Weetangera Primary School eNewsletter

From Julie

Dear Famiies.

Fridays mean assembly. Assembly time means inspired learner awards. And Inspired Learner Awards ensure that I am pondering the broad and deep skills that our students are developing.

But what is entailed in being an inspired learner? The reality is that an inspired learner is what our aim is for every, single, student. Every, single, day. Does this happen every single day?? Nope! We all have days when we are not quite as on task as we need to be and so the question is: What else do we look for? Windows of opportunity to build student success as learners.

What do our students think an inspired learner is? Well, we asked them. In the beginning of the year, during the Start Up Program one of the key activities is to build an understanding of what these inspired learners are doing in each classroom. The little thing and the big things,the essence of who our students are.

This is what they said from preschool to year 6:

An inspired learner is:

Kind and respectful
Listens
Has a growth mindset
NEVER gives up
Does work when they are told
Communicates their needs
Is a good sport, in and out of the classroom
Supportive of all
Engages in learning
Wants knowledge
Supportive of friends
Kind and dedicated
Listens and uses feedback
Kind-hearted
Involved, respectful, takes care
Curious and inclusive
Helps others to feel like they belong
Cares for things that belong to themselves and others
Helpful, smily, positive
Funny
Ready, engaged and interested
Responsible for their learning
Resilient, respectful, focused
Calm, inclusive
A learner

It is also important to ask our students this question: What is an inspired teacher? And from our students, from P to Year 6 they have a very clear idea of what they need from their teachers.

In their words an inspired teacher is:

Gives constructive feedback in a nice way
Is not too judgemental
Gives me a break when I need it
Is passionate about teaching
Open-minded to how students learn
A cheerful role model
Supportive
Learns from their students
Is flexible and can change
Fun, fair, listens and doesn’t talk over you
Respectful and enthusiastice
Truthful
Kind and helps EVERY time
Encouraging, kind and provides fun learning opportunities
Kind, listens and creates fun learning
Helps you learn, if you are hurt, reads stories, makes you feel happy
Humorous, fair, helpful
Inspiring and organised
Kind, caring, helpful and fun
Knows me

If we get these things right, students and staff then we are well on the way to ensuring that Weetangera Primary School is, for every student Our place of learning.

This week’s thought for the week has a humorous bent:

Have an excellent weekend.

Regards

Julie

Julie.cooper@ed.act.edu.au

Parent Portal at Weetangera

1.Parent_portal_poster.pdf

Parent Portal is now available. It is a secure online platform used to share student information between you and your child’s teachers.

Some reminders about Parent Portal:

If you already have a Parent Portal account, use this Parent Portal access link to start using the great features.
You can’t access Parent Portal directly through the ACT Digital Account website, you need to use the link above.
When you are logged into Parent Portal, we recommend saving the browser as a favourite or to the homepage on your mobile phone for quick access in the future.
The website can only be viewed using a web browser on your computer, mobile phone or tablet. An app is not available at this time.
If you still need to register, you will need an access key and a Parent Portal registration link via email to link your existing account to your child’s records. If you haven’t received this, please contact the school’s front office team for assistance.

Head to our website for all the details:

https://www.weetangeraps.act.edu.au/For_Parents/parent_portal

What's Happening in the Bumble Bee's

Welcome to Year 1 in the Bumble Bee’s classroom!

We have a large focus on Literacy in Year 1. To inform both our reading and writing literacy, we participate in a lot of activities to help expand our vocabulary. One of the tasks we do each day is explore the ‘Word of the Day’ challenge by Meriiam-Webster. We have all learnt some interesting words! I’ll use some of them in the passage below about the Bumble Bees, do you think you can spot them?

The Bumble Bee’s have developed several salubrious habits so far this year, one such habit is participating in Community Service each week. This is a half an hour block where we contribute to the wellbeing of our community, whether that is through putting our lives in jeopardy while wrangling the weeds in the vegie garden, cleaning up our school playground or helping organise our learning environments. In addition to our positive habits, we have become luminaries in the field of Zones of Regulation. We can quickly identify emotions and how they impact both us and the people around us. We can help you descry what Zone you’re in and suggest some strategies to get back to the Green Zone. Already this term, we have become each other’s retinue, where we support and encourage each other to be brave and take risks in our learning. It has been a fabulous start to the year.

