Congratulations to

Thank you to Special Thanks to

Bus Travel Walking School Bus—Friday 20th May

Brekky Club has started and operates Mon, Wed and Thurs for those students who registered.

Permission notes and medical forms for Grade 5/6 camp need to be returned this week.

NAPLAN Week begins Tuesday 10th May – Thursday 12

th May.

Mother’s Day stall is happening Friday the 6th of May.

The school has an old BBQ for sale. The photo below is not great, but if you would like to come and check it out, it is in our newly cleaned stor-age shed. Please make an offer at the office...

Willow Grove School and

Community Newsletter 2 8 T H A P R I L 2 0 1 6 V O L 1 6 : I S S U E 1 1

DATES FOR 2016

6th May—Mother’s Day Stall

10th-12th May—NAPLAN week

10th May—Curriculum & Policy

Committee Meeting

11th May—Parent Association

Meeting

13th May—Gippsland Principals

Forum

16-20th May—Grade 5/6 Camp to

Woorabinda

17th June—Reports sent home

21st June—Building & Grounds

Meeting 7.00pm

21st June—School Council Meet-

ing 7.30pm

22nd June—Whole School

Matilda Excursion

24th June—Last day Term 2—

2.00pm dismissal

MON TUE WED THU FRI

2

Brekky Club

3 4

Brekky Club

5

Brekky Club

6

Mother’s Day stall

9

Brekky Club

10

NAPLAN week

Curriculum & Poli-

cy Comm Mtg

11

Brekky Club

12

Brekky Club

13

May 2016

Find us at—

www.willowgroveps.vic.edu.au

TERM DATES 2016

Term 1 27th Jan (teachers start)

to 24th March

Term 2 11th April to 24th June

Term 3 11th July to 16th Sept

Term 4 3rd Oct to 20th Dec

Like us on

Reminders

For Sale

Congratulations

Happy

Birthday Rory Wilms

Ella Robinson

News from Ann

School Working Bee—Saturday

NAPLAN

Parents play a major role in assisting and supporting their child to ac-quire strong literacy skills. Literacy learning started when your child was born. Parents play a vital role as their children’s first literacy teachers. Consider all the things that children learn before school as they mix with others, observe what others do and try to do the same things. Much of this learning happens naturally and within a social context. Oral lan-guage is the foundation of learning to read to write. Encourage your chil-dren to talk about and express their feelings and ideas. Provide experi-ences that expand their concepts and vocabulary. Children do not al-ways needs loads of money spent on them. Varied family outings, games inside and out, just pottering around with you as do jobs will ex-pand their notion of the world. They will bring their knowledge and under-standing of the world to their reading and writing. Literacy learning is a social experience because it depends on demon-strations from, collaboration with, and continuous feedback and re-sponse from, other people, it happens, at home and at school, when chil-dren are surrounded by people who listen, talk, think, read and write. Children need to see the purposes for reading and writing.

Here are some ideas for you to support your child develop literacy skills over the year levels. Share experiences (a picnic, camping, gardening, cooking, farming) which are then talked about at home Share books (especially stories) and talk about them with more experi-enced readers Have plenty of books to handle and read See print all around them Have models of how people read and write Have opportunities to read and write Know that people expect them to read and write Are given choices about what they read and write Feel free to ‘have a go ‘ at reading and writing (including spelling) Are able to talk about their reading and writing Experience feelings of success Feel responsible for their own reading and writing Have confidence in their own ability Understand what reading, writing and learning can do for them We need to work together, parents and teachers, to develop a part-nership which will support our literacy learners and to ensure a life- long learning. As adults we know that literacy provides the keys to life.

Can you help?

News from Ann

Student Achievements

P A G E 2

W I L L O W G R O V E S C H O O L A N D C O M M U N I T Y N E W S L E T T E R

Last Friday saw our Grade 4/5/6 students lead the school through a respectful AN-

ZAC service down at the Willow Grove cenotaph. The ceremony allowed all of our

students and school community to pay their respects to the service men and women

who had paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Having the students involved in

learning about the history of ANZAC day ensures that the legacy and tradition con-

tinues long into the future. I would like to thank Ms Fox for coordinating and organis-

ing the ceremony, as well as Mrs E and Mrs McCartney for their efforts in preparing

items to present.

NAPLAN is short for the National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy and it is an annual national assessment for all students in grades 3,5,7 and 9. During the test week classes may be structured differently to allow the testing to oc-cur. Normal timetabling will return on Friday the 13

th May.

