Hello Everyone,

Although we have been having dark mornings damp days, the shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice, will be upon us next Friday 21st of June. From that point on, all of our mornings will become brighter.  Ahhh…

Some things to be aware of:

Team Kids
Over a series of months, our Team Kids service, run by Suskia Malafu, has been undergoing an assessment. Suskia is well known for being a very effective Team Kids DOS (Director of Service) not only in our school but throughout the Team Kids organisation. Well done to Suskia and Gavin, who achieved the much sought-after ‘Exceeding' rating as a result of their most recent independent assessment. Well done to Suskia and Gav for keeping our students safe and happy!

New Mathematics Victorian Curriculum 2.0
The Victorian Government has recently changed the F-10 school Mathematics curriculum to raise Australian learning outcomes to meet higher international standards.

The former Mathematics curriculum represented students’ progress with a dot in each one of three strands of Mathematics:

• Number & Algebra
• Measurement & Geometry 
• Statistics and Probability

This new curriculum breaks this up into 6 strands and only requires one dot to represent all of a students’ Mathematics progress:

In the interests of keeping parents and guardians informed, WPPS has decided to represent each of these six strands, mark each one, and give a dot to indicate overall progress. Therefore our reports look like this:

As the new curriculum is more challenging it may mean your child achieves a lower level this year than they did last year. It is unlikely your child’s achievements in Mathematics have regressed - rather, the curriculum targets have been raised. We look forward to working in partnership with you to further educate our students. 

Our Students
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.

Mathletics Champion
Congratulations to: Gary Y - 1A
who won this week for his excellent performance and regular participation in Mathletics this week. 

ECO MVP
Congratulations to Meera D from 1B for winning the ECO MVP.

How to win….

It’s simple

 - Continue to bring your nude food lunches

 - Pick up rubbish around the classroom and school

 - Turn off lights and powerpoints that don’t need to be on

 - Turn off leaking taps

 - Dispose of rubbish appropriately.

Each week, a Scarecrow teacher or leader will visit one classroom (at random). They will select one student for the ECO MVP, and their photo will be taken for Assembly. The student will receive an amazing eco straw and bag.

Regional Cross Country
On Thursday this week, Matilda and James C competed at the Regional Cross Country event.

Congratulations to Matilda for finishing 31st out of 87 students.

A HUGE congratulations to James for finishing 7th and qualifying to compete at the State Cross Country Championships held on Thursday 18th July.

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

Year 6 Solar Buddy Program
Year 6 are fundraising money for the SolarBuddy program to build solar lights to help children living in extreme energy poverty.

SolarBuddy is an Australian charity uniting a global community to illuminate the futures of all children. One of the biggest obstacles we face is extreme energy poverty. It is a complex challenge, impacting the health and well-being, educational outcomes, and economic stability of the communities experiencing it as well as our environment. Despite this, we are motivated by big challenges and the impact we can make by gifting solar lights to children who need them.

All students will receive their orders at lunchtime on Thursday 27th June.

Families will place their orders online at Humanitix here:  

https://events.humanitix.com/sausage-sizzle-fund-raiser

You will have until Monday 24th June to submit your orders.”

Year One Mathematics
As part of the Yr 1 Mathematics curriculum the Year 1s are learning:

 ‘Space  - Give and follow directions to move people and objects to different locations within a space.’

The past week Year Ones have been working to give and follow directions to familiar locations.

Children drew a bird's eye view map of their bedrooms and were given materials such as Duplo, Lego, blocks, and Unifix to create a model of the bedroom using their map. When the models were completed, they were displayed alongside the maps where students saw the similarities between the maps and the models. They also used positional language such as ‘beside’, ‘right’ ‘left, ‘under’, ‘next to’.

Students later worked in a group to program the Bee-Bots and practise using their positional language to describe the Bee-Bot’s path. They used the language of distance and direction to move from place to place. Students wrote down the path in their maths books before entering in the directions on the Bee-Bot, adjusting their path if needed.      

ICAS
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.   

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.
2. Read the terms and conditions here.
3. Go to Parent Portal to purchase tests here.
4. Enter our school’s access code –  IOQ829  
5. 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 Monday 29th July 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.  

Our Staff
Continuing getting to know our staff at WPPS, we get to know Ms Wodhouse Monea who teaches 4A.

Since joining the Wattle Park community in 2022, a highlight of my teaching week has always been participating in the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden sessions. We’re so lucky to start one day in the garden, planting and harvesting herbs and veggies and following this up with cooking in the kitchen. I’ve learned so much from Nikki, our garden expert and have put this knowledge to good use planting my own veggie garden at home. 

Before joining Wattle Park, I worked as a CRT across several Eastern suburb primary schools. Teaching was a career change for me, so prior to this I was a Quality Assurance Officer in the food industry. My days as QA officer were filled with a range of diverse tasks from taste testing batches of hot cross buns and party pies, to calculating nutrition information and performing allergen traces. I feel like this was excellent preparation for teaching at WPPS, where our days in Year 4 are just as varied. We might be focusing on Maths one minute and shepherding chickens back into their coop in the next! 

Notices
Wattle Park Primary School presents.... 

WPPS Kids Disco! 

Get ready for a night of dancing, singing and entertainment with the famous DJ Jessie J!

Tickets  HERE

Thursday 20 June 2024 
SESSION 1 Foundation to Year 2 - 5:00pm-5:45pm
SESSION 2 Year 3 to Year 6 - 6:00pm-7:00pm 

Bookclub
A message from our magnificent book club organiser Jill H who has done a mighty job with Bookclub and is now going to hand over the reigns:

Hello everyone,

Scholastic Book Club happens at the start of each term.

