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Monday 24th July Term 3 Week 2

From the Principal

Welcome to Term 3:

Welcome back from holidays to all of our students and families! I hope you had a restful break. WE are looking forward to a wonderful term with lots of exciting opportunities over the next 10 weeks. This term the Department of Education celebrates 175 years of education! We will be celebrating quality education this term, beginning with our author visit, sporting events and dance festival in the next two weeks.

Student Success:

Congratulations to our Primary Stage 1 Aerobics Team who have now been invited to the National Championships in Adelaide! We are very excited that both our teams will now be competing in the event! Good luck to Liam who will be competing in the National Swimming Championships in the 50m backstroke, 100m backstroke, 100m freestyle, medley relay and freestyle relay next month! We are sure you will be great! Our NAIDOC Day celebrations at the end of last term were enjoyed by all. A big thank you to the organising committee and the Warners Bay High School students who helped out on the day. 

Welcome Interns:

We have three student teachers joining us for their internship this term. Welcome to Koby Barker who will be working with K-6W, Sarah Norton who will be working with 1/2B and Tahnee Marriott who will be working with 4/5H. Welcome!

Welcome SLSOs:

We also have several new School Learning Support Officers who are joining our team this term. Welcome to Heidi McBriarty, Kierra Coleman, Max Allan and Zoe Simpson to our team of skilled educators.

Kinder Club:

Our Kinder Club started last Thursday. This playgroup is a wonderful opportunity for students who are beginning Kindergarten in 2024 to get to know other students and for parents to meet. If you would like further details about Kinder Club, or you would like to enrol your child in Kinder in 2024, please contact the school office.

Dance Festival:

Our Year 2 dance group will preform at the Hunter Dance Festival on Wednesday evening at NEX Newcastle. We wish them all the best!

Kinder 100 days:

Kindergarten have hit the magic mark of attending school for a full 100 days! To celebrate, Kinder will be involved in activities tomorrow to celebrate as well as dressing up as centenarians. Parents of kinder students have also been invited to attend. A separate note has been sent home with details.

Author Visit:

We are lucky to have visiting author, Martin Chatterton visit with our students on Wednesday and talk about writing and literacy.

Boccia:

Good luck to our support students as they compete at the State Boccia Championships this Wednesday! We wish them luck!

3 Way Interviews:

Parent/ teacher/ student interviews will be held in the coming weeks. Parents can now book a time with their child’s teacher through schoolinterviews.com.au.

NAPLAN Results:

Student NAPLAN results will be distributed to Year 3 and 5 students this week. If you have any questions about the results, please contact your child’s teacher.

Student Led Parent Teacher Interviews

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School Bytes Finance System

Information regarding the transition to the School Bytes finance system.
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Think back to when you went to school….what was maths like for you? Engaging, easy, fun or scary, soul destroying, being right or wrong answers, working through textbooks? Now, what would you like maths to be like for your child?

This semester, teachers will be undertaking professional learning called ‘Big ideas to start strong’, where we will learn about some of the big ideas and core concepts that underpin much of the NSW mathematics syllabus. The above questions are ones that we discussed at length during our staff development day.

One of the key ideas highlighted in our first session was the notion of a ‘math person’ and ‘math anxiety’. The idea of a math person stems from the belief that math intelligence is something we either have or we don’t, rather than something that grows and develops with hard work and opportunities to learn. Math anxiety is the name given to the feeling of being overwhelmed and confused when faced with a mathematical problem. It is estimated to effect up to one third of adults and children.

Whilst our teachers are working in the classroom to inspire all our students to become mathematicians, here are some tips for parents to use at home:

Never share with your children the idea that you were bad at maths at school, or that you dislike maths. Whilst the words ‘I was never any good at maths when I was at school’ may be used to console a child who is struggling with maths, it can make them feel worse about their inability to solve maths problems and ultimately have a long-lasting effect on their numeracy skills.

Always be encouraging and never tell kids they are wrong when they are working on maths problems. Instead find the logic in their thinking – there is always some logic to what they say. For example, if your child multiplies 3 by 4 and gets 7, say – Oh I see what you are thinking, you are using what you know about addition to add 3 and 4, when we multiply, we have 4 groups of 3…

Never associate maths with speed. It is not important to work quickly, and we now know that forcing kids to work quickly on maths is the best way to start maths anxiety for children, especially girls.

Encourage a ‘growth mindset’ let students know that they have unlimited maths potential and that being good at maths is all about working hard. When children have a growth mindset, they do well with challenges and do better in school overall. When children have a fixed mindset and they encounter difficult work, they often conclude that they are not ‘a math person’. One way in which parents encourage a fixed mindset is by telling their children they are “smart” when they do something well. That seems like a nice thing to do, but it sets children up for difficulties later, as when kids fail at something they will inevitably conclude that they aren’t smart after all. Instead use growth praise such as “it is great that you have learned that”, “I really like your thinking about that”. When they tell you something is hard for them, or they have made a mistake, tell them: “That’s wonderful, your brain is growing!”

Two websites that are worth checking out:



Library News

Book Club Issue 5 closes tomorrow, Wednesday, 2nd August. All orders will be processed after the closing date and will be sent home with students as soon as they arrive at school, normally late the following week. Scholastic encourages parents/carers to place orders via their Loop Ordering System (Loop) but payments can also be made through the school’s office. 

Author Visit – Martin Ed Chatterton

Award winning Australian author and illustrator, Martin Ed Chatterton, is visiting this Wednesday 26th July. He will host a series of workshops across Kindergarten to Year 6 with information about the visit, along with the cost, being sent home last term. Martin has toured internationally over many years to rave reviews – his humorous and entertaining but informative sessions are not to be missed. Please contact the office if you require further information. 

Grandparents Day/Book Parade/Education Week 

Our annual event will be held on Friday 18th August (Week 5). Loved ones are invited to enjoy a picnic lunch with their children followed by the Book Parade starting at approximately 12.15pm. The canteen will sell cakes and slices at lunchtime with complimentary tea and coffee available for adults from the hall. 

This year’s Book Week theme is Read, Grow, Inspire but, as always here at WBPS, the aim of our Book Parade is for everyone to join in and have fun. It is not a competition, just an opportunity to dress as a character from a book and enjoy the event. 

Premier’s Reading Challenge/Principal’s Reading Challenge

Reminder that, after surveying our school community at the beginning of Term 1, WBPS is no longer active participants in the Premier’s Reading Challenge. We now run our own challenge, The Principal’s Reading Challenge which encourages and recognises reading by our students throughout the year. 

To assist with the transition from one challenge to the other and as communicated at the beginning of the year, any students wanting to still complete the Premier’s Reading Challenge, can do so through their student portal, and I will validate their reading log towards the close of the challenge. Students must have their books entered on the challenge website by Friday 18th August for this to occur. 

Mrs Michelle Freund

Teacher-Librarian 

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