Presentation Days

The staff and students of WPS are looking forward to the annual presentation ceremonies next Thursday 8 December for K-2 students and Friday 9 December for Years 3-6 students. Both ceremonies will commence at 9:30am. All parents and family are welcome to attend these special days. Students who will be performing, receiving an award or elected to leadership positions should have received a note earlier this week. The ceremonies provide an opportunity to celebrate and congratulate our students for academic, cultural and sporting success. All children attending particularly those receiving awards must wear correct school uniform.

Semester 2 Reports

Reports will go home on Monday 12 December. They will be addressed to the parents or caregivers and should arrive home unopened and in mint condition. Please take time to read the reports with your child/ren and praise the positives and set goals for improvement for 2012. I urge parents to pay particular attention to both the effort ratings and the social skills. Children who are not making a positive effort or concentrating at school are also not giving themselves a chance to improve or enjoy success. Social skills at school are very important and unfortunately some children do not always make the right choices with their behaviour. This is an area that parents can really assist, promote and demand that their children improve. Finally, I would like to thank the entire teaching staff for working extremely hard to prepare and complete the reports. Reports are a very time consuming task and are for the most part, completed of an evening or on weekends.

Schools Spectacular – Imagine

Wow! What a sensational production at the Sydney Entertainment Centre last Friday and Saturday. I was so proud of our WPS students who looked great in their green morph suits and their teachers Mrs Dignum and Mrs McCue. What a spectacular experience for our exemplary students representing WPS and Wauchope. I am sure the many parents and friends who also attended one of the concerts thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Special thanks to Mrs Pelley, Mrs Domanski and Mrs Brassey who attended the matinee performance with a bus full of WPS students. Due to the bus breaking down they arrived back at school at 12:15 am, 17 and 3/4 hours after they departed school that morning. Now that is a big day’s work!

Healthy lunchbox ideas

We are all so busy in the lead up to Christmas, but it is still important to provide your child with healthy, nutritious and filling lunches and snacks at school. The School A to Z website has some great quick and easy lunchbox ideas. The site has printable recipes and food tips as well as allergy buster lunches for the most sensitive. And remember as the weather warms up, freeze a water bottle and place in the lunchbox (wrap in a cloth to keep food dry) to keep food at a safe temperature for consumption. Go to: www.schoolatoz.nsw.edu.au/wellbeing/food/recipes

QuickSmart 2011

Last Thursday, a special assembly (followed by a pizza party) was held to celebrate the achievements of 28 Stage 3 students who participated in the QuickSmart Numeracy program in 2011. This program, developed by a team from the University of New England, focuses on students achieving “automaticity” when recalling basic number facts in the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). They get quicker and smarter, hence the name QuickSmart. Students work in pairs with a QuickSmart trained tutor for half an hour, three times a week. The program is well structured and very motivating, (just ask our students!). The QuickSmart Numeracy program finished at the end of Term 3 with outstanding results. All students showed improvement and the feedback we received from students, parents and teachers was very positive. This was largely due to our two wonderful tutors, Tracy Cannon and Ros Fuhrer as well as the great attitude and commitment of our QS kids. We hope to run the QuickSmart program again in 2012.

-Karen O’Reilly- (QuickSmart coordinator)

Intensive Swimming

Thank you once again to the teachers, teachers’ aides and community members who are assisting with this year’s swimming scheme. As you can see this has been a large operation with plenty of WPS staff working hard to ensure it is a success and a benefit for your child/ren. Please remember that swimming like all new skills, requires continued practice. The last three days of last week were particularly woeful days to be attending swimming. Today is not much better! Special thanks to the following people: Helen Pearse, Robyn Domanski, John Baker, Vicki Muir, Nikki Woolner and Jigh Sallustio. Donna Anthony, Geoff Parker, Lisa White, Jude Stephens, Tanya Williams, Lorraine Swift, Simon Taylor, Elaine Andrews, Noelene Harman (Mama), Anne Pilkie, Wendy Laws and Robert Smith.

QuickSmart Assembly

I had the privilege of presenting awards to some students who have developed a greater appreciation and ability in Mathematics thanks to this special program. We then enjoyed a pizza party to celebrate. Thank you to our tutors Mrs Cannon and Mrs Fuhrer and to Mrs O’Reilly who coordinates this program.

Cricket and Other Clinics

Please find details of Sport & Recreation Holiday Cricket Clinics here - http://www.dsr.nsw.gov.au/active/whatson.asp?region=northcoast. For more information call (02) 6618 0400 or visit www.dsr.nsw.gov.au. I hope the Australian Cricket do well in the First Test against New Zealand over the next five days! Go Australia!

Student Behaviour

Please be reminded that we still expect a satisfactory level of student behaviour right up until the students last day of school Friday 16 December. If children misbehave they may place in jeopardy some of the fun activities planned for the end of year e.g. pool parties or discos. Your continued support with this is much appreciated.

