Dear Parents and Carers The holidays will soon be here! It has been a busy and very productive term for the staff and students of Woollahra. I am very proud to have been the Acting Principal this term and would like to thank the staff, students and parents for their support this term. GOOD NEWS!!!! I have just finished a meeting with the department representative of the Asset Management Unit regarding our new demountable classroom. Unfortunately Woollahra Council requested too many conditions on the placement of the original demountables. The Department has therefore withdrawn the DA. Last week we advised our neigh-bours of our intention to place a demountable 5 metres from the boundary. We submitted 2 options in that notifi-cation and the placement of the demountable can be seen on the plans on the following pages of the news-letter. The community have 21 days to respond to this notification. Provided there are no major objections, the demountable will be installed as soon as possible after this date. We are hoping that this is will be during week 1 of next term and we are making plans to do our very best to make it happen. There is no guarantee that the de-mountable will be installed in this timeframe as we are pushing every boundary and something as small as rain in the holidays may delay the process. We need everyone to cross their fingers over the holidays!! Staffing News Many parents came along to meet Ms Nicole Molloy last week. Nicole is really looking forward to working at Woollahra PS next term. Ms Blajic, who takes 1HB on Fridays will be joining the staff full time next term. I would like to thank Ms Pero for her work this term. I am sure she will be back next term. Mrs Coleman will be taking long service leave for the term and she will be replaced by Ms McLachlan. Ms McLachlan will take over Senior Choir and music lessons and Ms Mitchell will continue with Junior Choir and Recorder Ensemble. Mrs Stewart who has been taking Numeracy Enrichment classes this term will be starting maternity leave at the start of next term. We wish her well with baby number 2. There have been many Woollahra babies born in the last fortnight – Mrs Armstrong had a little boy Jack, Mr Symeou’s daughter had a daughter Annabelle, and Mrs McKnight had a son Leo. All are happy and healthy. Senior Choir We have had a number of timetabling issues this term and Senior Choir has not had a successful start to the year. We would like to change the choir time to Monday mornings at 8am in 6A (above the Barton Office). This will start in week 2 as ANZAC day falls on the first day. If you are in Years 5 and 6 and wish to join the choir, please come along and join. It is not too late – all voices welcome. Ms McLachlan is looking forward to meeting you all. Back Gate We are having a number of issues with student collection from the back lane. Yesterday, the queue was back up along Edgecliff Road beyond the roundabout. We will be speaking to the students about moving quickly from their classrooms to the back gate so that they are ready for collection. We are asking parents to assist in two ways – firstly, if your child is not at the back gate, that you pullover to the right to allow other cars to collect students and move on and secondly, that if you are walking home that you leave via a different gate. These two suggestions will hopefully assist in speedy collection at the end of the day. There is always a member of the executive team on duty at the back gate to assist with collection. It would also be appreciated if parents could follow any directions given by these teachers in their endeavours to make collection a safe and speedy process. Senior Band and ANZAC Day Senior Band were due to perform on Friday at the Principal Award’s Assembly. Unfortunately this performance has had to be cancelled. As we are on holidays on ANZAC Day, we will be holding a ceremony in the School Hall on Friday 29 April. The Senior Band will be performing at this event. Parents are very welcome to attend. We aim to start at 9.15am. I know everyone is looking forward to a well earned rest over the holidays. I hope you all have a safe and relaxing time. School returns on Wednesday 27 April. Samantha Nicol Acting Principal

Term 1 Week 11 6 April 2016

From the desk of the Deputy

PSSA Sport update Congratulations to all these amazing sporting stars! Oscar in Year 6 was selected to represent Sydney Coastal at the Sydney East Basketball trials held on the 14 March at Sutherland. Anthony in Year 6 was selected in the combined Eastern Suburbs and Sydney Coastal PSSA Soccer (Boys Football) team held at Kareela on the 29 March. Harry and Hugo in Year 6 were selected in the combined Eastern Suburbs and Sydney Coastal PSSA AFL team and competed in the Area Championships at Penshurst on the 16 March. Both boys have also been selected to represent the Sydney East Association in the Australian Football Team to compete at the NSWPSSA Carnival to be held at Warners Bay in May. Rosie in Year 6 was selected in the Sydney East Girls Football Team and attended a Gala Day on Monday 4th April. Justin in Year 6 will be representing Sydney East Region at the State Tennis Championships at Tweed Heads in May. Well done everybody! Judy Fetherston Relieving Deputy Principal

