wentworth falls public school newsletter

Wentworth Falls Public School Newsletter

Wentworth Falls Public School 4 March 2021

Falls Road, Wentworth Falls NSW 2782 * Tel: 0247571604 * Richard Giles Principal

Principal’s Report 1

Smiling Mind Update 2

Wenty Whispers 3-4

Canteen 5

P&C News 6-7

Public Notices 8-11

Inside this issue:

IMPORTANT DATES TERM 1 2021 March 4 KHS Sneak Peek year 6 11 Selective High School Exam 15 P&C Meeting & AGM 26 Fun Run 29 Parent & Teacher Interview 30 Parent & Teacher Interview April 1 Last day of Term 19 Staff return 20 Students return

Proudly celebrating 134 years of continued excellence in Public Education

From the Principal..

Welcome to Week 6 and the beginning of Autumn. It is hard to believe that we have passed the halfway point of Term 1 - my how times flies when you’re having fun.

I received good news yesterday afternoon when I was told our crossing supervisor, Lisa, starts today. Teachers will be talking with students about crossing the street at the crossing, waiting for the supervisor to lead them across, etc so please back up these conversations with similar ones at home.

Next week (Tuesday 9th March) we will be holding sessions for parents who may be interested to see what our new management plan is beginning to look like. A note has gone home today and parents will need to reply with their intention to attend as there will be restricted numbers for each session due to current COVID guidelines. If we have a high demand a second night will be chosen in Week 8.

We have made the decision to celebrate Grandparents Day this year in Term 4, closer to the official date for Grandparents’ Day in October. The main reason being that hopefully by then COVID regulations have been lifted. At this point in the term staff and students have not been able to practice or prepare any of the regular items seen on the day so this new date will allow time for this as well. Harmony Day will still be celebrated within classes as we would normally.

Parent teacher interviews will be held on Monday 29th March and Tuesday 30th March. These meetings are part of our reporting to parents process and are a valuable opportunity to visit your child’s teacher to discuss how they are progressing. Information regarding how to book an appointment time will be sent home shortly.

Congratulations to our students who participated so well in the district swimming carnival and a special congratulations to Sophia who has qualified to participate in the regional swimming carnival. Thank you again to Mr Zammit for organising the zone squad for the day as well as Mr McGrath and Mrs Bones who helped with official duties and team supervision.

Next week we will be holding an emergency drill on Thursday. We will be listening to all of the different alarms so that our new students and Kindergarten understand what each one means and what we do in each instance.

Friday 19th March is Bullying No Way! day. This date is the national day against bullying and violence and classes will be completing activities on the day around this issue. Information leaflets will be in our newsletter providing the same message we are delivering at school to our community.

Friday 26th March is our Fun Run fundraiser. Information has gone home regarding the fundraiser already and I understand we have already raised over $10 000 to date. I have my fingers crossed that the weather is nice to us on what will be a great day for everyone.

Finally, to all parents and students who travel by bus and use the Opal card. Please remember to bring your Opal card every day you travel by bus and tap on and off. The information gathered by tapping on and off is used to determine the demand for bus services. If we don’t tap on and off the data may not reflect the need for bus services. Please remember your OPAL CARD and tap on and off for every trip.

Have a wonderful week.

Mr Giles

Easter Eggs for Bodington

A long-standing tradition at our school has been the annual visit by our Prefects to the residents of Bodington Aged Care to distribute Easter eggs and some good cheer.

To help us in this regard, you are invited to donate some Easter eggs, to be taken by our school leaders and Mr Giles on the 24 March 2021. Eggs can be handed into the front office no later than 19 March, to allow for wrapping.

Thank you as always for supporting our local senior citizens.

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”

- Carl Sagan

Wentworth Falls Public School 2

Smiling Mind - Mindfulness Update

Our initial lessons into mindfulness have been working towards developing and sustaining our attention on what is happening in the present moment. An essential tool for learning at school.

Mindfulness is like a gym for the mind. The following two statements demonstrate the importance of mindfulness and its impact on both adults and young people.

Mindfulness is a well-established and researched technique for achieving calmness and improved wellbe-ing. Clinical research shows that mindfulness leads to reduced stress, anxiety and depression, improved academic skills, social skills and self-esteem by developing emotion and behaviour regulation skills, improved attention and concentration (NSW DET 2021).

