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Newsletter
Wangaratta District Specialist School
From the Principal’s Desk
Cont.
Date 28/03/’14 Ph. 5721 7424
[email protected]. Fax. 5721 8601
Dates to Remember
O.T. - Emma - 31st March Speech - Rachael - 2nd and 3rd Apri;l
Parent/Carer meeting - Tuesday 1st April at 2.00pm Last Day of Term 1 - 4th April, at 2.00pm
First Day Term 2 - Tuesday 22nd April School Photos - Wednesday 14th May
Welcome to the 2014 school Councillors: Council met on Tuesday evening and welcomed some new parents/carers
to the important role as well as welcoming back some experienced faces. As you know the school could not run
without the dedication of our Councillors who give up their time to make decisions on the running of the school. We
are a friendly bunch, and all ideas and opinions are always considered. President is Darryl Henwood, Vice President
– Noel Pearson, Secretary – Sharon Gambold, Parent Representatives are Jo Douglas, Mel Stone, Heather Naylor,
Ruth Crawford and Annalee Gardam. Staff Representatives are Sharon Gambold and Jodie Webb. Please contact
these parents/carers if you have anything that you wish to raise with the Councillors.
Rosa the new bus: Much to the delight of staff students and Rutherglen
families, a brand new 22 seater arrived last week. It is beautiful and we
are extremely lucky!! The new bus is given to us so that we can have a
self-managed bus run which will be used to transport students as far
away as Wahgunyah. It has arrived in the nick of time as the other Com-
muter was really not up to the job of travelling such distances, with no air
conditioning and many kilometres on the clock. It will still be used to
transport children to community access in the town. Now that our school
consists of 13 classes, buses are always heavily booked for student use. Kenny is about to head home on the new bus.
The Foundation students: (new name for Prep students beginning their schooling)
are trying out five school days a week, starting from last week. Up until then, most
schools ease the littlies into their exciting new lives by attending four out of the five
days, and having Wednesday as a rest day. It is very tiring for our youngest students,
some, who travel quite a way on school buses to arrive at school. It is also exhaust-
ing learning their new routines and learning how to play on the wonderful equip-
ment both in the Taminick classroom and in the yard. Despite the long travelling
time for some, all are making fabulous progress in their new class at their new
school, and all staff and their parents/carers are really proud of their efforts to date.
Cathy McGowan has posted a story on her website about the school and her visit here. Look at
cathy.mcgowan.com.au and follow the link to more stories – Wangaratta Schools Doing Great Work. There is a
Hansard report of her small speech in Parliament about her visit to our school.
From the Principal’s Desk cont...
Libby Hosking Principal
Principal’s awards:
Junior awards: Edwina Roper for Warm friendly greetings and good sense of humour
Brandon Alfieri for Keeping active at recess and lunch time
Senior Awards: Rhys Whitbourne for An outstanding writing piece on Danny McCaskil
Ben Henwood for Helping keep people safe in our yard
Uniform: With the change of weather it is noticeable that many students are keeping warm and/or wearing articles of
clothing which are not uniform. While I understand that it is important that children are warm, we have a school uni-
form and it is important that all students wear it, unless there are extenuating circumstances. Children can grow
quickly so if you have any uniform articles which are in good condition, and you no longer need, we have begun a
second hand uniform store. Please bag the uniforms and send them into the school with your name and we can either
sell the articles for you, or you can donate the items so that they can be given to other students. If it is too difficult for
you to buy uniform then we can support families through State School Relief funds.
New School Site: many of you would have seen the article in the Chronicle last Friday 23rd March. I hope that the
item didn’t alarm anyone. We are working towards a new school site but it will be some years away yet. Preliminary
talks are occurring with Wangaratta Rural Council and the DEECD. I will keep you informed.
Life Education Van has been at the school all this
week, with classes visiting to learn about their bod-
ies. It is a fabulous service and another way that your
fees support the programs which the students use.
End of Term: I wish all readers a safe and happy
holiday and look forward to seeing you all back on
Tuesday 22nd April.
What a great start we have made to this. Negative behaviours are at an all-time low while positive choice making is
similarly high.
We have revised our all-important Matrix for expected behaviours and our Junior School Council members have
played a terrific part in its formulation – well done to all of you!
Our end of term Goldie’s celebration will be held on the last day of term. The success of last year’s Talent Quest has
led the students to decide on the same format again.
You are invited to attend the WDSS Has Got Talent show on Friday, April 4 at 12.00.
Strap yourselves in for the joy and exceptional offerings of our students!!!
