Newsletter 3 – Waddington Primary School

From the Principal

Dear Waddington families,

As we reach the end of the first term it is a timely opportunity to reflect on the successes that we have already achieved. We have welcomed our Artist in Residence, Jodie Davidson, who has been working with our students. Together they have been experimenting with using natural materials from the school bushland to create dyes, and mark making lines, shading and drawing. It is a wonderful experience for our staff and students to learn new skills from an experienced artist. Our Student Leaders attended a conference last Monday at the Perth Convention Centre. I have heard that this was a fun packed day that was full of tips and ideas on how to define and improve ourselves as leaders.

The Friday afternoon STEM Robotics Club was a huge success. Mr Milner and Mr Greer were also busy on Mondays after school with the Table Tennis Club. It is amazing to see our students ready to take on these new challenges, and try new activities. Thank you to all parents and staff who supported us in this area. Our Year 3 and Year 5 students put in a great effort during NAPLAN. They certainly demonstrated the Waddington values of Persistence, Courage and Responsibility. I hope to be able to share the results with you at some point in Term 2. It is worth remembering that these results are only a snapshot of your child’s ability and that we assess students to inform our planning throughout the year.

This week we are holding an Easter Hat Parade on Thursday at 2.30pm. You are all welcome to come along and watch the students showcase their homemade creations. If you wish to guess the number of Easter eggs in the jar, or buy a raffle ticket to enter the Easter Raffle, there are only 3 days left. The raffle will be held on the afternoon of the Hat Parade. As the weather starts to turn cooler, please make sure your child has a school uniform jumper, or zipped school jacket to wear. We do not allow hoodies, or non- uniform jumpers. Uniform orders can be placed at the office, and can be collected following payment by bank transfer. Please come and see us if you have concerns around payment.

We will be celebrating connectedness and community on Thursday 18^th April. Families are invited to attend a Harmony Day Picnic at lunchtime, bringing a plate of food that is culturally significant to share with everyone. This was a huge success last year, and we look forward to even more families attending this year. More information to follow, please add the date to your calendar.

On a safety note. Please refrain from using the disabled parking bay when dropping off or collected children. This is not a general parking area and must only be used by those who are eligible to use it.

I wish you all a safe and happy holiday, and look forward to welcoming you back on Monday 15^th April.

Kind regards,

Katherine Chivers

Principal

From the Administration Team

Term 2 Planner

The term planner is updated regularly and below are some important dates to be aware of for the first few weeks of term 2.

Please refer to the Term Planner page under the ‘Community’ tab for the most up-to-date events for the term (but this may be subject to change so please check regularly).

Important Dates

15th April 2024 – Term 2 2024 commences – Students and Staff

17th April 2024 – Artist in Resident (all students)

24th April 2024 – ANZAC Day Assembly

25th March 2024 – Public Holiday – ANZAC Day

Scitech STEM Club

This term students from Years 4-6 had the opportunity to spend Friday afternoons in the library attending STEM Club. Students explored robotics and technology through imaginative hands-on projects. Last Friday was our last session. The students were very excited to have their families attend to see the creative programs they had designed. The robots were dancing, spinning, flashing lights and sending messages! It was amazing to see how much the children had achieved over the term. Thank you to our families for supporting your child’s attendance to this after school club.

Everyday counts!

Free internet for unconnected families with school-aged students

School Student Broadband Initiative provides free home internet for unconnected families with school-aged students until 31 December 2025.

The Australian Government School Student Broadband Initiative (SSBI) is offering free home internet for eligible families with school-aged students until 31 December 2025.

To be eligible, families must:

have no active broadband service
have a device capable of accessing the internet
live in premises where they can access a standard NBN service
have a child living at home who is enrolled in an Australian school.

The free broadband starts from the day the service is activated with a participating internet provider. Families will not be placed on a paid service by the internet provider at the end of the free service without consent.

For more information and a list of participating internet providers, visit NBN Co School Student Broadband Initiative or call 1800 626 269.

If you think you are eligible and want to self-nominate for the free broadband offer:

call the National Referral Centre on 1800 954 610 (Monday to Friday, 10 am to 6 pm Australian Eastern Daylight-saving Time)
visit the School Student Broadband Initiative website.

For technical support in more than 100 regional and remote communities throughout Western Australia, contact your local Community Resource Centre.

Breakfast Club – Thank you Woolworths Mirrabooka!

We would like to acknowledge with thanks Woolworths Mirrabooka for supporting our schools breakfast club, our students appreciate your support!

From the School Nurse

School Entry Health Assessment

All children in Western Australia are eligible for a School Entry Health Assessment when they are of school entry age. The School Entry Health Assessment is provided by the local School Health Nurse. It is an excellent opportunity to look at the health and development of your child at the beginning of school life.

