Hello Everyone,

Welcome to term 3!

As we emerge from Winter you’ll notice lots of things happening around the school. Not the least of which has been the removal of the old Aftercare and LOTE buildings that happened over the holidays. You may also have noticed we have had the awful cypress trees removed from around the school sign at the corner of Warrigal Road and Banksia Street. The Twisty tree was also trimmed up so that it no longer pushes our school fence out on the footpath, there is a longer term plan to repopulate with Acacia Wattles along the front of our school - for obvious reasons. 

There are lots of events this term. Please check our School Calendar (downloadable to your phone) for upcoming events.

For more information regarding specific year levels activities this term, including Specialist times etc please check year level sites:

Our Students
Assembly 9.15am on Friday 

Students of the week and House points
Due to this being the first week of the term there are no Student of the Week or House Points to announce.

NAPLAN - Upcoming changes to NAPLAN reporting
Ahead of NAPLAN results for students being released from Monday 17th July 2023, I’m writing to inform you of some changes to this year’s reporting. These are changes being introduced nationally by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

NAPLAN will continue to measure student achievement in numeracy, reading, writing, spelling, and grammar and punctuation but the results will now be presented in 4 proficiency levels:

These are:

• exceeding
• strong
• developing
• needs additional support.

This change will give schools, parents and carers clearer information that details student achievement against new proficiency levels.

Students’ NAPLAN reports will continue to show how they are tracking against their peers and provide an indication of their skill levels against national averages and where we would expect them to be in order to get the most out of schooling. This provides valuable information to teachers about how we can continue to support your child.

Each set of NAPLAN results is an important milestone but it’s also important that students know that one result does not define them – these results are about making sure every student gets the support they need so they can continue to get the best from their learning.

When we provide you with your results, you will also receive information about what the new proficiency levels mean.

 Lambs
Hello everyone,
Wattle Park, our names are Darcy, Shreshth, Lachie, Max, and Millie. As you might know, there is a lamb at our school who is living very comfortably in the Chicken Coop. Recently the responsibility of choosing a name for the lamb was given to 4A. After a long and tedious vote, 4A chose the name, Jamima. The feeding of the lambs will be rotating to different classrooms for the rest of the term. Thank you Darcy and Ted S’s dad Sam for making  this possible. There will be information coming out through your classroom teachers about looking after the lambs on the weekends.

Year One Then & Now Excursion: Como House & Gardens
Year One students built on their historical knowledge and inquiry skills through an investigation into past and present family life. The students were provided with opportunities to investigate what toys, school, home life, transport and jobs were like in the past.

On Wednesday 12th July, Year One children were immersed in the history and luxury of Como House and Gardens where they had a glimpse into the privileged lifestyle of the family who lived there for nearly a century.

Student activities included:

• Introduction to past Melbourne and the life of children in the past
• A mystery scavenger hunt activity
• Old fashioned games
• Tour of the house with a focus on ‘Then and Now’ comparisons
• Servants work in the laundry
• Tour of the kitchen, dining room, bedrooms and sitting room

Parent Teacher Meetings
WPPS, like all state governments schools, offers two face to face/online interviews per year and two written reports per year. The format is:

Our Parent Teacher Meetings for this semester will occur:

Tuesday 25th July

• 3.50 - 7.30 pm

Wednesday 26th July

• 3.50 - 4.50 pm

Parent Teacher Meetings are a hybrid version offered online or face to face (on site). The default position is on site unless organised with your teacher.

Please note anyone who has an SSG scheduled this term, does not have a parent teacher meeting.

The opportunity to book a PT meeting will occur at 4pm on Friday 14th of July (today!) 

A reminder from our last newsletter (2023.06.23)

Currently we issue reports at the end of Semester 1 (term 1 and 2)  and Semester 2 (term 3 and 4).

We also publish them on Compass as digital documents by 4pm on the day they go home.

As agreed upon at School Council on Tuesday this week, and as an environmentally responsible school, this Semester 1 report will be the last time we provide all students with a hard copy report.

In acknowledgement of the preference for a hard copy report, we will still provide paper reports to those parents/guardians who request them. All you will need to do is email your classroom teacher to let them know this is what you would like.

For further information regarding how to access your child/rens reports (from as far back as Semester 2017) please go HERE. 

Student reflections will continue to come home as a hard copy in an envelope.

Our Staff
We welcome Mr Micheal Tiglias to replace the irreplaceable Ms Tan in 3B this term. We were fortunate enough to employ Mr Tiglais in time for one day handover at the end of term 2 with Ms Tan so the students in 3B could meet Mr Tiglias in person before he began this term. 

Notices
Buildings and Grounds

You may have noticed we had our old LOTE and After Care building demolished during the holidays. This is to make way for two new classrooms. We have had 22 new enrolments since the beginning of the year so the extra rooms are important. You may also be interested to note the development of the building.

1. A) An initial sketch from the architect

1. B) Initial building design 

1. C) The above conjured up the phrase ‘bone chillingly ugly’ so l changed it to this:

There are still improvements to be made. We are currently consulting with staff.  It is predicted to be completed by October 2023.

Have a great weekend everyone.

• WPPS Kids Disco
• Trivia Night, tickets available via Humanitix
• Twilight Fete

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.

2. 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

3. 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.

4. Book Club
Book Club online order will be closed on the 24th July, Monday.