Westlawn Public School

Newsletter Term 2 Week 3

14th May 2019

Strive to Achieve

North Street, Grafton. 2460 6642 7466 westlawn-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

As I continue my travels around classrooms, I am

impressed by the enthusiasm shown by students for

learning and the love and pride they have for their

school. These visits, where I ask students what they

like most about WPS and what we could do to make

it an even better school, are a highlight of my day. In

fact, once I’ve completed this message, I’ll be

heading off to Year 1!

I had the pleasure of attending my first Grafton AECG (Aboriginal Education Consultative Group) meeting at SGHS this week. The meeting was well attended with representatives from Grafton schools and a variety of other agencies. At the meeting I was proud to table the latest edition of the WPS Bundjalung Newsletter which was well received. Congratulations to all the students involved in its production and a big thank you to Mr Bell for coordinating student efforts.

This week students in Years 3 and 5 will sit the NAPLAN (National Assessment Literacy and Numeracy) tests. NAPLAN assessments are only one of many that teachers use to gauge student progress and inform teaching programs over the school year. Many thanks to Mrs Johnson for her coordination of NAPLAN at WPS.

We wish all our students the very best in this endeavour. I have some thoughts about

NAPLAN that I would like to share with students. Please remember NAPLAN test results give some very specific information about yourself but they can’t say everything about who you are and what you have achieved. NAPLAN doesn’t say that you are good at sport, can dance, are able to look after others or that you can play a musical instrument. NAPLAN results don’t show that you can make your friends smile, build a robot, have interesting hobbies or are involved in Nippers. They don’t show your skills in science, geography or art. So, when you get your results, discuss them with your families and your teachers, look at areas to celebrate and areas to improve and continue to love learning and all the other experiences that learning encompasses.

Our Leadership Team has a new position for 2019; that of Deputy Principal. Congratulations to Mrs Ellis who has taken on this important role. Together with Assistant Principals, Mrs Gough, Mrs Acevedo-White, Mrs Johnson and Mrs Barnier and myself as principal, we have a strong and dynamic team to lead our wonderful school.

The WPS Leadership Team has been looking at School Planning and evaluations and also home school communications. To enhance communications, we will soon deploy the Skoolbag App. Once this is in place, our School Newsletters will move from weekly to

Message from the Principal

Strive to Achieve

North Street, Grafton. 2460 6642 7466 westlawn-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

fortnightly. More about Skoolbag soon.

Kind Regards,

Sandra

Clarence Cross Country Carnival Results

The Clarence Cross Country Carnival was held at

Junction Hill last Tuesday. Congratulations to the

following students who finished in the top 10 and

will now progress to the Mid North Coast Carnival at

Nana Glen on May 24.

Ruby E, Riley S, Taj C, Thomas B, Ashlea B, Poppy F,

Summah C, Chase S, Shanae C, Isabella M, Orlando

D, Breanna R, Lily P, Eliza B, Alice H, Ryder G, Riley

M, Deon L, Ted H, Seth B.

MNC Netball Trial Results

Shanae, Eliza, Lanaia and Grace

played for the Clarence side at

the Mid North Coast trial in

Grafton last Wednesday.

Congratulations to Eliza on her

selection. She will play for the

MNC side at the North Coast

trial on Wednesday 29 May. Good luck Eliza.

North Coast Rugby League Trial Results

Mason attended the North Coast Rugby League trials

held in Yamba on May 2. In the three trial games, he

mainly played lock but also had some minutes at

prop. Unfortunately, he missed selection.

Congratulations Mason, on being the only player

from Grafton to make to this level!

Primary Sport for Term 2

This term, our sport focus is on athletics. Our

athletics carnival will be held on Monday 24

June (T2, W9). In preparation for this, our

primary students will rotate around a number of

disciplines including long jump, high jump, shot

put, 100m, 200m and relays. There will then be

a trial process for long jump, high jump, shot put

and 200m sprint. There are limited entries for

these events on the day of the carnival. Training

will occur every Friday during our allocated

Sport time and during some of our stage PE time

to ensure all students are given plenty of

exposure to all events.

Please ensure your child has suitable footwear

for these activities.

Other dates to remember – plan ahead!

The Mid North Coast Cross Country Carnival will be

held at Nana Glen on Friday 24 May (T2, W4).

The North Coast Cross Country Carnival will be held

at Nana Glen on Friday 21 June (T2, W8).

Westlawn Primary Athletics Carnival will be held on

Monday 24 June (T2, W9) at Terry West Athletics

Field.

Girls Cricket Knockout

Round 2

Westlawn PS

girls travelled

to Kingscliff

last Friday for

Round 2 of

the PSSA

knockout

competition to

play Kingscliff PS. After the long journey up north

there was much excitement around the ground with

both teams inexperienced but very enthusiastic for a

game of cricket! Kingscliff won the toss and elected

to bowl first. For everyone but a few this was their

first ever game of cricket. What a game it was!

Westlawn opened with Eliza and Breanna which

started with a bang and the only 4 for the game

coming off the bat of Eliza.

A few quick wickets after some lovely catches saw

Aylrea, Shanae and Isabella come to the middle.

