CONNECTED

Congratulations to the Wattle Grove community for a fabulous term! All of our children reached for the stars and achieved great things which they can be immensely proud of. I would like to acknowledge and thank the Wattle Grove staff for their amazing work and dedication and our families for their fabulous support. A special mention also goes to the P&C and volunteers for their fundraising efforts this term. Many hours have gone into organising events for our students and their families and we are extremely grateful. I am looking forward to an amazing Term 3 filled with lots of learning and opportunities.

Farewell Mrs Raleski
It is with mixed emotions that we farewelled Mrs Raleski this week. She has been a valuable member of Wattle Grove for 16 years. Mrs Raleski was successful in gaining a permanent teaching position at a school in the Campbelltown network. Whilst it sad to lose such a wonderful teacher, I congratulate Mrs Raleski on her new position. Her knowledge, skills, dedication, care and much more are certainly going to be missed by the whole school community.  Mrs Raleski commences her new position from Term 3. Mrs Ancell, an experienced teacher will be taking 4 Ruby for the Semester Two. She has demonstrated excellent teaching skills and the ability to connect with students and families. Farewell and good luck, Mrs Raleski, we are going to miss you!

Shining stars at the In the Spotlight Dance Festival
Congratulations to our Stage Two and Three dance groups who performed at the Seymour Centre last Monday and Wednesday respectively as part of the In the Spotlight Dance Festival. Our dance groups were chosen out of many schools to perform at this event. They did an amazing job, showing great finesse, talent and professionalism. I felt very proud watching them shine on stage and hearing all the other principals congratulate our school! A huge thank you to our dance teachers and coordinators Mrs Farah (Stage 2) and Miss Cascio (Stage 3). Thank you also to our parents who supported their children with costumes and transport. It takes many people and hours to make this happen and I acknowledge everyone involved!

Family Fun!
What a great night was had by all at Wattle Grove’s first disco in what seems like a very long time! The children had a great time dancing to the latest tunes, snacking on a range of delicious food available and purchasing some novelty toys. Thank you to all our family and friends who attended the night with their children. It was a great family atmosphere. All aspects of this event were organised and led by P&C members, and we are very grateful to have such an amazing P&C who works hard to provide these opportunities for our children. Thank you also to our family and friends, and staff who helped out on the night.

State of Origin Pie Drive
Thank you to our amazing P&C fundraising committee and supporters for organising the most delicious State of Origin Fundraiser. Many hours of work went into organising this fundraiser from advertising to liaising to delivering our delicious treats. Thank you also to everyone who purchased some pastry delights. I hope you enjoyed them.

On your marks, get set, go! 3-6 Athletics Carnival 
What a successful day we had at the athletics carnival with lots of running, jumping and throwing, and fierce competition. The students displayed great determination and sportsmanship throughout the day! Congratulations to all the students on their fantastic effort! Thank you to Mrs Bartram for her organisation of this event and the attending staff for their work on the day to make this event successful. Ribbons will be handed out next term. Head to our Facebook page to see some fab photos!

Student Reports
You should have received your child’s report this week. Our format provides detailed information in relation to your child’s grade and achievements in English and Mathematics, and their future learning goals. Grade allocation and levels of achievement in specific areas is also provided for the other 4 Key Learning areas. A note was included in the report envelope, providing the opportunity for you to request a parent-teacher meeting. Please return this as soon as possible, if required. The class teacher will contact you to arrange a suitable time.

Save the Date
Education Week will be held from 1-5 August and the theme is ‘Creating futures – education changes lives.’ There are several items planned, which include our open day on Wednesday 3 August. More details will be released closer to the day. Please be mindful plans could be altered if COVID restrictions are changed. 

Have a fabulous holiday break! Stay safe and I will see you all in two weeks.

Nicole Cameron
Principal

Last week I zoomed into 3 Gold who have been working hard on their reading fluency and composing persuasive texts. It was wonderful hearing students read and providing feedback to celebrate their writing achievements. 

Welcome to the last newsletter of an extremely busy Term 2. The photos in this newsletter showcase the wonderful things we do both inside and outside the classroom. Students are visiting my office daily to celebrate their learning achievements and share how proud they are of reaching their goals. Teachers are working with external agencies such as the Georges River Environmental Education Centre to provide opportunities such as the Zero Litter Environmental Project where Stage 3 students are creating designs to be painted near drains around the Liverpool area to remind people where their rubbish ends up. Stage One engaged in a Safety with Pets Incursion (Thank you Miss Solo for organising) which the students in K-2 absolutely loved. And yesterday we had a wonderful time at the athletics carnival with students breaking records, achieving personal bests and just having a go. Teachers joined in and raced in the relay (we came second) and thank you to the parents who got in the spirit and had a race with the kids as well. Thank you Mrs Bartram for your organisation. The school community appreciates it.

