Weetangera Primary School Newsletter | Week 3, Term 4 2024

From Julie

Dear Families

The FETE is on its way!! And the fete team AKA the P&C need your help.

A note is being sent home today, a proper ‘paper’ note, with information on how you can help the school fete to be a huge success. So please, put your name down and join in the fun. At the previous fete I was a helper at the afternoon tea stall, and it was great fun dishing up scones, jam and cream, making tea and coffee and serving the community of families who comprise our wonderful school. Join me in the washing up and come and have a chat. But even if afternoon tea is not your thing there are a myriad of other activities that you can support. Bring your families, bring your aunts and uncles, come and enjoy a day in the sunshine and spend up big!

If you have ventured out to LOWES recently to purchase uniforms you will have discovered that there is not much stock. The Education Directorate has a procurement process around uniforms and uniform providers and each company that provides uniforms must regularly participate in applying to provide uniforms to schools.

A few companies provided the required information and a panel from the Education Directorate considered the tenders and a new provider was chosen. Workin' Gear was the successful applicant and further information will be provided about how to and where to get new uniforms. This new process also enables the new logo to be included on the uniforms. Great news. BUT what does this mean regarding uniforms with the previous logo on? There is no impact and by this, I mean when there is a change over in uniforms the process is designed to take 3-4 years, so if you have a cupboard full of Weetangera PS uniforms with the previous logo on, all good, wear the uniform that you have. Remember: it is not what you wear when you come to school it is who you are when you present as a learner and the type of learner you are that is important.

Additionally, we are investigating the purchasing of the new logo as an iron-on for those who need them. Part of the tendering process also requires the school to purchase any stock that LOWES have left over at the end of October. To this end the front office team will be selling the LOWES stock on the Fete Day at a greatly reduced price. Keep an eye out for further details.

A CAR PARKING NAG

Thank you to our school community for largely maintaining a safe car parking environment.

It is essential that we maintain high levels of safety in our school car park.

This is an ongoing reminder to our school community to park safely and legally to support the safety of our students. Please do not double park or stop at the bollards near the bins.  ONLY park in designated car spaces. Parking in spaces that are not designated car spaces is unsafe and it also blocks access for our learners and families

with disabilities.

 Parking in non-designated car spaces can:

• Cause safety risks for pedestrians as they are less visible to oncoming cars

• Increase the risk for vulnerable members of our community like children, people who are visually impaired, and those using a wheelchair or pram
• Restrict the line of sight for other road users

• Restrict access for emergency services vehicles

Please remember to slow down and stick to the 40km/h limit around our schools between 8am and 4pm. Parking inspectors regularly patrol school zones to support safe parking and keep students safe. If you cannot find a car park in our school car parks, we suggest parking a little further away and walking or riding the rest of the way – it’s a quick and easy was to get in some exercise too. Let’s all work together to keep our kids and community safe!

More information about travelling safely to school is available on the Transport ACT website.

What’s coming up in November:

• 7/11 – Year 6 Market Day
• 11 – 15/11 Year 2 Aqua Safe Program
• 17/11 – The Fete 😊
• 19/11 – Year 1 – Questacon
• 22/11 – Jump Rope for Heart

Have an excellent week

Regards

Julie

Julie.cooper@ed.act.edu.au

Parent Portal App

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

What's Happening in the Curious Cockatoos and the Creative Kookaburras

This term in the Curious Cockatoos and the Creative Kookaburras we have been exploring the global concept voice. The question asked of the preschoolers was “How can you use your voice?”. There were many terrific answers given:

With all this great thinking we had many avenues to explore. We have started by examining how to use your voice to help solve problems that arise in play. The pre-schoolers have had fun looking at this through watching and reading carefully selected episodes of Bluey. We have had exciting discussions about the importance of finding your voice to tell your friends how you’re feeling and the importance of hearing your friend’s ideas when playing games.

We will continue our exploration into voice this term by examining the big questions:

How can you use your voice to help yourself?

How can you use your voice to help others?

Our pre-schoolers have big, exciting transitions ahead of them next year and we think this is very important information to take in their next steps in schooling.

What a great year in preschool!

Kate de Mey 

What's Happening in the Bumble Bee's

In Week 1, we started a new Global Concept ‘Global Citizenship’. For Global Citizenship, we have a focus on science. Our overarching question is ‘How does science make the world a better place?’ To explore this concept, the students in Year 1 have become detectives. They were gifted a detective pack on Day 1 of Term 2, which included a notebook, badge, gloves, tweezers and a magnifying glass. Each week, we have presented the students with a new ‘crime scene’ where they had to make observations, predictions and pose questions about the crime scene.

From there, we then did our weekly ‘Draw, Talk, Write’ writing cycle on this crime scene. Students could write a fiction text, telling the story of what happened, or an informative report, detailing the observations made. In the afternoons, we conducted experiments to see if we could gather key information to find out who the (volunteer) criminal was in the class.

Below are the crime scenes and evidence we have explored so far.

Year 1 Crime Scenes

Week 1: Something was stolen from the safe

Key evidence: A muddy footprint, liquid spill

Investigations: Footprint analysis experiment, testing of liquids using our senses

The Findings: We matched the footprint with Indras, showing that she was, in fact, the criminal this week. We also discovered that the mystery liquid was sauce. Was Indra eating a meat pie when she broke into the safe? We also discovered that Izzy was her accomplice.

