Werrington Public School - Term 3 Week 4, 2 August 2021
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Werrington Public School
Term 3 Week 4, 2 August 2021
Dates for your
calendar!
Principal’s Message
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Our apologies all
future dates are
Welcome to our week 4 Newsletter, in a term that has
subject to COVID
been like no other in many decades.
guidelines. This
will be updated
once we move As we enter our fourth week of ‘Learning from Home’ with
back to onsite four weeks to go (we hope), these have certainly been very
learning. different and challenging times. Some people will be
coping ok with these changes and some will continue to
find them very challenging, however, it is important that we all work
Wonderful together. I would like to thank everyone for everything that you are doing;
Wednesday’s
Further details on Our parents and carers, (our students first and lifelong teachers), who
page 2 are supporting their children in engaging with learning from home
and juggling many things themselves.
4 August - Tokyo Our students who are learning firsthand that learning is lifelong and
Olympics 2021, Wear
doesn’t just happen in schools and we can all learn in many different
your favourite sports
team’s colours ways.
Our staff who have turned all their planning for this term around and
11 August - Wear pivoted to Learning from Home.
Zany Hair or your Our admin staff who have learnt to be IT support and have worked as
Favourite Hat fast as our copiers will allow to get work packs out and distributed; and
Our staff working from home answering questions and supporting
18 August - Book
Week, dress as a students in google classrooms, to preparing resources for the
Book Character or following weeks, which are vastly different to what was originally
Superhero planned for, to phoning families and checking in and many also with
their own children engaging in learning from home at the same time.
25 August -
Goodbye Winter -
We understand that learning from home is challenging and many of you
Pyjama Day
would have a good chuckle if you saw the disorganised chaos as I write my
contribution for this newsletter. Having just finished an online meeting
myself, with three children around the dining room table, that hasn’t seen
a dinner plate in three weeks, but instead piles of school equipment and
devices. My son is in a zoom meeting for English, whilst one daughter is
navigating her primary school google classroom and the other daughter is
trying to upload an assignment that is due today and also needs to plan
and prepare a hike meal for lunch for her Outdoor Education subject. All
while we hope that the phone doesn’t ring and disconnect us all from the
internet. Teamed with a background chorus of “I’m hungry, there is
nothing to eat, he’s annoying me, who took my pen?, I can’t find my…..,
Mum can you help with this?” To be followed up a few minutes later with
“what would you know Mum.”
What is most important at the moment is that you find a routine that works
Address Werrington Public School, Armstein Crescent, WERRINGTON NSW 2747
School Email werrington-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Phone 02 9623 7077
best for you and your family. You don’t need to be doing school work solidly from 9am to 3pm -
see the Department of Education’s guidelines for further advice and ideas by following the QR
code link provided. This could mean one child does 30 minutes of work, whilst another does
another activity, reads to a younger sibling, or even plays out in the backyard. Get them involved
in the daily running of the home or even with cooking – perhaps write out the steps on how to
make their favourite snack or meal - this alone can cover English, maths and sometimes science.
A favourite for this is ANZAC biscuits, and the reaction to the mix when you add in the Bi-carb
soda. Try out the Penrith Council’s nature hunt or the Werrington Lakes nature walk – links to
these can be found on our Facebook page or the QR codes provided further on in the Newsletter.
We also have planned some different things to do each week to help connect people and have a
little bit of fun – see below for details.
Thank you to our families who have supported us in complying with the current health orders,
many who are working from home or working shift work, whilst their children are learning from
home at the same time. This has allowed the school to continue to cater for the children of
parents and carers who are still required, due to the nature of their jobs and exemptions, to work
away from the home and where there is no one in the home to look after these children. On site
we have had to reduce our total staffing (teaching and non teaching) to approximately 7-8 staff
per day, from a normal staffing level of approximately 60 staff per day. A significant number of
staff also must work from home, as they are now subject to LGA specific restrictions. It is
important to note that should the Penrith LGA become subject to these orders, further changes
will need to be made. If this does happen and Penrith LGA becomes subject to further health
orders, then only staff living in the Penrith LGA can be onsite - this significantly reduces the
number of available staff. The only access to the school for the students of approved workers will
be Armstein Crescent and we would be required to reduce staffing numbers to no more than 5
staff onsite per day. All work packs would also need to be posted home or delivered contactless.
