February 21st, 2024
'The Puggle Post'
OUR SCHOOL VISION:
"Wandong Primary School...Making a difference by developing confident, independent and resilient learners who strive for personal excellence."
What's on What's Due
| February | 2024 |
| Wednesday 21st | Alternate day - Meet the teacher 9am - 7pm - If your child requires care, please book in at https://theircare.com.au/ |
| Thursday 22nd | 2024 Mitchell District Swimming Championships Consent due - Selected students only |
| Friday 23rd | 2024 Mitchell District Swimming Championships - Selected Students only |
| Monday 26th | Foundation 2025 Touring Wandong - 6pm |
| Wednesday 28th | Smile Squad Dental Van Onsite - to Sunday 3rd March |
| March | 2024 |
| Monday 4th | Foundation - start full time |
| Tuesday 5th | School photo catch up day |
| Monday 11th | Labour Day Holiday - No students |
| Friday 15th | Casual Clothes Day - for an Easter themed donation |
| Monday 18th | Foundation 2025 Touring Wandong - 6pm |
| Tuesday 26th | Foundation 2025 Touring Wandong - 10am |
| Monday 25th | Working Bee - 1/2N, 3/4C & 5/6H 2.30pm - 3.30pm Parents welcome |
| Tuesday 26th | Easter Raffle Drawn |
| Tuesday 26th | Icy pole Day $1 each - cash taken in the morning & icy poles delivered at lunch time |
| Tuesday 26th | Purple Day - Epilepsy Awareness Day - More information to follow |
| Wednesday 27th | Curriculum Day - No Students – If your child requires care, please book in at https://theircare.com.au/ |
| Thursday 28th | End of Term 1 - 2.30pm dismissal |
| April | 2024 |
| Monday 15th | First Day Term 2 |
| Monday 15th | Foundation 2025 enrolment applications can be accepted |
| Thursday 25th | Anzac Day Holiday |
| May | 2024 |
| Friday 3rd | Walk-A-Thon Fundraiser |
| Wednesday 8th | Mother's Day Stall |
| Thursday 9th | Mother's Day Stall - Catch up day 1.30pm -2.30pm |
| Tuesday 14th | District Cross Country 9.30 - 2.30 pm - Selected Students only |
| Friday 17th | Working Bee - 1/2T, 3/4E & 3/4M 2.30pm - 3.30pm Parents welcome |
| June | 2024 |
| Wednesday 5th | Pizza Day - more information to follow |
| Monday 10th | Kings Birthday Holiday |
| Friday 14th | Working Bee - FM, 1/2M & 5/6F 2.30pm - 3.30pm Parents welcome |
| Friday 28th | Last Day Term 2 |
| July | 2024 |
| August | 2024 |
| Thursday 15th | Working Bee - FS, 1/2H & 5/6C 2.30pm - 3.30pm Parents welcome |
| Monday 19th | Launch Pad Program For Parents - Special evening for those with a submitted application 6pm - 7pm |
| Wednesday 28th | Father's Day Stall |
| Thursday 29th | Father's Day Stall - Catch up day |
| September | 2024 |
| Friday 13th | Working Bee - FA, 1/2G, 5/6E 2.30pm- 3.30pm Parents welcome |
| October | 2024 |
| November | 2024 |
| Friday 8th | Working Bee - FC, 1/2W & 5/6B 2.30pm- 3.30pm Parents welcome |
| December | 2024 |
| Tuesday 3rd | Whole School Colour Run Day @ L B Davern |
| Friday 6th | Working Bee - 1/2L, 3/4G & 3/4B 2.30pm- 3.30pm Parents welcome |
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
Child Safe Standard Two: Statement of Commitment to Child Safety
Wandong is committed to child safety and wellbeing of all children and young people. We want children to be safe, happy and empowered. We support and respect all children, as well as our staff and volunteers. We have zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns will be treated very seriously and consistently with our policies and procedures. We have legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are concerned about a child’s safety, which we follow rigorously.
