Newsletter - wangarattass.vic.edu.au€¦ · We have a literacy program Milo the Monkey , in which all the students have embraced him with excitement as we have made muffins, monkey

Newsletter Wangaratta District Specialist School

Date 15/02/2018 Ph. 5721 7424

[email protected]. Fax. 5721 8601

Chris Harvison

Dates to Remember

School Photos - Tuesday 26th Feb More information to follow

Labour Day - Monday 11th March

Welcome Back!

Firstly, can I extend a warm welcome back to the 2019 school year to all of our new and existing families! We are

all so pleased to be back at our wonderful school working with your children, and incredibly proud of the way all

students have managed to return to school and exhibit the same high standards of respectful language, safe behav-

iour and dedication to learning we have come to expect from them. I certainly hope you all had a safe and festive

Christmas season, although it does seem like a long time ago by now. I for one am very pleased to have the most

recent cool change give us some respite from the string of very warm weather towards the end of January. We have

started the school year with 156 students which is a similar number to last year, so no new classes at this stage! We

have had a number of new enrolments already though, so watch this space. We have also received a new Admin

building which I am sure you have seen. This building is situated at the front of our school but as yet, unoccupied.

More information will come about this as our Admin team moves in.

Staffing

We have a bunch of new and returning staff in 2019!! Three new teaching staff have commenced with us this year –

Chloe Bray and Jordan Griffin join us as first year graduates having both worked at our school previously as ES

while completing their studies. Chloe teaches the Mt Beauty class and Jordan teaches the Hotham class. Kara

Maloinato also joins our teaching team, working two days a week in the Taminick classroom and one day a week in

the Mt Pilot classroom. Kara joins us having previously worked at Northern School for Autism for 8 years. We have

a new ES Jill Logan who is working in the Kossie class and joins us having worked at both Mildura and East Gipps-

land Specialist schools for a number of years and we welcome Emma Fahey to our wellbeing team as our new Social

Worker. Emma has over 20 years experience in the Social Work field and works Monday, Wednesday and Thurs-

day. We have had a number of staff return to us also this year, including Lily Harrington and Sam James who both

return from two years in the UK, Jo Wheeler who returns two days a week after taking a year off and Judd Porter

who returns to us after a year as Acting Assistant Principal at Wangaratta West PS.

Student Support Group Meetings

As always at the start of the school year, we ask that all parents and carers take the time to meet with classroom staff

to set goals for the year and discuss important information for the coming school year. These meetings are due to

take place next week and are an excellent opportunity to meet with your child’s teacher and have input into their

2019 Individual Learning Plan. For those of you who live a distance from our school, these meetings can be held

over the phone if it is easier for you. Please keep an eye out for information regarding these meetings.

Principal’s

Awards

Week 1 – Aiden Fallon, Dakoda Turner, Maddie Hill

Week 2— Jemma Bailey, Tyrell Sarre, Darren Austin, Kathi Suprimaniam,

Jandamarra Atkinson-Reiffel

Together We Will: Be Learners. Be Safe. Be Respectful.

They’re Back ……

It has come to our attention that some students in the school may have head lice and we seek your coopera-tion in checking your child’s hair this week.

Head lice do not transmit infectious diseases – they are transmitted by having head to head contact with someone who has head lice. You may be reassured to know that head lice are commonly found in places oth-er than at W.D.S.S. Head lice are common in school-aged children and are the most adaptable of creatures. They have survived living solely on humans for 10,000 years!!!!

What can you do? We seek your cooperation in checking your child’s hair and in those instances where head lice or eggs are found, treating your child’s hair.

Please see the pamphlet (on the last two pages of the newsletter) Treating and Controlling Head Lice, from the Department of Human Services. This pamphlet has informative guidelines regarding detecting and treating head lice and eggs.

Wow what a great start to the year. All the students have settled into their new classroom and routines as well. We have a literacy program Milo the Monkey , in which all the students have embraced him with excitement as we have made muffins, monkey face cookies and drank hot milo. Buffalo students have also gone on their first adventure on the school bus with Milo the Monkey teaching us bus etiquette. We have all achieved a lot of learning and are creating a lot of new friends .

Buffalo - Leanne, Shannon, Jill and Lisa

Bogong - Renee and Lizz


Stanley- Bridie and Simon

Welcome back to school, Term 1 - 2019! We have had a wonderful few weeks settling into our new class and

getting to know each other. During the first few days we worked on some team building and interest tasks.

The girls worked in pairs to make dresses out of newspaper—their final products were very Vouge! The girls

also worked on creating coat hangers with hanging items that symbolised their interests and favourite things.

During week 2—we focused on some important learning about internet safety to celebrate Safer Internet Day.

The girls made posters about internet safety and this years focus—The 4Rs: Respect, Responsibility, Reason-

ing & Resilience.

Congratulations to Jemma Bailey who was awarded our first student of the week for settling into a new class-

room with an amazing attitude and supporting others to do the same.

