West Lakes Shore School Newsletter

It's a wrap! And what a wonderful wrap up to Term 3 it has been. We have had some amazing opportunities for our students to participate in specialist areas and extra curricular activities. 

SD1, SD2 and SD5 have been undertaking an AFL program, whilst Mr Dixon delivered the Rock and Water social program to year 5 girls. Rock and Water is a targeted program designed to assist our older students with positive choices as they navigate friendship and social issues.

Our year 5 and 6 members of the Festival of Music school choir performed at the Festival Theatre, lead by Ms Wendy Banks. What a wonderful night of colour and sound it was!

Our SALA art exhibition was a great success with over 29 students exhibiting their artwork at the West Lakes Shopping Mall.

Year 6 camp was a wonderful end of Primary School celebratory event with lots of fabulous archery, horse riding, night walks and sheep herding events, to name a few!

With footy, soccer, swimming, netball and basketball seasons wrapping up, we have had lots of active sport fun.  Four students, Austin Hunt, Oscar Woods, Diar Sejdiu and Nicolas Bergineti represented ‘Westies’ in the Senior U12 Soccer team and won the Red League shield within the NWJSA.  Great job Westies! A huge thank you to all of our fabulous parent volunteers who run these programs; we couldn’t do it without you!

Our school disco, lead by Ms Jacqui Thomas and Senior Leaders, was a wonderful evening and students got to dance the night away!  

Sports Day was incredible, with our whole school community coming together to cheer on our Parndana, Minnipa, Morialta and Karatta teams, and have lots of fun! A big congratulations to the winning house team for 2022: Morialta! 💙

All of our staff are committed to providing a variety of extra-curricular opportunities for our children and it is great to see each child representing our school in such a positive manner.

Such activities take place because of the wonderful staff we have, who dedicate their time and effort to ensure your child/ren can have many diverse opportunities. We are so grateful to each of them and hope they have some well-earned rest time in the upcoming holidays, before another action-packed Term 4. 

STAFFING NEWS

We have been fortunate this year to convert 3 of our temporary contract staff into permanent ongoing teacher positions. We congratulate Ms Kayly Baulderstone, Ms Sarah Cumming and Ms Sophie Tye, and look forward to them all continuing to use their wealth of skills and knowledge to ensure each child learns and grows to the best of their ability. Congratulations Sarah, Kayly and Sophie! We know our families are extremely pleased with these wonderful staff joining our team.

PAT ASSESSMENTS and NAPLAN

Over the last few weeks students in years 2-6  have participated in two PAT assessments. The Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) are an online reading comprehension and maths assessment aligned to the Australian Curriculum. The tests are administered each year and provide teachers with information about the learning strengths and needs of their students. Teachers spend time analysing student achievement at the year, class and student level to help inform their teaching.

2022 NAPLAN student achievement reports (for year 3 and 5) were sent home to families yesterday. NAPLAN data is one part of a wealth of assessment information we have for your child. Please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher if you wish to discuss any of their outcomes.

NAPLAN Data at the whole-school level was analysed by all staff in our recent Pupil Free Day. Our data show many celebratory outcomes:

• High Band Achievement for both Year 3 and Year 5 writing exceeded expected targets. 98% of Year 3 students met expected standards (SEA) whilst 81% of Year 5 students achieved standard. 
  
• Year 3 data for Reading, Writing, Grammar and Punctuation and Spelling was the best on record! 
  

We wish all our families a wonderful holiday ahead and look forward to our whole school connected curriculum in Term 4, when we focus on: ‘Let’s make the world a better place’ as our whole-school inquiry. 

Enjoy the break. 

See you in Term 4.

Please let the front office know ASAP if your child will not be returning to West Lakes Shore School for the 2023 school year.

This then allows us to plan accordingly for class placements and to see if students on our wait list are able to be offered a position.

Please email - dl.1246.enrol@schools.sa.edu.au with your child's name, current year level and school they will be attending in 2023 as soon as possible.

Camp is always a highlight to senior students in primary school. I can understand why they feel that way, now that I have experienced the wonderful thing that camp is. This year was the first time for West Lakes Shore School where only year six’s went to camp. I believe that it was harder on the teachers because the younger you are the less mature you are and being mature in a social activity like camp is very important and looking around I don't think we even have the maturity of year two’s. But aside from some small diversions camp was exactly how it had been described to us. 

At the shed (main meeting point) we were told what groups we were in and they were mostly two dorms that had been split in half and put together. My group was group 4 and for our first activity we did archery! I was confused at the start on how to do archery but I soon learnt exactly how to do it. The staff member leading us for archery was called Troyden and he instructed us well and made it easy for people who were scared, shy, nervous or confused about archery. We were taught each step thoroughly and then were split into half a group and since there were fifteen people in my group we were split into a smaller group of seven and eight. I was in the second group for archery which I believe is a good thing just so that I could see how everything was done by the group before me and learn from their mistakes. Once it was my turn I chose the spot closest to the middle target and prepared to shoot. It was really fun and out of my three tries I got one target hit. I was the only one to hit any target, so yeah it boosted my self esteem. 

