06 September 2022
In this Issue
- Principal's Report
- Stage 3 Camp video
Parent Maths Evening - this Thursday!
Moments in Maths including photos
Book Week including photos
Colouring & Poster competition winners including photos
Book Club issue 6 online ordering & payment platform
Stage 3 Camp photos
2022 NSW term and vacation dates
- Canteen and uniform shop
- Community News
- Contact Us
Principal's Report
SAS Recognition Week
This week is SAS Staff Appreciation Week. This is a week where we acknowledge the tremendous role our School Administrative and Support Staff plays in our School. We have a very talented and dedicated group of employees who often do a large amount of work above and beyond their job descriptions.
School Administrative and Support Staff, whether they work in the office, the library, on the school grounds or in the classroom setting, are important contributors to the success of the school and children’s education. Woonona Public School would not run as effectively as it does without our SAS Staff.
Our dedicated SAS Staff are:
* Karina Curry – Business Manager
* Kim Davis, Sharlene Hodson and Chris Belling - School Admin Officers
* Sue Holz and Eric Seymour - General Assistants
* Barbara Peary, Kirstie Seymour, Amber Barraclough and Roxy Dempsey – School Learning and Support Officers
Education Week Open Day - Tuesday 13 September
Information was sent out late last week, reminding our community that our Education Week Open Day is fast approaching. Please take the time to re-read this note, which contains important information for all families wishing to attend.
A reminder that our Open Classrooms will occur as follows:
9:30am – 10:00am - Early Stage 1
10:00am – 10:30am – Stage 1
10:30am – 11:00am – Stage 2
11:00am – 11:30am – Recess – Feel free to join us for a relaxing break – bring a picnic blanket and enjoy! K-2 Parents, please join your child on the K-2 synthetic grass area.
11:30am – 12:00pm – Stage 3
We look forward to seeing many families join us for what should be a fantastic day.
Applying for Extended Leave
With the world continuing to open to travel, it is important to revise leave requirements for our school.
Any family wishing to take five or more school days of extended leave (for travel purposes) should contact our school and complete the relevant paperwork. A certificate will be completed by the school and provided to the family, prior to their trip. This certificate can be used, whilst on your trip, should you ever be requested by authorities. Please note that this is an expectation from the NSW Department of Education. It is important to also note that requests should be made, where possible, well in advance of the leave occurring, to ensure that all paperwork can be completed.
Please contact the office via email or phone, should you require this documentation. We will soon have an application for extended leave form online for you to complete.
NAPLAN 2022
Last week, Year 3 and Year 5 students were given their NAPLAN results for 2022. Staff have had a brief opportunity to investigate these results and will have further opportunities in Term 4 to digest individual data and group trends. What is evident is that the results achieved this year are generally very pleasing, with our school being significantly above national average in every assessed area in Year 5 and above national average in three of the five assessed areas for Year 3. We have some work to do in spelling, grammar and punctuation in our earlier years, which is something that we had already pinpointed as an area requiring improvement. Decodable texts and professional learning, later this year and into 2023, will be a focus for addressing the improvement required. We look forward to using this data, along with all the other forms of data being collected by teachers, to continue to support student learning and growth.
Kindergarten Parent Evening
Last week I had the pleasure of joining our Kindergarten Orientation team, as they presented to a large crowd of parents who have children joining us in 2023. I want to thank this team, who provided a thorough outline to families, including what is ahead in the coming months for our newest students. I would also like to thank Jules, Terri and Justin who are parents at our school. They presented vital information to our audience, that is very important to successfully transitioning to big school.
Parent Maths Evening - Thursday 8 September
A reminder that our Parent Maths Evening is this Thursday. A huge amount of work has gone on behind the scenes to ensure our families who attend get a diverse range of information that will assist with their understanding and ability to support their child at home. It is not too late to book in, so please do so to ensure we have all the correct information and planning in place for what is sure to be a very informative night.
