Willoughby Public School Newsletter

Dear Parents/Carers 

The highlight for me every week is having students visit my office and share their wonderful learning; the excitement around their success as learners makes my day! Congratulations students, keep up the splendid work. 

Thank you to the many families who attended our Welcome to Willoughby event on Monday morning. It was lovely to see our new families mingling and making new connections. Thank you to our Year 1 families for the delicious morning tea and to Cath and our P&C for hosting the event in our hall.  

We are immensely proud of the way our Year 3 and Year 5 students have managed the NAPLAN assessments that started this week. The NAPLAN assessment provides a snap shot of learning at that point in time. We use the information to identify areas of strength, as well as areas of weakness in our learning programs. WGHS principal, Adrienne Scalese and DP Doug Marshall shared with our school leadership team the data trends from their previous NAPLAN assessments for Year 7 and Year 9. We valued this discussion and plan to have ongoing conversations around data analysis. 

All teachers at Willoughby Public School have an opportunity next week in their stage team to planning, discuss and collaborate to map out their Term 2 learning programs. The time will be spent reviewing assessment data, moderating work samples as well as organisation of resources. All students will have access to the library enabling them to borrow on their library day. The teachers value this opportunity to collaborate to keep moving the learning forward. 

At Willoughby Public School we focus on restorative practice as a proactive approach to modifying behaviour. When there has been a problem we use the following questions to unpack: What happened? What were you thinking at the time? What are you thinking now? Who has been affected by what has happened? What could be done to put things right? Students receive reminders – a reminder provides an opportunity for the teacher to have a conversation with the child to find ways to move forward to make better choices. Reminders also allow a teacher to reflect: Is there a pattern? Do I need to reteach lessons for example – joining in a game.  

Harmony Week Celebrations begin on Monday! The theme this year is “Living in Harmony” At WPS we celebrate our cultural diversity and hold respect for everyone who calls Australia home. I am looking forward to listening to our participants in the Multicultural Speaking Competition present their speeches during our Harmony Day celebrations. Do not forget to wear orange on Friday. Thank you to Ms Mavromatis and Mrs Andrews for coordinating our Harmony Week celebrations. 

Kind regards 

Jennifer Simmonds  

Principal 

Touch Football 

Congratulations to Chloe Laffen and Rose pickles for making the Combined North Shore/Warringah Girls touch team. Also to Samson Clarke and Joseph Duffy for making the Combined Zone Boys touch team. Both teams competed at the Sydney North touch trials and did Willoughby proud. 

Basketball 

Well done to Charlotte Bird, Isabelle Salz and Eliie Tucker-Downs for making the Combined North Shore/Warringah girls basketball team. The girls will be trialing for the Sydney North team on 29th March.  

 Zone Swimming

What a successful carnival this was for our WPS competitors with some fabulous results: 

Hamish Rose qualified 4th fastest in the 50m freestyle in his first ever zone Carnival.  

Laura Dvorak 9th fastest on her first 50m freestyle 

The following students will be representing our school and the North Shore zone at the Sydney North Swimming carnival on 24th March.  

James Lyle finished first in the 11 years 50m Freestyle, 3rd 50m Backstroke 

Sarah Couroumah 2nd Jnr 50m Breaststroke 

Harvey Ekas 1st 11yrs Breasstroke  

Jnr Girls Relay team who finished 2nd.

• Vivienne Mcnaughton
• Sarah Couroumah
• Georgie Hill
• Yue Teng Soon 

All students who competed should be very proud of their results and for representing Willoughby with pride at the Zone Carnival. We wish the students attending the Sydney North Swimming Carnival the best of luck!  

In the next edition of the newsletter we'll be highlighting the involvement of our of our WPS students at the Australian Mountain Biking Interschools competition, held earlier this month. 

 Richard Goodwin - Sports Coordinator

When?  Monday 27 March

Where? During the morning, under the Cola, students will come to the sale with their class.

Why? The SRC have decided to fundraise to raise money to train dogs to help disabled people. The charity that we are fundraising for is Assistant Dogs Australia. 

Are there gluten free options? Yes

What are they selling? individual cup cakes or large cookies or jelly in a cup with a spoon

How Much? $2 per item. 

Who is excited? All of the SRC as this is their first fundraiser.

Who is making these items? Grade 3, Grade 6 and all SRC Reps

Thanks for your support

Please put your baked goods/ jellies under the hall cola on arrival to school. Tables will be set up here.

Kind regards

Your School Captains

Aleine, Kai, Antoinette and Connor

National Ride2School Day is Australia’s biggest celebration of active travel and one of the best days on the school calendar. It is a day full of fun and colour where students, teachers and families discover the joy of riding and kick-start healthy habits for the future.

On Friday 24 March, we encourage all students to use active transport for some or all of their journey to and from school. It might be on foot, on a scooter, or on a bicycle.

Last year, over 120 students rode a bike or scooter to school and many more walked. We are hoping to see even more students take part this year and already have a number of teachers who will be joining in and supporting this initiative. Mr Michaeil may even be brave enough to be seen in his lycra again ... watch this space. 

An important message about your personal data From the WPS P&C Association 

Dear Parents/Carers, 

It has come to our attention that a list of contact details of WPS class contact lists (first & surname, mobile number, email address and child’s name + class) was visible on a public Google drive, next to the class contact list sign-up forms, for period of about 12 hours between yesterday afternoon and this morning (14-15 March, 2023). 

The class rep / class contact system is managed by the P&C, which comprises a team of volunteers of varying skillsets, and this happened due to an innocent user/admin error. The details were immediately removed and the necessary link deactivated, as soon as the error was realised. 

Unfortunately, during the time the spreadsheet was visible, a WPS parent exploited this information and sent unsolicited text messages to a number of other WPS parents and carers. The appropriate disciplinary action has been taken.

The WPS P&C profusely apologises for the error that caused the contact details to be made temporarily public, but also reminds all parents and carers that capturing the personal information of others without permission – not to mention using it for unsolicited communication – is completely inappropriate and unacceptable.

If you are not comfortable keeping your contact details in these lists and wish to have your details removed, please email president@wpspandc.com.au

If you have received an unsolicited text from another parent/carer, or have any concerns about this situation, please contact me at president@wpspandc.com.au

We really appreciate your understanding.

Cath Arnott

President

WPS P&C Association

We're looking for a BBQ team and team leader to take on the sausage sizzle for the State Election on 25 March. 

As the P&C is run by volunteer parents and carers, we can't do this without your help - so whether or not you can flip a snag, we'd love to hear from you. All you need is enthusiasm and a bit of elbow grease! 

The election is less than 10 days away, so if you're keen to help organise this, please get in touch with Vicepresidentevents@wpspandc.com.au

As always we can’t run this without volunteers, so please sign up using the links below! 

BBQ - https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0544a5a82da3fb6-state

Cupcake Stalls - https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0544A5A82DA3FB6-state1

Thanks

Radhika Shekhar, 

Vice President Events, WPS P&C

0417897237, Vicepresidentevents@wpspandc.com.au

https://libraries.willoughby.nsw.gov.au/Events-Programs

Willoughby Girls High School has an open day coming up on 22 March 2023.

02 9958 4141 

https://willoughbg-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au