-Cameron Osborne-

WOOSH News

The next WOOSH meeting will be held in the WOOSH room on 9 February 2012 at 6pm. All new and existing families are more than welcome to come.

Help Needed

If you are able to help decorate for the K-2 disco being held at the new school hall on Monday 12 December from 9am, please contact: Joe on 0417 852 777

K-2 Disco / Christmas Concert

Where? WPS New Hall When? Monday 12 December

Children arrive at 4pm Concert 4.30pm – 5.30pm Disco 5.30pm - 6.30pm

Year 3- 4 and Year 5 – 6 Disco

Where? WPS New Hall When? Wednesday 14 December

5.00pm - 6.30pm Year 3-4 7.00pm - 9.00pm Year 5-6

The cost for both DISCO’s are $5.00 per child and includes a packet of chips and a popper. All money raised will go towards purchasing resources for your child's classroom. Children will need to be escorted to and from the Disco by a supervising adult. So, get their dancing shoes out and send them along for a great time!!

Show Bags for sale

Show bags will be available on the nights for purchase. How much? $5.00 per show bag (Pirates, Girls Rock, Girly Shirley and Enchanted Princess)

P & C News

P & C Meeting

The final meeting for this year will be held on Thursday 8 December at the special time of 6pm in the schools staff room, followed by dinner and refreshments at the Bago Tavern at own cost around 7 pm. Please come along for a great evening and celebrate a great year. Everyone is welcome!

Canteen News

Canteen Special

What? Cheeseburger When? Tuesday 6 December How much? $ 2.50 per serve

Canteen Roster Term 4

Week 9 Monday 5th R Smith Tuesday 6th W Batty & R Thompson Wednesday 7th A Cordell & L Wagner Thursday 8th M Corrigan Friday 9th M McKinnon & D Partridge

School Uniforms

Are your child’s school uniforms looking a little old and worn? Now is the time to purchase new uniforms ready for the start of school in 2012. Mrs Nicole O’Hagan (Canteen Manager) has stocked the canteen with uniforms ready for the big rush. For the convenience of parents the school canteen will open on the following days to enable school uniforms to be purchased prior to school commencing

Wednesday 25th January 2012: from 10am till 2pm

Friday 27th January 2012: from 8.30am till 2pm

Saturday 28th January 2012: from 10am till 2pm

Fete News

The final meeting for the Fete committee will be held on 1 December at 7pm at the Wauchope Country Club. Everyone is welcome!

Merit Awards

KLE – Tegan A & Will N KLF – Kya D & Clayton T KMM – Brayden B & Caden B KSW – Dareece D & Billy H KWH – Ayden F & Kate B 1DP – Isabella D & Joel P 1HL – Kelly S & Kaleb M 1KB – Melanie W & Tegan G 1NL – Donovan R & Lauren J 2CS – Brock B & Cameron P 2HP – Kade M & Emma C 2MG – Zachery L & Destiny R 2RD – Brok T & Shakayah T

Citizen of the Week

Brodie D – KLE Savannah J – 1DP

Christmas Craft with Class KLF

School Calendar

December Thu 1st Fete meeting Thu 8th K-2 Presentation Day Thu 8th P&C meeting Fri 9th Year 3-6 Presentation Day Mon 12th K-2 Disco – Christmas Concert Tue 13th Stage 3 Pool Party Wed 14th Stage 2 Pool Party Wed 14th Year 6 Farewell Wed 14th Year 3-4 & Year 5-6 Disco Fri 16th Students last day of Term 4 2011 Mon 19th School development day Tue 20th School development day

January 2012 Fri 27th Commencement of Term 1 2012 (Staff development day) Mon 30th Year 1-6 Students return to school Mon 30th – Fri 3rd Feb Best Start Testing (Kindergarten)

February 2012

Mon 6th First Day of Kindergarten classes Thu 9th Woosh meeting

Canteen constructions

Concrete base is done!

5SJ ‘Chicken Hatchtacluar’

For the past 3 weeks 5SJ have undertaken the task of hatching some chicks in an incubator. The eggs were donated by Brooklyn, Talicia, Tori and Mr Hurrell and we placed them in the incubator. We had to learn about the requirements for hatching, caring for newborn chicks, how to handle the eggs and how to tell which are girls and boys. After a long wait of 21 days our chicks began to hatch! They are so cute and fluffy. Miss Woolner even helped one being born! The chicks have been adopted by students in the class (and Miss Hollis) and will go home on Friday afternoon. We all agree this has been an eggciting end to Year 5.

-Mrs Sarah Johnston-

The Wauchope & Hinterland Town

Christmas Event

Is on the 15th December 2011 in the Wauchope CBD and Bain Park Food, Fun and Holy Night!

1. Street Markets from 8.30am 2. Activities for children in Bain Park from

3pm 3. Children’s games in Bain Park from 5pm 4. Carols in Bain Park from 6pm 5. Close at 8.15pm

Brought to you by the Hastings Co-op, the Chamber of Commerce and the Churches of Wauchope.