- Wandong Primary School is committed to preventing child abuse and identifying risks early, and removing and reducing these risks.
- Wandong Primary School has robust human resources and recruitment practices for all staff and volunteers.
- Wandong Primary School is committed to training and educating our staff and volunteers on child abuse risks.
We are committed to the cultural safety of Aboriginal children, the cultural safety of children from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds, and to providing a safe environment for children with a disability. We have specific policies, procedures and training in place that support our leadership team, staff and volunteers to achieve these commitments.
If you believe a child is at immediate risk of abuse phone 000.
Attendance, Family Holidays, Principal Approval
Please find attached again the information regarding student absences. As we know, attendance directly correlates to student achievement and engagement in learning. It is important that students are not missing learning and we ask that family holidays are planned around the holiday periods. Together, we can achieve great things. We really need our little people at school.
Casual Care – School holidays, curriculum days and before/afterschool
Please book in with TheirCare by following this address. www.theircare.com.au
Wandong Vision and Values
As you walk around the school, visit classrooms and the office, you will notice that our School Values are quite prominent. Wandong prides our self on the fact that these values are not tokenistic but are ideals that are referred to and enforced. For your reference, I have included a copy of our poster.
Parents and carers, students and staff all share responsibility for ensuring that Wandong Primary School is a positive, respectful and safe school environment. Adults have a particular responsibility to be mindful of the way in which we conduct ourselves in and around the school, noting that we are the role-models that impressionable students look to. I want to express my sincere appreciation for the cooperation and effort put forth by the parents and carers of Wandong. Together we can all do great things and I look forward to seeing our family’s partner with us through home learning and parent helper opportunities.
Foundation
February is nearly over and next week is our last short week for Foundation. The following week is a big week for our smallest Wandong family members… they start full-time at school in March. I know that they are sure to be tired, so we encourage our little people to ensure that they are getting to bed nice and early. Thank you to our wonderful families for your continued support and help during our testing period and coming to your teacher appointments.
COMPASS PAYMENTS
Please note payments for school fees, events, and voluntary contributions can be found on the top of your homepage.
CAMPS, SPORTS AND EXCURSIONS FUND (CSEF)
The Government assisted Fund provides payments for eligible students to attend camps, sports, incursions and excursions ($150 per child). Applications for the Governments ‘CSEF Fund’ can be accessed by filling in the application form and returning it to the office with a copy of your current Health Care Card. Families holding a valid means-tested concession card or temporary foster parents are eligible to apply) i.e. a Centrelink Health Care Card or Pension Concession Card or Veteran Affairs Gold Card.
If you applied for the CSEF at your child’s school in 2023, you do not need to complete an application form in 2024 unless there has been a change in your family circumstances.
You only need to complete an application form if any of the following changes have occurred:
- new student enrolments; your child has started or changed schools in 2024 or you did not apply in 2023.
- changed family circumstances; such as a change of custody, change of name, concession card number, or new siblings commencing at the school in 2024.
- Funds are paid to the school and will be automatically allocated to the Extra-Curricular Items and Activities unless otherwise stated by the parent at the start of the year.
Intervention – Learning Support
Our Learning Support team (Jodie Hempel, Nicole Kanderovskis, Beth Smith and Kerrie Unwin), our amazing teachers and ES staff have been very rigorously assessing our students to ascertain the needs in Literacy and Numeracy learning across the school. I’m proud that we are running well ahead of schedule and have already begun our program this week.
Our collaborative approach to developing interventions and extensions will allow us to support every child in the classroom, not just those accessing our intervention program. Teachers will plan teaching and learning from an evidence base to differentiate learning to meet the needs of all students.
Our hope is that short and sharp interventions will allow our team to pick up a greater number of children. Our Learning Support team will provide targeted, specific skills and strategies for individual children and small groups.
Does your child require some organisational HELP?