Week 2: Who broke the gnome?

Key evidence: A fingerprint, shattered gnome.

Investigations: Splatter analysis using water balloons, fingerprint analysis

The Findings: our splatter analysis found that the gnome was likely dropped from the 4th or 5th shelf in the wet area, as the splatter patterns were similar. We found out that the fingerprint matched Finn’s, showing that Finn was our master criminal this week.

Week 3: Graffiti on the window

Key evidence: Texta on the window

Investigations: texta experiment, handwriting analysis

The Findings: not conclusive at the time of this report…

Tarnii Boland 

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What's Happening in the Clever Crocodiles

Digestive System

For our current Global Concept of Voice and Global Citizenship, we have been learning about the human body systems and how we can use our voices to influence others to make healthy choices. We have started our learning by looking at the digestive system and how it works. Our provocation included drawing life sized human bodies. We traced around a friend’s body and then drew in the parts of the digestive system we could remember.

Throughout our learning we have written narratives from the perspective of a piece of food as it goes through the digestive system.

… Then I got eaten! “What’s this slimy stuff?” “Hi I’m so glad you could join the small intestine.” “The what?” I asked. “I’m Ingrid and I welcome everyone. The small intestine breaks up food and turns it into the energy you need.” “What’s next?” “Next you will go to the large intestine…” – Evie Fricker

…We were having a great time until a man picked me up and ate me! He started chewing me into little bits and then swallowed me. I went down the esophagus straight into the stomach. Then I saw something gross, some food got turned into liquid!” – Harry Thong

… I was a cake in the fridge until someone picked me up and ate me. I was in their mouth and then when they started chewing, I broke into little pieces and then went down the esophagus. I was so sad because I missed my brothers and sisters. I cried the whole way down into stomach… - Lesley Mitchell

Money

In maths, we have been using our addition and subtraction skills to make money transactions. We started off by doing some shopping in our classrooms. We were a little shocked by how expensive some things were – also learning about inflation.

Onomatopoeia

In art, we have been focusing on art techniques and strategies, particularly how to make our titles and headings pop. We started this by taking inspiration from Pop Art and using our knowledge of onomatopoeia to create words that Pop!

Teagan Lovett

What's Happening in the Froggy's

4TB Froggies have jumped straight back into learning in Term 4!

We have finished the first part of our ‘Voice’ global concept unit in which we focused on Science and Digital Technologies. We explored the food chain and investigated the roles that producers, consumers and decomposers play. Next, we used the Scratch program to learn about coding and improve our skills. We then combined our learning to create an animation that we teach a younger student about food chains. Some of our favourite activities were the roo survival game, habitat pyramid activity and the trading cards.

Roo Survival Game

Hannah- I liked this game because everyone got a go at running and playing different roles in the game. I learnt that if there are a lot of resources then kangaroo numbers can increase but if there are not enough their numbers go down.

Henry- I liked it because it was a way of learning while being outside.

Habitat Pyramid Activity

Lorenzo- this was my favourite activity because of the different positions you could be in the food chain. I learnt that an invasive species can really affect a food chain.

Trading Cards

Noori- I loved this activity because it was fun to research the invasive species and do the drawing.

Year 4 is having fun practising our skipping skills to prepare for the ‘jump off’ day in Week 6. We are using individual and large ropes to improve our skills. Some of the skills we can do are backwards skipping, cross-overs, double unders, and even skipping on one foot!

Tricia Butters 

What's Happening in the Shadows

Emily Dziubinski

School Sport Australia Soccer Championships

The School Sport Australia U12 Soccer Championships were held in Perth in the first week of term and Weetangera had three students involved. Congratulations to Aaron, Kai and MJ on being selected to play for the School Sport ACT boys’ team. After the trials in June, the team had been training and playing in practice matches each week in the lead-up to the tournament. The ACT team were competitive throughout the competition and finished fourth out of the eight teams with highlights including having a draw with the second placed NSW Sky team, a narrow 3-2 loss to the eventual champions Queensland who won all seven of their games as well as a strong 4-0 victory over the host state on the final day. Aaron, Kai and MJ represented Weetangera and SSACT admirably and they should be proud of their efforts. All three boys played well and thrived on the opportunity to test themselves against some of the best U12 players from all over Australia. Congratulations are also extended to former Weetangera student, Elliot who was also part of the team for playing well throughout the championships. On the rest day of the competition all students from the eight state teams took part in the educational excursion and this year it was a dolphin watching tour at Mandurah and this was definitely a highlight of the week for all involved!   

Best wishes to Aaron, Kai and MJ in your future soccer endeavours.

Erwin McRae

PBL News

P&C Update

Communication at Weetangera

Community Notices

For all schools and families – the Sustainable Canberra Expo – this Saturday!

The Sustainable Canberra Expo is a family-friendly event for ALL Canberrans!

There will be face painting, colouring in and a scavenger hunt for children, along with cooking demonstrations, EVs on display and an array of stallholders with information for householders who are interested in sustainable living.

The Sustainable Schools Program team will be there, and you are invited to vote for the People’s Choice award in the Sustainable Steps Poster Competition.

Come along to EPIC this Saturday 2 November between 10am and 4pm.