Issue 8 – 22nd March 2018

Friday 23rd March Years 3-6 Mindfulness Final Session Friday 23rd March Year 5 & 6 Interschool SportMonday 26th March NO ASSEMBLY Monday 26th March School Photo DayWednesday 28th March Breakfast ClubWednesday 28th March Year 3 and 4 Excursion to the Immigration MuseumWednesday 28th March Hot Cross Bun DeliveryThursday 29th March Last Day of Term 1 – COMMUNITY ASSEMBLY AT 2PM - Students finish at 2:30pmMonday 16th April First Day of Term 2Wednesday 18th April Breakfast ClubTuesday 24th April WPS Cross CountryWednesday 25th April ANZAC DayFriday 27th April Year 5 & 6 Interschool SportMonday 30th April Curriculum Day – No school for students Wednesday 2nd May Breakfast ClubFriday 4th May Year 5 & 6 Interschool SportTuesday 8th May Bridge Inn Cross Country

PRINCIPAL REPORT

Hello everyone,

School Councils play a key role in Victorian Government schools, and being a member of the School Council is a rewarding and challenging experience. Acting as a team, council supports the Principal to provide the best possible educational outcomes for students.

Last night the 2018 Whittlesea Primary School Council met for the first time. Throughout March, a thorough process was undertaken to fill vacant positions, each with a two year tenure. It is my pleasure to welcome Anna Larkan and Jennifer Bowlen to the council for the first time. Lyle Winter was appointed to another two year period and Samantha McCormick was the sole nomination for the vacant staff position. After the extended nomination period we received the required three parent nominations and hence were able to proceed without the need for an election.

The above mentioned appointments join our existing council members; Josh Parks, Maria Martin, Fiona Gallenti, Sharon Caddy, Verena Smith, Pam Studwick, Rae Gittos and myself.

At last night’s meeting, one of the first items on the agenda was to appoint a President and Vice President for 2018. I would like to thank Josh Parks for once again assuming the role of President and Maria Martin for accepting the responsibility of Vice President. Both these leaders have been dedicated to the success and growth of our school and I thank them and the other council members for embracing these key roles at our school.

An important reminder that school photos are next Monday. As the schedule must commence at 9:00am we have decided to shift our normal assembly to an alternate time. For this upcoming week only, assembly will be held on Thursday afternoon. As this is the final day of term, an assembly at 2:00pm will lead into our early dismissal time of 2:30pm. Please be aware – there will be no assembly on Monday morning due to the school photo schedule.

Until next week,

Ty HogginsPrincipal

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL REPORT

Hello everyone,

The penultimate week of this term has been a very busy one indeed! Last Friday, our school acknowledged the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence by celebrating ‘Friends Are Fabulous’ Day.

During the first hour of the day, we welcomed our families into our classrooms to share in the celebration. It was lovely to see the students filling one another’s buckets with compliments and words of kindness. Throughout the day, year levels paired up for shared learning experiences. I felt a real sense of pride as I walked into each learning space and observed the students living our school values and community expectations, in particular, helping others succeed. The gold coin donations raised $385 for Kids Helpline. Thank you to Miss Betty and our teachers for organising such an engaging day.

On Monday, the Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 students had a visit from Danielle and her pet dog, Spike for a presentation and discussion around responsible pet ownership. The Responsible Pet Ownership Primary School Program has been delivered to over 1 million Victorian primary school children and is a program delivered annually at our school. The program focuses on teaching children about dog safety and is always well received by our students.

Do you have a passion for raising funds for whole school improvement? We are looking for parents that are keen to volunteer to support our School Council in organising and running school fundraising events throughout the year. If you are interested in assisting throughout the year and are willing to commit to one meeting per month (prior to School Council) please contact the office and leave your contact details and I will be in touch early next term.

Finally, I look forward to seeing everyone on Monday for our annual school photo event.

Best wishes for a wonderful weekend with your family

Rae GittosAssistant principal

SCHOOL PHOTO DAY

Our school photo day is on Monday 26th March. Students must remember to bring their order envelopes to school with them on this day. Photos will start promptly at 9am so please make sure students are at school on time otherwise they may miss out on being in their class photo.

The payment options are online through MSP Photography’s website or cash. If you choose to pay cash please ensure that the correct amount of money is included in the envelope, unfortunately the school or the photographers cannot give change.

Sibling envelopes are available at the school office.

WPS SPORTS REPORTS

Last Friday our interschool sport teams played at home against St. Josephs. The boys cricket team had a comfortable victory, winning their match by over 100 runs due to some excellent bowling and fielding. The girls cricket team were competitive in their match, but in the end were defeated in what was a close game all the way.

Our Year 5/6 interschool soccer teams played really well and our training sessions helped us perform much better as a team. Our boys’ team won 1-0 and our girls finished in a 0-0 draw. We continually reflect on our previous games in order to improve our teams' strategies and tactics.

