Weetangera Primary School eNewsletter

From Julie

Dear Families

Week 5, halfway through term 3 and there have been quite a few exciting events.

The Book Week Parade on Thursday was a wonderful example of how the students and staff at WPS get involved. I am almost certain that the staff enjoy the opportunity to ‘get dressed up’ and be involved as much as our students do. The enthusiasm with which everyone enjoyed, praised and wondered about the books they might like to read next was very evident.

And how did BOOK WEEK get started? My research tells me that it was hosted by the Children’s Book Council of Australia, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to connecting Aussie kids with books. A dedicated week was set up where the council worked with authors, illustrators, publishers, booksellers and other organisations to promote reading. And what a success it has been over the past 79 years. The opportunity to continue to connect all of us to the written word, especially in an age where reading is sometimes minimised in the face of bright and shiny technology, is an important one. Reading, in all of its forms, on line and on paper, is incredibly important. The next time you are out and about at the shops you may see some of the latest books that were nominated for various awards in the BOOK WEEK lists.

As well as the amazing parade of book characters all classes have been exposed to various learning activities to draw their attention to the myriad of new books that are available for students of all ages. A BIG thankyou to the kindergarten team of Lauren Domio, Jess Yeo and Michelle Robinson who organised and motivated the whole school with a wide variety of book week activities.

And here are all of the adults of WPS, who certainly enjoy book week as much as our students!

Recently one of our students participated in the third round of ROSTRUM. Sasha, in Year 4 has very confidently given her rostrum speech ‘How Exhausting’ and is congratulated on the engaging speech, clarity of thought and success she has achieved. Well done Sasha!

On Tuesday, 20 August, 50 students attended the Belconnen Athletics Carnival. The students were attending for a variety of athletic events but what was most apparent is that each student was not only invested in their own success but were equally committed to supporting, cheering on and interested in the success of their peers. I could not have been prouder of our students. Additionally, on chatting with a parent they also acknowledged the student’s commitment to each other remarking that when they attend assemblies the same spirit of pride and connection is in abundance as our students, your children, embrace the success of their peers and encourage everyone for the inspiration they provide to us all. Thank you to Erwin McRae who is our guiding light at these events ensuring that the students know what is expected from them, where to meet, how the events unfold and keeping track of where each of the students should be. Thank you also to Corinne Hannan whose skills with paperwork, organisation and event management is greatly appreciated. Rohnin Parsons, also in attendance provided backup support and oversight of ribbons and finals placements.

What a great culture of support, collaboration and kindness!

This being BOOKWEEK, my thought for the week, was this one:

Regards

Julie

Julie.cooper@ed.act.edu.au

Science Week 2024

Last week was Science Week; and this year's theme was SPECIES SURVIVAL MORE THAN JUST SUSTAINABILITY. The theme aimed to highlight the importance of science and innovation in ensuring the survival and the ability of species to thrive in an ever-changing world.

Each unit was given an amazing topic to investigate, and they dove into researching, finding awesome facts and looking at solutions to help ensure the survival of their animal. Their ideas and research were compiled and will be put together to create a whole school Science Week book that will be shared early Week 7.

At the end of Week 3, volunteers from Year 5/6 visited each unit with clues about their animal and the units had to guess who would be their mystery guest for Science Week.

Here are the amazing topics each unit got to explore:

Preschool- Quokka

Small Group- Numbat

Kindy- Platypus

Year 1- Wombat

Year 2- Echidna

Year 3- Koala

Year 4- Bilby

Year 5/6- Bees

Each unit was also tasked with creating an eye-catching art work that will be displayed as a whole school mural in the front office.

You should have recently received an email inviting you to participate in the 2024 School Satisfaction and Climate Survey. This survey provides the school with valuable information on how we are meeting the needs of our students and the broader community. It is a great opportunity for parents to provide feedback on things we are doing well and things we may need to review. At present, the response rate for parents stands at just 10.4% meaning there are many families whose views have not been represented. If you are able, please complete the survey as soon as possible. If you require assistance with this please contact the school.

What's Happening in the Koalas

This term, Kindergarten has had a strong focus on how the choices that we make effect the environment. We have looked at what worms can and can’t eat and proven that they hate plastic but love organic material like food scraps (especially banana peels). We have sorted our recycling and looked at different ways things can be re-used including a trip to our second-hand uniform shop. We have also looked closely at the rubbish that ends up on our playground and where soft plastics like chip packets and muesli bar wrappers end up.

We conducted a data survey on our red bin rubbish (ie, landfill) on a normal day compared with a day that we asked families to provide a wrapper free lunch and the results were pretty striking. On a normal day we put 36 items in the red bin compared with only 8 items on the wrapper free day.

After much discussion around waste and where things go the Kindy Koalas have made some really interesting observations.

