Wiripaang Whisperer… Term 1 Week 4

Wiripaang Public School 2A Pacific Highway, Gateshead NSW 2290 Phone: 02 4943 4357 Fax: 02 4942 2589

Email: wiripaang-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Positive Affirmation:

Dear Parents, Carers and Community, The Department of Education is going through the biggest change in introducing a new system to manage school finance and student wellbeing and management. Mrs Jones, our School Manager will be undertaking fifteen days training and I will be doing five days training to ensure we are ready when the current OASIS system is switched off in June. This will mean that there will be extra strain on the office as many tasks need to be done in order for our system to roll over. You may see different staff in the office as we backfill for training purposes and our office staff will be under more pressure this year as they learn a completely new system. Please consider this as you do business with us this year, it’s a huge change and we will be doing our best to introduce a massive change with least possible disruption to students, staff and families. Thank you to Lake Macquarie Private Hospital for their donation of $2000 per annum to assist with our new Wellbeing Nutrition Program. We will be using this money to set up a cooking/art classroom in the space behind the canteen. Our P&C has advised us that our ‘Meet the Teacher’ Information sessions need to be held close to home time and should be brief in nature. Please consider coming to your child’s advertised session as this 30 minutes investment might answer many questions that may pop up over the year. We aim to be a partnership with you in the care, support and education of your child. P&C have also voted for a change to policy in regards to payment for school based opportunities including sport and excursions. This decision came from knowledge that the school was owed a considerable amount of money at the end of the business year, mostly from payments not received. We will now fall in line with the majority of schools that have a ‘no payment, no attendance’ policy. Of course, we can offer support at times when families are experiencing financial difficulty and this is as simple as a phone call or visit to our Community Liaison Officer, Assistant Principals or Principal. Please make sure that you have attended to purchasing a Book Pack for your child. Students need them to function in the classroom as every book pack has been designed to meet the specific needs of the student for their grade for the year. Examples of the Bookpacks are on display in the office. Mrs Saurins Principal

Our positive affirmation this

week is: ‘I understand that

I must be at school each

day!’

This affirmation is about

being a learner. It reminds

us that our learning is on a

continuum. Lessons build so

that we can understand

better. It is so important not

to be away unless you are

really sick. Remember boys

and girls…’it’s cool to be at

school’. On Monday we will

start our daily PBL

Attendance Raffle. If your

name is called out and you

are here you will receive a

prize to be collected at the

canteen.

So be at school and be cool!

Calendar Events….

Thursday 18th February

Sport in Schools

Baseball 3.15pm

Tuesday 23rd

February

Sport in Schools

Cricket 3.15pm

Monday 7th

March

P & C AGM

9.15am in the Library

Wednesday 9th March

Whole School Photo Day

Respectful Responsible Learners

Office News

School Office Hours 8.30am till 3.15pm

Outstanding Money Just a reminder that at all times parents/carers are most welcome to pay small amounts regularly off money that is owed to the school. Payment of Money to Office When money is paid to the office a receipt will be handed immediately to the person paying the money (except for Uniforms). Please check the details on the receipt are correct e.g. name/activity/amount paid and notify the office staff if there are any discrepancies. Notes Blue information sheet to be handed to the classroom teacher and a chocolate reward is given.

School News

Awards

School Banking

School Banking each Tuesday, please take your bank books to your classroom.

2016 School Leaders

Last week saw a hive of activity for our newly inducted School Leaders. First there was our annual Swimming

Carnival, which in particular required our Sports Captains to inspire their teams to cheer and participate in the

events run on the day. Secondly we held our first normally Friday assembly which required our School Captains to

prepare the event and run the ceremony.

On behalf of the school body I like to congratulate all of our School Leaders in their efforts, as both significant

events ran smoothly and were conducted in true Wiri Spirit. For those of you who may have missed the induction

ceremony the table below summarises who these representatives are for 2016.

Ruby Tarrant Lailah Date Abbie-May Pryor Justin Russell Jade Wilson Nekiah Cools Abbey Holmes Henry Norrie Andrew Forbes Hayden Chittenden

Boston Horvath Baxter Williams Lilly-Belle Bailey Maverick Murnane Brodie Sharp Atayah Aliimalemanu Noahjames Denning Levi Dunne Joel Melksham Jorja-Lee Reid

Kaleb Thornton Breeanna McGuiness Lucy Hedges-Wellings Lee Thornton Lachlan Palmer Tayah Reed Chelsea Palmer Chelsea Adamson Jacob Holmes Aurora Ellis

School Captains School Captains Ethan Melksham Jarelle Brown

School Vice Captains Troshia Nasilai Elijah Aliimalemanu

Chelsea Palmer Aliyah Haskal

Support Unit Captains Cody Simpson Hayley McKenzie

Sports Captains

Bradman

House Captains Bailey Waring Tiarna Hobbs-Ladd

House Vice Captains Christopher McLaren Bethany Raglus

Fraser

House Captains Reilly Griggs Breeanna McGuiness

House Vice Captains Royden Taape Chelsea Adamson

Freeman

House Captains Levi Oliver Tiarnee Cox

House Vice Captains Lachlan Woods Monifah Brown

Messenger

House Captains Levi Date-Dargan Abby Poole

House Vice Captains Zachary Jones Nikiah Murnane

Library News

Your Weekly Borrowing Days are:

PLEASE BRING A LIBRARY BAG SO YOU CAN TAKE YOUR BOOK HOME TO READ

Library Matters:

Premier’s Reading Challenge will commence on 7th

March. Start getting ready and go to the website to

create a list of books you’re interested in reading. Follow the link below.

https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/logon.html?ssosource=login

Share the Love of Reading: Thank you to the lovely Hooton, Jones, Hamilton and Thornton families who

have donated books to our library. We will keep what we can use in the Library and would love to offer the rest

Free to our community so that we can keep “Sharing the Love of Reading!” These books will be available out

the front of the library. Come and have a look

Over Due Loans: Thank you to the families who have made a great effort to locate our missing books and for

also making a $5 donation towards renewing these books!! Just to remind you students will be given 3

reminder notices about overdue loans. If the books are not returned, they will be disabled from borrowing and

issued a donation slip asking for $5 per book. Please encourage our children to be responsible “My Book -

My Responsibility”.

Dates for your diary:

19th

February – Issue 1 Book Club Due

7th

March – Premier’s Reading Challenge Starts

22nd

April – Easter Hat Parade and Book Fair

Book Club

Issue 1 has been distributed. Due: 19/2/16

MONDAY 1/2B 1/2G WG

TUESDAY KC K/1G 3/4T

WEDNESDAY 3/4P WF WM 3/6M

Sport News

Swimming Carnival What an amazing carnival we had on Monday. It was great weather for a Swimming Carnival and all of our children behaved themselves admirably. The results of some races were unbelievably close and the final point score was similarly close. The winning house, along with our age champions will be announced at Week 5’s School Assembly. We may have to wait for the following week to hand out trophies, as I want to ensure these students get the adequate recognition and time allowed for this to be completed properly. Congratulations to all those swimmers who participated in races even though it wasn’t easy for them. It was truly fantastic to see the joy of achievement on their faces when finishing an event or completing a challenge. Something to note, was the higher amount of involvement in comparison to this time last year. It was so exciting to see students who were previously unable to begin an event, finish them with a smile on their faces. It was also fantastic to see a number of Wiripaang school records broken this year. In particular, congratulations to Jodin Bell who broke a number of records himself! There were a number of students who managed to successfully qualify for our zone swimming meet. The qualification process is based on students meeting a set qualifying time. This is done to ensure that all attending the next phase of competition remain competitive. Students who have met these requirements will be notified in the near future. A huge thank you to all the parents and teachers who worked so hard to ensure the day ran smoothly. It was pleasing to see so many willing helpers who worked to ensure that our students had the proper support to enjoy themselves and compete. A thank you also needs to be extended to the Charlestown Swimming Centre for the use of their equipment and assistance in setting out the lane ropes. We cannot have a swimming carnival or indeed any carnival without our willing band of workers. Ben Durie

P & C News

P&C AGM will be held Monday 7

th March at 9.15am in the Library – all positions are declared vacant on the day;

you need to be a member of the P&C to hold a position and have attended a previous 2015 meeting. We look forward to seeing some new faces. EASTER To celebrate Easter we will be holding an OUT OF UNIFORM DAY on WEDNESDAY 16

th March. Children need to

bring something “Easter” Themed; Easter egg, basket, bag, ears, toy, etc; to donate to our Easter Raffle which will be drawn on our Easter Hat Parade Tuesday 22

nd March. We appreciate your help with this

See back of newsletter for tickets.

Community Information

Nutrition

This week we learnt that sugar can be found either naturally in food or can be added to food. Added sugars can

mess up your body, make you feel tired and irritable and gives you a burst of energy that doesn’t last very long.

We need to try and eat friendly sugar products most of the time – Friendly products have other nutrients and fibres

that help our bodies.

THE SHOCK FACT OF THE WEEK

In 2015 the average Australian family of 4 consumed 6kg of sugar a week.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

‘We need to befriend our bodies”

Ethan Melksham 5/6D

JOKE OF THE WEEK

Windale Men’s Shed

Another big thank you to the Windale Men’s Shed for making our ‘quiet zone’ fence in the resort playground. The men give up their own time to make our playgrounds a better place to be. THANK YOU! We will be looking to paint the fence very soon (any ideas or helpers welcome) – and then all the lovely fun quiet zone toys and games can start to happen. Awabakal Playgroup

Notice received that Awabakal Playgroup that was held on Monday Morning has been cancelled. They wish to advise that they are sorry for the inconvenience. Awabakal will advise our school of other playgroups in the area and we will pass on this information in our next newsletter.