(Hint, some of the words of the day were salubrious, jeopardy, luminary, descry and retinue)

As well as expanding our vocabulary through Word of the Day, we have also been exploring language through homographs (words that look the same but have different meanings or pronunciation), homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings) and more recently, synonyms (words that are similar in meaning). This week we made synonym flowers to display in our classroom.

Synonyms are fundamental in both reading and writing progress. In reading, we can use our knowledge of synonyms to support our overall understanding of texts. If we can’t decode a word using strategies such as chunking sounds together, or if the word doesn’t make sense to us, we can stop, insert a word that does make sense (a synonym) and try again. This strategy supports both decoding and reading for meaning. Synonyms are also an essential part of bumping up our writing. By having a larger bank of more ‘interesting’ words, we can create more descriptive, emotive and accurate pieces of writing.

Please enjoy some photos of our synonym flowers.

Tarnii Boland & Chelsea Glenn

Welcoming another exciting school year of celebrations and accomplishments, The Fantastic Foxes whose motto is to “dig for more information” have been getting stuck into the exciting possibilities Year 2 brings. The curious, courageous, and clever foxes have been settling into their new class spaces and routines terrifically.

We enjoyed a spectacular visit from Lance the hot air balloon last week and took inspiration to write a recount using this shared experience. This term we are learning about the purpose and structure of a recount in our draw, talk, write sessions. We have begun our draft of this writing and have been understanding the details (who, what, when, where, why) and tense we would use in this text type. The Foxes have been exceptional at elevating their word choices by suggesting, finding, and sharing synonyms for particular words.

The Fantastic Foxes are using their outstanding energy and gross motor skills to work on their punt skills. There are a few important elements that we are currently working on:

Eyes are focused on the ball throughout the punt
Ball is held about hip height in front of punting leg
Step forward onto non-punting foot
Punting leg follows through towards the target after ball contact

There has already been significant progress in our skills and we hope to use this skill in a class game next week.

We are coming towards the end of our global concept, Personal Responsibility. For many weeks we have been discussing, unpacking, problem solving and reflecting on how emotional responses affect our own and others feelings. The Foxes identified that our own and other people’s actions impact our emotions and the choices we make by:

People treating us nicely makes us happier and feel like we belong
Sometimes feeling angry makes you want to do the same thing to them
Often we do things without thinking and that can make people feel bad
If someone is excited you might start feeling excited and silly too

We are problem solving scenarios that can happen at school and ways we can show personal responsibility in the decisions we make. The Fantastic Foxes have shown great interest in displaying personal responsibility inside the classroom and out on the playground.

Please enjoy our photos from the past few weeks.

Rosie Kingelty

What's Happening in the Koobaburras

The Kookaburras have had a very busy start to the year. We are working together to become a team of inspired learners, where everyone works together and supports each other.

Earlier this term we thought about the superpowers we would love to have to help our class and our school be a great place of learning. It was lovely to see qualities such as loyalty, kindness and respect for others being suggested by the students. Here are some of the self-portraits we made of ourselves as superheroes.

At the moment, Year 3 are in the middle of our first NAPLAN assessment. We have been practising getting logged on and seeing what it will be like to take part. We are all cool and relaxed and seeing the NAPLAN sessions as a chance to try something new and set a baseline for future growth.

Joanne Lawson

What's Happening in the Blue Wrens

The Blue Wrens of 3JY have had a fantastic start to the year. We are a small but mighty little class with the motto “spread your wings and learn new things”.

In our reading lessons we have been working through a variety of reading strategies including visualising, predicting and questioning. During our visualising lessons we listened to books without seeing the illustrations and drew scenes and in our predicting lessons we collected clues from books and predicted what would happen next. For questioning we have been discussing the idea of thick and thin questions. Thin questions are the ones that you can easily answer and are often right there on the page such as “what is the character called?” but thick questions encourage a reader to go deeper into the text or even do extra research to answer them. This week we read Little Turtle and the Sea by Becky Davies & Jennie Poh and some of the thick questions were absolutely brilliant. The students of 3JY asked questions like “how do turtles know how to travel home?” and “when will humans learn to not pollute the sea” and “how can we take rubbish out of the sea so that turtles don’t get sick?”

