Weetangera Primary School eNewsletter

From Julie

Dear Families

Term One has been full on! Exciting! Challenging! And filled with building relationships, developing learning skills and establishing connections with new staff.

As most of our families know, when asking their children at the end of the day…. What did you do today? Apparently it is usually NOTHING!

Some of the big NOTHINGS we have done this term include the following:

Welcomed new students, returning students and first time students. Our preschool is considerably smaller this year with 2 classes instead of the usual three.
On entry BASE testing for Kindergarten. This assessment enables teachers to understand the skill set of their students and build the learning program from there.
Both the P&C and the Preschool conducted picnics. To welcome families to our place of learning and re-connect with old friends and new.
Assemblies – joyfully embracing the opportunity to welcome the community back into the school to observe and celebrate all of the different types and styles of learning.
- And today we unveiled the NEW, BRIGHT and SHINY Inspired Learner Awards. I look forward to your children bringing one home.
On-site excursions with both QUESTACON and the Well-Being Show.
NAPLAN Assessments – Usually held in Term 2 a whole of government decision saw the testing regime moved into Term 1.
HARMONY Day and the gathering together to celebrate and consider how we all contribute to a sense of peace & harmony in our world.
Student representative attending the GRIP Leadership Conference.
The Swimming Carnival – mind you my reflection would be: Why only 42% of students in years 3-6 were participants in the swimming races? Confidence? Skill level? Interest?
Voting for new board members – see results below
- Yehuwidy Dillon
- Alison Shackleford
- Virginia Hambly
The amazing disco organised and run by the WPS P&C – by all accounts an animated and dance-filled party enjoyed by young and old! Thank you very much
WHEELTANGERA – A Friday morning event in Term 1 (Too frosty and slippery in Terms 2 & 3) with a final Term 1 WHEELTANGERA on Thursday next week, 6 April 2023.
Wheeltangera coincided with the Term 1 Ride or Walk to School Day – starting the day with a burst of activity gets the blood pumping around the brain, and ready for learning.
Thank you to Emma Cottam for bringing the hot-air balloon to school during the Balloon Festival. We were so fortunate to be able to experience the wonders of ballooning.
CAMP COOBA!

And finally, thanks to the inspiration of MJ, Year 5 who came to me and said: Julie, I have an idea! And he shared his concern for the earthquake that occurred in Turkey and Syria. MJ wrote to me, I replied, we met and planned, MJ brought on board two supporters: Kai and Henry. The outcome is this – Tuesday, 4 April is WEAR RED for Turkey and Syria, bring a gold coin and see if WPS can raise $1000 for UNICEF. So far we have received an anonymous donation of $120. We are well on the way to our target.

Thought for the week:

It is always wise to be kind. Even if kindness is not returned others will perhaps learn something from your behaviour.

Have a week filled with kindness and wise behaviours.

Julie

Julie.cooper@ed.act.edu.au

Wear Red for Turkiye and Syria

T_rkiye_and_Syria_earthquake_fundraiser.pdf

Wanted: Keen Gardeners

We are looking into how we can make our garden spaces much better and how we can use them with our students for learning. We are seeking garden expertise in all areas: landscaping knowledge, horticultural knowledge, or just some keen planters, diggers and weed pullers. If you are interested in helping out, please fill in our volunteer form (if you've done this already, we haven't forgotten you - we will be in touch soon!).

Chief Minister's Reading Challenge

Belconnen Swimming Championships

This Tuesday the following 22 students represented our school at the Belconnen Swimming Championships at the AIS:

8 Year Girls- Alexa BW, Ebony C
9G- Madeleine B, Ruby K
10G- Poppy P, Lucy D, Mika S
11G- Zalie G, Anokhi G
12 G- Carla B, Harriet O
9 Year Boys- Jensen I, Kevin C, Steven Q
10B- Henry M, Jack D, Charlie J
11B- Alex B, Henry B, Lincoln C
12B- Elliot R and Ian M

The competition is quite tough at this level as there are twenty-five schools in our region, all students should be proud of their efforts on the day. The Weetangera team competed with enthusiasm and certainly cheered with lots of gusto as we were one of the loudest schools in the grandstand, great work everyone!

We have not received the final results yet but our three highest placegetters were:

Alexa BW- 4th 50m Freestyle
Madeleine B- 2nd 50m Freestyle
Ruby K- 2nd 50m Backstroke

Great work everyone!

