Big Thank You To The P&C
I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the great contribution of the volunteers of the P&C during this year. At the last meeting, the P&C donated $60 000 to the new Kindergarten play area shelter. This project will be completed over the Christmas holiday and I know we will be excited to see the end result at the start of the 2022 school year.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the amazing volunteers that have supported the different programs that the P&C runs. This includes the uniform shop, the band committee and the book club. A special mention to Samantha Hinchelwood, who has been the driving force behind the band program over the last couple of years.
Tonight will be the last P&C meeting for the year. If you would like to attend, please RSVP to whpspandc@gmail.com so that we are able to determine the venue (staffroom or hall) to meet COVID guidelines. The current Department of Education guidelines require that parents who attend this meeting must be fully vaccinated.
Busy Time For Year 6
The next four weeks will be an exciting and busy time for our Year 6 students. Tuesday 14th December is the date of the Year 6 Farewell which will be held within the school hall. I would like to thank Mrs Moses who is currently in the process of coordinating this night. More details about the night will be sent out over the coming days.
We are also planning on having a Year 6 Graduation Assembly on Wednesday 15th December at 9:45am. This event will need to follow a number of Department of Education restrictions to enable it to be held.
We would like to invite two guests per student to attend this event. The strict guidelines will mean that we are unable to allow any more than 2 guests per student. As per the current Department guidelines, all parents and guests will be required to show evidence of full vaccination to attend.
More information will be sent home in the coming days.
COVID-19 Symptoms
I would like to thank the amazing support that we have received from parents to ensure students and staff are safe when they are at school. It is important that when students are unwell, even with mild symptoms, that they get tested for COVID-19 and follow NSW Health directions. Although this may change, at the moment we ask unwell students to be tested with a PCR test to clear them for a return to school and not a rapid antigen home test.
Each day we have several parents send through a snap shot of the negative result to our school email and we thank them for following the process.
Kindergarten Orientation
We look forward to our 2022 Kindergarten students joining us for an orientation session during the week beginning Monday 6th December 2021. Due to the current guidelines, groups will be smaller, staggered throughout the week and will avoid regular school starting times.
If you have a child starting Kindergarten next year and you have not enrolled them as of yet, we ask that you contact the school as soon as possible so that they can be included in these sessions.
NAPLAN School Readiness Test
In 2022, Winston Hills Public School will transition from paper to online NAPLAN assessments. Next week, some of our Year 3 and Year 5 students will be involved in a short school readiness test. This School readiness test allows the school to:
· engage and become familiar with the online assessment platform
· understand changed administrative procedures
· reflect on IT required to deliver the assessment in 2022.
The School readiness test is not an assessment of student ability. Student test attempts will not be marked and results will not be available.
Classes for 2022
The school is currently in the process of planning for 2022. The number of classes a school has is based on the number of students who are enrolled. It is extremely important that if your child is in K-5 and is leaving the school this year that we are aware of this so that we can take this into consideration with our planning.
Mark Byrne
Mark.byrne@det.nsw.edu.au