Welcome back! It has been great to hear about everyone’s holidays and we are so excited to welcome new students

into Stanley.

We have spent the first weeks of school getting to know each other, building relationships and learning our routines and expectations. Students have also begun cooking and swimming, which are a highlight of the week!


Mt Beauty - Chloe and Lea

Warby - Frazer and Emily

Welcome to Warby 2019!

We have had an amazing start to the year and we are settling into our new routine. Most of our students have

entered the senior school so it is a very exciting time in their lives. We have some great programs running this

year including our enterprise! Our students are currently working out ideas and how they want to run their

enterprise so stay tuned!

We were also lucky enough to have some Collingwood players visit us, Daniel Wells, Will Hoskin-Elliot and

Travis Varcoe. Our students came up with some great questions to ask.

We are looking forward to a great year here in Warby!

Welcome to Mt. Beauty 2019!

We have had a massive two weeks

starting off the year here in Mt.

Beauty. It has been so great to see

all the students settle into the new

classroom and new school. We

have had lots of fun exploring Ap-

pin Park Primary School, where

our classroom is located. We have

had a fantastic start to our learning

with every student being Learners

and trying their best. We were for-

tunate enough to have some visi-

tors from Collingwood Football

Club on Wednesday, where Kathi

was lucky enough to get a snap

with Travis Varcoe. We are look-

ing forward to a fun and exciting

year ahead of us!

Chloe, Lea, Tyler, Elijah, Sam, Corry, Kathi, Chase, Alexandra and Jamie.


Buller - Kate, Leanne and Belinda

Holly is learning how to cook lasagne

Sam enjoys morning circle time!

Tamara is drumming in music class

Edwina is checking out the

toys in her new room

Kaitlyn has daily floor time in Buller!

Kara is also happy to have

her floor time!

Kaya is working on reading

Kate, Leanne & Belinda welcome all the stu-

dents to our room this year! We look forward to a great year full of

learning and enjoyment.

The first couple of days in VCAL was spent welcoming our new batch of VCAL students. Special thanks to Naomi and Jack , who did a great job preparing the 2018 Warby class for VCAL. In numeracy we have wasted no time in getting on with the learning. Students have spent the first 2 weeks coming to terms with our can-teen program and in particular the canteen calculations. Students were put to the test using their mathematical skills to determine the number of serves required to cook for 20, 30, 40 or 50 people.

VCAL 1 and 2 Jodi, Rosie, Adrian, Hilly and Ash


Mt Typo - Ryan and John

It has be a wonderful start to the 2019 school year in the Typo room. The boys have made an impressive start

to the year, demonstrating their eagerness to be Safe, Respectful and Learners. While there has been some im-

pressive learning in the first 2 weeks, the Typo class has also had some exciting visitors come to join them for

a Q&A. Some members of the Collingwood football team visited the school to tell stories of their past, and

what it is like to be an elite football star. Even though the class was divided due to their loyalty to different

clubs, all students engaged in conversations and had an awesome time. Our student of the week to Bailey

Mackrell, for being respectful and reminding all students the standards we look for while out in public doing

our shopping. Wonderful to see the boys represent the school so positively while out in public. John and Ryan

David COUTTIE (Mon – Thur), Lachie RAVEN (Fri), Luke MULLINS

Dylan VESCIO, Conrad HAGL, Bam HAUGH, Shaun HANCOCK, Jerome TAYLOR

Mt. Cobbler - Dave, Lachie and Luke

The Mt Cobbler students have enjoyed an awesome start to the school year. David Couttie will be the Cob-

bler teacher from Monday to Thursday. And on Fridays Lachie Raven will be the Cobbler teacher.

On Wednesday we were super excited to meet three Collingwood footballers, Travis Varco, Daniel Wells

and Will Hoskin-Elliot. We were lucky to have a brief Q&A session in our classroom. It was great.

Next week the Cobbler boys will start their cooking program.

We are all looking forward to having a fun year.

Feathertop - Sarah, Ranni and Sam


Welcome back to WDSS for another great year. So far the students have enjoyed getting to know each other

through group activities and learning some new games like spoons. Students are already feeling positive about

2019; It is a great class. BJ

Congratulations to Student of the Week for last week, Ewan for being a learner by working hard to learn the

new names of his classmates. Great Job Ewan. This year the group is looking forward to participating in a

wide range of activities.

Something I am looking forward to doing this year is:

Hotham – Jordan and Alicia

Welcome to a new school year. Hotham students have come back rested and excited for the year ahead with their new classmates. We have had a great start to the year with our cooking programme kicking off with Kyle, Tyson.B, Logan and Alicia cooking an amazing fried rice.

The class have been very active and eager to participate in all physical activity and have all been putting in 100% in all learning activities. The pictures show us playing soccer at the South Wangaratta Soccer ovals and using team work to build catapults that fire lollies. Everyone in Hotham is very excited for the year ahead and cannot wait to learn and participate in new things in 2019.

