Students’ attendance during the winter months can be inconsistent, especially when it is required for students to stay home when developing symptoms of COVID-19. We understand the pressure and organisational issues this presents to families and appreciate your support as you follow DET and Government requirements.

General and regular attendance is so important and as a school we do our best to support each student’s attendance each day. We know that remote learning and lockdowns, etc have had a significant impact as we return to a post COVID world. We know that students settling back into school, class and peer/teacher relationships have been challenging for some.

Some of the things we work with students and families daily are:

· separation anxiety

· school refusal

· being ‘sick’ everyday

· excessive worry/anxiety

· school stamina

If your child/ren is experiencing one or more of the above, it is important that we together address the concern. The first step is to speak with your child/ren’s teacher to begin this conversation to outline some initial strategies/rewards for attending each day. When these strategies do not resolve the concern, greater support can be implemented, as it is vital that students attend school (when well) every day and arrive at our school on time for learning.

Please take note of the below tables to see the greater impact of daily attendance and lateness to school. We thank you in advance for your support.

Daily Attendance

Parent Opinion Survey

Our school is conducting a Parent Opinion survey to find out what parents/caregivers/guardians think of our school. The Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behavior, and student engagement.

We encourage all families to participate in this survey. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.
A random sample of approximately 30 per cent of parents/caregivers/guardians have been selected to participate in this year’s survey.
The Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey will be conducted from Monday 15^th August to Friday 16th September.
If you receive the link, please complete the survey as we really want to hear our community thoughts on our school and how we can improve it and to celebrate school achievements.

School Works

In the coming weeks, we will have some minor work being conducted that will impact some of the entry and exit doors to our Administration (not our front door), disabled toilet and asphalt and undercover way areas next to our Year 1 classes. Our Year 1 classrooms will be the most impacted and have scheduled this work as close to the end of Term 3 to minimise the impact to teaching and learning.

Very soon, we will communicate dates etc with our Year 1 families about the alternate arrangements.

Unfortunately, at this time our Melbourne Road entry and exit will need to be closed to support these works and the health and safety of our students and community. We apologise about this inconvenience and thank you for your understanding and flexibility.

Lost Property

To support the work mentioned above, our lost property cupboard has been moved to the undercover area near the Year 2 classrooms, to assist in the new electronic doors being installed at the exit near our Art room. Please see our office staff for support and/or directions.

Father’s/Special Person’s Day Stall

With Father’s/Special Person’s Day soon approaching, we will be having our Father’s/Special Person’s Day stall on Friday 25th August. You may notice that this is one week early. This is to support our Year 3 and 6 students with purchasing their items prior to attending camp. This way, every child has the opportunity to purchase items. All items range from 1.00 to $5.00 and we thank Rachelle, Jasmyn and team for their support and conducting our stall.

Walk-A-Thon—New Date Wednesday 7th September

Have you started to raise money yet for our school Walkathon – Wednesday 7th September?

You now have more time to collect your donations. We thank our parents and carers who have already donated to our Walk-A-Thon. Please visit www.willynthps.vic.edu.au/walkathon to donate. We really appreciate your support and currently at $4,441 – Great work everyone, we are almost halfway!

We hope you will consider a donation to support the students at our school, by:

scanning the QR code or visiting www.willynthps.vic.edu.au/walkathon

Or passing on money directly to the student

Reading Writing Together Is Magic (RWTIM) – Thursday 25th August

This evening event will take place next Thursday 25 August and celebrates students’ literacy, as students will present a short piece of their own original writing to a small group of students and families.

Date: Thursday 25^th August Time: 5:45pm - 6:30pm Venue: Williamstown North Primary School
Students: Foundation - Year 6

On the night, students and families are allocated to small multi-aged groups, in classrooms across the school. As well as sharing their own writing, students will hear from peers in their year level, and from those in year levels above and below them. Our senior students host the event in each classroom, as part of their leadership development program. Students in Foundation to Year 2 will also receive a special RWTIM ribbon to acknowledge their first-ever participation in this much-loved Willy North tradition.

Book Week and Parade

We are so glad to announce that our WNPS Book Fair is back! During Week 7, 22nd August – 26th August, as part of our celebration of Book Week, the Book Fair will be set up in the library. During this time, students will have the opportunity to preview the books, and fill in a special Wish List with the books that they really like.

On Wednesday 24th August we will also have our Book Parade on Tasmania from 9.30am to just after 10.00am.

Foundation Tours Due and Enrolments

If you or a family you know have a young one that will start will us in Foundation in 2023, please ensure that you book in Foundation Tour or complete your child’s enrolment or tour at:

Student Enrolment: https://www.willynthps.vic.edu.au/enrolment/enrol-your-child

Foundation Tours: https://www.willynthps.vic.edu.au/enrolment/book-a-tour

With Foundation enrolments now due, it is vital that you enrol at our school so we can plan for all our students for in 2023.