Year 5 Camp 2016 In March, Year 5 attended their annual camp held at Sydney Academy of Sport and Recreation at Narrabeen. We had a magnificent three days experiencing a range of activities. I would like to thank the Year 5 teachers – Ms Attwells, Ms Hay, Mrs Melville –Griffiths and Ms Prior for their time and effort in preparing for and attending this camp. Also, a thank you to Mrs Garber and Ms Nicol for visiting us at camp. Further on in this newsletter, you will see some great photos and reports from our students regarding their experiences. Mrs Fetherston

TERM 1 CALENDAR

April 8 Friday Principal’s Awards Assembly – Last Day T1

April 27 Wednesday Students Return for Term 2

April 29 Friday 9.00 am ANZAC Day service

May 1 Tuesday ICAS Digital Technologies

May 6 Friday Mothers’ and Others’ Day Celebration Cross Country Carnival Yrs 3-6

May 10 Tues P & C Meeting

May 10 – 12 Tues – Thursday NAPLAN

May 13 Friday 5.15 pm P&C Movie Night

May 31 Tuesday ICAS Science

June 7 Tuesday P & C Meeting

June 13-17 Monday – Friday ICAS Writing

June 15 Wednesday ICAS Spelling

June 30 Thursday Athletics Carnival

August 2 Tuesday ICAS English

August 16 Tuesday ICAS Mathematics

Term Dates 2016 27 April to 1 July 2016

19 July to 23 September 2016 10 October to 15 December 2016

If you need to plan for 2017 term dates can be found at http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/

2016 Uniform Shop opening times:

Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays: 8.30am to 9.00am

Fridays: 2.30pm to 3.00pm

Woollahra P and C Meetings

Term 2: 10 May , 7 June Term 3: 2 August , August 30 Term 4: 25 October, 22 November

Recent Correspondence

Robotics Year 2

Term 2 Sport - Year 5

Term 2 Sport – Year 6

Impetigo (School Sores) – whole school

Cross Country – Years 3-6

All notes are uploaded to the school website and can be found under the tab: Newsletters and Notes.

In order for Woollahra Public School to receive the correct amount of government funding, the school needs to

accurately record information families have written on their child’s enrolment form. Some families were recently

identified as not having included this information at the time of enrolment. If you have recently received a form

from us asking for completion, can you please return it to Michelle Towers in the Centenary Office as soon as

possible.

Thank you.

Please Note:

We are parents of former students at Woollahra. We have a family piano that we reluctantly have to farewell, and would like to offer it free to any family interested. It is an antique upright, in wal-nut veneer in good con-dition, brand “Beethoven”. It’s in origi-

nal condition, playable but could do with a tune, and certainly good for beginners. It comes with a piano stool upholstered in velvet with a music-sheet compartment. We are in Clovelly - please come to inspect and pick up. Tel: Penny McDonald mob 0437 261 086, or Hamish 0417 192 902 Regards Hamish McDonald

Baton Twirling

On Sunday, my fellow twirlers and I attended our first Baton Twirling competition! It was held at East Girls High School Stadium, 45 minutes away! Luckily we all passed our TAS (a number of elements) and went through to something called a Strut event. Ms Buttling and Ms Henry put all sorts of cool things in our hair like feathers, flowers, and sparkles. Before we did our Strut, we watched the other competitors from other clubs and they were amazing! For the Strut, I was called up first from our school which was really scary but we all managed to do an awesome job, and some of us even got into state, including me! We are all looking forward to our next competition in May and will keep you informed.

Sophie 6T

(Dates are now available and will be sent out via school app).

STOP PRESS

If you are a parent or carer of a Baton Twirler, please subscribe to Baton Twirling on the school app to receive any information we send out. Ms Buttling and Ms Henry

Year 5 Camp

Rock Climbing

Are you scared of heights? Do you like pulling friends up on a rope? What about abseiling? Never tried it before? Well you’re in luck. Rock climbing lets you experience all that and more. “Come on, half way there! No. Can’t reach. Oh well. Tap, tap, tap,” I said to myself. “I’m coming down!” I called to my team. “Don’t look down, don’t look down,” I thought continually, as I abseiled down the wall. The belay team is a group of six people working together to keep the climber safe as they climb up the wall. “Almost there! Don’t stop now! YES!” the belay team yelled in unison as the second climber reached the top. So, whether you’re scared of heights, love climbing up and then abseiling back down or just love helping friends as they reach the top of the wall, rock climbing is a great camp activity for any personality to enjoy. Annie 5P

