Weetangera Primary School eNewsletter

From Mel

Reconciliation Week 2025

At Weetangera Primary School, we value the histories, cultures and ongoing contribution that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have made to our region and to Australia. Learning about these perspectives is embedded in our Global Concepts and in everyday learning. Over the past week, students have also been learning more about reconciliation as part of Reconciliation Week. The 2025 theme "Bridging Now to Next" encourages us to reflect on the connections between past, present and future and be guided by the lessons of the past. Students will share their learning in our assembly this Friday, 6 June at 9.15am. All are welcome.

WPS Athletics Carnival

On Friday last week, students from years 2-6 took part in the Athletics Carnival. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we had lots of fun. This was the first time that the carnival has taken place at the Woden Park Athletics venue, and it was a great success! The synthetic running track and official timers and starters helped every student to feel like an athlete and we were excited to see so many students trying their best and having a go. There was amazing sportsmanship on display too, as our students worked together, supported each other and cheered for their houses. Thank you to our staff for helping the carnival to run so smoothly. We also appreciate the parents that attended and our fabulous canteen team for their yummy treats on the day. I'd also like to mention Erwin McRae, Tyler Beltrame and Anastasia O'Donnell, who put in countless hours of organising work to ensure the day was a success.

More information about results will follow in the coming weeks.

World Environment Day

World Environment Day is this Thursday, 5 June.

As you know, WPS prides itself on its approach to waste. We have a very committed and active sustainability team consisting of year 4-6 students and led by Michelle Robinson and Nicole Ratcliffe. Each week our sustainability team collects and sorts rubbish, looks after the worm farm and monitors the progress of all of our students in how well they dispose of their rubbish. It's a big job!

But managing waste is also a whole school job. On Thursday, our students will be taking part in a playground clean up. All students will be allocated an area of the playground to clean up, while reflecting on how we can continue to help our environment. You can help too: if you are using the WPS grounds during the afternoon or weekends, please encourage the people around you to take their rubbish with them. Thank you for helping us to keep the WPS environment beautiful!

Geothermal Drilling

The project of electrification of our heating/cooling system is dependent upon the drilling of 30 x 120m holes on the ‘play pod’ area. I appreciate that the play pod area now looks like an enormous mud pit, it will be rehabilitated once the drilling is complete.

Families within the immediate area will note an increase in noise from the drilling rigs in the last two weeks. To enable the holes to be completed in a shorter period of time the addition of an air-hammer drill has been made. I cannot underestimate the impact this is having in your homes. What it does mean is that our students in the classroom closest to the drill site do not experience the incessant noise of the air-hammer drilling during their learning time.

Setting the parameters for acceptable noise in our school has been a key challenge for the construction project and for the school. Over the weekend ‘noise blankets’ have been added to the external fencing and other solutions are being sought to contain the impacts both within our setting and in our community.

A message from the ACT CBR team responsible for the electrification of gas assets is to be delivered shortly to families within the immediate area, from their draft I have copied this information:

We understand that construction can cause temporary inconvenience and are working closely with contractors to minimise disruption to the school and community.

If you have questions about this project, contact us by calling 1800 956 409 or emailing infrastructurecanberra@act.gov.au

To speak to someone in a language other than English, telephone the Telephone Interpreter Service (TIS) 13 14 50. It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Regards,

Mel

Melanie.Bezear@ed.act.edu.au

Save the date - Year 6 Photo

The Year 6 photo will be taken on Friday 27 June 2025 between 10.00am and 10.45am.

Please note we will not be able to re-schedule the photo session if students miss the photo on the day.

What's Happening in Crocodiles

This term, Kindergarten have been focusing on the question, “How do living things communicate?” We have investigated a range of animal species, such as mammals, marsupials, amphibians and arachnids. The Crocodiles have been practising describing what the animals look like and labelling pictures using our knowledge of letters and sounds. Sorting animals into groups has also been a lot of fun and we discovered that there are so many ways to group animals based on external features!

In Maths, we are exploring data by beginning to collect and sort information. We gathered information about what fruit our class brought to school for fruit break and noticed that apples were the most popular fruit. Our next step is to learn how to compare our data and answer questions like “what has the most?” We have also been practising our counting skills and learning to recall a range of number bond facts including “friends of 10”.

Michelle Robinson

As part of our exploration of the Global Concept of Interconnectedness, we posed the essential question: “How can we support the survival of all living creatures?” We have been looking at different animals and last week we focused our attention on pythons.

We began by identifying the classification of pythons and understanding the reasons behind their categorization. Pythons are reptiles, characterized by their scaly skin, egg-laying reproduction, and cold-blooded nature.

Our research extended to their appearance, diet, and habitat. Pythons live in a variety of environments, including grasslands, forests, and wetlands, often seeking shelter in burrows, under rocks, or long grass . Their diet primarily consists of small mammals and birds, which they capture using constriction.

To record our findings, we engaged in the writing cycle: discussing and illustrating our ideas, drafting, revising, editing, and finally publishing our work. Here are some intriguing facts we discovered:

“Baby pythons are called snaklets.”