Positive Behaviour Support
From The Chaplain’s Desk
School Wide Positive Behaviour Support
Goldie Trading: Over the past two weeks 62 students have traded 1,195 Goldies and two additional students
(Hayden Riddell and Corey Davis) reached the 100 Goldies Milestone (receiving a wristband, a presentation at As-
sembly and inclusion on the Honor Board). This fortnight we thank Bob and Donna, Edgar’s Newsagency and Jack
for their donations to the Goldie Trading Centre.
Postcards were sent to two families to share the especially wonderful work being done by their children.
Annual Review
On Monday I had my Annual Chaplaincy Review, so hopefully this won’t be my last instalment of “From The
Chaplain’s Desk”!
Chaplaincy Regional Day
Much to the angst of many students (as there was no Goldie Trading!) I attended a Chaplaincy Regional Day in Al-
bury on Tuesday. These days are held once a term and are part of the training in which I am expected to participate.
Junior School Council
We had our second meeting for the year on Monday and it was wonderful to meet with this group of students and
listen to their ideas on ways we can further improve our great school. The students whose ideas were agreed to by
Junior School Council now get to speak to the staff member in charge of the area (and Libby) and work out whether/
how we can make these ideas happen. They will bring reports back to next month’s meeting.
Parent/Carer Club
Out next meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 1 in the Meeting Room at our school. It would be great if you could
attend, meet other parents/carers, share information and experiences and have input into the content/form of future
meetings. A reminder of this will have been placed in your child’s planner. Please return the form (if you have not
already done so) re your attendance here.
Class Programs
Sessions for the remainder of this term will continue to focus on Bullying/Cyberbullying for Warby & VCAL Clas-
ses and Recognising and Responding Appropriately to Feelings in other classes. Sessions also reinforce good choic-
es in the allocated area for that week ( with last week being Hallways and this week being Classrooms).
Thought For The Week
Several parents have requested a reprinting of “101 Ways To Praise Your Child”, but as this is a long document I
have decided to break it up into fortnightly instalments of :
10 Ways to Praise Your Child.
1. “Wow!” 2. “You’re Special!” 3. “Outstanding” 4. “Excellent!”
5. “Great!” 6.“Good!” 7. “Neat!” 8. “Well Done!” 9. “Remarkable!”
10. “I Knew You Could Do It!”
P.S. Remember, a smile is worth 1000 words! Have a Great Easter and First Term Break!
Rose
Together we will make good choices. Together we will make good choices.
Feathertop - Rosie, Jodie, and Ashley
Buffalo - Lisa, Robyn, Jill, Stella, Luke
Money: students have been busy counting money. We have
learnt about 10c and 5c, putting money in order, and things that
cost a lot of money and a little bit of money. Thanks to Carmel
for all your great ideas.
Animals: To get ready for next Term’s theme which is “The Ani-
mal Kingdom” we have had some animals in the classroom. A
guinea pig called BB and a praying mantis called Mantis. We
love them!
Welcome back to all off our Feathertop followers. During the past fortnight the students of Feathertop have been
busy working towards gaining their Safe food handling, Occupational Health and Safety and Barista certificates.
The students have been completing work books relating to each module within these certificates. It has been very
exciting to watch the students grow and mature within this course.
Last Wednesday a contingency of VCAL students competed in the Hume Region specialist schools swimming
sports held in Mooroopna near Shepparton. There were lots of ribbons won by our students in various activities in-
cluding 33m races to 20m across the pool team relays. A huge thankyou to our sports teacher Hop for organising the
day. Fun was had by all.
Last week students had a break from their normal Monday routine and enjoyed a day at 15 Mile Creek Camp. The
students are looking forward to a day of teamwork and physical activities to strengthen their bond as a group. Fol-
lowing a day out at 15 Mile Creek on Monday the students will venture to Chiltern to have a socialisation day with
the VCAL students from Belvoir Specialist School in Wodonga. Keep in touch for news and photos in the next
newsletter.
Together we will make good choices.
WDSS Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program
GROWING, HARVESTING, PREPARING AND SHARING
We are extremely close to finishing off an area for chickens, as
a part of the elective program on Tuesdays. The students have
recycled and scrounged for most of the materials, and come up
with ideas to house the chickens. I am looking forward to intro-
ducing to you 3 hens at the beginning of Term 2. We will have
to have a naming competition. Thanks to John for his great
building of the laying box.