TECHNOLOGY INSIGHTS

Reading Eggs and Mathletics At Whittlesea Primary School a subscription for Reading Eggs and Mathletics is included in the booklist fee. These programs are used in the classroom and your child may use them at home with their individual login details.

Children learn best when they are having fun.

ABC Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress focus on helping students to develop literacy skills they need to succeed at school, in employment and life. These include:

Phonemic awareness – ability to hear, identify and manipulate the individual sounds in words.

Phonics – ability to link sounds to letters.

Vocabulary – building a bank of words that students automatically recognise.

Fluency – reading automatically, accurately, with appropriate tone and accounting for punctuation.

Comprehension – reading for meaning and making sense of the text.

One of the greatest benefits of both programs is the ability to allow students to have a one on one

learning environment, which means they can work at their own rate and ability level. The option is also available to redo levels if the student has encountered difficulties.

Mathletics, like Reading Eggs, allows students to work at their own level and rate, allowing the students to develop as they learn the many mathematical concepts available.

Mathletics as a resource offers over 1000 learning activities to assist students and develop them mathematically. Like Reading Eggs, an achievement system is built into the program that allows students to gain certificates when they have achieved certain levels.

The value with both programs to the school and teachers is the way the program tracks students’ achievements and understanding. Reading Eggs allows teachers to set assignments based on comprehension, spelling and library books. Mathletics has a test at the end of each unit, explaining whether the student has understood the mathematical concept involved, plus regular feedback on lessons completed.

Stuart Maxfield, Year 6

Star of the Week

Foundation BBell

Awarded to: Charlie DayFor: working hard to learn letters and sounds

Foundation PPerry

Awarded to: Riley AllshornFor: sitting in STAR position and participating in learning

Foundation SStarkey

Awarded to: Indiana WardFor: helping others succeed in the classroom

Year 1CCapito

Awarded to: Mya McClureFor: doing her personal best in reading 358 Oxford wordsAwarded to: Ruby BarkerFor: doing her personal best in reading 359 Oxford words

Year 1FFawcett

Awarded to: Violet ChiodoFor: always doing her best challenging herself in writing. Well done Violet!

Year 1MMcCormick

Awarded to: Toby ClarkFor: being an independent learner in the classroom. Well done Toby!

Year 1PPowell

Awarded to: Amelie PowellFor: doing her best by finishing her learning in the set time frame

Year 2TR Awarded to: Darcy McGrath

Reid/Betty For: stretching his brain when working on subtractionYear 2CCook

Awarded to: Tamsin EdwardsFor: showing resilience when tackling her tasks

Year 2LLayton

Awarded to: Indigo WrightFor: persisting with her writing and reminding herself about her goals

Year 3AWalsh

Awarded to: Marlee RiceFor: showing a huge improvement in her writing

Year 3J Walsh

Awarded to: Mia MooreFor: displaying persistence in writing. Keep up the great learning Mia!

Year 3O Overton

Awarded to: Sylvia HallamFor: achieving the success criteria in her persuasive writing task

Year 4KKaur

Awarded to: Ari SmythFor: doing his best during all learning tasks this termAwarded to: Mason O’KeefeFor: having a positive start at Whittlesea Primary School. Keep it up Mason!

Year 4LLeslie

Awarded to: Blake WebbFor: helping others succeed by being generous with his time in the classroom

Year 4VVitale

Awarded to: Noah FlenleyFor: doing his best learning with his persuasive text! Keep it up Noah

Year 5DY Dunstone/Yeo

Awarded to: Blake MorleyFor: his outstanding contribution to our class discussions and mindfulness

Year 5PPanahinejad

Awarded to: Dean LiddleFor: writing cohesive narrative texts

Year 6MMaxfield

Awarded to: Rhys LuscombeFor: showing excellence with his writing all week

Year 6SGoetzke

Awarded to: Daisy HobbsFor: helping others stay on track and being a helpful class member

SWPBS @ WPSSchool Wide Positive Behaviours at Whittlesea PS

As a SWPBS school we aim to improve student outcomes through a safe and inclusive learning environment. The premise of PBS is that continual teaching; modelling, recognising and rewarding positive student behaviour will reduce unnecessary discipline and promote a climate of greater productivity, safety and learning.

Our Behaviour Expectations Matrix clearly outlines the expected behaviours across the school within both the learning environments and common areas. These behaviours are in line with our school expectations. Staff use consistent language across the school and ensure that the expectations are modelled and pre taught to students.

This year, we have given out

1306Golden Tickets across the school.

Our School ValuesRespect Community Trust Personal Best

Our School Expectations Do Your Best

Respect Your School Help Others Succeed

Friends are Fabulous CelebrationWhat a fabulous day we all had last Friday. There were lots of family members visiting our school and taking part in the activities. Students created lovely friendship bracelets, wrote compliments to fill each other’s’ buckets, led their friends on a blindfold walk, created friendship chains and so much more.

