November 15, 2023
'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
| NOVEMBER | 2023 |
|---|---|
| Wednesday 15th | Parent Event – Susan McLean – Cyber Cop, Keeping our Kids Safe Online. Please email or call the office to book in for this event |
| Friday 17th | Foundation Day Camp |
| Mon 20th – Wed 22nd | Grade 5/6 Surf Camp |
| Thursday 23rd | Professional Practice Day - No students required - If your child requires care, please book in at https://theircare.com.au/ |
| Friday 24th | Foundation 2024 Transition Day #2 - 9.10am - 10am |
| Monday 27th | Grade 56 Bike Ed. Say G'Day Trail Ride Consent due |
| Tuesday 28th | Scholastic Book Club closes today |
| Tuesday 28th | Grade 56 C Bike Ed. Say G'day Trail Ride 9am - 10am |
| Tuesday 28th | Grade 56 E Bike Ed. Say G'day Trail Ride 10am - 11am |
| Tuesday 28th | Grade 56 Y Bike Ed. Say G'day Trail Ride 2.30pm - 3.30pm |
| Wednesday 29th | Grade 56 H Bike Ed. Say G'day Trail Ride 10am - 11am |
| Wednesday 29th | Grade 56 W Bike Ed. Say G'day Trail Ride 12.30pm - 1.30pm |
| DECEMBER | 2023 |
| Friday 1st | Foundation 2024 Transition Day #3 - 9.10am - 10am |
| Monday 4th | Foundation 2024 Meet the Teacher - BBQ onsite at Wandong Primary School 5pm -6pm |
| Mon 4th - Fri 8th | Gratitude Week |
| Tuesday 5th | Funfields End of Year Pool Party - Consent and Payment Due |
| Thursday 7th | Grade 6 Graduation - Consent and Payment due |
| Friday 8th | Foundation 2024 Transition Day #4 - 9.10am - 10am |
| Tuesday 12th | Whole School Transition Morning - 9am - 10am |
| Tuesday 12th | 2024 Foundation Transition Day - Teddy Bear Picnic at 9.15am |
| Thursday 14th | Grade 6 Graduation |
| Friday 15th | Pizza in the Park - 200 Nights of Reading 12.30pm - 1.30pm Selected students only |
| Monday 18th | School Fete 3.30pm - 7pm |
| Tuesday 19th | Funfields - End of Year Pool Party |
| Wednesday 20th | Last Day of term - 1.30pm dismissal |
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
Office Hours in 2024 – Reminder
As we begin planning for 2024, please note that our office hours will be 8:30am – 3:55pm. It will continue to be important that all information is read and actioned on Compass.
Professional Practice Day – Student Free Reminder
Next Thursday all staff will be knee deep in moderating our students work – Moderation is the key to consistent teacher judgements.
Our teachers are currently assessing student learning growth and achievement to inform their Semester Two reports.
Those who don’t teach or know/live with a teacher, often wonder what teachers use their time for outside of ‘face-to-face’ teaching. We spend a great deal of time planning, preparing lessons, doing professional learning and currently, our teachers are working hard to ensure accurate and consistent judgment of student achievement for their end of year reports. All teachers are attending several ‘moderation’ sessions in their own teams and across level teams.
Student learning achievement is not always clear cut. Students may be strong at one skill, such as developing their writing ideas, but be a weaker speller and inconsistent at punctuating their writing. Another child may be a strong speller, but play it safe and use basic words, rather than experiment with interesting and engaging nouns, verbs and adjectives. Some students write pages and pages of writing without revisions or editing, making it hard to follow and another student may write much less but write high-quality, engaging sentences. Reaching agreement in what constitutes achievement at each progression point can be highly subjective. Moderation tries to ensure we are as consistent and accurate as possible in the assessment of student work against the expectations outlined in the Standards. This moderation work is also valuable in that it helps teachers deeply understand each child’s strengths and areas for growth, as well as more thoroughly understand the Victorian Curriculum.
If your child requires care on this day, please book in asap at https://theircare.com.au
Semester Two Reports will be made available to parents on Friday 15th December via Compass.
Susan McLean – CYBER COP, KEEPING OUR KIDS SAFE ONLINE
We are looking forward to learning more about how we can keep our children safe online at tonight’s session.
Online Safety Basics – REMINDER
We live in a world where children have and use devices daily. There is now a tremendous amount of research available on the effects of online addiction and this starts when children are very young. It is important to set parameters and rules around their use when at home. Often, as teachers, we confront issues at school which have spilled over from home when children are online. Some excellent advice from the safety commissioner
https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/skills-advice/online-safety-basics
Set some rules
- Set age-appropriate rules for devices and online access, with consequences for breaking them.
- Seek your child’s input — this will help them understand risks. As they get older you can review your rules.
- Consider creating a family online safety contractas a way to help you agree on the rules, and renegotiate it as required.
