Willoughby Public School Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers

It was lovely to officially welcome our 2022 Kindergarten families on Friday 11 March. Our first event after the lifting of Covid restrictions. The hall was buzzing with conversations. Thank you to Daniel and our P&C for hosting the event, especially Chris and the team for catering.

We are trying a new format for our interviews this term over 2 afternoons/ evenings on Monday 28th and Tuesday 29th March. The interview times open from 1:30 pm and close at 7:00pm. Our teachers will be in the hall ready to discuss your child’s progress. The interviews have been scheduled in 10-minute time slots. Thank you for your anticipated support with this format change.

Throughout Week 9 our teachers have been working together unpacking assessment data, reviewing and reflecting on their teaching programs from Term 1. This time is valued so our teachers can clearly link learning and assessments, adjusting as required to improve student learning outcomes. Collaboration in our stage teams is very strong with all teachers focused on student learning for improvement.

Our students at Willoughby PS have a great sense of moral purpose and kindness, we see these values every day. Our SRC co-ordinated the fund-raising Mufti Day last week supporting the schools and families impacted by the devastating floods on the far north coast. We will continue to participate in fund raising events for these schools throughout the year, we are hoping to be allocated a buddy school to support. Our school community raised over $1700  - thank you.

Thank you to our Stage 2 teachers, Miss Chen and Mrs Smith for taking our teams to the Skellern Cup tournament on Wednesday. The girls’ reported to me that they had a great day – back to back games and arrived back at school with huge smiles on their faces. Stage 3 attended with Miss White and Mrs Davidson. An enjoyable day was had by all, despite the weather. 

Willoughby PS celebrated Harmony Week, with a colourful Mufti Day today. Our school was a sea of colour and celebration. We were delighted the weather let us take a colourful group photo during the day. At WPS we have students who have connections to countries all over the world. We celebrate diversity and value everyone’s story and the richness that they bring to our school community. Everyone Belongs! Be sure to scroll through some of the Harmony Day mandala artworks below. There are more to come in the next issue of the newsletter. 

During Week 11 we invite our Willoughby families to visit our classrooms from 2-3:00pm on Monday 4th April and Wednesday 6th April. Please see the separate note regarding the class allocated days. This will help keep numbers manageable in the classrooms and corridors. The children will show you some work they are proud of and an opportunities to visit our new classrooms, which you have so patiently waited for this opportunity for 2 years.

Kind regards

Jennifer Simmonds

Principal

It has been a massive few weeks in sport. We have had trials for Basketball, Tennis, Cricket, AFL and Skellern Cup (girls soccer gala day) is around the corner. We have also had our school swimming carnival, Zone Swimming Carnival and the Area Swimming Carnival.

Here are the details of those trials and carnivals;

Cricket Trials - Hugo Bunting was successful at Zone Trials and has made it to Area trials

AFL - Tom Clarke, Harrison Koch and Kyan Seale all made it through Zone selection and Kyan was successful at Area trials selection. Kyan will be playing for Sydney North Region.

Girls Basketball - Elli Tucker-Downs and Emma Fogale both made selection at Zone trials but missed out at Area.

Rugby League - Jack Douglas and Liam Partridge both made it through Zone trials and are going on to Area trials.

We had a team of 42 students go to the Zone Swimming Carnival last week and five students were successful in making it through to Area to represent North Shore Zone at Homebush this week. They all had an exciting day competing in the Olympic pool and achieved personal bests across the board. The junior boys relay team made 8th place in the region which is a huge achievement. Well done to Lucia Burroughs, Cam Kernaghan, Thomas Cunningham, James Lyle and Harvey Ekas for representing our school so well at the Area Carnival.

Here are some pictures parents have sent me of those events and trials. Thank you to them, for taking our amazing kids to those events over the past weeks. 

Thank you everyone and well done Willoughby!!!

