Weetangera Primary School Newsletter | Week 7, Term 3 2025

From Mel

Dear Weetangera Families

It’s been a rough winter this year, with lots of sickness and some really cold days (and nights!). But it has been nice to have a bit more light in the mornings and evenings, and the sight of all the beautiful wattle and daffodils around the place is telling me that spring is really here. Hooray! (I'm much more of a warm weather person). Floriade starts next week and there are only 3 weeks until the next holidays, where we can take some time to enjoy the warmer weather. 

But there are a few things still happen before then! Here’s what’s coming up:

WEEK 8:

• 9/9: Wear your animal onesie or pyjamas: RSPCA fundraiser
• 11/9: RUOK Day
• 11-12/9: Step into the Limelight Gala Showcase (Allison Barker, Jo Burns and I are all singing in the choir)

WEEK 9:

• 15/9: Year 5 band combined rehearsal
• 16/9: Year 5 and 6 bands – Floriade performance (see our amazing bands on stage between 11.10-11.40am)
• Global Concept Galleries of Learning
• 16/9: P&C meeting, 6pm in the school library. All welcome
• 19/9: PBL celebration day
• 19/9: 2026 Minister’s Student Congress (our school leaders attend)

WEEK 10:

• 24/9: Lapathon

The last day of term 3 is 26 September. Our staff return on 13 October, which is a pupil-free day. Students return on Tuesday 14 October.

Global Concept Galleries of Learning

We are looking forward to welcoming you to our Galleries of Learning in week 9. 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Mel

Melanie.Bezear@ed.act.edu.au

Safe Use of Technology

In 2025, we are surrounded by amazing technologies that provide a rich and amazing experience in many areas. In education, technology brings the world to us, giving us access to information, experiences and tools that we could have never imagined, even not too long ago when we were children. At WPS, we use technology for testing and assessment, for creating music, art, games and amazing multi-media products. We use it to help us read and write, to practise skills in many areas and to communicate in many different ways with many different people. We can see, in great detail, what the world looked like many years ago, and what it looks like now, in real time. This is exciting, and we certainly would not want that to change. The safe use of technology is important to us and we are very deliberate in the actions we take to embed safe technology use at school. Each year, our students participate in learning experiences around the safe and respectful use of technology, and government filters apply on both our network and our devices, to support students to used technology safely and appropriately.

Of course, technology presents its own challenges too, and the rate at which it develops, and changes can sometimes be overwhelming. It can be hard to keep up with what is safe, what is appropriate, and what to do if things go wrong. Our governments (federal and local) do their best to stay on top of these things, and that’s why we have things like the Personal Electronic Devices Policy and the Acceptable Use of ICT Policy. You will also have heard of the Federal Government’s new legislation around age restrictions for social media use. You can read more about this here.

All of this information can be difficult for families to negotiate. The Office of the eSafety Commissioner provides a wealth of information and resources that can help parents navigate the tricky subject of technology use with their children. A good place to start is on the eSafety Parent page: https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents. There are also regular parent webinars on a range of subjects.

ThinkUKnow is an organisation that deals specifically with the online exploitation of children, but it also includes some good resources for parents. You can access them here: https://www.thinkuknow.org.au/resources-tab/parents-and-carers.

Both organisations recommend that parents and teachers encourage open conversation with children about online interactions and the use of technology so that they will come to us when they are worried, rather than feeling embarrassed or scared of getting into trouble. So, even though your child may not be using social media now, it is a good conversation to have.

If you'd like to discuss any of this, please do not hesitate to get in touch. 

Mel 

What's Happening in the Crocodiles

Earlier this term, the Crocodile were very excited to celebrate 100 days of school! We had been looking forward to this day all year. Each morning, we select a student to complete the maths zone, an area dedicated to keeping a record of how many days we have been in Kindergarten. The students practise counting forwards, writing numbers, representing the number of days using tallies, and 10s frames and marking the day on our class calendar.

On our 100th day of Kindergarten, the Crocodiles brought in an item that answered the question, “What does 100 look like?” We had some students representing the numeral on clothing, using Lego, hats, pictures with 100 objects, 100 words and a few of us (including the teachers) even aged to 100 that day!

