Weetangera Primary School Newsletter | Week 5, Term 1 2023

From Julie

Dear Families

Our school is a dynamic place of learning and this is evidenced by the updates and information shared via SEESAW, the work displayed in classrooms and the wide variety of acknowledgements for the WPS Inspired Learner Awards in the first two assemblies for 2023.

Last week, Friday 24 February, the Year 5/6 team combined their efforts to provide the Year 3, 4, classes with an excellent example of assembly presentation. Today the Year 2 team provided our kindergarten students with their first experience of an assembly. And it was wonderful to see the excited faces of those students in Kindergarten who received their very first Inspired Learner Award.

In the first four weeks of learning all students and staff participated in and added their ideas about what an inspired student, an inspired teacher and an inspired leader is doing and being. Below I have captured those thoughts as they provide all of us with the basis upon which we work:

An inspired student:

An inspired teacher:

An inspired leader: 

We aspire to live up to these shared ideas and inspirational commitments EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Our most recent thought for the week was this one:

And because every behaviour, no matter how tricky, is a form of communication we endeavour to look beneath the behaviour to uncover the need even when the messaging may be loud, grumpy, over the top or just plain unexpected.

Have an excellent week. 

Regards

Julie

Julie.cooper@ed.act.edu.au

02-6142 2600

School Photos

Given below are the dates for upcoming School Photography Day for 2023

• Monday, 20 March 2023 (T1/W9) - Preschool Photography Day 2 (day 1 photos were taken today) - Beginning of Week Preschool (Sibling photos will be taken between 1:00pm and 1:30pm Location - Preschool)

• Tuesday, 21 March 2023 (T1/W9) - Main School Photo Day (Sibling photos will be taken between 8:30am and 9:00am Location – New Hall Unit 7).

Students will not receive individual envelopes this year. Parents are encouraged to use the online order code to order student photos.

• Online Payments - We encourage parents to pay online before the School Photography Day. An online order code is located on the flyer - www.theschoolphotographer.com.au. This year there are no individual student order codes

• Sibling Photos – In order for The School Photographer to provide the school with a list of sibling orders, the online ordering of sibling photos will be temporarily disabled one working day prior to photo day and re-open after all photo days are finalised. All students & families (if presented) will be photographed regardless of payment.
• Sibling Photos are taken of siblings who attend the school only.  Time and location for sibling photos are given above.
• Cash Orders – via envelope. Please see Front Office
• ALL STUDENT PHOTO ENQUIRIES – Parents to contact The School Photographer.

 Email enquiries@theschoolphotographer.com.au or call: 02 9674 9824

NAPLAN

NAPLAN testing will occur in our school between 15 and 27 March 2023.

Education ministers agreed that NAPLAN would move to Term One from 2023. This will mean results will be available to education authorities earlier in the year to inform school and system teaching and learning programs and will assist teachers to better determine support students need for the coming year.

NAPLAN Online is a more engaging assessment that adjusts questions to each student’s achievement level.

NAPLAN provides valuable information to schools and parents about literacy and numeracy achievement. It supports school improvement processes by enabling teachers to monitor student progress over time and to identify areas of strength and development.

All eligible students are encouraged and supported to participate in NAPLAN testing. Visit www.nap.edu.au to see interactive versions of the test and for more information.

If you have any questions or wish to discuss your son or daughter’s participation in this event, please contact Kate North kate.north@ed.act.edu.au.

School Board Information

Weetangera Primary School - SCHOOL BOARD VACANCIES - 2023

P&C Association Member – 1 position

Nominations open - 11:00 6 March 2023

Nominations close - 11:00 20 March 2023

The positions that were previously advertised should have been 1 position for a School board member and 1 position for P&C Association member.  There are two positions that will be filled in 2023 for a two year timeframe.  The current voting process is valid and closes on Monday – this is for a School Board Member.  

Parent member – P&C Association member

The P&C Association member on the board must be a member of the P&C Association of the school as defined in each Association’s own constitution. Membership is usually automatic for parents and carers of students at the school (including any who teach there). An adult who is not a student’s parent, guardian or carer must first become a school P&C member. Someone nominating to be a P&C Association member on the board must also declare on their nomination form that they intend to be actively involved in the P&C Association of the school during their term of office on the board. The nominee does not have to be (but can be) an office bearer of the P&C (president, secretary, treasurer etc) or on the committee of the P&C.

