Wesburn Primary School

Open Night:

Thursday night last week saw a huge crowd of families and other interested community members participating in our Open Night activities.  There were garden tours, opportunities to view and discuss with children the work they had been doing in class, performances that highlighted some of the programmes that we offer at Wesburn  and, of course, lots of yummy food cooked in our kitchen.  It was wonderful to see parents dancing with their children to ‘The Cobbler’s Song’, and to see how skilful students have become in Auslan (Australian Sign Language).  Congratulations to all the students who performed on the night.  Congratulations and a big thank you to the many people involved in making the evening such a success.  This includes staff, several volunteers and students who worked all day to ensure that there was plenty of delicious and fresh food for everyone. 

School Performance:

Talking about performing … next term is the whole school performance entitled ‘Great Southern Land’.  Of course, everyone will know of this because letters and repayment slips went out some time ago.  If you have not started to pay it is vital that you do straight away as the students start rehearsing early term 3.  A word of warning:  You will be ‘blown away’ with the talents of all the students as they sing and dance their way through a variety of well-known Australian songs.  It will bring tears to the eyes of many people in the audience (some due to laughter and some due to immense pride).

Thank You:

Many of you will have noticed that the concrete has been extended at the school entrance and near the toilet block.  This has greatly improved the safety of the area between the gate and the 1/2 classroom.  Thank you to Sharon, Glenn and Ben who came up last weekend to complete this job.

Help Your Child to Read and Write:

Many parents ask regularly how they can help their child to read and write.  The following are just a few simple suggestions that might help:

·        Provide a place  -  a desk or table with a smooth, flat surface and good lighting is a good place to write

·        Have the materials  -  provide plenty of paper, lined and unlined, and things to write with, including pencils, pens, and crayons

·        Allow time  -  Good writers do a great deal of thinking.  Your child may dawdle, sharpen a pencil, get papers ready, etc.  Be patient, they may be thinking.

·        Respond  -  Show you are interested in what your child has written.  Ignore minor errors, particularly when they are just getting ideas together.

·        Don’t you write it!  -  Don’t write something for your child that will be handed in to school as his or her work.  Never rewrite a child’s work.  Meeting a writing deadline, taking responsibility for the finished product, and feeling ownership of it are important parts of writing well.

·        Praise  -  Say something good about your child’s writing.

Until next week …

Anne

Parents and Friends will be holding our Biggest Morning Tea on Tuesday 26th May 2009.  All money raised goes to the Cancer Council.

10.30 – 11.30 in the Dining room   $5  entry  Everybody welcome.

Tomorrow is our Whole School Excursion to the Yarra Recreation Centre.  It is expected that all children will be participating as the school will be closed for most of the day and all staff will be on the excursion to ensure appropriate supervision of students.  If your child is unable to attend the excursion it is important that they are not sent to school.

Many people may have forgotten the correct procedure for making payments for excursions, camps, and other activities.  To ensure that the class teacher has an up-to-date record of students participating, the following procedure should be followed.  All payments and reply slips must be handed to the class teacher.  They will be recorded on the class list and then forwarded in the cash folder to the office for processing.  If you wish to pay electronically please see the office staff who will then forward the information back to the class teacher.  To ensure that students do not miss out on attending these events, please make sure that you follow this process.

Wesburn Primary School is able to implement a variety of programmes that are dependent on volunteer support, which we really appreciate.  It is expected that all volunteers will have a Working With Children Check.  This expectation has been promoted regularly within the school newsletter and by class and specialist teachers.  Volunteers have also been asked personally to apply for this check.  Unfortunately we will not be able to have any volunteers at the school without this check after the end of term 2.  Please remember that it is free for people volunteering.  Application forms are available at the office.  I hope that people understand that this is one of the many ways in which we endeavour to ensure the safety and wellbeing of students.

Recently I have been pleased to receive a letter from Michael Hill, Principal of Upper Yarra Secondary College, regarding a past student.  I would like to congratulate Amanda and reproduce the letter below:

‘Dear Anne,

I write to your school to inform you that Ms Amanda …, one of your past students, has performed superbly in their first term at Upper Yarra Secondary College.

Amanda’s approach to learning has seen her rated by her teachers as one of the top performing students in Year 7 2009.

This performance is a clear indication of the high quality learning environment your staff has been able to create and maintain over Amanda’s formative years.

Wesburn Primary School should feel very proud of these achievements….

Yours sincerely

Michael Hill

Principal

 Included further in this newsletter are extracts from an article entitled ‘Spending Time with our Young Children is Love’.  The message behind the article is that the most important thing we can do as parents is to give our children the time that they need with us.  Expensive presents and too many extra and expensive activities are not necessary.  Please read this and understand that you are the most important people in your children’s lives.

For the next three weeks I will be on Long Service Leave and Trevor Gibbs will be sitting in my chair.  I remind you that, should you need to speak to anyone, the class teacher is the most likely person to help.  Trevor will be very busy working within the classrooms and providing time for teachers to complete a number of assessments and surveys required by the Department.

Until May 26 …

Anne

I hope your holidays were as enjoyable as mine.  I have come back feeling really refreshed and ready for a very busy term.

