CONNECTED

The weather is certainly getting cooler, but things are heating up in and outside the classroom. The students have had an amazing fortnight of learning and fun. We have two weeks left of the term and things are not slowing down. We have many events to look forward to including, the P&C disco tonight, NAIDOC celebrations and the 3-6 athletics carnival.

K-2 Cross Country Carnival

Yay, we finally had the perfect conditions to run the K-2 cross country. The children had so much fun and displayed such perseverance and fitness to finish the course. I just loved being out with the students and parents for this event. A huge thank you to Mrs Bartram and Miss Clarke for their organisation and all the staff for their support. Thank you also to our wonderful community for coming out to watch and cheer on the children. Photos will be published on our Facebook site and in the next newsletter. 

In the Spotlight Dance Festival

I wish the Stage 2 and 3 dance ensembles all the best for the performances at the ‘In the Spotlight Dance Festival next week. A lot of work has been put in by both the students and Mrs Farah and Miss Cascio. I appreciate all their efforts and am looking forward to enjoying the performance at the Seymour Centre. A big thank you goes to the parents and carers of our dancers for your support with costumes and transport.

Upcoming Events

As mentioned above we have several events coming up. These include the following:

*17 June - P&C Disco at 6:00pm in the school hall.

*20 June – In the Spotlight Dance festival – Stage Two Dance Ensemble.

*22 June – In the Spotlight Dance Festival – Stage three Dance Ensemble.

*24 June – K-2 Pet Incursion.

* 27 June – Reports home to parents/carers.

*28 June – Classroom NAIDOC celebrations.

*30 June - 3-6 Athletics Carnival at Bardon Ridge. Spectators are welcome.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Helena from 1 Aqua who was a close finalist in the Name the Crane competition run by Liverpool Health. Helena will receive a $50 gift voucher, which was donated by Lendlease the construction builder for Liverpool Hospital’s redevelopment.

Attendance

I am aware the flu virus is circulating which has impacted on student attendance. It is important students do not attend school if they are unwell as they need time to rest and recover. I kindly request that all student absences are communicated via the SkoolBag App, a written note or email to the front office. If students are absent for two or more days with no notification, you may receive a phone call. This is to check in to see if everything is okay and to inquire if the school can support in any way. Thank you for your support. 

Nicole Cameron 

Principal

Stage 1 students have been having fun playing some ‘old-fashioned’ games. In history they have been learning about ‘Past and Present Family Life’. They interviewed their parents, grandparents, and great grandparents to find what type of games they played when they were their age. During their history lessons students had a chance to try games such as Jacks and Marbles and to down tin cans, whilst in the playground they tried their hand at hopscotch and elastics. It was obvious that many of these games took a fair amount of patience and dexterity. During my class visits I saw what fun our students were having and was quick to join in the fun. Thank you, 1 Sky, for allowing me to join in the fun!

I also zoomed out to back at school sport last week. The students are having so much fun engaging in the array of cool sports. I learnt some yoga and tennis moves this week! I am proud of the opportunities given to all our students during sport time.

This week I also had some students zoom into my office who impressed me with their fluent and expressive reading which has been a focus in 3 Canary. Well done girls!

Welcome to this fortnight's newsletter. There are so many things to recognise and celebrate at our wonderful school. The opportunities afforded to our students are a credit to the extraordinary staff. From Debating success, Chess Club challenges, the CSIRO Project with Dr Katie Moon and led by Mrs Bartram as well as the Stage 3 Zero Litter in the Georges River project led by Mrs Farah, students are engaging in authentic learning experiences as global citizens.

Last week, I had a group of eager students from Year 4 come to me to set up a Reading Club at lunch times for those students who want a quiet place to go during lunch times. I just love student initiative! Watch this space as we work together to get this up and running.

Good luck to Mrs Farah and Miss Cascio who will be performing at the Spotlight Dance Festival next Monday and Wednesday evening. I cannot wait to see the dancers, as I know the standard of our performances is always outstanding. Mrs Farah and Miss Cascio thank you for the hours of work you put into the choreography, the written communication to parents and the endless administrative tasks associated with the event. Thank you also to the families for coming along to cheer on Wattle Grove.

