TERM 1 WEEK 2 11 February 2021

TERM 1 WEEK 2 11 February 2021

Welcome back to the new school year, albeit a little later than planned and with a new mandatory face garment! Staff were ready and excited to return to school for Week 1 but instead spent the time further preparing for engaging lessons and completing online professional learning from the Education Department.

The school year commenced with 460 student enrolments and I am pleased to say our first week back at school has set the tone for another awesome year for West Greenwood Primary School. We are excited to introduce a new program for our students this year called Grow Your Mind. This program provides engaging, evidenced based, positive mental health strategies for our students, which supports our focus on educating the whole child.

COVID restrictions currently in place at all schools are due to be reviewed by the Government this weekend and the Department’s response to this will guide us moving forward. We will communicate to our community, as soon as we have any concrete information, what the new guidelines will look like in our school context. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the respectful and supportive way you have commenced this new school year, in these very trying times. We greatly appreciate and value your efforts as partners in your children’s education.

Please take the time to read through the following information, as much of it will help with start of school organisation and routines.

SCHOOL BOARD

Our School Board has one vacant parent representative position to be filled. The successful representative will be given a three-year tenure on the School Board (2021-2023). If you have children leaving the school before 2023 you can still nominate for the School Board. If you wish to find out more about the School Board, please contact me directly. If you would like to nominate for the parent position,

Expression of Interest before Friday 19 February 2021. If I receive more than one nomination, an election will be held, with nominees needing to write a brief statement about themselves and their suitability to the role. This information would be sent home in the Week 4 Newsletter.

NEW STAFF

We welcome several new staff members to our school this year. Mr Darren Beard commenced in Room 9, in a Year 4/5 class, Mrs Lisa James has commenced in Room 6, with a Year 6 class and Ms Emily Hames is working in Room 15, our Kindergarten/PP class on Wednesday. Mrs Anke Ramdohr is joining us as a special needs education assistant and will be working across several classrooms, Tuesday to Friday.

Dates for your Diary

15 Feb Parent Information Evening PP, Years 2,4 & 6

16 Feb Parent Information Evening Years 1, 3 & 5

18 Feb Assembly – Student Leaders announcement

23 Feb P&C AGM 6pm

25 Feb New Parent Morning Tea 1 Mar Labour Day Public Holiday

PARENT INFORMATION SESSIONS

Teachers will conduct Parent Information sessions in Week 3 in the undercover area, as per the following table.

These sessions will be used for staff to introduce themselves to parents and to outline some of the programs and processes that will occur within their classrooms this year. Feedback from the school community has asked that these sessions look a little different to previous years, so not all the information that would have previously been discussed will be spoken about. Particularly for our new families, we will upload a PowerPoint to Connect with all the information previously shared. This will allow parents and carers to attend the meetings with any questions regarding the information in the PowerPoint.

VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS

Each year our School Board sets the Voluntary Contributions amount for each student. This amount is $60 per student for 2021. These funds assist the school in providing much needed resources in a range of learning areas, across all year levels. Last year due to the financial uncertainty that COVID created for our families, the rate of contributions paid decreased. Our goal this year is to try and improve our rate of payment of the contributions to equal to, or greater percentages than they were in 2019.

STAFF PROFILES

This year we are profiling our WGPS staff in the newsletter throughout the year. Each newsletter we will include a fun profile of two or three staff. We hope you enjoy reading them and that it gives you an insight into the more personal characteristics of the individual personalities that make up our diverse and amazing staff.

PLAYGROUNDS AFTER SCHOOL

In our current climate, we are unfortunately not able to facilitate after school use of the playgrounds and play areas. Parents/Carers are asked to pick up their child/ren from the class and vacate the school grounds immediately. It is not feasible for school staff to be able to manage numbers of families on the school grounds, so whilst we are still under COVID restrictions, we ask that you support the school in this directive.

