Weetangera Primary School eNewsletter

From Julie

Dear Families

Usually in my last newsletter of the year I reflect upon the actions, activities and events that go some way towards summing up the year of learning.

What I would like to do in this newsletter is to share a reflection of my first 3 years as Principal of Weetangera Primary school.

When I arrived in 2021 the world was in the grip of looking at life through a lens that none of us have perhaps ever imagined before; we were confronted with applying a different view of how we were able to ‘walk’ through the world.

Families were discombobulated by separations, inability to connect with loved ones, learning remotely, washing hands with an increased frequency, building relationships of learning through the advent of GOOGLE Classrooms and wondering when things would be like they used to be!

Additionally, staff, students and families had to get used to me as the leader of learning. It is fair to say that I do like things to happen for students in a particular format; focusing on their success, building their capacities, and never underestimating the potential within all of us to be connected and inspired learners. I look forward to 2024 and continuing the evolution of the learning and achievements for every single students at Weetangera.

The leadership team evolved and there are now 5 permanent faces to fill all of the places within the team.

Mel Bezear has recently been appointed permanently to the Deputy’s role as Danielle Hoogland has a position within the Education Support Office
Anastasia O’Donell continues as an executive teacher and we have recently welcomed
Sarah Baird to lead the junior school and
Dan Bartlett will begin at Weetangera in 2024.

I would like to acknowledge the strength of the work of Erwin McRae, Marianne Foley and Gabe Kearins who have been developing their leadership skills in acting executive roles. Marianne Foley will leave Weetangera at the conclusion of 2023 to take up a leadership position at Charnwood-Dunlop School. Thank you, Marianne, for your commitment to our school, your joyful connectedness and your ability to build relationships and keep the momentum of learning in both the preschool to year 2 team and more recently the ¾ team.

I give special mention to Erwin whose quiet and level-headed approach to the role of Year 5/6 classroom teacher, school leader, sports organiser and driver of mathematics events ensures that WPS students have many opportunities to perform across many different areas.

We are delighted to announce the arrival of two new additions to the families of Celeste Tunnecliffe who has a second daughter, Ada Fae and to Gabe Kearins on the arrival of her first daughter, Frankie Rose. The lives of our staff are busy ones, Gabe and Celeste have added new layers of busyness to their day and I know that they are embracing motherhood and all the washing a small child can produce.

I am off to Japan on Sunday 10 December and look forward to the cold crisp air of Tokyo where the top temperature is expected to be around 10 degrees Celsius! This does mean that I won’t be in attendance for the year 6 graduation and farewell. I have included here the speech I would have given if I was here next week, a special message to the year 6 students and their families.

To year 6 – what a fabulous group of pre-teens you are !

Your families may not thank me for pointing this out…. But, over the next 6-18 months all of you will become totally immersed in the teenage years, and I know that your families are also very excited by that news. Look at them… soon to be your very own teenagers.

Who are our current year 6 students, the students that light the way for the rest of the school? And how would I sum them up?

Honest, forthright thinkers, engaging learners, quietly contemplative, exuberant, joyful, creative, kind, sometimes a little bit silly, or downright infuriating and at other times the most generous spirited, warm, kind and funny individuals that you could ever meet. Collectively a very valuable asset for our future.

Year 6 … you made it!

One thousand, five hundred and fifty (School) days ago you started preschool and you are now, after 15/12/23, at 15:00 hours officially done with primary school….. but not done with learning.

Incidentally, for those who are wondering, 1550 days is AKA

33 480 000 seconds of school. Further to that 6 more years of approximately 200 days multiplied by 6 hours x 60 minutes x 60 seconds… you have only 25 920 000 seconds of schooling life until we will all cheer you on when you finish Year 12.

And yes, that will make some of you feel very tired.

I have contemplated the ups and downs that you may have encountered along the way, the challenges, the highlights and the pure joy of your primary school years and I look out at your families - who are here today supporting you, your teachers - who have built your skills and challenged your abilities and I look at the friends you have made that are sitting with you today and celebrating these moments with you….