Wonderful Wednesday’s in August
Each Wednesday over the next four weeks we will be asking everyone to get involved and have
some remote fun together, by wearing themed mufti. Keep an eye on our Facebook page and if
you want, you can share your involvement on that days post, with the exception of book character
day – see below for special instructions for that day.
Wednesday 4 August – Team colours or jersey day. Get into the Olympic Spirit and wear
your favourite sporting team’s colours or jersey.
Wednesday 11 August – Zany Hair or Favourite hat day. Got hat hair or beanie hair? Don’t
worry, turn it into something fun.
Wednesday 18 August – Book Character or Superhero Day – if you want to be in our virtual
book parade send your photos to werringtonlibraryzzz@hotmail.com and we will add you
in our virtual book parade that will be uploaded on August 25. Make sure you include
Parade in the subject of your email. Please note that by sending in photos you are giving
permission for this photo to be included on our webpage and Facebook page.
Wednesday 25 August – Pyjama Day – what better way to say goodbye to winter than
having a cosy day in your pyjamas and dressing gown or Oodie!
Facebook – connecting our community
Throughout the next few weeks we will be asking if you have any contributions from your learning
from home experience or journey. You may have a great idea, tip or trick that we can share with
other families.
This week’s theme is ‘Learning from Home’.
If you would like your child to be featured on our school Facebook page, please send ONE photo
of your child engaging in an activity of their choice at home. We will choose some of these photos
to be published.
Email the photo to: werrington-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au
Make sure the subject title is : WPS Social and include your child's name and class in the email.
Please note that by sending us your photos, you give us permission to publish the photo on our
school Facebook page.
Keep an eye on our Facebook page for future themes.
Keeping connected
There are many ways to stay connected during these challenging times;
• Our fortnightly newsletter;
• Our school webpage;
• Werrington Public School SkoolBag App; and
• The Werrington Public School Facebook Page (this can also be accessed from the bottom
of the home page of our school website)
Updating your contact details
We have set up an online form to assist parents and carers if you need to update your contact or
address details. Follow the link or use the appropriate QR code on the QR code page.
https://forms.gle/Nzm19jim1BH7gVy66
Enrolling Kindergarten 2022 Now
We are currently accepting enrolments for Kindergarten 2022. We are required to submit our
anticipated numbers for 2022 to the Department of Education in August. Please visit the
enrolment tab on our school web page or contact the school office for further details. It would be
of great assistance to have accurate numbers of proposed Kindergarten enrolments before then.
Teacher Professional Learning
Regularly, teachers and staff undertake professional learning to keep up to date with the latest
theory, research and practice in education. Many of these are held after school hours! These
sessions include:
• All staff have been participating in a variety of online mandatory training as required: and
• All staff have participated in online professional learning on data and data talks.
These sessions are an important way for the school and staff to keep up to date with best practice
and the latest developments within the Department of Education (DoE) and the NSW
Educational Standards Authority (NESA).
Have a great fortnight,
Mrs Avery
Principal
“You never know what kind of challenges are going to be thrown in your way or opportunities will
arise.” — Tom Cotton
Book Week With the extension of lock down Book Week now falls when the students are not at school. BUT we do not have to let that stop us !!!!! We are having a Virtual Facebook Parade. We would like everyone at home to dress up in their costume and take a photo. We are opening it up to everyone: Mum, Dad, brothers and sisters all are welcome to dress up and hop in the photo. Even the family dog and cat are welcome to dress up and be part of the parade! Send your photo to: werringtonlibraryzzz@hotmail.com with the subject line PARADE so the emails can be quickly sorted to the right place. We will need photos emailed by 20 August. By sending in a photo you are acknowledging the photograph will be published on Facebook and you give permission for the school to use your photograph for this purpose. We will then hold our virtual parade on August 25 so all the community can enjoy. I look forward to seeing your creative costumes, Mrs Janette Buchan
Here are a few examples of some very impressive writing that
our 34B students have been doing from home
Cotton
Toyota
By James Asher (Year 4) Week 3
Wednesday 28th July By Tanish Todkar (Year 3) Week 3 Monday July 26
These are some interesting facts about Toyota was a famous car because it was made by
cotton. Some of these might blow your Sakichi who made the Toyota car first and found the
mind away. company name called the Toyota. Toyota is a type of a
car.
