Newsletter
Wangaratta District Specialist School
Date 6/09/’13
Ph. 5721 7424
[email protected].
Fax. 5721 8601
From the Principal’s Desk
Deb Ball: there has been great excitement this week as the 9 WDSS students prepare for the final week of rehearsals
in preparation for the Deb ball which will be held Saturday night at the Wangaratta Magpies Football Ground. For
those who are not able to come to the Ball and/or don’t have a ticket as tickets are all sold out, there is preview of
the Debs from 6.00 – 6.45pm. Doors open for those with tickets at 7.00pm. We are all looking forward to this.
Circus Quirkus: as mentioned briefly in the last newsletter we thank the following organisations and businesses for
their generosity in paying for this wonderful performance so that our students could attend. Thanks again to the
Rotary Club of Albury and the following businesses Corcoran Parker, Stephen Tanner, Wildav Engineering,
and Greg Aplin MP for sponsoring the performance.
Toblerone Father’s Day raffle: Thanks to the many people who bought raffle
tickets in the recent Father’s Day Raffle for the giant Toblerone. We raised
$260.00. The lucky winner and happy father is Darren Grant who was overjoyed with winning 4 kilograms of chocolate. A photo of Sophie Grant also
looking overjoyed at her dad’s lucky win. Well done Darren. Thanks to Abby
and Cathy who worked to get the raffle happening and to all who bought tickets.
School Chaplain: thank you to those who responded to the survey which was
in a previous newsletter regarding the School Chaplain. This is really important
so that we can provide evidence that this very worthwhile program continues.
School Website: the school’s website has been updated with some pages still
under construction we are working towards having all of our content up and
current by the end of term. And we are now on Facebook. Wow… moving with
the times. Thanks to Chris Harvison who has done the enormous load of work
to get the page up and running. Our address is the same – you can find us at
www.wangarattass.vic.edu.au.
Carmel OBeirne: over the last 4 weeks teaching staff have been working alongside Carmel OBeirne who is a Numeracy consultant extraordinaire. So far she has been working in Buffalo, Stirling, Warby, Kosciusko, Hotham and
Mount Beauty. Her feedback has been excellent about the quality of the mathematical programs which she has seen
and the excellent teaching strategies which our staff are using. Carmel is working on money, time and number with
the students. She will continue to work in the school for another 6 weeks.
This year – 2013 sees 100 years of special needs education in Victoria. Robyn Hodder, past Principal is compiling
WDSS’s history. We thank Robyn for her generous offer and the time she has taken to do this write up.
Dates to Remember
Emma - O.T. - 9 & 16 September
Rachael - Speech - 12 & 19th September
Debutante Ball - 8.00pm on Saturday 7th Sept.
All Chocolates/money to be returned by 13th Sept.
20th Sept. Last Day of Term 3. All buses one hour earlier. Footy Colours Day
Cont.
From the Principal’s Desk cont...
Fundraising: the selling of chocolates has been great and we are really impressed and grateful to all regarding the
amount of chocolates sold on behalf of the school. Students have been receiving MacDonalds vouchers for their efforts. Thanks to all those families who are so generous with their time.
Wellwishes for students: Several of our students have been unwell and many hospitalized recently. We are so
pleased that all are out of hospital and fully recovered. Well done Weenie, Jye, Brandan, Kara-Lee, Vanessa, Noah
and Tom.
Principal’s awards:
Senior Awards: Chloe Booms for finding different activities in the yard, and Matthew Reiffel for his witty sense of
humour and kind words to staff and students
Junior Awards: Holley Heaney for settling into the big yard and Tyreece Orton- Rhodes for helping other students
make good choices.
Libby Hosking
Principal
Positive Behaviour Support
Our students continue to do amazing things in terms of helping each other and staff. Rose has posted Post Cards to
8 families in the past week. In order that a card be sent, students must be observed making excellent helping, caring
and responsible choices. This can involve students and staff in and out of school. It may also involve aiding community members outside the school environment. It is quite a prestigious award and parents are encouraged to
acknowledge the positive support their child has given others.
During the last fortnight the following students have achieved the following Goldie milestones;
100: Toby Crawford, Kortney Hutchinson, Lincon Crofts, Matthew Reiffel, Sarah Todd and Jessy McEwan.
250: Ben Henwood, Hayden Riddell.
Congratulations!