ANAPHYLAXIS AWARE

Anaphylaxis is a life threatening condition and people with severe allergies may have an attack just from close exposure to nuts. They don’t necessarily need to eat them to be affected e.g. peanut paste can be transferred to play equipment by hand. Several students at our school have a severe allergy to nuts and are at risk of suffering from Anaphylaxis through exposure to nuts. In consideration of this please refrain from sending any foods that might contain nuts to school with your child. More

information about anaphylaxis may be obtained at: http://www.allergy.org.au

Caroline Harben, Principal

PSYCHOLOGIST UPDATE

Hello all, my name is Annika and I am the new School Psychologist at West Greenwood Primary school. I’m very excited to be joining such a wonderful community and being a part of the West Greenwood team. I will be on site every Tuesday and some Fridays this year and am looking forward to meeting everyone! Monday 15 Feb 4.45pm Pre-Primary 5.20pm Year 2 5.55pm Year 4 6.30pm Year 6 Tuesday 16 Feb 5pm Year 1 5.35pm Year 3 6.15pm Year 5 Wednesday 17 Feb

9am Kindy Red

Wednesday 24 Feb

CHAPLAIN’S CHAT

Just a quick reintroduction: this year I am available at WGPS on Mondays and Wednesdays. My role will continue to be focused around assistance with pastoral care issues. The activities I will be involved with in the school will target some of the School Business Plan priorities relating to: assisting in the development of student wellbeing, and in the creation of a cohesive community.

Again this year, I am looking forward to involvement in a few of the popular programs at West Greenwood such as Lunchtime Games Club and Aussie Optimism. I am also available for one-to-one chats with individuals who may need support through general wellbeing issues such as: grief and loss, peer relationships, stress management and anxiety, family relationships etc. Please feel free to contact me at school for any of the above, or other issues around which I am able to offer support. If I’m not available, you can leave a message with the front office or the admin team.

Thoughts and prayers to all for a great 2021!

STAFF PROFILES

Caroline Harben

What are 3 things still left on your bucket list?

Travel to New Zealand and Canada, do more study, cycle around Europe

What is one of your favorite books?

The Messenger by Markus Zusak and Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey (I couldn’t pick!)

If you could have one super power, which would you choose?

I would LOVE to have the super power of enhanced memory so that I would never forget anything that I would see, hear or read.

What’s brought a smile to your face this this week?

Watching great friends re-connect at school and have fun inside and outside of the classroom. At which shop would you like to max out your credit card?

Shopping is not my strong point, but given a HUGE credit card balance, I would love to shop in a travel agency!

If you had a day off to do volunteer work, what would you do?

I would be somewhere in the community giving support to those who need it.

What do you do to relax?

My favorite way to relax is to hitch up our camper trailer and head off on unknown adventures. What is your favorite quotes or saying?

Act as if what you do makes a difference. IT DOES. William James

Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud. Maya Angelou

Leonie Martin

What is your role this year? I’m Deputy Principal for my sixth year at West Greenwood

What are you reading at the moment?

I’m reading Honeybee by Craig Silvey

What are 3 things still left on your bucket list? Visit Japan in cherry blossom season, a road trip around Texas, go on a safari in Africa (I really hope we can travel soon!)

What’s brought a smile to your face this this week?

Seeing all the beautiful little faces returning to school on Monday.

If you had a day off to do volunteer work, what would you do?

Get on the phones at Kids’ Helpline What is a goal you have for this year? To do my filing as it occurs!

What is your favourite quote or saying?

‘Our work, our relationships, and our lives succeed or fail one conversation at a time.’ Susan Scott

P & C NEWS

Welcome to 2021 everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful school holidays and that this first week back at school has been a good one.

Our P&C’s AGM will be held on Tuesday 23rd

February at 6pm in the WGPS Staffroom. Please keep an eye on Connect for more information about our Office Bearer Roles, as well as the agenda and additional information. Anyone wishing to nominate for a position on our P&C must be a financial member of our P&C. Membership is $1 for the year and forms can be downloaded from the P&C section on the school website, or filled in at the AGM.

