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Term 1, Week 2
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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 ACTING Principal
Welcome back to the start of a new school year. I hope you and your family had a peaceful break. It has been great to get into classrooms over the last week and see how well our students have transitioned into their new grades. A special mention to our Kindergarten students who had their first day last Thursday. They have transitioned so well into their new classrooms under the expert guidance of our Kindergarten team. I was able to present some of our Kindergarten students with their first “Lutheran Learner’’ awards last week, a special moment for them all.
Staffing
Yesterday, you heard from Mrs Johanna Stanton, the Chairperson of the School Board. She was able to inform the school community that Genevieve Clark would be our new interim principal for Term Two and that I would be finishing up at Lutheran School at the end of Term One. I have worked at the Lutheran school for thirteen years and will leave with many happy memories of my time here.
We also welcome Ms Abby Murray (Year Two teacher) and Ms Ellie Tester, Ms Eliza Smith and Ms Abbey Hamblin as learning assistants to the school. I am looking forward to the contribution they will make to our students this year.
Spiritual Retreat
All staff participated in a Spiritual Retreat on Tuesday 23 January. Part of the theme for the day was, ‘What does a grace filled school community look like?” The day concluded with a service led by Pastor Dave. The day was a good way to bring all of our staff together and a reminder of our Christian values and ethos as a school.
Parents and Friends (P & F)
Last night the P & F met in the library. It was great to see so many parents attend the meeting. I look forward to a similar number of people being present at the next meeting on Tuesday 19 March at 7pm. This year is a school fete year. The P & F will be looking for parent volunteers to support the running and organisng of the fete. At the next meeting they will be confirming a date for the fete sometime in Spring.
For parents new to the school, we have five parents who are our executive committee members. Their names, roles and numbers are listed below if you wish to contact them about how you could be involved in supporting the school via the P & F.
Name | Role | Number |
Tara Freeburn | Chairperson | 0402222980 |
Sally Ward | Secretary | 0418131934 |
Lisa Price | Treasurer | 0407432271 |
Amanda Capello | Vice President and Parent Representative to the School Board | 0412125201 |
Ketura Weston | Fundraising | 0421442218 |
Professional Learning
Prior to the students returning to school all of our staff completed their first aid resuscitation and anaphylaxis training led by a representative from the Royal Lifesaving Service.
All staff also participated in Child Protection professional learning led by a consultant from the Association of Independent schools New South Wales (AISNSW).
Parent Information Nights
This week you will have/had the opportunity to hear from your child’s teacher about the organisation and expectations of how the year will run. These evenings are a good opportunity to listen to the presentation, ask questions and introduce yourself to your child’s teacher.
Swimming Carnival
Congratulations to Red Hill house who won the swimming carnival last week. There were some outstanding efforts in the pool. We look forward to the RAS swimming carnival later on in the term. Many thanks to Ms Stewart for her excellent planning and organisation of the day.
Year Six Leaving Gift
We now have a new Honours Board in the school office and new silver seats in the bus pick up area. Both of these additions to the school were paid for as leaving gifts from the Year Six of 2023. We are extremely grateful to them for their thoughtful gifts to the school.
Parent Volunteer Sessions
1. Complete the online module ‘Valuing Safe Communities’. Please follow this link: https://lpsww.nsw.edu.au/community/get-involved/ . 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] .
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.
I will be running some parent volunteer sessions after school on the following dates:-
Monday 26 February at 4pm Resource Centre
Monday 18 March at 4pm Resource Centre
Dylan Evans
Acting Principal
From The ACTING DEPUTY Principal
Welcome back to school. We are looking forward to working alongside parents, carers, students and the wider community this year. It is wonderful to see many happy new and returning faces around the school.
Chapel and Assemblies
This year Chaplain Darren will lead our Years 3-6 students in Chapel every Monday from 9 – 9:30am and our Kindergarten – Year 2 students every Wednesday from 9 – 9:30am.
Assemblies will occur 3 times each term. In Term 1 assemblies will be held in Weeks 2, 5 & 8. This week in assembly our Semester One Student Representative Council (SRC) members will be officially installed into their roles.
