Newsletter 3

From the Principal

Dear Waddington families,

What an eventful Term 1! I wanted to express my gratitude to all of you for the immense support you have given the school this term. I appreciate all the amazing communication from each of you and your support in keeping students’ home when they are unwell and when they are isolating. Our staff here have done a wonderful job in keeping classes running and keeping students learning, even when they are away. We are very lucky to have some of the most committed and positive staff here at Waddington PS. 

Over the holidays, if your child needs to isolate or gets COVID, you do not need to inform us. I will be sending through a survey at the end of the holidays which will allow you to let us know. 

Now to some staffing news! Our capable EA Ms Bonnie Smith was successful in gaining the Library Officer position so we are very grateful to have her join the team in this permanent role. Ms Smith has transformed the library space and has been busy getting lots of new books for the students. Ms Mel Hoff will be taking Term 2 off from Science, and we have a new teacher, Mr Seyhann Corr who has joined us. He has been busy getting to know the students and taking on lots of great Science activities. 

We are updating our uniforms as the current styles have been discontinued by our supplier. We have a new jumper coming out, which is a lot cheaper than the current jacket. We have also had to change our polo shirt slighlty as they are no longer available. Once our current stock runs out, we will have a red polo shirt with white piping. There will no longer be a grey polo shirt and students will all wear the red shirt, no matter what their faction. A reminder also with the cooler weather approaching, we are not allowing students to wear hoodies. 

Our wonderful P&C will be announcing the winners of their Easter raffle and “guess how many” jar at the end of the week so make sure you get your tickets and guesses in! 

Over the holidays, we are hoping that the murals in our undercover area will be painted over to create a blank canvas for our artists Loretta Egan and Noleen Brockman. They will be working with the students to create a beautiful mural. 

I would like to wish you all a very happy and safe holiday break and I look forward to seeing you all in Term 2!

Kind regards,

Jemima Tomlinson 

Principal

From the Administration Office

Just a reminder that the last day for students for term 1 is Friday 8th April. Term 2 commences on Tuesday 26th April.

Important dates
Term 1 2022

4th April 2022 – Newsletter 3 published

8th April 2022 – P&C Easter raffle and “Guess the number of eggs” will be drawn

Term 2 2022

26th April 2022 – Term commences for staff and students

27th April 2022 – ANZAC service (Choir and Student leaders)

27th April 2022 – Footsteps Dance Company Lessons (Room’s 1, 4 and 5)

6th May 2022 – Global Roaming sessions (Room 5)

Term 2 2022 Planner

The planner for term 2 has been created. Please find a link below to the term planner page.

Term 2 2022 Parent Planner

Footsteps Dance Company – Term 2 2022

Next term starting in week 1 on Wednesday afternoons students in Rooms 1, 4 and 5 will be having dance lessons with Footsteps Dance Company. These lessons run for 10 weeks with the last lesson being a presentation for our families to come and watch. The school was very fortunate to gain a grant from Lotterywest and the Department of Local Government Sport and Cultural Industries to assist us in reducing the cost for our families to just $15 per student.

Payments for the lessons were due in Wednesday 30th March, thank you to those families who have already made their payments. For those families who have not paid, it would be appreciated if permission slips could be returned and payments be made by no later than Friday 8th April. If families would like to set up a payment plan, please drop into the front office to arrange.

Room 1 – Learning all about the sea and much more!

WOW, we can’t believe it is nearly the end of Term One! And what a fabulous term it has been. Room One students have worked so hard and have demonstrated such resilience during this challenging term. They just keep going!

We started the year with our mini-theme ‘All About Me’. It was so much fun getting to know our students. Then our special visitor ‘Mr Shark’ came to stay with us as part of our Sea Theme and is helping us explore all the mysteries of the sea. Students have written fabulous narratives based on our Talk For Writing story ‘Sayeeda the Pirate Princess’. They are now investigating life under the sea and sea creatures. Did you know sharks never sleep!! Students will have the opportunity to write their own informational text based on their own fictional sea creature. They have also been working hard in rotational literacy groups. It has been such a pleasure listening to students read, discussing different texts, playing literacy games and even creating their own puppet show.

In Numeracy Year Ones and Twos have been such keen participants in our new mental maths program that has been implemented this year. Year Two’s are becoming experts at completing the tasks on iPads and Year Ones have been working so hard, completing their tasks in their special mental maths books. In Number and Measurement activities students have been exploring concepts through hands-on activities in rotation groups. It is so pleasing to see how much they are learning!