The assessments are simple, non-invasive, quick and easy. They screen for problems which are best addressed, if picked up and treated early. The assessments include:

Vision
Hearing
Teeth
Growth (including weight, height and Body Mass Index).

Your child’s results will be sent home after their health check has been completed. Results are always treated confidentially.

Please note, if the assessment results for your child suggest there may be a concern, the School Health Nurse will contact you to discuss.

School Entry Health Assessment forms are currently being distributed for parents to complete. Please complete and sign the back page of the form before you return it.

Please return the form to the class teacher as soon as possible.

Kindy assessments start in February and will continue until December.

I look forward to working with you and your family. If you have a concerns about your child’s health, development or wellbeing please contact me on Melanie Arnison: Community Health Nurse Ph: 0439 061 628 Melanie.Arnison@health.wa.gov.au. My work days are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The Big Little People of Room 4!

How fast has this term gone? All the big little people in Room Four have learned the class expectations and have settled into all the class routines. Every morning, we swiftly come in, organise for the day and get straight into our morning activities! One of our favourite activities is playing speed reading with a partner. It’s crazy how a little timer can make everyone so competitive!

At the beginning of the term, we had some surprising visitors to our room. Our cameras caught some cheeky Gingerbread Men run past our room…never to be seen again! We tried to look for them everywhere around the school but there was not a single sighting. As we really wanted to meet them, we put our creative STEM hats on and created gingerbread men traps…complete with bait and everything! They weren’t the most successful, as we did not manage to catch any…so we did the next best thing and baked our own Gingerbread Men that we shared with the beautiful Waddington staff. For Talk for Writing, we innovated our own class story about the Gingerbread Ninja that you can read outside our classroom.

In Literacy we are developing our spelling and reading skills. We have really impressed Mrs Nguyen with our persistence and courage to write even though some of us have found it very tricky to do. We have been practising so hard and can’t wait to consolidate our skills further next term.

In HASS we have been learning all about ourselves and our family. We have loved learning about how different life use to be when our parents and grandparents were little and comparing what they use to do for fun with what we like to do for fun in the 21^st Century! We have changed so much from five years ago when we were a baby and look forward to seeing what we become in another five years’ time!

This semester in Maths we have been learning to count to 100 and skip count by tens! We have also started learning addition and some of us are so good at it, that we are onto our third booklet! We love playing Around the World to learn our Friends of 10 as a little bit of competition has kept us all on our feet.

We hope everyone has a happy and safe break and come back refreshed and ready to rock and roll! We have also painted some feathers for a surprise for Harmony Day…so please make sure to come by our class to see what it will be next term! Clue: It will be a great photo op!

Community Notices

Tennis Lessons Trial

Thank you very much to Waddington Primary School for allowing us to come into the school and provide some tennis coaching for the students during term 1. We had a great time and the children thoroughly enjoyed their tennis classes.

Our coaches were very impressed with both the enthusiasm and the behaviour of all students, the school and parents should be very proud of the children.

A Big Thank You must go to Mr Milner who ensured that the classes ran smoothly and made it an enjoyable experience for everyone.

On behalf of Tennis Australia, Hots Shots and Tennis Lessons Perth we have a special offer for all students of the school, A TRIAL GROUP LESSON & A FREE RACQUET!

Thank you and we look forward to visiting the school again soon.

We would like to offer all Waddington Primary School students a TRIAL TENNIS GROUP LESSON.

All students enrolling in a program after the trial will also receive a FREE TENNIS RACQUET Valid for term 2 & all of 2024!

Please call Peter on the numbers below for further information.

TENNIS LESSONS Programs include:

Junior Group Coaching (5-18 yrs old)
Squad Training
Junior Match Play (Competitions and Pennants)

Mobile: 0417 935 659 www.tennislessonsperth.com.au Email: peter@tennislessonsperth.com.au

Dianella Secondary College Opening Evening

If your child is in Year 4, 5 or 6, you are invited to attend the Dianella Secondary College Open Evening, happening Wednesday, 27 March 2024 from 3:30pm – 6:30pm.

The Dianella Secondary College Open Evening is a great opportunity to tour the award-winning school and its facilities as and get to know our staff.

Come and see the school’s interactive displays which showcase student work from a variety of learning areas, tour our state-of-the-art Hospitality Trade Training Centre, Mila Kaadadjiny STEM Centre, and our fantastic Performing Arts Centre.

Interested in STEM or Soccer? Then why not apply for our STEM or Soccer Academy.

Applications for 2025 close in Term 3 so get in early and apply now!

RSVP now via https://bit.ly/dscopen

For more information, please visit our Facebook page