Newsletter Term 1 Week 11 2025
Important Dates
Important Date
11 April – Last day of term 1 - 2:10pm dismissal; Friday Fun 2:10pm-4:00pm
Term 2 - 2025
28 April – First day of term 2
3 May – Federal Election
12-16 May – Rec-Yr 4 Swimming
24 May – Quiz Night “Game Day”
27 May – Governing Council
6 June – Pupil Free Day for staff curriculum professional development
9 June – King’s Birthday Public Holiday
11 June – Mid Year Kindy Transition
18 June – Mid Year Kindy Transition
24 June – Governing Council
25 June – Mid Year Kindy Transition
4 July - Last day of term 2 - 2:10pm dismissal
Term 3 - 2025
21 July – First day of term 3
12 August - Catch up Photo Day
12 August – Governing Council
1 September - Pupil Free Day for staff curriculum professional development
25 September – Sports Day – 2.10pm dismissal
26 September – Last day of term 3 - 2:10 dismissal
Term 4 - 2025
13 October – First day of term 4
|28 October – Governing Council
7 November – Remembrance Day Ceremony
10 November – School Closure Day (for significance of Remembrance Day to our history)
11 November – Pupil Free Day for yearly review, classes and 2026 planning
12 November – Kindy Transition
19 November – Kindy Transition
26 November – Kindy Transition
2 December – Governing Council
12 December – Last day of term 4 - 2:10 dismissal
*Dates to be confirmed in November/December for School concert, EOY assemblies
and year 6 graduation.
Friday Fun!
Public Primary Schools Festival of Music
This year we are on our way to the Festival of Music, Stars in the Arena!
After a break in the last couple of years, we are once again participating in the Public Primary Schools Festival of Music.
This year 15 students in years 5 and 6 have chosen to be part of our choir. For those who don’t know, the Festival of Music started in 1891 as the Thousand Voice Choir. It has been an integral part of South Australian life and stands as an official State Icon. Now the program reaches thousands of primary and secondary children annually and allows children opportunities to perform at prestigious venues, such as the Adelaide Festival Theatre and the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
There are Festival Choirs in over 300 schools across South Australia, as well as three Orchestras and Performance Troupes in metropolitan Adelaide.
Our choir will learn 15 songs including Let me Entertain You (Robbie Williams), Rubber Duckie, You’re the Voice (John Farnham), and 5 commissioned songs. They will perform as part of a mass choir on the 17th of September.
Whilst I am here every week for rehearsal, I am also on maternity leave this year so am volunteering my time so the school can offer choir to the students. We also have Sarah (one of the FoM HPIs) and Kaci (one of our wonderful SSOs) supporting us. Baby Katherine and I are loving watching the choir learn and grow their music skills each week.
We are looking forward to another fantastic year of choir – Our students are headed for the Entertainment Centre stage!
Anj Habel-Orrell
Performing Arts Specialist Teacher
Year 4 Arbury Camp
What an incredible camp experience! We are so proud of the outstanding behaviour displayed by our students. The Arbury camp coordinator and cook were full of praise for Westbourne Park students, noting their beautiful manners and enthusiasm for trying new activities, even those outside their comfort zones.
A heartfelt thank you to our wonderful volunteer parents, Kirsty Chown, Hamish Palmer, and Mark Anders, for generously giving their time to help at camp. Your support and contributions were greatly appreciated.
It was fantastic to see Year 4 students from LC1, LC2, and J3 engaging in new experiences, taking on challenges, building resilience, and working together as a team. This camp provided a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow outside the traditional classroom setting.
Well done to everyone involved!
Warm regards,
Josie Brown
Feedback from students:
I found Arbury Park exhausting but also very exciting. We went on some hikes and we ate a lot of good food, but I think the most fun part of camp was being out in the wild and doing different fun activities while learning about the wild and the unique creatures. The plants and trees looked beautiful and a bit intimidating, because they were so big and strong. I am proud of myself because I can prove that I can build a shelter and sleep without my parents. We also were very lucky and we got to see and learn about different First Nation tools and what their purpose was, we also got to listen to a real dream story. I will miss camp but I am, thrilled to be back with my family and pets. Emma Z-L
The reason I loved Arbury Park so much was because, we hike to Bridgewater Mill. We had amazing food like bake beans on toast. The most fun thing we did was shelter building and freshwater life. The dorms were incredible because you have so many friends in there with you. But overall camp taught me how to look after myself. Oliver
We had a bus that took us to Arbury Park Outdoor school, we had morning tea after we put our bags in our dorms, I was in dorm 2 on the top bunk, no one slept under my bunk though, and we also had lunch. After lunch then we did web of life it’s like a survival game where you have to find food in green cans and water in blue cans, and there’s predators and threats to the animals that can kill them we all start off with eight lives.
