Hello Everyone!
Teaching and Learning - around the school this week
Teaching - Our Staff
Wattle Park Primary School has processes in place to ensure the health and well-being of our students. The Assistant Principal schedules Student Support Group meetings every term for our funded and vulnerable students. Individual Education Plans are developed for students on the program for Students with a Disability (PSD) program and those students requiring extra assistance or enhanced learning as well as Out of Home Care students and Koorie students. Further assistance is provided by adult Education Support Students from various institutions including RMIT, Holmesglen College of TAFE and Melbourne University. These adult students are timetabled to assist students who do not qualify for PSD funding but require individualised programs to allow them access to the curriculum.
As part of their training, these students require 100 hours of experience in a primary school setting. We have had many of these people assist our students over the years. Currently we have two students completing their practicum with us. One of these is Millie Webb.
“Hi everyone, I am Millie Webb and I’m completing a Certificate 3 in Education Support from Box Hill Institute. I have been working in Foundation, Year 2 and Year 3. In Foundation I’ve been helping EAL Students (English as a Second Language). In Year 2, I have been helping a specific student with reading and spelling words. In Year 3 l have been working with MAB (Multiple Attribute Blocks) to help students work out addition and subtraction sums.”
We are really grateful for Millie’s assistance and the students really enjoy her helping them learn.
Learning - Our Students
This week our Year Sixes have written a piece for the newsletter about our Year 6 Leadership Program.
YEAR SIX LEADERS - By Charlotte A and Alice M
What are the year six leadership roles?
Every year, each Year Six student gets a leadership role. There are many different roles and each student is given one and presented with lots of opportunities. These roles are used to assist teachers, give students freedom to organise their own things/events in the school and these roles can make the final year of primary school an even better experience. Each of the fifteen roles have different types of responsibilities, for example the ICT leader group would help students with online devices and make sure electronic devices are treated with care and respect.
Badge Presentation
In Week 4 of this term, all the Year Sixes and their parents gathered outside in the school grounds for the badge presentation. At the start of every year, all the year six students get their own badge to represent their leadership role and group (and so that younger students know which role you have gotten).The badge presentation replaces the assembly so that all students of the school can come see the new leaders of the school collect their badges. Except this year only the year sixes and parents were allowed to attend the outside badge assembly due to COVID measures. These badges help show what leaders they are and they make it more official that they are leaders of the school.
Planning events
After the badge presentation, all the leaders get into their groups and plan out what they are interested in doing for the year ahead. Groups come up with competitions, projects and even fundraisers. You get to make one special event for each group, you have to be prepared for any event and hopefully it will get approved by Mr Donohue. Making these events is exciting and if it works out the school gets to participate in a special activity you created.
What do you get to do as a leader?
Being a Year Six student gives you many opportunities such as presenting at assemblies. Each leadership group will host an assembly, you get to create the slides and discuss with Mr Donohue what should go in the assembly presentation and speech. It is an incredible experience and teaches you to speak in front of large groups of people and how to stretch your skills in team cooperation.
Not only do you get to host an assembly, Year Six students have the opportunity to go to places and/or events such as the NYLD (National Young Leaders Day), Somers camp and other camps, and special conferences that different leaders go to. These things are what make being in year six so interesting, learning how to be a leader and extending all your different skills to help you when you are older.
Who does what?
There is a different group for every leadership role, unfortunately not everyone knows who has what role, so to help fix that issue here is a list of every role and who is doing what:
Ambassadors- Charlotte A, Sumuyyah S, Liam S, Atticus C-B. The ambassadors help out with various topics, they have no set area. They are practically equivalent to school captains. They help students and show leadership for the school. Ambassadors run school tours, do the first and last assemblies and they organise lots of activities.
Art Leaders- Alice M, Tiana B, Ayman R. The Art Leaders help the Art teacher and try to incorporate more art into our school. They can run art activities and clubs and they help with anything art related at school.
ICT Leaders- Trent Z, Harriet Q, Sophie B, Tom P- they help with looking after anything to do with technology and help expand students knowledge of computers.
