5th March 2009 Newsletter
Week 7
Mon 9th March BER-9.30 meeting
Week 8
Tues 17th March P&C AGM – please come along!
Wed 18th March School Photos
Week 9
Wed 25th March Interrelate (Stage 3)
Fri 27th March Newcastle Show Holiday Day – no school
Week 10
TBA Parent /Teacher Interviews
Week 11
Wed 8th April Interrelate (Stage 3)
Thurs 9th April Easter Hat Parade
5th March 2009
PRINCIPALS REPORT:
Congratulations to our student leaders who attended the Young Leaders Day in Sydney last week. Every year I am more and more impressed with Wangi students and the way they present themselves outside our school – wonderful ambassadors for Wangi PS!
Well done to all the students who received Swimming ribbons for the School & Zone carnivals. Congratulations to our Swimming Champions for 2009…
Senior Boy: Jai J
Senior Girl: Anika D
Junior Boy: Luke G
Junior Girl: Abby H
How great does our school look after the clean up day last Friday! A BIG thank you to the number of parents who came to school to help – especially weeding the gardens and removing the spiky branches fallen from the palm trees.
Most of you would be aware of the serious incident reported by the media related to a child at another school in Lake Macquarie. At Wangi School we have conducted some Stranger Danger scenarios with our students and are being extra vigilant with supervision. We are encouraging all students to use the toilets at break times (lunch & recess) and students must have a ‘buddy’ if going to the toilet in class time. The gates at the bus stop (Beach Rd) and near the Kinder room (Dobell Drive) are being closed during lesson times. We urge all parents and carers to talk with their children about Stranger Danger and ask you to also reinforce with your child/children using the school toilets at break times.
To celebrate Week 5 of school each class teacher presented 5 BONUS “You Can Do It” wrist bands to students in their class displaying these skills. Bravo to those students who received one of these wonderful awards to recognise your skill… keep trying everyone else, because that is how you get to win one of these! Try to collect the whole 5!
Further in this newsletter I have added information for new families regarding our “You Can Do It” program and some “Handy Hints” (again).
A separate information letter will be coming home soon for you with information relating to the Commonwealth Government’s Building the Education Revolution (BER) initiative.
REMINDERS:
- Stage 3 Interrelate money needed please.
- Parents /Carers are asked not to drive into the school grounds – please help us keep all our kids safe.
Principal’s Awards
Well done to:
Ella in Year 1 for “Persistence”;
Enola in Year 2 for “Confidence”;
Eaydn in Year 4 for “Getting Along”
and
Jake in Year 6 for “Confidence”.
Weekly Merit Awards
Congratulations to:
K/1: Carl, Sandhya, Samuel, Kiri & Georgie-Rose
1/2: Stuart, Josie, Grace & Jaden
2/3: Enola, Jacob, Amber, & Keigan
4/5: Amy, Joel, Eaydn & Destiny
5/6: Jake, Emily, Aden & Tiara
CLASS OF THE WEEK
Listening and Good Manners: 5/6
Extra effort for hats: 2/3
Tidy Bags: 1/2 (WOW! 2nd time in a row!!)
WOW Awards
Writer of the Week
Great work to these students for weeks 4 & 5.
K/1: Conor & Alicia
1/2: Grace & Justin
2/3: Gina & Nic
4/5: Brodie & Declan
5/6: Emily & Teagan
You Can Do It
BONUS 5 Awards
Skills: Organisation, Getting Along, Persistence, Confidence, Resilience.
Great efforts to:
K/1: Alicia for Persistence; Jonny for Getting Along, Kiri for Organisation, Sandhya for Confidence & Kellie for Resilience.
1/2: Grace for Organisation, Kobe for Persistence, Josie for Resilience, Liam for Confidence & Thomas for Getting Along.
2/3: Samantha for Organisation, Bridie for Getting Along, Vivienne for Resilience, Angus for Persistence & Luke for Confidence.
4/5: Amy for Getting Along, Jai for Organisation, Jacob for Confidence, Keeley for Persistence & Joel for Resilience.
5/6: Bree for Confidence, Emily for Organisation, Jake for Resilience, Toby for Getting Along & Teagan for Persistence.