We had afternoon tea and then dinner then we had a sleep in the dorms after a movie. Angus
I found Arbury Park exhausting but fun because of we went on two hikes and just the activities we did. I liked the food we had, it was very yummy but I liked dessert the best because we had chocolate mousse with peaches or an ice cream sundae with a sauce of our choice. One of my favourite lessons was fresh water life because you got to use a pool net and swish it around in the lake and fish things out of it. One of my other favourite lessons was shelter building because we had to build a safe shelter and fit your group in then the adults would have power sprayers and say a storm was coming and spray the tent you made and shake it and see if it stayed up. Annabel
Year 5/6 Mylor Camp
Recently year 5-6 students have had the opportunity to attend a 3-day program at Mylor Baptist Care, a camp situated in the Adelaide Hills. During camp students participated in numerous team-building activities that both strengthened existing bonds and helped pupils develop new friends. The ARROW values were consistent during the camp with students showing accountability, respect, resilience, opportunity and wellbeing. The zipline was an extremely popular activity with students showing opportunity by pushing themselves and facing their fears, allowing themselves to race over the oval with some students even going backwards or upside down!
Raft making was another popular activity with students pushing themselves and working together to create a successful raft that both stayed together and won the race. Although some group’s rafts fell apart during the race, all groups bounced back and used what they had to at least compete in the race.
Freshwater life was another activity with pupils learning about both the animals that inhabit the nearby river and how to respect both them and their environment. While some students were initially cautious with the water all faced their fears and ended up standing up to wait deep, searching for creatures. 2025 Upper Primary camp was a huge success with everyone having a slightly different experience yet still enjoying themselves.
Benjamin Thomas
EALD
Dear Families,
It is a great joy and privilege for me to be the EALD teacher in our school again this year.
For those of you who don’t know, EALD is an acronym for ‘English as an Additional Language/Dialect’ and this program supports students from non-English speaking backgrounds to develop greater proficiency in spoken and written Standard Australian English, whilst simultaneously celebrating everyone's rich cultural and linguistic diversity.
This support involves one small-group 50minute lesson per week, for all eligible students, between Tuesday and Thursday, in our EALD teaching/learning space, which is located in the heritage section of our Resource Centre building.
EALD funding from the Education Department is available for Year 1 - Year 6 students, whose main language at home is another language, other than English, if they also meet the required Learning English Achievement Proficiencies criteria.
This year, as part of our acknowledgment and celebration of heritage, students are sharing their favourite cultural food recipes, whilst also practising using the language aspects and features which are particular to procedural genre writing.
A huge thank you to Shahbaz in Yr. 3, Rijja and Thenul in Yr. 4, and Shayaan in Yr. 6, and their families for generously sharing these recipes with us. Please click on the photos, and enlarge to see their recipes.
We hope you enjoy them.
If you have any questions about our program, please do not hesitate to email me: athina.vlahos841@schools.sa.edu.au
Thank you.
Warm regards.
Athina Vlahos
EALD teacher & students
Book Fair
Exciting news! The Book Fair will be at the school next term in week 4, 22 – 23 May and the 26th of May.
Save your pocket money or do some extra chores around the house and come to the fair next term to buy your favourite pen, pencil or book.
Roelien, Library
Canteen News
Harmony Day Thank you
Thank you to all the families who supported the canteen’s Harmony Day special treats on Friday 21st March. I hope the children enjoyed their bespoke Harmony Day Cupcake, Jelly Cup or Candied Popcorn.
A special thank you to Fran, of Frans Creative Cakes, for baking and decorating more than 300 cupcakes.
At the end of this term that canteen will join the fun of Fundraising’s Friday Fun and will have a variety of special treats available for the children to enjoy.
Funds raised from canteen ‘special days’ are used to assist with the ongoing running of the canteen and to upgrade facilities. The plan for this year is to replace the existing flooring in the canteen and to possibly modify the room next to the canteen into additional canteen space.
The first ‘special day’ for Term 2 will be to celebrate the Showdown between the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide Power – more details will be provided next term.
Term 2 Menu Change
In Term 2 the canteen menu will alter to our winter menu and will include lunch specials of soup, pasta, curries and other items more suitable to the cooler weather.
Every effort is made to incorporate into the menu options items suitable for those children that are dairy free, gluten free, vegetarian or vegan. If you are unable to locate an item or have a menu addition request please do not hesitate to let me know.
An update menu will be available early in Term 2 and will be reflected in Qkr from the commencement of the term.
