16 May 2023
Principal's Report
Principal Conference
Last Thursday and Friday, I attended a conference in Bowral for Wollongong and Wollongong North principals. The conference focus was on leadership self-reflection and how as leaders we need to understand who we are so we can get the best out of ourselves and the teams we lead. It really was a fantastic two days and I look forward to how the learning from these days can help our school to become an even better place to work and learn.
K-1 Cross Country
Thursday of Week 2 saw our K-1 students participate in a wonderful morning filled with excitement, smiles and enthusiasm. It was lovely to see many families join us for the morning. A big congratulations to all our participating students, to our organising staff and to our supporting students. What a lovely way to encourage fitness through fun.
Please see some great photos further down in this newsletter.
CoS Twilight
In Week 3, our school was joined by Woonona East Public School and Russell Vale Public School for a Community of Schools Twilight Session of Professional Learning. The session ran from 3:30pm – 6:30pm, with each school sharing its curriculum journey over the last few years. Our school shared our numeracy knowledge, whilst we heard from WEPS (writing) and RVPS (reading). In what was a genuine celebration of each schools’ success, feedback from the evening has also reflected a highly valued night of learning, with staff coming away with new ideas and strategies for how we can make our school a better learning environment.
District Cross Country
Friday of Week 2, saw a team of 48 students represent our school at the District Cross Country Carnival at Bulli Park. All our students represented our school with pride and displayed exceptional behaviour and determination. We would like to extend a huge congratulations to those who participated and successfully completed the course. Woonona Public School is very proud of you!
In addition to the fantastic effort from all, seven students have progressed to the next level and will represent our school at the Regional Cross Country Carnival. This is a fantastic achievement, and we wish them well as they travel down to Nowra and compete against strong runners from across the South Coast.
Fun Run
Last Friday, our Year 2-6 students reflected a blast of colour as they participated in our catch-up fun run. From all accounts it was a wonderful event with lots of laughter, smiles and enjoyment had by all involved. A big thank you to our organising teachers and for those families who were able to attend to show support.
See a great video of the Fun Run further down in this newsletter.
CoS Band
Each Wednesday, a dedicated group of 9 students are dropped off at Woonona High School as part of the Woonona CoS Band. These students are committed to attending weekly lessons, but also must practice consistently each week. Opportunities to perform will occur for this group later in the year, but I wanted to acknowledge the hard work that this group is putting towards achieving a collective goal, under the guidance of the WHS music department staff.
P&C Meeting
Our next P&C meeting will be on Wednesday 14 June at 6:30pm. The meeting will be held in the school staff room. We hope to see you there!
Mother’s Day Stall
I hope that all mothers out there had a wonderful Mother’s Day on Sunday. For many of you, I hope it was made that little bit more special with a small gift from your child, purchased at our Mother’s Day stall held last Friday. To all those parents who helped bring this project together, I thank you on behalf of all the excited children and the lucky mothers – a special thanks to Claire and Tarsha for their dedication to making this event a huge success for our students. Well done!
National Walk Safely to School Day
This Friday 19 May is “National Walk Safely to School Day”. This day is one where we encourage students and their families to ride or walk safely to school. The weather forecast for Friday is sunny and 18 degrees, so we hope that some of our families who don’t traditionally walk, take the opportunity to enjoy some exercise on their way to school.
Mr Tim Fisher
Principal
Year 2 - 6 Fun Run Video
Click on image above to view video.
Southern Stars Tickets go on sale 20 June
Woonona Public School’s Stage 3 Dance Troupe
Woonona Public School’s Stage 3 Dance Troupe are performing in the South Coast Public Schools Dance Festival 2023. We would love you to come along and support our school. Tickets will go on sale on Friday 19 May at 10:00am and can be purchased via the Illawarra Performing Art Centre website: https://merrigong.com.au/venues/ipac/
Here is a photo of the girls from dance festival. They have been busy practicing two days a week and absolutely loving it!
Applying for Extended Leave
Any family wishing to take extended leave of 10 or more days (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.