Our group's next activity was with the same instructor, Troyden and we were going on a bush walk. It wasn't very good weather for a bushwalk as it had been raining all day and now it was muddy all over the camp. For the bush walk we had to walk south of camp and go over hills, shrub land and creeks. We stopped every so often to talk about what we would do in different situations for example; What would you do if you were next to a creek dying of dehydration in the middle of nowhere? Would you keep walking not knowing if you would ever find water, or drink the water not knowing what germs and bacteria are in it?. Troyden said we should drink the water but first told us how to make a water filter if we were ever in a situation like that. Then after we were walking for a bit we reached a bit of land with a barbed wire gate all along it and we all stopped so that Troyden could teach us about electrical fences because we were about to walk into an area surrounded by electric fences and he wanted to keep us safe. We found our way through the fences and got to the top of a mountain where we could see the camp and also the closest town to camp called Strathalbyn. Then we walked back down to the dining hall at camp.

The next activity was egg-stronauts, which sounds very peculiar but is very simple in the fact that all we had to do was build a rocket ship out of  a plastic bottle and keep it to protect our eggs who were astronauts. Basically we were given a plastic bottle, cardboard, tape and we had to build and create a way to keep our egg safe when it was shot up into the air. My group made a very sturdy design and we accomplished making it physically. Then we went outside and we had to line up along one of the most southern dorms and watch to see which egg rocket would shoot the furthest and also which one would keep the egg the safest. My group's bottle went the furthest but the egg broke and another  group went the least furthest and their egg survived.

I really do understand why people say that camp is the highlight of the year because it was an amazing experience. Good luck to next years year 6’s. I hope your camp is as awesome as ours was.

In the end, Camp was an enjoyable experience, and it all started on Wednesday, the 14th of September. As we were all ready with all our bags and sleeping bags standing outside the school, the news came to us that the bus would be late in the end we had to wait 45 minutes or even longer in the rain. So when the bus finally came the fun began.

All the activities were fun, but one of my favourites happened on the first day right before dinner: the sheep herding. I was in group 3 with Riley F, Eleni, Ruby, Zara, and others. For the sheep herding, we changed into our raincoats and gumboots and started our walk to the sheep. We passed the pond and saw a rabbit while we were walking. The walk on its own was pretty fun. Once we got to the sheep, it was super exciting because one sheep, Luke was his name, came running to the gate as soon as he saw us. Since the Wirraway camp team raised Luke, he wasn't as shy as the others, and we were allowed to pet him. Herding was fun because we had to interact with the sheep, plan for all the challenges and then split up into groups to fulfil that plan. The sheep herding was fun, and I would love to do it again.

Sadly I did not get to experience the shelter building due to the sudden storm but we did get to play a fun game in the dining room because all the activities were cancelled except for horse riding for group 5. The good thing was that right after morning tea, we could all start with our next activity, which was archery for my group. We changed into our rain clothes and walked down where we were shooting the arrows. Once we were there the instructor separated us into two groups and told us how to use a bow and arrow. On the first try, only a few people got it across a little creek running through the grass between the shooting point and the targets we were supposed to hit. There also was a challenge with a yellow soft drink can balanced on a stick at the highest shooting point. If you could shoot the can you could get the can for lunch that day. Sadly no one in our team could hit the can, but some people had a few good tries. I wasn't as bad as I thought I would have been and almost hit two regular targets, but my arrow wasn't strong enough and bounced off at the last second. The shooting part was really fun, but getting the arrows was not because due to the little creek, there was almost no way to get to the other side with dry feet. Archery was an exciting experience!

Archery and sheep herding was fun but my favourite activity at this camp was the horse-riding I got to experience on the second day after morning tea. We went down to the staples and put on riding boots. Then we got asked how we felt about riding. They put us into two groups. One got to start riding, and the other went to a few different horses and brushed them. I was in the first group and we started with riding. After they paired us with a horse, we started learning how to control our horse. My horse's name was Hope. After we learned how to sit on a horse, accelerate and to stop properly. Time flew by so fast that the hour was already up but in the last 10 minutes, we got to trot, which is basically a jog for a horse. After the ride, we got to brush a few different horses, which I really enjoyed!

There were a lot of other fun activities we did on the camp like low robes, a bush walk and a night walk. In our free time, we could also pet Anchovy or Rosemarie, the two cute goats. The sheep herding, horse riding and archery were definitely my three favourite activities on camp. I can recommend the camp to every other student. I am glad I came!

I jumped out of the bus using as little energy as possible as my legs felt like they were going to fall off. I walked over to grab my 100 pound bag and carried it with all my energy. After placing our bags near the dorms we were called to go to the shed to have a meeting. The shed smelled like hay and had all of these games to play. We sat down and an instructor told us all about camp. After the presentation I was very excited about camp! After we ate our lunch, we had free time. I went to explore the shed to see what games we could play. Me and my friends started to play carpet ball and we played that for a long time and it was a lot of fun.

