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Wow, what a fortnight! It has been an absolute joy to be involved in so many activities with our amazing students over the past 10 days, from dressing up as Mary Poppins to Stand Up Paddle Boarding at camp!

Camping Fun!

This week many of our Year 4 students set out for their very first camp and boy did they have a great time. The students attended the Sydney Academy of Sport and Recreation at Narrabeen, and it could not have been a better location for the students to have so much fun. The students participated in many activities including, bush walking, making damper, orienteering, archery, designing and making a billy-cart, stand up paddle boarding and much more. Many students tried activities they had not done before and showed so much bravery, by pushing through their fears. This also included lunch and dinner times. On the second day when beef vegetable stir fry was served up, I saw many unsure faces, but the students gave it a try, I even ate some vegetables I do not normally eat but must admit I did leave my carrots! I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the students and was so pleased they had a fabulous time. Their behaviour was exemplary, and many comments were made by the camp staff, including…. “Wattle Grove are the best Year 4 group we have ever seen in the eatery. They are so polite and well mannered.” The students also looked after each other as this was the first time for some children being away from their family home. I would like to acknowledge Mrs Fuller for her excellent organisation of the camp, and Mrs Finn, Mr King and Mrs Ancell for attending the camp. This is a big commitment from teachers, being away from their families for two nights and I thank them immensely. Thank you also to our families for their support with providing this opportunity for the children. 

Cantabile Choir

I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a Monday night than watching our fabulous Cantabile Choir perform at the Opera House, with the backdrop of Sydney Harbour. To see our students perform at the Opera House was just amazing. I loved seeing their beaming faces as they sang their hearts out. All performances were just beautiful, showcasing the talents of students in the Public School System. As well as giving an amazing performance, our children displayed exemplary behaviour which everyone was impressed with along with our very own Wattle Grove bus.  Thank you to Mr Blanch for his leadership and organisation.

Book Week

Our love of books was on show last week, with our annual Book Parade. It was awesome seeing so many children dressed up and getting into the spirit. The costumes were amazing, from Pig the Pug to Thelma the Unicorn! I must say I enjoyed being Mary Poppins for the day, floating around with my bag and umbrella, talking to all the children. I acknowledge this is a big occasion and appreciate our families for arranging such great costumes for the children and making a purchase at the book fair. The book fair was very popular, with the lines stretching from one end of the library to the other! Thank you also to our families who were able to make a generous book donation to the school. This event, like many others, highlights the great community spirit at Wattle Grove. Thank you to Mrs Farah for her outstanding organisation and the staff for their support.

Catching Dreams

As part of our Book Week celebrations, students were invited to design and create a dream catcher, based on a book of their choice. I must say, I was blown away by the creativity of the students. The designs and materials used were so creative and brought to life many books! It was such a hard job picking the grade winners, who received a book voucher for the fair. I would like to congratulate all students who created a dream catcher – just amazing! Thank you to parents/carers for their support. The dream catchers will be on display in library.

Kindergarten Enrolments 2023

 If you have a child starting Kindergarten in 2023, could you please ensure your online enrolment application has been completed and submitted to the school and that all supporting documents have been received. This supports our school planning for 2023. We look forward to seeing our 2023 Kinder students at Orientation in Term 4.

Have a wonderful fortnight and take care!

Miss Cameron 

Principal 

What a whirlwind of two weeks of busyness we have had at Wattle Grove. As Miss Cameron has mentioned, we have had Cantabile choir at the beautifully renovated concert hall at the Opera House, Book Week Parade , Year 4 school camp, Zone Athletics carnival where we were the champion school based on our student results, Stage Public Speaking finals and we even managed to squeeze in an evacuation drill which went very smoothly.

As always, I recognise and commend the goodwill and efforts of our teachers who go above and beyond to organise and coordinate these events so our students can have experiences they will remember for a lifetime. For this newsletter, I would also like to give a shout out to you - our parents and carers who support our school and come along to cheer on their own and other people’s children and recognise in some small way the outstanding work of our staff.

Congratulations Mrs Farah and Stage 3 - Zero Litter in the Georges River Project.