In the garden we are seeing more variety in the veggies we har-
vest and an increase in the white cabbage moth caterpillars on
the brassica plants. I have introduced caterpillar crush to reduce
the damage done to crops. We have been harvesting cucum-
bers, tomatoes, beans, rocket, zucchini, radish, turnips, basil
and chives and sowing spring onions, broccoli, cauliflower,
kale, bok choy, brussel sprouts, beetroot, and artichokes. A big
thank you to Greg Fallon who brought in 2 full seedling trays
of vegetables, they have all been planted and we can’t wait to
harvest, cook and eat the produce.
Students have been clearing an area for a bigger and better compost system with 4 bays to really recycle our
garden and kitchen scraps, and enrich the soil with nutrients with little added cost.
Thank you to those who have filled out forms to volunteer. We will be in contact shortly.
DONATIONS PLEASE: This week we would love it if you could share some flowering plants from your gar-
den. Do you have any seedlings that have come up, or plants that need dividing? Flowers encourage bees, and
bees help to pollinate the flowers, and make seeds for next year’s crop.
Chocolate and Zucchini cake
Ingredients:
250 g Self Raising flour
60g cocoa
½ tsp salt
180g dark brown sugar
120g butter – room temperature
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp instant coffee
3 eggs
350g zucchini grated coarsely
Method:
1. Using the Kitchen Aid cream sugar and butter
2. Add vanilla, coffee and eggs mixing in eggs one at a
time
3. Add flour, cocoa, and salt, mix until just combined
4. Stir through zucchini with a spatula, being careful
not to overwork
Pour into a prepared tin (round or square ok –
greased and lined) and level the surface
Bake for 40 minutes on 180
Dust with icing sugar to serve.
Square cake can feed 16
Round cake can feed 12 – 16 (but wedges are getting
very thin)
Kosciusko - Kate and Sheydin
Together we will make good choices.
Wow, it’s nearly the end of Term One! One of the things we have been writing about in our Writer’s Notebook
was the Special Olympics to be held in October in Melbourne.
The boys are practising for the
Special Olympics in October.
They need to raise $2600.00. Jack
is talking to them.
–Shianne
Jack is talking to the boys in Mel-
bourne on Saturday 22/3/14. They
are having fun! It was cold for
them. They have to pay $2600,00
each to play. - Taylah Robbie is kicking the ball for the Special
Olympics in Melbourne in October.
- Josh
Stirling - Alysha and Sharon
Stirling students have been busy this fortnight counting money! We have been using 5c and
10c pieces to practice our 5 and 10 times tables. We are learning that 100c is the same as $1.
Many students have also been rewarded by all their good choices and have traded their 50
Goldies in for shopping vouchers. On our weekly community access visits those students
have been spending their Goldie shopping vouchers wisely – on pillow pets, remote control
cars, teddies and trading cards.
Students of the Week include Sam for
reading at home each night. Sam’s read-
ing has improved and he is becoming
more confident reading both his readers
and reading back his own writing. I
have included one of Sam’s writing
pieces in this article to share with you.
Keep up the good work Sam! Our sec-
ond Student of the Week is Mark. Mark
comes in every morning and after he
has unpacked his bag he goes about
completing his chore of the week. This
includes putting the chairs down, un-
packing the dishwasher, putting the date
on the board or handing out pencils to
the other students. You must be a big
help at home Mark! Brandon received our reading award for this term. Brandon
was given a $25.00 gift voucher for Collins book Shop for
reading a total of 34 books at home. Well done Brandon!! I
wonder who will win next Term’s voucher?
Mark enjoys playing
with the Tic Tac
Shapes.
Together we will make good choices.
Mt. Beauty - Lee and Lizz
Mount Pilot - Sarah and Fiona
The students of Mt. Pilot have discovered the joys of reading. A visit to the town library prompted all the stu-
dents to get a library card and they have not looked back since.
The pages are turning fast and furious with several students hitting major milestones.
Congratulations to the following students and their reading partners at home for all their fantastic work.
Brydie Kensington– 15 consecutive nights reading
Will J Simpson– 15 consecutive nights reading
Holly Heaney– 25 consecutive nights reading
Kaitlyn Cook– 30 consecutive nights reading
Zac King-Rooney– 30 consecutive nights reading
Aaron Mullins– 40 consecutive nights reading
Great
Job!
With Term One fast approaching its end, the Mount
Beauty Class has been a successful one. I personally
would like to thank all staff and parents for your active
input and participation into this class. Without your
ongoing support it would have not been as positive and
enjoyable as it has been.