I looked over to see that the snack bar was finally open! I went to line up and the line was HUMUNGUS! After 5 minutes of waiting it finally was my turn to buy something and I bought the second to last lemonade in the fridge, a twirl and a double dip. After eating all my snacks they introduced us to horse riding and how to do it. After they showed us the horses we went to do our activities.

Our first activity was eggs-tronauts. How this worked is that we got a bottle, cardboard, an egg and tape. We had to make a rocket with an egg inside that would be launched into the air and the egg had to not crack. My group made a rocket with 2 wings and a little container at the top of the rocket holding the egg with ripped cardboard to support it. The staff member filled all the bottles up with water and we walked over to the launcher. All of the other bottles had been launched and it was our turn. Ours got launched in the air and did a bottle flip and LANDED! We went to go check on all of our bottles and everyone else's cracked and ours SURVIVED!!! We celebrated and it was time for our next activity.

Our next activity was the AMAZING RACE, this was a race and we had the same group as last activity. We all got a sheet with a clipboard, pen and a sheet. Then the race had BEGUN! We started the race and at the start we didn't get many answers but then we figured them out and we won. This activity was my 3rd to last favourite activity.

Our next activity that we did was sheep herding. For this one we had to walk for 5 minutes to get to sheep herding. We finally got there and we had to move all of the sheep into a cage. This was sooooo much fun because we would run downhill and try to corner the sheep to get them to a cage. After we did the first level we had to work as a team and think of a plan and let's just say, it didn't go so well. After we closed a gate on a sheep's head we had to think of another plan. We thought of another plan, and it worked. After we finished sheep herding we walked back to camp.

The next day our first activity was low ropes. Low ropes was an obstacle course with ropes and tires. We were put into groups and it was a race to see what group was faster. Our group won in low ropes by 30 seconds! This was my 4th favourite activity.

 Our next activity was HORSE RIDING!! We first had to pat the horses. We got brushes to brush the horses. I brushed his hair and his tail. As soon as I picked up the tail my horse FARTED!! Then we started riding the horses. My horses name was Turnip and he was AMAZING!!! We had to ride around the course and we learned how to turn a horse and stop the horses. This was my 2nd favourite activity.  

Another activity we did was archery. We all got a bow and 3 arrows and had to hit a target from far away. When I was going to get an arrow that I shot, I slipped in a puddle and got all wet. I hit 3 targets archery and it was my 3rd favourite activity.

Camp was really fun and I will always remember it. All the activities were AMAZING and really fun, we got to see people that we don't see that much and the food was DELICIOUS!!!

If I wrote about all the fun stuff we would be here for 3 years, and camp was so FUN!

FESTIVAL OF MUSIC CHOIR

Last Wednesday night, the Year 5/6 Festival of Music Choir came to an end with the most amazing concert at the Adelaide Festival Theatre. It was a huge day, arriving at the theatre at 12 noon for lunch before attending the three-and-a-half-hour rehearsal, supper break, then performing their hearts out in front of their proud parents, families, and choir teacher. It is by far one of the best highlights of my year, and I would like to thank each family for supporting their singer to be part of this experience. I would also like to thank my volunteers, Michelle Fearne and Ben Boucher, the amazing front office staff, class teachers and leadership, for their role in making it possible for us to attend and perform.

JENNY LANYON - ACCOMPANIST

This year, the Year 5/6 Festival of Music Choir farewells our amazing accompanist, Jenny Lanyon. 

Jenny has been working with our Choir since 2015, and her expertise, knowledge and support will be greatly missed, particularly by Wendy Banks. Best wishes to Jenny as she finally puts away her last Festival of Music accompanist book.

AUSTRALIAN GIRLS CHOIR

Every year, the Australian Girls Choir visit to run a workshop which inspires young girls to explore their vocal potential. We had a turnout of nearly 30 singers, who blew me away with their amazing voices as they sang mostly by themselves to a member of the AGC. Each girl who sang will receive an individualised summary of how they went.

Wendy Banks, Choir Teacher

• Threading a needle and tying a double knot - https://youtu.be/kY4910Muotw 
• Threading a needle - https://youtu.be/5-T7jvqQ6Mw 
• Tying a knot at the end of a thread -https://youtu.be/-rsuB4YDYeY 

The following videos may help the older students with the sewing tasks. It is not a requirement that students learn these skills during the holidays, however watching them and having a practise won't hurt! 

• Running stitch - https://youtu.be/i1-B01FB56s   
• Overstitch - https://youtu.be/gmD9vpo5Fso 
• Basic blanket stitch - https://youtu.be/Ed90XZAyhwU 
• Sewing a button - https://youtu.be/8mlGGn3SAS1E  

Congratulations to Austin H, Oscar W, Diar S and Nicolas B from WLSS, who represented the ‘WESTIES’ in the Senior U12 Soccer team and won the Red League shield within the NWJSA.  Great job Westies! A huge thank you to all of our fabulous parent volunteers who run these programs; we couldn’t do it without you!

Congratulations to two of our WLSS school soccer teams who won all 4 of their carnival games on Saturday to complete the seasons. Thank you to the amazing parent volunteer coaches Sarah Tosen and Mark Burlinson.