27 Jan 2020
Dear Families of Wollongong West,
It is with great anticipation and excitement that we commence the 2020 school year. 2020 promises to be a fun, enriching and exciting year at Wollongong West Public School.
This year, we continue our work towards achieving our strategic directions in our school plan for 2018-2020. Our school vision is:
At Wollongong West Public School, we will learn, teach and lead for excellence. We will empower students to be successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens of today and for tomorrow.
We will be working towards the following three strategic directions as identified in our School Plan 2018-2020.
* Excellence in Literacy and Numeracy
* Learning for Today and Tomorrow
* Quality Teachers and Leaders
Our School Plan 2018-2020 can be viewed on our school website.
This year, our children will continue to thrive academically, socially, emotionally, spiritually and physically with many wonderful initiatives being undertaken.
- This year our school is joining other local schools in the Wollongong Literacy Leadership team. This team of schools will work collaboratively to raise student growth and achievement in literacy, especially in the area of reading. This means that we will benefit from the wisdom of educational leader Jann Farmer-Hailey through mentoring processes, attending conferences and hosting school visits.
- Our school has also joined the NSW Network of Inquiry and Innovation (NOII). NOII is an inquiry-based network of schools across our state with the goal to improve the quality and equity of education through inquiry and teamwork across schools. We will be able to share quality teaching practices with schools across NSW, ensuring relevant, quality and current professional learning for all staff at our school.
- Spirals of Inquiry will continue to be a main driver of professional learning at our school in 2020. This evidenced based process involves teams of teachers meeting regularly to work through an inquiry based model to identify an area of teaching practice for investigation. Teachers will analyse data, practice and student achievement to develop a hunch, participate in new learning, take action in the classroom and check the impact of these actions. The main areas of teacher focus for 2020 spirals will be in the areas of reading and numeracy.
- Our Instructional Leadership program, led by Mrs Heritage, will continue in 2020. All children will have their progress regularly tracked in the areas of literacy and numeracy and all children will be actively working towards personalised learning goals. Teachers will meet regularly to plan differentiated learning pathways in literacy and numeracy for every child at our school.
- Student wellbeing will continue to be a priority as all classes school wide will be engaging in explicit lessons to support positive social skills and relationships, emotional regulation and behaviour expectations. The Zones of Regulation program will continue to be consistently utilised across our school, and we will also be introducing aspects of the Berry Street model to our school framework for student wellbeing. This model is a holistic and positive approach to the wellbeing of every child. Our school wellbeing priorities for 2020 are to promote high expectations of success for all children and also to foster a sense of belonging for every student at our school.
- This year also sees the establishment of support classes at our school to support students with additional learning needs. These classes will be small in size and will be taught by specialist staff. We are proud to be able to provide an inclusive and quality curriculum for all children at our school.
- Increasing student’s rate of attendance at our school will also be a priority. Our school will be strengthening our attendance monitoring systems to support families in ensuring very child is at school every day unless ill.
- Children in Years K-6 will participate in weekly specialist sports lessons with Mr Taylor. Mr Taylor brings great expertise in developing fundamental skills across a range of sports.
- Weekly creative arts classes will be provided for every child under the expertise of Mrs Morrissey. Each term will see a different focus in the areas of Visual Arts, Drama, Dance and Music. These specialist classes will allow children to grow, shine and thrive in these different areas. In addition, children will have opportunities to perform in extra-curricular groups, such as dance troupes and choirs.
- Our school will continue to provide weekly swimming lessons for every child during Terms 1 and 4.
- Our Community Hub will continue operating this year. The hub will provide additional support for all families, particularly those families from a refugee background. Increased community events will promote engagement and connectedness between all families in our school community. More information regarding our hub will be distributed to families soon.
- Our school will continue to provide many opportunities for community involvement. Please consider being a classroom helper, uniform shop volunteer, ethics teacher or a participant at special events at our school. I warmly encourage all families to be actively involved in school life.
What an exciting year it will be!
In staffing news, Mrs Carnevale will be taking leave leading up to her retirement in March. I sincerely thank Mrs Carnevale for her many years of service to public education, and in particular our school. We wish her great happiness in her retirement.
At the end of 2019, we also farewelled Mrs Risi who was called upon to join the executive team of Nareena Hills PS for 12 months. She will be bringing experience and expertise to a school who is currently undergoing many changes. Rest assured, Mrs Risi will be returning to our school in 2021.
This year, we welcome some new members to our staff team. We also see some existing staff members taking on new roles at our school. Below is a list of our staffing line-up to start 2020.
Teachers
KC Elena Carling
K/1D Shelley Donaldson, Janet McKnight
K/1B Olivia Bormann
K/6C Sally Clough
1/2D Martina Davies
1/2H Kristy Horner
3/4B Matthew Bell
3/4H Jenine Hickey
5/6H Stephanie Hopper
5/6K Natasha Kandilas Feld
ES1 Literacy and numeracy co-teacher / Interventionist
ES1 Literacy and numeracy co-teacher / Release – Kim Liplyn
S1 Literacy and numeracy co-teacher / Library – Kristy Bennis
S2 Literacy and numeracy co-teacher / RFF (Creative Arts) – Jo-anne Morrissey
S3 Literacy and numeracy co-teacher / RFF (PE) – Ben Taylor
Instructional Leader – Elizabeth Heritage
School Psychologist
Olivia Blackmore
School Learning Support Officers
Nour Al Ahmad
Kylie Beckett
Rachael Ebans
Michelle Greer
Caroline Kettlewell
Renee Leighton
Treigh Stewart
Community Hub Leader
Maree Szalla
Administration
School Administrative Manager - Teresa Trigg
School Administrative Officer - Alison Kirk
General Assistants
Andrew Beattie
John Lochhead
Our children in Years 1-6 will be placed in their anticipated classes for 2020 when they return to school on Wednesday 29 January. Please note that class structures may be changed in the first few weeks as our numbers fluctuate with new enrolments.
On Thursday 30 January, our Kindergarten children will enjoy their first day at “big” school. I warmly welcome our new families of children in Kindergarten and also from the higher grades to our school.
Our main means of communication between our school and families will continue to be through the Skoolbag app. I ask that all families visit the app store on your phone or tablet, search for the skoolbag app, and download the app at no cost. This will help families stay informed about what is happening at our school. Our school website, school facebook site and P & C facebook site are other important ways to keep informed. Your child’s class teacher will soon be sending home information regarding how to download the Seesaw app to stay informed with class learning.
Our P & C generally meets on the first Thursday of every month at 7pm in our community hub. All parents and carers are warmly invited to attend these meetings.
Important dates to commence the 2020 school year are in the calendar on our school website. Please add these dates to your diary.
I am very much looking forward to an exciting 2020 at Wollongong West Public School.
Kind Regards,
Michelle Barnes
Principal