Throughout the day we participated in maths activities based around the number 100. These activities included building a tower using 100 cups or Duplo blocks, painting 100 dots on tens frames, making hats and threading necklaces using ten groups of 10.

We will continue to use the maths zone to keep track of how many days we have been in Kindergarten and celebrate this number on our very last day!

Michelle Robinson 

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What's Happening in the Tassie Devils

In week 2, we had our provocation for our new Global Concept, Identity, and we introduced the essential question, How do we remember the past?  We read the book called, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox. This is a story about a young boy named Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge who lives next door to a nursing home. When his favourite neighbour, 96-year-old Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper, loses her memory, Wilfrid asks the residents what a memory is—hearing answers like “something warm,” and “something from long ago,” He gathers meaningful items (a warm egg, a medal, a puppet, a football) to represent these ideas and shares them with Miss Nancy. With each gift, her memory returns.

We then asked the question, What is a memory? Some of our responses were

• - Something in the past
• - Something that you think about
• - Something that makes you cry
• - Something that makes you feel silly
• - Something as precious as gold
• - Something that helps you remember things
• - Something from long ago

We then followed up with another story, Memory Bottles by Beth Shoshan, which tells the story of a young boy who discovers Mr McAllistair’s shed full of beautifully coloured bottles. Each bottle, Mr McAllistair reveals, holds a treasured memory—moments like his father leaving on a frosty morning, his wife in a blue dress, a match-winning goal, and children playing by the sea.  At the end, he opens a bottle and declares he will preserve the memory of today, teaching that memories connect us to our past, present, and future selves.

This book prompted us to discuss some of our own memories and what kind of memories they were and how they made us feel. Next, we used our memories to create our own memory bottle artwork. Some of our favourite memories were:

My happy memory is…

• having a birthday party at my house and seeing my friends. Eddie
• when I went to the Snowy Mountains to play in the snow. Urva
• when I was playing football with my sister. Fenan
• I got Floofkins, my guinea pig. Cleo
• when I got Louie, my cat. Lara
• Christmas day because I get lots of presents. Liam
• making friends on the junior playground. Hudson
• last Christmas because we had Christmas pudding and cookies with my cousins. Harriet
• getting catapulted into the edge of the trampoline at home. Felix
• Christmas because it is fun. Ben
• going to Bambusa with my Nanny and Grandad. Sienna
• playing soccer with my Dad one afternoon. Eric
• going to the Snowy Mountains with my family. Daisy

It was really nice to share our happy memories with each other.

Megan Ferdinand 

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What's Happening in the Snow Leopards

My Country

I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains.

Of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea.

Her beauty and her terror –

The wide brown land for me.

Year Two has taken inspiration from the famous poem by Dorothea Mackellar, My Country and the accompanying book to create some art this week. We tuned into words such as terror, ragged, far horizons and wide brown land to create an art piece using chalk pastels that represented a line from the poem that we connected with the most.

Nevermoor

The Snow Leopards have been reading the first book in the Nevermoor series this term. It was quite a bit longer and more complex than our last novel, Polly and Buster but after a little while, we were hooked. We had to persist when some of the chapters were very long, but it was such a wild, wonderful and magical journey. We finished the novel this week and wrote some three-word recommendations for the book and completed some character profile artworks based on the main characters Morrigan Crow, Jupiter North and Hawthorne Swift.

It was puzzling, fun and exciting! – Vince

It was interesting, exciting and scary! – Bentley

It was intriguing, exciting and fun! – Olympia

It was thrilling, scary and exciting! – Juniper

Historical Diary Entries

Our history unit this term has been all about our identity, what makes us who we are and how our families, personal and cultural traditions shape our own identities. We have also been focusing on how children’s lives have changed over time. To demonstrate our learning we have been writing fact files about Australia’s First Children and diary entries from the perspective of a child in the 1860’s.

