This week is SASS Appreciation Week. This is a week where we acknowledge the tremendous role our School Administrative and Support Staff plays in our school. We have a very talented and dedicated group of employees who often do a large amount of work above and beyond their job descriptions.

School Administrative and Support Staff, whether they work in the office, the Library, on the school grounds or in the classroom setting, are important contributors to the success of the school and children’s education. Woonona Public School would not run as effectively as it does without our SASS.

Our dedicated SASS are:

* Karina Curry – Business Manager

* Kim Davis, Sharlene Hodson and Chris Belling - School Administration Officers

* Sue Holz and Eric Seymour - General Assistants

* Kirstie Seymour, Roxy Dempsey, Kristy Manna and Angelia Godfrey – School Learning and Support Officers

What a wonderful Book Week Parade we had last week. It was delightful to see so many students (and staff) dressed up, smiling and excited to parade as their favourite book characters. What a treat for everyone who was able to join us too. It was even greater to see younger siblings, parents/carers, grandparents and teachers join in the parade. A big thank you to everyone for their outstanding effort in participating in this event! What a fun way to celebrate “Reading Is Magic”. A special thanks also to Mrs Carroll for your meticulous planning that ensured a fun week of events for all involved.

Monday and Tuesday, our Stage 2 students had the opportunity to welcome their families to “A day at the theatre/cinema.” I was lucky enough to have seen this work coming together over the last few weeks, and on the day, and was so impressed and proud to see what our students created. Green screens, technology, acting, improvising, humour, drama, these sessions had it all and it was wonderful to see families turn up in huge numbers to show their support. Congratulations to all students and their teachers for bringing together such a brilliant showcase.

Our Southern Stars performers are on the home stretch to the big event, which will be held throughout this week. The students and teachers involved have already had some big days and lots of practicing, but it will all be worth it when it comes together in the next few days. To everyone involved, enjoy the moment. The experience will be one that I am sure all involved will remember for life.

Tomorrow is our annual Father’s Day Stall. I would like to thank the many parents who have given their time to make this event a success, especially Tarsha and Claire. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day Stalls are a huge highlight for our students and we look forward to seeing their smiling faces as they proudly shop for their dads.

And then there were two… sadly our Girls Touch Team went down to a very skillful Corrimal East last week, but our Girls Soccer Team and Cricket Team continue their march in this knockout competition. Both the Soccer and Cricket teams play in the coming weeks, and we wish them well as the competition becomes increasingly tough.

Last week, Archie ventured to Victoria to compete in the School Sport Australia Cross Country Championships. I am proud to say that Archie had an outstanding week, finishing 7th in Australia (that’s right Australia!) in the Boys U11s 3km Cross Country. To add to this performance, the NSW team was then announced as the Gold Medalist Team for this event meaning Archie comes back home a National Team Champion. To follow this up, later in the week they do a relay format between the states, with NSW just being pipped by Victoria by four seconds. Coming away from an Australian Championships with a gold, silver and seventh is an outstanding achievement and we congratulate Archie.

I know Archie and his family was immensely proud to represent our school and appreciative of the support, both financial and moral from our community.

Congratulations to Frankie and Luca who represented our school at state skiing. Frankie finished 38th in the state and Luca 99th, a fantastic achievement by these two. We hope you had lots of fun challenging yourself against the best skiers in the state.

In Week 4, Harper, alongside nine other students from all over the South Coast, competed in the PSSA South Coast Representative Netball Team. At the state carnival, held in Penrith, the girls competed against the best netballers across the state in what was a highly competitive event.

Over the three days, South Coast were extremely competitive placing 5th out of the 14 teams involved. Congratulations to Harper on your wonderful achievement.

Good luck to Jackson who headed off to Penrith today and on his way to the state softball championships. Jackson is only in Year 4 and to be selected in a South Coast team at such a young age is quite remarkable. Good luck Jackson, we look forward to hearing how you go in the coming days.

Next Friday, 21 students will make their way down to Canberra for the South Coast Athletics Carnival. We wish all the students the very best as they compete against the strongest track and field athletes on the South Coast. We look forward to hearing how our students perform. I have no doubt they will be wonderful representatives of our school and district.

