23 September 2025

This Friday, we will be at the end of Term 3 and looking forward to a well-earned two-week break. I would like to congratulate the students on a successful term and the staff for their ongoing commitment and professionalism. I hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday and we look forward to seeing you all return on Tuesday 14 October for the beginning of what will no doubt be a very busy Term 4.

For the first two weeks of Term 4 I will be the Relieving DEL for the Lake Illawarra North Network of Schools. During this time Ms Strinic will be Relieving Principal and Mrs McLerie will be Relieving Deputy Principal. I am sure everything will be settled as we resume the term. I look forward to returning to school on Monday 27 October.

Our Kinder enrolments for 2026 continue to steadily come in. If you are planning on enrolling your child next year, or know of someone who is thinking about it, that lives in our school drawing area, please fill in an online enrolment application, located on our school website.

This Wednesday (tomorrow!) is our first session with our Kindy 2026 students. Our excited new students will participate in a Teddy Bear’s Picnic. Some fun activities are planned, with a wonderful opportunity for students and families to get familiar with our school and make connections. It should be a fantastic first session.

Year 6 hosted the annual ‘Sideshow Carnival’ last Friday and it sure was a huge success! Students enjoyed visiting each stall where they were treated to activities such as face-painting, hair make-overs, guessing competitions, ball games, sporting quests and many more! Many thanks to Ms Phillips, Mr Heffernan and all Stage 3 teachers for supporting Year 6 in their efforts for this day. Huge congratulations also to our Year 6 students who showed wonderful leadership, dedication and enthusiasm for ensuring the enjoyment of their many customers. It was such an exciting and festive day, and a genuine highlight on the school calendar!

Tomorrow is our ySafe Parent Information Session – in the school hall 6:15pm – 7:15pm. It is not too late to be a part of this night – no need to register now, just turn up if you can! The aim of the night is to empower school communities to navigate the digital landscape with certainty, as the presentation covers cybersafety topics and advice on engaging with your children. I encourage every parent to attend this highly important and informative night.

The CoS Public Speaking Competition has been an annual event for many years and one that is highly valued as a great opportunity for all students. Public Speaking is a skill that we need to nurture, and this competition is a great way to allow students to be put out of their comfort zone and achieve something that many find very difficult. Well done to all our students for participating. The feedback from staff has been outstanding for the effort, time and willingness of our students. Unfortunately, we can only take two winners forward from each stage and I congratulate these eight students, who will have another opportunity, in the coming weeks, to present their speech to a larger and different audience. This week our Kindergarten and Stage 1 winners will present their speeches. Early next term our Stage 2 winners will present their speeches, with our Stage 3 winners to present at Woonona High School later in Term 4.

Mr Tim Fisher

Principal

The Year 6 Carnival Sideshow at Woonona PS this year was again a huge hit! We had a spectacular day for the event, and everyone made the most of being outside. On behalf of all of Year 6, we would like to thank our school community for an awesome day of fun, as well as for generously donating money to support our fundraising event. All money raised will go towards Year 6 end of year activities, like our farewell dinner and visiting Jamberoo Recreation Park.

There was a lot to do at this year's sideshow. The stalls were spread out across the flat with a vast range of activities to visit and enjoy. Popular stalls on the day included: tattoos, hair spray and styling, face painting, nails painting and bracelet beading. Many children also enjoyed running around the flat joining in with the different activities offered such as golf, mini dodgeball, kick tennis, knock'em'down, soccer, totem tennis and throwing wet sponges at Year 6.

The Carnival Sideshow really was lots of fun. Year 6 enjoyed bringing it to life for everyone to enjoy.

Lillian and Poppie 5-6A

This term, the Gardening Club has been busy preparing the gardens for spring. The students planted a variety of tomato and carrot seedlings. We were even able to harvest some rainbow silverbeet and a lemon or two! Garden Club meets every Thursday at lunch and is open to all stages. Students may join as little or as often as they wish.

• Year 2 Swimming & Water Safety Program EOI notes - due Friday 17 October.

As we come to the end of another term, I would like to sincerely thank the entire school community for their wonderful support throughout our Book Week celebrations. Term 3 is always my favourite time of the year, as it gives us the opportunity to celebrate the fantastic books, authors, and illustrators that inspire our students and enrich our community.

I wish everyone a restful and enjoyable holiday break. Don’t forget to take some time to relax and enjoy a good book!

Orders for Issue 6 of the Scholastic Book Club should arrive this week and will be distributed to classes before the holidays.

End of term overdue notices will be sent out this week. Please take the time to help your child locate and return their books this week. If you received an overdue loan notice and the book is lost, please let us know so it can be wiped from our system. Notices will also list the book price which parents can pay to the office for the purchase of a replacement copy. If you receive an overdue notice and the book has already been paid for previously or has already been returned, please let me know. Overdue notices are automatically generated by our library computer system. Thank you to those students who have already returned books or notified me about lost books.

The Scholastic Book Fair will be arriving next term. Week 4 (Mon 3 Nov - Wed 5 Nov) library lessons have been allocated for viewing the books available for purchase and writing wish lists and

Week 5 (Mon 10 Nov - Wed 12 Nov) library lessons will be for book purchases. These will take place in the usual class library times. More information to come next term.

Happy reading,

Mrs Carroll

Librarian

To ensure the ongoing safety of students, parents, local pedestrians and staff, we ask all families to follow our afternoon pick up procedures. These procedures will ensure the smooth pick up of children each day and significantly reduce the risk of injury.

Orders must be received by 6:00pm - Tuesday 23 September (today)

Uniform orders are filled weekly by P&C volunteers.

School hats/caps are available to purchase from the front Office, cash payments only.

Further information on ordering uniforms can be found on the school website.

Please be aware that there are students in our school with allergies to nuts. We ask that you give consideration to voluntarily agreeing not to send nut products, in particular peanuts and peanut butter to school.