A reminder that parents and carers are always welcome to our Assemblies and Chapels. Parents and carers you will be notified via Seesaw if your child is to receive an award at the next assembly
Communication
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 account, to ‘like’ our Lutheran School Wagga Wagga page so that you can keep up to date with videos and photos of events that are happening around our school. https://www.facebook.com/lutheranschoolwaggawagga
Seesaw
Seesaw is our regular communication platform with parents and carers. If you are not yet linked to your child’s account, please see their classroom teacher, or call the office for assistance.
Drop off/ Pick Up
Thank you to all of our community members for helping to keep our students safe as they arrive and depart from school.
Drop Off Reminders
Please do not drop off your child prior to 8:15am. We do not staff/ supervise students until this time. Students who arrive between 8:15 and 8:30am are supervised at the silver seats outside the library only. At 8:30, students are taken to their area, K-2 or 3-6, and are supervised while they unpack and play until the bell goes at 8:55am. A reminder that the K-2 Playground is closed before and after school.
Pick Up Reminders
School pick up can be hectic and our aim is to have cars and buses to be able to enter and exit in an orderly manner and most importantly have students exit the school safely.
All students catching a bus wait at the bus stop (or initially near the library then up at the bus stop for later buses).
The only quick pick-up area is via the Kindergarten carpark. This operates each day from 3:20-3:35pm.
At quick pick up please:
- Remain in your car
- Move ahead with the cars in front of you
- Be aware of cars around you and students walking along the path
- Follow duty staff directions
Please do not use the quick pick-up zone if:
- Your child needs assistance to enter the car
- You need to exit your car to put your child in their car seat/ booster.
Please park in the bays and collect your child instead.
The main carpark is not to be used for quick pick up. There is not a member of staff supervising along the walkway. If you would like to use this car park, please park in the bays and collect your child from the supervised library area. Please be cautious of queuing along the roadway here also. Buses are unable to get to the pickup area when cars queue through the main driveway.
An alternative…
There is plenty of street parking along Tamar Drive. You may like to park and collect students from the classrooms or gates, or for older students have them meet you at the car. Our school crossing supervisor is here morning and afternoon to make sure our students can cross the road safely.
Electronic Devices Agreement
Yesterday your child brought home their Electronic Device Usage Agreement (green form).
Please take the time to go through this agreement with your child, sign this and return it to your child’s teacher.
Student Information Parent Questionnaire
Last week, we sent home a questionnaire for parents and carers to complete with student information. If you haven’t already done so, please take the time to complete this questionnaire and return it to your child’s teacher. This questionnaire provides you another opportunity to share important and valuable information about your child with their teacher.
Kindergarten 2024
Our Kindergarten students have arrived and have made a wonderful start to their primary school journey, learning all about the routines of Kindergarten, making friends and having lots of fun. Please make our new families and students welcome.
Term Dates 2024
Below is a list of 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.
Term One | 30 January – 11 April Friday 12 April – Pupil Free Day for Parent Teacher interviews |
Term Two | Monday 29th April – Pupil Free Day Tuesday 30 April – 5 July |
Term Three | Monday 22 July – Pupil Free Day 23 July – 27 September Friday 27 September – Pupil Free Day for Student Led Conferences |
Term Four | Monday 14 October – Pupil Free Day 15 October – 12 December |
School Readiness Information Night
We will be hosting a School Readiness information session on Tuesday 20th February 2024 at 6:30pm in the Kindergarten classrooms. This session is aimed at parents and carers who are thinking about sending their child to school in 2025 or 2026 and are interested in learning about how to support children in making a happy, positive start to school. This is a community event, open to all parents including those considering Lutheran School Wagga Wagga.
If you have younger children, who attend preschool or childcare, please feel free to share the flyer (or request a paper copy from the Office).
Thank you in advance for your support this year as we work alongside you to make this another positive, exciting year for our students.
Lauren Forsyth
Acting Deputy Principal
Values Focus
To everything there is a season, or so The Byrds sing in their song “Turn! Turn! Turn!”