To reduce the amount of litter in the Georges River, Georges Riverkeeper invited Wattle Grove Public School to receive a series of environmental education lessons by professional educators, focusing on litter reduction and stormwater, aligned to the NSW curriculum. Students learnt about the litter problem, looked at how stormwater drains carry pollution from our streets and backyards straight to the river, and then helped create artworks and videos for the ‘Zero Litter in Georges River’ project. Three of the campaign posters have been chosen to be painted onto the footpaths near stormwater drains in our local community. Congratulations to those three groups who were recognised today in front of the whole school and their posters shared for everyone to see how creative and clever they were! These posters will be translated into artworks painted outside the school, near Wattle Grove Lake and near Harris Creek Reserve – so keep your eyes peeled for that! There’s a surprise for you when you scan the QR code on the footpath art. You can see all our talented students work at:  https://zerolitter.georgesriver.org.au/litter-heroes/wattle-grove-public-school/#local-hero

CSIRO Project

I was fortunate enough to sit in on one of Mrs Bartram’s lessons with the CSIRO group. Students from Years 2-6 have been selected based on their critical thinking, general knowledge and interest to partake in this inquiry project. I really enjoyed listening to students investigate the physical features of frogs and the generalisations they made to link these features to the most appropriate frog habitat.

Public Speaking

Thank you to Mrs Bartram for coordinating the whole school Public Speaking and to teachers across every grade for their support of this statewide competition. Good luck to all our students competing at the next stage. I know Mrs Bartram is working with these students during lunch time, refining their presentations skills and practising the art of delivering an effective impromptu speech.

Professional Learning

Last week, some of the executive attended two days of Professional Learning as part of the Network of Innovation and Inquiry (NOII). There were amazing key notes presented by some of the best in the field of education. The two day conference was inspiring, thought provoking and powerful in its message of the most important thing we do everyday is in caring for the whole child in our care. I would also like to share a clip shared with us of a brilliant young Aboriginal poet who faced challenges growing up Aboriginal in Australia. The takeaway for me being that there is always more than what we first see. Alice Eather is the poet, and although her own personal story is tragic, her legacy will live on as long as we spread the message and teach our students to be proud of Australia’s rich culture. “I walk between these two worlds, a split life, split skin, split tongue, split kin. Everyday these two worlds collide and I’m living and breathing, this story of black and white.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yla0FMEAmg

Student Wellbeing – Hot Tips for Managing your Child’s Behaviour (source: Behaviour Hot Tips for Parents and Professionals compiled by the Learning Difficulties Coalition)

Below are some strategies for parents to use to change certain behaviours. All the best strategies involve setting routines, rewarding the behaviour you want to encourage, avoiding confrontations and modelling the behaviour you want to see in your child.

1. Emphasise the Positive: Draw attention to the behaviour you want, not the challenging behaviour. See it-praise it.

2. Right versus wrong behaviour: Sit down and explain why a certain behaviour is a problem. Ask for your child’s ideas on solving a problem, and for alternative ways of behaving.

3. Establish Clear Rules: but only about things worth worrying about. Decide on three behaviours that you need changed and sit the kids down and set the rules as statements of how everyone is to behave. Remember you are the adult. “Everyone in our house speaks in nice words to each other: no put-downs and no swearing.

4. Make good behaviour easy for your child: Give choices. For example, “You can start homework now or have ten minutes.”

5. Avoid Arguments: Getting into arguments only escalates the issue. Model the kind of behaviour you want to see in your child. Stay calm. Talk in a steady voice. Remain silent if screamed at. Restate the rules. Walk away for a short while. Set the ground rules. Your child has the right to express their opinion, but not by screaming.

6. Let your child experience the consequence of their behaviour: At a certain age your child is ready to face the real world.

7. Enjoy your child’s behaviour: Take an interest in their friends, progress at school, activities. Be proud. Use positive words. Help them to develop life skills to become self-confident, happy and independent.

Have a wonderful fortnight everyone,

Be safe and well.

Mrs Valensise 

Deputy Principal

Congratulations to Ethan in 4 Ruby!

Congratulations to all our students who participated in our annual public speaking competition.  Being a confident public speaker is a skill that develops over time and can be useful in all aspects of our life.

Our stage finalists were:

Kindergarten
Olivia, Cody, Hudson T, George O, Tess, Mia, Hudson B

Congratulations to 1st – Hudson B, 2nd – Olivia G, 3rd – Cody 

Stage 1
Myles, Theia, Hamish, Emily, Huxley, Cristian, Veronika, Kaira

Congratulations to 1st – Emily, 2nd – Myles, 3rd - Kaira

Stage 2
Harriott, Amilia, Kai, Amelia, Patrick, Emily, Chloe

Congratulations to 1st – Kai, 2nd – Harriot, 3rd – Amilia

Stage 3
Annabel S, Lincoln, Poppy, Hayley, Marcus, Annabel F, Kaitlyn

Congratulations to 1st – Marcus, 2nd – Annabel F, 3rd – Hayley

The winners from Stage 1, 2 and 3 will now represent our school at the Zone Public Speaking Competition next month. Good luck!