Simon Hutchison

Sports Coordinator

The Library is back in full swing once again! We are now open in the mornings from 8.35am when your children arrive at school in the morning, and lunchtimes too! We have a truly fabulous group of Library Monitors this year – focused, enthusiastic and that go above and beyond to assist and help out wherever required. Their official shifts started in Wk 7, and they are settling in nicely to their leadership role within the school. I’m very proud of them! 

2022 Premier’s Reading Challenge 

The Challenge is now underway for the year, concluding in August. Years 3-6 Students are challenged to read 20 quality books between now and August, and our K-2 students read 30. For our Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 students the Challenge is completed at school, during their Library time. All students take part and we read the books together. There is nothing that needs to be done at home. Our Years 3-6 students complete the Challenge independently, whilst well supported by Library staff. We teach the students how to enter the books they have read onto the PRC website, so that they can continue to do that at home until completion. We validate all completed entries online, then towards the end of Term 4 students receive their Certificates. More information can be found by visiting the PRC website. 

Regular Borrowing and Returning of Books 

We encourage students to borrow right throughout the week, using their lesson time and before school and lunchtime opening times as frequently as they need to. We also encourage them to borrow widely, so that they expose themselves to many different types of books, different types of stories and continue to strengthen their overall literacy skills. So many of our Willoughby students just love reading!! Quiet reading time is also part of every Library lesson. As the term comes to an end over the next two weeks, students who do not have any overdue books are able to borrow books over the holidays to enjoy. Please help your child establish a safe place at home to store their Library Bag and books – out of harm’s way. This makes it so easy for them to get them and place them into their school bag to return on time. 

Parent Volunteers 

Thank you so much for your overwhelming response to our request for assistance with book covering this year. To date we have had about 35 offers of assistance!! This will give great flexibility over the year to spread out the workload, so we are so thankful for that. We are a big, busy and dynamic library, so book covering is needed pretty regularly. We will be in touch with you via email when there is something for you to pick up and will explain the routine and what is needed. 

Mrs Debbie de Silva 

Teacher Librarian 

The WPS canteen, GreenWillo Café, is now serving all food and drinks in the reusable "Ruzi" containers. The cutlery provided with each order is also reusable. 

After eating or drinking, all of these containers and cutlery MUST be placed into the white RUZI bins around the school. The containers are then taken offsite, washed, sanitised and returned for reuse.

Just like Willoughby Public School staff and students, the canteen operators are passionate about sustainability and are trying to reduce the amount of plastic and rubbish we, as a school, send to landfill.

The RUZI initiative is a big step towards that and we are a pilot school for the use of RUZI in a school setting!

If any RUZI packages accidentally come home, please return to them to the school. 

To help ensure students are eating foods that parents/carers are happy with, the school canteen, Greenwillo Cafe is now offering Recess orders. Parents/Carers can order recess which students can collect at the canteen window during recess. 

At Willoughby Public School we have a number of students with a

LIFE THREATENING NUT / PEANUT ALLERGY.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Even a small trace of nut, peanut or nut/peanut product may trigger a severe allergic reaction called Anaphylaxis, which attacks the immune system leading potentially to death within minutes.

This reaction can happen by taste, touch and sometimes can be airborne. All of these students have access to an adrenaline injection in the form of an Epipen, which can save lives. Photo posters are displayed in the classrooms, canteen, staffroom, playground bags and sick bay for easy identification of these children.

Willoughby PS works with parents/carers to support students in developing an awareness of their allergies and what foods to avoid. Students are encouraged not to share food and to always check with a parent/adult/teacher if unsure at any time. 

HOW CAN YOU HELP TO KEEP WPS STUDENTS SAFE? 

Please help us by not including peanut or any nut products in your child’s lunchbox. This includes peanut butter and Nutella. 

Please avoid products with any nuts/peanuts listed as an ingredient. 

Explain about nut/peanut allergy to your child and encourage the ‘no food sharing’ rule. 

Please consider what you are sending for birthday treats to share with the class, checking there are no nut products included. 

The school canteen does not serve products containing nuts. 

It is only with the continued support of all parents and staff that we can effectively maintain a safe school environment for these children.  

Thank you for your understanding. We know you will want to support the school and these children.