September 6th, 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
| SEPTEMBER | 2023 |
|---|---|
| Thursday 7th | ARTC Inland rail reference design sharing with community and feedback in the Church car park 2-30pm - 4pm |
| Friday 8th | Assumption College Cricket Gala - Consent Due |
| Friday 8th | Working Bee - 5/6E, 3/4N, 1/2E, FK |
| Monday 11th | R U Ok? PIZZA Day - Orders Close today at 9am |
| Monday 11th | STEM Quantum Victoria Excursion - 1/2S & 1/2L |
| Tuesday 12th | STEM Quantum Victoria Excursion - FL & FC |
| Tuesday 12th | Assumption College Cricket Gala - Selected Students only |
| Wednesday 13th | Whittlesea Show Sign up Expression of Interest Closes |
| Wednesday 13th | Wandong Gratitude Games #tabloidsportsday Consent & Payment Due |
| Wednesday 13th | STEM Quantum Victoria Excursion - FK & FI |
| Thursday 14th | R U Ok? Day - Yellow themed dress up day |
| Thursday 14th | ARE U OK? PIZZA Day - To order on Compass Canteen (Select this date) |
| Thursday 14th | Whittlesea Show Artwork needs to be in by today |
| Friday 15th | Wandong Gratitude Games #tabloidsportsday |
| Friday 15th | Last day Term 3 – 2:30 Dismissal |
| Saturday 16th – Friday 29th | School Holidays |
| OCTOBER | 2023 |
| Friday 13th | Grade 5/6 Surf Camp - Consent & Payment Due |
| Friday 13th | Grade 3/4 Camp – Consent & Payment Due |
| Friday 13th | Grade 1/2 Camp – Consent & Payment Due |
| Friday 13th | Foundation Day Camp – Consent & Payment Due |
| Sunday 15th | Dance Club/Choir - Selected students |
| Monday 30th | Grandparents Day (All day) |
| NOVEMBER | 2023 |
| Monday 6th | Curriculum Day - No Students |
| Tuesday 7th | Melbourne Cup Holiday - No Students |
| Wed 8th – Fri 10th | Grade 3/4 Camp |
| Mon 13th – Tues 14th | Grade 1/2 Camp |
| 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 |
| DECEMBER | 2023 |
| Monday 4th | Foundation 2024 Meet the Teacher |
| Tuesday 5th | Funfields End of Year Pool Party - Consent and Payment Due |
| Thursday 7th | Grade 6 Graduation - Consent and Payment due |
| Tuesday 12th | 2024 Foundation Transition Day - Teddy Bear Picnic at 9.15am |
| Thursday 14th | Grade 6 Graduation |
| Monday 18th | School Fete 3.30pm - 7pm |
| Tuesday 19th | Funfields - End of Year Pool Party |
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
IMPORTANT – Before School
Children should not enter the school grounds prior to 8.30am. We have a growing trend of students arriving earlier and earlier. Please ensure that your child is not arriving at school prior to 8.30am.
Curriculum Contributions – IMPORTANT (Chocolate – optional activities vs Vegetables – essential items)
Thank you to those families who prioritised this from last week’s plea. Please contact the office if you are unable to work out how to action this payment on Compass. We can also take payment over the phone or at our front office. We continue to be incredibly grateful to those families who are investing into our school and our programs through cash donations.
THANK YOU! We have some our families also contributing to our tax-deductible Facilities and Building Fund, as well as our Library and Technology Fund. These donations have allowed us to move away from a BYOD – Bring Your Own Device program, which requires families to purchase a device for their children to bring to school. We continue to work alongside families to ensure our Parent Payments are paid as priority and that where possible, voluntary contributions are made to support our vision around the educational value of providing an ICT rich learning program.
Next term our 2024 Parent Payments will go live on Compass and I urge our families to speak to our lovely office staff about finalising 2023 payments.
Curriculum Design
Each term, we organise for our teams to be released together to plan the following term’s learning for our students. Each team works with one of our Learning Specialists and together they all ensure engaging and rigorous learning is planned across the cohort. Our teams have a wide continuum of achievement in any one grade level and using our Essential Learnings, our teams develop personalised learning for each of our students. This week, our teams have or will be working together on one of these days to plan for the term ahead and our children will enjoy a day of specialist classes.
