Willunga Primary School Newsletter

Term 4 Week 6

Why is problem solving so important and how can you support your child to develop these skills?

Problem solving is one of the four Mathematical proficiency strands in the Australian Curriculum, along with understanding, reasoning and fluency. One of the aims of Mathematics in the Australian Curriculum is to ensure that students are ‘confident, creative users and communicators of mathematics, able to investigate, represent and interpret situations in their personal and work lives and as active citizens’. Through problem solving, students apply their Mathematical understanding and skills to real life contexts. When learning through problem solving, children see that there are a range of different ways to come to a solution.

 There are many opportunities to develop problem solving skills with your child at home. Here are a few ideas.

Shopping

·         Considering the value of items. Is it better value to buy the bigger or smaller packet?

·         Calculating percentage off during sales

·         Calculating change

·         Simple budgeting – how long will it take you to save up $20 if you get $5 pocket money each week?

Cooking

·         Measuring ingredients

·         Converting millilitres to litres and grams to kilograms

·         Ratios – doubling or halving recipes

·         Menu/party planning. How much food will we need to serve people?

·         Designing a survey to see what is the most popular food

·         Cutting cakes into equal parts

·         Shapes when cutting cookies

Decorating

·         Measuring the area of floors, or walls to calculate how much new carpet/paint to buy. Working in square meters.

·         Measuring and cutting fabric to sew curtains of cushion covers etc.

·         Converting mm to cm and m.

Gardening

·         Calculating how much soil is needed to fill a garden bed

·         Measuring for fencing and placement of posts

·         Plotting out a veggie patch – working out how much space each needs to grow

·         Measuring the height of plants as they grow

Holidays

·         Using maps to plan a journey

·         Working out how long a leg of the journey will take by considering how many km and how fast the car is travelling

·         Calculating the cost of petrol for the length of journey

I’m sure once you get thinking about problem solving, you will see opportunities for ‘real life maths’ in everything you do, these ideas are just the tip of the iceberg!

Lisa Hunt

From the Principal

There is so much to celebrate about our school this year. Just recently we have witnessed the range of talent in our student body.

Our Musical Theatre Group performed 'Musicville' on two Fridays for all our classes. Bianca Schultz worked with the group over the year to pull this performance together - we are so grateful for her ongoing commitment to these students.

Other students have attended sporting events including the boys basketball team (see the article below); boys and girls Rugby Tag; individuals competing at the Softball tournament. Unfortunately this week the State Athletics and Swimming Championships were cancelled due to the current restrictions.

A love of books and reading was on display at the Book Week dress up day - you would have seen the pictures. Some students (and parents) are very creative  in designing costumes!

Our three Readers Rap teams enjoyed a great day earlier in the term, as mentioned in the previous newsletter. 

The respect and understanding shown at the Remembrance Day ceremony by the students was great. The hosts, members of the Promotions SAT, can be proud of the way they ran the ceremony. This is a special event in our annual calendar that I am particularly proud of.

And then there was the COLOUR RUN! It was so good being out there together as a school. Our whole school get togethers have been few and far between this year, and we have missed them! Reports from the Governing Council volunteers spoke highly of how polite our students were when they ran past a station. On top of that there were many examples of students being kind to each other by encouraging others who were finding it tough. Now that is something to celebrate and be proud of!

As we head into the last three weeks of the year, the community is in a state of uncertainty. I will keep you informed of what is happening for our site - students, staff and families. Keep your eye on Skoolbag / email for any updates. Take care of each other and stay safe!

Before school yard supervision

Reminder - The schoolyard is NOT supervised before 8.30am.

Any students arriving before the 8:30am bell are required to sit outside the front office until the bell goes. 

School Closure Day 27th November

A reminder that the day after our (modified) Twilight Picnic is a school closure day. Oshc will also be closed on this day

Covid visiting protocols

We are still following strict social distancing and hygiene protocols at the site, but have been able to welcome small groups of parents or individuals back on site for a tour and some meetings.  We value the connection you have with the school and the class teachers and want to maintain this.  If you need to meet with a teacher we can facilitate this out of hours through the front office.  You will need to sign a Covid declaration and use sanitizer before entering.  If you are unwell, please make sure that you do not attend. 

 Due to current restrictions, we are unable to hold a lot of our usual events, although we are modifying many of them on site.  

  • 20th November- Assembly
  • 23rd November - Non WPS Transition Receptions 1:45-2:45pm
  • 24th November - Footsteps
  • 24th November - Special Food Day
  • 26th November - Christmas Singalong on Seesaw (in lieu if Twilight Picnic)
  • 27th November - School Closure Day
  • 1st December - Footsteps
  • 1st December - Governing Council 7pm
  • 2nd December - Yr 7 WHS Transition
  • 4th December - Casual Clothes Day
  • 8th December - Footsteps
  • 10th December - Graduation
  • 11th December - Assembly
  • 11th December - End of Term 4  2:05pm Dismissal

End of Year Raffle

Our famous End of Year Raffle is on again. Each family will receive 1 raffle book and tickets are only $1.00. Prizes will be gift hampers and we always have an amazing range of prizes donated. Information will be coming home with your child/ren with details of the donation items which will be a different theme for each class. This raffle is drawn at our end of year assembly. We will contact all winners by phone as unfortunately visitors are unable to attend this end of year assembly due to Covid restrictions.