Around 8,000 years ago Cotton was
found in eastern Sudan near the middle It is a popular car because many people liked it. It was
Nile basin region. Today we call cotton made in 1943. All Toyota cars are durable which lives
the oldest natural fibre in the world. longer and stays healthy. The Toyota was made in Japan
Cotton grows on plants and can make first and then Australia. There were more Toyota cars
clothes like army uniforms and space in Japan in 1943.
suits. Many countries produce cotton
but Australia can produce enough It is a SUV car which runs faster such as the first SUV
cotton a year to clothe 500 million car in Japan and Australia. Toyota Avalon, Toyota
people. Camry, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Prius, Toyota Yaris,
Toyota 86, Toyota Sienna and Toyota C-HR are some of
the examples of recent Toyota cars.
In 1953 there were 70,000 people working in the
Toyota factory making 40% of the population of this
Japanese city. Nowadays cars are manufactured by
machines so they are ready very quickly.
In summary, there are more Toyota cars which run all
over the world because more people like these cars and
it is the best.
Early days Toyota car
In South America they make shades of
many colours, some are striped and
spotted. When Thomas Edison the
famous American inventor invented the
first light bulb he used cotton thread
filament. American paper money is
mostly made of cotton.
In conclusion cotton is cool because of
all the uses and we wouldn’t have much Recent Toyota car
without it.
Fantastic
work! Information source :
Toyota Concept Car Wants to Bond with You | Latest
News
File:Toyota Sedan Model AA - Toyoda first Car - Joy of
Museums - Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry
and Technology.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
Informative writing Samar Dutta - Week 3 Tuesday 27th July
The Blue Tongue Lizard
Have you ever had an amphibian pet? How about a Blue Tongue Lizard? It is the largest member of
the skink family. We will learn about their appearance, body functions, their habitat, food and
survival.
Blue Tongue Lizards weigh roughly between 283-510 gm and can grow up to 60 cm long. Its body is
long and tube shaped with short legs and short tail. Its body had silvery grey to brown soft scales
and dark stripes. The Blue Tongue Lizard has a pink mouth and long, bright, blue tongue. A broad
black strip runs from their reddish brown eye to their neck. It uses its blue tongue and hissing
noise to scare of the predators. It does not have well developed teeth but has a very powerful bite
and strong jaw muscles. The Blue Tongue Lizard does not just smell from its nose, it also has special
organ on the roof of its mouth called the Jacobson’s Organ.
They can eat both animals and plants so they are omnivores. Their favourite food is worms, insects,
snails, wildflowers, fruits and berries. They can be found in Australia and New Guinea living in
grasslands, forests, deserts and rainforests. It loves to bask in the sun to keep itself warm and at
night time shelters under logs, leaves and debris. When scared it puffs up its body, sticks the blue
tongue and hisses and then flattens out to make itself look large. It gives birth to six to twelve live
young baby lizards and may live up to twenty years.
Blue Tongue Lizards can be great pets, as they can get rid of spiders, beetles, ants as well as snails
from the garden. So next time you spot a Blue Tongue Lizard in your yard don't scare it away.
Information sourced from:
https://seaworld.org/animals/facts/reptiles/eastern-blue-tongued-skink/
https://www.wildlife.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/84106/Common-Blue-tongued-
Lizard.pdfYou can also read
