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What a stunning Term the students have had! So much has happened over the last ten weeks. We have had the school FAIR, camps, Education Week, Book Week, the book fair, PSSA including finals, many carnivals, public speaking competitions, the Spelling Bee, our P&C school disco and so much more. I am exhausted writing this list. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our incredible students, staff and community for making this all happen. It makes me emotional thinking of the love, care and commitment shown for WGPS!

P&C School Disco
Last Friday night we put on our dancing shoes and danced the night away at the Term 3 disco! It was such a fun night. It was great to see all the students dressed up and having fun with their peers. Thank you to the parents/carers who attended with the children. I hope you also enjoyed a hot drink and some yummy treats! I know I enjoyed a sausage sandwich for dinner, one of my faves! Thank you to Natalia, the P&C and volunteers for making this happen. I appreciate the time this takes out of your days to plan such events for our school community. We are all very grateful.

Public Speaking Success
Congratulations to our 3 students - Emily, Kai and Marcus who proudly represented our school at the School Performance South Primary Schools Public Speaking Competition 2022. With 12 competitors in each stage division, the competition was extremely tough. Our students competed very strongly in both the prepared and impromptu sections. A special congratulations to Emily for coming third for Stage 1 and Kai for winning the Stage 3 competition. Kai will now compete at the next level of the competition which will be held next term. Thank you to Mrs Bartram for her organisation of this event and attending with the students.  

Winners overall at the Sydney South West Regional Athletics Carnival
On September 14, we had 24 students representing our school at the Sydney South West Regional Athletics Carnival held at Campbelltown. It was an amazing day that saw many fine performances and our school named the champion school from over 150 schools, due to the amazing performances from our students. What was very heartening to hear though was the special mention by the Liverpool Zone Team Manager about the beautiful behaviour and helpfulness of our students on the day.

From this carnival, 7 of our students will now compete at the NSW State PSSA Championships to be held next term - Congratulations to:

Junior Boys Relay - Ryan, Josh L, Joel and Josh G

Annabel - 100m, 200m and High Jump

Layla - 100m, 200m

Abby - 100m

PSSA Success!
Congratulations to all our Winter PSSA teams. They represented Wattle Grove with pride, displaying not only great skill but sportsmanship. Many of our teams made it to the grand final which was an outstanding effort. A special mention to the following teams who were crowned winners of the season; Junior A Netball, Senior A Boys Soccer and Junior A Touch Football.  

Ready, set, go!
Last week also saw our K-2 students enjoying their school athletics carnival. The weather was kind to us and the children had a ball, competing in races and participating in many activities. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend but received many updates through the day. A huge thank you to Mrs Steen for her organisation of the day and the staff who supported and led the activities. Ribbons for our placegetters will be awarded at our next K-2 assembly, which will be the first week back after the holidays.

Doing our bit for the environment!
I am so excited to let everyone know that our Stage 3 “Zero litter in the Georges River” winning artworks have been painted in our community. You can find one in front of our school, one at Wattle Grove Lake, near the play equipment and one at Harris Creek Reserve.  These artworks are a culmination of work our students completed in Term 2 and 3 with Georges River Keeper. Through these artworks our students are spreading the message that it is important to protect the Georges River and that we need to be mindful of the litter that is entering the river through our storm water drains. Each artwork has a QR code that you can scan to learn more about this exciting project.

Special visitors come to see the new K-2 curriculum in action!
Last week, we had several directors from the NSW Department of Education Curriculum and Reform team, visit Wattle Grove to see and hear about the great things we have been doing to get ready for the 2023 implementation of the new K-2 English and Mathletics syllabus documents. They watched an English lesson in 1 Navy where the students were learning about prepositional phrases, using the text Rosie’s Walk. Miss Solo and the students did an amazing job, and everyone was very impressed. Miss Solo, Mrs Cook and I then had a round table discussion with the team to share our successes and challenges. This feedback is going to be used by the department for future planning. Congratulations to all involved!

Kindergarten Enrolments 2023 (Repeated Item)
If you have a child starting Kindergarten in 2023, could you please ensure your online enrolment application has been completed and submitted to the school and that all supporting documents have been received. This supports our school planning for 2023. We look forward to seeing our 2023 Kinder students at Orientation in Term 4.

Kindergarten Orientation
It’s that time already! WGPS are keen to meet our newest students for 2023 at our Orientation Session next term. Attending the orientation sessions are important as they allow the children to become familiar with school environment and staff before they start school. They also provides the school with the opportunity to meet our 2023 Kindergarten students and families and get to know them a little better before the new  year commences.  

Orientation Dates:

Session #1 – Tuesday 11 October

Session #2 – Tuesday 18 October

Session #3 – Tuesday 25 October

Tell Them From Me – Parent Survey
Tell Them From Me is an anonymous survey designed for parents/carers, staff and students (Years 4-6). Responses across a range of measures including wellbeing, engagement and reflection on teaching and learning practices, provide authentic data for the school to plan and make decisions, ensuring positive outcomes for students across their school lives. We are aiming for 150 parent/carer responses – we can do this! Please follow the link below to access and complete the survey. Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete this important survey.  

http://nsw.tellthemfromme.com/wgps

I wish everyone a lovely holiday break and hope you have a wonderful holiday with family and loved ones.

Take care, stay safe and I will see you next term!

