18 November 2025

It’s hard to believe another 2 weeks has gone by already!

Thursday 6 November sure was an exciting day, with the K-2 and 3-6 Disco once again proving to be an event that is highly valued by our families. Our students sure do like to party and they certainly came dressed to impress, with many in their finest party shirts with plenty of sparkles and sequins to be seen. Special thanks to Ms Phillips and her team for organising another event for our Year 6 students to support their end of year activities. It was another fundraiser well supported by our generous community. A lovely way to end the evening was standing on the top gate ensuring students left safely and being thanked by countless families on the way out for the time our staff gave up to offer our students another great event. Those simple thank you’s certainly go a long way.

Friday 7 November was the last Gala Day for the year for our Stage 2 and Stage 3 students and it was also the last day for our students participating in the School Swimming Scheme. Many thanks to all of the teachers who assisted in the organisation and successful implementation of these events.

Our P&C kindly shouted all of the staff a coffee on Wednesday 12 November to acknowledge World Teachers day. Again, another generous gesture by our P&C that was greatly appreciated. Everyone knows how much teachers love their coffee!

Our annual Book Fair also concluded last week, with many students keen to spend their savings on books and other knick knacks on offer. Again, this is another valuable fundraiser for our school that Mrs Carroll organises and I would like to acknowledge her dedication and commitment to ensuring this runs smoothly and is accessible to all our students.

Last Thursday was our final Kindy playgroup for the year, with our final Kindergarten Orientation session occurring today. It looks like all our little learners for 2026 are ready to go!

Ms Phillips and I also had the honour of attending the High Potential And Gifted (HPAG) Expo, that 9 of our Year 5 students attend each week at Tarrawanna Public School. What an amazing showcase of student engagement and willingness to extend themselves. Every one of our students was able to stand up and present a spoken word performance, whilst working in teams or individually to present a project of their choice, linked to their learning. Again, an amazing showcase of what great learners we develop and celebrate here at Woonona!

Once again Grandparents Day was the busiest day of the year for our school. We did things a little differently this year, to assist with timing and access and by all accounts it went well. In the coming weeks there will be a survey link coming out, as we appreciate any feedback that is useful in making events like this even more successful. Once again, a huge thank you to our P&C and generous school community for providing such wonderful baked treats for our grandparents and students to enjoy There sure are some good bakers amongst our families!

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend our Grandparents Day as I was at Google with all of the other principals from Wollongong North and Wollongong Central, and WOW! We had some great professional learning, in particular around AI and it’s capabilities but the tour of the Google building was a definite highlight! I have included some pictures of their common areas for you to enjoy. Numerous spaces to work, build Lego, enjoy some down time or even work on a passion project, not to mention the numerous micro kitchens.

Interesting fact: if you work at Google you are known as a Googler and if you own a dog they are known as a Doogler.

Another interesting fact: Googlers can be no more than 50 metres away from food, water, natural light or a toilet!

One of my favourite things was each level had a theme and the lifts were in that theme. My favourite lifts were the ones like the New York subway.

Even Principals go on school excursions and I felt as excited as an 8 year old going on this one!

This Friday 21 November is another great fundraiser planned by our SRC to support those in need. It’s our annual Food Drive to support Bellambi neighbourhood centre, so don’t forget to send some pantry items in this Friday. Every little bit helps!

Next Monday 24 November sees some Woonona High School students join us for some work experience, many of them being ex students of ours. This shows the strong relationship we have with Woonona High School and the strong connection our students have between the schools. We will be hosting students for 2 weeks.

As we approach the end of the year we are busily trying to prepare for 2026. If you are perhaps moving house or to a new area could you please let the office know, as this greatly assists us when trying to plan for definite student numbers and organising classes etc. It’s also a timely reminder to ensure home addresses and family emails are correct, as we approach that time of year when reports etc will be being shared. Thank you in advance for keeping us updated, it is a huge help.

Woonona sure is a busy place and has something happening for everyone!

Ms Alison Strinic

Relieving Principal

These amazing students were awarded the 'Citizenship of the Month Award' for October, in recognition of their exemplary standards of conduct and service to others.

Congratulations to:

Sam KS

Enaya K-1G

Abigail 3-4N

Aurora 5-6P

A huge congratulations to the Junior Girls Oz Tag silver medalists.

Lotti, Ivy, Jessie, Frankie, Layla, Milla, Poppy, Zara, Immy, Koa, Chloe and Isobel.

Registration has opened for students interested in performing in this year's Talent Showcase.

Any student may register to perform, alone or in a group, with just about any kind of act:

Singing, Dancing, Instrumental, Juggling, Skits, Jokes etc

Unfortunately, any acts that require expert supervision such as cheer squad involving lifts, or gymnastics involving flips cannot be performed in this event.

The Showcase will be held during the day, at school on Thursday 18 December.The audience will be only students and staff.

Students will be expected to organise themselves to be prepared for the performance, including rehearsing, costume and prop preparation, and negotiating song and music choice with Mrs Ney.

This is always such a fun event at the end of the year, I'm sure this year's event will be sensational!

Organiser,

Mrs Ney

Stage 1 had a fantastic day on Friday 24 October for their History Day! Students jumped straight into the action as soon as the bell rang. Inside, they created butter from cream (learning how liquids can change to solids), fine-tuned their fine motor skills by making pom poms, and persevered while writing with quills. Outside, they got competitive in sack races, honed their target skills during marbles, and tested their coordination with elastics. The day ended with arguably the most enjoyed activity – the Heel and Toe Polka! Be sure to check out the video and photos on Facebook if you haven't already!

The School Swimming and Water Safety Program finished with a splash! To begin, students jumped straight into the 26+ degree water and were sorted into various coloured groups. These groups developed essential skills to swim long distances while strengthening their strokes and building confidence in the water. Smiles beamed from ear to ear, even during the wet weather on Wednesday of the first week! Our dedicated swim instructors praised how respectful our students were. The growth the students showed over the two-week intensive course was astounding. Most of our swimmers can now swim 50 metres using a survival stroke. Way to go, Woonona!

What an exciting two weeks we had for our Scholastic Book Fair. Last week we sold an amazing $9,771 worth of books which is an outstanding effort for our school. I would like to thank everyone for supporting this event. The school will receive $2,931 in commission to buy books for our school. Most children received their book orders last week. However, there are a few books still on back order and these will hopefully arrive at the end of this week or the beginning of next week. I will sort and deliver orders to students as soon as they arrive.

Issue 8 of the Scholastic Book Club will be handed out next week and the catalogue is available to view online. Orders can be placed online ONLY using the LOOP app. All orders are due by Sunday 1 December.

Make an order - LOOK INSIDE ISSUE 8

View the Issue 8 catalogue as a PDF here

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 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 send the slip back in with this noted down. Our library computer system will automatically create notices for any overdue books from this year. Thank you to those students who have already returned books or notified me about lost books.

Thank you for your cooperation with this matter.

Mrs Carroll

Librarian

Woonona High School would like to advise that our Open Night for Year 4 and 5 students will be held next year on Monday 16 March 2026. We look forward to organising this event and welcoming all our prospective parents and students in the new year.

In the meantime, our Principal Ms Caroline David is happy to offer personalised tours of the school and discussions about learning options and what our high school has to offer. These can be arranged at a time convenient to you by contacting the front office on 4284 1513.

Kind Regards,

Woonona High School

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.