School finishes for students on Wednesday 18 December 2024. The following two days are allocated to be School Development Days. Staff have chosen to work one of these days off by attending “Twilight Sessions.” On Tuesday 24 September and Tuesday 29 October, staff will remain at school and between 3:30pm and 6:30pm be involved in Professional Learning. This is highly embraced by staff as what they will be doing one day in Professional Learning, they will be implementing the next day within their classes and for their students. This will not impact school operations for students or families.

Check-in assessments take place this time each year for our students in Years 3 to 6. Students in these years will do a Reading and Numeracy Assessment. Year 6 will also do a Writing Assessment. Most of this testing will occur in classes and throughout Week 7 and Week 8. Data from these assessments is not shared with families but rather helps to drive school planning as we look at trends in the data.

Our next P&C meeting will be Wednesday 11 September at 6:30pm. The meeting will be held in the staff room in the Admin Building. We hope to see you there!

Our school has already had a number of students enrol for Kindergarten 2025. This is great news! If you are planning on enrolling your child next year, or know of someone who is thinking about it, that lives in our school drawing area, please complete the enrolment online, by visiting our school website for more information.

Mr Tim Fisher

Principal

• Dental Health Program Monday 23 September - permission forms due now
• Life Education - permission & payment due by Tuesday 3 September
  
• Stage 2 Gala Day - permission & payment due by Tuesday 3 September
• Final Camp Instalment - Due Friday 30 August

Wow! What a busy, fun and exciting week all the students and staff had celebrating Book Week at Woonona Public School in Week 5. A variety of activities occurred throughout the week to celebrate the theme Reading is Magic, starting with some fun Book Week activities at lunch in the Library.

On Tuesday, we had our dress-up day and parade. It was fantastic to see our whole school community come together to celebrate this event. I would like to thank all the parents, students and staff for all their efforts in creating such fantastic and creative costumes. After this event students got the opportunity to have photos taken with their friends in the photo booth. These photos will be displayed in the Library and a video has been created to share with classes.

Last week the winners and highly commended prize recipients were announced at our Book Parade. There were over 200 entries in the competition this year which showcased the talented and creative artistic skills of our school community. The winners this year for each category were:

Kinder- Willow KD

Year 1 – Lucas 1C

Year 2 – Koa 2L

Year 3 – Lucia 3-4N

Year 4 – Laila N 3-4B & Alyana 3-4L

Year 5 – Kai T 5-6 T

Year 6 – Maya 5-6T

Well done to all students involved. Our winners received $25 book vouchers from Collins Bookshop in Thirroul and our highly commended entries received a book each and a certificate. Winning and highly commended posters will be displayed in the library gallery for the next year. All participants received a certificate and treat for their efforts this year and their work will be made into a book for the library.

We also had one of our talented Year 6 students Arabella create an artwork for this event to be donated to the school and displayed in the Library. Thank you for creating such an outstanding piece of art that we will enjoy looking at for years to come.

Issue 6 of the Scholastic Book Club was handed out last week and the catalogue is available to view online. Orders can be placed online ONLY using the LOOP app. All orders are due by 13 September.

Happy reading,

Mrs Carroll

Librarian

Our girls soccer team is off to round 6 and the South Coast semi-final of the PSSA State Knockout. Round 5 saw the girls take on Jerrabomberra, who travelled all the way from Queanbeyan, where they managed to come away with a comprehensive 4-0 victory.

Evie, Arabella and Millie all got themselves on the score sheet and once again it was the whole team's excellent effort and teamwork which was the highlight of their display.

Also a huge shout out to Maya in goals and the defence of Keira, Hannah, Harper, Lilly and Lucille who managed to keep another clean sheet!

Next the girls will travel down the highway to North Nowra to take on Illaroo Road PS.

We wish them all the best in the next round and are very proud of their success so far!

Mr McMullen

Woonona Public School's P&C are holding a Father's Day Stall in the school hall on Friday 30 August. Children can purchase two gifts with their class and return at recess to make any additional purchases.

Please send your child with cash on the day. For younger students, we encourage writing down who they are buying for and the price range, to help them navigate gift selection.

A waste-free lunch has no throw-away packaging. Any packaging can be reused, composted or recycled. It’s an easy way to provide a healthy lunch with less processed food.

Find some waste free lunch ideas.

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.