December 15th 2022

'The Puggle Post'

OUR SCHOOL VISION:

"Wandong Primary School...Making a difference by developing confident, independent and resilient learners who strive for personal excellence."

PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

Final Reminder

On Friday, the whole school heads off for our annual end-of-year Pool Party! At this stage, we are missing a few payments and consents on compass. Please ensure you are up to date with your dashboard tasks.

Curriculum Contributions โ€“ payment due February 1

Please remember that the Curriculum Contributions should be paid as priority over any Optional Education Items, including camps and special events. The Curriculum Contributions are items that your child/ren take temporary or permanent possession of and amounts to less than $4 a week. This is less than a coffee once a week. Please ensure that this is paid promptly to ensure our program leaders are able to purchase the required resources for 2023. Thank you to everyone who have already paid this in full or has organised a payment plan.

Donโ€™t forget to return all library books and other reading material as soon as possible. Might be a good chance for children to clean up their rooms and look for missing books under their beds

Farewell Year Six Wandong Legends

While I have the chance, I would just like to say a few words before our Year Six leaders depart - Thank you to your parents and teachers for bringing you to this point. For being a role-model, for at times being a friend and other times making the hard call when our students couldnโ€™t. Thank you for being an encourager and at all times a teacher in all that we do.

Our students are growing up in times where friends are made and lost with the click of a button. Where celebrities and how people look seem more important than who we actually are. As our students leave Wandong, a beautiful safe haven where friendships have been forged, memories made and foundations laid, I would like to encourage you to ask yourself these questions: What do I believe? โ€“ and โ€“ Just who will I be?

Just who will YOU be? Will you be the person who worries about having the best clothes and the best shoes or will you be the person who has good values? Will you be the person who cares about others or will you be the person who just doesn't bother? This is your choice and it is never too late to be who you want to be. Ask yourself now and decide early. Our journey will be made much smoother and the difficult decisions we will face, made much easier if we know what we believe and who we want to be.

The last seven years have brought you all to this point and you have made incredible friendships; however, people come and people go, but that's just life. Your primary school journey has come to an end, but true friendship and bonds stay strong through change. Stay true to yourself and hold tight to those bonds that matter.

You were in Year Three when I came to Wandong and I still recall the morning conversations and after school stories. Your genuine interest when you asked, โ€œHow are you?โ€ High school may prove difficult or daunting at times, there may be bad days, hectic weeks, or even crazy long terms. You might even have good ones that you want to share with others. You know where I spend my days and I'd love to be the one you sometimes call on to share this with.

Now I just want to leave you all with that questionโ€ฆ.. Just who will you be??? It's your decision and yours alone.

Semester Two Reports

Remember that Student Reports will be loaded onto COMPASS on Friday.

Student Leaders 2023

It has been extremely positive to establish roles, responsibilities and leadership positions now in readiness for 2023. We have a well-defined process and description of each position. Obviously, every year we have many children who are obviously disappointed and this is all very natural. Some children strive year after year for these positions, but sadly donโ€™t end up being elected. Even as adults we know this is hard and itโ€™s important that as teachers, parents and carers we encourage the very important skill of resilience and persistence. I read an interesting article by Tim Elmore, titled โ€œThree Huge Mistakes We Make Leading Kidsโ€ Elmore concludes by saying โ€œSo let them fail, let them fall, and let them fight for what they really value. If we treat our kids as fragile, they will surely grow up to be fragile adults. We must prepare them for the world that awaits them. Our world needs resilient adults not fragile ones.โ€ - See more at: http://growingleaders.com/blog/3-mistakes-we-make-leading-kids/#sthash.6R2opR7f.dpuf

Last week, we had the absolute pleasure of being part of our 2023 student leadership selection process. Every single student took themselves out of their comfort zone and gave it their all. They persisted despite nerves and a whole lot of insecurities for some. This persistence is what makes a person. Someone who stands up to be counted and knows that they can be knocked down just as fast. Today I congratulate our most worthy 2023 leaders that were selected unanimously by their peers and teaching staff. What makes me prouder is the disposition, strength and tenacity shown by those who werenโ€™t successful on this occasion.

