Weekly
news
Term 1, Week 5
Coming up this week
Calendar
Upcoming Events
MISSION STATEMENT
To work under God in partnership with parents to provide an inclusive, nurturing and high quality education for every student.
VIsion
Flourishing through faith, belonging and the pursuit of excellence.
From The Principal
Ongoing reporting: How is my child doing?
As we continue in our journey toward more regular, seamless communication with families, we are ready to take our next step: Ongoing reporting.
Our journey and next steps
Over the past two years, teachers have used Seesaw and Class Facebook pages to help you understand what your child is doing in class.
Our goal in 2023 is for you to continually know how your child is doing in class. To that end, you will begin to see individual, graded rubrics coming home through Seesaw.
The blue areas show you what your child is learning in mathematics, with the orange colour indicating their current level of achievement. The green area indicates higher-order thinking competencies that students work on through every unit every term. The ivory section shows you the class focus on social and emotional learning.
If a child is in the middle of the rubric, they are meeting year level standard. Those students already working on year level standard will be guided to extend their learning above year level standards. Those who are not yet at standard know exactly what they need to do to get to year level standard. In this way, all students are challenged.
You shouldn’t have to wait for end-of-semester summary reports. You can continue to meet with or talk with the teacher at any point in the school year (please don’t wait if you are worried about something!). If you receive a rubric like this example and want to know more about how your child can do better in the “Communicating” row, message the teacher and they will be happy to talk with you.
Ongoing rubric reports
You will see rubrics come home throughout the term. Teachers will use these rubrics to give summary grades at the end of the semester. By taking the time to look at the rubrics, you can easily predict the marks you will see at the end of the semester. Again, please contact the teacher with questions or concerns (or celebrations!). Our ultimate goal is that you are never frustrated or surprised. We also want you to feel empowered to ask questions and seek clarification throughout the year.
Janet Moeller
Principal
From The DEPUTY Principal
Student Representative Council (SRC)
Congratulations to the students who were elected as SRC representatives for Semester One this year. They were installed by Chaplain Darren at our chapel service last Monday.
SRC MEMBERS – SEMESTER 1 2023
Year 1 Audrey Simond and Isaac Sheather
Year 2 Sophia Lamont and Tom Goldsworthy
Year 3 Wil Callinan and Rosie Molineux
Year 4 Jessica Stormonth-Flood and Liam Bruce
Year 5 Callum Metcalfe (absent from photo) and Sara Grigg
Team 6 Archie Mercer, Sophia Gooden, Pippen Cook and Ben Bull
Care Coordinators
Thank you to the parents listed below who have volunteered their time to be Care Coordinators for this year. This is an opportunity for you to involve yourself in the life of the school. It might involve liaising with the school in supporting a family in need from your child’s class or organising some social events with the grade’s parents to continue to build some school community spirit.
There are still some spots that need filling for some grades. If you are interested in the role, please contact me via the office.
Care Coordinators 2023
Kindergarten ??
Y1: Jodie Graham and Brenna Sheather
Y2: Jenna Lamont, Amy Fowler and Britt Harris
Y3 ??
Y4: Sarah Mercer and Jodie Mitchell
Y5: Mel Hannaford, Naomi Stuart and Christina Pilkington
T6: Caitlin Whitlock and Liz Gooden
Being safe online
Below is a link from the eSafety Commissioner website. It gives excellent, practical advice for students to remain safe online. If you have a spare moment it really is worthwhile to have look at the pages with your child.
https://www.esafety.gov.au/kids/be-an-esafe-kid/being-safe-online
Parent Volunteers
1. Complete the online module ‘Valuing Safe Communities’. Please follow this link:VSC5_iLearn_notes_for_volunteer_training.pdf. The module will take around 25 minutes to complete. Upon completion of the module you will receive a certificate, please email this certificate to [email protected] .
2. Arrange a time to meet with the Deputy Principal who will talk to you about a number of routines and expectations when you are working with students.
Once you have completed this process your parent volunteer status will be valid for 3 years. This means, you are then able to assist in the classroom, sporting events and carnivals, excursions and overnight camps.
The next parent volunteer session will be on Monday 13 March at 4pm in the Resource Centre.
Shrove Tuesday
Chaplain Darren and church volunteers were busy cooking over 500 pancakes for the students and staff to celebrate Shrove Tuesday and the start of Lent as we lead up to Easter. Many thanks to Chaplain Darren, Pastor Dave, Malcolm Kohlhagen, Graeme Wenzke and Marion Stanton who were our volunteers. The students really enjoyed the pancakes for morning tea.
Soccer Gala Day
Thank you to the parent volunteers that assisted in last week’s Soccer Gala days. Our students in Years 3 and 5 thoroughly enjoyed themselves and played all games in the right spirit. Thank you to Ms Stewart for coordinating the event.
Dylan Evans
Deputy Principal
Values Focus
On making time .........
The Christian year has just moved into the time of Lent, starting last week with Ash Wednesday. We are invited to spend the Lenten season building on our relationship with God and with each other.
Lent has traditionally been a time of fasting, prayer and giving. Often people will decide to give something up, like coffee, chocolate or takeaway foods and use the money they would have spent to give to another cause, to practise generosity. Some may choose to give up social media, their mobile phone or perhaps their television and use the time they would normally have spent on these activities to spend in prayer, reflection, to read a book or to volunteer for something like CareVan.
I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty useless at continuing rituals, and I often believe I don’t have the time to add one more thing to my daily list of things to do. Lent comes and invites us to consider what we can give up in order to intentionally make the time to explore how we might make space for prayer, fasting and generosity.