In maths we are working on place value and data and creating a variety of graphs; focusing especially on keeping things neat and organised so that information can be easily interpreted.

As part of our Belonging unit Year 3 created an Acknowledgement of Country that we will use during the assemblies that we host throughout the year. Each class took a walk on country and then discussed what it means to live and learn in this beautiful place. The Acknowledgement of Country is hanging in each classroom as well as in the hall with a big display of the gum leaves we created that represent the colours in our local environment.

We acknowledge the traditional owners of this land, the Ngunnawal people, who have had a connection to this country for thousands of years.

We would like thank them for the continual custodianship and sharing their culture with us and we are proud to continue to look after and respect this beautiful place where we play and learn together.

As we breathe in fresh air and enjoy clean water, we direct kindness to all others that live here with us.

We pay our respects to elders past and present and thank them for their continual care of this place.

Jess Yeo

What's Happening in the Big Fishy's

What an amazing start to the year. We have been in full swing in ‘The Big Fishy’s’.

Through the Global Concept of Belonging, We have been learning about each other, how we learn and what it means to belong in our class, school and the broader community.

To reflect on what we have learned so far and why we have enjoyed doing that activity, we created a range of written pieces.

Alfie K
I liked doing 4 wicket cricket in PE.
I liked doing hot air balloons in Art.
I like BTN.
I am a chicken!

Hudson- I have enjoyed doing PE, specifically ‘scramble’. It's a game where you line up on a line and there are 2 tippers. The tippers call out a letter of the alphabet and whoever has that letter in their name has to run from the line to the other line without getting tagged.

Joe S- In the first term of school, the Big Fishys have been doing quite a lot, from designing a golf course to making paper-mache.My personal favourite was P.E when we played ‘four-wicket cricket’. A game with four stumps, four bats and one ball, sounds crazy right. Alright I’ll explain there are four stumps arranged in a diamond shape, a bowler bowls from any set of stumps to a batter then the rules of getting “out” are the same as regular cricket although it is hit and run and usually one hand one bounce.

Siddhik- This term we have done a lot of art. My favourite artwork is the hands and feet art. The hands and feet art is where you draw yourself falling. We also had to add colour and patterns. It took me 3 hours to make it.
How to make the hand and feet art.
You need - a pencil,coloured pencils and paper A3
First you trace your feet and hands. Then draw/make the body. Then colour.

Fatimatu- I really liked when we played dodgeball. It was really fun. I also really liked the paper mache. We had to use flour and water, mix it up and we then put the newspaper on the paper mache then we put the newspaper on the balloon. It was challenging for me because it was spilling everywhere but it was really fun.

Imeth- In term 1 this year we have been exploring Mr McRae’s amazing maths mentals. They’re a fun, unique challenge every week. The thing I love about his Maths is his algebra and his humorous maths memes keep it up Mr McRae.

We look forward to sharing more of our learning with you next term,

The Big Fishy’s

Bec Spoors

Hot air balloon

In Week 6, we had a hot air balloon drop in to Weetangera for a visit! It arrived by car and was set up by the pilot, Brendon Mulloy and 5/6 teacher Emma Cottam. We got to see the balloon basket get set up with the burners, and then saw the envelope (the coloured part) come out of the bag and slowly get inflated. Ms Cottam was on the crown line at the very top too make sure the balloon could get up safely and she needed a lot of space to do this!

Once ‘Lance’ the balloon was fully inflated, some teachers got to stand in the basket and we got to ask all the questions we had. Then Ms Cottam’s class helped to pack away by rolling on the balloon to get all the air out. Ms Cottam says that isn’t how they normally do it and it’s usually not that fun… but we aren’t sure if we believe that!

We can’t wait to welcome a balloon back to Weetangera next year as well.

School Photos

Please see below the dates for upcoming our School Photo Day for 2024

Friday 15 March 2024 (Term 1/Week 7) – Preschool Photo Day, End of the Week Preschool Group – (Sibling photos will be taken between 8:45am and 9:00am Location - Preschool)

Tuesday 19 March 2024 (Term 1/Week 8) – Main School Photo Day (Sibling photos will be taken between 8:30am and 9:00am Location – New Hall Unit 7)

Monday 25 March 2024 (Term 1/Week 9) – Preschool Photo Day, Beginning of the Week Preschool Group - (Sibling photos will be taken between 1:00pm and 1:30pm Location - Preschool)

Students will not receive individual envelopes. Parents are encouraged to use the online school order code to order student photos and sibling photos.