• May be a parent, carer or guardian of a student enrolled at the school
• Are elected by the parents, carers and guardians of students enrolled at the school

Nominations are open for 14 days

If more than the required number of applications are received, the voting period will commence 27 March 2023 to 3 April 2023.

If you are interested in running for a School Board position, please come into the Front Office and complete a nomination form or return the form by return email.

If more than two nominations are received – a voting process will be conducted.

Supporting Students At Weetangera

We are developing a range of parent information handouts to help you understand our processes at Weetangera Primary School. These will be made available in our newsletters. Please let us know if there's anything you'd like to know more about. 

Safe and Supportive Schools Procedures

Differentiation at Weetangera Primary School

Student Support at Weetangera Primary School

School Sport ACT Representative Teams

Talented sportspeople in Year 5 and Year 6 are welcome to trial for selection in School Sport ACT Under 12 Teams. The sports available for students to represent ACT in are: Aussie Rules, Basketball, Cricket, Cross Country, Football (Soccer), Golf, Hockey, Netball, Rugby League, Softball, Swimming, Tennis, Touch Football and Track and Field. Please note:

In the majority of these sports a child should be playing at a high level for their club to be a realistic chance of being selected in a SSACT team.

During the year trials are held for the various team sports and parents will need to register their child for them to be able to participate. Parents will need to access the School Sport ACT website to set up an account:

https://schoolsportact.org.au/

For cross country, swimming and track and field students will need to qualify for the ACT School Sport Championships via the normal process, i.e. attend school and regional carnivals.

If you have any questions about the trial process for School Sport ACT teams, please see Anastasia O’Donnell or Erwin McRae.

Volunteering at WPS - how can you help?

If you would like to help us by volunteering at Weetangera, please take a moment to fill in this form, and we will contact you. 

Reading Workshop 15 March 2023

No Waste at Weetangera

At Weetangera, we are very conscious of our impact on the planet. You will have noticed that everything is recycled, with our students sorting their rubbish every day and taking responsiblity for their waste.   

What we recycle:

Food waste: leftover sandwich crusts, banana skins and anything organic is collected each day by our "Official Worm Feeders" and taken to our hungry worms. In turn, they produce amazing soil and the world famous "Weetangera Worm Tea".

Paper: all paper and cardboard is recycled into our paper bins - unless it is being used for an amazing art or design activity!

Recyclables: just like the yellow bin at home, our students place their recyclable materials in the yellow bin. 

Old technology equipment, dead batteries, pens, old glue sticks: we collect these for proper disposal. We're committed to reducing what goes to landfill.

10c containers: our students and teachers carefully collect 10c containers so that they can be recycled for a cashback donation. The money raised through bottle donations goes towards a variety of sustainability initiatives at the school. So far, we have used our money to buy materials to build the new chicken coop and to provide gifts of recognition for our Worm Food student team. They empty the bins everyday for the WHOLE SCHOOL (which can be a pretty disgusting job) with a smile on their faces! 

How can you help? 

If you would like to help us there are four simple ways to do it: 

1. Send your child to school with as little waste as possible. We suggest reuseable containers or wrappings where you can. If you're not sure what can be easily receycled, ask your child! They learn a lot about waste at school. 

2. Keep an eye out for rubbish. Last week, our year 1 students picked up several buckets of litter:

By the time they had finished, the playground was very clean. Unfortunately, by the time we returned on Monday morning, there was lots of litter back again. If you are passing by on the weekend, please encourage people to take their rubbish with them!

3. Donate your containers! You can easily donate your 10c containers to the Weetangera Primary account. As long as it has the 10c symbol somewhere on the label, it can be recycled. Just pop the containers in a bag (a bin liner is a good size), and when it's full you can take them to any Return-It collection point. There is one at Hawker Shops (just look for the big purple container). Simply use the code E011653 and print your label to stick on the bag.

Thanks for helping us to reduce waste!

What's Happening in the Koalas?