For the next fortnight we will be concentrating on students behaving appropriately in class. This is very important
because positive and cooperative behaviours result in increased learning time for all students. We will be teaching
our rules based on out ‘Matrix.’
TOGETHER WE WILL MAKE GOOD CHOICES IN THE…
CLASSROOM
Follow instructions
Use indoor voices
Do your best
Sit properly
Treat others as you would like to be treated.
Respect you own and others’ property
Behave and speak in a friendly manner
PBS team members attended a training day at Shepparton last week. It was gratifying to see that our school is well
up with others in our region and that in some ways our program is leading them.
Dave,
On behalf of the Positive Schoolwide Behaviour Team.
Bogong - David, Tina, Sam and Kat
On Friday we bade a sad farewell to Sam. She
has been helping in Bogong for the past few
weeks but is heading overseas to begin a new career.
We’d like to thank Sam for her assistance, dedication and friendliness and wish her all the best for
the future.
We have been trialling a new behaviour program in or class. Class Dojo
allows us to note positive and negative behaviours. It is very visual and
students work towards Goldies awards. They are able see their choices as
they progress.
It was a delight to attend Deb training last
week. All debutantes showed terrific dancing
skills and I was especially proud of Bridget and
Shane.
Kat and I are SOOOOO looking forward to the
big night!
A Message From The Chaplain
School wide Positive behaviour Support
Goldie Trading is still going extremely well, with 1,720 Goldies having been traded over the past two weeks by 68
students. As well as this 6 students have reached the ‘100 Goldies Milestone’ and 2 have reached the ‘250 Goldies
Milestone’ as well as joining the respective Honor Boards and receiving wristbands. Unfortunately, advice from the
company manufacturing the wristbands that one size would be suitable for all our students was inaccurate and consequently some are very tight. We will certainly rectify this in our next order.
On Tuesday Jamie, the Manager of Big W, along with Tanya (Assistant Manager) attended our School Wide Positive
Behaviour Support Meeting, had a tour of the school (and were very impressed) and are now looking into ways that
they may be able to assist us.
I enjoyed the opportunity to attend further PBS Training in Mooroopna last Wednesday along with David, Harvo and
Glenys.
Class Programs
Junior Classes sessions that I conduct continue to focus on feelings, with picture story books and puppets assisting in
the understandings here.
Middle School sessions have focused on Anger Management including role plays and responding to given scenarios.
The VCAL Life Preparation Program saw a visit from Susan Robertson to talk about the opportunities provided by
the Volunteer Friends Program should our students wish to participate.
Get Well Wishes
It was wonderful to see Brandon pop in to school with his family on Tuesday to show us how well he was goingwhat an amazing and brave young man after such a big operation!
It is also great to hear that Edwina is progressing very well.
We wish them both a very speedy recovery.
Thought For the Fortnight
Attitude is the mind’s paintbrush-it can color any situation!
Hope you are enjoying this delightful Spring weather and that all Dads and Grandads had a great day on Sunday.
Rose
Mt. Beauty - Richard, Stella and Fiona
This week the Mt Beauty boys commenced their weekly cooking class, Mt Beauty students will be cooking a hot
lunch on Mondays for the rest of the year.
Some of the meals that we have planned include kebabs, vegetable wraps, spaghetti bolognaise, shepherds’ pie and
vegetable stir fry.
The boys proved to be quite the little chefs whilst also putting their kitchen rules to good practise.
Writers’ Workshop
In Monday’s session of Writers’ Workshop the students chose to write about their weekend then they were required
to type their corrected work.
Skateboarding
On Thursday at 11.30 Ben came to pick me
up. We went to the skate park and jumped
the box. Then we went for lunch at KFC.
Then went to look at the new skate park in
Benalla. That was the best skate park.
By Mitchell
Student of the Week Awards
CLASS
WEEK ENDING 23rd August
WEEK ENDING 30th August
Buffalo
Stella Fitzgerald-Baboussouras for working hard
with Tina in her speech lessons.
Mt Beauty
Reaver Guyomar for celebrating his 7th
birthday on the 23rd August with his friends.
Information not available at time of printing.
Bogong
Jamie made excellent choices in the yard.
Kosciusko
Josh Tull for managing his moods.
Damon is making terrific progress in both literacy
and Maths.
Jesse McDonald for having a positive attitude.
Hotham
Kenny Fung for good classwork.
Stirling
Zac for working hard, getting along with
others and being responsible for his belongings.