Online Payments - We encourage parents to pay online before the School Photography Day. An online school order code is located on the flyer - www.theschoolphotographer.com.au.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

Weetangera_School_Elite_FLYER_A5.pdf

Weetangera_School_Elite_SAMPLE_ENV.pdf

Canteen News

Hi families and kiddos of WPS
Another great fortnight here in the canteen, sales are up, children are loving their experiences at our counter services and better yet I have had more parents volunteering in our kitchen.
I want to personally thank Zoe whom rescued me on two occasion this fortnight, our lovely new secretary Paul, joining me this past Wednesday, Alisha popped in on Friday last week and the help of our lovely YMCA educator Trisha who is now joining me on Thursdays to help during my peak periods as a community volunteer.

You may have noticed we have a new display on our blackboard, lets all thank our incredible Sanchi whom happily volunteered & utilised her artistic skills to create our display. Please thank her on our schools behalf as her art will now be part of WPS history so I think we ought to show her our gratitude.

One last reminder Our HOT Cross Bun Fundraiser is available via flexischools, get your delicious Bakers Delight orders in and to know your Easter treat purchases will be support our canteen is good deed in done this easter.
Orders close ….
This year’s varieties of 6 packs hot cross buns are priced at $9 in flavours

Chocolate Chip
Apple & Cinnamon
Traditional Flavour

Thank You for every order and contribution you add to our school canteen, I appreciate being able to continue serving our children and hope our little P&C Canteen will be here for many more generations to come.

Martina Fleeton

School Sport ACT Representative Teams

Talented sportspeople in Year 5 and Year 6 are welcome to trial for selection in School Sport ACT (SSACT) 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 SSACT 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 contact Erwin McRae.

Harmony Day

Harmony_Day_Note_for_Families.pdf

Christian Education in Schools

Christian Education in Schools volunteers will provide a session on Weetangera PS on Monday 25 March, 1.45-2.45pm. This session will be provided only to students that have opted in via the permission note. Please visit the school front office to get a copy of the permission form.

Book Fair

Book_fair_flyer.pdf

Book Club

Scholastic Book Club Issue 2 is ready to order from. Spare brochures are available from the library and front office. You can view the catalogue online at Book Club | Scholastic Australia

All orders are due by 29 March 2024.

Happy reading,

Stephen James

Library

PBL

Communication at Weetangera

P & C Update

Heroes Disco

The Annual Weetangera School Disco is BACK on Friday 5 April and we’re calling all heroes to join us in the Weetangera Primary School Hall. Dust off your cape, strap on your mask and SECURE YOUR TICKET before sales end 30 March! Tickets are $10 and available through the Flexischools app.

If you’re able to help out on the night, we’d love to hear from you via the link below:

https://form.jotform.com/240521865949062

Junior School: 5:30 - 6:30pm

Senior School: 7:00pm - 8:30pm

Fete survey

Exciting news! The Weetangera fete is BACK, and we want to hear from you about what stalls, events and food options you’d like to see in November.

To share your thoughts about what you loved last time and would love to see next time please head to the below survey - it’s just 6 quick questions to help us plan a fete with something for everyone.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KSGV9FR?fbclid=IwAR3UgKvyTdFju7__BUs6F7yQLCklx-zUOKqClohhbfAr0Rl-bJEkMXpFuLI

Flexischools

Did you know that Flexischools is our online ordering platform for lunch orders, special food days and also P&C events (get your disco tickets here!)? If you haven’t already done so, head on over to your App Store to download so you don’t miss out.

Hot cross bun drive

Martina has coordinated with Bakers Delight to run a Hot Cross Bun Fundraiser. Orders are open on Flexischools and cost $9.50 for a pack of 6 in the following flavours: Chocolate, apple & cinnamon and traditional.

Next meeting

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 26 March @ 6pm in the staff room. Look forward to seeing you there!