Weetangera Primary School Newsletter | Week 3, Term 3 2025

From Julie

Dear Families

Welcome to Week 3. Unfortunately, I have been absent this week, returning yesterday. While I was away, I spent some time thinking about our school and the ins and outs of the responsibility of leading an organisation that has at its heart the learning and wellbeing outcomes for 468 students. Upon reflection this is a huge responsibility, an awesome role and an at times challenging one. But in every moment the focus is clearly on ‘getting it right’ for our students.

I am supported in this task by my very connected leadership team, the inspirational classroom teachers, our amazing support staff, the front office administrative team who are the cheery and informative face of our school, the Building Services Officer AKA Glen and of course the families and extended families of the students of Weetangera. Between all of us there are approximately 2500+ people who have a vested interest in the success of our programs and practices. Imagine having more than 2500 people watching over your work!

Collectively, the actions taken at WPS: Our place of learning, are designed to provide our students with the skills and abilities to be active and involved citizens. When I arrived at WPS nobody could tell me what the logo represented. I asked many students, teachers, families; nope no one knew. Over the next 2 years the staff began the process of building knowledge of Positive Behaviours for Learning AKA PBL. This evidence and research-based process is designed to enhance many aspects of our school, in summary they include:

The focus:

To create a positive, safe, and supportive learning environment by promoting positive behaviours and addressing behavioural issues. 

The process:

Our school has implemented a school-wide framework that clearly defines expected behaviours, teaches those behaviours, and provides consistent reinforcement to all students. You will have read and heard about the BIRD tokens and the celebration afternoons once per term.

What are the benefits?

PBL improves social, emotional, behavioural, and academic outcomes for students, reduces negative behaviours, and increases engagement in learning. 

What are the key elements?

Clear expectations, consistent responses, positive reinforcement, and a focus on prevention. 

In invigorating the school logo and connecting it in a meaningful way to the students and the PBL Values we have been able to provide the school with a language to better inform respectful choices that are the building blocks of success at Weetangera.

Now, at every assembly the school leaders inform the school of the next PBL focus and this information is then shared broadly, taught specifically and comprise the language used with students to support behavioural expectations. They are summarised in the following way:

Speak to your children about what they know. And yes, we have invested in ensuring that the extensive work of understanding, engaging with and supporting our learners through signs, reminders and the wonderful bird mascots are splashed across and around the school.

And do you know why the staff, students and families chose the four birds? Because these are the birds that spend time in our environment. How marvellous that in our suburban setting we have so much bird life, and that we have been able to utilise their presence to engage and connect with the values of WPS; Respect – Resilience – Responsibility and Inclusion.

What is going on with GEOTHERMAL?

You will also note that the project that is currently taking place on the ‘Playpod Area’, installation of Phase One of the ACT Government’s Electrification of Gas Government Assets (EoGGA) is well into the drilling phase. While it is taking longer than originally anticipated as there are deep layers of basalt under the playpod (Who knew that!) in weekly meetings with Joss Constructions and representatives from the Act Gov. EoGGA Team we are kept apprised of where things are up to and what is coming up. Until the drilling is complete no other actions can take place. You may be wondering; why is this occurring at WPS, how did they get so lucky to be chosen for this amazing project! Truthfully, we are not too sure either, it may simply be because our heating/cooling system is well over 50 years old and at the first sign of either Summer or Winter the appropriate system ‘falls in a heap’! In the 21^st Century though is that really good enough? In summary geothermal is described as follows:

Geothermal heating and cooling systems utilise the earth's stable underground temperature to efficiently regulate indoor climates, providing a sustainable alternative to traditional HVAC systems.

On Tuesday of last week, I thought we had located a bear at school, lurking in the bushes across the car park and directly outside my office. Upon putting on my glasses and looking more carefully we unveiled this little critter in the gardens:

It wasn’t a bear at all! It was a mother kangaroo and joey, on alert, in the gardens. We have seen a few kangaroos recently in the gardens, no bears though, so please keep your wits about you as you drive through the car park. We are very aware of the need to keep our eyes and ears open and our wits very much on alert.

