Wangi really is a BIG little school!
What another terrific Tea Time Concert we enjoyed last night. All our students were able to enjoy their moments of fame on the stage to entertain their family and friends. Thank you to Louise Pavey and to all our great staff who helped put together another night of performance opportunities for our kids. We really are a BIG little school!
Thank you to parents who have popped in to ask about multi-age classes and who have all remained so positive about our great school. I have included some information for parents and carers about multi-age classes further in this newsletter.
2009 will be a year of change but our professional and dedicated staff are very capable of meeting these changes as challenges. Mrs Lesley Chaseling will be on 12 months leave via the Deferred Salary Scheme for 2009. Ms Lauren Peter will teach 5/6. Ms Peter is a young, vibrant teacher with experience teaching senior grades across different states of Australia. She comes highly recommended and will bring with her a wealth of skills. Mrs Judy Lovell will be on Long Service Leave and may accept a transfer to another school later in 2009. Mrs Lovell has been an outstanding and extremely caring teacher at Wangi over many years and has volunteered to be our ‘nominated transfer’. Our five classes for 2009 will be optimum in size ensuring the very best attention is able to be given to catering for the individual needs of all our students.
More changes:
•Towards the end of this term we will be transferring the school Library back to its designated location in the large demountable. This should be a facility for all students to access and enjoy and be the heart of the school. The current library room will be converted to a classroom for 5/6 giving access to the computer lab.
•We are installing a second electronic whiteboard for use in class 2/3 for 2009. This has been funded using $3000 from fund raising events (thank you everyone) and $3000 from school funds. Staff will be undertaking training in use of these modern teaching devices. We are planning to run a parent information session too.
•Our staff are currently trialling an innovative maths learning program with an aim to improve our students understanding of mathematical concepts and their abilities to problem solve. It is an exciting approach to learning maths, and if we decide to take on this program in 2009 we will be asking parents to buy student journals to support it. I will confirm this before Christmas with prices so parents can put aside money to pay in the new school year.
Congratulation to Mikey and Kimberley in Year 4 who were both successful in their applications for the OC class. They have been offered a place in the class at Biraban PS in 2009. Well done!
I was very impressed with the Year 5 Buddies at Kinder Orientation – even though the new Kindy group was very small in number, they all shared responsibilities and met and greeted families in a friendly and positive manner – great work! I am confident this group will continue the traditions of excellence in student leadership that has gone before them.
We have a number of budding artists that William Dobell would be impressed with today – one of these is Isabelle in Year 5 who has painted an outstanding landscape of Wangi with the Power Station and the Workers Club set in against a background of interesting cloud formations with wonderful reflections in the lake. You can see it hanging in our school foyer! Stunning Aboriginal art work can now be seen as our new tiled wall is almost completed outside the toilet block. We will invite parents and carers to school for a special ‘opening ceremony’ assembly later this year.
Our school has been recognised for the good work we have been doing with our ‘Anti-Bullying’ programmes and we have been asked to write a ‘Best Practise” paper to share among all NSW DET schools. This is quite an honour! Thank you to the parents who gave us feedback this year so we could make our school even safer.
You will be aware of the tragic drowning in 2006 of a Year 2 student at another school. We are revisiting our Risk Management plans and making extension efforts to ensure the safety of ALL our students at the end of year Celebration Day. It is vital parents let us know the level of swimming ability on the notes to be returned to school. Please be aware that all non-swimmers and weak swimmers will be identified with a red wrist band and will only be allowed in the shallow end of the pool. Any student who has not had their parent/carer indicate their swimming ability will automatically be given a red wrist band and be restricted to the shallow end.