Gratitude Games Are Coming!
Gratitude is the best attitude! And that’s what we will be celebrating at Wandong’s Gratitude Games on Friday 15th Sept LAST DAY OF TERM.
We are excited to welcome back (it’s been over 8years!) the team from Educational Sports Carnivals who will be delivering their famous tabloid sports carnival. And what a better way to end the term!
Athletes will participate in a tabloid sports carnival program which moves them through a series of novel activity stations. They are divided into groups and emphasis is placed on everyone being actively involved.
Each tabloid station has equipment designed to stimulate a variety of skills including those common, modified and traditional sports. They encourage teamwork, good social skills and offer a positive experience for those athletes who consider themselves both ‘non-sporty’ and ‘sporty’ as the athletes challenge themselves.
We cannot wait to get our gratitude on and celebrate as a school. PLEASE ACTION THIS ON COMPASS ASAP! See you all there!
GRADE PLACEMENT FOR 2024
At this stage, we have not assigned teachers to grade levels for next year and, in fact; still need to select a few teachers to fill those roles. There are no guarantees that teachers currently teaching at certain grade levels will be teaching there next year, as leadership needs to take into consideration a range of factors including the differing experience of our teaching staff and teacher preferences before this allocation is completed.
The school always sets out to create classes that have:
- A balance of academic levels (children at, above and below the level)
- A balanced social and behavioural mix (children who will get on well together with as little interruption as possible)
As you can imagine the process of grade placement is extremely tricky and time consuming. What is in the best interests of the school and all our children and families is paramount.
Process:
- Children will be asked by their teachers to nominate children they would like to be with in 2024. During the process the teachers will ensure that every child is with at least one of these preferences.
- Classroom teachers will rank children according to ability and highlight behavioural/social concerns along with any relevant information they have gathered throughout the year. All this information will then be used to develop the 2024 classes.
- Specialists will check the lists for any anomalies and then the leadership team will then confirm grade placements.
- In the last weeks of term, children and their new teacher will visit their 2024 classroom. The children and new teacher will complete an activity in this session notifying parents of their new grade.
Parent Considerations:
- Obviously, the classroom teacher has the most information regarding individual children. As a first port of call, please speak to your child’s classroom teacher if you wish to discuss anything about your child’s placement.
- Occasionally, we may not be aware of special circumstances that need to be considered during the class selection process. Such special circumstances might include, but are not limited to; health, emotional or learning matters, peer or sibling relationships or changes in the home situation. Selecting a particular teacher does not fit within the realm of special circumstances. If parents want to provide extra personal information to be considered in the process you will need to email the school office. Letters should be addressed to “The Principal” and reach the office no later than September 22nd. Please note this is not about requesting or selecting your child’s teacher for next year. Please note that letters received after this date will NOT be accepted.
- This will exclude the friends the children will want to be with which has already been gathered by the teacher.
Finally, if you consider you have special circumstances, please make the request in writing EVEN if it has been made before – as much as we would like to think so, we can’t remember everything from years gone by! We do appreciate your trust in our professionalism in these regards. Once our grades are finalised there is no negotiation and no changes will be made unless there has been an error in our process. Changes, after we have finalised the complex task of allocating classes, is incredibly difficult. It is a complex process with many changing scenarios, and when a request is made after the fact, it requires more than one combination of students to be moved to accommodate it. This then creates a chess game of up to seven other moves. The hard truth about accommodating all requests is that helping one, comes often at the expense of someone else’s child.
WELLBEING
SEW in 34N
This week we looked at what it means to be resilient. We brainstormed a list of strategies and completed a task to match!
A MESSAGE FROM OUR 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.
Uniform Orders
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
ARE U OK? PIZZA DAY: Thursday 14th of September.
Large pizza slices $3.50
(Margherita, Hawaiian or BBQ Chicken)
Apple or Orange Juice Box $1.50
Order on COMPASS CANTEEN.
IMPORTANT: –
Select 14/9 and choose Pizza Day to order.
OUR SCHOOL FETE IS COMING!!!
Ways to get involved:
- Sponsor a stall (starts at $50 and you have your family name on the stall)
- Grab a business sponsorship package ranging from $250-$1000.
- 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
- Hold a market stall
- Have a special skill? We’d love to hear about it!
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