Traffic Safety
Our students must be safe before they can learn. In an ongoing effort to ensure this is the case please be aware of our Somers Street entry. Several parents have expressed concerns to me regarding the ’novel’ driving that occurs there. 

Does anyone remember the 1070’s toy ‘Spirograph’? HERE is a video if you are wondering what I’m talking about. 

Most drivers are very aware of the safety of our students and drive very carefully. However there were a couple of cars whose car tyre pattern would rival any Spirograph pattern l came up with (and l progressed to the ‘advanced’ level of Spirograph creation … before ‘Donkey Kong’ took over…)

Performing a 57 point turn at the end of our driveway is not safe and will eventually result in injury and/or death. It is safer to park a little further up the road and drop your child there. Please do not perform any types of turns when you are at the entry/exits to our school. 

Our Students
Assembly - Held 9.15am every Friday in our school gymnasium. 

Students 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 at next week's assembly.

House Points
The House Points have been collected for this week.  The winning house decorates the trophy with their colours and have it displayed in the foyer of the school. 

Divisional Cross Country
On Monday, 29th May, ten WPPS students ran in the Division Cross Country held at Ruffey Park Lake. These students were asked to attend because of their prior achievements in the District Cross country held on 19th May.  Congratulations to all students who attended:

Special mention to those who achieved particularly highly:

James C - 1st in U11 boys (3km)

Lachie C - 2nd in U11 boys (3km)

Ethan W - 4th in U11 boys (3km)

The above place getters will progress to the Eastern Metropolitan Primary Regional Cross Country to be held on 13th June at Yarra Glen Racecourse in Yarra Glen.

Victorian State School Spectacular 2023

When is the 2023 Victorian State Schools Spectacular?
The 2023 Victorian State Schools Spectacular will be held on Saturday 9 September. The performance times are 1:00pm and 6:30pm. Where is it held? John Cain Arena, Melbourne Park 

How long is the performance?
The show is approximately 2hrs 45min (including a 30-minute interval).

How much are tickets?
Adult: $40 Concession: $30 Child (U15): $20  (a $6.30 service fee per transaction applies on all purchases)

Where can I buy tickets? 
Tickets are available through Ticketek: www.ticketek.com.au/spectacular or 132 849.

Tickets are on sale from 11am on Wednesday 7 June.

Where’s the best seat in the house to view WPPS students?
Section 9, 10, 31, 32, 33, 56, 57, 58

Thank you
Early last week l was alerted by our Team Kids Manger, Suskia, to an acrid smell coming from the gym accompanied by thickening smoke. Thank you to Dan Hanson and Anthony Hall who noted it was emanating from several of the heaters. They came back with a ladder and removed a variety of rice filled bean bags that had been steadily melting. No doubt busting into flames eventually. Thank you Dan and Anthony - potential disaster averted!

Reminder about ‘Dogs at School’
It has been brought to my attention on a number of occasions lately that dog’s excrement has been left lying around the school grounds, in particular near the playground areas. A reminder from our ‘Dogs at School’ policy that, “...dog owners are responsible for the removal of their dog’s excrement if they enter the premises.” 

Winner, Winner, Not a Chicken Dinner!
Once again, thank you to Wilbur and his family for helping out with chicken duty. They had a fabulous ‘family experience’ at Bounce.

“I went on the Ninja Warrior activity. It so tiring, but so much fun! We had lots of laughs and a few tumbles, but overall it was a fantastic experience.” 

Wilbur 

Chicken Duty - Volunteers Still Required
The good news is we will still run this competition in term two and during the term two holidays. All you have to do is sign up and assist with the chickens on the weekend/during the holidays. Each time you volunteer, you and your family receive an entry into the raffle. If you win, you get to choose what ‘family experience’ you would like.  These experiences include:

• Ninja Parc
• Hoyts
• Rainbow World
• Inflatable World
• Bounce
• Flip Out

Please see this link for more information and to sign up.

A special thank you to the Parents and Friends Association for the donation of the prizes. 

***Please note: There will not be a newsletter next week, Friday 9th June. We will continue to keep you updated with key events on Compass.

Have a great weekend.

Steve Donohue

Principal

Wattle Park Primary School

1. Apply now to enrol your child in Foundation (Prep) for 2024

The Department of Education has released a new statewide timeline for enrolling in Foundation (Prep) for the 2024 school year.

If you have a child starting primary school in 2024, it’s time to enrol. Make sure to submit your enrolment application by Friday 28 July 2023.

If you are enrolling the sibling of a student at our school for Foundation in 2024, and both children will be attending our school at the same time, your child is prioritised for a place at our school as per the department’s Placement Policy.