Bluegum House Leaders- Jack W, Eva B. The Bluegum house leaders help organise sporting events and they help out their house to do their best.
Acacia House Leaders- Isabel Z, Henry C. The Acacia House Leaders help organise sporting events and they help out their house to do their best.
Lomandra House Leaders- Mae P, Isabelle N- Lomandra house captains help organise sporting events and they help out their house to do their best.
Waratah House Leaders- Tillie V-W, Cleo T- Waratah house captains help organise sporting events and they help out their house to do their best.
Wellbeing Leaders- Eloise I, Kaylee R, Sophie F- The Wellbeing Leader’s job is to make sure that everyone in Wattle Park Primary has a good healthy wellbeing and thinks our school is a safe place to express ourselves.
STEM Leaders- Murray E, Patrick P, Dion T- STEM is similar to ICT except they help kids understand science and robotics then apply their knowledge in real life.
Numeracy Leaders- Yasara S, Brees G, Joey L- They help promote maths and the importance of it, they also organise various different maths competitions.
Literacy Leaders- Lily B, Scarlett S, Patrick T, Matias R- Literacy leaders help kids understand the importance of reading and writing, they encourage daily reading and ideas involved with reading.
Language Leaders- Danial Y, Suliman A, Ali A- The Language Leaders advertise learning different languages and they help run the EP Championships and other competitions and events.
Environment Leaders- Rhys C, James S, Jade M, Quan T D- The Environment Leaders make sure Wattle Park PS has a healthy environment and that everyone looks after the school grounds.
SRC Leader- Oliver S, Holly C, Skylah S, Anggia A. The SRC Leaders run the Student Representative Council, they run events like Harmony Day, and fundraisers and they help show the student voice.
Performing Arts Leader- Mabel C, Jolene L M, Alyssa B, Hannah G- The Performing Arts Leaders help out in the PA room and run events like talent shows or school productions.
We hope you enjoyed reading about our Year 6 Leadership Program!
By Charlotte A and Alice M (6B)
Year 6-7 Transition to Secondary Schooling 2023
A message from our Year 67 transition coordinator and Year 6B teacher (Mon and Tues), Cynthia Tuck:
Term 2 Week 1: Tues 26 - Fri 29 April
Year 6 to Year 7 Placement Information Packs for Schools and Parents/Carers (for 2023 school year) will be available for download from the Department of Education and Training website. More information to follow in the coming weeks.
We would encourage families of Year 5 and 6 students to book in for school tours to prospective schools. Open Day experiences are also available and can be booked via school websites. Tours and Open Days are a great way to experience the school culture and understand what opportunities the school can provide to your child in the coming years.
For any information about the transition process, please direct these to
Cynthia Tuck (6B classroom teacher and Year 6-7 transition coordinator) Cynthia.tuck@education.vic.gov.au or at school 9808-2165 (Monday and Tuesday).
Website Calendar
We have a calendar on our website!
Thank you to the parents I’ve been randomly accosting to see if things are working properly with this function. I have taken on board various suggestions including changing the colour from yellow to blue - so much easier to read!
Currently there are some issues with the times of past events not downloading properly. These past events with timing issues l have left in the calendar at the suggestion of the website developer so they can have their tech people solve them.
The future events on the calendar l have fixed manually so they will download properly on your phone.
As events are created by the office on COMPASS they will feed through automatically to this calendar and then we will all know what is going on at WPPS! - thanks for your patience with this matter. You will find our calendar on the front page of our website HERE.
COVID 19
As required by Department of Education and Training Guidelines, we continue to send symptomatic students home to prevent infection of others, including classroom teachers. Classroom teachers are very difficult to replace in the current climate due to many of the replacement agencies being without staff due to COVID. We are very appreciative of the highly skilled regulars we have to take classes when needed. Please go HERE on our school website for more information of what we are required to do to manage COVID 19 in our school.
