Willoughby Public School Newsletter

Dear Parents/Carers,

Here we are! Our last day for Term 3 and it’s time to celebrate!

What a term we have had at Willoughby PS. I’m so proud of our students and what they have achieved with their learning this term. How they have challenged themselves and displayed outstanding grit. Achieving and exceeding personal goals. A favourite joyful moment for me was reflecting with kindergarten on how they have progressed as writers from their first attempts in Term 1, comparing their writing in Term 3.

Our outstanding teachers have guided and supported learning not only within their own classes but across grades and stages. Participation in learning conversations and sharing successful practice for ongoing improvement, strong collaboration with each other. We are fortunate to have such dedication and care across our school.

We celebrate our success in the Choral Festival at the Sydney Opera House with our choir led by Mrs Lyons, Mrs Panetta supported by Miss Wiber. It was wonderful to watch Neil confidently perform his solo – simply stunning. All students involved should be very proud of themselves and the performance. It was great to be back performing in the Opera House.

We celebrate that over 50 students in Year 5 have nominated to be student leaders for 2023.They are actively displaying their leadership potential to the wider school population by proudly wearing their blue Student Leadership Nominee badge. We look forward to the democratic voting process in Term 4 with the 2023 leaders announced at our annual Presentation Assembly.

We celebrate the outstanding achievement of our athletes representing Willoughby PS at the zone, region and state carnivals. We acknowledge Kyan’s success and the drive and commitment that he displays to perform at such a high level in his track and field events.

We celebrated our love of reading and books with our grandparents / friends and family. Mrs DeSilva guiding our celebrations with book characters and visiting authors to keep us inspired.

We celebrate the successful impact of our school-wide expectations of being safe, respectful responsible learners and how the consistent implementation has significantly reduced the number of students requiring reflection time. The proactive use of restorative justice questions and reflection, enables students to make better choices for themselves around their learning and behaviour increasing engagement in learning.

We celebrate the culmination of learning throughout Term 3 with gallery walks across the school ranging from artwork in kindergarten, dinosaurs and all things pre-historic in Stage 1, Stage 2 have been exploring Project Based Learning with the focus on living things, they have created dioramas incorporating filming techniques with art and research skills.  Stage 3 showcased the impact of significant Australians and how they helped shape the Australia that we love today.

We celebrate the ongoing impact of our partnership with Cromehurst, nurturing inclusion and friendship; learning from each other.

We celebrate that Willoughby PS and Willoughby Girls HS were invited to host a delegation from the OECD and Department of Education representatives in focus group discussions. The team were examining the impact of the Schools Excellence Framework and School Improvement Plan. Our WPS executive leadership team provided insightful and thoughtful feedback to the team.

We celebrate the ongoing support of our P&C and volunteers and thank them for hosting Father’s Day breakfast, the parent social event at the Kirribilli Club and the fantastic sausage sizzle on Wednesday.

We would like to say goodbye and thank you to Mrs Vicky Smith for her commitment and dedication to her class and students at Willoughby. Travel safe as you relocate back to the UK with your family.

We also welcome Mr Michael Masters to Willoughby PS as our new General Assistant.

On behalf of our Willoughby PS staff I would like to take this opportunity to wish our Willoughby families a relaxing holiday – travel safe!

We look forward to welcoming our students back on Monday 10th October. Which will no doubt be a productive and busy one as we welcome our 2023 kindergarten students and farewell our Year 6 students as they complete their primary education.

Kind regards,

Jennifer Simmonds

Ten WPS students in Year 4 played in a soccer team together this year, and won every game including the gala day! They showed great teamwork and sportsmanship, and even beat some development teams from bigger clubs. Congratulations to Leo Fletcher, Flynn Westbrook, Hudson Kam, Felix Keeler, Tom Cunningham, Ben Costain, Manu Muhia, Arlo Seeto, Julian Fletcher and Angus Carroll. Their Assistant Coach was former WPS student, Zac Isterling, now studying at Chatswood High, who did a brilliant job! 

Book Fair Thanks

On behalf of all of our students, can I thank our school community once again for the many generous book donations that were made through our Book Fair. It’s like Christmas in the Library at the moment!! So many new books are coming home with your children as they are first to borrow books that their family donated, or because these books are now back and able to be freely borrowed by everyone. I can assure you the children are so appreciative and are busy reserving books for future reading in the holidays and telling each other about the new choices available. Each donated book has a Book Plate inside the front cover with your child’s name and class – this information is taken from the form that was completed at the Book Fair. If you notice any information is incorrect, please let us know so we can make amends.