Jason Allcroft for enjoying time on the
trampoline.
Buller
Warby
Stanley
Simone Hodgetts for telling the truth.
Feathertop
All students who attended Winton for their
impeccable behaviour
Edwina Roper for making a good recovery
from her operation.
Noah Antonello for great imptovement in
his swimming.
Taminick
Sport
Beth Walsh for working well with the speech
therapist.
Jack for working really hard to fit into the new
expectations and routines of our classroom.
Anthoney Ricardo for using his iPad to listen to
the Wonky Donkey story book.
Steph for being an all-rounder within the school
environment
Katie Healey for awesome bike riding, listening
to instructions, and covering lots of kilometres.
Lincon McKibbin for excellent feedback from his
workplace apprenticeship interview
Jye Lepenik for having a good first week back.
Sarah Todd for an excellent effort in her Cross
Country Run
Hotham - Kate and John
We have been participating in activities around grating lemons, and cutting them into
quarters and halves.
We have been practising finding 2 items
for under $10.00,
finding one item under $5.00 and one
item under $10.00 in
IGA Supermarket.
Kenny, Josh, Breanna, Taylah, Beth and I are in the
photo with Rodney Jane at Winton – Zach Maskell
I am cold and wet. I am happy to be here. We had fun.
We had lunch. We went back to school. – Taylah Gannon
Warby - Elise and Ashley
What an amazing week of excursions we have had! Wednesday we went to see Circus Quirkus at the Albury Performing Arts Centre thanks to the Rotary Club of Albury. On Friday we braved the rain and went to Winton Motor
Raceway to see the V8 super cars. A big thanks to Ash and Alysha for organising this great day out.
Writers Notebook Feature: Circus Quirkus by Nathan Campbell
In Warby this week we went to see Circus Quirkus. All the Warby kids loved it. Why did we love it? Because all
the people did dangerous tricks, like two girls hanging on a swing and doing amazing tricks up high. Also they did
funny stuff like one guy who made like 7 ping pong balls come out of his mouth. I would like to know how he had
that many ping pong balls in his mouth. They also did tight rope walking, hoola hooping, balancing boards and
calling people up on stage from the crowd. It is my favourite circus that I have been to and would love to go next
year.
Kosciusko - Lisa, Jacqui, Lizz and Simon
Last week one of our fantastic
Kossie classmates travelled all the
way to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne to have an operation. We were all so proud of
Brandon's positive attitude and his
bravery. We are really looking
forward to having him back.
Here are some well wishes we
sent before he left for Melbourne.
Matt- ‘Thanks for being a great friend and I hope you get better in hospital’
Shania- ‘Good luck Brandon, I hope you feel better’
Kort- ‘I will miss you Brandon, get better soon’
Brodie- ‘Good luck Brandon we hope your back at school soon’
Jesse- ‘I hope you get well soon’
Bree- ‘ I hope you feel extremely good after your operation and Kossie will miss you’
James- ‘ hope you get well soon so you can come back to school’
Kayla-’I hope your operation goes well Brandon and your back at school really soon, we will miss your smile’
Rhys-’ Good luck Brandon, get well soon’
Josh-’I hope your feeling better soon Brandon, we will all miss you in Kossie’
We are over the moon that Brandon's operation went really well. He is back home in Wangaratta and he even had
enough energy to visit his class mates on Tuesday! WOW!
Sport - Hop
School Cross Country 2013.
Under a blue bird sky students from the middle and senior classes participated in the WDSS 2013 Cross Country along our bike trail encompassing the One Mile Creek.
All of our students should be congratulated on giving their best efforts in this run.
Here is a brief summary of place getters in their respective age groups.
14 and Under Girls
14 and Under Boys
16 and Under Girls
16 and Under Boys
1st Bree Bonnitcha
1st Mitch Moulday
1st Meron Melnyk
1st Quinton Rule
2nd Taylah Gannon
2nd Brodie Cook
2nd Christine Gebauer
2nd Lincoln Croft
3rd Shania Beechaz
3rd Tayten Farrell
3rd Kayla Bourke
3rd Josh Caldwell
18 and Under Girls
18 and Under Boys
Sports Award
1st Emma Arnol
1st Robbie Campbell
2nd Sarah Todd
2nd Ben Henwood
3rd Matt Johnson-Begg
Noah Antonello for great improvement in his swimming.
Sarah Todd for an excellent effort in her Cross
Country run.
