STUDENT SUCCESS:
Congratulations to the 36 amazing students who will be attending Ms P’s Pizza Party this Thursday. These students have been recommended by their teacher or put on the list after showing me some outstanding work or commendable modelled behaviour during the past 5 weeks. Well done champions! The pizza party will be immediately following the PBL reward session on Thursday.
Next term, my superhero reward event will be Ms P’s Water Pistol Party on the top oval. This will be a fun, out of uniform session with the lucky recipients, and at this time of the year it will be nice and warm for a water play event. Students will be asked to come in old clothes and take part in water pistol games against each other and the principal on the top field. I will be holding separate K-2 and 3-6 sessions, to keep the water play fairer for all. I have already begun to share the news and the excitement to receive a special invite is spreading through the school.
On Monday, I was fortunate to share a moment with Mrs Milgate and a very clever student from KL. Lyla came to the office to share her amazing writing. Following a Science lesson with Mrs M, Lyla had gone off during directed play time and created her own flip book about growing seeds and them becoming beautiful strong trees. Her flip book was filled with fabulous sentences and pictures, as well as some highly accurate and very close approximations of spelling words… especially for a little person who is 3 terms into kindergarten. Well done, Lylah, you are not only a great writer but also an environmentalist who cares about how living things grow. Keep up the great work!
BOOK WEEK PARADE:
We hope to see everyone at our annual WBPS Book Week Parade this Friday morning, commencing at 10am. It will be followed by the sausage sizzle lunch. Guests will be allowed access the primary COLA area through the Mills St gates ONLY at 9.50am. We will have chairs out, but these are limited, so if you need a chair, please feel free to bring along your own camp chair to ensure a seat. Sausage sizzle orders closed yesterday. On Friday, teachers will hand out raffle tickets to families in their class, and sausage sizzle pre-orders matching the tickets can be collected at the bbq area.
SCHOOL CANTEEN ISSUES:
Sadly, canteen sales and orders have been decreasing over the last year at our school, and we understand that this is probably due to the increases across the board in the price of living for all families. Mondays have been barely worth our canteen team coming in to process the lunch orders, and they have regularly closed the canteen after they have served 12 – 20 lunches. Therefore, we are going to monitor Monday orders for the first half of Term 4, and if they remain low, the canteen will have to close on a Monday and Tuesday moving forward. That will mean we only have a 3-day canteen – Wednesday to Friday and that will be very sad for our school. Fingers crossed this does not have to happen, but we hope families can appreciate that Nikki’s business cannot function with such low sales. Watch this space for further updates!
PBL REWARD DAY:
Thursday morning is the Term 3 PBL Reward Day. Students will participate in a range of events across the school. This will happen in the morning session, to fit in around the Y2/3 Swim School Program.
SWIMMING SCHOOL:
This is the second and final week of the annual swimming program for Years 2 & 3 students. The students have had a ball and confidence levels are through the roof. Of the students attending the program, these were the results from the initial testing on Day 1:
· 40.5% (nearly half of the students) could not even make it to the side of the pool to save themselves on that first day of testing.
· 27% of students were assessed as not strong enough swimmers to save themselves if caught in a tricky water situation.
· 75% of students could not even meet the very basic 25 metre expectation.
At the end of Week 1, Mrs Wheeler sent me a message saying, “On day 1, we had kids who were absolutely petrified of the water and others who had never even seen a big pool before. As we live so close to a lake and the ocean, this is so concerning. Long story short Ms P, this program is changing our kids lives and how they approach water safety. They have become so confident. One student told the swimming instructor the other day that he is… now an expert!” 😊
Mrs Wheeler, herself a former swim teacher, has told me the program at Arnolds is… “amazing! I know it is a big ask for families to pay a combined $150 for swimming lessons & transport to the venue in these economic times, but I ask parents to consider this question… What price would you put on the life and safety of your child when around water? Swimming in Australia, especially living where we do, is a necessity not an option. Thank you to all of our families for supporting this vital water safety program.
SCHOOL P & C WORKING BEE:
Please consider joining the P & C and staff at school on Sunday 2nd November (Week 3) for their planned working bee in our nature play area. Semester 1’s working bee got so many important jobs done and we hope this one will be the same. Even an hour of support will be greatly appreciated. Look out for the hours we will be here working… in the Week 2 newsletter. Please help improve the school’s natural environment for our students by contributing a few short hours to help out.
FAREWELL TO MRS FIONA BALL:
Fiona Ball has been working as our Relieving SAM at WBPS for all of 2025. Fiona has led the team beautifully and has been an absolute delight to work with. Sadly, this Friday we will see Fiona finish her temporary contract at WBPS and head to Belair PS, where she will take up a permanent SAM position in their school office. I would like to take this opportunity to extend a sincere thank you to Fiona for stepping in over the past 3 terms. We, the staff and the WBPS community, wish you all the best on this next exciting chapter in your career. I am currently interviewing for a replacement Relieving SAM for Term 4. I will notify the community regarding the successful applicant via an Audiri post at the end of this week.
Term 4 SDD: Please remember: Monday 13th October is a teachers’ professional learning day only. All students return to school on Tuesday 14th October. FYI- The last day of Term 4 for 2025 is Friday 19th December.
E-BIKE MESSAGE FROM THE POLICE:
Please read the following message on E-bikes from NSW Police and Transport NSW. It has been shared with us through our Director, Louise Gallagher. E-bikes are becoming an issue for the police and many students and families are unaware of the rules relating to them. The message below has some clear instructions regarding their usage.