In the Kindy Koalas class, we have been working on our code of conduct as part of our start up program. The Koalas have created classroom agreements to ensure that we are respectful, responsible, resilient, and inclusive learners.

The Koalas code of conduct

• We are active listeners
• We are curious and ask questions.
• We will speak kind words
• We will work through challenges together.
• We will ask our friends and teachers for help when we can’t solve a problem.
• We will be safe and respectful to each other in our learning or playing spaces.

This week we have been working on counting small collections and comparing them. The Koalas practised their counting strategies with their own collection bag before counting and comparing two collections together. We explored many ways to compare, discussing how many did each collection have and the total amount.

We are so lucky to have some very small, very chirpy feathered friends in the kindergarten unit this week. 12 eggs were delivered on Tuesday morning as part of this term’s science program. We have been spending each morning observing the changes we see, drawing and labelling our pictures in our chicken and duckling booklet.

We love singing in Kindergarten and this week’s song is ‘Catch a Falling Star’ by Perry Como. We read ‘How to Catch a Star’ by Oliver Jeffers and learned the song and actions to our song of the week. After we come together as a group, we paste a copy of the song or poem in our books and complete an activity.

Check out our drawings from this week’s song! 

Rosie Kingelty

What's Happening in the Lorikeets?

In the year 1 Rainbow Lorikeets class, we have been focusing on developing our independent writing processes and skills. So far, we have enjoyed engaging in the Draw, talk, write (and share) strategy. To begin our writing process, first we use a seed (idea) to prompt our thinking, drawing and talking about our ideas (planning). As a class we then discuss our ideas and add vocabulary to an alphabox to help with our spelling and descriptive language. Next, we independently add writing, paying attention to spelling, punctuation and handwriting. Once we are complete, we share with a friend, gain feedback, cross-check our writing with our writing goal/s and use an editing pen to make changes. To complete the cycle, we then publish our writing!

Hayley Dix

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 18

Next

What's Happening in the Dragonflies

Hello and welcome to the Year 2 Dragonflies.

The students have had a lovely start to the year, they have settled well into the classroom, and are working hard in all areas of the curriculum.

In literacy the students have begun the year by completing a book study. Each fortnight they are exploring a text by Julia Donaldson. They are examining the text for the rhyming patterns and are using what they’ve discovered to write their own poems about the characters. This fortnight the Dragonflies have been exploring Stickman and have come up with some incredibly clever poems to go with the story, here are just a few of their first attempts at creating rhyming sentences:

Harry wrote:

“A kid had a dog,

He jumped over the log.”

Filza wrote:

“One day I saw a dog,

When I was out for a jog.”

Saanvika wrote:

“I saw a girl,

Who loved to twirl.”

Jhanvi wrote:

“This is a good stick,

For my favourite trick.”

Ashley wrote:

“I went on a log,

With my favourite dog.”

Tom wrote:

“I have a home,

Made out of foam.”

Malcolm wrote:

“Here comes a little boy with a shovel in his hand,

The shovel was full of sand.”

The students are also working towards retelling the stories. To do this they are using the five finger retell strategy whereby they need to remember the characters, the setting, the beginning, the middle and the end of the story. To start this process the students are working orally to retell the story and will build up to writing the retell after. After their oral retell students will be working on a written retell.

In mathematics the students have been exploring graphing and place value. In their work with graphs, the students have been working out how to design good questions to collect the data they want and need, how to then collect the data and use this data to create a graph. They have made many interesting discoveries about their classmates during this work such as what the classes favourite sport is (soccer!) and that most students in the class have a different favourite animal.

The students started their work on place value by creating an MAB monster out of different values of MAB blocks and then counting how “much” their monster was made out of. This was a great way way to start our learning and the students had a lot of fun creating.

Kate De-Mey and Lauren Domio

What's Happening in the Tassie Devils?

We have been keeping busy here in Year 3, learning a variety of things to help broaden and expand our thinking.