B.J. - Bike Riding Ryan - Swimming Locky - Fun

Zac, Brandon and Ewan - Cooking

Jessy - Running on the oval Jai and Shannon - iPad

A message from the Office Many parents/carers are using our direct debit facility to pay their school fees. Please use you stu-

dents’ surname as the reference for these payments to make it possible for us to keep track of these

payments.

Welcome to a new school year. All students in

Morgan have settled into 2019 well. We have

commenced our cooking program. Last week

Charlie, Ben, Dylan and Seb cooked us Spaghet-

ti Bolognaise and today Tyiren, Lucas, Kingston

and Daniel will be preparing us Nachos. As well

as doing our grocery shopping for this cooking,

we have used our community access sessions to

go to Benalla Botanical Gardens and to go

Kayaking. The most pleasing part of the open-

ing weeks of term is how well students are co-

operating and getting along. Each student is dis-

playing attributes that make them likable to their

peers. We look forward to an exciting year

ahead.

Students riding the rocket ship in Benalla Botanical

Gardens

The first cooking group buying

the weekly groceries

Daniel getting dizzy at the park

Morgan - Daine and Sheydin


This group has hit the ground running. Lisa on day one said we need to become a team, and in less than 3 weeks that is what they have become. They are fantastic learners. Every morning the class novel is read out chapter after chap-ter, the book is called Gangsta Granny A very funny book. Cooking is going really well, there is a lot of teamwork in the kitchen. Bingo maths is proving very popular so too is electives and Art. Solid start to the year, let’s keep ahead of the game, Team Emu……


Mt. Emu - Lisa, Lori and Jack

Kosciusko - Matt and Jilly.

It is great to get back for another school year. The new Kossie crew have started the year off really well and all

appear to be happy to be back at school. The boys have been particularly welcoming of a new staff member to

the school, Jilly. Jilly comes to us with a breadth of skills and knowledge from a range of schools. Most recently

Mildura. The boys have particularly enjoyed Jill’s home made cooking and ability to make the classroom a great

place to learn and feel at home.

The Kossie boys are an active group who take any opportunity to break up the day with a bit of exercise. The

highlight will be an ongoing battle against cross building rivals Mt Hotham. Jilly and I look forward to watching

the boys continue to gel together over the course of term 1.

The Mt. Emu crew, from left to right. Anthony, Jayden, James, Andrew, Daniel, Lachlan, Aiden,

Matthew, Mitchell.


Music classes are off to a great start for 2019! It’s wonderful to see all the smiling faces.

A big thanks to Ryan, one of our teachers, who donated a set of kit drums to the school. Sebastian is especially grateful and is giving them a serious workout!

Allied Health News

Welcome to 2019 from the Allied Health Team

This year we welcome back Lily Harrington as our speech pathologist. Lily has been traveling overseas for the past

two years. The allied health team has grown with the inclusion of Tina James as our Allied health assistant. Please

contact us if you have any questions.

We’ve got an exciting and busy term ahead with Social, Play and Key Word Sign groups planned.

Each Newsletter we will let you know about the things we have been learning in our groups. This week in Key

Word Sign we’ll be focusing on greetings, such as hello, good morning and how are you?

The pictures below give you an idea of how these signs are made.

Paula - Occupational Therapist (OT), Lily - Speech Therapist (Speechy) and Tina - Allied Health Assis-

tant (AHA).


Well it’s back into the swing of things and we have been blown away by these talented

Artists, particularly with their focus and attention to detail when completing our weekly

directed drawing activity.

We have lots of exciting activities and events coming up this year, so stay tuned.

Help please….. We are looking for any old and unwanted army / military uniforms for our Anzac day display. If you are able to help out, please drop items to the front office.

Thanks so much

ART with Jodi & Jody

Stirling _- Lee, Lis and Stella


Mt Pilot - Jacqui , Kara and Sharon

Welcome back to another great school year. We have got off to a very busy start in Stirling this term. We

have started our gardening and cooking programs and have also managed to squeeze in a trip to the library

and Bunnings.

During community access the students enjoyed a trip to Bunnings last week to buy some seedlings to plant in

our garden to use during our cooking program. Some of the seedlings included tomatoes, spinach and lettuce.

Another community access session included a trip to the library. The students each selected a book to read at

school and helped to choose a book to read as a class.

This week we celebrated Jack’s birthday. He turned 14 and had a wonderful day. Jack was really lucky and

got to have 2 cakes.

It is so wonderful being back at school. The students have settled in and are now well and truly in

the swing of things. We have welcomed some new students and teachers to our room this year. We

have Kara who is in on a Friday and Sharon who is here everyday of the week. It is going to be a

great year.

Documents

Newsletter - wangarattass.vic.edu.au€¦ · We have a literacy program Milo the Monkey , in which all the students have embraced him with excitement as we have made muffins, monkey