Did you know that in Western Australia’s south west regions the indigenous people of the region recognized 6 Noongar seasons? these seasons are recognized by changes in the plants, animals and land around them?
Seasons help shape how we live, and help us prepare for what’s coming, seasons help us know when to plant certain trees, shrubs and flowers. Seasons help us in many other ways, from preparing budgets, knowing what foods will be seasonal, knowing what clothes we’ll need and even when school will start and end.
Many religions recognize different seasons of the year, for Christians the ones you might know best are Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter. Epiphany sits between Christmas and Lent while Pentecost sits between Easter and Advent. There’s even a large chunk of the year that fills the space between Pentecost and Advent which many churches call ”Ordinary Time.”
Next week, on February the 14th Lent begins, but before it does, we will be celebrating Shrove Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday (or as some like to call it “Pancake Day”) is the day before Lent, as Lent has been a time for fasting it’s a day for using up all the rich and fatty foods people need to use up before they started to fast.
Next Tuesday the school will be celebrating pancake day by inviting some people from Bethlehem Lutheran Church and our community to make pancakes for the school, and at Chapel we’ll be thinking about Lent.
Perhaps your family might like to pick up a Lenten practice this year, make room for God, here are some ideas.
Give up a luxury item for Lent, put the money you save aside and, as a household decide who you’ll donate the money to.
Decide to get up a little early and go for a family walk together every morning, or do some gardening and pay attention to Gods creation around you.
Slow down. Intentionally make space for boredom, for quiet, for listening to each other.
Give up a screen for Lent, instead read books.
During meal times share things you’re grateful for and pray to God, giving thanks for these things.
Read scripture together before bed every night.
I hope this new season is a blessing to you all, and you find the space to slow down.
Shalom
Darren Wright
Chaplain
Curriculum Matters
Teacher Professional Learning
Teaching and learning this year at Lutheran School aspires to continue to pursue academic excellence while nurturing and supporting student learning. Our continued focus in 2024, is to grow together as a community of learners through the implementation of 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 the Primary Writing Project professional learning developed by AISNSW. The project aims to promote the explicit teaching of literacy skills in our school and implements evidence-based strategies for effective writing instruction. This project will continue throughout 2024 and will be led by Renae Watkins from the AIS.
This year sees the implementation of two new NSW Curriculum documents – 3-6 English and 3-6 Mathematics as well as the consolidation of our new K-2 curriculum. 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.
Spelling Mastery
We are very excited to be implementing Spelling Mastery in our 3-6 classrooms this year. This program is a natural progression from our Systematic Synthetic Phonics approach that we use across K-2 classes.
Spelling Mastery is a heavily researched and evidence-based program which uses explicit and direct instruction for all lessons. To ensure success, the program blends three approaches to spelling:
- Phonemic approach – teaches students predictable spellings for different phonemes
- Whole word approach – teaches common, irregularly spelled words that cannot be spelled by applying generalisations
- Morphemic approach – teaches more advanced spellers to spell meaningful units (base, suffix, prefix) and combine them to form multisyllabic words
Spelling Mastery lessons will begin in Week 3 and students will engage in these lessons daily for 15-20 minutes.
NAPLAN
The NAPLAN 2024 testing window is scheduled for 13th March – 25th March 2024. Year Three and Year Five students will be involved in this testing. Further information about NAPLAN will be communicated as we move closer to the testing window.
Jane Antrim
Learning Innovation Coordinator
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From The Sports Desk
LSWW Swimming Carnival
Our annual Year 2-6 Swimming Carnival was held at the Oasis Aquatic Centre on Thursday 1 February. The day was full of lots of colour, wonderful sportsmanship, fantastic competition and beautiful sunshine. All students are to be congratulated on their participation, enthusiasm, sportsmanship and house spirit.
A big thank you to the Wagga Wagga Swimming Club officials, our parent volunteers, Mary Woodbury for supplying our yummy refreshments and the 3-6 staff who assisted with the coordination of the carnival.
Caroline Stewart
PE Teacher/Sports Coordinator
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.