During Reader’s Workshop we have been developing our knowledge of different reading strategies. We know that good readers read for a variety of purposes. They use different strategies to help them connect with their text. We are currently working on questioning, discussing why it is important to ask questions when reading a text. We know we can ask questions before, during and after reading. We are developing our ability to ask a variety of questions to encourage the reader to stop and think. This week as a class we read ‘Once Upon a Time.. Online’. Some of the questions we asked were…

“Why is the title ‘Once Upon a Time One?” Tahlia

“Where are the rest of the characters?” Jack. G

“Who are the main characters in the book?” Sasha

‘Why does the wolf want to go online?” Anthony

We are now asking questions about text of our own choice.

During writing we are always looking for ways to ‘bump up’ (improve our writing). This week we looked at some ‘sick sentences’ and worked together to think how we could make them ‘healthier’. We also discussed how we can make our writing more descriptive. In pairs we worked together to improve ‘sick sentences’. One of the sick sentences we improved was... ‘They were in the tomb.’

Our healthier sentences:

‘They were in a dark, creepy mysterious tomb with ancient animals’. (Abby and Jack G)

‘They were in a dark tomb and they were looking for treasure.’ (Eve and Max)

‘Two brave explorers went into a creepy Egyptian tomb, they were looking for a golden sphinx.’ (Jack D and Eli)

Working in pairs gave us an opportunity to discuss ideas and collaborate on a piece of writing.

During mathematics we have been learning about place value; knowing how to read, write and make numbers. We played several games practising place value using playing cards, making the largest number or the smallest number possible. We also looked at odd and even numbers and explained our understanding about them. We have also started investigating the language of chance and how we can use it to describe an event. Last week we had so much fun playing ‘Scissors, Paper, Rock’, trying to predict what the winning outcome would be.

We have also begun our journey with ‘Genius Hour’ where we have the opportunity to choose an idea of our own to research and ask questions about. This idea can be something we are interested in or passionate about or simply something we want to learn more about. In genius hour, we create a presentation using our research information and then present it to the class. We want to give a big thank you to the 5/6 students who have helped start us on our genius hour journey of learning.

Thanks for all your support!

Megan Ferdinand

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 18

Next

What's Happening in the Rainbow Drops?

Who can believe we are already halfway through term 1. 4LT is running hot with lots of learning around engaging our readers when writing to entertain. We started our first few lessons learning about how we can start a narrative with a sizzling start. Some techniques we have learnt so far are starting in the ACTION. And we are currently learning how to use dialogue effectively and the correct use of speech marks. 

In Maths, the students have really enjoyed collecting data and learning to present it in a range of ways to communicate their results advantageously. A big focus is on how data can be used to change or inform decisions, such as how knowing student’s favourite subjects could assist engaging students in schools and what teachers are making the most impact. 

In Technology, we have begun to get some background research on the production of cotton in Australia. This will be the focus of our Design and Technologies unit, investigating food and fibre production. Over the next few weeks, we will explore how cotton is grown, harvested and used across the world in everyday lives. We will also explore the environmental factors of fast fashion and how to repurpose cotton garments for a more sustainable future, stay tuned for further learning. 

Louise Tominich

What's Happening in the Barbecues

Hello and welcome to the 5/6 Barbecues.

Our class name came about after reading the picture book ‘Cyclone’ by Jackie French. The barbecue helped to protect a family when Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin in 1974 and represents our class, as we will stand together to protect and nurture our growth. We have had a wonderful start to the year and we are continuing to get to know each other and how we work, in and out of the classroom.

The barbecues spent the first few weeks participating in getting to know you activities such as creating a puzzle piece. The puzzle pieces were created to include our name and things we like/love. Once their puzzle piece was completed, we could see that no matter our differences, together we fit and we create a cohesive class. It also made an amazing piece of art.

In reading, we have been responding to texts through watercolour painting. The class discussed sentences from the story ‘Fire’ by Jackie French and painted the picture they thought went with that sentence. We then read the book and compared our paintings to the illustrator, Bruce Whatley’s.

We have been exploring the cartesian plane in mathematics. So far we have learnt about negative numbers, always going along the x axis first followed by the y axis, and we now all understand the game of Battleships using a cartesian plane.

We also created a picture on a cartesian plane and wrote down the coordinates. These coordinates were given to another student who followed them to see if they could recreate the original picture. It was a fun task as it got us to see that writing the coordinates is quite tricky - it also identified the need to have the proper coordinates otherwise the pictures will not be identical.