Emergency Lunches
If a child is sent to the canteen by their class teacher for an emergency lunch they will be provided with either a cheese or vegemite sandwich. An email is then sent home to the primary caregiver advising that an emergency lunch has been provided, this email will request payment to be made via Money Owed to Canteen in Qkr. It is greatly appreciated if caregivers could please action this email request ASAP to avoid payment follow-up.
An emergency lunch can be issued for a number of reasons and it is at the class teacher’s discretion if payment is required or not, so you may not always receive an email if an emergency lunch has been provided by the canteen.
If a child believes they were to have a lunch order on the day in question the canteen will always first check Qkr reporting and only issue an emergency lunch if no order has been received.
Canteen Fun Fact
Did you know in the canteen we make every effort to support sustainability with a majority of packaging for lunch order items (excluding drink & ice-block packaging) defined as industrial compostable. This means that a majority of food packaging, and food scraps, can be placed into the green bin.
If you are interested in learning more about the canteen, have feedback on the menu items offered or volunteering opportunities please feel free to email wpps.canteen286@schools.sa.edu.au
Pam, Fresh Bites Café
Canteen Manager
News from the WPPS Fundraising Committee
Hello from all of us on the WPPS Fundraising Committee! We hope you and your children have had a great first term and are looking forward to the events and activities that will be held throughout the year. Our school community has always been incredibly generous, and we are thankful for the ongoing support of the fundraising events that take place at WPPS. All the money raised goes back into our school, benefiting our children and our children’s teachers, leadership team and support staff.
Term 1 started off with our Mix & Mingle event taking place, which was a great success. It was a fantastic night, catching up with old friends and making new ones as well! It was especially nice to welcome some mid-year Reception parents. We've always known that WPPS is a welcoming and social school community, and we hope everyone enjoyed themselves.
Since then, we have been busy preparing for Friday Fun which is happening on the last day of term! You may have seen the Lucky Dip Jars request come through the school communications - a massive thank you to those who have already donated jars to the front office. Friday Fun just wouldn’t be the same without them, so please, keep them coming!! We are also accepting donations of secondhand toys and books, plus donations of baked goods.
So please, remind your kids to save up their pocket money to enjoy all the fun on the day - cupcakes, drinks, a kids' Market Stall, face painting, second hand uniform stall, a coffee van, Sausage Sizzle, Beat the Bucket, fairy floss, WPPS Holey Moley mini golf, slushies and more! Remember, it's on the last day of Term, Friday 11th April, 2:10pm - 4:00pm.
Important: Classrooms will be locked, and teachers will not be responsible for the supervision of students during Friday Fun. All children must be under the care of a parent/carer.
Looking further ahead, Term 2 will see the WPPS Quiz Night taking place on Saturday 24th May so pop it in the calendar and book the babysitter! Our theme this year is “Game Day” so now is the time to start thinking about those costumes and table decorations.
Tickets are currently available in Qkr! and are sold as a table of 10 for $250. If you need some help to make up a table of 10 people or have any queries about tickets, please email the Fundraising Committee.
We will run an Online Auction in conjunction with the Quiz Night itself again this year, as it gives all of our school community the opportunity to bid on some fantastic auction items. For those attending the Quiz Night, there will be the usual fun games and activities, plus access to some exciting bonus “Quiz Night Only” auction items on the night itself!
The first Wine Drive for the year will also be happening later in Term 2 – more details to follow.
Finally, if you have ever considered joining the Fundraising Committee (or simply being more involved in the events) we would love to hear from you! We would not be able to accomplish so much each year, without the amazing parents who donate their time and effort. We are always looking for new members so please consider joining us, even if it is just to assist with one event.
We hope everyone has a nice school holiday break! Stay safe, enjoy the Easter chocolates and we'll see you after the holidays 😊
Dates to Remember
Friday 11th April – 2:10pm – 4:00pm – Friday FUN!
Tuesday 6th May – 7:00pm – Next Meeting (held in the Staff Room)
Saturday 24th May – WPPS Quiz Night & Online Auction
Please feel free to contact the WPPS Fundraising Committee at wppsfundraise@gmail.com. And don’t forget to join the WPPS Community Facebook Group to stay up to date with school events. This page is run by parents, for parents!
Many thanks,
The WPPS Fundraising Committee
Second hand school uniform
Any donations of second hand school uniform (in good condition) can be left at the front office and will be sold to raise funds for the school.
Look out for the second hand school uniform stall at Friday Fun on the last day of term. All items $5.
Piano Give Away
We would like the school's piano to go to a good home! Please email dl.0475.info@schools.sa.edu.au if you are interested and have the means to transport from the school.
OSHC Vacation Care
Community News