Parents often come to ask about how to improve their child’s personal organisation and I believe that this is an essential achievement skill for children. Personal organisation refers to children’s ability to manage their time, their environment and their work tasks. A structured, orderly, uncluttered environment at home and at school makes it easier for children to be organised and in control.
HERE ARE SOME IDEAS TO HELP YOUR CHILDREN BE BETTER ORGANISED:
- Routines take the worry out of remembering. Homework routines, morning routines, even after-school unpacking routines help children to be organised. For instance, an after-school routine may include unpacking a schoolbag, handing school notices to a parent and eating a snack.
- Have regular homework time. Establish a regular homework time and help your child to stick to it. If no formal homework has been set then use this time for reading.
- Have morning round-up. Remind children of the day’s events each morning so they can plan accordingly.
- Use routines and structure. There are times when so much is going on in young people’s lives that they need structure and routine to help them get organised. Gentle reminders to pack lunches, take notices to school and even to dress appropriately can assist children when they are busy.
- Make use of a check list when it all seems too much. Place a list of routine morning activities by a child’s bed and insist that it be checked before he or she goes to school. Lists are one way to help children become better organised.
- Clear away the clutter. A regular clean-up of desks and work areas can help children regain control of their environment.
- Less is better. Encourage children and young people to bring home only the books that they will work on each night. Some children become overwhelmed when they have a bagful of books and they have difficulty knowing where to start.
- Use a diary to plan ahead. Encourage your child to place homework, social and school events in a diary.
DET ABSENCE APPROVAL
Common reason for absence | Parent approval required | School required to confirm reason is authentic | Reasonable excuse for parent | General advice for principals | Follow up required |
Illness or accident | Yes | No | Yes | N/A | No |
Medical/dental appointment | Yes | Yes Request certificate | Yes | Approve if appointment cannot be scheduled outside school hours. | No, unless absences become excessive |
Attending or observing a religious event or obligation | Yes | No | Yes | N/A | No |
Suspended | No | Yes | Yes | N/A | Yes (suspension guidelines) |
Bereavement such as a death of a family member, attendance at a funeral and/or related mourning activities (sorry business) | Yes | Yes | Requires principal to approve | Approve | Offer and provide support as required |
Truancy | No | Yes | Yes | N/A | Meetings, Attendance Improvement Plan |
School refusal | Yes | Yes | Requires principal to approve | Approve if parents and school are working on plan to address cause | Yes – meetings to identify and address the cause |
Family holiday | Yes | Yes | Requires principal to approve | Approve if parents notify in advance. School policy should be developed for long or frequent/ repeated holidays | Student Absence Learning Plans developed in conjunction with classroom teachers |
Required to comply with another law | Yes | No | Yes | N/A | No, unless absences become excessive. Offer and provide support as required |
Cultural observance | Yes | Yes | Requires principal to approve | Approve if parent notifies in advance | No |
Leisure (shopping, visiting relatives) | Yes | Yes | Requires principal to approve | Do not approve | No |
Unforeseen event | Yes | Yes | Yes | Approve if satisfied event was unforeseen and prevented attendance | No |
Unavoidable cause | Yes | Yes | Yes | Approve if satisfied event was unforeseen and prevented attendance | No |
Other – special event or participation in elite sporting events/training | Yes | Yes | Requires principal to approve | Case-by-case basis | No |
Exemption | No | No | Yes | N/A | Ensure any conditions of exemption are met. Monitor attendance at other provider |
Employment in the entertainment industry | Yes | Yes (through approving exemption) | Yes | N/A | Yes, to ensure conditions of exemption are complied with |
WELLBEING
Foundation M SEW insert
Foundation M have had a great start to their school journey. In our Social and Emotional Wellbeing lessons, we have been focusing on learning how to be at school which includes school rules, routines and values. This week, we learnt about our school value Kindness. We spoke about how we can be kind at school and made kind hearts. Some suggestions were ‘helping a friend,’ ‘sharing toys’ and ‘playing with others’. The class also made a pledge with our hands to follow school rules and values and spread kindness whenever we can.
