Weetangera Primary School Newsletter | Week 3, Term 1 2025

From Mel

Hello Weetangera Families

Can you believe it is week 3 already?

What a fantastic start we have had to the year. Our students are settled, happy and ready for learning! There is already a great buzz in the air as everyone is getting stuck into it.

As part of the first whole school global concept of Belonging, our students have been participating in the “Start-Up Program”. During this program, teachers lead students through a range of discussions and collaborative activities that get them set up as a class, working as a team and ready for learning.

This morning, students came together in three mini assemblies to share their class name (and some of them have cool mottos too).

They also shared their thoughts on what makes an inspired student and an inspired leader; and the one thing that their class agreed is important to have with them so that they’re ready for learning:

“An inspired teacher explains things well and doesn’t scold people when they make mistakes.” – The Quakenators (Year 5/6).

“An inspired student is respectful, resilient and inquisitive.” – The Red Kangaroos (Year 1).

“An inspired teacher is fun, kind, helpful and smart!” – The Tigers (year 2).

“An inspired teacher has a positive mindset and listens to kids.” – The Otters (Year 4).

“An inspired student has a go at all activities.” – The Seals (Year 3).

“At school we need our brains that are ready to learn” – The Frilled-neck Lizards (Kindy).

I was quite inspired by the depth of thinking of our students, and the similarities in the responses they were coming up with. Our students really understand our values of Respect, Resilience, Inclusion and Responsibility, and they are pretty aligned in other themes like:

• Lead with kindness
• It’s OK to make mistakes
• Have a growth mindset
• Be positive
• Help each other
• Be ready for learning.

It’s days like these that I am so happy to be in this business, and so proud of our WPS community of learners.

Getting to Know You Meetings

It has been great to see so many of you at our Getting to Know You Meetings this week. 

Your School Needs You!

Getting involved in the School Board and/or the P&C is a great way to connect to our school and have your say. Our P&C AGM is next week (Tuesday 25 February) and everyone is welcome.

Also, don’t forget that School Board nominations close on Monday 24 February – COB.  There are 2 positions available – 1 x general board member and 1 x P&C Representative.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mel 

Melanie.Bezear@ed.act.edu.au

WPS School Board Nominations

Nominations for the Weetangera Primary School Board are now open. Please see the document linked below for more information and a nomination form. 

WPS School Board Nominations 2025

If you require a printed copy, please ask at our front office. 

Supporting Student Safety

As school re-commences for term 1, we are reminding parents and carers to please drive and park safely and legally, at and around school grounds.

We all have an important role to play in supporting road safety. Access Canberra has notified us that mobile speed and parking vans will be in operation to support our students’ safety.

These enforcement teams play a critical role in supporting our students get to and from school safely and we thank them for their ongoing support.

In addition to sticking to the speed limit, please remember to park safely – including not parking across pedestrian crossings, in no stopping zones, on corners, verges and double parking.

Unsafe and illegal parking can reduce visibility of our students and motorists to see each other, creating a significant hazard when students cross the road. Let’s work together to keep our kids safe.

The WPS carpark has spaces marked specifically for cars displaying mobility parking permits. To ensure that all members of our community can access our school as they need to, please do not stop or park in these spaces. We thank you for your help in maintaining a respectful and inclusive space. 

2025 Uniform Price List

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. 

School Photo's

Save the date

Given below are the dates for upcoming School Photography Day for 2025

• Friday 28 March 2025 (Term 1/Week 8) – Preschool Photo Day, End of the Week Preschool Group

• Tuesday 1April 2025 (Term 1/Week 9) – Main School Photo Day

• Monday 7 April 2025 (Term 1/Week 10) – Preschool Photo Day, Beginning of the Week Preschool Group

More information about ordering photos will be sent out closer to the date

What's Happening in the Toucans

Welcome to the Waterhole! This year our unit has been named after the book, The Waterhole by Graeme Base. Our classes are The Toucans, The Tigers and The Snow Leopards.

To begin our year we have been focusing on how we are connected and where we belong. At first, we created artwork of Snow Leopards in the snow and then in the spirit of belonging to the Waterhole, also created the artworks reflecting the Toucans and Tigers.

We also investigated where we belong in the wider community. Engaging in discussions about the communities we belong to.

“I belong to my gymnastics community.” - Juniper

“I belong to my basketball team.” - Max

“Belonging feels like you’re safe and happy.” - Zeke

We then used this information to create maps of a city that we belong to, including all the places in the community that make us feel safe and happy.