NAIDOC Week
This week we proudly celebrated NAIDOC week which does actually fall in the holidays. Teachers planned creative art experiences for students in the classroom and then everybody enjoyed the outdoors playing some traditional Aboriginal games. Both our assemblies over the past fortnight paid tribute to NAIDOC week where the choir sang a beautiful prayer in the Yorta Yorta language and the anthem was with an Aboriginal verse. Stage One entertained us with a lovely little Torres Strait Islander song called Taba Naba. This year the theme for NAIDOC week (3-10 July) is ‘Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!’ and it reaffirms that it is time to acknowledge the champions of change and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ rich and ongoing contribution to our education system and nation.

Goodbye Mrs Raleski
Mrs Raleski will be missed by the staff, students and community. She has worked at our school for 16 years but has now secured a permanent appointment closer to home. Mrs Raleski has been travelling to and from Wollongong for many years. She is an exceptional teacher who I am sure will be welcomed into her new school with open arms.

Planning Week
This week, all stage teams worked together for a full day to collaboratively plan Term 3’s learning. There is always rich discussion around what students are expected to learn at each stage of learning and how we are going to get them there. Collaborative planning weeks are possible because of the support staff who collapse their programs for the week and take classes so that teachers can work with their team to design authentic teaching and learning experiences.

Spelling Bee
Thank you to Mr King and Mrs Brunner who are in charge of this year’s Spelling Bee. Over the past couple of weeks, each Year 3 to 6 class have been tested on some pretty tricky words to see which students will progress to the stage finals early next term. From these stage finals we will be able to select our most outstanding spellers to represent our school at Zone level. These students will receive a note notifying them of the date of the stage final and the website and password where they can access the words over the holidays to practise.

Social Media Day
June 30 marked Social Media Day globally. It is a day to remind ourselves and our children how to be good digital citizens and how to keep safe online.

Did you know:

·         12–17 year-olds spend an average of 14.4 hours on YouTube, Snapchat or Instagram and the use of TikTok had increased by 26% over three years

·         The eSafety Commissioner has released a series of modules that students 10-14 years of age can use to learn how to navigate safely in the online world using simulated social media environments. Follow the link: https://socialmediatestdrive.org/index.html

Communicating with your Child’s Teacher
If you have a matter you wish to discuss with your child’s teacher, it is best to ring the front office where the ladies will get the message to the teacher during the course of the day. Alternatively, you may wish to email your child’s teacher directly. However, please keep in mind that our teachers are teaching their class, or at PSSA training, or out on playground duty, or in a stage, whole school or Learning Support Meeting, meaning they cannot always get back to you promptly. Teachers may also find it difficult to respond after 5:30pm due to outside work commitments.

Have a great holiday everyone and may you enjoy some family time. I know I am looking forward to some wind down time. 

Mrs Vicky Valensise
Deputy Principal

Stop, ask, smell, pat!

Last Friday, K-2 students attended a Responsible Pet Ownership Incursion as part of their ‘Safe Living’ PDHPE unit of work. They were very excited to meet Yvonne and her calm, German Shepherd, Tana.

Students listened to a presentation, engaged in a series of role plays and sang songs to learn important safety strategies when interacting with dogs.

They learnt how to react when dogs communicate that they are scared, angry and happy.

Some lucky learners even got to pat Tana! They demonstrated how to do the stop, ask, smell, pat strategy when approaching a stranger and their dog.

Our K-2 students enjoyed this experience and all received a take home activity booklet to consolidate their learning. For further opportunities, you can download and explore the app ‘pet town.’

Please click through the links below to see some of our students doing Auslan conversations. They are getting very clever!

2conversations22622.MOV

4conversations22622.MOV

conversation22622.MOV

SPELLING BEE FINALISTS 2022

 Wattle Grove Public School is proud to announce our 2022 Spelling Bee finalists after a stage based spelling competition. Early next term, these students will compete against each other by spelling a range of ever-challenging words over the duration of several rounds. The student who scores the highest by the end of the rounds will be announced our Spelling Bee champion. There will be two separate competitions, one for Stage 2 and another for Stage 3. Each finalist will go on to compete against other schools at a higher level. Congratulations, once again, to our Spelling Bee finalists and make sure to study hard over the holidays for our upcoming finals!

 Mrs Brunner and Mr King

(Spelling Bee organisers 2022)

Congratulations to Heba from 5 Lavender!

Our students have been busy colouring in birthday cards and colouring in sheets for the residents at HammondCare at Hammondville. It was great to see all different colours and even some free hand drawings done by our students. The Volunteer Coordinator from HammondCare came to meet with me and two of our students, Eloise and Hunter, to collect the art pieces. and present a certificate of appreciation. Please see the picture below with two of our students Katie and Jacob. We hope to continue working with HammondCare as this activity gives community members much joy.

Kiri Dorr

Defence School Mentor