Friday 16th – Young Leaders
On Friday our student leaders attended the Young Leaders Conference at the Melbourne Convention Centre. They certainly did Wandong proud in how they conducted themselves, from the train trip to the whole day of learning. We are excited to share their recounts from the day.
National Young Leaders Day Report By Deegan Fearn
Melissa Barbieri is a former Matildas Captain and goalkeeper, she has played 86 games over 13 years with the Matildas and is still playing for the Melbourne City in the Woman’s A League.
The key things that Melissa spoke about were putting in the hard work and determination, if you don’t put in the work to make your dream come true it won’t happen and if you want to become a leader it’s about what you’ve done before you get that leadership role not who you become after you get it.
When Melissa spoke about being a leader her story was about how she wanted to be captain of the Matildas. One day at training she went to ask the coach. “What do I have to do to become the captain?”
“Well, there nothing you can do you have to have already done it.”
Melissa’s story about hard work and determination was most likely the most important part of her life. Melissa got invited to a Matildas training camp. She jumped at the offer thinking she would make the team. The first day Melissa was very surprised with training twice in one day as at home she would barely train twice in one week. She didn’t make the team.
A couple years passed when it had come to the 2000 Olympics and she had recognized half the team, not because she had seen them at the camp but because she had played against them. Again she didn’t make the team. That was the moment she was determined to make it to the next Olympics. Melissa went to her coach and told him, “You are going to help me train for the Olympics.”
The Olympics came around again, and Melissa was ready, but she got injured. The Doctor said she couldn’t run any more, but Melissa was determined to make it to the Olympics, so she became a goalkeeper. Back to her coach she went, “Teach me to be a goalie.” He told Melissa, “I don’t know how to make a goalie” but still taught her everything he knew. The Olympics finally came around again, Melissa made the team as goalie, but the Matildas didn’t qualify. Then it was rinse and repeat in 2012 as they didn’t qualify again. 2016 came and so did Melissa and the Matildas to the Olympics. They had finally qualified and Melissa’s dream was true.
The key messages that Melissa taught us were that hard work and determination are everything, and that only you can make your dreams come true.
National Young Leaders Day Report By Hollie Tolevski
Bryson Klein speech
Bryson Klein had an inspiring speech including how he won ninja warrior. Bryson Klein taught us to never give up and to continue to follow our dreams no matter what. Bryson Klein trained very hard to fulfill his dreams. Ever since Bryson was a kid he wanted to be on the show. Bryson won first place for the USA team versus the world team. In my opinion, I think Bryson was very inspiring and not a quitter. These are my reasons why Bryson Klein is an amazing person.
Young Leaders Conference Piece
Anastasia Woolmer
Anastasia Woolmer is the first ever women memory champion. She’s not just a memory champion but also was on the gameshow Survivor, she was selected for the champions team.
Anastasia didn’t have this memory when she was young, in her early years she had quite bad memory. she was contently forgetting her studies in school, she would study and study all to forget it by the next morning. Maybe she was just stupid was something that would always bug her.
Anastasia was also an incredibly talented dancer being selected for the Australian dance school out of thousands of other dancers. Seeing at this school that there are a lot of dancers that are not naturally talented and just work ever so hard to become a dancer. This inspirited her to go to university and get a bachelor of economics, even though she was older than everyone else (after retiring from dancing at age 28).
Anastasia failed her first test at university. After that, for every hour of study she was recommended to do, she did four instead. This led to her completing her test and all of the other students came to her for advice, thinking she was really smart. To complete these tests, she used a special type of memory exercise. Anything she needed to remember, she would turn it into something creative so she could remember it. This led her to become the first ever Memory Champion, with a 2-time record.
NOTICES
Office Hours
New : Please note the school office hours are 8:30am until 3.55pm
Picking Up Children – Please help our admin team!
IMPORTANT – 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 – 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.
Reminder:
Hats must be worn throughout term one & term four outside. If your child has taken their hat home, please make sure it’s brought back to school.