Hudson: “We shouldn’t bring any landfill to school and use a cup and not buy a plastic bottle of water.”
Daisy: “We should stop bringing packets of food to school and when we grow out of our clothes we can give them to someone smaller.”
Sienna: “Try bringing no rubbish to school by bringing tubs. You can wash the tubs rather than throwing them out.”
Josie: “We should tell our parents to not buy food that has a plastic wrap.”
Liam: “It’s easier and healthier to eat things that don’t come in a plastic wrapper.”
Georgia: “We can re-use things to make art. My mum never puts any wrappers in my lunchbox because it keeps the planet happy.”

In Kindy we are also focusing on measuring length by becoming familiar with informal measurement and using the words longer or shorter to compare objects. We have been finessing our ability to measure using paddlepop sticks, paper clips and unifix cubes as well as ourselves! The Koala’s classroom is 9 students long!

Jess Yeo

What's Happening in the Beetles

Over the past two weeks, year one has been focusing on learning to recognise Australian coins according to their value. They started off by applying their prior knowledge of coins and notes and identifying how they are different to each other. They then analysed the features of Australian coins and notes, making coin rubbings and labelling the features. Up next, they evaluated how different coin combinations can equal the same amount, followed by ordering coins according to their value and choosing the coin with the highest value. This week is the third week of focusing on money during maths and all the year ones are excited to be involved in a special money project. Students have been given a budget of $5 and so far they have had to pay $1 to adopt a desk pet and spend 50 cents to buy a habitat for their pet. As the week progresses, they will have to use various coin combinations to buy materials to create food and accessories for their pet, all of course without going over their budget!

Check out the Beetles in action and marvel over their money skills!

Hayley Dix

4LT Elves have had a ball learning about how to become a more sustainable member of our community. Students have looked at the big question ‘why make change?’ and throughout our lessons across a variety of subjects we have explored the impacts of global warming, ocean pollution, fast fashion and deforestation. Student then collected some data on the rubbish that is collated in our lunchboxes each day. We came to the realisation that our landfill footprint was still a concern. To address this concern, we decided to invent a lunchbox that could reduce landfill as well as being made from more sustainable materials. After a lot of research into renewable resources, fossil fuels and recyclable materials we made a blueprint of our desired lunchbox and then made a prototype. Alongside all this learning we have been learning how to write persuasive expositions around the concept of sustainability. We wrote a letter to Julie to persuade her to consider some of our suggestions to improving Weetangera Primary Schools footprint. Here are some photos of our learning.

Louise Tominich

Parent Portal at Weetangera

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

Coming soon: Parent Portal App

You’ll soon be able to access Parent Portal through the Sentral for Parents app. Keep an eye out for more information from us once the Sentral for Parents app is available for our school to use.

Christian Education in Schools

Christian Education in Schools volunteers will provide a session at Weetangera PS on Monday 16 September, 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.

Library News

Scholastic Book Club Issue 6 is available now. Orders are due by 13 September 2024.

Scholastic Book Club: Issue 6 2024 by Scholastic Australia - Issuu

PBL

T3_Newsletter_Communication_PBL.pdf

P&C Update

Father's Day

Trivia Night

Friday 9^th August saw a gathering of geniuses come together for this years trivia night with close to 140 people turning out and helping to raise just under $4k which is a fantastic outcome!! A big thank you to Mel for hosting the night and keeping the rowdy crowd (mostly) in check.

See you all at the next one!

Lap A Thon

This years Lap A Thon is fast approaching and is one of the best days on the school social calendar. The kids will be running up a storm on Thursday 26 September and communication and sponsorship notes should be coming home shortly – so be sure to check those bags in the coming weeks.

The SRC will be voting on this years theme with an announcement to made shortly.

Fete

Do you have a green thumb? We will be looking for lots of interesting donations to our plant stall at the fete, so if you’re in the garden or visiting the plant nursery this weekend why not propagate a couple of cuttings from your yard, or grab a few extra seeds and start growing some seedlings for us to sell on fete day?

If you’re a less enthusiastic gardener we could still use your spare supplies! If you’ve got any half used bags of potting mix, seeds that were never planted, pots or other supplies that we could pass on to our gardening whizzes, send in an email to weetangeraprimaryfete@gmail.com to organise drop off.

Canberra Southern Cross Club – Community Rewards

Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday 17 September @ 6pm online – if you would like to receive the online invite, please email Ben at Weetangera.pc.secretary@gmail.com . Be sure to clear the calendar and come along and share your ideas or just listen in to what's happening around the traps.

Key Dates

Fathers Day Breakfast – Friday 30 August

Lap a thon – Thursday 26 September

Fete – Sunday 17 November

Stay Connected

Stay up to date with what is happening with the P&C and the canteen by following us at:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/WeetangeraPandC

Instagram: www.instagram.com/WeetangeraSchoolPandC