Personalised Learning Pathways (PLPs)
As NAIDOC week approaches, I would like to recognise the 28 Aboriginal students and their families in this newsletter. Along with the students’ class teachers, the students, their parents/carers, I had the pleasure of sitting in on these very important PLP meetings to establish learning and cultural goals. Students have taken ownership of their goals and visit me on a regular basis to celebrate their successes. I have enjoyed working with Elise from 6 Magenta on tackling tricky division equations and listening to Hazel from 1 Sky reading as we celebrated her achievement of her reading goal (see photo below) .

Athletics Carnival
A friendly reminder that the Athletics Carnival is on Thursday 30 June. This is for Years 3 to 6 and for those students in Year 2 turning 8 this year. Please make your payment to the front office as it is an expectation that all students attend.

Casual Teacher Shortage
When teachers are absent because they are sick, we try our best to cover the class with a casual teacher. However, in recent weeks, we (like many other schools) are finding it difficult to secure casual teachers to cover classes. When this occurs, classes will be split where students will have work to complete, consolidating the learning happening in class.

Week 7 Professional Learning
Last week we had a representative from the Interactive Panel company Promethean who delivered some professional learning to staff around the new boards and how to get the best out of them. A suite of tools were explained and teacher feedback was extremely positive. Thank you to Mrs Cabrera for organising this session.

Planning Week
Over the next fortnight, each stage of teachers will be off class for the day to work collaboratively to plan the teaching and learning for Term 3. The support staff will cover classes with work that has been left by the class teachers.

Maths Project Team- A Resource Audit
Mrs Boyes and Miss Cascio, leaders of the Maths Project team, have been working tirelessly on a whole school maths resources audit. New purchases have been made, old and broken and a new storage space created for teachers to access the resources needed to teach engaging, hands-on Mathematics lessons. Look at the before and after photos below to see the end results.

Student Wellbeing

Turning a Negative into a Positive (from Behaviour Hot Tips: The Learning Difficulties Coalition

 Negative Thinkers

·         Try to make everyone think their way and tend to bring everyone down with them

·         Believe things are always worse than they are

·         Can only see the negative in a situation

·         Are often very ‘black and white’ in their thinking

·         Blame others for their mistakes

·         Are unwilling to try new activities

·         Spend a lot of time complaining

·         Are very critical of themselves

·         Have lower self esteem

·         Catastrophise events

·         Encourage negative responses/interactions with those around them – it’s catching

What to Say and Do?

·         Acknowledge how your child feels, eg. ‘I understand you feel disappointed about missing out’

·         Encourage hearing positive thoughts to counter the negative thoughts

·         Teach your child to say ‘I can’ not ‘I can’t’

·         Point out the positives around them that they cannot see

·         Keep a positivity jar about the good things that have happened

·         Build their confidence in small steps. Set small achievable goals

·         Role model being positive in our daily lives

·         Provide lots of praise

·         Encourage them to say a positive thought out loud for every negative thought they say

Have a great fortnight everyone. 

Mrs Vicky Valensise
Deputy Principal

Following their induction into the SRC, our students have been learning about each other and exploring their individual values, attitudes and beliefs. This will enable us to form working groups aligned with issues and causes we are passionate about. We are currently looking at school-based projects, charitable fundraising, charitable initiatives and awareness campaigns which need a student voice. Stay tuned!

In the SRC meetings we have been talking about our traits and goals. Quite a few of the goals were getting better at public speaking, and others were making happiness throughout the school as well as making and keeping the bathrooms clean. We have been also talking about fundraisers and raising awareness for disabilities. We made a jam board so we can put ideas down and Mrs Alderton and Mr Wilson can see them and see what they can do with them.                                   

                                                                                            Elise K (6 Magenta)

On the 8 June we went to the Georges River Environmental Education Centre at Chipping Norton. Students were really excited about what they would see and learn, and they weren’t disappointed. Here are some of their reports:

Darian
We went on the school bus for the Frog Id Project. When we walked in there was a massive fish and a cute little baby turtle. Then we had to create our own journal about frogs, for us to work in it. There was a giant picture of a forest and Mr Hall played a video so we could experience the picture. Then we had a talk about the Georges River. Did you know that there is 50km of salt water in the Georges River? Then we learnt about a frog called Sapphire and she is really good at spitting water.

We learnt so much today and had so much fun.

Joah
Today we went by bus to the Georges River Environmental Education Centre (GREEC) At the GREEC we learnt about various things about the Eastern long-necked turtle and the green tree frog. It was fascinating and I definitely want to do it again.

I think this was an amazing experience and I want to thank Mrs Bartram for setting it all up.