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 14

Next

To brighten our classroom we drew caricatures. We looked at some pictures of famous people drawn as caricatures and discussed the elements of these interesting artworks. Usually caricatures highlight a feature of a person that stands out which is then emphasised further, like a big chin or nose, crazy hair or a large smile. We then had a go at creating our own or drawing the person sitting opposite.

Bec Spoors

What's Happening in the Skilful Survivors?

WE are the Skilful Survivors, and we are amazing WRITERS!

Over the first few weeks of this term, we have been showcasing our creativity during writing sessions. We have constructed wonderful short writing pieces to entertain our peers. Our focus has been on enjoying the process of writing and viewing ourselves as an author.

We analysed a sentence from Jackie French’s book Drought. We spoke about what type of sentence it was, what the different parts of the sentence were and why it was an example of figurative language.

FOCUS SENTENCE: 

Then another gift at last, purple castles fierce and vast.

CLASS RECREATIONS:

Last week we constructed poems that reflected our connections to our beautiful country we live in. We firstly brainstormed many different elements that we connected with and then constructed sentences that showcased our individual connections.

CLASS CREATIONS:

We cannot wait to share more of our writing creations with you.

5/6ED Skilful Survivors

Emily Dziubinski

QUESTACON Visit

This week, students in years 3-6 have been working with scientists from Questacon on a 'Design Thinking Challenge'. They worked together to design and develop habitats, machines, systems and comfort items for a potential classroom pet (although we're not sure we really  want a pet dragon or shark at Weetangera!). The Questacon staff were very impressed with the quality of student thinking, the way they worked together, and the imaginitive, smart and innovative solutions they came up with. We think we have some budding inventors, engineers and thinkers in our midst!

Inspired Learner Awards

Congratulations to our first batch of 'Inspired Learners' for 2023. We are so proud to hear about the amazing work that you do. 

Kindergarten

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5/6

P&C News

Jungle Disco and Meet the Committee

School disco tickets on sale now!

We are so excited to be able to say the school disco is BACK! We’re selling tickets now via the Flexischools app (the one you use for your canteen orders), and on the hunt for parent volunteers to help run the event (and maybe check out the kids’ sweet dance moves). Read on for all the details.

Join in the fun at the JUNGLE DISCO on Thursday 30 March!

TICKETS: Tickets are $10 and are on sale NOW via Flexischools.

LOCATION: Weetangera School Hall

SESSION ONE: 5:30 - 6:30 Kindy to Year 3

SESSION TWO: 7:00 - 8:30 Year 4- Year 6

COSTUMES: Come dressed as your favourite jungle animal or explorer. Prizes on offer on the night!

VOLUNTEERS:  Taking the kids? We're calling for volunteers to help us supervise the jungle. Sign up now at: https://form.jotform.com/230532642495860

Welcome to the 2023 Committee

It was great to see some new faces at our P&C AGM last week. We celebrated a successful 2022, thanked (and in some cases farewelled) our tireless outgoing 2022 committee members, and welcomed new committee members for 2023.

• President – Ben Morrison pc.president@gmail.com
• Vice President – Nicole Sadlier pc.vp@gmail.com
• Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer – Alison Shackleford and Anna Hemmings pc.treasurer@gmail.com
• Secretary and Assistant Secretary – Susan Trainor and Georgina Quinn pc.secretary@gmail.com
• Public Officer – ???
• Ordinary Members – Zoe Cameron, Kate Donaldson, Gabrielle Kierath, Ruth Adams, Martina Fleeton

The Public Officer role remains vacant, this role involves lodging our formal paperwork annually with the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission. If you’re interested please contact our new President Ben or simply come to our next meeting on 14 March.

Next Meeting

Our next P&C meeting is on Tuesday 14 March at 6:30pm, in the school library. We’ll be talking about the disco, 2023 lap-a-thon and trivia night, and hearing an update from Julie about the upgrades going on around the school, including plans for the money raised from events last year. 

To stay up-to-date with all the P&C happenings, don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/weetangerapandc

Weetangera Playgroup

Community Notices