As we near the end of 2020, I want to thank the entire Woolooware community for your resilience, perseverance and positivity that has helped get us all through this year. I am so proud of the way that we have been able to overcome so many obstacles to continue to provide a safe, engaging and nurturing learning environment for all of our students. Our staff have been so adaptable and creative in coming up with ways to keep our students motivated in achieving their goals.
This week we have been able to provide wonderful learning experiences for our Stage 3 students with our end-of-year camps. I am writing this from Morisset with our Year 6's and on Wednesday our Year 5's will be heading to Stanwell Tops for 3 days. We are so thrilled that our students have been able to have this opportunity and I am so appreciative of the venues and our staff for working so hard to ensure that the covid-safety plans are thoroughly developed to allow these activities to proceed safely. Have a look at the school FaceBook page for some photos and videos of the camps.
Kindergarten Transition
Last week we conducted our first ever Kindergarten Information Session via zoom. The session was well attended and provided a great way for us to connect with our new families commencing in 2021. On Monday and Tuesday this week we were so excited to welcome our kinder cohort for 2021 to Woolooware for their orientation sessions. Our kinder team, supported by our wonderful office staff, have done a wonderful job preparing for and welcoming our newest arrivals. Our big buddies in Year 5 did a fantastic job supporting their new little buddies and there seemed to be smiles all-round.
2021 Organisation
Planning for 2021 is well underway. As always, accurate enrolment figures help us to plan and we kindly request that you let us know if there is a possibility that your child will not be returning to WPS in 2021. Also, if you know of any families new to the area that are considering enrolling – please advise them to get in touch.
Now is also the time for you to let us know of any particular needs that we should consider in the formation of classes for 2021. When forming classes we make decisions based on the academic, social and physical needs of the students using assessment data and teacher knowledge. If you have any additional needs that you would like us to take into consideration, please put these in writing (addressed to the principal) and hand them to the office. Emails will also be accepted, addressed to woolooware-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au. Please do not assume that requests from previous years will be carried forward. We look at each new year through a clean lens, so if you have made a particular request before and the needs are still current, you will need to let us know again this year.
Please note that while we will make every effort to consider these requests, it is not always possible to fulfil every wish. We will however ensure that each student is placed in a learning environment where he/she has the opportunity to reach his/her full potential. I would also like to point out that requests for particular teachers will not be taken into consideration. We pride ourselves on the fact that all teachers at Woolooware PS deliver the curriculum with skill and expertise and cannot accommodate requests of this nature.
Road/Crossing Safety
During our last school holidays, our crossing supervisor had to resign for personal reasons. The RMS have advised us that although they have a recruitment process in place, it could be several weeks before we have a crossing supervisor on the Wills Road crossing again. We ask your assistance during this time in reminding your children of road safety rules, including:
- Wherever possible, cross the road at a designated pedestrian crossing facility
- Stop! Look! Listen! Think! when crossing the road
- Take care whenever you cross
- Don’t run across the road
Sun Safety
As the weather gets warmer it is even more important that our students are remembering to protect themselves from the sun. Children should make applying sunscreen at home part of their morning routine and we have 50+ sunscreen available in each classroom for students to reapply throughout the day. We have various school hat options available. The broad-brim and bucket hats provide the best sun protection and are encouraged
Bringing toys and precious items to school
It is wonderful to see our students engaging in creative play, socialising and sharing when playing with items brought from home. It is unfortunate though that there are times when items brought from home can go missing. We have seen this recently with Pokémon cards brought to school by students. We have spoken to all students about ‘trading’ recently and decided to make a rule that there is no trading of cards (or any other objects) to happen at school. This is to help alleviate the possibility of any student feeling ‘taken advantage of’, particularly our younger students who don’t properly understand how trading works. We have also explained to children that they need to think carefully about bringing precious items to school and understand that by doing so there is a possibility that they could get lost or go missing. Finally, can I ask that you check your children’s bags regularly and if they accidentally bring something home that doesn’t belong to them, that you return it to their child’s class teacher? Thank you for your assistance with this.
Presentation Days
We are in the process of planning our end of year presentations, which will be different this year due to covid-safety restrictions. At this stage, we will not be able to host parents or visitors for presentation day but we are looking into how we can engage and celebrate with our wider community. Plans for a live-stream series of events is underway and we will share more information about this as plans are finalised. Stay tuned!
Jason Ezzy