Alexis
At the Georges River Environmental Education Centre, we saw some interesting creatures and learnt their traditional Aboriginal names, like turtles (Gundugulung), lizard (Burrma), eels (Burra Burra) and bream fish (Magura) that live in the Georges River. If you go along the Holsworthy part of the river you might find freshwater blue yabbies.

We learnt that frogs can drink through their skin, are nocturnal and are amphibians that differ in size and shape and they have a back spine. If you want to help our fascinating frogs ask your parents for help and make a peaceful area that has moisture and small hiding places for frogs to visit.

The GREEC is very interesting and they have a lot of cool and fascinating stuff.

Lilly
Today at Wattle Grove Public School we went to build on our knowledge for the CSIRO Frog Project at the Georges River Environmental Education Centre. We learnt that the Georges River is 96km long and 50km of it is salt water and 46 km of it is fresh water. Frogs are nocturnal amphibians and are vertebrates that need to close their eyes when they are swallowing and they can breathe and drink through their skin.

Reeva
The Frog Id class went to the Georges River Environmental Education Centre by the school bus on 8th June 2022. The frog we were learning about was the green tree frog. We also learnt about fish, eels and turtles. We got our own book to write in. We Tried drawing the best frog we could. Frogs eat other frogs, snakes and small insects.

Evaan
On the 8th June the students in the Frog Id program went to the Georges River Environmental Education Centre (GREEC). When we got to our destination using our school bus, we went inside the centre and learnt about the Georges River and the animals that live there. In the saltwater tanks there were a few fish. The freshwater tanks consisted of turtles, eels, and frogs. After learning lots of cool facts we returned to school in a trip length of around twenty-five minutes.

Aralia
We learnt lots of things at the Georges River Environmental Education Centre. Frogs are nocturnal amphibians of different sizes and shapes. Bream and bull sharks live in saltwater. Bull sharks come into the less salty water to mate. Eels can live in both salt and fresh water. Eastern long-necked turtles can only live in fresh water. Yabbies are scavengers and turtles use their shell for protection and camouflage and come onto land to warm themselves and digest food. The first frog sent to England as a specimen was blue, which is why the scientific name talks about them being blue.

This week saw the first round of the Bankstown-East Hill debating competition. Our newly formed team had their first round debate against Revesby Public School.
The team presented the case that the city is better than the country. 
After the presentation of well-prepared speeches from both teams, Revesby was awarded the debate; however, the adjudicator complimented the Wattle Grove team for the structure of their speeches and the accuracy of their rebuttals. 

Donna Robinson

Congratulations to Cristian in 2 Emerald!

For three weeks now I have run the Poppies gardening group at lunch time on Tuesdays. The students take great pride in looking after the front garden beds by pulling out the weeds, picking up the leaves and watering the plants. The students help me at the end of lunch to tidy the area up and return the gardening equipment back to where they belong. I am so proud of each child for putting their hand up and taking pride in the appearance of their school

Defence School Mentor

Reminder: Just a reminder that the Premier’s Reading Challenge is open. The challenge will close on Friday August 19, 2022. Details of the Premier’s Reading Challenge can be found on the following website along with comprehensive book titles; https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/studentExperience.html

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

It was an action packed day full of grit and determination from our AFL representative teams last Thursday, at Kirkham Oval in Elderslie. Battling it out in a round robin style competition and persevering against the chilly conditions, our teams gave it their all and had a tonne of fun along the way!

Our girls team learned a lot about the game of AFL and represented our school with pride. Our boys team did an extraordinary job of remaining undefeated until being knocked out in the semifinals. Several players on both teams mentioned how much they enjoyed the day and many are now interested in trialling for our school PSSA team later in the year.

Both teams displayed excellent sportsmanship and their behaviour on and off the field was exemplary. All students should be very proud of themselves. 

Mr Adam Wilson              Mrs Sharon Thomas
Boys AFL Coach               Girls AFL Coach

A big congratulations to all the girls in the Liverpool Zone Soccer team. They played their hearts out and did our zone proud with their effort, behaviour and sportsmanship in every game. We got off to a strong start winning our first game against Campbelltown then had a tough game going down to Horsely who went on to be joint winners. We drew our final 2 games against The Fields and Green Valley. We definitely had the tough side of the draw but they kept fighting the whole way through.

An extra congratulations to Annie from Wattle Grove who scored a number of superstar goals and was selected in the Sydney South West team to compete at the state carnival.