Mrs Bartram 

The Premiers Reading Challenge has closed for 2022. Congratulations to all our students who completed the challenge this year.

Congratulations to the following students who have completed the Premier’s Reading Challenge since our last newsletter:

Gabrielle H (KG) Rafael H (KG) Hudson B (KG) Ava V (KG) Cody A (KY) Henri G (KP) Kaitlin C (1N) Louis G (2L) Aahnik N (2M) Ethan V (2E) Chloe A (3G) Ryan C (3G) Andrew H (3G) Monty P (3G) Leonardo M (3G) Panayioti L (3H) Victoria B (3/4C) Vedha V (3/4C) Archer P (3/4C) Ryan H (4S) Ellie R (4S) Mikayla T (4S) Elarya L (5L) Zac W (5L) Ben W (5L) Shyla M (5I) Fawzan M (5/6R) Annabel F (5/6R) James H (5/6R) Bobby N (5/6R) Jackson P (5/6R) Ben N (6M) Xavier C (6F) Jade W (6P)

Congratulations Emily from 3 Honey on your induction to the SRC. 

Congratulations to our amazing athletes who represented our school at the zone carnival last week. Their efforts resulted in our school being named the Champion School of the 13 that competed and we also had 4 of the 6 age champions from our school! 

Congratulations to: Zone Junior Girls Champion – Amilia S 

Zone Junior Boys Champion – Josh G 

Zone 11 years Girls Champion – Abby F 

Zone Senior Girls Champion – Annabel S 

Good luck to all students who will be competing at the regional carnival on Wednesday 14 September.   

The following students finished in the top 3 for their event. They will receive their ribbons at a later date. 

Olivia B - 3rd in 8 years girls 100m 

Isla T - 3rd in 9 year girls 100m 

Abby F - 1st in 11 year 100m, 1st in 11 year girls 200m, 3rd in 11 year girls 800m, 3rd 11 year girls High Jump, 1st in 11 year girls Long Jump

Layla L - 3rd in 11 year 100m, 2nd in 11 year 200m, 1st in 11 year girls 800m

Annabel S - 1st in 12 year 100m, 1st in 12/13 year girls 200m, 1st in 12/13 year girls 800m, 1st in 12/13 year High Jump, 1st in 12/13 year girls Long Jump 

Amilia S - 2nd in 8/10 year girls 800m, 2nd in 8/10 year girls Long Jump, 1st in 8/10 year girls Discus Throw  

Elle R - 2nd in 8/10 year girls 1500m 

Jacinta B - 2nd in 12/13 year girls 1500m 

Shyla M - 3rd in 12/13 year girls 1500m 

Girls 8/10 years 4x100m RELAY placing 3rd - Darcy B, Selina C, Amilia S, Hayley S

Girls 11/13 years 4x100m RELAY placing 1st - Annabel S, Layla L, Zoe M, Abby F

Mikayla T - 1st in 8/10 year girls High Jump 

Darcy B - 3rd in 8/10 year girls Long Jump

Elarya L - 3rd in 11 year girls Long Jump

Heba A - 3rd in 8/10 year girls Shot Put

Lilly W - 2nd in 11 year girls Discus Throw

Una T - 3rd in 12/13 year girls Discus Throw 

Noah S - 1st in 8 year boys 100m 

Josh L - 2nd in 9 year boys 100m 

Josh G - 2nd in 10 year boys 100m, 1st in 8/10 year boys 800m, 2nd in 8/10 year boys High Jump, 2nd in 8/10 year boys Long Jump

Madiu K - 3rd in 11 year boys 200m 

Emmett B - 3rd in 8/10 year boys 800m 

Ben C - 2nd in 11 year boys 800m, 2nd in 11 year boys Long Jump

Aiden S - 3rd in 11 year boys 1500m 

Jack F - 3rd in 12/13 year boys 1500m 

Connor E - 2nd in 12/13 year boys High Jump

Marcus R - 1st in 8/10 year boys Discus Throw 

Boys 8/10 years 4x100m RELAY placing 1st - Josh G, Josh L, Ryan H, Joel M

Students (Years 5 and 6) from our school will soon be undertaking an education tour of the national capital. Students will be given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia’s history, culture, heritage and democracy.

The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education. To assist families in meeting the cost of the excursion the Australian Government is contributing funding of $30 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program towards those costs. The rebate is paid directly to the school upon completion of the excursion.

Our students have shown a keen interest in Pokemon trading cards so I organised some games that tapped into this interest! 

On Wednesday and Thursday, I set up a game of Bocce Ball for students during the lunch break. There was a lot of interest and enthusiasm, with many students wanting to watch and/or learn how to play.