One way households can make space during Lent is to make small changes in how they live, perhaps by choosing 1-3 things to focus on over the season. Here are a few ideas:
- Make the time to eat together as a household at least once each day
- Explore generosity – have a conversation about what your family may like to give money to at Easter. Is there a cause or a charity that you’d like to give to in Wagga
- Explore generosity – perhaps you’d like to donate food to a charity or group in Wagga. Do some family research and decide together what you’d like to give.
- Explore giving thanks – at one mealtime each day say a prayer of thanks to God for the day, for each other, for your teachers, for the food you eat. I’ve placed a simple prayer for the meal table in this reflection. Perhaps your family could write one and send it to the school and we can start a collection of prayers.
- Read scripture together once a day. If you’re wondering where to start, perhaps you could focus on reading parables with each other through the season.
- Practice repentance. Go for a walk around your neighbourhood, National Park, or along the river each day and pick up rubbish. Ask for forgiveness for the way we have not looked after our world.
If you’re interested in more ideas, please contact me at the school and I’d be more than happy to point you towards some resources.
Shalom
Darren Wright
Chaplain at Lutheran School, Wagga Wagga.
A prayer of for mealtime
(Edited from Illustrated Ministry’s 2019 Lenten devotions)
Dear Jesus,
This week we want to simply say:
Thank you.
Thank you for
Leading us
Teaching us
Blessing us
Bearing with us
Forgiving us
Loving us.
Thank you for the food we eat
For the teachers who care for us
For those who love us
And for those we are with as we eat together now.
Help us to practice thankfulness
Toward you and others today, this week, this month,
Until it becomes as natural to us as our breath.
With thankful hearts, we pray,
Amen
If you’d like to know a bit more about Lent, here is a video by Busted Halo entitled, “Lent in 3 Minutes” https://youtu.be/Xo1mjuy1NA0
Curriculum Matters
Maths Resources
A very big thank you is extended to the Parents and Friends (P&F) for purchasing Maths equipment for the K-2 classrooms. We are so excited to have quality equipment for Maths learning focusing on the new 2023 Mathematics Syllabus. This newsletter includes a picture of some of the equipment recently purchased.
English Curriculum reform for Years 3-6 in 2024
Mr Richards and I spent last Tuesday at a Professional Development day – Leading the Implementation of the new English 3-6 NSW syllabus. This new syllabus document will be taught in all NSW schools in 2024. The day focused on understanding the new syllabus structure and content, along with the evidence base that supports it. We discussed developing skills in designing and implementing professional learning for our school teams and what the timeline for this will look like.
This is an exciting time to be a teacher in NSW. The English 3-6 Syllabus includes:
- new, evidence-based outcomes and content that builds on the K–2 syllabus
- a new structure that highlights essential language and literacy skills, and the importance of studying literature
- research-based content, structured and sequenced to highlight the connections across oral language, reading and writing.
Premiers Reading Challenge
I would like to invite all students at our school to become involved in the 2023 Premiers Reading Challenge. This is a wonderful initiative that;
* Celebrates and promotes reading
* Rewards students reading efforts
* Expands reading choices
* Enhances reading skills
This year our school will run a PRC Class Challenge.
A prize will be rewarded to the class with the most amount of students enrolled and actively reading.
A prize will be awarded to the class that reads the most books.
All students who participate receive a special award from the Premier at the end of the challenge.
We have lots of books from the PRC list in our school library. We encourage all students to make this a part of their weekly library borrowing and can also be a great opportunity to read at home for homework. Watch out for the post on Seesaw explaining everything you need to know to get started.
Have a great week.
Emma Grant
Learning Innovation Coordinator
Blank Section
From The Sports Desk
Soccer Gala Day
Our Year 3 and Year 5 students participated in the Mini Matildas and Mini Socceroos Gala Days last week. We entered five girls’ teams and six boys’ teams in this event. All teams played four games of soccer against schools from Wagga and surrounding towns. Our students had lots of fun, demonstrated fabulous skills, impressive teamwork and wonderful sportsmanship throughout the day.
A big thank you to Liam Dedini, our wonderful staff and amazing coaches, Richard, Michael, and Nick. Thank you also to Mr Evans and Mr Peck for organising the marquee each day and our parent spectators for your support.
Caroline Stewart
PE Teacher/Sports Coordinator
Year 2 Art gallery visit
The 2S class had a great experience at the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery last Wednesday. In addition to seeing the works of Archibald Prize finalists and the work of their classmate, Kristy Nariya, in the Young Archies exhibition, students were treated to two different exhibits focused on the environmental themes of ‘Plastics’ and ‘Feral Animals’. Here are a few samples of their writing that they completed with Mrs Suckling in their classroom.
“Today we visited the Wagga Art Gallery to see the Archibald exhibition. First, we saw the pink man in the picture frame…..then we saw the Wiradjuri person holding buckets of dirty water. I thought they looked like real people. My favourite was Kristy’s painting, I wondered how she did it”– Marveina
“We saw the great tennis player, Dylan Alcott, who plays tennis in a wheelchair. This was my favourite because I love tennis”– Maria
“My favourite painting was the boxing one……then we went upstairs to see the plastic art”– Ruben
Tayla, our guide, did a fantastic job of explaining some of the processes used by artists and the backstory of the artworks that we observed. Thank you to Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, I am certain that we will be back to enjoy more exhibits in the future.
Mrs Melise Rodda
Creative Arts Teacher
Other Information
Families leaving the school
Please note that one full term’s written notice is required if you are withdrawing your child from Lutheran School. We purchase learning materials based on projected enrolment numbers at least one term in advance. Hence, the enrolment contract you signed specifies that failure to provide a term’s notice will result in you being charged for the subsequent term.
Uniform Shop Orders
If you would like to purchase uniforms from the Uniform Shop, please email [email protected]
We will email you once the order is ready to be picked up from the office. Thank you.
