Newsletter 7 – Waddington Primary School

From the Principal

Dear Waddington Families,

I would like to pass on a big thank you to the entire school community for making me feel very welcome in Ms Chivers’ absence. You have a beautiful school with amazing students who are all so respectful and friendly. The staff here at Waddington Primary are extremely hard working and committed to providing the best outcomes for your children. Ms Chivers will return on Monday the 5th August, and she is very excited to be back.

As always Term 3 is a very busy term. Please read the important dates listed in the newsletter. Some of the events include PEAC testing, school photos, book week, West oz Wildlife Incursion, Faction Athletics Carnival, Cross Country Student Council election, Wildcats incursions are all on this term. Plus, the P&C have a Father’s Day stall on the 28th and 30th of August.

NAPLAN reports went home last week to all year 3 and year 5 students who participated in the testing. If you have any questions regarding NAPLAN and the reports, please do not hesitate to come into school and ask.

I would also like to extend a warm welcome to two new teaching staff who have commenced with us this term. Mrs Liz Compton and Mrs Sarah Walker are the teachers in Room 4. We hope you are settling in well to life at Waddington Primary School.

Wishing you all our families a fantastic week.

Kind regards,

Mr Benjamin Ker

Acting Principal

From the Administration Team

Planning for 2025

A letter was sent home last week to Pre-Primary to Year 5 students asking families to notify the school if they are not returning to Waddington PS next year. This assists the school with planning for 2025. If your child(ren) will not be returning to Waddington, please hand the form into the front office. Thank you in advance.

Term 3 Planner

The term planner is updated regularly and below are some important dates to be aware of for 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

30th July 2024 – PEAC testing

30th July 2024 – Healthy Bodies (School Nurse) – Years 5 and 6

30th July 2024 – Wildcats visit – Room 8

2nd August 2024 – Wildcats visit – Room 8

6th August 2024 – Healthy Relationships (School Nurse) – Years 5 and 6

6th August 2024 – Wildcats visit – Room 8

8th August 2024 – West Oz Wildlife Incursion

9th August 2024 – Assembly – Room 1

9th August 2024 – Wildcats visit – Room 8

13th August 2024 – Wildcats visit – Room 8

14th August 2024 – Multicultural A/Tea – Staff Room

14th August 2024 – Super Hiro – Bullying Zero Incursion

16th August 2024 – Bullying NO WAY Day

16th August 2024 – Wildcats Inspire Game

School Photos – Save the date!

School Photo Day is coming up on Monday 26th August 2024. Individual Student envelopes will be sent out approximately 2 weeks prior. If you would like to order a new school uniform, please contact our front office or use the order form on our website. Individual class times will be distributed the week before photo day.

Packed with Goodness Free Parent Information Session

TheirCare – Before School Care Now OPEN

Family Afternoon Tea – 14th August 2024

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.

Everyday counts!

Perth Wildcats Inspire Program

Our Year 3/4 students have begun working with Keanu and Michael from the Perth Wildcats. The players have enthusiastically joined in class activities such as measuring height and perimeter and discussing healthy eating choices. The students have been very motivated to achieve their goals which has been fabulous to see.

On August 16th Keanu and Michael will be joined by other team mates to take on a student team for a game of basketball here at Waddington! The Wildcats will be bringing an MC, music and giveaways! All students from Waddington will be able to attend. More details will follow in the coming weeks.this program and look forward to welcoming the players to Waddington next term.

Breakfast Club – Thank you Woolworths Mirrabooka!

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

From the School Nurse

Bike Safety – Tips for Children

Riding a bike is great fun and good exercise for children and teens. Here are a few tips to keep your children safe while cycling:

Children should wear bright coloured clothing when riding.

Children under 10 should be supervised when riding a bike.

Children should be taught the rules of the road before they ride by themselves.

Riding in the driveway should not be encouraged. Children need to know that the driveway is dangerous. Teach them to stop at the end of the driveway, look, listen, and think about whether it is safe to cross the road.

Every child needs a helmet that fits correctly. Helmets should be worn at all times when riding. Parents should set a good example by wearing a helmet themselves.

Children’s bicycles should kept be in good condition and have the appropriate reflectors.

Ms Mel Arnson

School Nurse

Room 9 – Growing and changing before our eyes!

Time flies when you are having fun!

We cannot believe it is already Term 3 of the school year. Coming back from holidays we have noticed not only are we taller, but there is so many aspects of our learning journey we are proud of.

We have noticed all the hard work we put in paying off in many learning areas. We can easily pinch and roll playdough because of the new grip strength in our hands, which has helped with some of our sculptural works during visual art. The amazing control we have of our pencils means that we can now write our names independently. The way our letter formation has improved means we can write simple three letter words during Sounds Write. All the little things we practice may seem small but put them all together and we realise we are superstars at so many things!

As a class we are enjoying spending time together outdoors. There is so much to explore, and we always have questions about things we see. Our highlight is exploring the bushwalk. We enjoy playing there at lunchtimes on Wednesday, exploring and collecting interesting seed pods and leaves. Last Term we even recounted our adventure to the bushwalk as part of Talk for Writing. As a class we adventured across, using our senses to make observations as we went. We made a pretend campfire sat around and sang a song together. We spotted lots of birds and flowers with our magnifying glasses.

As part of Visual Art, we are exploring making things with natural and made objects through collage and print making. Collage has been our first focus, as we explore layering paper and material. We took inspiration from artworks others made, as well as some things in the natural world around us. Our first amazing product has been our first artwork, Snails! We textured paper ourselves and cut it up into small pieces to layer. We are amazed at how all this practice with cutting has improved our scissor skills.

In Science we are learning about the natural world, exploring what living things need to survive. We have made models of our pets using playdough. After that we drew what they might need to survive. Another activity was to observe living and non-living things in our playgrounds. We set out to use our looking eyes and listening ears to identify these – we spotted so many great things and drew them onto our class brainstorm.

In Health we are learning about Manners. We are learning that we use them to show respect and consideration for others. Our magic manners words are ‘please’, ‘may I’, ‘thank you’ ‘excuse me’ and ‘I’m sorry’ for when we make a mistake.

In Geography we are learning about place – interesting places and important places, places that are special to us, and how we can help to take care of places. We are so good at looking after our classroom that we are excited to see those skills transfer.