And I note the following things:

This is a well-deserved achievement to be celebrated, the end of primary school – 8 years
The learning progress you have made – I read all of your reports, in 2021, 2022 and 2023. I understand your accomplishments and recognise the learning that you need to keep working on so that every single one of you can develop and build upon your own success story and get to where you want to be
And I want each of you do some very important things as you head off to really really big, BIG school:

Always give yourself every opportunity to be the best version of you.

Recognise when you have mucked things up, or you’ve made a mistake… ask yourself, what will I do differently next time….. and then, next time… just do it!

And most importantly of all remember this: We are all in this together, your families, your friends, your teachers… we want you to be able say, after your learning adventures in primary school, in high school, and on after that… we want you to confidently say:

I made it! We made it! And to be so very impressed with and proud of your learning success.

Everybody here at Weetangera Primary School wishes you success and sends you on your way, actually it is more than wishing you success it is expecting that you will continue to strive for excellence, to engage in all learning opportunities and to be proud of your achievements, You’ve got this.

Great work, congratulations year 6 – It gives me the greatest of pleasures to have known the graduating class of 2023 😊

And to all of the WPS families

Have an excellent holiday, celebrate in your way with your family, embrace the stories that make this time of year so very special, rest, relax reCOOPERate and we look forward to doing it all again in 2024!!

My final thought for the week will take me to Japan as a long scarf is a very useful item indeed

Regards

Julie

Julie.cooper@ed.act.edu.au

What's Happening in the Marvellous Meerkats & Exceptional Elephants

Only one more week of being pre-schoolers!

Our Inquiry Unit this term focuses on change, and incorporates the transition to primary school. Our transition program has included a tour of the school, visits to kindergarten and the opportunity to buy something from the canteen.

Without a doubt, our favourite part of the program would have to be getting to know our Year 5 Buddies and meeting up with them each week. All these planned experiences help support a smooth transition to primary school and make the process a little less stressful.

The pre-schoolers also had some questions that they wanted to find out the answers before they started next year.

“Is it hard?”
“Do you get homework?”
“Do you get to play?”
“Can I play soccer?”
‘When do I see my buddy?”

Marianne Foley & Virginia Hambly

During week 9, we have been doing theme days. Each day, we had a different theme chosen from student interest across the unit.

On Monday, we had a ‘Space’ day where students learnt about space, what it’s like to wash your hair in space, how to eat in space, how to brush your teeth in space and how to go to the toilet in space. We also created some rockets and compared how different designs worked.

On Tuesday, we had a ‘Lego’ day where students were given a task of creating a marble run. Students chose their own team and created their design. Throughout the day, we had some Lego challenges that students could opt into with the winner being able to choose some pieces of the more special, yet limited pieces of Lego to include in their design. The challenges were creating an animal, a flower and creating something while blindfolded. At the end of the day, students were each given 3 stickers and went around looking at all the marble runs. Based off the success criteria, students then chose their top 3 contenders. The team with the most amount of stickers at the end won. See some photos below.

On Wednesday, we had a ‘Paper Planes’ day. Students investigated which shape of aeroplane would fly the furthest. Students created 3 planes using the same control measure (paper size) however, changed the shape. They then tested their creations to see which one was best.

On Friday, we will be partaking in a day from the past. Students will experience what school may have been like in the 1950s, complete with a morning march, cursive writing on ‘chalkboards’, a maths lesson from the past and finishing with some craft. In the afternoon, we will welcome some special guests to share our learning with.

It’s been a wonderful week!

Tarnii Boland

The last few weeks in the Pythons have been full of fun and exploring new things; excursion, cooking and technology.

One highlight of Term 4 was our amazing excursion to Questacon. Along with the usual, hands-on, cool experience, Year 3 was asked to become the “face” of Questacon’s school excursion advertising. We were followed by a camera crew for the whole day and got to experience a little bit of Hollywood (or YouTube vlogger stardom) as they captured a day-in-the-life of a school trip. It will be so exciting to see the finished ads and we will share them via a 2024 newsletter! The Year 3 Weetangera students were the perfect choice for this advertisement campaign, displaying our school values all day.