It is important to follow the statewide timeline to enrol your child in Foundation. Enrolling your child in line with the timelines allows us to plan our classrooms, staffing and transition activities and ensures your child has the best start to school.

For more information, please read about when and how to enrol your child in Foundation at vic.gov.au/enrolling-foundation-prep.

If you are seeking to enrol your child into Foundation next year, please contact our school office on 9808 2165  to request an enrolment form or visit our website https://www.wattleparkps.vic.edu.au/page/80/Enrolment to download a Word Version – 2024 Enrolments.

3. 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

4. PSW New Delivery Option
You can order PSW school uniforms online and have the order delivered to the school office. Deliveries will be weekly for collection instead of having to go to the PSW shop. 

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.

A screen shot of how the screen would look like:

Thank you to our Horticultural Specialist, Nikki Browne and Building and Grounds Committee leader, Michael Hunt for organising the Working Bee dates. Future working bees are on our website calendar and downloadable to your phone.

Term 2 Sat 17th June       Great Big Working Bee       10 - 1pm

Term 3 Sat 2nd Sept        Great Big Working Bee       10 - 1pm

Term 4 Sat 9th Dec          Great Big Working Bee       10 – 1pm

On Facebook or Instagram?

Check out the WPPS Twilight Fete dedicated Facebook and Instagram pages! While there are still a few months before the event on Saturday 18^th November, there is still plenty to get excited about now.

Click the links below or search Wattle Park Primary School Twilight Fete and follow so you’re in the know about everything that will be happening on the day. We will also be highlighting our incredible sponsors and donations who are making this fete possible!

Don’t forget to like or comment on any posts so we know exactly what you’re looking forward to most on the day.

https://instagram.com/wppstwilightfete

https://www.facebook.com/wppsfete

If social media isn’t your thing, we also have a fete website where you can find all the same information.

Simply go to the school’s website https://www.wattleparkps.vic.edu.au/ and you will find a link to see everything fete related.

It’s been five long years since the last school fete – help us make this year’s better than ever!

Some of the Year Eights greeted us when we got there. All the helpers were really kind, and they were friendly enough to give us morning tea. They helped us with the electricity sticks; the teachers seemed nice too and the whole school was enormous, and we couldn't find our way out. We did Science and the helpers assisted us if we were stuck,and they encouraged us and made us feel proud of our creation. Siena College seems like a really interesting and unique school.

We learnt many interesting things including ways of powering things that required solar or wind power from the blow of the fan or the rays of the sun. We drew things on these solar powered spinning disks and put them on the generator. From this, we can see what the drawings look like on the peculiar discs and how they are powered - on a high level or low level. One of the activities we did at Siena College was using energy sticks to find out which materials are conductors or insulators of electricity. 

The ones that worked were spoons, play dough, and many more.The most surprising ones were the carrots which contain water and can conduct electricity which was an amazing discovery. We also got everybody in the room to touch hands which showed how humans are conductors of electricity. They also showed us the large grounds of Sienna.

First, they showed us inside the art area of the school. Secondly, they showed us the gym where the girls were doing phs ed and playing with hula hoops. Thirdly, they just took the longest way to get back to the building.

Overall we had a great time and we would like to thank the parent helpers and teachers from WPPS and Sienna.

Ella.D 6A, Emily.S 6B, Zane. 5A, Kaylee.C 5B

This week in kitchen we made scrumptious silverbeet fritters, a winter vegetable salad and lemon myrtle tea with all ingredients picked fresh from the garden. The salad needed beetroot, carrots, parsnip and eggplants all finely chopped in julienne and a vinegar and mustard salad dressing. 

In class, we continued to learn about the herbs we used during our session; oregano, parsley, lemon thyme and rosemary. We observed the shape and colour of their leaves and stem and noticed their fragrance so we can identify them in the herb garden.  We then used our observations to create botanical drawings of the herbs for our Kitchen Garden Journal.

Dorothy, Sara, Naomi, Max, Carter – 4A

Roasted winter vegetable salad

Ingredients

• Carrots - julienne
• Parsnips - julienne
• Beetroot - julienne
• garden herbs – chopped finely
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pinch of pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Lettuce leaves

Salad dressing

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• ½  teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sumac
• ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• Place into a jar and shake.

What to do

1. Heat oven to 180C.
2. Cut vegetables and place into a large bowl.
3. Add herbs, salt, pepper and olive oil and mix gently with hands.
4. Spread out onto a baking tray and cook for 15 to 20 minutes until cooked.

We have a number of unbranded items (green winter vests and green stockings) available for free.

Otherwise you are welcome to purchase:

If you have any larger sizes your child is no longer wearing, please donate them to the school. Please wash and leave in the box near the school office. We are seeking quality items only, thank you.