Hello Everyone,

Recently there has been much talk in the media about how schools teach spelling. THIS article outlines some concerns as raised by the Grattan institute.

Spelling

Foundation to Year 2   Sounds Write Program 
Since the beginning of last year, Foundation to Year 2 have utilised a phonics based approach to spelling. We use the evidence based and internationally renowned ‘Sounds write’ program. This program involves:

• Daily spelling lessons that address individual sounds and letters
• Scripted lessons for the teacher that must be taught in order

Year 3 - Year 6   Spelling Mastery
Currently our Year 4 - 6 teachers are utilising or learning how to use the Spelling Mastery Program.

This involves:

• Daily spelling lessons that address individual sounds and letters
• Scripted lessons for the teacher that must be taught in order
• Morphemic approach - exposes advanced spellers to prefixes, bases, and suffixes
• Whole-word approach - gives spellers at all levels the meaning and root of a word and shows how the word's spelling is influenced by suffixes and prefixes

Community Safety Orders
As the year begins, it is timely to remind our community that our school site is not a public site. 

It is a public school on a private government site.

And we have rules.

In a nutshell these rules require everyeone to civil to each other at all times when they are on our site. Which is fair enough. After all, our students learn what they see. 

However, when parents and carers behave aggressively towards staff or members of the school community, it can have a significant impact on the physical and mental health, safety and wellbeing of the staff, students and other members of the school community.

When this happens the Principal can call the police and/or issue a Community Safety order.

There are 2 types of orders that Principals and other authorised persons can issue to prohibit or limit different types of behaviours – ongoing school community safety orders (ongoing orders) and immediate school community safety orders (immediate orders).

Ongoing orders may be made for any period up to a maximum of 12 months and can prohibit or limit a person from:

• entering or remaining on any school-related place of the relevant school
• approaching, or causing another person to approach, within 25 metres of any staff member or class of staff members within or outside of any school-related place of the relevant school
• contacting any staff member or class of staff members
• using or communicating on a communication platform owned, controlled by, or established in relation to the relevant school.

For more information please go HERE

Fortunately I am rarely in the position where I have to issue such an order due to virtually all our community members being considerate and polite people. 

Our Students
Further to our Leadership assembly last week we have some random pictures to share with you:

     
   

School Captains	June	Flynn	Zane	Oscar R
ICT	Megan	Zoe	Calum
Blue Gum	James	Marc	Owen F	Josh
Waratah	Eric T	Bobby	August
Lomandra	Ammar	Issy	Liam	Nick
Acacia	Lachie	Kaylee	Franki	Mia
Visual Art	Abby F	Xoli	Abigail
Performing Arts	Zara	Lila	Leen
Wellbeing/SRC	Sophia	Ethan	Archer
Environment	Alfie	Elly	Benjamin
Numeracy	Maggie	Damon
Literacy	Lewis	Autumn
STEM	Lena	Oscar P	Lili

Congratulations to everyone involved and l look forward to working with each leadership group on their Year 6 student voice initiatives.

Notices

Uniform Shop will be open: Monday 4th of March 8.30 - 9.00am 

Term 1 Parent-Teacher Meetings

Parent-Teacher Meetings are an opportunity for you to talk to your child’s classroom teacher/s to discuss how we can work together to provide the most beneficial educational experience for your child. These are held in Term 1 and Term 3. Parents who normally have a Student Support Group Meeting (SSG) each term do not have Parent Teacher meetings.

Student reports are provided in terms 2 and 4.

Parent Teacher Meetings this Term will be held in 10-minute sessions on the following days:

Tues 20.2 from 3.50 – 7.30 pm

Wed 21.2 from 3.50 – 5.00 pm

Interviews will be held face-to-face unless otherwise organised with the classroom teacher via Video Conferencing (Zoom/WebEx).

Parent Teacher Meetings will be available to book via your COMPASS portal from 4.00 pm tomorrow (Wednesday 7.2). Bookings will close at 12 pm on Tuesday 20.2.

Please contact the office on 9808 2165 if you need assistance.

2024 WPPS Annual Permission Form on COMPASS
Dear Parents and Guardians,

Every year, we send out a list of permission questions (see below) to be completed, covering your child for the entire year. Starting this year, the WPPS Annual Permission Form will be moving online using COMPASS.

This form will be sent as an event, '2024 WPPS Annual Permission Form,' and we ask that you complete sections 3 and 4 by Friday 1st March, 2024. This should take no longer than a few minutes to complete.

Please answer the questions below regarding:

• Accident Declaration

• Permission and Authority Form for Walking Excursions

• Media Permission Internal - School Newsletter, Website

• Media Permission External - Newspaper, Television

• Head Lice Check Consent

• Health Management Plan

• Volunteering

Please contact the office if you need assistance.

Thank you everyone.

Wattle Park Primary School

Assembly
Fridays at 9.15am this upcoming week will be our  SRC & SCARECROW Badge Assembly where students who have been voted in by their classmates will be awarded their badges.