Uniform Orders
****Please remember to order a bag for smaller orders & for larger orders select two.
If you order a bag, the order can be placed in your child’s or siblings’ tub for convenience. If not, you will need to supply a bag or make arrangements to collect your order.
COMPASS – CANTEEN UNIFORM ORDERING
When ordering uniforms through Compass, use Canteen. See below for how to order
Going paperless will reduce waste & conserve our natural resources.
Please Note:
Select the following day as your order date if the current date is closed, even if it’s a weekend!
Log into the Compass App.
Select more at bottom of screen.
Click on the Canteen button.
Select Place Order at bottom of screen.
Select Student.
Select Date. (Will have to select next date if current date is cut off)
Select sitting e.g. Uniform
Click on item you require e.g Short Sleeve Polo.
Select how many you want and then select the size.
Add to cart.
Repeat for other items e.g. Bomber Jacket.
View Cart
Proceed to Checkout or create another order.
PAFA
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC INFORMATION
Wandong Primary is pleased to offer instrumental lessons for students from Foundation to grade 6.
Thank you for your interest in the Instrumental Music Program at Wandong
Primary School.
Our program provides students with the opportunity to develop musicianship
skills, build confidence and collaborate with others to deliver performances.
Above all, we aim to foster peoples love of music, have fun and stay creative.
Please find below, the conditions of our program and Enrolment form.
| Fee Description 2023 | Term 1 (10 Weeks) | Term 2 (10 weeks) | Term 3 (10 weeks) | Term 4 (10 weeks) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual Lessons | $390 | $390 | $390 | $390 |
Please read carefully to ensure your child’s maximum involvement and development.
In order to continue and develop their skills, students are encouraged to
show evidence of regular practice. Below is a recommended guide for weekly
practice times:
Beginners: 15-20 minutes, 3 days a week
After one year: 30 minutes, 4 days a week
After two years: 40 minutes, 5-6 days a week
Payment Terms & Withdrawal from the Instrumental Music Program
1. An invoice will be sent at the beginning of each term and is to be paid,
in full, via Direct Deposit.
2. Fees must be paid by the due date. Failure to do so will result in lessons
being stooped until payment has been made.
3. Unless notified, the instrumental teacher assumes all students in the
program will automatically continue lessons each term. A verbal or written
notification to the instrumental teacher is required to withdraw students
from the program. Notice needs to be received 2 weeks prior to the end
of the term, to avoid incurring the next term’s fees.
AFTER SCHOOL CARE
About the program
TheirCare provides adventurous and stimulating Before & After School Care Programs in a safe environment for all children. During sessions children develop life skills, friendships, confidence and creativity through play.
Wandong Primary School has partnered with TheirCare to provide this service to your school which includes quality care, booking flexibility, amazing programming for your children and commitment to deliver on our promise to your school community.
| Operation Times | Fees* | Out of Pocket | Average^ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before School Care | 6:30am - 8:45am | $21.00 | $3.15 - $21.00 | $4.83 |
| After School Care | 3:30pm - 6:30pm | $23.00 | $3.45 - $23.00 | $5.29 |
| Pupil Free Day | 6:30am - 6.30pm | $103.00 | $15.45 - $103.00 | $23.69 |
| Holiday Program | 6:30am - 6.30pm | $103.00 | $15.45 - $103.00 | $23.69 |
| Late Booking Cancellation Fee | Within 48 hours | $5.00 | ||
| Cancellation Fee | Same Day | Full Fee | See BSC/ASC |
Service Phone Number: 0497 877 771 Your Service coordinator will be available during sessions times. TheirCare support is available during office hours if required on 1300 072 410
How to Enrol
Visit Theircare website: www.theircare.com.au and click on ‘Book Now’ in the top right hand corner to register your child’s details
*Standard fees excluding incursions/excursion costs
^Based on ABS published average family income for the suburb the school is located
WANDONG PRIMARY SCHOOL FETE SPONSORS