Footy Colours Day - Friday 20th September - Gold Coin Donation
All our students are encouraged to participate in a Footy Colours Day on the final day of this term. We want
them to wear any football memorabilia they have - Jumpers or scarves of their favourite footy team. Staff will
provide activities for our students at recess and lunch to celebrate this day. Canteen on this day will consist of
typical footy food. Hotdogs, ice-creams and cordial.
All profits from this day will be donated to Relay for Life (Cancer Council) which will be held later this year.
Together we will make good choices.
Stanley - Glenys, Chris and Sheydin
Stanley students have been participating regularly in Bike education. Some have successfully ridden up to eight
kilometres as part of the program.
We hope that by practicing regularly not only will the Stanley crew develop the fitness benefits of regular exercise but also gain knowledge and understanding of the road traffic environment and the road laws.
They are also developing the physical and cognitive skills to manage the road traffic environment safely as a
cyclist. Whilst learning responsible behaviours, attitudes and decision-making skills for the safe use of bicycles,
both on and off the road, and enjoying the process of ‘going for a ride.
Some of our class enjoy using the trikes for their riding, whilst others prefer the two wheel bikes. The tracks
around the Appin Park area and along the One mile creek leave us with a variety of distances and courses, so
there is always a new route to take.
Taylor enjoying
the Collyn Dale
Wetlands on a
bike ride.
Chris, Keenan and Taylor starting off the Spring
with a bike ride.
Stirling - Alysha, Sharon and Luke
Wow! What a busy couple of weeks at WDSS. First we had the Circus Quirkus excursion, then Winton for the
V8 Supercars. These excursions provided our students with lots of inspiration to write about, and I have included
Kaya’s writing piece in this week’s article.
Apart from our excursions, Stirling students have been working hard in
the classroom. We have started having Horticulture (gardening) again
on Thursday’s, and everyone has enjoyed planting new flowers, weeding, composting and using the vegetables we have grown to make some
delicious lunches. This week we cooked quiche using spinach grown in
our vegetable garden. It was delicious!
Our Students of the Week include Zac and Jack. Zac has returned to school after having a couple of weeks being
unwell at home. He jumped straight back into working hard, getting along with others and being responsible for
his own belongings. These traits are very important to our school, as they are also part of our School Wide Positive Behaviour Support program and Zac is a fantastic example of how these rules make our school a better place
to be. Thank you Zac!
Jack also receives Student of the Week for working really hard to fit into the new expectations and routines of our
classroom. While his favourite activity is bike riding with Hop, Jack is doing great writing during our Writers
Workshops, thinking really hard to solve maths problems and is a great help with cooking. Thanks Jack for your
swift transformation!
Buller– Allan, Mab and Peter
The lovely Laura gave up some of her valuable time, as CEO of a well
known Wangaratta book shop, to come in last week and do some reading with our students. Enthralled as they were with Laura’s dramatic
rendition, Penny wanted to show off our fancy new iPad holder and
gained Laura’s undivided attention with her own view of the story.
On a warm, waning Winter’s day last week our resident, visiting, cycling,
enthusiast of various things, Colleen, led us through the wilds of outer
Wangaratta to the Collyn-Dale Wetlands. With the promise of a huge
flock of pelicans our amateur ornithologists, Emily and Vanessa were visibly excited during our journey but only vaguely disappointed at a solo pelican. Emily still happily pointed out it’s quiet appearance to Vanessa.
Taminick—Phillipa, Jill and Marley
Exciting Times for Taminick
Aiden, Jean Luc and Noah are becoming very proficient
penman. It is great to see the precision of Aiden and Noah when they are doing their tracing. Noah and Aiden
are also starting to do the morning circle. Saying hello
and being responsible in ensuring each student says hello.
We have also been getting out into this beautiful weather
for some great walks.
Get Well Soon
Edwina is back home and moving
from strength to strength. We are so
excited for her and her family. Look
forward to having her come and visit
us as soon as she is ready.
We have also welcomed another of
our students back from a long illness.
Jye has enjoyed a great week back
and has enjoyed settling into the routine of the classroom.
We have returned to use the PMP room. Kara
enjoys being placed into the ball pit and throwing
the balls all out. Jean Luc and Tyler have enjoyed rolling on the big balls.