The process of selecting the student leaders and the important roles that they play throughout the year at Wandong are regarded as a very important part of our school culture. Congratulations must go not only to the students who were elected, but also to all students who nominated for these positions. We look forward to introducing our Peer Mediators and Student Representative Council in the first few weeks of 2023

Bring On 2023

On Tuesday, our students transitioned to their 2023 classrooms with their 2023 teacher and friends, some who might even be new friends. Please find attached our 2023 staff list and map.

Parking and Driving Safely

In recent days we have had parking inspectors surveying the area and fining motorists for parking illegally and driving unsafely. I have had neighbour complaints and photos of cars parked across nearby drive ways. I canโ€™t urge you enough to be respectful and safe when using roads around our school.

End of Term Four

We know that Monday will be a very quiet day and many of our staff will take the opportunity to move classrooms. It is unlikely that your child will be with the current classroom teacher and any children who do attend will simply be involved in tidying, cleaning and preparing our rooms for the holiday period. Tuesday the 20th, students who attend will be dismissed at 1:30pm. Please ensure you have declined this event on compass if your child will not be attending. This will ensure that we can plan appropriate supervision.

Principal Certificate of Excellence

Once again for Semester 2, when I finalise reports, all the children that have been awarded an โ€˜EXCELLENTโ€™ for behaviour and effort in every class, including specialists will have a certificate uploaded to Compass. Please make sure you check your childโ€™s dashboard, as there is no alert when I put a comment into the student chronicle.

Academic Excellence

Once again for Semester Two, when I finalise reports, all the children that have been awarded an โ€˜EXCELLENTโ€™ for behaviour and effort in every class, including specialists, will have a certificate uploaded to Compass. Please make sure you check your childโ€™s dashboard.

English Academic Excellence - Students who achieve predominantly excellent standards of achievement in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. Mathematics Academic Excellence- Students who achieve predominantly excellent standards of achievement in Number, Algebra, Measurement, Geometry, Statistics and Probability.

Recognising a studentโ€™s personal achievements for their ongoing and consistent high achievements over the year is of the upmost importance to our school. These will be announced in our final assembly and this certificate of achievement will be awarded to these students and uploaded to their Compass dashboard.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

On behalf of all the staff at the school, we would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We look forward to seeing you all again in 2023

WELLBEING

NOTICES

Office Hours

Please note that the school office hours are 8:30am until 4:15pm.

With the current inclement weather, we would like to request parents/guardians of all students to pack a full set of spare uniform items in their childโ€™s bag.

We have limited spare uniform at the office. If your child has recently needed to borrow items from our sick bay, please wash and return them to the office as soon as possible.

IMPORTANT โ€“ Mobile Phone/Watch/Device Policy

In 2020, DET introduced strict restrictions on the use of any device with access to a cellular system, with or without a physical connection to a network. Where students bring a device of this type to school, it MUST be placed in secure storage at the office.

IMPORTANT โ€“ Student Information

It is very important we have up-to-date information for all students. Please check Compass and update current home & email addresses, phone numbers & medical details.

Picking Up Children โ€“ Please help our admin tea

In exceptional circumstances and emergencies, at times children need to be collected from school early. Please help our wonderful administration team by ensuring that this is not done during the break times of 11:00-11:30am and 1:30-2:30pm. When children are outside playing with their friends, they do not hear the announcements and it is difficult to have a staff member unlock classrooms to collect bags and belongings. Please help support our classroom programs by waiting until 3:30pm to collect children. The admin area is growing quite hectic in the afternoons with families collecting children early Thank you in advance for your support and understanding.

PAFA

Many thanks to The PAFA Team

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