- The contract could cover the type of websites that can be visited, time spent online and acceptable online behaviour. This example from ThinkUKnow Australiacan be a good starting point.
- The consequences for breaking the rules should be clear and should mean something to your child. Raising Children Networkhas some useful tips and advice.
- Consider making some ‘rules for parents’ too — and stick to them! Model behaviour that you would like to see.
2024 Transition is Underway
I don’t know about you, but it seems I just turned around and Christmas is already upon us. I know some wonderfully organised people have already started purchasing their gifts… This is clearly not me… my shopping does not start until the few days prior to Christmas Eve. It seems the term is running way too fast for my liking… so many things to tick off the list and so much to do before we welcome the holiday season. Last week, we officially welcomed our Foundation 2024 students and to say that we were impressed with transition would be an understatement! It was truly a highlight to see the level of confidence our newest and youngest students showed as they walked independently to their rooms. Hearing how many of the letters and sounds our Launchpad Learners have learnt and retained was truly heart-warming 😊. I am looking forward to catching up with them again NEXT Friday when they return for their second session.
Classes for 2024
Over the past few weeks, we have been working on the classes for next year. Our total enrolment for 2024 will be approximately 500 students (it is currently approximately 464).
The structure for 2024 is as follows:
- Foundation x 4
- Level 1/2 x 7
- Level 3/4 x 5
- Level 5/6 x 5
It’s hay fever season!
Please remember if your child suffers from hay fever (itchy, sore eyes, sneezing, rash etc) please administer their antihistamine medication prior to coming to school in the morning. Unfortunately, many children are suffering from the effects of hay fever which is both concerning and distressing for our staff and students.
Camps
Well, we nailed it once again! It is this crazy time of the year when our students ALL head off to camp. What a wonderful opportunity our smallest to our biggest kids have in being able to access this every year of their schooling. I seriously pledge my absolute gratitude to our staff who go above and beyond and who constantly put their hand up to volunteer for these events, just to make it possible for our children. Some of our staff are going on more than one camp and are giving up their own family time to help other teams. As always, a massive shout out to Mr Fearn who works tirelessly to coordinate these events with our children at the heart of every decision. And… I don’t know how… but he backs up camp after camp and attends them all… a massive thank you to his family who support us and Fearn in this amazing gesture of kindness.
Payment of Curriculum Contributions
A huge thank you to everyone who has already made part or full payment for their child’s 2024 Curriculum Contributions. Please tick this off your list as soon as you are able. We continue to value your contributions in supporting our school’s programs and resources. These contributions assist us to broaden the educational experience for our students. Without your contributions some of these may not be possible.
Resilience Project
We’re so often bombarded with tragic or depressing news that we don’t often seek out stories of kindness and hope. These 127 stories about random acts of kindness from countries all over the world is worth sharing with our children. It might just make your day. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/interactives/the-good-kind/?id=10
WELLBEING
In Week 7’s SEW the 5/6 students have been focusing on a ‘challenge by choice’ mindset. We are teaching the students how to move beyond their ‘comfort zone’ and into their ‘stretch zone’. The ‘stretch zone’ is the optimal zone where the challenge is not too much and not too little. It is the best place to be in to learn and grow. The students have been learning how to support their friends to enter the ‘stretch zone’ through a range of role play scenarios. They have developed the understanding that everybody’s ‘stretch zone’ looks different and how to best support their peers so that they don’t enter the ‘panic zone’ and not want to attempt something. The intention of this lesson is to ready the students for camp in Week 8. There will be many times during camp where students are faced with challenges. We are looking forward to seeing all of our 5/6 students challenging themselves and having a blast at camp!
Miss Yarni, 5/6Y
A MESSAGE FROM THE SRC
Our SRC are partnering with volunteer organisation ‘Lids4Kids,’ to help rescue plastic bottle lids from landfill and recycle them to protect our environment for future generations to come. Lids4Kids partner with many other recycling plastic manufacturers to re-purpose lids into any sustainable recycled plastic projects to benefit the communities in which they were collected.
To be part of this wonderful initiative, please bring CLEAN milk, water or soft drink lids to school and place them in your classroom collection point. Alternatively, you can bring them to the Auslan room or 5/6W.
NOTICES
Office Hours
Please note that the school office hours are 8:30am until 4:15pm.
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 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 2.
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
Next Meeting: TBA
Primary discussion will be around fete and planning for 2024. If you’d like to help out please do come down! Everyone is welcome. We will be in the staffroom.
OUR SCHOOL FETE IS COMING!!!
- Volunteer your time to PAFA prior or on the day with setup and running of the event
- Help your classroom teacher run a stand
- Donate milo tins or some spooky stuff for the haunted tunnel
Need more info? Get in contact!
Steph 0408 039 935 or stephanie.domino@education.vic.gov.au
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 2023
