The Widemere Whisper!

Widemere Public School strives to keep our school COVID free. As you know we follow directives from the Department of Education and NSW Health to enable our students and staff to remain safe and happy at school.

Many of our changes to school procedures will continue until the school is advised otherwise.

*Our Year 5 and 6 will be able to attend camp in Term 4. A permission and payment note was sent home earlier this term.

*Year 6  students will be able to attend our Taronga Zoo Snooze end of Year 6 celebration a permission note was sent home earlier this term. 

*We have planned our Year 6 graduation as part of our Presentation Assembly on the 7th of December.

Unfortunately due to COVID space restrictions (4 square metre rule) we are unable to accommodate students and parents in our hall. We will live stream the Year 6 graduation ceremony and presentation assembly to Year 6 and award recipient's parents. 

*2021 Kindergarten students will be able to attend one longer Kinder Orientation session at our school, however parents and carers are still unable to enter the school.

A Parent Information session via Zoom will be presented on the 11th November at 10am. The link will be available on the Kindergarten 2021 Facebook page.

No Changes to:

*All staff and students with even mild flu like symptoms (cough, runny nose, headache, muscle aches, pain or temperature) should not be at school. If they present with these symptoms staff and students will be sent home. 

*If your child or our staff have been sent home the school will need to sight negative COVID test results before students or staff suffering from even mild flu like symptoms are able to return to school;

*Assemblies are still separate for K-2 students and teachers and Years 3-6 students and teachers. These assemblies are only 15 minutes long due to DOE guidelines;

*Students in different cohorts still do not mix except outdoors, so Clubs on Friday are with the students' class teachers;

*Parents are still not permitted on school grounds unless invited by the Principal;

*Staggered school pick-up times and gates have not changed;

We will continue to update you of changes as they affect our school.

Our school remains committed to physical distancing and good hygiene practices.

Years 1 & 2 Science and Technology

This term the students in Years 1 and 2 have been learning about digital systems and their components in Science and Technology lessons. Students have been using a sequence of steps to solve problems using coding and robotics. By working collaboratively, the students have discovered ways of moving their robotics through code using the fantastic resources we have at our school, including the BeeBots, Dash and iPads. 

Kindergarten Maths

In Kindergarten the students have been collecting, representing and analysing data to make sound judgements about the world around them. They have been learning how to fill in a survey by counting the colour of vehicles as they drive past the front of the school. 

They have also been looking at making graphs from other data sources around the school.

Kindergarten have enjoyed their unit on Statistics and Probability.

Our Stage 2 and 3 students have had great start to Term 4, settling back into their learning quickly and being great leaders of the school.

Stage 2 and 3 classes are all enjoying their Science units this term, which are focused around built environments. Stage 2 have been conducting lots of observations, identifying and presenting their findings of different materials around the school which help make up Windemere’s built environment.  Our stage 3 students have been investigating the impact robotics have on different environments and are enjoying lots of hands on STEM and coding activities using our Dash robots and Lego wedo, which have definitely required their growth mindsets to be put to use.

Our Year 6 students have started their final term of Primary School, and have begun their High School transition program, which will help prepare students for some of the big changes they will face such as; reading timetables, daily organisation, developing new friendship groups and different expectations. As well as busting some of the common myths about high school life!

Due to COVID, High School Orientation Days were interrupted, all high schools have now allocated these days and parents should have received notification of this, if you have not yet heard, contact your child’s high school.

Stage 3 students are all very excited that Camps have been allowed to resume this term, and are looking forward to attending Great Aussie Bush Camp and Zoo Snooze (for year 6), just a reminder payment is due for these by Thursday 19th November. 

The P&C will hold its last meeting this week. Our great fundraisers are running a Christmas raffle as they do every year. The P&C usually ask parents and carers to contribute with a variety of gifts to make up hampers to raffle, but this year due to Covid they have a different idea. 

The P&C would like all families to contribute $10 so that they can purchase gifts for the raffle. This is a great idea: no shopping for parents, just a $10 payment to the P&C account. More details in a note will follow.

We would really like to thank Deb Pollard and her Bunnings connection Sarah for their donation of plants for our school. The gardens are looking much better due to the new plants, our wonderful new general assistant Mick and lots of rain.

Our school thanks the P&C for their hard work and dedication to our school.

Explore the Department's new Everyday Maths HUB!