Once again, thank you to Heather and Leigh for doing some of our mowing this week.  This is a beautiful time of the year but it is also the time when the grass and weeds grow quickly and there is more work to be done in the garden.  We would really love to hear from anybody who would be interested in helping to tidy up the gardens (not the kitchen gardens) and help occasionally with mowing.  Please give me a ring.

While talking about helping at school, we are also finding it increasingly difficult to get enough people to make Wednesday lunches, provide breakfast on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and could even do with a few more people who might be able to help out in the kitchen garden classes.  If you feel that you could give up 2 hours on a Wednesday for 1 day per term to help make our delicious healthy lunches please give me a ring or drop in and see me.  In fact, please contact me if you think you can spare time to help in any of the above activities, because they make such a difference to the students at our school.

Within the next couple of weeks the school will be connected to natural gas.  We are hoping that this will lead to lower costs and we can sell off the LPG tank.  I would like to thank the Region who has been financially supportive to the school in enabling this to occur.

Over the next few months I am also hoping that you will see some major changes to our facilities.  This is as a result of the National School Pride and Primary Schools for the 21^st Century programmes.  By the end of the year I am hoping to have new art, library and dining rooms, repairs to and an improved façade to the Warburton Highway side of the school, and a considerable amount of painting completed.  As they say, ‘It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen!’

There is much to look forward to this term:  ANZAC Day Ceremony, Whole School Excursion, Grandparents Day, and our Open Night in June, to name just a few.  And at the end of it all students will receive their mid-year reports!

Until next week …

Anne

Last week of term 1, 2009! Amazingly, despite the disruptions students have had, they have continued to work and play hard at school. When you get a chance, take time to look around the playground and enjoy the happy, smiling faces of students that love being at school and have a sense of security in knowing that everyone connected with the school cares about them and their wellbeing.

During play and lunch times staff have been concentrating on finding students who exhibit friendly behaviours. Each day names of such students Continue reading ‘Wesburn Weekly April 2′

Students in grade 3/4 test the PH level of the soil

The grade 3/4 students at Wesburn are testing the soil for it’s PH level. The PH measures the level of acidity or alkalinity in the soil, which directly impacts on the plants ability to access nutrients. Vegetables generally thrive in a neutral soil with PH levels of between 6 and 7.5.

After testing the soil the students recorded the results in the garden diaries and reported back to the class. This is just one of the many fun and educational activities which students in grades 3 to 6 participate in each week during garden class.

Twinkle Twinkle!

Auslan is a language recognised by the Australian Government.  It is the national sign language  of Australia.

Wesburn Primary School is proud to incorporate this language into their curriculum as their LOTE.

This year children will be learning nursery rhymes in Auslan.  The picture on our right comes from Sign Planet at http://bilby.net/ Hopefully we have lots of fun learning these as it will be new to everyone!!!!!!  If we get confident enough we may even be able to perform them at assembly.

Yummy! Although a little late, we celebrated Shrove Tuesday yesterday with some delicious pancakes served with either jam or lemon and sugar. The children loved it and, as most of you know how much I love food, it won’t surprise you to hear how much I enjoyed the pancakes too. A big thank you to Tracey, Leigh, Assi and Andrea who furiously flipped about 140 pancakes.

Thank you also to Ben Rostron and Damien Sanders who have done some maintenance around the school recently. We really appreciate your expertise.

Teachers are really looking forward to talking to parents at the Parent/Teacher Interviews this afternoon/evening. This is the time for you to discover some of the great attributes your children have and, at the same time, to set goals for them to achieve by the end of June. Teachers will also be able to suggest ways in which you can assist your children to achieve these goals. If you have missed out on an interview it would be a good idea to contact the school so that you can make alternative arrangements with your child’s teacher.

By 5pm today I will have completed an application to the Federal Government regarding funding of $75,000 for the National School Pride Program. This is the first stage of the Building the Education Revolution. The entire process is going to take some time but I am really looking forward to being able to further improve school facilities over the next year. I’ll keep you up-to-date in future newsletters.

Parents & Friends held their AGM on Monday morning, straight after assembly. It was lovely to have Assi, Angus’ mum, come on board and join the team but disappointing that no other new parents were able to attend the meeting. Please consider coming along to a meeting. At the very least you get to make new friends. There is no obligation to take on a particular role but there are many opportunities for you to help in small activities such as Pancake Day, Mothers & Fathers Day stalls, etc. Notice of meetings is given in the newsletter. Office bearers for 2009 are Tracey Toone (President), Leigh Dobson (Vice President), Andrea Blease (Secretary), and Heather Alter (Treasurer). Thank you once again for taking on these positions and for supporting students at Wesburn.

Until next week …

Anne

All children settled into school extremely well. At first they were a little hesitant but it didn’t take long before they were drawing, chatting and playing. Their big buddies have certainly helped them.

All prep children have a big buddy from grade 5/6 who has helped them settle into the routine of school. During the first week they made wonderful fish together.

My fish is blue.

The students of 2/3B have started Discovery Time on a Wednesday mornings. They have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the activities and have written some reflections of their learning.

Continue reading ‘Reflections of Discovery Time 11.2.09 By 2/3B’