As the year started to wind up, the Pythons really wanted to try new experiences, so we embarked on a four-week cooking and technology adventure. We started off with three ingredient scones in Week 6 (delicious!), then we made personal pizzas with a homemade pizza dough. There were some robust discussions around whether pineapple would be permitted or not but, in the end, because the Pythons had been such excellent chefs, I allowed it. In Week 8 we made the most delicious brownies and then in Week 9 we teamed up with the Falcons to make ice cream sundaes.

For each recipe we constructed procedural texts and published them in an online program called Canva. We created recipe cards and practiced with different fonts and images to really enhance our recipes. We are very happy to share some of our delicious recipes here with you in the newsletter as well as some photos of our cooking adventure.

Jess Yeo

This term in the Bilbies we have been super scientists!

Learning Intention: To use our knowledge of the Earth’s rotation to understand how shadows are formed and how they change.

This term we have been focusing on how the Earth’s rotation causes day and night, forms shadows and impacts seasonal changes.
We conducted some experiments, using torches to explore shadows and how they are formed as well as experimenting with shadows outside in the playground!
Then when the weather disagreed with us, we were resourceful and used blocks to construct small buildings. We used our knowledge of where the sun rises and sets and then imitated the movement of the Earth (with a torch) to replicate how shadows are formed by the sun.
We observed the changes to our shadows as the “sun” moved across our buildings and then created labelled diagrams demonstrating the observed changes.

We extended our learning with an amazing excursion to Questacon!

During the day we explored digital technologies such as AI and visual programming. We experimented with lights, wind and weight as well as exploring sound using various objects. We also challenged ourselves and faced fears on the free fall slide and the speed ball challenge. We particularly enjoyed the Earth Sciences space, experiencing the lightning strike, earthquake room and fire show! It was such an awesome day and we loved every experience!

The Bilbies have been working particularly hard this semester on our independent research and oh boy is it paying off! We have been asking thick questions about topics we are interested in, conducting our own research to answer our questions and finally, have presented our findings in a wide range of formats!

Here are some of the things we have put together to showcase our learning. We’ve created podcasts, posters, videos and trioramas!

Teagan Lovett

What's Happening in the Everlasting Gobstoppers

In the 4AN Everlasting Gobstoppers we have been focusing on sustainability in Inquiry. We have been learning about a variety of environmental topics each week throughout the term including composting, renewable energies, deforestation, and carbon emissions. The three major overarching focuses students have been learning about are, global warming, fast fashion and ocean pollution.

Students brainstormed all the questions they wanted to know about their chosen topic. They then used their researching skills on the Chromebook to answer them using quality websites/sources. Students transferred this information into a persuasive poster to inform people about their environmental issue. We looked at some current inventions and practices that are helping to solve and make the world more sustainable. Students created a blueprint of an invention that could help solve their environmental problem and help make our world more environmentally friendly.

As students were now experts in their chosen topic, they paired up to create their own ‘ABC Behind the News (BTN)’ episode to inform their peers. They worked hard and studied current BTN episodes to understand their structure. Students created scripts using the new journalism techniques they had learnt to engage their audiences and perform it to the class. Students had lots of fun being experts in their field and pretending to be journalists.

Alex Nicholls

What's Happening in the Barbeques

As the end of year approaches us at full speed, this week we have been reflecting on our favourite memories from 2023.

