Weetangera Primary School eNewsletter

From Julie

Remember: School finishes on Tuesday, 17 December

Dear Families

The final newsletter for the year is to thank you for your support for the work of learning that your children participate in every single day.

On Friday, 13 December all reports were emailed home so check your inbox, checkout your child’s report and celebrate their achievements over the period of 2024.

Each semester I make it my responsibility to read every report for every student. Understanding their successes and accomplishments and the identified goals for 2025 ensures that there is a clear focus for each students continued progress in 2025.

I was extremely impressed with the reports, the comments made and the summing up of each students learning over the course of the year.

At this time of year we also farewell staff members who are moving on to other ACT Education Directorate schools. This year several of our staff are leaving to take up positions elsewhere so I would like to acknowledge their work, celebrate their contribution to WPS over many years and wish them all the very best. We are farewelling in 2024:

Lauren Domio
Isabel Dunn and
Rhonda King.

All three staff members have made valuable contributions to your children’s lives and will continue to do so at their new locations.

Have a restful and relaxing holiday and enjoy the celebrations with your families and friends.

The final thought for the week, shared with staff is this one:

May your celebrations be filled with joy, harmony and kindness to all you meet.

Regards

Julie

Julie.cooper@ed.act.edu.au

2025 School Arrangements

Everyone at Weetangera Primary School wishes you a safe and happy summer holiday break!

Arrangements for 2025:

- Teachers commence on Friday 31 January 2025 (student-free day).
- Preschool (Mon-Wed) and kindergarten students start school on Monday 3 February 2025.
- Years 1-6 students return to school on Tuesday 4 February 2025.
- Preschool (Wed-Thu) students start school on Thursday
- Term 1 ends on Friday 11 April 2025.

Term Dates and Public Holidays 2025

2025 Uniform Price List

Weetangera_2025_Price_list_new_uniforms.pdf

Workin' Gear Schools is the new uniform supplier for Weetangera Primary School. New uniforms with the new SPW logo can be ordered using the link above. Students are still able to wear uniforms with the old WPS logo. There are still limited sizes available for sale at the front office. Please contact the school after 22 January to organise a time to purchase these.

What's Happening in the Wombats

We can hardly believe we are at the end of Kindergarten. To celebrate reaching this special milestone, we wanted to share what we have loved about Kindy for our final newsletter item.

Eric – I loved the teachers because they helped me learn.
Hamish – I love playing with friends, recess and lunch, and running.
Lucas – I love writing and recess and lunch because I get to play with my friends.
Thomas – I loved going to the library to borrow books.

Michelle – I loved our Galleries of Learning and watching all the Wombats show their families around our classroom.

Lauren – I loved our excursion to the Arboretum. It was the best excursion I have ever been on!

I (Lauren) would also like to take this opportunity to share with you all that this will be my final year teaching at Weetangera. As of next year, I will be teaching at Evatt Primary School. I have spent 13 wonderful years being a teacher at this school, and I have so many wonderful memories that I will cherish for years to come. Thank you to the families of both past and present students. I have adored teaching The Wombats this year and was very lucky to share the class with Michelle, who is an amazing teacher. I will miss the staff and families of Weetangera all very much.

Lauren Domio & Michelle Robinson

This term, the Marvellous Matildas have continued their exploration of our Global Concept, ‘Voice,’ which examines the importance of health information in making informed choices. As part of this journey, they delved deeply into understanding various body systems, including the digestive, muscular, and skeletal systems. By analysing existing health messages, the students gained insights into effective communication strategies. Building on this knowledge, the Marvellous Matildas created their own personalised health messages, selecting formats that best suited their creative expression and objectives.

End of Year Reflections

I enjoyed making friends this year - Jude

The first day of the Aqua Safe Program was the best day because it was also my Birthday - Audrey

I was excited to be in a class with someone I saw last year - Ray

Aqua Safe was the best time of the year - Nivon

I am proud of pushing myself harder this year - Owen

We have all made new friends this year and have made a lovely class - Alice

I enjoyed making new friends, doing things together, having fun and all the things we have learnt together - Amelia

Making all of these new friends and pushing myself to get confident in maths - Charlie

I loved trying something new at Aqua Safe by wearing my clothes in the pool - Skylar

Having such a great teacher - Hasan

Making all these new memories with my class - Daniel

Playing the hoop game - Zara

Kiri Davis

What's Happening in the Gang Gangs

Hello Gang-gang families. What a fantastic year we have had together in Year 3. I am really quite sad to see your wonderful kids move on to Year 4. They have grown and learnt so much this year and we have become a lovely community of learners. This week we read some amazing books about bushfires and how to be prepared just in case we were in a situation that required us to leave our homes. The students created their own emergency kit. They also responded to the stories through some beautiful artwork using a variety of materials including charcoal, oil and chalk pastel, watercolour and acrylic paint. Please enjoy the artwork and I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday and new year.

Shelly Murdoch

POSITIONS VACANT: Weetangera Primary School Board Member 2025

The Weetangera Primary School Board is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the school and acting in the best interests of the school and its students.

The board meets regularly throughout the year and is comprised of representative members from various stakeholder groups e.g. parent/caregiver members, P&C association and/or local community members, staff members, and student members (applicable to high school and college students).

Several board positions will become vacant in March 2025 and we will seek nominations in early Term 1 to fill the following roles:

1x parent member – 24-month term]
1x parent P&C member – 24-month term]

To learn more about the roles and responsibilities of board members, visit the School Boards page.

Further information about the nomination process will be provided early Term 1.

Parent Portal at Weetangera

Parent Portal is a secure online platform to share information between parents and carers and their student’s teachers. It’s available via a web browser and a mobile app.

Parent Portal has been rolled out across all ACT public schools and allows parents to:

notify the school when their child is sick or to explain an absence
book parent-teacher interviews (coming soon to WPS)
receive academic reports
receive the school newsletter
make payments
access the school calendar and their child’s student timetable (coming soon to WPS)
update their contact details.

One of the many benefits of the Parent Portal is that it is used by all ACT public schools from preschool through to year 12, so there will be no need to use a different system as children change schools during their public-school journey.

If you have children attending other public schools, you don’t need to sign up to the system twice.

Parent Portal is linked to the Student Administration System (SAS) used by the ACT Education Directorate for administering student data at ACT public schools.

How to register for Parent Portal

Sign up for an ACT Digital Account if you do not already have one. This is an important step in securely verifying the identity of parents and carers. It will not be possible to set up an account without undertaking this step. Detailed instructions including identification documents required to verify your account are listed on the Education Directorate's website in the Frequently Asked Questions.
You will be sent an access key (code) and a Parent Portal registration link specific to Weetangera Primary School via email to enable you to link your ACT Digital Account to your child’s records.

Sentral for Parents app

The Sentral for Parents app is the mobile app version of Parent Portal. You can access Parent Portal through the Sentral for Parents app, or using a web browser on your computer, mobile phone or tablet.

You can download the Sentral for Parents app for free from the App Store or Google Play Store.