Last week students took a journey to Beechworth and
showed me what the wonderful town had to offer. We
looked through a variety of shops (including the fa-
mous lolly shop) and I was amazed at how wonderfully
the students behaved themselves to the owners and
people in the community.
In Physical Education students have been using their
road safety skills practicing their bike riding. Three
students from Mount Beauty have been invited to join
the Great Alpine Bike Ride. Good Luck to those stu-
dents. From all the Staff in Mount Beauty I wish you
all a safe and happy holiday. Take Care.
Hotham - Sam and John
Together we will make good choices.
Buller—Allan, Suzanne, Mab and Peter
In the So safe Program our students have been busy learning the difference
between public and private. While in PBS, we have been learning all about
the different rules and things to be aware of in different locations around the
school and community.
In English students have continued to improve their writing with the use of
full stops and capital letters.
While in Maths, students have been learning about money, place value and
time.
Next Monday our students are lucky enough to go on an excursion to
Lake William Hovell. They will get the opportunity to have a fish, go
for a bush walk and ride the bikes and we will enjoy a BBQ for lunch.
It should be a really nice treat to reward all our Hotham students for
their hard work this term!
The Life Ed Van is at WDSS all this week and as usual all the stu-
dents have enjoyed their visit and have learned some very interesting
information to help keep our bodies safe and well.
Chocolate Cracklers
Everybody loves a chocolate crackle and the Buller kids are no excep-
tion. So, when we cooked up an industrial size batch of them last
week there was certainly no lack of willing consumers. Of course, the
only drawback was the industrial size stack of face-washers we need-
ed to use so everybody could go home with their dignity intact!
Kara-Lea has her own special table and chair so that she can play with the
toys she enjoys most and also have some games like table soccer with the
staff or any willing visitors. One of her favourite visitors is the ever
cheerful Kaitlyn. She always brings a smile with her and Kara-Lea just
can’t help smiling back
Together we will make good choices.
Students of the Fortnight
CLASS WEEK ENDING March 14 WEEK ENDING March 21st
Buffalo Noah Antonello for helping other students
and for good behaviour.
Reaver Guyomar, for being happy
and working hard.
Mt Beauty Jack Davies trying all new activities in the
class.
Matthew Cole for overcoming
personal challenges and becoming
a stronger person.
Bogong Jye has begun travelling on the bus. Will Dods has shown excellent
number recognition skills and
counting to 100.
Kosciusko Jesse for being helpful in cooking. Brodie for great math’s work.
Hotham Simone for being a fantastic help around
the classroom
Zach for fantastic attitude towards
work
Stirling Sam for reading each night at home. Mark for always remembering to
complete his classroom chores.
Buller Jason for enjoying singing. Emily for being brave when she
was sick.
Warby Travis Andrews for excellent behaviour
and full participation in the senior swim-
ming sports.
James Bryant for completing his
breakfast routine within the
timeframe.
Stanley Taylor H G for being a great help, doing
the shopping and handling the money for
the Stanley class.
Keenan Darcy for showing a great
work ethic when doing meals on
wheels.
Feathertop Lincon Mc Kibbin for obtaining a work
placement at Wangaratta Stock Foods
Emma for obtaining a work place-
ment at the North Eastern Hotel.
Taminick Matthew Bickerdike for doing a 24 piece
puzzle.
Matthew Alfieri for having a great
week.
Emu Vincent Gercovich for making good choic-
es.
Daniel Henwood for persevering
with his school work
Pilot Will Simpson for knowing and indentify-
ing vowels.
Brydie Kensington for mastering
the mountain and warrior poses in
Bluearth.
Sport James Bryant for giving his best efforts
during the swimming sports.
Millie Longfield for listening to instruc-
tions and enjoying participating in P.E.
activities
Tyreece Orton for always giving
his best efforts during Physical
Education.
Sarah Lord for persevering during
her bike riding session.
Please phone (03) 9269 0408 for an appointment or 1300 792 387 during business hours.
Date 15th April 2014
Time: Free half hour sessions between 9.00am and 4.00pm
Venue: Upper Murray Family Care 33 Mackay Street
WANGARATTA VIC 3677
Stanley - Donna, Jacqui and Simon
Together we will make good choices.
Taminick—Phillipa, Marley, Keetah and Chloe
We’ve had a very busy two weeks in Taminick! We
all really loved painting outside with Sue for Art last
week and we had a lot of fun going to the shops for our
first community access.
Happy 19th Birthday Chloe!
Painting
quickly
turned
into fin-
ger paint-
ing.
All tuckered out after a hard
week at school! Enjoying our new bucket from K-
mart.
