Friday 21st June

• Goldfields Division AFL & Netball - select students - will be on XUNO soon

Saturday 22nd June

• Newsagent BBQ & Cake Stall - volunteers needed on the day & cake/biscuit donations can be delivered to school on Friday or to the stall on Saturday

Monday 24th June

• Assembly - 2:45pm

Thursday 27th June

• Pot Luck Soup & Lantern Walk Family Evening - see below for further details

Friday 28th June

• Last day of Term 2 - 2:30pm finish time

Monday 15th July

• First day of Term 3

DOGS CONNECT – SUNNY

Just like a new student starting out, Sunny is being prepared to transition to school. We hope to have him start with some half days in the last two weeks of this term. 

Make sure you check out the posters around school that the students in Karen’s class have designed.

The Dogs Connect program will support us in implementing this very gradually, thoroughly, and considerately. At this stage we encourage anyone who would like to know more about this program to look through the website link: https://dogsconnect.net.au

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SORRY DAY AND RECONCILIATION WEEK

Castlemaine schools’ Sorry Day gathering was Friday 24^th May at the Western Oval. Our school captains spoke beautifully on behalf of Winters Flat. Unfortunately, we were short-staffed and unable to accompany all the students from the SLC to that event.

Last Friday students in Year 5 and Year 6 went on the Chewton Reconciliation walk, hosted by Chewton PS.

On Monday students in Year 3 and Year 4 walked to the Market Building where they attended the session with Kath Coff at the Boorp Boorp Boondyil (passing knowledge to our children) exhibition. This is a permanent exhibition and definitely worth a visit, if you haven’t already seen it. Boorp Boorp Boondyil is a name gifted to the project by local Dja Dja Wurrung senior Elder, Uncle Rick Nelson who was instrumental in the exhibition’s creation. It is pronounced ‘Boorp’ as in ‘torpedo’ and ‘Boondyil’ as in ‘book’.

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ATTITUDES TO SCHOOL SURVEY – AtoSS 2024

As mentioned last time, students from Year 4 -6 will be participating in this online survey from 28^th May – 11^th June. It provides excellent feedback (good and bad) about how Winters Flat is performing in the opinion of our senior students.

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WORKING BEE SUNDAY 16^th JUNE 11:30am – 1:30pm

The Buildings and Grounds Committee have endorsed the following:

Major tasks:

• Prepare the Kitchen deck 2-3 days before oil is applied (2-3 people needed)
• Oil the Kitchen Deck (1-2 people needed)
• Varnish junior playground. (2 people)

Minor tasks:

• weeding (any number welcome)
• Brush cutting (any number welcome)

Please let us know if you intend to come.

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VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers are welcome in every classroom as well as the Kitchen/Garden and specialist areas.

If you have the time and inclination, please let us know. Volunteers at school must have a Working with Children Check.

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BIRTHDAYS

Jennifer had a birthday at the weekend.

Hip Hip: Hooray

Hip Hip: Hooray

Hooray: Hip Hip

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COVID SCHOOL PROCEDURES

Victoria is currently experiencing an increase in COVID-19 activity in the community, resulting in an increase in people being hospitalised with COVID-19.

We are hearing anecdotally that COVID is active in Castlemaine and have had families report cases.

High numbers of students have been absent due to illness in recent weeks. Please ensure your child does not come to school if symptomatic.

Schools will make sure your child is as safe as possible and will focus on:

• washing hands
• physical distancing
• rapid antigen testing
• Outdoors when practical
• Air purifiers indoors
• mask wearing – recommended but not mandatory

Free rapid antigen tests

Free rapid antigen tests are still available from the office.

Testing is strongly recommended for students and staff who are symptomatic.

After doing the tests at home, if it is positive, you are advised to:

• let the school know
• keep your child at home for 7 days
• contact the Department of Health via the COVID-19 Positive Rapid Antigen Test Self-Reporting Form or call centre on 1800 675 398.

Suzanne Kinnersly
Principal.

Late arrival at school

When students are late to school, they MUST come to the office to sign in otherwise we don’t know that they have arrived at school and will be marked absent for the day.  This is a safety issue so please let your child know that they must come to the office sign in.

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Food

Please ensure that students have enough food for the day. During the colder months, we often see kids needing more food to get them through the day. We are experiencing many students seeking extra food at the moment, and, while we will never let students go hungry, we only have limited supplies of spare food.

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Karen Mahoney & Kitty Ward 

Office

We are so excited, Sunny will begin his transition to school at the end of Term.

The student's in 46BM have made some fabulously cute posters. You will find them all over the school.

Yesterday Aurora, Jasmine, Michael & Freya travelled down to the Resource Smart Awards at the MCG. 

BBQ Fundraiser - Saturday 22nd June

The Community Engagement Committee have booked a BBQ out the front of the newsagents on Mostyn St on the morning of the 22nd of June. We are also looking to run a cake stall and hopefully a raffle too. Funds raised from the sales will support the ongoing expenses of Sunny, our wellbeing dog.

We will be putting the word out for donations of baked goods and raffle hamper items in the coming weeks.

Lantern Walk Family Evening - Thursday 27th June

The Community Engagement Committee have organised a family get together evening with a pot-luck soup dinner and a lantern walk down to the oval.

Children will be making lanterns in Art class with Bron and families are welcome to bring their own lanterns or torches for other family members.

Please rsvp here and let us know how many people you have coming and what food you will bring to assist with planning.

Human Library

Students are wanting to learn from people from all walks of life with all sorts of experience, knowledge and skills! We'd love it if you could sign up to our Human Library to contribute to the learning of our most wonderful students. Online sign up can be done here or pop into the office for a hard copy form.

Working Bee

We have planned a working bee for Sunday the 16th of June - 11:30am to 1:30pm.

We are hoping to paint the junior playground and oil the kitchen deck.

Please let us know if you can make it via this link. A light lunch will be provided.

We are also looking for someone who can weld a small job of galvanised and stainless steel. Do we have any welders in our parent community?

P/1J

• Heart - Care for Self
• Henry - Care for Self

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P/1R

• Kiki - Care for Self and Care for Others
• Hikaru - Care for Self and Care for Others

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2/3H

• Heidi - Care for Self and Care for Others
• Tilly - Care for Self, Care for Others and Care for the Environment

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4/5/6C

• - Care for
• - Care for

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4/5/6B

• Freya -Care for Others
• Michael - Care for Self

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This week in the Kitchen and Garden..........

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What we're cooking in the kitchen this fortnight...

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Kitchen volunteers:

We would love some kitchen helpers in our cooking classes!

They are held fortnightly on Mondays (even weeks - 4/5/6C), and every Wednesday (even weeks - 4/5/6B; odd weeks - 2/3H), between 11:25am & 1:25pm.

The Prep/1 classes will have a special cooking class each term.

Kitchen helpers for these classes would be particularly helpful - please let the office know if you'd like to volunteer!

What you can expect from a class:

Students work in groups to make seasonal dishes, using produce from our garden. Once a group finishes preparing their dish, they clean up their bench, do dishes, and set the tables. Around 1:00pm, we all sit down together and share the meal.

Volunteers will need to sign in via the visitors log in the office and show their WWCC. Please contact the office if you have any questions or would like to volunteer! 

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In the Garden:

Cath & Terry
Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden