Wahgunyah Primary School students have settled into Term 3 easily with many exciting events occurring. On Thursday 24th July, six girls from WPS and two from St Mary’s Rutherglen teamed up to compete in a regional Hockey 7s competition at Shepparton. Despite not winning a game and playing against teams containing both boys and girls, the Wahgunyah team is through to the next stage competing in Melbourne to be held in late August.
On Friday 25th July Wahgunyah Primary hosted an open day for prospective students starting Prep in 2009. Many families and their children visited the school, met teachers and received information regarding up and coming orientation days. If any families of students starting Prep next year or looking to enrol in any year level missed out on visiting the school, please contact the school to arrange a visit and become familiar with the high quality learning programs and features of the school.
Many hands make light work!
Friday 25th of July was also Arbor Day and with Wahgunyah Primary receiving the Nestle Community Environment Program Grant for development of an “Environmental Learnscape” the first plantings took place. A selection of native plants and trees, as well as floral emblem plants of Australia were planted by the students after preparing the garden beds, under the guidance of parent and Landcare officer Natasha Lappin. The students had lots of fun digging and planting while improving the aesthetics of the school grounds. A visit from Uncle Toby’s representatives to see the progress of the project left students appreciative of the exciting developments that have already occurred and looking forward to the next developments which include, an Aboriginal food garden, veggie patch and hot house at the school and more native species planting and construction of an artificial creek at the Plantation on Dennison Street.
Working hard to prepare the gardens for planting
Kaleb and his buddy Paige planting seedlings
With the commencement of Term Two for Victorian schools in early April, students, staff and families joined together on April 17 for an evening barbecue at the school. The night provided new families to the school the opportunity to meet other families and staff in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. The students in particular enjoyed being at school in the dark and taking part in the first of many activities at the school this term.
At the ANZAC Day March, 54 out of the 80 students at the school marched proudly along Foord Street to participate in the memorial ceremony. The Corowa RSL Sub-Branch presented School Leaders Lindsay Smith and Jakob Muir-Kommer with a new book for the school library. A wreath from the Wahgunyah Primary School Community was laid as well as Indigo Shire Junior School Councillor Lachlan Seymour laying a wreath with the Indigo Shire Councillor Peter Graham.
This week the school is celebrating “Walk to School” Day with all students invited to walk to school as part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Those parents who usually drive their children to school have been encouraged to drop students off a little further away so they too can participate. The Parents and Friends Group will be providing a healthy breakfast for all students and staff upon arrival at school to promote the message of eating healthily and exercising regularly.
The Australian Ballet will be visiting the school on May 7th to present their “Out There” Program to all students. The program is an initiative of the Australian Ballet Company in educating students in not only Ballet as a dance, but all forms of dance and movement to connect discussion and fun with “doing” physical and expressive ideas. Workshops will be conducted for students to participate in as well as watching performances by the dancers.
Published on
November 14, 2007 in
Events.
On Friday 9th November, the students from Wahgunyah Primary travelled out to Morris Park in Corowa for their 2007 Athletics Day. Students competed in a number of field events including long jump, triple jump, discus and shot put. The running events included 800m, 400m, 200m, 100m sprint, 70m sprint and 50m sprint. The students were outstanding in their efforts to do their best in all events and showed great sportsmanship in cheering on not only their own, but other teams as well. A huge thank you must go to the Corowa Little Athletics volunteers who were fantastic in co-ordinating much of the day and preparing the ground, and to the parents who helped run events and cheered on the teams. The overall winning team was Barkley House (Blue) followed by Victoria House (Green), then Murray House (Yellow) and Hume House (Red).
Please check out our progress for the Energy Breakthrough initiative in the Student Work pages.
With Term 3 well under way, the students at Wahgunyah Primary School have already experienced a number of exciting events at the school and are looking forward to busy times ahead.
At the weekend, a number of students, teachers and community members attended the National Tree Planting Day at the Willows in Wahgunyah where over 700 plants were planted. All enjoyed the barbecue lunch and thanks must go to Landcare and The Indigo Shire for the plants, and the Wahgunyah Progress Association and The Wahgunyah Willows Committee for organising the event.
On Monday 30th July, Tom Hafey – ex Richmond player, Collingwood coach and motivation speaker visited the school to speak with students in years 3-6. Mr Hafey talked about motivation and teamwork and also spoke with staff and parents after school.
The Year 4, 5 and 6 students have been working on constructing a push cart for Energy Breakthrough as well as writing letters to local and surrounding area businesses and community groups to obtain sponsorship for the event which will be held in late November. They have also been working with Microworlds and have started their fitness regime.
Continue reading ‘July News’
Mrs Helen Mackinlay, Physical Education, Health and Performing Arts co-ordinator at the school has been the driving force behind the hugely successful campaign and sadly the school community is preparing to farewell Helen who will retire at the end of this term. Helen, who is affectionately known as Mrs Mack, has a teaching career spaning 39 years teaching at Myrtleford, Wodonga, Rutherglen, Carraragarmungee and at Wahgunyah for the past 16 years. Helen is well known for her work with young children helping and guiding them as they develop into responsible young adults. Helen has experienced first hand many successes at Wahgunyah Primary School and is proud to have been a part of such a supportive and progressive school community. The school will celebrate Helen’s last day next Wednesday and wish her a long and happy retirement.
Last Wednesday students at Wahgunyah Primary School eagerly participated in their Jump Off Day for Jump Rope For Heart, the national awareness campaign for heart disease. For the duration of Term 2, students have individually fundraised for Jump Rope For Heart by way of obtaining sponsorship from the community, while at school classes have been practising co-ordination skills in a variety of skipping methods and tricks. Students were then able to showcase these skills and routines choreographed to music by the students themselves, in front of the whole school and some very impressed families. After the Jump Off, students enjoyed a selection of healthy fresh fruit, further promoting the message to keep active and eat healthy for your heart.
During Term 2 at Wahgunyah Primary School, each year level is learning about countries of Asia as part of the Studies of Asia Curriculum Initiative. In the Prep, 1, 2 C classroom the focus is on China where children have been reading Chinese fables and learning about pandas through stories, discussions and mask making. The students have also been writing what they now know about China with many children being fascinated by the number of people who have black hair compared to Australia.
In the Prep, 1, 2 A classroom, Vietnam is the country of interest where students were treated with a guest speaker, Dr Love, who recently visited this country and was able to share lots of interesting facts and information with the children by showing them a slide show. The students have learnt about the differences between Australia and Vietnam and have been making sanpams, a type of boat that some people live in.
Continue reading ‘Asian Sensation at WPS’
A very successful Education Week was celebrated recently with a Parents and Grandparents Day at the school, where maths activities and a picnic lunch were thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended.
Wahgunyah Primary is now preparing for major building works at the school with the first item installed being a brand new school sign, complete with a noticeboard to keep the community informed of up and coming events at the school. The sign has been made to reflect the school uniform colours in a heritage design and states both the school number and the year the school was established.
Continue reading ‘Works on the go at WPS’
With the current focus on healthy eating, especially for young children, Wahgunyah Primary School continues to promote healthy eating at the school and celebrated their prize winning efforts from 2006 where the school won the Zone Award for Fruit and Veg Week, an initiative of The Victorian State Government. The prize, a $300 fruit and vegetable voucher from the VIC Markets enabled the whole school to enjoy a wide selection of fruit, vegetables, and a self serve lunch where students chose fillings for their wraps or pita bread pockets. A wonderful effort from volunteer parents and students in years 4,5 and 6 enabled the food to be prepared ready for classes to self serve, and taste a large variety of healthy food.
Specialist teacher, Helen Mackinlay who organised both last years program and maintains the promotion of healthy lifestyle choices at the school, will be presenting the initiatives carried out at Wahgunyah Primary at a “Go For Your Life – Healthy Schools for Healthy Kids” Conference next week in Shepparton to share information with other schools in an effort to provide them with ideas of how to implement healthy eating into their own curriculum.
