Weekly
news
Term 1, Week 1
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
Celebrating academic excellence and an expanded wellbeing program
Late last year we learned that Lutheran School students have the highest NAPLAN scores of any independent primary school in the Riverina. As many do early in the year, we reflected on the things we believe are contributing to those results. We want to keep doing those things! Two key things we want to keep: Use research-based teaching methods and continue focusing on student wellbeing.
Teachers use research-based methods
You may have heard on the news that NSW is rolling out new Literacy and Mathematics curriculum. Our teachers have been far ahead of the curve, implementing the research-based, recommended curriculum and methods even before they are mandated.
In 2023, teachers are working with Association of Independent Schools NSW (AISNSW) on a Numeracy Project. Before the school year started, teachers learned about and began their implementation of HITS: High Impact Teaching Strategies.
Wellbeing as a foundation of academic success
Think back to your school days – the ones where you were struggling because someone called you a name, a significant other ended a relationship or you were re-living a big sport loss the day prior. How good was your learning that day?
We know that students do their best when they come to class ready to learn. Many students, however, come to class with anxiety, some ruminate on friendship issues from the playground and others simply struggle with resilience. In 2023, our Wellbeing Team increases so that student have strategies to work through feelings and get themselves back into a good learning frame of mind.
The reason for the expansion is based research and the needs we observe in our students. You can see more specific descriptions of the roles in the photo below.
We look forward to continuing our work in 2023, always aligning our school development with our Mission Statement: providing a nurturing, inclusive and high-quality education for every student.
Janet Moeller
Principal
From The DEPUTY Principal
Welcome back to the start of a new year. I hope everyone had a good break and some quality time together as a family. A special welcome to all new families joining our school community.
As I have visited the classrooms overt the last 2 days it has been lovely to see the smiles and positive energy from our students as they start a new year. I would also like to welcome to our new teaching staff, Ms Bosley (2B), Ms Guymer (2G), Mrs Hutchinson (1H) and Ms Virgona (5V), and our learning assistants Ms Murray, Mrs Martin and Mr Hausfeld.
Chapel and Assemblies
This year Pastor Dave will lead us in weekly chapel on Monday at 9:10 am in the chapel area.
Assemblies will take place every fortnight on Fridays at 2:40 pm. Assemblies will start on Friday 10 February.
On Monday 6 February, our School Captains will be officially installed at the chapel service. Parents are most welcome to attend.
Sport House Captains
On Monday, the Sport House Captain speeches took place, followed by voting.
Congratulations to the following students who were elected to these roles.
Red Hill House Annabelle Hibbard, Jonah Treston
Willans Hill Summer Battenally, Oliver McEachern
Rocky Hill Maisie Hughes, Jock Macleod
Tatton Hill Eloise Richards, Max Pilkington
These students will be officially installed into their roles at our chapel service on Monday 6 February. Parents are most welcome to attend.
The Academic House Captain speeches will take place next Monday 6 February. The elected students will be installed into their roles at chapel on Monday 13 February.
New School Award System
Please take your time to watch the video made by our School Captains. They will explain to you the new award system we have in place for 2023.
In short, the weekly merit award has been replaced by a weekly ‘Lutheran Learner’ award. The Principal’s award has been replaced by the ‘Lutheran Legend’ award. To qualify for a Lutheran Legend award, students must have received a Lutheran Learner award for all the 3 categories we have identified as important in the development of our students.
- Academic growth
- Social and Emotional learning
- Demonstration of our school values
School Facebook Page
As we welcome many new families into our community, I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all parents with a Facebook and/or an Instagram account, to ‘like’ our Lutheran School Wagga Wagga pages so that you can keep up to date with videos and photos of events that are happening around our school.
More importantly, please make sure you are on the Year Level private Facebook pages, as teacher use those to inform you what they are doing in the classroom.
Term Dates 2023
Please clink on the link below for term dates for this academic year. Please take your time to look over these, especially the pupil free days at the beginning or end of term.
Please see our Term Dates on the school website.
Swimming Carnival and presentation of awards
Best wishes to all students participating in our swimming carnival which is being held tomorrow.