903 Bus Route
Up to 20 of our students were using the 903 until it was removed.

In response to this,  the WPPS School Council met with the State Member for Box Hill, Paul Hamer, to establish what could be done about providing access via public transport to WPPS. 

One of the ideas muted was a bus service that ran for limited hours during pick up and drop off times.

Paul said our energy was best placed accumulating stories from those affected explaining how the absence of the 903 bus affects them personally.

Please email me on steven.donohue@education.vic.gov.au with any comment, narrative, impact statement of how the absence of this service has affected you. 

Please do this by Thursday Feb 29th.

We will collate them and present them to Paul to be taken higher up the governmental tree.

HERE is the petition to sign

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

    Ordering - Full Menu

To place an order, download the free Flexischools App from the App Store or Google Play. Once you have downloaded the app you will order and pay online. 

Orders must be placed by 4pm the day before the order is required.

Monday orders   by 4pm Sunday

Friday orders      by 4pm Thursday

Last Chance Ordering - Reduced Menu

If the normal daily service cut off has been missed.  Items such as pies, nuggets, sausage rolls, popcorn and drinks will be available as part of this service with a cut off time of 8.30am the day of canteen.

Please be aware Flexischools does not automatically change the class of your child to their 2024 class. Please ensure you update this information when you next order.

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:

1. Click this link to go to our invitation page on SignUp.com: https://signup.com/login/entry/827030846186224028
2. Enter your email address: (You will NOT need to register an account on SignUp.com)
3. Sign up! Choose your spots - SignUp.com will send you an automated confirmation and reminders. Easy!

Running Club
Running club 8am on Thursdays

Volunteers course
If you’d  like to volunteer in 2024 please obtain a Working with Children’s Check and complete our Volunteers course:

Hats on in Term 1!
With our emergence from the winter gloom into the glorious springtime sunshine comes the need to be aware of the damage rays can do. As per our Sunsmart Policy WPPS states the following:

From 1 September to 30 April, all students must wear a sun protective hat that shades the face, neck and ears for all outdoor activities. 

‘Hats on in September, off in May’

Students who are not wearing appropriate protective clothing or a hat may be asked to play in the shade or in a suitable area protected from the sun.

Have a great weekend!

Steve Donohue

Principal

Wattle Park Primary School

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Please be reminded of Compass Actions:
1. For Year 1 - 4 Parents
2. For All Year Level Parents
1. Year 1-3 - Student Update Information 
For those Year 1 parents who haven't return/update information, please print off the sheets with any changes to be clearly marked, and return to the office for amendment. If you prefer a paper copy please contact the office.

2. Year 4 - Student Update Information
Today, Year 4 Parents/Carers will receive an email requesting parents to check over contact details for their child.

It is imperative we have the latest contact information, along with emergency contact details.

Please print off the sheets with any changes to be clearly marked, and return to the office for amendment.

The office will send out emails to each year level, week by week.

Thank you for taking time to read through contact information.

3. For All Year Level Parents
2024 WPPS Annual Permission Form on COMPASS

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School Uniform Order Online Option

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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Please scroll through to see all of our latest notices!


1. CSEF
2. Student Update Information - Year 2
3. Volunteer Needed for the First Aid Room
4. School Photo
5. School Hat - Remember September to May - No Hat No Play
6. Late Students
7. Second Uniform Shop


1. CSEF
Welcome, all new families to Wattle Park Primary School for 2024.

If you are the holder of a Govt Concession Card or Health Care Card, you are eligible for Government assistance called CSEF, (Camps, Sports, Excursions Fund).

This payment of $125 is for any school activity including camps.

Please fill out the form HERE along with a copy of your concession card, and hand into the office.

If you have  any enquiries, please contact the office on 9808 2165.

2. Student Update Information

Today, Year 2 Parents/Carers will receive an email requesting parents to check over contact details for their child.

It is imperative we have the latest contact information, along with emergency contact details.

Please print off the sheets with any changes to be clearly marked, and return to the office for amendment.

The office will send out emails to each year level, week by week.

Thank you for taking time to read through contact information.

3. Volunteer Needed for the First Aid Room
Much appriciated if any one can help us clean the sheets in First Aid Room. Your help can make the First Aid room a more safer and cleaner enviroments.We have had no one since mid last term. Please sign up HERE.

4. School Photo
Ordering school photos for 2024 is on line and easy. It is the preferred payment option.    Please following the above steps for ordering on-line.

Should you prefer to pay by cash, envelopes can be collected from the office.  Please return these envelopes TO THE OFFICE, not the classroom, and preferably ON PHOTO DAY.

Should you have any questions about ordering please contact Advanced Photography direct on 9852 1133.

5. Remember September to May - No Hat No Play
 

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.
New hats are available from the office $15.

6. Late Students
All late students MUST report to office before heading to class, to receive a late slip.  Otherwise, your child will be reported as absent and parents will receive an sms notification that their child in an unexplained absence.

7. Second Uniform Shop
Second Hand uniform shop will be in the school gymnasium.

Monday 4^th March - 8:30am – 9:00am.

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REGISTER HERE - https://www.playhq.com/afl/register/5abcb2 or
scan the QR Code on the flyer below!

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