SAPSASA Events

Congratulation to Jakayla L who was selected to represent ONKAPARINGA SOUTH DISTRICT 2020 Sapsasa State Softball Carnival 2nd to 4th November. The team finished 4th out of their group.

Sapsasa Basketball Boys 2020

Willunga Primary School was selected after 3 trials during school lunch breaks. After a further 3 practice sessions, the team felt confident going into the inter school tournament at the Morphett Vale Basketball Stadium. However, they lost there first match against eventual overall winners, Kangaroo Island.

The boys did not drop their heads and went on to win their next two matches against local rivals McLaren Vale and Eden Hills comfortably. With the chance of going up into 2nd spot on the ladder, they had to beat Reynella but unfortunately things did not work out as planned and Willunga lost the match 17 – 6. 

The last match of the day against Wirreanda was an exciting one and too close to call. Willunga managed to win the well-balanced match by a point. Overall, the team played really well together and showed good team spirit. With the team winning 3 out of their 5 matches, Willunga finished in 3rd spot. Well done, boys.

 A special thank you to all the parents that transported the players and those that came to spectate. A special thank you to Debbie Norman for officiating throughout the tournament.

M. Nair

Rugby Tag State Championships 2020

On 12 November 2020, Willunga Primary School participated in the Rugby Tag State Championships at Park 17 in Adelaide. Willunga participated in both the boy’s and girl’s competition.

The girls team went straight onto the pitch from the bus to play their first match which they won 2-1 against Para Hills. They unfortunately lost their next match against a much stronger opposition, Elizabeth Downs. They did bounce back well and went on to win their next two matches against West Lakes and West Beach. They lost their next matches finishing second in their group and 4th overall. Well done, Willunga girls!!

The boys team started their competition with fantastic wins in their first two matches against Murray Bridge and Para Hills winning 4-0 and 4-1 respectively. They stumbled in their next match going down 2 nil to Salisbury North. They were too strong in their last group match against West Lakes winning 5-1. Like the girls, the boys finished 2nd in their group but went on to win their semi-final against Monash. This was a closely contested match and Willunga edged out 4-3 winners.

This success gave them the opportunity to participate in the grand final against Salisbury North who they had lost to in the group stage. The final was an exciting game to watch with both teams displaying tremendous skills but Willunga held on to win the final game of the day 4- 2. What a fantastic achievement as Willunga were crowned State Champions again. Proud captain, Nic C, was honoured to receive the Champions Trophy and handed out medals to his team mates. Amazing achievement, boys!!

Thanks to all the parents for getting to Adelaide to support the teams and special thank you to Nicole Rice and Jade Alldritt for managing the team.

Mogann Nair

Special Food Day

Worn Up

UNIFORM RECYCLING PROGRAM

 Did you know, Australian schools discard between 100 and 200 kilos of non wearable uniforms a year.

Willunga Primary is teaming up with Worn Up to ensure no unwearable school uniforms end up in landfill. 

Take a look through your wardrobe and drawers and pull out any clean but worn out, ripped, damaged, faded, torn, or marked school uniforms.

These items no longer need to go to the rubbish bin.  They

will be collected and reformed into new products such as desks, acoustic insulation, and cushion inserts.

 Items being collected include dresses, skirts, shorts, pants, shirts, polos, sweatshirts, jackets, socks and tights. 

At this stage we can not take back back packs, shoes or hats. 


We will be coordinating clothing to be dropped off for Worn Up with Casual Clothes Day on the 4th December. On the last casual clothes day for the year we ask for a donation of non perishable food items for Anglicare. So along with your donation for Anglicare, please bring along an item of clothing that is no longer wearable for donation to Worn Up.

Bandanna Day Friday 30th October

Thank you to everyone who purchased bandannas for National Bandanna Day.

We raised $485 for Canteen.

Calm Kid Central

Schoolastic Book Club Orders

A reminder that the last day for Book Club orders is Thursday 19th of November.

The SMS absence line: Text only 0429 632 559. Must include name, date, reason and class. Please check you are sending SMS to this number for absences

Stop the Spread

Sue Camac's Pastoral Care

Since last newsletter I have completed a 3 hour eSafety education program requirement from the eSafety Commissioner. From that, I would highly recommend you to get onto the eSafety website www.esafety.gov.au to sign up for their latest news emails, search up various topics of concern or even participate in some webinars or training.  It is a great resource.  

 

MasterChef is on with three challenges already finished!  Name That Ingredient, Taste Test and Cake Decorating. Here’s some of our MasterChefs busy working on their cake creations! 

Masterchefs in action

OSHC News


Reminder - The schoolyard is NOT supervised before 8.30am or after 3.20pm. OSHC has exclusive use of the grounds outside of these times.

Do you have our apps? Skoolbag, Seesaw and Qkr

Health with Hayley Rochford

Paige: Its nice when we chose our own learning with Ms Rochford 

 Aleah: I like how we go to the garden and get the bugs out of the garden

 Faith: I loved the Sunshine soup. 

 Abigail: I like it when we do our own projects and when we get to choose what they are about. 

 Daisy : I like it when we try food and get to go to the garden

Term 4 Planner for Families

Community Notices