Congratulations to

Thank you to Special Thanks to

Bus Travel Walking School Bus—Friday 20th May

This Friday is our Father’s Day stall – if you haven’t yet returned your order form and would like to purchase a gift, please do so ASAP.

The Latrobe Valley Division Athletics carnival is happening this coming Tuesday. Permission notes and money are due back at school by Friday.

Next week, Willow Grove Primary School is celebrating National Literacy and Numeracy Week by encouraging all of our families to come and visit and be part of school. If you can spare any time, during any part of the day, for any day of the week, you are welcome to come along and celebrate the learning that takes in your child’s classroom. We would love to see you there. Remember to first sign in at the office!

Gippsland Sports Camp – permission forms and money for those stu-dents selected to be part of the Gippsland Sports camp are due Friday the 8th September.

The annual DET Parent Opinion Survey is still open and has been ex-tended by 1 week! We have 28 out of 55 families who have completed the survey. If you haven’t done so already please take the time to com-plete the survey.

Save the date for our school concert – Thursday 21st of September at 7.00pm. Details on how to purchase tickets is available further on in the newsletter or visit our event on our school’s Facebook page.

Willow Grove Primary School is now taking enrolments for the 2018 school year. This year, we are encouraging families to have returned their enrolment form to our school office by the 31st of August – which is tomorrow. If you aware of any families intending to enrol their child or you have a younger sibling who is coming to our school next year – please grab an enrolment form. Knowing how many students we are expecting allows us to plan appropriately for the year ahead.

Car Park safety – please take care when dropping off and picking up your child/ren from school. This applies to both sides of the Main Road.

Willow Grove School and

Community Newsletter 1 9 T H A P R I L 2 0 1 7 V O L 1 7 : I S S U E 0 9

DATES FOR 2017

31st August—2018 Prep Enrol-

ment Forms due

1st September—Father’s Day

Stall

4th September—Gr P-2 Planning

Day

5th September—LV Division

Athletics—Selected Students

6th September—PA Meeting

8th September—Sports Camp

Forms & Money Due

8th September—West Gipps

Principals’ Meeting—9-12pm

11th September—Gr2/3 Quan-

tum Excursion

11th September—Lions Club

Public Speaking Comp.—7pm

15th September—Gr 3-6 Plan-

ning Day

17th September—Hill End Mar-

ket Cake Stall

19th September—Gr 3-6 Concert

Practice

21st September—School Concert

22nd September—Footy Colours

& Pie Day

22nd September—Term 3 Ends

BEYOND TERM 3

27th October—Halloween Disco

22nd—24th November—Gr 3/4

Camp Rumbug

27th Nov—1st Dec Whole School

Swimming Program

14th December—School Presen-

tation Night

20th—21st December—Gr 6

Graduation Camp

MON TUE WED THU FRI

28

29

30 Brekky Club Lunch Order Day

31 Brekky Club 2018 Prep Enrol-ment Forms Due

01 Brekky Club Father’s Day Stall

04 Gr P-2 Planning Day—CRT’s Em-ployed National Literacy & Numeracy Wk

05 LV Division Ath-letics—Selected Students

06 Brekky Club Lunch Order Day PA Meeting—9am MARC Van

07 Brekky Club West Gipps Mobile Library

08 Brekky Club Sports Camp Forms & Paym Due—Selected Students WG Principals’ Mtg

Aug/Sep 2017

Find us at—www.willowgroveps.vic.edu.au

TERM DATES 2017

Term 1 30th Jan (teachers start) to 31st March

Term 2 18th April to 30th June

Term 3 17th July to 22nd Sept

Term 4 9th Oct to 22nd Dec

Like us on

Reminders

SUPERVISED HOURS: 8.45AM—3.30PM

VOL 17 : ISSUE 26 30TH AUGUST 2017

School Office Hours—Terms 3 & 4

Congratulations

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

Winter School Sports Competi-

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

Permission Notes for the Grade 2 and 3 excursion to Quantum have gone home. Please return to the office by Monday 4

th September.

Updated Asthma Action Plan forms were sent home with students who have Asthma this week. These forms need to be completed by your child’s Medical Practitioner, and returned to school prior to the commencement of Term 4.