Miss Cameron 

Principal 

Number Talks In Action
I visited 3 Honey to see Number Talks in action. Number talks involve the students in looking at a mathematical question, considering all the different ways they could solve the problem and then sharing the most efficient way. The students then share their ideas with the class, so students learn from each other’s thinking. 3 Honey did a fabulous job, demonstrating many ways to solve a very tricky multiplication question.

The students were very respectful of each other’s ideas and happily received teacher feedback. I just loved being part of this lesson, thank you 3 Honey and Mrs Boyes. 

Welcome to the last newsletter of Term 3. I have just returned from two weeks of personal leave and would like to thank Mrs Cook and Mrs Foreshew for relieving in my absence.

It has been a fortnight of sadness with the Queen’s passing and also a time to reflect and acknowledge her many years of service. Regardless of personal beliefs on the Monarchy, I think the outpouring of love and affection for her Majesty the Queen shows that we recognised what a humble leader she was who led by example.

Collaborative Planning Weeks
This week, stage teams engaged in collaborative planning days in preparation for Term 4. These days are so important as we highlight our successes and look at where to next in our teaching programs.

Infants Assembly Rescheduled
Due to the Day of Mourning on Thursday 22 September 2022, we have moved the Infants Assembly to Thursday first week back (13 October). We will be presenting the K-2 Athletics ribbons and K-2 Public Speaking trophies, as well as Superkids and Principal Awards.

Student Belongings
I kindly ask that parents and children go through their belongings over the holiday period and make sure everything is clearly labelled. Everyday, there seems to be a mountain of lost property that nobody wants to claim. Parents please check the lost property bin outside the office, in case you find something that looks familiar. Jumpers and jackets sometimes have a funny way of turning up weeks after being lost.

ICAS Results
The first of the many ICAS Assessment results are starting to come through.

12 students participated in the ICAS Digital Technologies Assessment and we were awarded 7 Participation, 1 Merit and 4 Credit.

The students who received the Merit or Credit in the Digital Technologies Assessment are named below and will receive their certificates at the Infants and Primary Assembly of next term.

Talia 2 Mint Merit

Aralia 5/6 Rose Credit

Marcus 5 Lilac Credit

Bobby 5/6 Rose Credit

24 students participated in the ICAS English Assessment and we were awarded 14 Participation, 1 Merit, 8 Credit and 1 Distinction.

Special mention to the students below who will receive their certificates at the next Primary and Infants Assembly.

Talia 2 Mint Credit

Cristian 2 Emerald Credit

Chloe 3 Gold Credit

Amelia 3 Gold Credit

Vedha 3/4 Coral Credit

Audrey 5/6 Rose Credit

Bria 5 Lilac Credit

Aralia 5/6 Rose Distinction

Student Wellbeing
Model Teach and Reinforce Self Respect, Pro-Social Values and Positive Social Behaviours

Self Respect develops from setting high standards for your own behaviour, showing respect to other people, trusting in your own views and ideas (whilst listening to and considering what others think and say), balancing pride with humility, and believing that you matter and should be treated respectfully by others. When children have self-respect they are also more likely to self-protect and avoid behaviours and situations that present a risk to their safety and wellbeing such as engaging in unsafe practices when using the internet and mobile phones. Self-respect is a more useful concept than self esteem as it’s based on a sense of competence and mastery. Behaviour that reflects empathy and pro-social values is being respectful, kind, fair, honest and cooperative. Such behaviour includes not mistreating others, showing care and concern to people who need support, being friendly and not excluding people because of their differences.

Social Skills are the skills needed to make and keep friends, play and interact with others, have an interesting conversation, successfully negotiate and manage disagreements and cooperate and work well in a team or group.

As we go into the holiday period, I leave you with a quote by Barbara De Angelis: Love and kindness are never wasted. They are good for the one who receives them, and equally good for you, the giver.

Happy Holidays!

Mrs Valensise

Deputy Principal

Congratulations to Heston from 5 Lavender.

We are coming to the end of another fantastic school term. It has been great to enjoy the warmth as we welcome in Spring. Over the past few weeks the stage 3 girls enjoyed making their own jewellery bag clips. If your family is planning to move at any time, please inform the school who then will notify me so we can do our best to help with a smooth transition for your child/ren. I have resources available to support students who are moving, which includes our Treasured Words package.

Please don’t forget to collect your “We Remember Them” template from the front office or the Defence School Mentor office and return it back in term 4 by the 27th of October.

Liverpool – Check out all the events listed for all ages at

·         School Holidays:

o    https://www.liverpool.nsw.gov.au/community/your-community/school-holidays

o    Liverpool Library Holiday Activities here including coding, D&D, learn to draw, tye dying, study support sessions and more!

o    Active Activities School Holiday Programs : Liverpool/Fairfield here

o    The Street University: Check out whats on at https://streetuni.com.au/

o    Gandangara events – Yarn over a cuppa and free BBQ day - https://www.gandangara.org.au/engage-with-us/upcoming-events/

o    See attached

o    Ice Skating at Liverpool Catholic Club – Inclusive Skating

o    TJW Health bees Holiday Program – The Junction Works : . The school holiday program aims to provide knowledge and skills that promote healthy habits. Sessions will include yoga, science experiments, cooking, fitness and having fun!

·        Mental Health Month: 

o    See flyer attached :

§  Get creative: Five Ways to Wellbeing School’s Creative Project  (MHM SWS Schools Creative Project Information) – win prizes across 5 age categories and prizes for schools too