Wakehurst Public School, 8 Glen Street, Belrose T: 9451 1812 www.wakehurst-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Wakehurst Public School

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Fortnightly Newsletter 2 April 2020

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents and Carers Thank you all very much for your consideration in keeping your children home and partaking in our learning from home program. At this time, our school continues to remain open to support those families who are working outside of the home in key health care positions and other positions who need to continue to send their

children to school. As the NSW Premier has said in her press conferences this week, we should not leave our home unless we absolutely have to. We understand that the adjustments we have all had to make are very difficult for everyone and we appreciate your support in keeping our staff and community safe by supporting learning from home. The Police commissioner has today revealed that NSW will continue with the same level of restrictions for the next 90 days. The more we are able to practice self-isolation, the better it is for everyone in our community to slow the curve of the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Wakehurst Public School staff have flexible working arrangements where staff are rostered on to work either from home or at school to facilitate the one learning platform and to be able to connect with families, respond to your enquiries and provide feedback to students. Therefore children at school will be placed into stage based cluster groups and will not necessarily be supervised by their classroom teacher. We do also have some teachers who are unable to attend school at this time due to health concerns. We have been amazed by the work that is being submitted by students and families. Our teachers are providing feedback during school contact hours. Please only complete what works for you and your family as you also need to work around your own ‘at home work commitments’. Do not hesitate to contact your child’s class teacher for any further support, we are working hard to ensure the continuity of learning for everyone and please only do what works for you and your family. Thank you all for your ongoing support and kind messages and a huge thank you to our amazing teaching staff for all they have done and continue to do to support student learning. Mrs Lindsay has included the links to our new online e-reading platform later in the newsletter as well as other ways to stay connected with reading. Resilience Project The Resilience Project will continue in Term 2 in an online format. It is more important than ever to continue to support wellbeing practices. Once we have more details on the format of this project we will forward this information to you. We will update you again next week with any changes that may occur. In the meantime, please enjoy some of the shared learning updates on the following pages.

Upcoming Events

Term 1 April

Thurs 9 Last Day Term 1

Term 2 Mon 27 Staff Development Day – Pupil Free

Tues 28 First day of Term 2 Learning from home continues

Wakehurst Public School, 8 Glen Street, Belrose T: 9451 1812 www.wakehurst-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Kindergarten learning from home update

Kindergarten students and their families have managed the transition to home learning remarkably well and the teachers are immensely grateful for the feedback and support they have received from everyone. The Seesaw app is proving to be a great way to post and store work in student journals, as well as providing a means of communication for parents and teachers when needed. Over the past week activities undertaken by students, whether at home or in the classroom, have included work on addition, skip counting by 2’s, a Music lesson on loud sounds and soft sounds, a nature collage, daily reading practice and some writing. We are so appreciative of everyone’s efforts and our wonderful Wakehurst families!

Wakehurst Public School, 8 Glen Street, Belrose T: 9451 1812 www.wakehurst-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Year 1 and 2 learning from home update Students in Year 1 and 2 are currently receiving a weekly learning grid to set daily tasks including online and book based learning. We are using SeeSaw journals to post and feedback on student work, and are very proud of our student learning. Our Stage 1 teachers thank everyone for their support and we have posted some examples of student learning that have been shared with us.

Wakehurst Public School, 8 Glen Street, Belrose T: 9451 1812 www.wakehurst-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Year 3 and 4 learning from home update Students across Year 3 and 4 have been doing an amazing job adapting to the world of at home learning.

Throughout the week there have been many ‘lightbulb’ moments as we all navigate this different style of learning together. Everyday they check in and access their work in our Google Classrooms.

Through posting their assignments back to our Google Classrooms or uploading photos of their work into their SeeSaw journals, we have been so impressed with the way that they have embraced their learning opportunities. There have been many questions and some great teamwork happening between our students and teachers as we all work together and help each other out.

A huge thank you to our Stage 2 students and parents for everything that they are doing at this time!

Wakehurst Public School, 8 Glen Street, Belrose T: 9451 1812 www.wakehurst-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Year 5 and 6 learning from home update Having introduced Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) this year with Year 5 and 6 students has helped with a smooth transition to home learning. Using Google classroom and the G-suite of products, teachers have been able to schedule learning each day delivered directly to student Chromebook devices. Teachers have also been touching base with students through video conferencing using Microsoft Teams, and we are now transitioning to use Zoom to strengthen the link between home and school. We will be using Zoom across the school community to a greater degree in Term 2, as we become more familiar with the program and its capabilities, to safely communicate with our students and families. Below are some photos students have shared in their new online learning environment in Stage 3.

At this stage we have also been advised that the school canteen and uniform shop will not be operational in Term 2. Our school photos have been postponed until November 4.

Kind regards and keep well.

Caroline Desmond Principal

Wakehurst Public School, 8 Glen Street, Belrose T: 9451 1812 www.wakehurst-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Wakehurst Public School, 8 Glen Street, Belrose T: 9451 1812 www.wakehurst-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Library News

The library has been running differently this week with students borrowing online rather than borrowing from the library here at WPS. So far the online library has 100 patrons so please borrow a book with your child. It would be wonderful to have all the WPS school community using this service. Please do not worry about returning print books that you have borrowed from WPS, as I have extended the loan period for all borrowers.

Over the next few weeks encourage your children to read every day.

There are many online platforms for you to find books.

Please explore the 3 options below.

Click on the link:

https://wakehurstps.eplatform.co/

Please use your school login and password or download the free App. Search for Wakehurst PS and use the same login.

Handy Hints:

1. Find books appropriate to your child’s reading level by searching using the Audience tab on the side of the home page. 2. Use the arrows on the keyboard to turn the pages of the book.

Wakehurst Public School, 8 Glen Street, Belrose T: 9451 1812 www.wakehurst-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

https://storyboxlibrary.com.au/

WPS School Login: Username: wakehurstps

Password: wakehurstps

‘The School Magazine’ will be delivered to the 3-6 students through an online classroom.

Click on the link: https://theschoolmagazine.com.au/ In the right hand top corner click on students and type in the classroom code.

Click on the classroom for your grade. Enjoy reading the poems, articles and plays.

Catherine Lindsay Teacher Librarian

Wakehurst Public School, 8 Glen Street, Belrose T: 9451 1812 www.wakehurst-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Harmony Day

HARMONY DAY Harmony Day…only 2 weeks ago but it seems far longer. I have had lots of enquiries regarding the colouring competition (a sneak peek at a couple of entries below) but sadly, the judging has had to be postponed for now. There were many magnificent entries and eventually the SRC will most definitely come together to make their difficult decisions, announce grade winners and award prizes. However, the good news is that through the generosity of the Wakehurst community we have raised more than $500 for Stewart House, money they will be very grateful for when they are able to resume their programs. So well done, Wakehurst families and thank you on behalf of the SRC. Kate Smith

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