Students who were successful in our school’s Lions Club Junior Public Speaking competition received an invite and information regarding the next stage of competition set to take place on Monday 11

th September. Congratulations and Good

luck!

Student Absence Letters will be sent home to families at the end of each month. The letters are sent home to families when your child has been absent and no written note has been provided. Please fill these out and return them to the office.

‘Porridge—The Musical’ Ticket Sales and DVD Order forms have been sent home today, and a copy is also attached to this newsletter. Please return these forms back to school no later than Friday the 15

th September.

Thank-you to all of our families and our community for supporting our Parent Association fundraiser last Friday Night. Once again, we are lucky to have the support of our parents, community members and local businesses. Thank-you on behalf of all of the students and staff. The money raised contributes to improving the school environ-ment and educational outcomes of our students. Thanks also to our Parent Association and in particular president Kate Mether who ran the evening and coordinated the raffle and silent auction.

Notices Sent Home

1st —Gibbo (Kate Fiddelaers) $255

2nd—River (Rob Phoenix) $155

3rd—Billsy (Chris Bills) $100

School Office Hours—Terms 3 & 4

Congratulations

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

Winter

Student Achievements

P A G E 3

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

Our School Uniform – building pride at Willow Grove PS At Willow Grove Primary School we actively encourage and are committed to the wearing of school uniform by all of our students. Our school council believes that the wearing of uniform encourages students to take pride in their appearance, instils a recognition of themselves as a vital part of the school community and assists in developing pride in rep-resenting Willow Grove Primary School. I am pleased to announce that as of Monday, we are close to reaching our goal of having 100% of students in uniform, with our staff only issuing 12 uniform reminder notices. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our parents, guardians and carers for your sup-port in ensuring that your child/ren are wearing the correct school uniform. Remember, we understand that from time to time students are unable to wear full school uniform for a va-riety of reasons. If circumstances mean that your child will be out of uniform on any given day, please send a note along to your child’s teacher to explain. If you would like assis-tance with the purchasing of uniform items, please speak to any member of staff. Attendance – Every Day Counts Like most other businesses or schools, most of our students, staff and families have been unable to avoid getting sick this winter. With the worst behind us, I thought it would be an important reminder to take this opportunity to talk about the importance of turning up to school, on time, every day! Attendance at school every day makes learning easier for your child and helps children to maintain friendships with other children. Excessive absentee-ism, regardless of its nature will eventually impede a student’s ability to reach his or her academic potential. Missing 10 days of school a year, will equate to 14 weeks of missed learning opportunities by the time your child finishes primary school. Double the number of days absent to 20 a year and the amount of weeks missed by the end of the school year will be a whole se-mester! I have included below a table which details the number of days absent per child on average for each Grade as of the end of August.

As a school we are aiming to have an average of no more than 10 days absent per year. If we are to reach that goal, we need to make sure that for the rest of the year, every day counts. If you are having difficulties with attendance please come and speak to your child’s classroom teacher. We are here to help. If an absence from school is unavoidable, remember to provide a written note detailing the reason why. We also encourage our old-er students to approach their classroom teacher to catch up on any learning tasks they have missed. For our younger students, we encourage our parents to model this positive behaviour. Take care and enjoy the rest of the week. Brendan Dawson

Principal’s Report

Grade Average Number of Days absent per child

Prep / 1 10.66 days

1 / 2 9.04 days

3 / 4 10.08 days

5 / 6 3.88 days

Whole School

8.59 days

Congratulations to the students of Grade 5/6 who are leading the way and setting the example for the rest of the younger students and making sure that they are at school on-time every day!

P.E. Award

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 Piper

For helping a student on the ‘cheer me up chair’

Student

of the Week Mikaela S

For demonstrating resili-

ence while learning her

speech.

Kafil

SPECIALIST

AWARD

Kasey

for P.E.

AR

T

P.E

LOTE

STUDENT ACHIEVERS

Parent Association News

Congratulations

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 5

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

Win-

Willow Grove Primary School Cake Stall

Sunday, 17th September We will be holding a stall at the upcoming Hill End Market on Sunday, 17th September. We are asking families for donations of baked goods, fresh produce, preserves or their time to help set-up, sell or pack-up on market day. If you are able to help please complete the form sent home with your child today, and return it to school by Friday, 8th September . A copy of the form is also attached to this newsletter.