Premier’s Reading Challenge

The Challenge for 2022 is now complete, and I have validated all the reading records for all students who took part, from Kindergarten to Yr 6. Certificates should be sent to us by around the middle to end of next term. Congratulations to all of the 578 who completed the Challenge – this is over 60% of our students!

Author Visits

Last week our Stage 1 students spent some time with author Ashley Barton, who gave us many insights on what’s involved in writing and publishing a picture book – from researching the topic, to writing rhyming verses of a high quality, to how an illustrator and author work together and finally aspects of publishing. We really did learn so much and enjoyed hearing Ashleigh tell us about the next book she is writing at the moment.

Our Stage 3 students had a truly enjoyable time with Tristan Bancks, who was able to teach us how to introduce different elements into our writing such as point of view, pacing, setting and history to create a sense of intrigue and adventure when trying to create great stories. Interestingly each book he writes has a soundtrack. He uses this music to help him ‘drop down into the feel of the book’ when he is working on a story. He also encouraged us to keep writing, because everything we write makes you a better writer.

In the first week of Term 4, our Stage 2 students will have a visit with author Tim Harris – which needed to be postponed from Term 3. We are so looking forward to his visit!

Mrs Debbie de Silva

Teacher Librarian

On Sunday 11 September, the WPS Netball Club capped off a wonderful Winter season with our 2022 Presentation Day.

It was a relaxed afternoon to gather and celebrate, with each player presented a medal and their team photo. If you were unable to attend, your Team Manager will have these items for you with team photos for WPS6, 7 & 15 available for collection from the School office.

Presentation Day was also an opportunity to acknowledge the broader WPS netball community so integral to getting players on the court each week. It comprises our 19 Team Managers, our 35 coaches and our 30+ umpires, including four of our new Yr 6 umpires who were presented with their first umpiring level – JL3 – on the day: congratulations to Holly B, Dia S, Madeleine B, and Tilly N.

Our dedicated volunteer committee was also recognised, with an unprompted standing ovation given to long-serving Club Administrator, Coaches Convenor, and Umpires’ Convenor – Mel Fisher. Mel’s daughter left WPS in 2019, yet she’s continued to serve and inspire the school’s netball community with her deep understanding and infectious passion for the game. She will step down from all roles, with the exception of Umpires’ Convenor, at the end of the year.

Mel leaves an enormous gap in our Club’s Committee, as will Zoi Barber who steps down as Netball Convenor after many years of service in various roles, and Monique Riddell who steps down after two years as NSG Convenor.

With almost all positions being vacated at the end of the year, we’re looking for our next generation of parent volunteers to lead the Club into 2023 and beyond.

Thank you to people who have expressed interest in roles to date, though there remains many roles yet to be filled, including all Executive positions. Most roles require no expertise and a relatively small time commitment either over the course of the year, or larger chunks of time during the pre and post-seasons, only.

PLEASE PUT UP YOUR HAND TO GET INVOLVED IN OUR CLUB, IF YOU CAN.

View position descriptions and the anticipated time commitment for each, here on https://www.wpspandc.com.au/netball/. Express your interest by emailing us at: wpsnetballclub@gmail.com, noting that we need to hear from you by Friday 14 October, please.

The Club’s also actively recruiting for a new Club Administrator, with affiliation to the Northern Suburbs Netball Association (NSNA). This is a paid position and an advertisement for the role will be shared with the school community, shortly.

Reminders

NSNA Twilight Netball Competition

This competition provides the opportunity to play more netball in Term 4, if so desired. Team EOIs are due to the compconvenor@nsna.com.au today, Friday 23 September. Please copy wpsnetballclub@gmail.com on your EOI email, or forward it to us if you didn’t do so.

NSNA anticipates confirming the competition next week so look out for more information about registration from your Team Manager.

If you have a child at WPS who wasn’t registered in the Winter competition but is keen to try netball in this fun, social competition, please get in touch with the Club at wpsnetballclub@gmail.com and we will try our best to facilitate it with the teams that have been formed.

Next Committee meeting:

Our Term 4 Annual General Meeting (AGM) is scheduled for 7pm on Monday 24 October 2022. Please mark it in your diary and look out for further details which will be circulated at the beginning of Term 4.