Fundraising for Illawarra Rotary Clubs Ride 4 Rotary
Darcy O’Sullivan (5/6P) and Sonny O’Sullivan (3/4B) will be participating in Ride 4 Rotary (Illawarra Rotary Club) to support Southern Youth and Family Services, a local -not-for-profit supporting and caring for vulnerable and homeless children and young people.
The boys will be riding at the Unanderra Velodrome on May 21. If anyone would like to donate the boys would be very excited!
https://charity.syfs.org.au/fundraisers/darcyosullivan409/ride4rotary-illawarra
https://charity.syfs.org.au/fundraisers/sonnyosullivan410/ride4rotary-illawarra
The link to the main page is below, May 21 at the velodrome is open to all and will be a fun community day with food and activities including face-painting and a petting zoo for kids.
If any other kids would like to participate in the ride they can sign up as a team or individual, or can join the Illawarra Out of Home Care Team that Darcy and Sonny are riding in.
https://charity.syfs.org.au/event/ride4rotary-illawarra/home
Uniform Shop News
We are constantly looking at ways to improve the running of the Uniform Shop, to make the supply and purchase of uniforms in our school simple for families as well as our volunteers. As you may know, the Uniform Shop is run wholly by parent volunteers, so that the uniform costs can be kept low and any profit made is put back into our school.
The Uniform Shop team have been working on some changes to our website and uniform options, in consultation with staff and parents at P&C meetings.
Online ordering has now moved to https://wpsuniforms.square.site/
- Please add your child’s name and class to the ‘note for the seller’ box upon checkout. If you do not have the option to enter these details, please email uniformshop@wppc.com.au with name and class.
- If you have any Quickcliq balance credits that you wish to have returned, please call them on 1300 11 66 37 or email support@quickcliq.com.au.
The following items are no longer available to purchase as part of the school uniform, due to supply and storage issues and to simplify the school uniform. Those who already own these items may continue to wear them.
- Red Sport Skort - All students will wear red shorts for sport uniform going forward.
- Grey Cargo Long Pants - The alternative unisex grey long pants are still available with regular pant pockets.
Fabulous fun at our K-1 Cross Country
The Cross Country Carnival for Kindergarten and Year 1 students took place on Thursday 4 May 2023. We couldn’t have chosen a better day for our Kindergarten and Year 1 students to take on the long distance run. A big thank you to our House Captains and Vice Captains who came down and supported the Kindergarten and Year 1 competitors. We were so proud to see all students running their best and also displaying excellent sportspersonship!
Congratulations to all the place getters and to Mitchell for winning the point score.
Please see more great photos further down in this newsletter.
PSSA Knockout Netball Competition
On Tuesday 2 May, a selection of Stage 3 girls participated in the PSSA Knockout Netball competition against Corrimal East Public School. Although the girls weren’t successful on the day, they played a fantastic game and should be very proud of their efforts.
Mrs Lawlor
Library News
Now that the Library is up and running again, we have a very busy term planned for the Library with students participating in a Visual Literacy unit of learning during Library lessons each week. The aim of this unit is to develop in students a deep understanding of how to read, interpret and evaluate visual texts.
Students will also be continuing with reading books for the Premier’s Reading Challenge. To help support this and to encourage reading for pleasure can parents please remind students to return their books each week and store them in a safe place. Regular borrowing is essential in creating good reading habits.
National Simultaneous Storytime 2023
A number of special events have also been planned this term. The first is the National Simultaneous Storytime 2023 on Wednesday 24 May at 11am. Students will have the opportunity to listen to Rebecca Young’s story ‘The Speedy Sloth’ simultaneously along with 2 million other students across the globe. If you have young children at home, you may like to also participate in this event. There are details below with information on how to register and participate at home.
National Simultaneous Storytime 2023 – let’s get 2 million kids reading!
Book Club
Issue 3 online orders have just closed. Orders should be process by Scholastic and delivered in the next 2 weeks.
Keep an eye out for Issue 4 of the Scholastic Book Club which will arrive later in the term. Remember all orders can only be placed online using the LOOP app.
Happy reading,
Mrs Carroll
Librarian
Canteen and uniform shop
Onsite uniform shop closed until further notice.