“A python smells with their tongue.”

“They are not venomous and they swallow their prey whole.”

“Pythons have heat sensing pits.”

“Pythons coil around their eggs to keep them warm.”

“Pythons can swallow animals much bigger than them.”

“A python’s scale is like armour.”

“ A python smells prey with its tongue.”

“Pythons actually use their teeth to hook onto food when hunting or prey.”

“They have soft leathery eggs.”

Building upon our research, we applied our technological skills to create models and habitats. We crafted paper chain models representing pythons and constructed triaramas to show their natural environments. In designing these habitats, we focused on elements such as long grass, hollow logs, and rocks, which are typical shelters for pythons . To illustrate their diet, we fashioned prey animals like mice using plasticine .

We're excited to continue our journey, exploring how we can support the survival of living creatures.

Megan Ferdinand

Over the last couple of weeks year 3 have been looking at solids and liquids. They started the unit of work with a brainstorm of what liquids and solids are. This week we have completed a couple of experiments, one of them was where they were given a state of matter that had spent the night in a freezer, they then wrote up an hypothesis about what will happen when the items (in zip lock bags) were placed in warm water. These items were milk, water, honey and oil. Some were frozen, others were not. They then carried out their experiment and wrote down what they observed happened. There was some great topic specific vocabulary involved and that came from this. The understanding the students have is wonderful.

The students have been participating in basketball clinics, they have enjoyed learning the skills involved and getting to practice these. The clinics will run until week 7.

In art the students have been creating a story using indigenous symbols. After coming up with a story they have created paint using various types of soil, chalk and rocks. They have experimented with what that will look like when painted on paper using indigenous techniques. They will next turn their symbol story into art.

Allison Barker

What's Happening in the Opossums

As we embark on another exciting term, the Opossums have been actively engaging in various subjects—exploring new concepts, developing their skills, deepening their understanding, and undertaking new and exciting challenges. Here's an overview of our recent learning adventures:

In our Global Concept lessons, we've focused on the topic of interconnectedness. The students have been examining the continents of South America and Africa. They've engaged in mapping activities, identifying key geographical features, and discussing how these regions of the world are comparable and different from each other. This exploration has enhanced their understanding of cultures, climate, landmarks, flora and fauna for around the world.

Our Mathematics sessions have been dynamic and hands-on. We have developed our skills in interpreting grid references and applying them to map reading and navigation tasks. We are creating our own maps and plan to use these to challenge our peers to find items around the classroom.

Additionally, we've focused on reinforcing multiplication strategies, including skip counting, repeated addition, doubling, arrays, area, and distributive properties to build our fluency and confidence when faced with multiplication problems. We've deepened our understanding of multiplication tables by reconstructing them in engaging ways. For example:

1×: One lot of anything is itself.
2×: Two lots is double.
4×: Four lots is double, then double again.
8×: Eight lots is double, double, double.
10×: Ten lots is a shift up in place value.
5×: Five lots is half of ten. First, we can multiply by 10, then halve, or halve, then multiply by 10.
9×: Nine lots is multiply by 10, then subtract a group.
3×: Three lots is double, then add another group.

In Writing lessons, we've been crafting information reports, focusing on structuring factual and informative texts. The Opossums have learned to identify key ideas, language features, and the importance of structure to effectively convey information.

Our Reading lessons consist of part class work and part guided reading group work. During the whole class focus, we are honing our skills of skimming and scanning texts and in determining the importance of information within texts, enabling us to discern main ideas and supporting details effectively. Our group reading sessions focus on goals we've set, such as comprehension or summarising texts, so that each student can work on the skills they need most.

Sessions involving Visual Arts have been vibrant and creative. The Opossums have explored creating landscape art with collage, drawing inspiration from our study of South America and Africa. We've experimented with different mediums to create landscape artworks, showcasing each of our unique perspectives and artistic expressions.

I am so proud of the Opossums' enthusiasm and dedication to their learning this term.

Celeste Tunnecliffe

What's Happening in the Ground Breakers

We are currently working on wrapping up our Harmony Global Concept learning in Year 5/6. We have been working on a design project that incorporates all the learning we have done throughout the last 10 weeks. Here is an overview of what we have been doing.

Our Learning Intention is: How does the information that we have about harmony in environments and communities impact the solutions and designs created to support harmonious living?

Our Design Brief: The cities are becoming less harmonious, unsustainable and heavily impacted by the increase in natural disasters. The government is offering people an opportunity to have a plot of land with a focus on prevention and protection from the elements and sustainability. Your design ideas may become a model for future developments. You will need to write a submission, justifying your plans and design choices for your plot of land and house. If successful you will be given the plot of land and sufficient funds to finance your plan.

What have we been finding out throughout this project?

What are the weather characteristics of your location?