Southern Stars
In Week 6, months of training finally came together as students from our school performed at Southern Stars. It was a huge week, with students out for four consecutive days. The show is such an amazing achievement for all involved, with 127 schools and over 3000 students and staff involved. I was lucky enough to attend on Friday night and was blown away by the amazing spectacle that public education was able to put together. It made me immensely proud. Congratulations to everyone involved for being part of a truly special experience. I would especially like to thank Mrs McLerie, Mrs Brown and Mrs Peary for their organisation and commitment to ensuring this program was such a success.
Stage 3 Camp
Last week saw our Stage 3 students head off to camp at The Tops Conference Centre. What a huge but enjoyable 3 days and 2 nights our students and staff experienced. On Wednesday afternoon there were many tired but proud and happy faces, as everyone involved reflected on their experiences and the challenges they faced and overcame. Congratulations to everyone involved and a huge thank you to our Stage 3 team of teachers, for coordinating this event, with particular thanks to Ms Phillips for her exceptional organisation of the whole experience.
Please enjoy our great camp video.
Lots of wonderful photos are further down in this newsletter.
Regional Athletics
Last Friday, 11 students made their way down to Canberra for the South Coast Athletics Carnival. From all accounts our students did a fantastic job and were wonderful representatives of our school and district. Not only that, but a number of our students also came away with outstanding results. A special congratulations to:
Hudson – 3rd in the 8 years 100m
Lennox – 1st in the junior boys shot put
Archie – 1st in the 1500m (in a record-breaking time!!) and 1st in the 800m
The students were joined by the rest of the North Wollongong Team as well as Mr Argaet and Mr Heffernan, who were the team managers. Well done to all involved!
P&C Meeting Reminder
Our next P&C meeting will be on Wednesday, 14 September (that’s next Wednesday!) at 6:30pm. The meeting will be held in Ms Phillip’s room and is always a fun and informative night. We hope to see you there!
Father's Day Stall
Week 7 saw the always highly anticipated Father’s Day Stall occur, where students had the opportunity to purchase something for their dad. Thank you to those amazing volunteers who assisted with the running of the stall, especially Loren and Bronwyn who co-ordinated the whole event. I hope our dad’s special day was made that little bit more special with a gift from our stall.
Mr Tim Fisher
Principal
Parent Maths Evening - this Thursday!
Come and join us this Thursday from 6-7pm in our school hall!
After a recent parent survey, we found that parents wanted to know more about how they can support their child in maths at home. Maths is taught differently to that of the past and terms like 'partitioning', 'the jump and split strategy', 'the formal algorithms', 'counting on', 'subitising', 'bridging through 10' (and many more) are strategies that we use in our classrooms and strategies that you can reinforce at home.
Come along and listen to the 'big ideas' in maths and join in some fun workstations to practise the strategies yourself!
The teachers look forward to seeing you there!
Moments in Maths
Stage 2 have been learning about Fractions.
We have learnt that fractions are equal parts of a whole. For example, if you share a pizza equally between 8 people each person would get 1/8 - Darcy, 3-4B
Equivalent fractions are equal fractions, even though they look different when we write them. Equivalent means equal. An example is 2/5 = 4/10 - Alyra and Sonny, 3-4B
Fractions can be used to share amounts equally between people. For example, when people share a cake or lollies, we divide them up equally to make it fair. - Harper C and Elise, 3-4S
If there were 3 people sharing a cake and we divided the cake equally, each person would eat 1/3. To make fractions equivalent, we learnt that whatever we do to the numerator, we do to the denominator. So, if we double the numerator, we must double the denominator - Ethan, 3-4L
So if we cut Ethan's cake into 6 pieces, each person would get 2 pieces. This means they'd get 2/6 which is still a 1/3 - Bodhi, 3-4L
Equivalent fractions are equal, so 1/2 is equal to 2/4. - Lennox and Samson, 3-4 A
The numerator is the number written on top which tells us how many parts. The denominator is the number on the bottom which tells us how many bits in total - Kai, 3-4A
Did you know that 1/2 is equal to 4/8? Elise, 3-4M
When we eat a family pizza, my mum and dad cut it up into 10 pieces. There are 5 people in my family, so we get 2 pieces each. This is written as 2/10. - Annabelle, 3-4R
This is my fractions poster - Indie, 3-4A
Click images to enlarge.