The following Office Bearer Roles are open for nomination:

* President * Vice President * Honorary Treasurer * Honorary Secretary

** Executive Committee (not less than 3 positions) ** Uniform Coordinator

** Events Coordinator ** Canteen Treasurer

** School Board Representative ** Book Club Coordinator ** Costume Coordinator

** Communication Coordinators ** Waste Wise Coordinator •• Uniform Committee •• Events Committee •• Canteen Committee •• Waste Wise Committee •• Year 6 Graduation Committee

Please RSVP or send in your nominations to [email protected].

Possum’s Pantry has had a busy start to the term and it’s been great to see our students again. Please see the Canteen Update notice that was sent on Connect on Tuesday for more information about our new menu items. There was an error with our Picnic Box and Possum’s Plate pricing on QKR! which has now been corrected.

 Possum’s Plate is now $3.00 and the juice

box is no longer included.

 Picnic Box is $4.50.

We apologise for any confusion or inconvenience caused by this error. We’ve also added a new “No Filling” option for our “Create Your Own…” so parents can now order a sandwich, roll or wrap with salad only. Our new Recess Snack Pack and Lunchtime Ice Treat Credit have been a big hit as well. Just a reminder to parents to please let your child/ren know if they have a snack pack or ice-cream credit so that they know to come to the canteen to collect/use it.

Our Uniform Shop is open every Thursday from 8am-8:40am in Tuart Block. All QKR! Uniform orders must be completed before 7pm every Wednesday. Just a reminder to parents to please follow current COVID guidelines and only enter the Uniform Shop as permitted by the Uniform Coordinators. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Our Book Club catalogues for Issue 1 will be handed out by class teachers tomorrow. You can also view every item in “Catalogue Mode” on the LOOP app, or

go to

https://www.scholastic.com.au/media/5791/bc121.pd f to view the catalogue online. Book Club orders are due by Thursday 18th _{February. Cash orders must be} in the P&C box before school ends, and LOOP orders must be completed by 7pm. Delivery generally takes two weeks after the due date and orders are distributed by class teachers.

Take care everyone and have an awesome weekend! C. Collins-Sio, P&C President

COMMUNITY NEWS

Looking for work or a career change? Can you see yourself working in a school?

Need help to find work in the coronavirus craziness?

Schools and other organisations are regularly hiring people for the following roles:

 Gardener, cleaner, administration, management, canteen, education assistants and many other roles.

Starting in February 2021, North Metropolitan TAFE are running a one-semester course on the skills required to be a successful candidate for employment in a school or elsewhere. The course aids in preparation for entry into

gardening, cleaning, administration, management, education assistant and other types of work.

We have had huge success supporting people to find work and the chances of gaining employment are strong. This course is suitable for existing gardeners, cleaners, administrators etc., and people looking to change career or people looking for a return to work.

The course includes:

• Training in skills specific to the role you are interested in e.g. IT skills

• Work experience in a school or other organisation • Help and support to find work

• Help accessing further training as required e.g. Certificate III in Education Support

• Development of your job application cover letter, resume and help with selection criteria

Entry requirements:

• 18+

• Strong work ethic

• Good oral and written communication

• Must be able to read procedures, safety sheets and chemical bottles

• Must be able to send and receive emails • Successful completion of an entry interview • Working with Children Check and a Department of

Education Clearance

Course details:

 Dates - Starts Wed 3rd _{of Feb and finishes Fri 25th of}

Jun 2021 (20 weeks)

 Days - 3 days per week, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 9:15 until 2:45

 Cost - Approximately $170 (subject to change) total course fee for full 20 weeks

 Location - North Metro TAFE Leederville and on work experience

 Qualification - GATE (Gaining Access to Training and Employment) Certificate I

If you would be interested in this course then please email: Chris Hodson on [email protected]