Tuesday is Art Day and students love art. They have gone on a real art journey from drawings, to collages to creating art pieces in clay. The students are so proud of their creations. They are budding artists in the making!

And to end the term on a high…Room One will have the chance to bring a toy to school on the last day of this term. It will be a BIG Show and Tell day for all and fits in perfectly with our History topic: Toys Now and Then. During this term, students have been investigating and comparing living in the past compared to now. Did you know the first box of crayons to be produced was in 1903?

We have loved the way you have worked so hard this term Room One….You are all Little Shining Stars!!!

Highway Heroes

Resilience and Mood Management

This term in Highway Heroes we commencing a new module called Managing Me: Mood Management & Resilience. Resilience is part of being able to bounce back from adversity. A child can be very resilient when they lose a game of sport, but they might have a difficult time bouncing back from friendship issues or not doing well in the classroom. Resilience is made up of many factors and we need to watch out for areas where children are being resilient and create more of those moments. Telling your child when you notice them being resilient – and how they’re being resilient – is very important. Simple comments such as they really help:

  • “I noticed that you got a little upset today when you didn’t get the Merit Certificate at Assembly. It was very resilient to ‘High Five’ your friend who did get the Merit Certificate.”
  • “When you missed that goal at soccer practise today, you didn’t give up. That’s very resilient to have another go.”
  • “Even though Sam’s been excluding you at school this week, you’ve still managed to play with other kids. That shows resilience.
This excerpt has been taken from the book ‘Highway Heroes: Smart Life Skills 4 Kids’ written by Helen Davidson and Claire Orange, Best Programs 4 Kids.

A Big Thank You!

We would like to acknowledge and sincerely thank three wonderful organisations who have been providing support to our Waddington students and families this term.

Oz Harvest, Woolworths Mirrabooka and GraceLife Church Malaga have been providing weekly food donations of pantry items, fresh fruit and vegetables and baked goods. These donations help with supplies for our daily breakfast club and excess items are offered to our families who require assistance.

It is so wonderful to see organisations paying it forward and making such a difference to families in our school community, especially given it has been a very difficult start to the year.

THANK YOU!!

Community Notices

Emergency Relief – Support during COVID isolation

Roseworth Child and Parent Centre have made us aware of a very useful resource which families can access if they require support during isolation or are generally experiencing difficulties. Please see the flyer below with the details of the Emergency Relief and Food Access Service which is a free, accessible and phone-based service.

Roseworth Child and Parent Centre
School Holiday Programs – ONLINE ONLY

Roseworth will not be offering face to face programs these school holidays, however each day on Facebook they will be posting ideas and suggestions for activities that you can do at home.  Staff will still be at the Centre during the holidays so we welcome you dropping by or calling us on 9342 6363. 

Parenting Programs Term 2 2022

Below are some flyers for upcoming parenting programs commencing in Term 2 2022.

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Newsletter 2

From the Principal

Dear Parents/Carers,

I cannot believe we are in Week 7!

There have been a lot of changes coming through with the COVID policies from the Department and I want to say thank you to you all for your flexibility and support in reading the communications sent out. I appreciate how confusing it must be with all the changes, so please know that we are here to support you in any way we can. Just give us a call in the front office on 9462 9500 or come in and see us. The Department are wanting all students to be at school (unless they are a close family contact) so please ensure you are sending them to school. 

We are having some wonderful upgrades happen around the school at the moment. You may have noticed the carpets in the admin block have been replaced and this week the carpets in Rm 7, 8 and the P&C room are all being redone. These carpets are nearly 40 years old, so it will be a welcome improvement to our beautiful school. We are also going to be working with the artists who completed the murals in the undercover area to see if we can work on uplifting these. 

At the end of the week, we will be recognising Bullying NoWay! Day. At Waddington PS, we take bullying seriously. We have made some positive adjustments to our behaviour management policy at Waddington PS to ensure that bullying is dealt with effectively and in a timely manner. Our student leaders will be speaking to students about bullying and what they can do if they feel they are getting bullied. 

Just to let you know, we have an amazing NEW website with all of our information. Please check it out at www.waddingtonps.wa.edu.au You can let us know when your child is sick through the website and it has all of our current information. We have also been updating our school uniforms to order some cheaper alternatives. As such, we will have a new red zip up jumper available soon to purchase and a long sleeve polo shirt for winter. We will let you know when they arrive

Kind regards,

Jemima Tomlinson 

Principal

From the Administration Office

COVID-19 latest guidelines

Effective 10th March 2022 the WA Government announced new guidelines for very high caseload settings which changes the definitions for close contacts, the testing and isolation protocols for schools.