Bushwalking and Damper During the Year 5 Camp at the Sydney Institute of Sport and Recreation in Narrabeen, we experienced the bushwalking and damper making activity. Firstly, we walked across the field and up the long, uphill driveway. It took about five minutes to reach our destination, which was the lagoon. The lagoon wasn’t as clean as we expected, but it was good enough. After that, we arrived and were given a lecture about how to make a fire. We needed oxygen, heat and fuel. We were also told the types of frames we could use for our fire; box or tepee. Once we were informed, we gathered all of our materials from the bushes around us and started making the fire. Most people made the box structure and only a small number of students made the tepee style. Following that, our fires were lit but we still had to put extra fuel in for maximum endurance. We also had a talk on how to cook the damper. Shortly after, we each got a miniature ball of damper and cooked it on the fire. This was the hardest part because we had to find a stick that was the same length as our arm and width of our thumb. It was difficult because all the smoke was going everywhere and it was hard to see with watery eyes. The damper was also very sticky and took a while to cook, but in the end we all had a delicious piece of damper with honey. To end the amazing activity, we walked back to our cabins! Julia 5H

Narrabeen Cabins Late night giggles, friends who wanted to chat past bed time, fighting for the top bunk. All of these things happened in our cabins! There were six people cabins, five people cabins, all the way down to two people cabins. Television show voices echoed through the camp. Air conditioners hummed monoto-nously, while lights flickered on and off. The cabins were a U-shape of build-ings surrounding a large patch of grass. Several times a day, we came to our cabins to rest, clean and get ready for our next activities. It was also our home for the next three days. Usually, we returned to our cabins late at night, after doing night activities, mostly ending at 8:45pm. Please note: The group pictured won the Woollahra Public School Year 5 cabin competition – this group ensured that their room was kept tidy, clothes neatly organised, towels hung up in the bathroom and air condition-ers and lights turned off when not in their rooms – Mrs Fetherston

High Ropes One of my favourite activities at Year 5 Camp was the high ropes! We were over-excited and thought this was going to be a piece of cake. We learnt how to fit into the uncomfortable, safety rope suits. They have a latch, which is connected to the rope on top of the obstacle course. So if you fall off, you would be hanging in the air. We were waiting with anticipation and could not wait to get into the action! We were all very grateful that we listened to the instructor and how to remain safe, as many of us actually fell off! We all cheered for each other, encouraging everyone to continue the difficult course. We defi-nitely misjudged this obstacle course and it was phenomenal. There was no doubt that our favourite section of the course was the ultimate, the one and only, flying fox! We zoomed down the flying fox, free handed so we could feel the cool breeze, calming down our nerves. As we concluded, our friends were cooperating enough to help us off the flying fox and take off our safety gear. The high ropes were an unforgettable memory that will remain with us for a long time. It was a superior experience! Felix 5H

Archery Trust me when someone has a loaded bow never call out their name because they will turn around and…….. Let’s just say it won’t be pretty! Our archery experience was awesome. If you focus you might even hit the bullseye (I didn’t, but I was still pretty close because I hit the red circle, the one after the middle). The white circle equalled 1 point (not much), the black circle equalled 2 points (still not that much), the blue circle equalled 3 points (getting higher), the red circle equalled 4 points and finally the YELLOW circle equalled 5 POINTS! I think the best part of our archery was at the end when all the teams got up, had 3 shots each. We were trying to compete against each other for the combined highest score. Which team would collect the most points? The winning team scored an amazing 28 points! My team came third! It was really funny because the instructor would have to go around correcting every one’s grip on the bow and arrow because they were either holding it upside down, pointing it at themselves (I was), or doing it completely wrong. I thought it was a bit of a worry because it was indoor archery. I mean I thought I would hit the ceiling lights, but after all I was just a beginner. Mia 5MG

Stunts and Games Stomp, stomp, chitter, chatter filled the gymnasium as children came in one by one. By the time we settled, more noise filled the gym as another school came in. We sat down, silently waiting for Mike (our coach) to tell us what our first game would be. We closed our eyes and walked around trying not to fall in someone’s trap or chain. I yelled out drip but no one yelled back so I was in too. I caught a lot of people. Before you know it everyone in the gym was in. After that, we played Pacman which was fun because there were four ghosts and everyone else was Pacman. We had to stay on the lines of the basketball court, running away from the ghosts. If you got tipped you had to sit down where you were. The Pacmen could not go through you but the ghosts could. I got tipped once out of two rounds. I didn’t get the chance to be a ghost but that was ok because I liked being Pacman. I think Pacman was better because it was fun and exciting in my opinion. At the end we went outside and had milo before going straight to our cabins to go to sleep. Aidan and Kael 5A