Thank you to everybody for supporting our school event. We were able to raise just over $380 for the Kids Help Line.

SCHOOL BANKING NEWS

This week Joanne and Pat the Dog from the Commonwealth Bank dropped in to visit our students at assembly. Our student banking program runs every Tuesday, students can bring their bankbooks and money to school and hand them to their classroom teacher.

Thank you to all our parent volunteers who enable this service to run for the students of WPS, we appreciate the time you give.

BOOMERANG BAGS

"Boomerang Bags” Whittlesea is a group run by volunteers here in your community! We are looking for any unused fabric you may have lying around - sheets, doona covers, curtains or dressmaking materials. We are happy to take anything you have provided it is clean! We will then turn it into reusable bags, which you will soon be seeing in IGA for you to use when you go shopping!

WPS LUNCH TIME CLUBS

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday FridayBefore School

Breakfast ClubPeter(Gym)

Break 1

ICT Club Mrs Fordham (Library)

ICT Club Mrs Fordham (Library)

ICT Club Mrs Fordham (Library)

ICT Club Mrs Fordham (Library)

ICT Club Mrs Fordham (Library)

Wood Craft Peter/ Mr Maxfield(Intervention Room)

Sports ClubMr Leslie (Gym)

Drawing ClubPeter(Library)

Netball ClubMr Maxfield and Miss Perry(Gym)

Break 2

Knitting ClubMrs Gittos(Music room)

Crossover ClubMr Hough(Gym)

Board Games ClubMr Gordon(Library)

Lego ClubMrs Kaur(Library)Everyone welcome

Chill Out ClubMiss Betty(2T Classroom)

Music ClubMr Wright(Music Room)

SCHOOL CHAPLAIN REPORT

Taking Responsibility in Life This week I wish to share a poem that speaks to us all. Enjoy.

 “Autobiography in Five Short Chapters” by Portia Nelson [1920-2001] Chapter II walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.I fall in. I am lost ... I am helpless. It isn't my fault. It takes me forever to find a way out.

Chapter III walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again. I can't believe I am in the same place.But it isn't my fault. It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter IIII walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.I see it is there. I still fall in ... it's a habit. My eyes are open. I know where I am.It is my fault. I get out immediately.

Chapter IVI walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.

Chapter VI walk down another street.

We sometimes take a long time to learn from Life. We may have started off confident but find ourselves repeating our mistakes again and again before it sinks in about the need to make personal changes. I think this poem speaks into this recurring dilemma. We will do well when we find another path.

 

Peter Ackland - School Chaplain

COLES SPORTS FOR SCHOOLS

Please start collecting your vouchers from Coles and drop them into

the school office. The more vouchers we collect the more equipment we can

receive for our students!

MINDFULNESS

~Week 6~ Gratitude and Leadership ~ This week students finished their Life Skills Group program. In their final session they learnt about leadership and gratitude. Students were excited to recreate their favourite movement sequences, construct new ones and perform their sequences for the class to follow. Not only was recreating movements fun, but the exercise allowed students to take on a leadership role in the class and become accountable for their own learning.

Together, students revisited what they had learnt during the program and discussed which tools could be applied to their own lives. In particular, they focused on a range of breathing techniques. They recalled the feelings of calm, happy and relaxed after engaging in the various exercises and considered times when they could be used. Students suggested utilising the exercises anytime feelings of anxiousness or worry creep in, when a dispute with a friend or sibling arises or sleeplessness takes over.

Through collaborative team games students work with partners to put their positive self - talk into practice Parent/carer: Ask your child what they are grateful for each day. Family self-care tip: Start a gratitude jar.

2018 BOOKLIST FEES, EXCURSION LEVY & CSEF

The Booklist Levy this year is $230 and the first instalment of $55.00 was due on 28th February followed by payments due on 27th

April, 29th June and 31st August.

The excursion/incursion levy for 2018 is $80.00 per student. This levy can be paid in full or by two instalments of $40 each. The first instalment of $40 was due on 28th February 2018 and the second is due by 29th June 2018.

Please note that families who hold a current health care / pension card may be entitled to claim the Camp Sport & Excursion Fund (CSEF) payment, forms are available at the school office. If you applied and received the CSEF payment in 2017 you do not need to reapply this year, it will be automatically done for you.

CAR PARKING

The Church kindly lets our school families use their car park. Please reverse park, and keep to the actual car park area and do not park on any grass or lawn area. Driving beyond the front car park is not permitted.

Also, please do not use the disabled car park in the church car park or in the staff car park unless you have a disability permit, we do have parents that require the use of this space. Thank you.

COMMUNITY NEWS