Isabella helped to steady the ship, facing a lot of

balls and spending a lot of time in the middle. The

girls did a wonderful job to pass the half century for

the team with a total score of 51 in the 16th over. An

Sporting News

Strive to Achieve

North Street, Grafton. 2460 6642 7466 westlawn-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

SRC Information

excellent effort!

Now it was time to do the job with the ball and

defend our score. A fantastic effort from all bowlers

saw a lot of pressure placed on the Kingscliff batters

and the game go right down to the wire. A special

mention to Shanae, Alice, Olivia and Isabella who all

bowled maiden overs. Shani and Shanae as wicket

keepers did a wonderful job saving many runs and

taking some wickets. The high standard of fielding by

the girls made runs hard to come by for Kingscliff.

However, with only 4 overs remaining Kingscliff

managed to reach the target with their last batters

at the crease.

Our wonderful bowling figures were: Eliza 0 -

6,Shanae 0-3, Sidonia 1-7, Breeanna 0-4, Alice 1-3,

Olivia 1-2, Isabella 1-0, Cara 1-7, Shani 1-8, Ayrlea 1-

6, Lucy 1-8, Lila 0-2

The girls showed wonderful sportsmanship

throughout the day and were commended on this by

both parents, umpires and the other school. A big

thank you to Amy for scoring, Brendan for umpiring

and all the parents and friends who drove and

supported the girls in what turned out to be an

extremely close and exciting match. A big thank you

to the girls whose effort and enthusiasm made the

whole experience quite enjoyable. We wish Kingscliff

all the best in future matches.

SRC Citizenship Award

The SRC present a weekly Citizenship Award at our

primary assembly. Each week we meet to discuss

what encouraging things we have seen happening in

our playground and classrooms. The SRC look for

behaviours that are helpful, demonstrate our school

rules or an act that shows a student as a positive role

model for others. We then nominate children we

have seen displaying these behaviours. Last week

the SRC focussed on finding children who were

building and demonstrating resilience. Resilience is

what helps you to cope and get through hard times,

when things have gone wrong. Sometimes it makes

you even stronger than you were before.

The students who were nominated by SRC

representatives are Emmy Deluin, Alice Hughes,

Lillian Graham and Chad Collie. We all voted. The

award winner has been seen and heard

demonstrating resilience in the playground and

classroom when things have become difficult.

This week’s Citizenship Award winner is Alice

Hughes.

Congratulations Alice!

Over the coming weeks, the SRC are looking for

students who are building and demonstrating

resilience.

Boom Bang Boogie

At the Clarence Valley Conservatorium we

participated in Boom Bang Boogie, an all day

workshop and accompanying performances. One of

the particular things we enjoyed was playing our

instruments with other people from different

schools. We put together five songs in five hours,

including songs like Havana, Shallow and Jupiter.

Afterwards, we got to perform them at two

concerts. Not only did we play, we also had the

opportunity to meet students, home schooled kids

and teachers. In the end, we had used a lot of

teamwork to create amazing concerts to perform for

our family and friends. A worthwhile experience

we would recommend to anyone who has the

chance to join in any future Boom Bang Boogie

workshops.

Written by Danika Broomfield and Summer Green-

Robertson

Strive to Achieve

North Street, Grafton. 2460 6642 7466 westlawn-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Student of the Week

Hayden - 6H

Diary Dates

Week 3

Wed 15th May Online NAPLAN tests for Years 3 & 5-Reading

Thurs16th May Online NAPLAN tests for Years 3 & 5- Language

Conventions

Week 4

Mon 20th May Online NAPLAN tests for Years 3 & 5 – Numeracy

Tues 21st May CSI

Fri 24th May MNC PSSA Cross Country at Nana Glen

Strive to Achieve

North Street, Grafton. 2460 6642 7466 westlawn-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Strive to Achieve

North Street, Grafton. 2460 6642 7466 westlawn-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Term 2 Week 3

Canteen News

Our canteen needs

more helpers urgently

on Mondays.

If you are able to help

out please let Amy

know. If we cannot get more volunteers for

the canteen on Mondays, we will have no

choice but to close the canteen on Mondays.

For all enquiries relating to the canteen

roster please call 0416 808 614 to speak to

our canteen manager Amy Freeman.

Mothers Day Stall

A massive

thankyou to

Amy Freeman

for coordinating

and organising

this year’s Mother’s Day stall. Thankyou to

everyone who helped out at the stall or

made items to sell. I am sure there were

many delighted mums on Sunday when

they saw their gifts from their children.

Father’s Day Stall

We are looking for someone who may be

willing to coordinate this year’s Father’s

Day stall. If anyone is interested please

speak to anyone on the P&C committee who

will be able to provide you with further

details.

Canteen Roster

Wednesday 15th May

Debra Watts, Shane Masters, Kaila Backwell

Thursday 16th May

Sue Ulrick, Campbell Timmins, Debra Watts

Friday 17th May

Shelly Thompson, Anita McLennan

Monday 20th May

Jacinda Fletcher, Deb Barlow, Kaila

Backwell

Tuesday 21st May

Debra Watts, Liz Hamlin, Belinda Bowling

Westlawn Public School P&C Newsletter