The research evidence suggests that practicing mindfulness strengthens brain areas related to attention. This leads to improved emotional regulation, mental health, and cognition. These improvements are found both in adults and in school students. Students who participate in mindfulness programs also show improved academic performance. Investing only 6% of the school day in mindfulness practice is associated with an increase of approximately 16% relative to peers in mental health and academic performance (Smiling Mind, Evidence Based Guidelines for Mindfulness in Schools).

Student Leaders Badge Presentation


P&C News

Crazy Colour Day Fun Run -

Friday 26th March

We’re three weeks out from our School Fun Run’s

Crazy Colour Day! We hope students are working

hard towards their fundraising goals!

Currently we have raised almost $10,000, which is

amazing so lets keep up the good work and I hope

you’ll keep supporting us! Remember, the money raised will be going towards STEAM resources to

help our kids grow as future focused learners.

Did you know that you can WIN a $20,000 Ultimate Family Package by setting up your student

profile online and raising $1 online? Just head over to schoolfunrun.com.au. Once you‘ve created

your page there are some great things you can do. You can sign up for online fundraising, pick your

target prize and even become a fundraising superstar!

If you’re having any trouble setting up your student profile or fundraising online, please get in touch

with the Fun Run team on 1800 FUN RUN.

Thanks for supporting us with your fundraising efforts, we look forward to celebrating with an

amazing day!

P&C AGM & Meeting - Monday 15th March @ 7pm The P&C will be having our Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Monday 15th March at 7pm in the school library followed by our March Meeting.

Are you keen to give your kids the best possible schooling experience? Do you like to know what's

going on in their world at school and understand how the system works? Do you love the extra

resources and opportunities students at Wenty get to experience?

Then the P&C is for you!

We are a group of parents and carers who are committed to helping Wentworth Falls Public School

provide the best possible learning environment for kids - we do this through fundraising, advocating

and providing parent feedback to the school. It is a great way to get to know other parents and also

to be involved and in the know about your child's life and learning at school. We meet once a month

during term time on the 3rd Monday of the month at 7pm in the library. Everyone is welcome.

We need your help!

This year we really need some new executive members. The executive positions include President,

Vice-President x2, Treasurer and Secretary. At this stage we have people prepared to stand for 3 of

these positions, though anyone else is welcome to stand as well.

http://www.schoolfunrun.com.au/


However we are actively looking for people who would be interested in running as

Secretary and a Vice President. The job descriptions are as below:

Secretary: Formulating and distributing the agenda in advance of the meetings in consultation

with the President, taking minutes at each meeting, maintaining the database of members, and

handling correspondence.

Vice-President: Supporting the President in running the meetings, co-signing banking payments

on line with the Treasurer, assisting in the general running and decision making of the P&C.

Are you interested in more information?

Please contact Julie Guyer (President) and mother of Meredith 5/6E, Cameron 3/4RP and Tim K/1P at [email protected] or on 0423143206 for more information

Volunteers wanted to help build a WFPS chicken coop + run!

Everyone welcome from experienced builders, experienced chicken carers, to volunteers with no

building or chicken expertise but willing to be extra hands to hold things and lift things into place.

Students are currently undertaking a project to design a chicken coop + run for WFPS, and we

would LOVE volunteers to help with the building. Date still to be set (maybe end of term 1 or in

term 2).

We need to show there is support and volunteers in order to go ahead.

Please contact Melinda via [email protected], Facebook “WFPS Garden Club”, or

leave a note for me at the school office.

Clothing Pool The Clothing Pool (second hand uniform shop) will be open Wednesday and Friday 8:30 to 8:45 (ish), outside Mrs Cannon's classroom. Lots of red fleecy jumpers and summer dresses available. Thanks to those parents who have donated clothes, we are always looking for more donations of uniforms in good condition. These can be handed into the front office or at the clothing pool. Thanks Vanessa, Chris and Frida

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


Nurturing Children - Thrive Services

Here the Duluth Model that focuses on all the areas a child needs to feel nurtured, with some examples in each category.

Thrive Services is always available for a chat for any questions or help you may need. 4782 1555.

SRE Begins for the Year We were delighted to welcome our SRE teachers back to begin their specialised lessons in week four of the term. Their dedication and care of our students are valued highly by the school community. If you would like your child to join Anglican, Other Protestant Denominations or Catholic please let the office and we will gladly add to the existing groups. Ethics classes are full. Also, if there are any parents or carers who would like to train as Ethics teachers, please let Tatar Holmes know at [email protected] Thank you Kerrie McMath

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