Category Archives: Uncategorized

Did you know?

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Here at Woodend we have a Healthy Eating Committee.  At our first committee meeting for the year, we worked on defining our purpose and directions.  This is our purpose:

Healthy eating and drinking at Woodend Primary School is about improving the health and wellbeing of our children. We can do this by:

  • Providing healthy food and beverages and support students and families to make better choices about their consumption
  • Promoting nutritious and healthy choices

We reference the Government of South Australia’s Right Bite Healthy Food and Drink Supply Strategy for South Australian Pre schools and Schools to ensure we are consistent with the recommended guidelines.

Our committee consists of canteen staff, parent volunteers and representatives of school leadership.  Student volunteers support the canteen program. We also consult with students during times of planning and decision making.

We avoid marketing commercialized products where possible.  We aim to promote produce that is freshly made to families.

In our efforts to continually improve our choices on our ‘Woodies Goodies’ menu we will let you know items that we have available or are about to trial.  We are always in need of volunteers to assist us prepare more nutritious and healthy choices.  If there is any day of the week that you can spare 15 minutes, 30, 45, 60 or 90 minutes – any amount of time, we would be very grateful of your help.  All you need to do is call in at our canteen or let front office staff know of your interest.   Our friendly canteen staff are: Helen Lewis, Di Thomas and Lee Francis.  They would be very welcoming and happy to see you volunteer in the canteen!

Two recent snack items we have available are:

  • Fruit salad cups – a variety of fresh seasonal fruits in a cup  $1.00
  • Yoghurt cups – low fat vanilla flavoured yoghurt topped with fresh fruit  50c

You can encourage your child to buy one and give them a try!  They are nice and cold and taste delicious especially on a warm day.  We look forward to seeing you as a volunteer and or your child coming to buy at our canteen.

 

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Woodend Kindy spends time with us

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We have really enjoyed spending time with the kindy children this term.  Children from Woodend Childrens Centre and Trott Park Kindergarten have visited the Reception classes each week this term.  They have had opportunities  to play with Mrs Ogilvie’s class on a Monday afternoon and/or to participate in singing and dancing with Mrs Brown’s and Mrs Klinkert/Cole’s Receptions on a Thursday morning.  These visits to each other’s sites occur throughout the year and is an integral part of our Transition program.  This time together helps the children orientate themselves with school life.  We thank the teachers from both sites for conducting the visits

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Always room for Improvement

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This Monday we are hosting all the parents of the 2015 Receptions for Afternoon Tea.  During this time we would like to reflect back on the 2015 year and seek feedback on your child’s transition to school as well as your own learning journey at Woodend.  This information will prove valuable for improving our transition processes for the coming year/s. This form is useful to begin our conversations  transition-to-school-conversation-starter .  We look forward to your participation.

Canteen support

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We are very supportive of this year’s Healthy Eating committee and Parent Network who have developed strategies for lifting the profile of  Woodend’s school canteen.  One initiative is to increase the number of volunteers to support the canteen staff and maintain the quality service.  Parent Network are enlisting the support of volunteers from each classroom so that over this year, the canteen should be able to have more volunteers per week.

If you are able to help in the canteen on any day anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours, the canteen staff, Helen and Di would be very grateful.  If you are interested, please see Kerri at the Front Office or call in at the canteen.

Play at Woodend

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This term, our early years staff (Reception to Year 2) have participated in workshops to further our understanding of Play.  Our focus has been about better equipping our students with creative play opportunities to improve learning. In 2014, a significant amount of money was spent purchasing Play resources for the Atrium and Fern Thomson was employed to offer an Arts/Play experience for Reception and Year 1 students. With support from Woodend Children’s Centre, play visits occurred between the centre and each Reception class.  Reception teachers also visited the centre to observe play.

This term, we have had the opportunity to work with an Early Years consultant, Robyn Waller on Play. During these workshops we have looked at:

  • our philosophies about Play
  • Play theorists
  • how Play links to the Australian Curriculum in particular, literacy and numeracy
  • determining what Play could look more like at Woodend

Our early years staff also visited Black Forest Primary School to listen to their journey with Play, and tour their learning spaces. This was a valuable experience where we had lengthy professional discussions with Black Forest staff, many questions, and exchanging of teaching and learning ideas. We will keep you informed of our developments.IMG_2822

Parking / Kiss and go

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Given that it comes up every year and is a constant source of frustration for parents and caregivers dropping and picking up their children I thought it would be timely to let new parents know about some history on parking at the school and clarity how it should work.

Previously the school had a kiss and go for morning drop offs and afternoon pick ups on Edward Beck Drive. Particularly in the afternoon there was a concerning amount of double parking, cars waiting around the pedestrian crossing and generally some dangerous driving activity. The council was consulted and they monitored the area. Attempts were made by staff and even police to alleviate congestion however they were faced with a lot of abuse. So the decision was made by Governing Council and Marion Council to trial ceasing kiss and go in the afternoon. Whilst there is still concerns with the after school pick up it has been improved.

So Woodend Primary School has a kiss and go area in the morning between 8.30-8.55am so there is NO parking in this allocated section of Edward Beck Drive. This area in the afternoon is parking only.

In the mornings you are able to get out of your car to assist your child/children get out of the car but your car should not be left unattended for any period of time and your should move out of the area as soon as possible being mindful of other vehicles and children.

In the afternoon a teacher is on duty on the deck near this area to ensure the safety of children until they are picked up. There is a teacher on duty until 3.20pm so it is not necessary to be ready and waiting at 3.05 particularly for older children. It may be helpful to arrange with your children that you will come 10-15 min after the bell. It is also helpful to remind children of the procedure for if you are running late and make them aware that they should go to the front office so that staff can contact you.

The car parking area off Edward Beck Drive is for staff only.

A quick note also in regards to Bathbank Crescent. The parking bay is for the Kindergarten only and should not be used as a kiss and go. There are many young children in this area so it is dangerous to have numerous vehicles moving in and out. The Woodend Children’s Centre have instigated a flexible pick-up time to help alleviate congestion along Bathbank.

The speed limit past the school is 25km/h at all times students are present, including for after hours sport and school events.

School crossing are located on Edward Beck and Young Street. Please encourage students to cross the roads at these points.

The safety of children and others using the area is the priority. Please be considerate, patient and respectful of others.

The school and Governing Council is aware of the frustrations with traffic movement and is this year working alongside Way2Go to try to come up with solutions so please be assured that it is not being ignored. If you have specific concerns you can contact our local MP Corey Wingard via wingard.mitchell@parliament.sa.gov.au.  To find out more about Way2Go you can check out the website at http://www.dpti.sa.gov.au/way2go

Thanks,

Kelli