I PLAYED CRICKET AT THE SCG!
On the 4th day of the Australia vs South Africa cricket test match at the SCG I played Milo cricket with my friend Aidan. We played in the lunchbreak of the cricket. There were over 300 kids playing in games around the ground! We played diamond cricket, with 4 sets of stumps in a diamond on the field. We had turns in batting and fielding. I hit 3 sixes over the fence into the crowd and the crowd cheered! I had lots and lots of fun!
by Joel Borrow (Class 2/3)
Kinder/ Yr 1
Kinder are now in reading groups and steaming ahead!
Year 1 are doing fantastic reading and writing. We are proud of both groups.
Kindergarten are slowly learning that “Body Contact” is not on.
Please reinforce this at home.
Year 1/ 2
I am so proud of the great stories year 1/ 2 have written about Iggy. They have enjoyed reading them to our class and some have read them at Assembly and well.
A super effort with Homework and home Reading from most children, please keep it up.
Year 2 have started bringing home a Maths book this week. They are to do ONE page only.
Year 1 will also start doing a page very soon.
Year 2/3
Homework reminder – spelling words need to be written out every night.
Thank you to Blake’s Grandmother for the wonderful donation of home readers. Much appreciated.
Thank you.
Year 4/5
Please ensure all notes for Year 5interrelate are signed and returned to school as soon as possible with correct money. This is a most important program.
Interrelate starts in (week 9) Wednesday 25th March and Wednesday 8th April (week 11).
Year 5/ 6
A quick reminder to all students that your projects are due on Monday.
This week is our last week of Cultural Identities in HSIE, next week we start our Science and Technology unit on Electricity.
Library
Borrowing has improved in most classes but no class had had 100% borrowing yet. The challenge in on!!
Premier’s Reading Challenge information is available and some children have received notes and reading logs. The orange permission note needs to be returned to Mrs Rayfield.
MENTORING PROGRAM is continuing this year with 6 students involved. Each student is allocated a mentor who spends 1 hour each week with them for 1 year assisting them with school work and other activities.
Thanks to the mentors for volunteering their time each week, this has been a very successful program for our school.
BAND
Band has started up again this year. If you would like your child to learn a musical instrument and become part of the School Band please see the Office ladies. Instruments available: Flutes, Clarinets, Trumpets and Tuba.
REMINDER:
Band starts each Friday at 8:45am sharp –please be there at 8:40am to set up.
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS – For those students in years 3-6 who are entering these competitions there is a website that offers you a range of practice questions.
Go to www.eaa.unsw.edu.au and follow the link to prepare.
SCHOOL PHOTOS
Envelopes have been sent out this week
Please return to the office
If you would like a family photo please collect a separate envelope from the office
CANTEEN VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
If you would like to volunteer for 1 day per month please contact Jodie Milligan on
0408866370 or if you are unable to attend on your rostered day please ring.
Helpful Hints
Reading
Be confident your child will learn to read and show them that you enjoy reading by having lots of different types of reading material around the home. Children value watching family members read and write each day. To encourage your child to read, you can share such activities as:
- Reading signs and posters
- Checking television guides
- Using a recipe
- Reading the newspaper aloud
- Playing word games including crosswords
- Reading magazines, comics, poems
- Reading labels on groceries when you go shopping
Listening to your child read each night is a good idea, but remember, reading is for fun. You can read a book, look at the cover and talk about what the book is about, ask questions about what has happened so far in the story and take turns when reading a harder book. Remember the three “P’s” for new words: pause, prompt and praise. Allow children to work out the word (pause), use clues from the context (prompt) and praise your child for trying. If necessary it is alright just to tell your child the word.
Next Newsletter hints will be on “Writing & Spelling”.
What is “You Can Do It”?
Each year we explain to parents our social skills program called “You Can Do It” so new families can gain an understanding of it. Here is a reprint of the information we sent out last year.
There are 5 Foundations we focus on called Getting Along, Organization, Persistence, Confidence & Resilience. This year we have introduce the coloured wrist bands as exciting keep sakes – their colours match the initial letter of each skill e.g. green for Getting Along, orange for Organization, purple for Persistence, red for Resilience & Confidence is ‘custard’ colour!