Parent Association News

Parent Association News

Congratulations

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 6

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

Winter School Sports Competition—AFL and Netball—revised date

Parent Association News

Congratulations

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 7

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

Winter School Sports Competition—AFL and Netball—revised date

National Literacy and Numeracy Week is happening next week from Monday the 4

th of September through to Friday the 8

th of

September. It helps to raise awareness of literacy and numera-cy at school and beyond. At WGPS, we want to take this opportunity to open our doors and invite parents into our school, to showcase the great learn-ing that our staff and students have been involved in throughout 2017.

How does it work? If you have a spare morning, afternoon, or even 20 mins at lunchtime, come along and be involved. You might get to see reading in action, be part of a maths lesson or watch how our students get along at recess and lunch. We are throw-ing the doors open! Please just remember to sign in at the office. If you can’t make it, don’t worry, you can still be involved, visit https://www.literacyandnumeracy.gov.au/ and click on the parents tab. It will provide you with some activities you can do at home to promote literacy and numeracy.

Top Literacy and Numeracy Tips for Parents

Primary School

Literacy

Try to spend at least 10 minutes a day reading with your child, it will make a difference to how well they do at school. Listen to them reading and keep reading aloud together even when they are able to read for themselves to improve their fluency and vocabulary.

Have a range of different reading material available for your child at home. Encourage your child to read from a book or comic or whatever they are interested in reading. You can also ask your child to read school notes, recipes, and instructions to you.

Visit your local library and let your child choose books they like. Borrow books and audio books you can read and listen to together. Check out Learning Potential for tips on picking books for your child.

Numeracy

Help your child see how you use maths in everyday life. For example, explore how you use fractions in cooking; percentages while shopping; distance in driving; keeping score in sports games and tell-ing the time.

Encourage your child to practise the times tables and to solve simple maths problems in their head. Try asking them to:

work out how many pieces they will need to cut the birthday cake into so that everyone has a slice

work out the actual cost of discounted items (e.g. 25% off $20) figure out when you will arrive at a destination (e.g. “It is 4:15 pm now. It will take us 30

minutes to get home, what time will we arrive?”) If your child is struggling to work it out, suggest they show you on paper or talk you through how they are trying to work it out so you can help them.

Maths is a learned skill that improves with practise. Talk positively about maths and encourage your child to practise as much as possible as part of a regular routine.

National Literacy and Numeracy Week – Come and Discover WGPS

Parent Association News

Congratulations

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 8

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

Win- ter Our Leaders of Evolution – Young Leaders in Schools Program had its 2nd face to face ses-sion on Tuesday the 22nd of August. Students from Yallourn North Primary School joined us over at the football club to continue learning about teamwork, real life leadership challenges and how leaders in schools can make change happen. In our first session we started by watching a motivation movie that helped us learn about how the little things can make a difference. We made links to how this can help our group projects back in our respective schools. After the movie and discussion, we moved into a building challenge. The goal of this was for students to work together, think creatively and learn about the importance of roles and responsibilities. What made this challenge really rewarding was students seeing the pro-cess it takes to complete a challenge, rather than the result being most important. In the 2

nd session, we began with a paper challenge, designed to encourage students to

communicate effectively as a team to have success. It also reminded students that sometimes the best form of leadership is to step back and observe, and then act based on what you see. After this game students from Willow Grove and Yallourn North split into the school groups to focus on specific leadership needs within their school communities. Our focus was on personal strengths and how self and group awareness are important leadership skills. Students then ranked their top five skills as individual leaders and made links to their individual leadership projects back at school. We ended our day with Leadership games, challenging the students to use the skills of effective communication and teamwork to complete challenging tasks. Damian and Yvonne (the Leader of Evolution facilitators) commended students on their application and focus throughout the day, their maturity and display of leadership traits. The care and respect students took of the club room during the day and while cleaning up is to be celebrated. Cheers Jack Blythman 5/6 teacher.

LoE Face-to-Face Day Two Report

Community News

ROSTER

WEDNESDAY 6th Sept

Linda V.

WEDNESDAY 13th Sept

Amanda NT.