Firstly, you’ll need to stamp the catalogues with the deadline date. (approx. 1hr)

Once the orders are placed online, you will then process the orders on the deadline date.

You will receive an email from Scholastics Book Club letting you know your orders have been dispatched. When the orders have been delivered to the school, the office will email or contact you.

Finally, is the sorting of the orders, this in the fun part. (approx. 1 1/2hrs)

If you are interested in perhaps taking over this role, please contact the office to obtain my details;

Phone: 98082165 Email: wattle.park.ps@education.vic.gov.au

Uniform Shop
New Uniforms
The Uniform Shop for new uniforms is located off site.

Please click HERE for the location and price list for all our new uniforms.

Uniform orders can be delivered to the school office. 

School Bags and School Beanies
Available from the school office

Second Hand Uniform Shop
Located in the school gymnasium 
Cash only

Last Friday of every month - next opening time
Friday 28th June 8.30 - 9.15am

• Donations of second hand uniforms are welcome. 
• Clothing must be washed and in very good condition. 
• Please bring donations to the school office.
• Thank you for supporting this initiative!

Assembly
9.15am  Fridays

Chooks
Thank you to Ms Woodhouse and Ms Duong for incorporating the assistance of Team Kids and the Cameron Close residents to populate our feeding schedule so we do not have to appeal so desperately to our school families to attend to the ladies on the weekends.

Click here to visit the Volunteer SignUp page.

Click here to read more about what is required for Chicken Care

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

Have a great weekend everyone!

Steve Donohue

Principal

Wattle Park Primary School

Have you enrolled your child/ren for Wattle Park Primary School 2025?

If not you best hurry!!

Our school is using an online system for new Foundation (Prep) enrolments to Victorian government schools, called VicStudents.

​To get started:

• The Department of Education has created a Quick Reference Guide to help you get started. The guide is attached via this link: Foundation Digital Enrolment Parent Guide.
• Visit https://students.educationapps.vic.gov.au/s/to create an account and complete the online application form as soon as possible. 
• We will then review the information submitted and be in contact with you by Friday 9 August 2024.​
• You should accept one enrolment offer by Friday 23 August 2024. When accepting an offer, you will be required to provide additional personal and health information that will be shared with the school.

Is VicStudents secure?

VicStudents has been assessed by the Department of Education to a high degree of security in line with the Victorian Protective Data Security Standards and is compliant with ISO 27001, the leading international standard for information security.

School Tour

We welcome you to book a school tour. These are held at 10am every Friday. Please call 98082165 or book online. Tours last approximately 1 hour and tours outside of these hours are by appointment.

1. Update Emergency Contact Information
2. School photos: 20% Limited time discount offer
Second Hands Uniform Dates
3. Second Hand Uniform Shop Dates
4. School Beanies
5. CSEF
6. Volunteers Needed for the First Aid Room
7. Late Students

1. Updating Emergency Contact information - Imperative!!
All parents and guardians: If you have not yet updated your emergency contact information, please do so immediately. It is imperative for the school to have the most current contact details for the safty and well-being of your child. Thank you for your prompt attention to this important matter.

2. School photos: 20% Limited time discount offer
A message from Advancedlife:
20% Discount on Sports & Co-Curricular Group Photos available until 27/06/2024

Dear Parents,

These school sports and co-curricular groups were photographed on 14/03/2024:

You can now view and purchase the group images listed above and if you place your order before 27/06/2024 you will get a 20% early order discount. Just click on the link below. Please note the discount will be automatically applied at checkout.

Images can also be viewed by visiting www.advancedlife.com.au entering the code: Q32 WP2 PAR and clicking on “Group Photos”

Important

• Sports and co-curricular group photos can only be purchased online, PLEASE DO NOT return payment to your school
• If your child's group or team is scheduled to be photographed at a later date, you will receive an additional email notification when the images are ready to be ordered
• Photos will be returned to your school for distribution approximately six weeks after the discounted early order period has closed
• Past years' photographs including sports, co-curricular and representative groups are also available at your school's advancedorder and your child's advancedyou photo sites

advancedlife would like to express our appreciation to Wattle Park Primary School for placing your trust in us. Please remember we offer a 100% money-back guarantee on our products to ensure your peace of mind. We would also love to receive your feedback or resolve any issues you may experience, to ensure your satisfaction. If you have any questions, comments or feedback relating to your advancedlife experience, please contact us at www.advancedlife.com.au/contact

Second Hand uniform shop will be in the school gymnasium on:

• Friday, 28th June 8.30 - 9.15am 

• And then - last Friday of every month
                                                 

4. School Beanies

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 $150 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.

This procedure should also be followed for eligible existing families, for 2024 payment.

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

6. 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.

7. 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 unexpl

• Newsletter
• Holiday Program

Part-Time Reception Work Available
Two days per week (must be able to work on a Friday and one other day in the week)
East Malvern
Ultradata
8.30 am – 5.30 pm
If you are interested please email Manu on mdas@ultradata.com.au
Details of the job:
SEEK - https://www.seek.com.au/job/76562645?ref=cm-ui
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3945076355/?alternateChannel=search&refId=EhBlmKZVZqpjHfXBNONJkA%3D%3D&trackingId=T1xJfJlSDUtBCUI48uhI8A%3D%3D