The ribbons from the school swimming carnival will be given out on at an assembly on Wednesday 5 April at 12:30pm. Students receiving ribbons will be notified on Monday.

Erwin McRae and Tyler Beltrame

Swimming Coordinators

What's Happening in the Bilbies?

Year 3 has been super busy these last few weeks! We’ve been working on our addition and subtraction strategies, our persuasive writing and our HASS celebrations and commemoration posters.

When working on our persuasive writing, we are learning to identify the key features and language of a persuasive text. We are learning how to hook our readers by using strong introductory statements as well as using high modality language to express our opinions clearly. We are working on clearly stating our arguments and using facts and evidence to back up our arguments and make them more persuasive. We are doing this through the “Hey, Little Ant” story where an ant persuades a little boy not to squash him. This text has been a great piece for us to begin writing our own persuasive pieces on the same topic, including research to back up our arguments.

In art, we are exploring Indigenous artists and learning how to connect with various art pieces. We are looking into the elements of art such as line, colour, and shape and how artists use these to express ideas and communicate. We are also experimenting with these elements and taking inspiration to create our own art works.

In the Bilbies, we have started using our research skills to create information reports on either specific animals or people. Some of the research topics are rabbits, Lionel Messi, Komodo dragons and Albert Einstein. The Bilbies have been finding out lots of interesting information about our chosen topics and will start to combine our writing skills to create an informative poster, report, or biography. We can’t wait to see how they turn out!

In our reading groups, the Bilbies are exploring language, comprehension, reflecting and responding when we read a text. We have been expanding our own vocabularies by identifying tricky or new words and finding their meanings using dictionaries. We have been learning how to use a dictionary and learning how to find our tricky words to understand them better. We are also focussed on making predictions about what we are reading and what we think will happen next, as well as turning our visualisations of the texts we read into art.

Teagan Lovett

What's Happening in Music?

Kindergarten

This term during music rotations, the students have been learning about the fundamentals of music. They have been exploring ways to make sound using their voice and body, and are discussing how music is made and why. Through learning the musical elements pitch (high and low), tempo (fast and slow), and dynamics (loud and soft), the students were able to identify how music can sound the same or different when singing or playing an instrument.

Year 1

The students in year 1 are exploring their voices and developing a songbook that contains popular songs, including those from other cultures. They are also preparing for reading simple notation by reviewing the elements of music. The students have identified the difference between beat and rhythm, and are beginning to explore rhythmic patterns by playing their favourite game, Beat the Teacher.

Year 3

The students in year 3 have been exploring different ways to write and compose music. They have been focused on learning how to read pitch by identifying notes on the treble stave. They will be using this new learning to read, play and improvise melodies using a range of tuned and untuned instruments within the music classroom.

Year 5 & 6

The students in years 5 & 6 have been learning the skills needed to play the ukulele. They can identify and name the parts of the instrument, and how to correctly hold and strum while keeping a beat. They have learned several chord positions, including C, F and G7, and are using those to explore popular songs, and songs from other cultures, independently.

Drumming

The students in the drumming group are exploring different instruments, skills, and techniques this semester. They will be focusing on the djembe and will develop the skills to play more complex rhythms. They have learned the three different sounds that the djembe can make: bass, tone, and slap, and have been using them to improvise by creating sentences and arranging the syllables into a rhythm.

Band

The Weetangera School Band Program includes a year 5 band and a year 6 band. Each week, the bands participate in two lessons with an itinerant band teacher, Susan Ford, from the Instrumental Music Program (IMP) and one lunchtime rehearsal/performance with Miss Mas. The students in the Year 5 band were eager to be allocated their instruments and begin practising at home. So far, they have learned how to hold and play their instruments and have learned their first three notes. Very exciting!

The students in the year 6 band have been working very hard towards improving their playing skills and developing as an ensemble. They regularly perform outside for an audience during their lunchtime rehearsals and are bringing so much joy to all students on the playground.

We are very much looking forward to future performances at assemblies and combined band rehearsals with other schools in our community.

Sarah Masling

What's Happening in PE?

Year 2

The focus for the year 2 students in PE this term was how we interact with each other in games and how playing as a team and following rules can make physical activities more successful. We then focused on the fundamental movement skills of hopping and leaping and did some activities and games in order to help them be more successful with these skills.