To help prepare your child, you may like to do the following: Remind them of the importance of trying their best and that it is not a pass or

fail type test. Get a good night’s sleep and have a nutritious breakfast. Pack healthy food in lunchboxes Arrive at school on time, so that they do not feel rushed or late. If you have any questions or would like to know more information, please come and speak to me. Students who are absent on test days, will be required to take catch up tests up to Friday the 13th of May. Students may be withdrawn by their parent or carer. This is a matter for consideration by parents and carers in consultation with the principal. If after consultation, you decide to withdraw your child, you must sign a Student Withdrawal Form, available at the office.

NAPLAN

Farewell—Staffing Update

Acting Principal’s Report

Unfortunately our long standing business manager, Cathy Tisdale has decided it is

time for a change and will be taking up a full-time position at South Street Primary

School from the 9th of May. Cathy has worked part time at Willow Grove for approxi-

mately 19 years, with a brief stint at Regional Office in a training capacity. This is an

enormous amount of effort, support, care and empathy Cathy has shown to count-

less families, students and staff. On behalf of everyone at Willow Grove, I would like

to thank Cathy for her many years of work and wish her all the best at South Street.

In my short time here, Cathy has been a wealth of knowledge and support, taking

time away from her tasks to show me how to do something or answer questions. Ms

Cindy Walker will be Cathy’s replacement during the next 6 weeks. Cathy will return

in the last week of Term 2 if you would like to drop by and wish her all the best.

Bunnings Visit

Year 6/7 Transition Reminders Information packs containing information related to Year 6-7 transition were sent home late last Term. This is a reminder that parents are requested to return these completed forms to school (Willow Grove PS) by Friday the 13

th of May. This allows us to send this information on to the rel-

evant secondary colleges. Please come and see me if you wish to discuss your child’s transition into secondary college.

From next week, you may see some extra faces walking around Willow Grove Primary School. For the next two weeks we welcome pre-service teacher Ms Briana Albanese to Willow Grove. Briana will be completing 10 days of placement with Mrs McCartney in the Prep / 1 room. From the 23

rd of May, Mr Ryan Walker will also be completing his placement in the Prep / 1 room for 15

days. We welcome them both to our school community. Last week, all three grades had a visit from staff from Bunnings Warragul, to talk about how to effectively set up, care for and maintain a worm farm and compost bin. This is part of our inquiry units happening across the school this year. Pictured is Cheerie from Bunnings with our new compost bin. Students will be looking at collect-ing food scraps that will eventually be used to provide nutrients for our garden beds.

Pre-service Teachers starting at Willow Grove

Chaplain’s Spot

Chaplain’s Choice

Charli Emily

What an exciting week with Bunnings giving us our worm farm and compost bin. Our vegetables will grow huge!!

This week’s Chaplain’s Choice Students of the Week are Charli-Anne and Emily. 20 house points each, that’s 40 for Gwinear!

Charli-Anne and Emily demonstrated patience and kindness to our younger students and helped prepare the garden bed for our Bunnings visit. Well done girls. Have a great week!

Chaplain Deb

Footy Tipping Reminder—payment is due

P.E. Award

P A G E 4

W I L L O W G R O V E S C H O O L A N D C O M M U N I T Y N E W S L E T T E R

Playground

Award

Keith, Steven,

Emily, Roan,

Mark, Jacob &

Thomas

LOTE AWARDS Natalie

Student

of the Week

Lincoln R

Sorry, no photo

P.E. Award

Ryan

Jade Ronan

Art Award

Grade 5/6 camp is not far away. Could all families please make sure that permission notes and medical forms are returned to school tomorrow, Friday 29

th of April so that

these can be passed onto the staff at Woorabinda. We will be sharing our camping experi-ence with the staff and students at Drouin West Primary School. This week, I conducted a briefing with the students about camp and answered their many questions. We also went through the list of items that are needed and those that should remain at home. I have at-tached this list from Woorabinda below. It is also a good idea to check the forecast and pack accordingly. Please come and see me if you have any questions. Ms Fox and myself will be away during camp week and the normal weekly program may

change as a result. If you need to contact me during this time, please leave a message at

the office where urgent matters will be passed on. For less urgent matters, I will follow up

during the week after.

W I L L O W G R O V E S C H O O L A N D C O M M U N I T Y N E W S L E T T E R

Grade 5/6 Camp—Monday 16th May to Friday 20th May

Mother’s Day Stall

The Mother’s Day stall is taking place on Friday the 6th of May. Order forms were sent home this week

and attached below. Please return form and payment to the school by April 29th.