I usually conclude the newsletter with an invitation to all readers to ask questions, seek clarification, wonder aloud, discuss matters on your mind. The most important elements of my role, Principal of Weetangera Primary School, is to support staff and students to bring to life the clear purpose and vision of our school:

PURPOSE: To foster an environment that focuses upon dynamic and responsive learning, high expectations, laughter & fun and builds pride in everyone’s success

VISION: Our students and staff will be passionate, connected and successful learners who have empathy for others and a strong sense of identity, purpose, and well-being.

Please make contact with me: Julie.cooper@ed.act.edu.au

Please make contact with the school board at this email: WeetangeraPrimarySchoolBoard@ed.act.edu.au

Regards,

Julie

Julie.cooper@ed.act.edu.au

What's Happening in the Sea Otters

We’re now halfway through the school year, and our Year 3 students have settled in wonderfully. It’s been a productive and engaging start to Term 3, with lots of exciting learning happening in and out of the classroom.

In HASS, we’ve continued developing our understanding of mapping. In Week 2, students designed their own creative maps, using a key to label features such as beaches, trees, ports, and settlements. To make their landforms, they sprinkled rice onto their pages and traced around it to create unique shapes. There were plenty of laughs—and thankfully not too much mess! 😉

In Health, we’ve been focusing on Protective Behaviours. Our discussions have centred on the idea that everyone has the right to feel safe all the time. We’ve been exploring how different emotions feel in our bodies and identifying ‘warning signs’—those physical clues that help us recognise when something isn’t quite right. Students also practised calming techniques such as five-finger breathing and four-count breathing, which they can use to manage strong emotions.

To help start the day with focus and energy, we’ve introduced a “Health Hustle” on Thursday and Friday mornings. Students take turns leading the cohort in short, fun exercise routines they’ve designed themselves. It’s been a fantastic way to build confidence, encourage teamwork, and get our minds and bodies ready for learning.

We’re looking forward to a busy and rewarding term ahead!

Allison Barker 

What's Happening in the Opossums

Over the last eight weeks of learning, the Opossums have been enjoying some amazing and versatile experiences. These have helped us explore the Term 2 Global Concept of Interconnectedness and the Term 3 Global Concept of Identity. The students have taken on fun challenges, new concepts, and explored creative ways to solve problems. Here’s a snapshot of our recent learning journey:

To complete our Term 2 experience, the Global Concept lessons began focusing on the topic of interconnectedness and food chains. We developed Scratch projects to demonstrate our understand of producers, consumers and decomposers. We also discussed the impact of introduced and invasive species on the world environments.

This term, the Global Concept of identity has allowed us to delve into self-expression through visual art. These lessons have closely linked to our reading lessons. We’ve been developing our critical and creative thinking by examining how a group of artists like, Frida Kahlo, Pablo Picasso, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Vincent van Gogh and Wassily Kandinsky, used the elements of art to express themselves. We've experimented with different mediums to explore the art elements, created a beginning self-portrait, and aim to create another at the end of the unit to show our unique perspectives and artistic expressions.

Our Mathematics sessions have been dynamic and hands-on. We've focused on reinforcing division strategies, including reverse skip counting, repeated subtraction, equal grouping, arrays, number fact families and inverse operations, contracted (short) division and word problems to build our fluency and confidence when faced with division equations. We've also deepened our understanding of all four operations through an algebra unit, where we focused on understanding how to follow and create algorithms, identify emerging patterns and find unknown values in numerical equations. Additionally, we have developed our graphing and data interpretation skills though surveying activities. Most recently, we began exploring fractions, using our knowledge of division and algebra to find equivalent fractions. Our next step will be to count and represent fractions and mixed numerals on number lines and represent fractions as decimals.

To finish Term 2, we continued to focus on information reports during Writing lessons. This term we shifted focus to persuasive texts. The Opossums are learning what text are persuasive, for example advertisements, speeches, menus and more. We have enjoyed trying to explain our opinion about fun and controversial topics! As a cohort, we created a series of writing prompts and have been using templates to organise and expand our ideas, supporting our opinions with clear reasoning.

Our Reading program includes whole-class focus lessons and small-group guided reading. In our class sessions, we’ve explored author choices, starting with character development, moving into messages and themes, and will move to exploring author bias next. These lessons have helped deepen our understanding of identity, especially as we connect with characters and their experiences, and have linked this closely to our arts lessons. During guided reading, students work on individualised goals such as comprehension or decoding, targeting the skills they most need to develop.

The Opossums have shown such dedication and excitement for learning this term, and I’m truly proud of their efforts.