Equivalent fractions by Maya, 3-4B
Counting in eighths - Ranajay, 3-4B
We enjoyed creating our fractions posters in 3-4L
My fractions poster - Archie, 3-4M
My fractions poster - Riley, 3-4S
Equivalent fraction bars
Stay tuned for our next edition where Stage 3 will feature.
LIBRARY NEWS
Book Week
Wow! What a busy, fun and exciting week all the students and staff had celebrating Book Week at Woonona Public School in Week 6. A variety of activities occurred throughout the week starting with a book tasting for 3-6 students in the Library on Monday. Students had the opportunity to sample a collection of newly purchased books and offer ratings and recommendations for other readers.
On Tuesday, we had our dress-up day and parade. It was fantastic to see our whole school community come together again to celebrate this event. I would like to thank all the parents, students and staff for all their efforts in creating such fantastic and creative costumes. After this event students got the opportunity to have photos taken with their friends in the photo booth. These photos will be displayed in the Library and a video has been create to share with the school community.
We finished our Book Week celebration with a visit from the Librarians at Corrimal Public Library who put on a readers theatre performance and games for K-2 students. This was the first time in nearly 3 years that students have had the opportunity to attend an event like this. Lots of laughs and fun was had by all.
Colouring & Poster Competition
Last week the winners and highly commended prize recipients were announced at our Book Parade. There were over 250 entries in the competition this year which showcased the talented and creative artistic skills of our school community. The winners this year for each category were:
Kinder - Koa KL
Year 1 - Reeva 1B
Year 2 - Bodhi 2S
Year 3 - Harper T (3/4A)
Year 4 - Arabella B (3/4R)
Year 5 - Ryley T (5/6L) & Mikayla K (5/6H)
Year 6 - Hazel M (5/6P) & Olivia B (5/6M)
Well done to all students involved. Our winners received $25 book vouchers from Collins Bookshop in Thirroul and our highly commended entries received 2 books each and a certificate. Winning and highly commended posters will be displayed in the Library gallery for the next year.
Book Club
Issue 6 of the Scholastic Book Club catalogue is available to view online below. Orders can be placed below online ONLY using the LOOP app. All orders are due by 10 September.
Happy reading,
Mrs Carroll
Librarian
Stage 3 Camp
Canteen and uniform shop
Onsite uniform shop closed until further notice.
Online orders can be placed on the QuickCliq website
Uniform Shop
- Download the uniform price list and order form (PDF 204.7KB)
- Online orders can be placed on the QuickCliq website
Co-operation - respect - effort - responsibility
Community News
Is your child interested in athletics? Come and join Northern Illawarra Little Athletics Club on a Friday afternoon. Your child will get to experience a range of events including short and long distance running, hurdles, long jump, high jump, discus, shot put and javelin.
Registrations are open online, so visit
2022/23 Rego Fee - $150 per athlete (U6-U17)
And $130 per Tiny Tot (U3yrs –U5)
Active Kids vouchers can also be used!
Competition starts Friday 14th October at Bulli High School Athletics Oval at 4:15pm then every Friday afternoon of the school term on the athletics oval - Access via Alroy, Jardine & Godolphin Streets
NILAC Uniforms can be purchased at our Rego Pick Up days at a cost of $80 per set. Uniform is Compulsory at all times whilst competing at our club.
*All Athletes are required to have 1 parent/ adult from their own family to help out each Friday
afternoon, at a designated job as part of your child’s registration.
*Every adult attending our club will need to have a current Working with Children’s Check Number to
attend as per our User Agreement with the High School
For any further information please see our club Facebook page or contact us via email
Email: northernillawarralac@yahoo.com.au
Face book: Northern Illawarra Little Athletics Club