In maths we have been focusing on finding the most effective method of counting objects. We imagined we were the owners of a lolly shop and used unifix cubes to find the easiest way to group and count how many lollies we had in our shops.

“Our lolly shop had 106 lollies.” - Izzy

“We had over 200 lollies in our shop.” - Megan

We have also been busy learning all about our class animals. We have been watching videos, reading and listening to information about Snow Leopards. We then used that information to create our own pieces of writing about Snow Leopards.

This week we started our rotations in French, Music and PE. In French we learned the words for Mother = mère, Father = père, Brother = frère and Sister = sœur.

Teagan Lovett

What's Happening in the Seals

Hello from the Year 3 Seals.  We have had a busy couple of weeks getting to know each other and establishing the routines and expectations for the Year 3 Seals. We have been examining the Weetangera Primary School values of Respect, Responsibility, Resilience and Inclusion as part of our first global concept for the year: Belonging.  We discussed how to make the Seals a class where everyone can learn, feel they belong and have fun. Together, we created our class agreement, which everyone has signed (teachers too!).

This week we looked at Resilience.  We decided that the key ideas were to have a go, never give up, and learn from our mistakes.  Of course, a kind and inclusive environment makes it so much easier for everyone.

To practise having a go at something unfamiliar, where we couldn’t control the outcome, we drew some dogs in the style of Picasso.  We followed instructions to draw one part at a time, rotating our page as we went.  It was a lot of fun and our dogs turned out to be very interesting.  Certainly, each one was unique!  It was great that everyone had a go.

Joanne Lawson and Jo Burns

What's Happening in the Squirrels

4LT have had a flying start to the year. We have spent the past two weeks getting to know each other, setting expectations and establishing good routines. The students came up with a Mission Statement in our Start Up Program which is: Our mission in 4LT Squirrels is for each student to take risks with our learning, have fun, have trust in each other and celebrate success every day. We will follow the school values to become the best learners we can. There has been some really in-depth conversations about what makes us happy at school, how do we best learn and what steps do we need to take to make sure we can all reach our potential. Amongst all that, we have played some maths games, completed some stunning Squirrel artworks inspired by Pete Cromer’s famous animal art as well.  We have used our Global Concept of Belonging, to write about how we connect to our class and community and to top it off played some fun PE games outside. It is very clear 4LT love their cooperative games outdoors. I look forward to sharing more of what we do from the year as we go. Here is a snapshot of photos of some of the activities we completed to start 2025 off.

Louise Tominich

What's Happening in the Quakenators

Welcome to the Quakenators!

We have had a busy 3 weeks getting to know each other and figuring out how our classroom will function.

Our Motto:

Even if we make mistakes and grumble. We will reform into something humble.

We designed our class mission statement:

In our class we are always learning, listening and having fun. We include and respect everyone in a safe and kind environment. We will be ready for our futures.

We discussed what makes a good teacher and a good student/learner.

And together we developed our code of cooperation/classroom expectations.

We are looking forward to the year ahead and cannot wait to share our learning with you soon.

Bec Spoors 

Book Club

Scholastic Book Club issue 1 orders are due by 21 February 2025.

Online catalogue is available at: ISSUE PREVIEW | Scholastic Australia

Library News

SORA – ebooks and audio books

 Did you know students have access to hundreds of e-books through our library system?

To borrow e-books and audio books visit https://soraapp.com  or download the free Sora app for android or IOS. Students can now also access SORA through the digital backpack.

To access click on Find My School and select ACT Education and Training Directorate, then sign in using your school credentials. (student ID and password)

Once logged in students can access 100s of e-books and audiobooks on almost any device.

Happy reading!

Stephen James

Volunteering

If you have an hour or so spare to assist in the library at Weetangera Primary School please contact the front office and our librarian, Stephen James, will get in contact with you.

Hot Air Balloon

Clean up Australia Day

For 35 years, Clean Up Australia has been working to address the issue of waste in Australia. This year, events are being held on Sunday 2^nd March all over Canberra in which our families are able to volunteer at.

Each year, thousands of school students across Australia also participate in Schools Clean Up Day to create a healthier environment for Australia and learn about ways to conserve our beautiful country. Weetangera Primary will help clean up our school community on Wednesday the 5^th March and reflect on what we can do as a school community to improve our waste reduction.

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

1. 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.
2. 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.

Communication at Weetangera

Christian Education in Schools

Christian Education in Schools volunteers will provide a session on Weetangera PS on Monday 3 March. 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.

Community Notices