERTY, it is donated to the School Uniform Shop or First Aid
• Items are washed before they are given to the school uniform shop or first aid. 
• Depending on the state of/or quality of the item, it goes in either the bin or washed and given to the op shop. 
• If something is irretrievably grotty - it goes in the bin

Parking
We recently had a visit from Whitehorse City Council to address the bottleneck parking issues that occur in the morning at the intersection of Banksia St and Warrigal Rd. As a result there is new signage coming soon to limit the times cars can park on the school side of Banksia St. I have not been told exactly when this will happen but it’s best I let everyone know to be on the lookout for it. When these signs go up, the police will be able to fine people for parking in the wrong zones at the wrong time.

Canteen: Ordering
Our canteen operates on Mondays and Fridays for lunch only.

Due to the timetable change outlined above, orders must be placed by 5pm the day before the order is required. This means:

Monday orders            by      5pm Sunday

Friday orders               by      5pm Thursday

Orders placed after these times cannot be processed.

This allows our Canteen Manager, Charlotte, enough time to get things organised.

To place an order, please download the free Flexischools App from the App Store or Google Play. Once you have downloaded the app you will be able to view and select your orders, and pay online. 

Canteen: Volunteering
Do you have some time to spare? An hour and a half on a Friday would be great!

Our canteen would not be able to run without the wonderful support of the volunteer Parents and Grandparents in our school. We would love to have you volunteer for us, whether you are an experienced hand or an eager learner. Please see below to sign up.

Here's how it works in 3 easy steps:
Click this link to go to our invitation page on SignUp.com: https://signup.com/login/entry/827030846186224028

1. Enter your email address: (You will NOT need to register an account on SignUp.com)
2. Sign up! Choose your spots - SignUp.com will send you an automated confirmation and reminders. Easy!

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:

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

Have a great weekend.

Once a term the WPPS community gets together to work on our vast and beautiful grounds to create a calm and ordered environment to support our students’ learning,  safety and well being. The next one will be this Saturday 18th March. 

Click HERE to find out what we are going to do and how you can help.

Hope to see you there! 

Year 6 Parents, please look out for an email which will be sent to you next week, asking you to look at the information we have on file, and to return the form with any changes required.

Please return the forms, even if there are no changes necessary.

Thank you for helping the office to have the very latest contact information.  Crucial, in the case of any emergency.

All Year 1 - 4 parents/guardians should have received an email in regards to update contact information. Please return your forms to the office - as soon as possible, even if there are no any changes.

2. Late School Photos Order 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR PHOTO

The school’s preference is online ordering.

The school code is Q32 WP2 PAR

Ordering on line for sibling photos is closed.

If you have any questions, please contact Advanced Photography on 9852 1133.

Once a term the WPPS community gets together to work on our vast and beautiful grounds to create a calm and ordered environment to support our students’ learning,  safety and well being. The next one will be on Saturday 18th March. 

Click HERE to find out what we are going to do and how you can help.

Hope to see you there! 

4. Financial Assistance 

5. Harmony Week

Harmony Week: 20^th -26th March 
In Celebration of Harmony Week, children will be wearing their school uniform with a touch of orange on Friday 24th March and participating in activities to celebrate cultural diversity.
We ask children to bring along an orange that will be cut up and shared on the day. Oranges can be dropped off in your child’s classroom where SRCs will collect or in the tub outside the office.

Australia is one of the most successful multicultural countries in the world and we should celebrate this and work to maintain it.

6. National Ride2School Day

National Ride2School Day is Australia’s biggest celebration of active travel and one of the best days on the school calendar.

It is a day where students discover the joy of riding and kick-start healthy habits for the future.

National Ride2School Day will be held on Friday 24th March 2023.

If you can’t ride you can scoot or simply walk on the day too.

7. WPPS Easter Hamper - Donations Required


8. Remember - No Hat No Play
 

It’s that time of year - September to May, 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.
Hats are now available for purchase  from office at a cost of $20 each.

9. First Aid Room Volunteer
In order to keep our First Aid Room clean and tidy, we require volunteers to assist with this task. We need approximately 40 families on our roster to ensure that every family only needs to do this once per year. It is not time consuming and requires approximately 15 minutes of your time on a FRIDAY.
https://signup.com/go/MvZZbFq

10. PSW New Deliver Option
From 15th February, parents are able to order PSW school uniforms online and have the order delivered to the school office. Deliveries will be weekly for parent collection. This will save parents from actually having to go to the PSW shop if you  know what you want and sizes.

Above is a screen shot of how the screen would look like. 

The parent needs to choose the “Click and Collect” Option, the drop down box will appear and they choose for their item to be delivered to Wattle Park Primary School.


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