Hello Everyone!

Teaching and Learning - around the school this week

Teaching - Our Staff

Continuing with getting to know our staff at Wattle Park Primary School I’d like to introduce you to Luchia Selex. Luchia is one of our many Adult Education students we have at WPPS who is studying to become an Education Support worker and who requires 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. Last week we met Millie. This week we meet Luchia:

“My name is Luchia Selex. I’m currently studying for a Certificate IV in Education Support at Swinburne University and am completing placement at WPPS. I am enjoying assisting the teachers and students in Foundation and Year 3 & 4 classes. If you see me around, be sure to say hi!

Kind regards

Lou”

We are really grateful for Luchia’s assistance and the students really enjoy her helping them learn. 

Learning - Our Students

Our Year 1 students went to Ricketts point as part of their Science and Integrated studies unit. As part of this unit the students learn to pose and respond to questions and make predictions about familiar objects and environmental events. Students participate in guided investigations to explore and answer questions and learn to use a range of methods to sort information, including drawings and  tables and through discussion, comparing observations with predictions. They also have a lot of fun!

The following is what one of our Year 1 students wrote about the Excursion:

WPPS Parent & Carer Survey 2022

We'd like to learn more about you and your child's experiences at Wattle Park Primary School. The results of this survey will be used to inform our decision-making. The survey will remain open until Friday 29th April. A link to it can be found on our website HERE.

If you have any questions about the survey, or you would like to discuss any aspect of your responses in more detail, please contact our Principal, Steve Donohue, by emailing the school office at wattle.park.ps@education.vic.gov.au or calling 03 9808 2165. 

Please note that while we require your details for validity purposes, we won't be responding individually. We will however be providing an overview of key themes in coming months to the school community.

Thank you for your participation in this brief 10-minute survey. We really appreciate your time and feedback. 

Gardens and newspaper

I have employed a gardener to do some work over the holidays. This involves using a lot of newspaper to put under the mulching that will occur when he cleans up the four garden beds outside the before and After Care room. 

PLEASE DROP OFF ANY NEWSPAPER YOU HAVE TO THE OFFICE NEXT WEEK!

Website Calendar

You will find our calendar on the front page of our website HERE. Our Assistant Principal, Emma Tan, the ladies in the office and l are hurriedly getting in all events that have been confirmed for this year including:

• Term holidays
• Early dismissals
• Curriculum days
• Camps 
• Student start dates for each term and various other events.

EVENTS

31st March 2022 YR 56 Gala Day

All students from Year 5 and 6 went to Gala Day yesterday. The aim of this event is to develop students’ physical skills, game knowledge and teamwork. They departed school at 9am and returned around 3pm. The events occurred at two campuses  Elgar Park, Box Hill North (soccer, volleystars & softball) and Nunawading Tennis Club (hotshots tennis)

31st March 2022 Hot Cross Bun Drive for Lismore

The School Representative Council (SRC) and the Parent and Friends Association (PFA) have been working together to raise funds to help Lismore South Public (Primary) school NSW, which has been decimated by the floods and are currently not able to use the school buildings and lost many resources. Thank you to local business Bread Street Bakery in Mont Albert Village who donated 1000 hot cross buns! Thank you to everyone who was involved, particularly Anthony Hall who contacted the Lismore South Public (Primary) school in  NSW noting, from google maps, they were under water. There has been over $1000 raised so far from the sale of these buns.

1st April 2022  The Foundation BBQ

Tonight from 4 - 5pm. This is traditionally put on by the current Year 1 parents for the current Foundation parents and is an opportunity for parents to get to know each other. The school provides sausages (gluten free and halal certified) and a zooper dooper for each child attending. Thank you to Anthony from the PFA and Lincoln, Duncan and Steven who have volunteered to cook. Thank you also to Wattle Park Cakes who supply us with bread for free and to Ashbuton Meats who supply us with sausages at a heavily discounted price. 

Monday, 4th April 2022 Uniform Shop - Bottoms bonanza!!

Stock up on tracksuit pants for Winter. First in, best dressed! $2 each 8:30am

Monday, 25th April 2022 ANZAC Day Dawn Service

Wattle Park has traditionally had a dawn service on ANZAC Day. We have a fire pit for reflection, listen to the ABC broadcast of the ceremony at the Shrine of Remembrance and have a cup or tea or coffee and an ANZAC biscuit to wrap up by 7.30am. Normally it occurs after school has already started term 2 but this time it is different:

Mon 25th April 6-7.30am Dawn Service at WPPS

Tues 25th April Curriculum Day  - Student free day

Wed 27th April Students return for term 2

These details are on our calendar on our website HERE

26th - 29th April 2022 Year 6-7 Transition to Secondary Schooling 2023

A message from our Year 6/7 transition coordinator and Year 6B teacher (Mon and Tues), Cynthia Tuck:

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).

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.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Thank you all for your support for the fundraising events over the past few weeks! A big thank you also to our volunteers – Kate, Markus, Wyn, Sarah, Emily & Alisha for assisting with packing hot cross buns, arranging collection, organising easter treats and making hampers!

Hot Cross Buns Fundraiser

With your support in purchasing hot cross buns, together with the Student Representative Council’s support, we raised over $1000 to support Lismore South Primary School, which lost everything in the recent floods in Lismore.

A VERY special thank you to the amazing team at Bread Street who donated 1000 hot cross buns for our fundraising efforts. Please support them if you can. They are located at 22 Hamilton Street, Surrey Hills, or call 9890 0066 to place an order! I think you’ll agree – their hot cross buns were delicious!

Just a reminder of the message received from Lismore South Primacy School Assistant Principal:

“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.”

Lucky Tickets – Easter Hamper

We appreciate your support with the lucky tickets for our Easter hamper too – good luck to everyone. Thank you to everyone who donated Easter goodies. Prizes will be drawn on Monday 4^th April.  (We hope you remembered to drop back your lucky tickets to the school office today!)

What’s coming up next?

Friday 1^st April at 4pm – 5pm is the Foundation Parents/Carers & Children BBQ, Top Playground. Welcome to those who are new to the school. There will be a sausage sizzle and zooper dooper for each child.

Lots to look forward to in Term 2!

• Barefoot Bowls – Social get-together for families on Saturday 30^th April, Bennettswood Bowls Club, Burwood from 5pm – 8pm.
• Mother’s/Special Persons Day Stall – to be held in week before Mother’s Day at school.
• Mother’s/Special Persons Afternoon Tea – Sunday 15^th May 3-5pm.
• Bunnings BBQ, Saturday 29^th May, Bunnings Box Hill – volunteers & hungry customers always welcome!

We will update with more details for these events in the next week or so, including how to book.

If you would like to join the Parents & Friends Association – we’d love to have you. We’re a merry band of helpers and always keen to welcome more people. Please contact Anthony Hall, PFA President, on 0409 806 478, or email pfa@wattleparkps.vic.edu.au

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, 25^th 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.

                                             

It is important the office has the latest up to date contact information.

3. Message from Canteen
 No canteen on Friday, 8^th April – last day of term
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

• Click on the link below, choose the date you can assist, and sign up.
• You will not require an account or to keep a password. 
• If you would prefer not to use your email address, please email the school and your details can be entered manually to include you on the roster. 
• To assist with tidying the First Aid room please sign up here: 

  https://signup.com/go/bpUzddO

 

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