Buffalo - Suzanne, Donna and Jack
Our students all enjoyed the outing to Albury to see Circus
Quirkus on Wednesday 21st August. We braved the cool, damp
weather to have a picnic in Nouriel Park before the show, it was
lucky that we took the picnic rugs to sit on. Reaver, Brandon A.
and Donna found a good possie to have lunch. Then it was off to
the Performing Arts Centre in Albury to see the show.
Here is some fantastic art that Kyle did
the following day
The quotes below are from the Buffalo students about the performance:Sam :- “The clown put the drink bottle in one ear and squirted it and it came out his mouth!”
Kyle :- “The bit I liked was with the lights and the lasers and the juggler who tried to make funny faces by putting two balls in his mouth!”
Brandon A :- “The juggler put a ping pong ball in his mouth and it came out of his bottom!”
Reaver :-“ I liked the funny clown, he was juggling little balls out of his mouth.”
Brandon J :-“A boy and a girl were on the tightrope. The man jumped over the girl when they crashed in the
middle. They had to think how to balance and he fell.”
Mark :- “The man with the orange T-shirt was juggling lasers and the light from the lasers was going near me.”
We used the special apple peeler last week to peel, core and turn the apple into spirals. When we had gathered
all the peels, we attached them to a chart and Brandon A. managed to make the longest piece of apple peel
without breaking it – well done!
Like us on facebook! WDSS has an official facebook page. We are
hoping this page will serve as another form of communication for
our wider school community – a much more instant one! We will
post about all the goings on at our school, important events, reminders and day to day activities. Like our page, and receive our
posts in your newsfeed.
You can find us at www.facebook.com/wdss5226
Feathertop (VCAL)
Rosie O’Brien, Chris Harvison, Jody Mortison
Students of the Week:Lincon—For excellent feedback from his workplace apprenticeship interview.
Respect me, don’t sext me!
On 8/3/13 we had a session on Sexting. I partnered with Tom to play the game it gave us different scenarios on
what might happen if we send a photo to someone. What they might do with it and what happen if it goes viral.
By Matthew Johnson-Begg
I played the sexting game with Emma and it was about sexting. If someone took a photo of me it can go on
facebook to a lot of friends and family. They could see it and give you a nasty comment.
By s.mouse/Robert
I did not like that sexting board game. I like games that make you feel good and that game made me feel bad.
Because all the scenarios were negative but I guess some times the board game is needed if it helps one person
then it is worth it. It helped us understand what could go wrong if you send a sexy selfie to the wrong person.
By Ben Henwood
Yesterday we played a board game called sexting. It’s about taking a nude picture and sending it to your friends,
boyfriends, and girlfriends. But when it’s out there the person you send it to has control over the picture. They can
send it to everyone! That’s how it can go all wrong. Even the police can get involved, so, before you even think
you are going to do this have a really good think about it. By Christine
2013 Chocolate Fundraiser
Thankyou to all of you for the fantastic effort you have put into
selling your boxes of chocolates.
Please return all monies and unsold chocolates to school by Friday
13th September.
Wangaratta District Specialist School is once again participating in the Rural City of Wangaratta
Community Raffle. In past years this has been a great fundraiser for our school. The money for
every ticket we sell comes back to the school. Previously we have bought interactive whiteboards,
iPads and outside play equipment for our students from our fundraising ventures. This year we
plan to use our fundraising to assist with erecting coverways to help keep students dry and protected from the sun as they move around the school. .
The Prizes
1st Prize
2013 LW Ford Focus 2.0 litre petrol, 6 speed auto, sport hatch valued at $24,490.
Supplied by Ovens Ford, Wangaratta
2nd Prize
A Cruise Travel Voucher, destination of the winner’s choice valued at . $5,000
Supplied by Harvey World Travel, Wangaratta
3rd Prize
A Grocery Voucher valued at $1,000
Supplied by Steve and Linda’s Supa IGA Wangaratta Plaza
4th Prize
A Fuel Voucher, valued at $500
Supplied by Rowan Street Caltex Service Station
Every dollar received from the sale of these tickets goes directly to the school. So $2.00 from each
ticket is $2.00 to the school.
All tickets have to be accounted for under raffle rules, so please take care to return either all tickets
and/or the money.
Please indicate your interest to help by filling in the slip below and returning it to the school.
Thankyou for your assistance and support. All monies raised benefit the students of W.D.S.S.
Please send
Raffle books home with
Name of student
I will return all money and ticket stubs / or unsold tickets to the school before
30th October 3013.
Signature _______________________ Printed Name ___________________