Here are some of our favourite memories:
Amalie: I LOVED the school concert, dancing with all my friends and watching the other dancers was so fun. Additionally Blake almost falling over was a bonus.
Lottie: my favourite memory is when me and my friends hang out on the oval
Manvi- My favourite memory is when i had an enjoyable time at camp. and playing truth or dare with my friends.
Alfie-every little bit of the year! And especially camp! Alfie chicken.
Zea - My favourite memory is going to the library at lunchtime with my friends.
Poppy- My favourite memory is hanging out with my friends and playing truth or dare on the big oval.
Joss- I had an amazing time at year six market day it was so SUPER amazing :D
Taylah-My favourite memory of this year is going to camp because there were so many funny memories and i loved the survivor challenge.
Charlotte M: My favourite memory of this year was when… Ummmm… Well, I suppose I don’t know… :( It was probably the time when we got to record the storm boy trailer, though. Recordings always fun. Oh, and also, hanging out with my friends. That’s my favourite memory from recess and lunch!
Elise: My favourite memory was when this one time we were on camp and we all went on the big swing and I think I was the only one screaming when it was my turn but I loved the adrenaline at the same time.
Louie: My favourite memory of school in 2023 is when we went on camp to do survivor where we had to push buggies through mud and finish the race.
Isaac:My favourite memory of 2023 was when we went on camp and did the “survivor” and had to push the buggies through mud and water and over obstacles or the assault course, especially swimming through the tunnel.
Youssef- My favourite memory of 2023 was when we won the year 6 v staff and the year sixes havent won in 12 years when I was born.
Hudson: My favourite memory was when I met all my classmates for the first time and made lots of new friends.
Gus: My favourite memory from this year was I got to stand up in front of the whole school and present my rostrum!

It has been an absolute pleasure to teach the Barbeques this year. We have had a lot of fantastic memories, some puns, jokes, dancing and most importantly a wonderful time. I wish each and every one of you a safe and happy holiday and I hope that 2024 brings you every happiness.

Here are a few photos from our fabulous year:

Bec Spoors

Kindergarten has been exploring composers, styles of music and the differences between artworks written by different composers. They have been using movement and instruments to explore the Carnival of the Animals Suite by French composer Camile Saint-Saens. Each student used their listening ears to identify the animal in the piece (e.g., the piano roaring like a lion) and used their bodies to imitate the animal being portrayed in the music.

Years 1 and 2 explored beat, rhythm, and different ways to sing using their bodies through the Kodaly method deeply this semester. When putting this into practice, the students explored what it means to compose and wrote their very own rhythmic and melodic pattern using these skills. Each student played their patterns on an instrument to wow an audience of their peers!

Year 3 and 4 explored music notation and identified notes on the music stave. They defined the elements of music used within a melody and used these to compose their own melody. The students enjoyed playing their melodies on the xylophones and editing their compositions to ensure their ideas were clear for the listener.

Year 5/6 continued their learning with the ukulele and worked on further developing their technical playing skills. They explored the concept of structure and form in music, discussing the ‘why’ of composition, making connections between the music they were listening to and playing on the ukulele. The students studied a song by their favourite artist and evaluated the music by unpacking the intention behind the structure of the song. They then made meaningful connections between what they were listening to and what they were playing themselves.

Band

The year 5 & 6 bands have had a very busy year. They have participated in combined rehearsals with other schools, shared their wonderful music with the other students during outdoor lunchtime rehearsals, and performing at the Weetangera 50^th birthday celebration concert. To end their busy year, the students presented a very special combined performance at the Weetangera Crescendo Concert for the community, including their families. This was a very meaningful performance as it was celebrating the learning achieved by the year 5 band this year and was a celebration and farewell for the students in the year 6 band. The year 6 students have been working together for two years as part of the IMP program and have grown into a very special ensemble. I wish them all the very best with their music journey for years to come.

Sarah Masling

What's Happening in Dance & PE

What a fun and dynamic term we have had in Term 4 for Dance and PE.

We looked at Australian Folk Dance with an exclamation mark of the Mexican Hat Dance to see the Term out. We discovered a little about why dance matters and how it connects us to each other, to our culture, country and to our history.

We learned two Australian Folk dances: The Heel & Toe Polka and Strip the Willow AKA the Virginia Reel. We learned to dance with a partner to walk and dance to the beat of the music, although at times the excitement was palpable and all the ‘walk/dance to the beat/rhythm of the music’ instructions went out the window, that’s OK because we expended energy and had a mighty good time while learning something new. We also learned what a ‘set’ is in folk dancing and how to bow to our partner, and how to change a dance from being one danced with the same partner for the whole dance to one that is progressive, that is to change partners during the dance.