This week’s explanation is about “Getting Along”.
Getting Along means working well with teachers and classmates, resolving disagreements peacefully, following the rules of the classroom and making positive contributions to school, home and the community including protecting the rights of others and looking after the environment. Examples of Getting Along behaviour are being helpful when working in a group, listening and not interrupting when someone else is speaking, talking rather than fighting when someone acts unfairly, not breaking classroom rules, helping others in need, volunteering for worthy causes and cleaning up the environment.
Positive habits of the mind that help develop Getting Along behaviour in a young person include:
- Being Tolerant of Others: accepting that everyone acts unfairly towards others some of the time and not making overall judgements of people’s character (“good person”, “bad person”) based on their differences or behaviour.
- Thinking First: thinking that when someone treats me badly I need to think about different ways I can react, the consequences of each, and the impact of my actions on the person’s feelings.
- Playing by the Rules: thinking that by following important school and home rules, I will live in a better world where everyone’s rights are protected.
- Social Responsibility: thinking that its important to be caring, to try hard to do my best, to be fair to others, to make sure everyone has the freedom to say what they think and feel without fear, to be honest and tell the truth, to have integrity by making sure that I do what I say I am going to do, respect others and have nice manners, to act responsibly by making good choices, sorting out problems without fighting, caring about nature and other living things, and to be understanding and including others who are different.
Sun Safety
“Be Safe” is our number 1 school rule so…
REMEMBER, NO HAT – NO PLAY, NO SPORT, NO P.E!!!
NO THONGS AT ANY TIME – this includes DISCOS
COMMUNITY NOTICES
Kids Club
Meets every second Tuesday
at Wangi Uniting Church.
Children K – 6 welcome.
4pm – 6pm
Includes music, craft and dinner.
10th March, 23rd March and 7th April
Bev Hincks on 4975 5158
Or Nerida Rayfield on 4975 2312
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YMCA 49594444
Before School Care is 7am to 9am. Breakfast included then children taken to school.
After School Care 3pm to 6pm – Collect from school, afternoon tea provided
Gymnastics most afternoons.
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DRAMA CLASSES
Have fun! Build confidence, improve speech and communication skills. Use your imagination and explore acting, improvisation, mine, creative movement and public speaking. All ages
Contact Susan McBurney A.S.D;L.T.C.L
On 4975 1822
0412 092205
HSC Drama help for Individual projects also available
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Guides Australia
Toronto Girl guides are currently accepting enrolments for this year.
6yrs to 10 yrs Juniors meet on Tuesdays
10Yrs to 15yrs meet on Mondays
Both from 6pm to 7:30pm
More information please phone 49593151
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“NUTRITION SNIPPETS”
3) GO FOR 2 & 5®: HOW MUCH IS A “SERVE”?
Targets for fruit and vegetable consumption are referred to as “serves”. We need to know how much a serve is so we can work out how much we are already eating and if we need to eat more.
A “serve” of fruit or vegetables is as follows:
One serve of FRUIT is 150 grams of fresh fruit or:
One serve of VEGETABLES is 75 grams of vegetables or:
You will notice that a serve of vegetables is half the amount of a serve of fruit (75 grams instead of 150grams). In fact, 2 and a half cups of cooked vegetables every day will give an adult their recommended daily intake (5 serves of vegetables)! Knowing the correct serving size helps people to put the target of 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegetables into perspective.
It’s easy to get more vegetables in your day and Eat It To Beat It!
FAMILY INSIGHT PROGRAMME – VOLUNTEERS NEEDED.
Family InSight is currently recruiting new volunteers in the Westlakes area. The volunteers attend a 7 week one day per week training course to prepare them for their role as home visitors, visiting families with at least one child under 5 years of age who are experiencing stress in their parenting role. Family Insight is not a crisis service, but offers low key support. There are many families waiting to receive a service and be introduced to a home visitor in the Westlakes, however InSight does not have the volunteers to provide this at the moment.
The next Westlakes Volunteer Training Course commences on:
Thursday 19th March 2009 10am – 2.30pm for 7 weeks (except in school holidays)Nar-un-bah Fennell Bay Schools as Community Centre Bay Road Fennell Bay.