National Young Leaders Day
On Wednesday this week we had 11 of our Year 6 students attend the National Young Leaders Day held at Melbourne Convention Centre. Students were asked to submit an expression of interest and were selected based upon not only this but leadership potential as recognised so far this year. Unfortunately our numbers are limited so we could not take everyone who would have benefitted from going. Students attending heard from a variety of young leaders from different career paths with a view to inspire them towards their own path of leadership. More information can be found HERE. Students attending were:
Sumayah S 6A, Liam S 6A, Hannah G 6B, Jack W 6B, Patrick T 6A, Alice M 6B
Charlotte A 6B, Atticus C-B 6B, Eva B 6A, Mae P 6A, Sophie F 6A
Have a great weekend everyone!
Steve Donohue
Principal
Wattle Park Primary School with the permission of ANZAC House, holds a linkage (by ABC broadcast) to the dawn service on the school grounds.
We invite any interested persons in our school and community to join us in this opportunity to remember our fallen servicemen and women.
We feel this is a great opportunity for those unable to travel to the Shrine of Remembrance for the occasion.
We shall be following the order of ceremony as directed by the ADCC (Anzac Day Commemoration Council).
We ask those interested to gather at the School Administration area by 5.45am for a 6.00am start, concluding at 6.30am on Anzac Day,
Monday, 25th April. The Ceremony is an important occasion, so that future generations of young Australians do not forget the horror of war and the importance of ANZAC Day in Australia’s history.
Please join us in remembering and giving thanks to the men and women whose love and sacrifice in wartime has enabled all Australians to live in peace and freedom.
We encourage any children who may be in possession of their grandparent’s medals to wear them on the day, noting protocol; medals should be worn to the right side
The poppies can then be placed on the memorial as part of the ceremony.
If you need more tickets they are also available at the office.
$2 Each or Book of six for $10.
Thank you - PFA Committee
Thanks to Local Business Bread Street in Mont Albert we have been gifted one thousand hot cross buns to use for fundraising.
The Student SRC and the Parents PFA have decided we would like to help Lismore South Public (Primary) school in New South Wales which has been decimated by the floods and are currently not able to use the school buildings and lost many resources.
Below is a message we received from the Assistant Principal yesterday:
"Thank you for reaching out to us. It has been an incredibly distressing and traumatic time for our entire school community. We lost most of our school in the floods. We will return to our school to begin Term 2 with a temporary site set up on our school oval. The refurbishment of our school and preschool will likely take 12 months as there is not much left.
It is so lovely that you are doing a hot cross bun fundraiser for us. We would love to put the funds raised towards some new sports equipment or sand play toys for our students. I think our children would be over the moon if you could focus on raising funds for those items"
We were thankful to be quickly back at school last week to reconnect, support one another and give our families some respite. I am heartened by the care, compassion and generosity shared by your SRC and school community to raise money for our school.
I’m sure your students will feel good to be able to help other students who have lost everything. The sports equipment and sandpit toys will bring them so much joy"
Usually $12 (6) we are selling for $10 with orders closing this coming Tuesday 4.00pm with bookings via Trybookings link below or the QR code.
We will distribute them Thursday 31st March afternoon from the Lote Building between 3-4pm.
https://www.trybooking.com/BYJRJ
1. Year 1 Student Contact Details
It is important the office has the latest up to date contact information.
2. Message from Canteen
1). Canteen is always looking for volunteers to help.....12pm - 1.30pm on Friday. Please register via https://signup.com/client/invitation2/secure/827030846186224028/false?popup=true#/invitation
2). Please also ensure that you've updated your child's correct class for 2022 in Flexischools to avoid your child's lunch being delivered to the wrong classroom.
We operate a first aid room at Wattle Park Primary school. In order to keep our First Aid Room clean and tidy, we require parent volunteers to assist us each Friday. We'd love 40 families to help - so you only have to help once a year!
For only around 15 minutes we appreciate you checking the area, changing the sheets, and returned washed sheets the following Monday.
How to assist
Please see our office staff to purchase hats and bags.
Hats are $15.00
New bags can also be purchased from the office for $55.00