Dear Diary,

Today I woke up and had some breakfast. I had damper and tea with sugar. Mmmm! Delicious. Then I got dressed, I wore a nice long dress, shiny shoes and a bow in my hair. Then I went outside to play, I played Jacks, marbles, hopscotch and leapfrogs…

- Lilly

Dear Diary,

Today I woke up because of a magpie and I started doing work. I went outside to neaten up the hay bales and feed the goats then I caught some fish to eat. Once I was full, I made some sand drawings and played with wooden blocks…

- Harrison

Dear Diary,

Today I woke up hearing the sound of horses galloping. The first thing I do when I wake up is brush my teeth with a twig then I go outside and milk the goats. After I milk the goat, I give the milk to my mum and quickly make breakfast and ride to school on a horse…

- Kira

We Live in a Bus

During Book Week the Snow Leopards read and loved the book We Live in a Bus. To follow our interest in the book, we decided to create buses of our own that we’d like to live in. We designed our buses and then used our research skills to investigate locations around Australia that we would like to visit in our buses. Here are some of our buses and travel plans.

Teagan Lovett 

What's Happening in the Seals

The Year 3 Seals have been busy learners this term! In Mathematics, we have been exploring multiplication facts for 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10. Students have been practising both written and mental strategies to build confidence and fluency. Students have enjoyed applying these strategies when learning lots of different multiplication games.

In our Global Concept learning, our focus has been the history of Canberra. The students enjoyed an excursion to Blundells Cottage, where they learned about the families who once lived there. Back in the classroom, they worked in groups to create informative posters to share what they discovered.

In Writing, we have been learning how to write diary entries as historical recounts. Students have been placing themselves in the shoes of families living in the 1800s, as well as imagining the experiences of Indigenous Australians gathering bogong moths for feasts. This has helped them connect deeply with our history learning while developing their writing skills.

Jo Lawson & Jo Burns 

NSW School Futsal Championships

Last Thursday the Weetangera Year 5/6 Boys Futsal Team competed in the NSW School Futsal Championships in Windsor, Sydney. The competition was made up of twenty schools from Sydney and regional NSW as well as our team representing the ACT. The players acquitted themselves well against tough competition. Our team won their first game 2-0 against Rouse Hill to start the day well. The next two games were very tense, exciting battles where both schools could have taken the honours, unfortunately we came out on the wrong side of the ledger in both games, losing 2-1 and 3-2 to Central Coast Sports College and Norwest Christian College respectively. In the final game our team attacked with vigour but went down 3-1 in a valiant effort against St Spyridon College.

While our team didn’t qualify for the quarter finals, the effort and energy exhibited on court was exemplary. The players gained a great deal of experience playing against high-quality opposition and the experience will hold them in good stead for future tournaments such as this. The effort all players put into our training sessions was excellent and everyone showed commitment and dedication throughout. I was very proud of the team for their efforts in training and in the games, well done boys!

The team was made up of: Jack D, Henry K, Archer S, Jack G, Jensen I, Callum M, Lukas A, Shaan J and Ashton C. 

Thank you to the parents and carers for providing transport for the team and for your enthusiastic support!

Erwin McRae

Animal Onesie or Pyjama Day

Book Club

Issue 6 Book Club orders are due Friday 12 September

Parent Information - Anxiety Series

In our last newsletter, we presented part 1 and part 2 of a series of articles about anxiety in children, written by Australian Child Psychologist, Michael Hawton.

Parent Shop, which is the company featured in these courses, is a paid program. We do not specifically recommend this program, though we are grateful to be able to share this information with our community. If you'd like some more information about supporting your child with anxiety, please see these websites: 

Brave Anxiety Program - https://brave4you.psy.uq.edu.au/

Cool Kids Program https://www.mq.edu.au/research/research-centres-groups-and-facilities/centres/lifespan-health-and-wellbeing/emotional-health-clinic/treatment-programs-for-children-and-teens/cool-kids

Reach Out - https://au.reachout.com/mental-health-issues/anxiety/how-to-cope-if-youre-feeling-anxious-about-going-to-school

Headspace - https://headspace.org.au/explore-topics/for-young-people/anxiety/

P & C Update

The next P&C Meeting is 6 PM Tuesday September 16 in the school library. All welcome! For more information or to join the mailing list, contact weetangera.pc.secretary@gmail.com

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. 

Communication at Weetangera

Community Notices

Did you know?
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For more information, visit thesmithfamily.com.au/programs/financial/saver-plus