Year 3 and 4

In year 3, one focus for the students was teamwork and working together to achieve a common goal. Students played various games requiring teamwork and fair play in order to be successful and this showed them that working together and for a team can often lead to better results. The students have then been focusing on cricket and the skills involved within cricket to help them further develop their fundamental movement skills. They have used their skills to practise batting, running between wickets and fielding.

Year 5/6

This term in years five and six, the main focus for the students was to understand why games have rules and why they need to be followed and implemented in order for the games to be successful. The students participated in different physical activities that had certain rules and by playing these games it reinforced their understanding of how rules make games fair. The students have then been learning about cricket and the different skills involved within cricket. This includes bowling, running between wickets and fielding. Cricket is being used to show progress of specialised movement skills in order to solve different challenges.

Tyler Beltrame

What's Happening in French?

Kindergarten

As part of our French program in term 2, we have been learning how to interact in both written and spoken French when expressing simple greetings. Kindergarten students have learned the differences between how to say hello to different audiences. Students have also been looking at how to introduce themselves in French. In the past few weeks we have also learned about how to talk about our feelings and how we say them in French. Students have been exploring all these concepts through games, songs and role play opportunities.

Here are some examples of ways students have shown their understanding of the different topics in class.

Year 1 and 2

This term in French, Year 1 and 2 students have been exploring the concept of Family. They have been learning simple vocabulary to talk about themselves and their families (how many siblings, family members, etc). They have also learned that there are different ways to refer to family members based on the actual word through understanding masculine and feminine words in French. They have used this knowledge to also create their own family trees.

Students have been exploring these concepts through games , songs and role plays as well as written and spoken opportunities. Here are some examples of ways students have shown their understanding in class.

Year 3 and Year 5/6

As part of our French program at Weetangera, we had the opportunity to participate in the Francophonie competition that is a school celebration of the different Francophonie countries around the world. Through this competition, students get a chance to recognise that French is a language spoken and celebrated all over the world in many different ways. Our school was given the country Switzerland, to celebrate and understand its significance in the Francophonie. We spent time in our classes exploring the country and learning about its traditions, geography, celebrations, etc. We then, either individually or in groups, created posters to represent the country and celebrate its culture. As part of the requirements of this competition, 16 student posters/contributions were chosen to represent Weetangera School, 8 from years 3 and 8 from years 5 and 6.

Here are the posters we created as well as pictures from the amazing Francophonie market day where the students’ work was celebrated. These posters displayed an excellent balance between research and writing skills, as well as creativity and art.

Shamim Sabetraftar

P&C Update

Update from your P&C President

How are we already at the end of Term 1! Its been a positive start to the year with some new faces joining the P&C at the AGM in February. We kicked off with our picnic at the start of the year which is always a great opportunity for parents to get together in a social setting while also meeting others within the Weetangera School community. The school Disco was held on Thursday 30 March with students arriving in some fantastic jungle themed attire! A big shout out to Gabby and Ruth for taking the lead in coordinating the disco and also to all the volunteers that helped out on the night to ensure that the students had a great time.

In Term 2 I’ll be able to provide an update as to how things are progressing with the enhancements to the playground equipment. The funding of the playground renovations was a major commitment of the P&C towards the end of 2022 with funds raised through activities throughout the year going towards this project. We will also be getting stuck into planning for the Trivia night that we are looking to hold in early Term 3. If anyone is keen to be involved, please reach out via email or the P&C Facebook page.

We are also on the look out for a new Lap-a-thon coordinator. Olivia Rogan has been fantastic in establishing and running the Lap-a-thon over a number of years and it has developed into a fantastic community spirited day for the teachers and students as well as being one of our main fundraising events each year. Olivia will be taking a step back this year and would like to take the opportunity to thank her for all her work on this. If you are interested in discussing the role, please reach out to Weetangera.pc.president@gmail.com .

Last but not least, our Mother’s Day stall is rapidly approaching and will be held on Friday 12 May. A lot of work has already gone on to ensure there are plenty of goodies for the students to purchase to spoil their mothers on Sunday 14 May. There will be reminders put out on the Facebook page prior to the stall so students don’t forget to bring their hard earned pocket money on the day!

Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 9 May at 6:30pm, please come along if you have time to see what the P&C is all about and hear what is happening. Please don’t forget to ‘like’ the Weetangera P&C Facebook page to keep up to date with all sorts of happenings around the school.

Ben Morrison
President
Weetangera P&C