Results and photos to follow over the next few days!
Please be aware that the Swimming carnival presentation of awards will take place this Friday 3 February at 2:40 pm in the chapel.
Dylan Evans
Deputy Principal
Values Focus
Though they stumble, they will never fall,
for the LORD holds them by the hand.
So, it’s the beginning of another year, and everyone is going back to school to new classrooms with new teachers. Some are coming to Lutheran School for the first time. My daughter is beginning Pre-School this year. There are a lot of new things happening for everyone, we even have new teachers beginning this year.
This Sunday we have a service to mark the beginning of another year, where the new staff are installed, existing staff are blessed along with the School Board so we can all begin together. However along with all these new beginnings comes the opportunity for us to stumble as we tackle all these new objectives in our lives. Within the service we will be using Psalm 37 and this verse has some wise words for the beginning of the year.
Though they stumble, they will never fall,
for the LORD holds them by the hand.
The Lord uses everyday people in everyday ways to hold the little ones in our lives by the hand as they try new things, as they grow. He uses parents, staff members of Lutheran school, friends, family, sport coaches, and many more ways to help the children as they grow.
All of us will stumble as we try new things begin new roles, start new positions, and start new year levels. But God has made sure there are people to hold the hands of those as they stumble, making sure that you don’t fall. If you do fall then you are also surrounded by people who can help you up again, who can help the children up again.
So, as you start the year and there are new beginnings happening everywhere. Just know that God has put people around you in the Lutheran School community that can help you as you stumble. People that display love in the simple way by providing a safe place to stumble and learn but never fall.
Pastor David Cherry
Bethlehem Lutheran Church
Curriculum Matters
Welcome to Term 1, 2023
Teaching and learning this year at Lutheran School aspires to continue to pursue academic excellence and nurture and support students learning.
Our continued focus in teaching and learning in 2023 is to grow together as a community of learners through Contemporary Learning and to implement high quality teaching and learning programs that are research and evidence based.
In the week leading up to school commencing our teaching staff engaged in professional learning called the Primary Numeracy Project developed by the AIS.
The project aims to promote the explicit teaching of numeracy skills in our school and implements evidence based strategies for effective numeracy instruction.
Our teaching team will partake in professional development for the 2023 school year. A consultant from the AIS, Henrietta Miller, will visit our school throughout the year to provide school based professional development, demonstration lessons and observe our teachers engaging with students in the area of Mathematics.
This year sees the implementation of two new NSW Curriculum documents. K-2 English and K-2 Mathematics. Our teachers have invested many hours into researching and getting to know the new syllabus documents. We look forward to planning and implementing these this year at school.
Naplan 2023 window is scheduled for 15th March – 27th March. Year Three and Year Five students will be involved in this testing.
Looking forward to a wonderful year.
Emma Grant
Learning Innovation Coordinator
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OSHC
Throughout Vacation Care, the children had many exciting days. We went to Noah’s Ark, The Oasis, Bowling, La Porchetta and many more places. By far the day that the children enjoyed most was when we had the foam cannon come to the school. The children showed off their best behavior not only while at school, but also on excursions. All students who came to Vacation Care should be very proud of themselves for the respect they showed to all staff, members of the community, each other and their environment.
The days without excursions were still just as exciting. Days that the children continue to talk about are wheels day, zoo day and fairy tale day! Many of the children showed off their performing arts talents with choreographed dances and even an OSHC talent show! The talent show was a great way for the children to work together and for many children to gain confidence. This January we were lucky enough to meet new faces as 2023 Kindergartners started coming to Vacation Care. It was great to see the older students taking on leadership roles as they helped the kindergartners navigate the space. Overall, we had a great summer holidays here at OSHC!
Melanie Woodbury
P&F
P&F are having their first meeting on Tuesday 7th February at 7:00pm in the Library.
We would love to see as many parents as possilble. If you cannot attend in person, please feel free to join in via zoom
The Executive Committee for 2023 are:
Chair: Tara Freeburn
Vice Chair: Jane Heller
Treasurer: Lisa Price
Secretary: Sally Ward
Fundraising: Liz Gooden
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.