There has been a lot happening in Stanley over the past two weeks. We have been very busy in the kitchen. Last
week we made a decadent Mars Bar Slice which was loved by all. This required lots of chopping, melting and stir-
ring and a lot of self-control too! We were all desperate to try that delicious tasty treat. This week we made a sa-
voury dish, a creamy pasta bake. There were many students asking for a second serve, it was a definite winner.
The students have also been enjoying their Art classes and have really liked seeing their work displayed around the
school. It looks fantastic.
Bogong - David and Kat
Together we will make good choices.
Mt. Emu - Leanne and Jack
We have been extremely busy for the past fort-
night. As well as many other things we have
been learning to recognise our classmates
names and several other sight words.
Suzanne has been helping us with our literacy
development.
During our Maths sessions we have been con-
centrating on learning to count and recog-
nise numbers all the way to 100. Will Dods
receives our Student of the Week award for
counting all the way to 100.
Emma, our O.T. has
given us much infor-
mation to help develop
practical programs for
each student.
Jye and Bridget share
our school’s new “pea
pod.” This is to allow
calming deep pressure
experiences for our stu-
dents.
This week we were thrilled to visit Harold
and the Life Ed van. We learnt much about
how to look after our bodies. Of course Har-
old was the star of the Show.
Jye was our other Student of the Week for
travelling on the school bus.
Last Thursday Mt. Emu visited Murrumbung Plains
Farm for a B.B.Q lunch. Murrumbung Plains is a
Community Access and Accommodation Support
Services. CAASS provides a range of programs that
offer people with disabilities the opportunity to par-
ticipate in either facility based community group pro-
grams or individually based programs. All the pro-
grams are structured and designed to meet the educa-
tional, vocational, recreational and therapeutic goals
of the client via the use of an individual plan. Jenny
and Darren the supervisors explains many examples
of the programs, which include, Independent Living
skills, Skills Development programs, Art and Craft.
Jenny gave us a tour of the farm, while Darren was
cooking lunch with the assistance of some of the cli-
ents. Murrumbung Plains farm offers a range of farm
activities and horticulture programs on the rural prop-
erty. All students were engaged with the operation of
the farm. The students all still talk about the farm
with a lot of amusement, especially about one of the
pigs whose name just happens to be Leanne. Oink
Oink!
Excellent Emu awards! Vincent Gercovich & Dan
Henwood.
Vincent has become aware of the importances of tak-
ing responsibility for his learning. Well done!
Dan has been persistent with his learning within the
classroom with some fantastic results. Excellent
Hop’s Sports Column
Sports Award
With our swimming sports now concluded many of our students have been training hard on our school bikes to
take part in the Great Alpine Bike Ride with students from other Specialist Schools all over Victoria.
We have students from Kosciusko, Mt. Emu, Mt.Beauty, Hotham and Warby participating in these rides along
the bike trail from Bethanga to Bright. This will be another great experience for all participants.
James Bryant—For giving his best efforts during the swimming sports.
Millie Longfield– For listening to instructions and enjoying participating in P.E.
activities.
Tyreece Orton-Always giving his best efforts during Physical Education
Sarah Lord –for persevering during her bike riding session.
Last Saturday Jack McNeilly and Kate Edgar drove Nathan
Campbell, Robbie Campbell and James Elkan to Mel-
bourne for Special Olympics Soccer Practice. After a great
training session Kevin Milstein from the Reagan Milstein
Foundation presented the team with a complete set of soc-
cer uniforms. Kevin, through the foundation, is assisting
with fund raising to help these boys achieve their dream
of getting to the Special Olympics Nationals that will be
held in Melbourne later this year. The boys are helping
raise funds themselves by washing staff members cars.
Students of the Week: Warby- James Bryant- For his punctuality and organisation in the mornings.
-Travis Andrews for his behaviour and participation at swimming sports
VCAL and Warby were lucky enough to have Leon Higgins, Wangaratta Police Youth Liaison Officer, visit last
week.
The Youth Resource Officer program is a framework that increases the capacity of police to deal with police and
youth issues; meeting the needs of modern policing and helping teenagers with issues that may affect them.
It also-
•Identifies youth issues in their area.
•Develops mentoring relationships between police and young people.
•Interacts with youths of all ages, races and socio-economic backgrounds.
•Establishes early intervention programs
Leon talked about a variety of youth issues concerning our senior students, and was kept busy answering the
many questions from the students.
Warby - Elise and Chris
Leon Higgins
with Feathertop
and Warby Stu-
dents.
Leon answer-
ing another
question.