For PE we tried activities to help with rhythm, timing, agility, and teamwork. All this to help improve our sporting prowess. There were circuits, sport games, ball handling skills and the rhythm hoops challenge which was excellent to see in action.

It’s been a great 9 weeks and so much fun working with all the students across the school.

Now it’s almost time for holidays. Looking forward to the break and to what 2024 will bring.

Rhonda King

Hello Families & Kiddos

Thank you for this incredible year we’ve all had.

The athletics carnival, the many special lunches and all the incredible counter service moments I’ve had with our WPS kiddos.

I have appreciated my time supporting the canteen and school this past year and am so excited to see the adventures we have next year.

I want to thank my incredible friends who have continued to volunteer their time to support Belinda and I in the canteen.

Zoe, Catherine, Claire, Alisha, Joanne & Karen you each have had your time with us and I hope it was as enjoyable for you as it was for us ladies in WPS canteen. YOU ARE OUR SUPER STARS!!
My responsible Year 6 helpers, I am going to miss you all, the amount of times you each have jumped in and rescued me when I was overwhelmed.. Honestly, I might be biased but you have been the best Year 6 helpers I have had.

I have loved my role this year and have learnt a lot, the P&C have been incredible especially Beautiful Alison our treasurer and Susan our secretary. Patience and guidance has been their approach and I am already feeling more confident about our future.

Thank you to everyone I am privileged to work within our school, alongside my girls and amongst all the amazing and unique children we have learning and growing at WPS

Free for coffee Wed 13^th?
Come join Belinda and I for coffee (See Flyer) at Jamison.
I’d love to meet some new people and if you already know me, than you know I love to chat.
Come on, its at 10am, we all need a coffee at that time anyway?

What’s happening in 2024?

Next year we will have a new menu and it has been developed based on all your suggestions and feedback.
We will be changing our service days to Wednesday, Thursday & Friday.
Our most loved Belinda will only be with us on Fridays, she has a big and wonderful adventure waiting for her out in Canberra.
This means I would appreciate more volunteers to reach out and spare an hour once a term in our kitchen. Its super chill and what I’ve heard “Quite Therapeutic” with the repetitive but relaxing duties 😊

As always, thank you for the support you have all shown this year.

Be safe, be jolly and have a wonderful break with each other

Martina Fleeton

Calling On An ARTIST!!

Our Blackboard sign at WPS Canteen is in desperate need for a paint makeover.

If you have the skill to help us with a renovation, we’d love to hear from you.

Contact Martina at wpscanteen@hotmail.com
We are seeking you as a volunteer and you would be able to get as creative as Julie & Mel allow you..
I am sure someone in our WPS community has talents with a paint brush or spray can.

Library News

A reminder to return library books. If any book/s cannot be found please let Stephen in the library or the front office know.

Over the school holidays don’t forget students have access to 100s of e-books and audio books through Sora. Sora - Home (soraapp.com)

Our website has details of how to access e-books and audio books through SORA on the Library Page Our Library - Weetangera School (weetangeraps.act.edu.au)

Happy Reading!

Stephen 😊

2024 Student-free Days

Get planning for 2024 with upcoming student-free days
From 2024, there will be 4 student-free days for ACT public schools. These are the first day of each
school term:
• Term 1, Monday 29 January 2024
• Term 2, Monday 29 April 2024
• Term 3, Monday 22 July 2024
• Term 4, Monday 14 October 2024.

We use student-free days for staff development, enabling us to plan in a student-free environment.
Student-free planning days have been expanded from 1 to 4 days from 2024 as part of our new
Teaching Staff Enterprise Agreement which prioritises better teacher workloads for educational
leadership, teaching and learning.

For all school term dates, visit the Term Dates page: https://www.education.act.gov.au/public-school-life/term_dates_and_public_holidays