17 December 2024

One of the highlights in our last week is our Annual Presentation Day, which was held yesterday. Year 6 Graduation, K-2 and 3-6 assemblies all taking place. It was lovely to see our planned celebrations come together in a way that incorporated our students, staff and community. To share my thoughts and reflect on our school year and then share the successes of many students who received recognition across a diverse range of disciplines, was a fantastic way to conclude an outstanding year. Well done to every recipient, but also to all students in our school, who have certainly achieved success throughout the year in many areas.

A big part of yesterday was the announcement of our 2025 School Captains and Prefects. I want to again congratulate all nominees. However, only four people can be elected to School Captaincy and Vice-Captaincy and four to the Prefect role. I congratulate Bianca and Flynn, our new Captains, Lucy and Matthew, our new Vice-Captains and Poppie, Madeline, Judah and Zachary on being elected to the Prefect role. I believe that these students will be excellent leaders for Woonona Public School and we look forward to them growing into their role in 2025. Well done!

Last Tuesday saw our Year 6 students off to Jamberoo and I congratulate them on their behaviour throughout the day. Ms Phillips and accompanying staff were very complimentary of our students who were responsible, mature and reliable. More than this, they had a great time! Well done Year 6 and thank you to our teachers who co-ordinated the organisation of this day.

Last night was another wonderful event for our Year 6 students, enjoying their social evening at school. It was so nice to see the students enjoy each other’s company and really embrace their last few days being a primary school student. Special thanks must go to Ms Phillips and her wonderful team for co ordinating such a joyous event for our students to remember for a lifetime.

What a proud day we had last Wednesday when our SRC Food Drive came to fruition. 3 carloads of non-perishable items were dropped off by some representatives from our SRC and staff. The staff at the neighbourhood centre were blown away by the donations, declaring it was the biggest donation they had ever received! They said they would be able to provide hampers for 70 families, just from what we donated. Many families will now have a better Christmas and summer holiday, thanks to our community. Well done Woonona!

See video further down in this newsletter.

On Wednesday 4 December I had the honour of attending a special luncheon and awards ceremony, to recognise 2 of our exceptional athletes. Jimmy and Archie both received Blues awards for their outstanding achievements in representative sport. Both boys have represented the South Coast in Cross Country, Athletics and Swimming, along with touch football and rugby league for Jimmy and Hockey for Archie. To further extend upon this success, they have also represented NSW at national competitions. Both boys are thoroughly deserving of these awards and it was lovely to celebrate such an achievement, along with their proud family members on the day.

I am sure that both boys are going to go on to achieve great things and I am extremely proud to say that they are products of Woonona Public School!

I would like to say a huge thank you to some of our temporary teachers who have done a wonderful job fulfilling various roles in our school over the year. Thank you to the following classroom teachers for their commitment and dedication in teaching various classes this year; Mr Dixon on 3-4R, Mrs Tompkins on 3-4T, and Miss Del Turco on KD. Also, a huge thank you to Mr Grennan and Ms Bracco for their commitment and enthusiasm in teaching Science and Technology this year. All of these teachers have played a valuable role in ensuring our students have received the highest level of education and care possible. I thank each of them for all that they have brought to Woonona this year. If you see any of these staff members over the coming days, be sure to thank them for their effort and commitment to Woonona this year. I am sure we will see them again at Woonona PS in some capacity in the future.

Today, you will have received your child’s Semester 2 report. Reports happen twice per year at all public schools in NSW. Our staff have written extensive reports that cover all key learning areas. These subjects have all been assessed through a range of techniques, with student’s abilities compared to relevant syllabus outcomes for each stage of learning.

Remember:

• Teachers plan teaching and learning programs using syllabuses developed by the NSW Education Standards Authority.
• The syllabuses describe standards that apply across the state for each learning area.
• Your child’s teacher uses their knowledge of syllabuses and knowledge of the children in their class to plan their teaching and learning programs.
• Teachers use their professional judgement, internal and external data gathering about each child’s achievement against the statewide standards to award the grade.

If your child has achieved a 'sound' on their report then he/she has achieved what is generally expected. If your child has achieved a 'high' or 'outstanding,' then he/she has achieved more than is generally expected. If your child has achieved a 'limited' or 'basic,' then he/she has not yet achieved what is generally expected compared to other children of a similar age.

I want to remind parents that students’ last day for the school year is Wednesday 18 December (that’s tomorrow!). All students will resume/start school on Thursday 6 February 2025.

As this will be the final newsletter and correspondence for 2024, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support throughout the year. I wish you and your families a happy and safe holiday. Mr Fisher and I look forward to seeing you all back here in 2025!

Merry Christmas!! I hope Santa is good to you!!

Ms Alison Strinic

Relieving Principal

• Year 6 Farewell Tunnel - 2:45pm

We sincerely appreciate the community's support of the SRC Food Drive fundraiser for Bellambi Neighbourhood Centre. They wanted to let everyone know how much of a difference we have made, especially during the Christmas season, and expressed their immense gratitude for all of our donations. Every week, about 70 people depend on these donations, so our donations have been quite beneficial.

Once again, thank you to everyone who helped!

At the beginning of the year, Miss Sibley and Mrs Stewart entered some of our amazing Stage 2 artists' work into ‘theINmag’. This magazine is a magazine for kids, made by kids. In Term 1, our stage 2 art club students used colour and line to create an original and impactful artwork. They got their inspiration from a variety of artists such as Picasso and Sol Lewitt. Check out our cool artwork that made it into the magazine. A big congratulations to: Summer, Ella, Indigo, Jessie, Isla, Amarhni, Phoebe, Olive, Neave, Willow, Adelaide, Olympia and Annabelle.

Link to purchase magazine is also available: https://www.theinmag.com.au/theinshop

As 2024 comes to a close I would just like to share with you a snapshot of the year in the Library. This year the Library has continued to contribute to supporting literacy across the school community with a number of initiatives, events and programs which have aimed to foster a love of reading and support student wellbeing.

2024 saw the Library hosting The Great Book Swap, Book Week and the Book Fair, Indigenous Literacy Day and NSW Aboriginal Languages week as well as participating in the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge, National Simultaneous Storytime, Book Club and attending the CBCA Literary lunch.

The end of year library data shows:

• 20,484 books borrowed by students this year.
• 566 student completing the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge.
• 77 students in year 6 achieving their PRC Platinum Award, a new record for the school.
• $488 raised for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation with The Great Book Swap.
• Almost 1000 students, families and staff attending our Book Parade.
• 350 students participating in the Book Week poster and colouring competition.
• $11,116.20 in book sales at The Book Fair in Term 4 raising $3,334.50 for the school library.
• 108 times Sisters by Raina Telgemeier was borrowed from the Library making it the most popular resource for 2024.
• Term 1 having the highest student’s loans with 6000 books borrowed from the Library.
• 12,024 total resources in the Library.
• 450 new books added to the Library collection this year.

Thank you for supporting all these initiatives this year and your child’s reading journey. I will leave you with one of my favourite reading quotes.

Merry Christmas and have a safe and healthy 2025.

Mrs Carroll

Librarian

P.S we still have 169 overdue loans so if your child still has a library book at home can you return it tomorrow, please.

Onsite uniform shop closed until further notice.

Place an Online Order.

Please be aware that there are students in our school with allergies to nuts. We ask that you give consideration to voluntarily agreeing not to send nut products, in particular peanuts and peanut butter to school.