Below is an overview of how the new rules will impact your child(ren) when there is confirmed positive COVID-19 case in the classroom and/or at home.

If you have any questions regarding this please contact the office on 9462 9500.

Term 1 2022 Planner

The Term planner is updated regularly and below are some important dates to be aware of for the coming 3 weeks.

Please find a link to the updated Term 1 2022 planner below.

Term 1 2022 Parent Planner

Important Dates

16th March 2022 – School Board Meeting 10.30am (via Webex)

17th March 2022 – Bullying No Way! Day

18th March 2022 – Global Roaming – Room 5

21st March 2022 – Harmony Day

24th March 2022 – NAPLAN Practice test

30th March 2022 – Virtual Assembly – Merit Certificates only

1st April 2022 – Global Roaming – Room 5

Highway Heroes

The Triple B’s 4 Calming Down

This week, your child has learned how to calm down using The Triple B’s. Relaxing the Body will come as no surprise as being a necessary part of calming tight and bunched muscles. The Brain has been covered in our previous newsletter, explaining changing Stinkin Thinkin to Supa Thinkin. You might think that Breathing doesn’t need to be taught – being a natural and automatic action.

Breathing is probably the most vital part of the whole process. Rapid breathing signals to the brain that the body is experiencing stress – this could be physical stress of running or emotional stress. Rapid and shallow breathing as the result of emotional stress is part of a pattern of anxiety, anger and feeling down. Rapid and shallow breathing usually triggers the brain into a thinking pattern – usually Stinkin Thinkin – which then leads to the body tightening up, and the cycle begins.

Breathing needs to be taught as a specific method in order for children to use it to calm themselves down. Your child has learned about ‘Bubble Breathing’ as a method of bringing rapid and shallow breathing under control. This means a big breath in and then blowing out gently and evenly – just like blowing a bubble. Doing this 3 – 4 times sends more oxygen to the brain and the calming down process begins automatically. Your child will enjoy practising this skill with a container of detergent and a plastic wand; it’s a real technique to breathe out slowly without bursting the bubble.

The poster that follows would be very useful to display at home, copies are available at the front office. Encourage your child to practise the steps until they’re able to run through them quickly and easily. Remember, this is a skill that they will be able to use for the rest of their life.

This excerpt has been taken from the book ‘Highway Heroes: Smart Life Skills 4 Kids – Module 4 Strategies 4 Managing Me’ written byHelen Davidson and Claire Orange, Best Programs 4 Kids.

Community Notices

City of Stirling Junior Sports Coaching Programs

Stirling Leisure Centres Junior sports coaching programs are a term based program which gives the opportunity for children aged 5 – 15 years old to participate in a variety of sports, where they will learn general movement skills and the fundamentals of the chosen sport.

Basketball and Soccer programs are currently run at Stirling Leisure Centres – Herb Graham in Mirrabooka and Stirling Leisure Centres – Hamersley. Enrol your child today using the link below.

https://www.stirling.wa.gov.au/leisure-and-culture/leisure-centres/sports/junior-sports-coaching-programs

Any questions please feel free to contact our sports team on 9205 7323.

Balga Junior Football Club

Balga Junior Football Club are looking for players, please see the flyer below for details. Balga FC has been going for over 50 years and would love to continue being a part of the community but needs more players.

Better Health Program provided for free by WA Department of Health

Have you heard about Better Health Program yet?

It’s for kids aged 7-13 years old and their families! It runs for 10 weeks and teaches them to make healthy lifestyle changes together. It’s funded by Western Australia Department of Health, so it’s FREE for families. Registrations for our 2022 programs are now open!

The group-based program will be running at a local venue near you.

These sessions are for both kids and parents. They will learn about healthy eating, the kids will play game-based activities, and parents learn about positive parenting and behaviour change.

Families also receive FREE resources to support them to making healthy changes at home, like a water bottle, backpack, label reading tool, and a portion cup.

What if families can’t attend a group-based program?
The program is also delivered online! Families learn about healthy eating, keeping active, and forming healthy habits at home by doing interactive online sessions and weekly telehealth appointments with a qualified health professional. With access to the internet, it can be done anytime and anywhere.



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