Newsletter
Friday, 10th February, 2023
From the Principal
It’s been an amazing start back at Wangala Primary School for 2023! We welcome our new Prep students and Miss Rebecca Longley, our new classroom teacher in our 1/2s, and Liz Nicopoulos who has started with us as an Education Support member. We know these two will be amazing additions to our school! There has also been some changes in Wellbeing, with Holly Peterson now working as our Wellbeing Officer, while Kim Dugan picks up further administration days in our office. Welcome to Holly. See further in our newsletter an ‘About Me’ she has prepared for you all.
In the OSHC program, we welcome Alice Mitrevics who is our new Educator in the before school care. We also officially welcome Steph Sutherland to the role of OSHC Coordinator.
I would also like to congratulate former Oberon South Primary School Principal, Joanne Black on her recent retirement. I’m sure the whole community wish her all the best in a well earned retirement!
During the week we held our first assembly in the gymnasium conducted by our new school captains, Lily, Kian and Willow. They did an amazing job with the assembly and showed great confidence and nerve in talking in front of the whole school. Our assembly will be held each fortnight in the gymnasium on a Monday afternoon. Be sure to keep an eye on the dates to remember in this newsletter for upcoming assembly dates.
At future assemblies we will be hearing from our other schools leaders who have been busy brainstorming their new roles and the wonderful things they plan to do throughout the year. See the photo below of our new school leaders proudly wearing their new badges.
Our teachers are currently holding ‘Parent and Carer Conversations’, which are the opportunity for parents and carers to connect with their child’s teacher to share any information that you feel may be relevant to your child’s time in the classroom. If you haven’t done so, please book your ‘Parent and Carer Conversation’ through the Compass portal.
Thanks to our whole community for the smooth start to the year. It’s been great to see everyone smiling as they enter the school each morning, excited to be back and ready to learn!
Steven King
Principal
Our 2023 School Leaders who received their leadership badges at our first assembly
Dates to Remember
Tuesday, 14th February
Cafe Lunch
Wednesday, 15th February
No Preps – Individual Testing
Monday, 20th February
2.45pm Assembly in the Gymnasium
Tuesday, 21st February
School Council Meeting at 4pm in the Staff Centre
Tuesday, 21st February
Cafe Lunch
Wednesday, 22nd February
No Preps – Individual Testing
Tuesday, 28th February
Cafe Lunch
Wednesday, 1st March
Preps attending school
Monday, 6th March
2.45pm Assembly in the Gymnasium
Tuesday, 7th March
Cafe Lunch
Thursday, 9th March
Healthy Harold attending Wangala
Monday, 13th March
Labour Day Public Holiday
Wednesday, 15th March
NAPLAN over the next fortnight
Wangala Primary School acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land we are on, the Wadawurrung people, and thank them for sharing thier long lasting culture with us as we learn and grow together.
Meet our new Mascots!
This year we have introduced new mascots who will also be the names of our newly formed houses!
Inspired by the Wadawurrung names for our local wildlife, we have named our houses…
Kanyul (Kangaroo) in red, led by School Captain Kian.
Perridak (Platypus) in blue, led by school Captain Lily .
Mon Garrk (Echidna) in green, led by School Captain Willow.
In future years as we grow we will also introduce Barnong (Ring Tailed Possum) in purple.
In the coming weeks we will officially launch our new houses with a special ‘House Colours Day’. More information will be shared soon!
Star Students
Well done to our Star Student and Principal Award recipients…
Prep – Emme, Johnathan and Issy
One and Two – Darcie, Van and Rory
Three and Four – Tayah and Dylan
Five and Six – Zayli and Stella
Reminders from the Office
Compass Access
You should all now have been given your login details for Compass access. Please see the staff at the office if you need any help. The Compass portal is where we send important information and updates, excursion or camp notifications, and can be downloaded as a convenient app on your phone. We highly recommend setting this up and having notifications set to alert you when there is new information.
Adding Attendance on the Compass Portal
If your child will be away for any reason, please add an attendance notification on Compass. You can also call the office on 5243 2997, listening to the prompts to leave a message regarding attendance.
Late Arrivals
If your child is late to school, please make sure you come to the office to sign them in on the Compass Register touch screen, and we will issue them with a late pass to hand in to their teacher. Parents and carers visiting the school are also required to sign in at the office ensuring we are aware of all people onsite at all times, just in case there’s an emergency.
Car Parking
Please note that the staff car park is not to be used by parents and carers with the exception of those with a disabled parking permit. Parent and carers parking is on Kidman Avenue opposite the school. We also ask that the drive through road in front of the school be used only for drop off and pick ups, and ask that you not park your vehicle in this space. To ensure the safety of all students it is an expectation that all Wangala Primary School community members utilised the supervised crossing to safely cross the road.
Updating Enrolment Details
For students in Grade One to Six, we recently sent home the current enrolment information we have on file for your individual children for review and to update. It is important that we are aware of any changes to your circumstances, so please advise us as soon as possible so we can update your details. This may include new phone numbers, addresses, job classification and living arrangements. We also ask that you look closely at the Emergency Contacts you have listed for your children as these are important contacts in emergencies when we cannot contact you or someone else listed from your household.
Annual Privacy Reminder
Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.
Please take time to read our school’s collection notice, found in the policy section of our website. For more information about privacy, refer to the Schools’ Privacy Policy found on the education.vic.gov.au website.
This information is also available in ten community languages:
– Amharic
– Arabic
– Dari
– Gujarati
– Mandarin
– Somali
– Sudanese
– Turkish
– Urdu
– Vietnamese
Meet our new Wellbeing Officer, Holly...
What's been happening at Wangala Primary School?
Melbourne Storm Clinic
On Thursday 9th February, we were lucky enough to have Nathan from the National Rugby League attend our school to celebrate the upcoming trial match at GMHBA Stadium on Sunday 12th February. Nathan ran clinics for all classes where students learnt various rugby skills.
The Storm are taking on the Sydney Roosters on Sunday in the pre-season clash. Pretty sure who I know Wangala will be cheering for!
3/4s Book Study - 'Your School is the Best!'
The 3/4 classroom have been studying the book, ‘Your School is the Best!’ written by Maggie Hutchins and illustrated by Felicita Sala. they have read, estimated, measured, hunted for words, and created fun things all about the book. See the pictures below and be sure to check out this amazing new book.
From the STEAM Room
During our STEAM sessions all students have been working on their team building skills to solve different building challenges. There are some very talented and creative students at Wangala. Communication and persistence has been the key to solving the various problems.
The Grade 3/4 and 5/6 classes completed the ‘Cup Stack Challenge’. Each team could only use cups, one rubber band and pieces of string. Students had to work as a team to stack all of the cups in a pyramid. Here’s the catch: they couldn’t touch the cups directly. Students created a tool using the string and rubber bands to move the cups!
Physical Education - PMP with the Preps!
This week in Physical Education the Preps have continued to practise some different fundamental motor skills such as throwing, catching and kicking through our ‘Perceptual Motor Program’. They were lucky enough to have the help of some senior students who shared their expertise and guided them through the various stations. Amazing job Preps!