Celeste Tunnecliffe

What's Happening in the Ground breakers

Last term our class read the novel ‘The Barrumbi Kids’ by Leonie Norrington. ‘The Barrumbi Kids’ explores the friendship between two boys, Dale and Tomias, in a remote Australian Aboriginal community. The story delves into themes of friendship, cultural identity, and the challenges of growing up in a place where Aboriginal and white cultures intersect. The book incorporates some Mayali language, which is spoken primarily by the Bininj people in western Arnhem Land.

To demonstrate our thoughts, connections and reflections on the book we each created a poster to identify our learning of various topics. Here are some of our written examples. Please also enjoy the photo collection of our posters. We worked hard on making them appealing and added in illustrations that we had in our mind throughout reading the story.

• Three words to describe the book are: ADVENTUROUS, COMMUNITY and CULTURE. -Louisa

• Three words to describe the book are: FRIENDSHIP, CULTURE and MISCHEVIOUS. -Elva

• Chapter 14 ‘The Paperbark Raft’- this was my favourite chapter because it’s very intriguing and exciting. It was scary for a moment. I thought Lizzy was going to die. It was so descriptive I could see the scene in my head. - Max

• Chapter 6 ‘Circle of Fire’ - this chapter stood out to me because it shows how important the ceremonies are to First Nations culture and how strict they can be. It also showed me how close Tomias and Dale are, how they can listen and disagree without a fight. I could also see how much Tomias knows about the land. -Dora

• Different perspectives- if the book was told by one person there would be much less information. For example, we wouldn’t have known Jimmy and Gordon’s scheme until it had already happened. Having different perspectives is important when telling a story because it helps you comprehend the text. -Darda

• “This is our country” - this quote is important to the story because it goes back into the First Nations peoples’ history. They live there and the land is important to them. They are connected to the land. -Eden

• “That’s my nephew!” - this quote is important because it shows that Mavis’s sister is really proud of Tomias. She can overreact a little. She is happy that he won the essay competition because he’s never won a prize. -Lorenzo

• ‘They just don’t come in ones around here’- this quote is important because it shows the friendship in this story. No one is alone in Long Home Community. -Aarav

Emily Dziubinski

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Book Week

Children's Book Week 2025, themed "Book an Adventure!", will be held from August 16 to 23. This year also marks the 80th anniversary of Children's Book Week. 

The Weetangera Primary Book Parade will be held Friday August 22nd at 9:20am on the enclosed oval. Families are welcome to stay and enjoy the parade.

School Photos

School photos were sent home with students at the end of last term. There are extra photos available for students that participated in the following activities: School Leaders, House Captains, Year 5 Band, Year 6 Band.

For information on how to order these photos, please see the flyer below. 

Library News

Scholastic Book Club Issue 5 is out and all orders are due by 11/08/2025.

You can view the online catalogue at ISSUE PREVIEW | Scholastic Australia

Spare catalogues are available from the library or front office counter.

The term 3 catalogue from local bookseller The Book Cow in Kingston is available at: Calaméo - Term 3 Kids Book Club Schools

Spare catalogues are available from the library and front office counter.

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.

Parent Information - Anxiety Series

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be running an informative series in the school newsletters, written by Australian Child Psychologist, Michael Hawton.

Michael (a former teacher himself) has spoken with hundreds of school leaders nationwide through a range of workshops addressing child and teen anxiety.  Based on his close work in the education sector for many decades, Michael believes that far more parents are prematurely jumping in to fix a problem on their child’s behalf than was the case a generation ago.

Over the next six weeks, we’ll be exploring what anxiety looks like, what parents can do to alleviate anxious behaviours in children, and how ’jumping in’ to fix a perceived wrong-doing to a child may in fact be reducing a child’s ability to resolve problems independently. The articles will also include some tips and strategies for parents to address anxiety early.

We hope you enjoy the upcoming series and welcome any feedback you may have. Please see below the first two articles in this series. 

Christian Education in Schools

Christian Education in Schools (CEIS) will be visiting Weetangera Primary School this term on Monday 22nd September.

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.

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. 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. 

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:

• access the school calendar 
• notify the school when their child is sick or to explain an absence
  
• receive academic reports
• receive the school newsletter
  
• make payments
  
• 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.

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.

Communication at Weetangera

Community Notices