Tabloid/Mini Olympics “TWEEET!” - Went the whistle and the ‘Mini Olympics’ had officially started. There were twelve teams (most were mainly one gender) and there were twelve activities. Personally my favourite was the human-wheelbarrows – I was quite speedy. But I’m just not sure the rest of my team were up to the challenge. Each time we finished an activity we went to a table and an instructor wrote down the points, even though we only got two minutes at each activity. Here are some of the activities: dragging a teammate in a blanket, kicking soccer balls into a goal, using a net to fling a basketball into a goal and holding hands whilst running around a circle. Eventually at the end, the whistle blew again and the Mini Olympics were officially over. So there we were waiting for the teams who came first, second and third and here are the results: Third was team 1, second was team 2 and drum roll please… team 8 was first. Tessa 5F

The Night Show with Pauly “Not I Sir!” “Then Who Sir”….This is what happened during the game we played on the second night of camp. Firstly, we sat down in teams of ten. If your team didn’t shout quick enough, you would be sent to the lobsters (back row 13) but if you managed to be fast enough you were right on your way to the top (row 1). The main aim of the game was to get to row number one and stay there as long as possible. If Pauly (the instructor), thought your team looked lazy, he would be sure to pick on your team because it was hilarious to watch everyone being sent to the back row. Pauly ensured to make it extra exciting by adding little challenges: like Miss Prior having to place a coin on her elbow, throw it in the air and catch it in her hand. Another amazing challenge was when Harry in 5F demanded a rock, paper, scissors competition with Pauly. Pauly thought he was the master, but surprisingly Harry managed to beat him by far. Overall our game night was a really thrilling experience for Year 5! Neve 5F and Mia 5MG Canoeing and Kayaking Oars all over the place, people falling off the kayaks and canoes! Trust me, people did and it was quite a pain to help the student back onto their kayak. I was splashed frequently by people lifting their oars from the water, but sometimes I might have splashed a little bit of water back at them, so we were pretty even. We rowed across the lake and around some rocks (well I went around them). We also played a game which was we had to row to a yellow buoy and back to where our instructor was waiting (I was coming first but I forgot we had to go around it so ended up 5th). Our instructor had a whistle that was quite LOUD. So one blow of the whistle meant ‘turn and look at me’, 2 blows of the whistle meant ‘raft up’ (It took us quite a while to get this right but we got it at some point) and 3 blows meant ‘find the nearest shore’. But our instructor, Kellie, didn’t need to blow that. My oar was so long that sometimes I would nearly wack someone (but I didn’t) and everyone had a different canoe or kayak but some had the same and some people would swap their canoe or kayak with someone because they thought someone else’s was better. When we arrived everyone chose their partners but really we ended up just being singles. In the end she did promise that we could maybe have a paddle in the lake if we got eve-rything done like packing away all the canoes and kayaks, and in the end we got that paddle she promised us. It was extremely fun because we had never experienced something like that before. Sadie 5MG

Woollahra Public School Student Representative Council Ms Prior and Ms Giffard would like to thank all of the SRC representatives for coming to our meetings this term and for giving their care and enthusiastic support. Yesterday our SRC hosted a ‘Choose Kindness’ mufti day to raise funds for Edgar’s Mission Farm Sanctuary in Victo-ria. Thank you to everyone who participated and contributed a donation. We raised $1,446.00, so thank you for your kindness! All of our students looked a beautiful sight all dressed in pink, black and white, and all sorts of ‘kindness’ outfits! We all send a big thank you to Narelle Rutland who was happy to count the gold coins before sending the money off to the bank. Our students love supporting Edgar’s Mission. Pam Ahern and her band of workers and volunteers are dedicated to the cause of rescuing and caring for animals in need of veterinary care and a second chance at life. They also educate, motivate and encourage us to make the world a kinder place for farm animals. Please watch the clip from Edgar’s Mission ‘2015 Year in Review’ to see just how much the Pam and the crew achieved in 2015! https://donate.edgarsmission.org.au/Donate/MakeADonation

Chloe from 2B dropped into Edgar’s Mission for a visit on Boxing Day last year to meet Pam and share her love with

the animals. Here’s what she had to say: “I was so excited to meet Ruby and Pam when I went to Edgars Mission. Pam has created an animal paradise for all of those beautiful animals and I am so happy to send my pocket money to Pam to buy weet-bix for the animals to eat”

The SRC would like to wish all students and parents a happy and safe holiday! Ms Prior, Ms Giffard and the Student Representative Council

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