2023 Enrolment Intentions – Student Exits

We know that some families unfortunately won’t be with us next year, due to moving house etc. If that includes your family, we are sorry to see you leave our community. Please ensure that you call the school on 9397 7722 or email williamstown.north.ps@education.vic.gov.au to let us know.

This supports us with our planning for next year. We thank you for your support and understanding.

BOOK FAIR 2022 MONDAY 22nd – TUESDAY 30th AUGUST ONLINE PAYMENT & ORDERING

As part of our celebration of Book Week, the Willy North Book Fair is back again after 2 years of cancellations! It will be set up in the library and open to students from next Monday 22nd, to Tuesday 30th August. During this time, students will preview the books with their class and fill in a special Wish List. Ordering and payments can be made via the book fair online portal only. Full instructions for ordering will be provided on the back of the Wish List. Once you’ve paid online, we will receive notification and prepare your order. Books will be delivered to classrooms as soon as we can!

PLEASE NOTE: THE ONLINE PAYMENT PORTAL WILL BE CLOSED BY FRIDAY 2nd AUGUST AT 4:00pm.

This is a wonderful opportunity to generate excitement about books and reading, as well as being a major fundraiser for our school Library. We earn 30% of total sales in books! We thank you in advance for any purchases made at this year’s Book Fair. Every little sale adds up to making a great contribution to our school library!

PARENT HELPERS NEEDED: I have received offers of help on many of the days needed, however helpers are still needed on a couple of days to complete student orders- we will need assistance to pick books from the fair and deliver these to classrooms. If you can assist on any of the 2 following days/times, please let me know via email. My address is vivien.daquino@education.vic.gov.au.

Tuesday 23rd August—from 2:30pm onwards

Wednesday 31st August—from 8:45am onwards (packing orders, and packing up the Book Fair)

Please include in your email, the day/s you can help on, and a contact phone number/email address. I will put together a helper roster that will be emailed out before next Monday 22nd. Vivien D’Aquino—Book Fair Coordinator

Interschool Sports

Our school has previously competed in more Interschool Sport events over the past three weeks. All students involved did a phenomenal job in their respective sports and had a terrific experience overall!

AFL Football Boys at the Regional event: The Boys Football team played three outstanding games and gave themselves every chance to win through to the Grand Final. Ultimately they fell short by a couple of games with a combined margin of less than 12 points, although certainly are still proud of this major achievement!

AFL Football Girls at the Regional event: The Girls Football team also played three outstanding games and pushed the opposition schools right to the end. They also were not far off in featuring in the Grand Final. The Girls fell short overall by a combined margin of around 18 points, although definitely played with terrific team spirit which was great to see!

Boys & Mixed Soccer at the Regional event: The Boys & Mixed Soccer team had a terrific day of success in their Regional event. The team made it through all the way to the Grand Final, although unfortunately fell at the final hurdle. The Soccer team are also to be commended for an outstanding team effort and desire to win and came so close to a State level qualification!

Athletics Day – District event: Our school had a terrific day at the District Athletics event where all students achieved great success in all individual and team events across the day. Overall, Williamstown North PS finished second (just!) which was a super effort. Congratulations to all students involved in the Athletics event. The next event, which is the Divisionals event, will be held in approximately three weeks with further information to be released soon.

Cross Country – Nationals event: A huge congratulations and best of luck to Bonnie from Year 5 who will compete in the upcoming Nationals Cross Country event. An absolutely outstanding achievement here, well done Bonnie!

Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge

Some facts and figures from WNPS 2022 Premiers’ Reading Challenge;

· 30 students at WNPS have completed the Challenge, and will receive their certificate at assembly.

· WNPS have read over 2000 books!

· The top 5 books at WNPS are; Polly and Buster, Pig the Pug, Hark, it’s me, Ruby Lee!, Pink!, The Unwilling Twin

· With only a couple of weeks to go, will you earn your certificate?

To log on to the Premier’s reading challenge:

· Click on this URL: https://vprc.eduweb.vic.gov.au/home

· Click on the VRPC login.

· Fill out your child’s log in details

· Log any books that your child reads

Cold Water Immersion Protocol

If you’re wondering what the benefits of cold sea water are – MOWSC can help you discover why seemingly sensible people repeatedly emerge from the winter water laughing so much. Our immersion sessions are friendly, informative, safe and mildly uncomfortable – at first. There is no swimming involved just bring bathers, warm dry kit and a hot thermos. And hey, it’s your beach.

For WNPS parents – we are offering a 100% discount code for immersion bookings. Use code: GLOW on the link below.

https://mowscandwowswimming.as.me/ColdWaterProtocol

Semester Two 2022—(Term 3) Assembly Rotations
Term 3 – 11th July to 16th September
Week 7	Monday 22nd August	Junior
Week 8	Monday 29th August – Year 6 Camp	Senior
Week 9	Monday 5th September	Junior
Week 10	Friday 16th September – End of Term Assembly