I found out that Wuhan in China has very humid and wet weather. In June of 2024, there were 30.9 muggy days! That’s a lot! -Kevin
I found out that there are wet and dry seasons in Queensland. - Beau
I found out that in Rome in July and August it is the exact same average maximum monthly temperature. -Jupiter
I found out that in Ottawa it snows a lot! -Max
I found out that in Perth in June they have the least amount of sunshine hours with 6.6 hours daily. -Eve
I found out that Tokyo has opposite seasons to Australia. -Kobi
I found out that in Manila the temperature doesn’t usually go below 30 degrees celsius. -Parker
I learnt that snowstorms are named and in Middelburg one of the worst snowstorms was named Storm Darcy. -Lorenzo

What natural disasters impact this location?

In Tokyo, I will have to protect my house from earthquakes because they are dangerous and could damage the house. -Minaal
In Geelong, VIC, I will have to protect my house from floods because they have received lots of floods in the past century. -Jack
In Fiji, I will have to protect my house from cyclones because they have 2-3 cyclones per year. -Willa
In Adelaide, I will have to protect my house from earthquakes and floods because they get them sometimes. -Louisa
In the Philippines I will have to protect my house from volcanoes because it is an area with active volcanoes. -Eden
In Fiji, I will have to protect my house from cyclones because every year there are at least three cyclones. -Mariam

What design choices will you need to make to be sustainable and protected from natural disasters?

In Longreach, QLD, I will include stilts into my house design to protect it from floods. -Mohammad
I will include strong materials in my house design because it will make my house safer from tsunamis and severe storms. -Emily
I will include solar panels in my house design because Barcelona can receive up to 15 hours of sunlight in summer. -Henry
I will include solar panels because Portofino has a high level of solar energy. - Hannah
I will include two stories in my house to make it less susceptible to earthquakes. -Eden
I will include window covers from outside in my house design because Dubai gets a lot of sandstorms. -Aarav
I will include double glazed windows in my house because Sapporo has a freezing climate. -Dora

We look forward to sharing our completed house designs with you once we have finished analysing all our collected data. Stay tuned!

Emily Dziubinski

Christian Education in Schools volunteers will provide a session on Weetangera PS on Monday 30 June. 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 4 is now available and orders are due by 23 June 2025.

Spare catalogues are available at the front office and library or you can view at ISSUE PREVIEW | Scholastic Australia

The_Book_Cow_Book_Club_Term_2_2025.pdf

SORA SWEET READS 12 May – 25 August, 2025

OverDrive’s annual reading program, Sora Sweet Reads, is designed to encourage students to keep reading all year long. They’re offering a collection of free, simultaneous-use ebooks (and select audiobooks) for primary and secondary school students. These titles are prominently displayed in Sora so it’s easy for students to find their next sweet read.

To borrow e-books and audio books visit https://soraapp.com or download the free Sora app for android or IOS. Students can 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.

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. 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.

A message from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

Children’s Online Privacy Code
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), the Australian Government’s privacy regulator, is seeking input from parents and carers to assist them in its development of the Children’s Online Privacy Code (the Code).
The Code will put children at the centre of privacy protections in Australia. By the time a child turns 13, it's estimated that 72 million pieces of data will have been collected about them. The aim of the Code is to strengthen privacy protections for the handling of children’s personal information.
Your insights as a parent or carer are important.
To have your say, please take a few minutes to complete the parent discussion paper here: Children’s Online Privacy Code (consultation for children and parents) | OAIC.
Your support is also important in helping your child or young person to take part too, please assist them in filling out the appropriate worksheet, provided in the link above.
This consultation will be open until the 30 June 2025. You can read more about the Code here: Children’s Online Privacy Code | OAIC.

P&C Update

Athletics Carnival Canteen

Thank you to all the wonderful canteen staff and volunteers who helped with the Carni Canteen today. Our young athletes sure appreciate the delicious lunches and snacks!

WPS P&C Presents Despicable Me 4

Tickets to our Winter Warmer Movie Night are now on sale! Coming up on Friday 27 June from 5:15pm (movie starts at 5:45) in the old hall, this year we are showing Despicable Me 4.
Tickets are $10 and available now via Flexischools. Last year the movie night sold out, so get in quickly to secure your spot!

Save the date: WPS Trivia Night!

The P&C is hosting the annual trivia night on the 22nd August at Belconnen Labor Club. Put the date in the calendar... also plenty of time to think of a witty table name!

Canteen News

Wps_menu_contacts_staff_2025_20250502_093331_0000.pdf

Parent Portal at Weetangera

News Flash! Our school calendar is now available through the parent portal. Please keep an eye out for upcoming events.

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.

Parent Portal – Changes to ACT Digital Account ID requirements

The ID requirements for accessing Parent Portal have changed to make it easier to register your account.

If you have had trouble signing up to Parent Portal because of the ID requirements, we invite you to try again.

To access Parent Portal, you need to verify your identity via the ACT Digital Account. Previously you needed two forms of accepted ID and now you only need one. To register, use the Parent Portal access link and create or log in to your ACT Digital Account.

Please contact the front office via Email: info@weetangeraps.act.edu.au if you haven’t received an access key.