All for a good cause

The weather was simply perfect for our annual Prep School Pancake Day held on Tuesday 25 February. The mild, sunny conditions were perfect for students who excitedly lined up to receive their pancakes and tucked into them with enthusiasm. They were ably supported in their endeavours by the Year 6 leaders who did an amazing job of decorating the courtyard, helping parent volunteers and serving students from Reception through to Year 6. It was heartening to hear the gratitude and good manners displayed by the students throughout the day.

An amazing team of parent volunteers prepared the pancake mixture, which was again generously donated by our catering company, Cater Care. The parent helpers worked industriously to cook over 600 pancakes for the students. It is an understatement to say that it would be impossible to hold days like this without the support of parents generously donating resources and time to help. We cannot thank them enough for their support!

Once all of the pancakes had been devoured, everyone moved out to the Prep Oval ready to cheer their House on for the Pancake Day races. The first races were the Years 2 to 4 relays. Students energetically moved to each pancake tossing station where they proficiently tossed their pancakes, which was impressive considering this was the first year for many students participating in the race. Wyvern were the victors, followed by Crown then Abbey. This was followed by the Years 5/6 and teachers’ race. Mr Burns demonstrated some handy pancake juggling skills as he navigated the course endeavouring not to collide with oncoming students. Abbey came first, Wesley second and Mace came third in this enthusiastically contested race. Thanks go to the PE staff for setting up the relay course and Mr Thompson for his entertaining commentary. Thank you also to the Heads of House for their support in organising teams. Well done to all the participants.

Thanks to the outstanding support of our School community’s purchase of pancakes, we raised $1,480 for UnitingCare. This money will assist families in need, including victims of the recent bushfires. A magnificent effort!

Sue Whiffen
RAVE Teacher

Kangaroo Island Fundraiser

The Westminster community extends to many rural locations around South Australia and beyond. As such, we have many families based in Kangaroo Island who attended local schools there prior to beginning at Westminster. One of these is the Bigwood family, who have had Shalin (Year 9 Heaslip) and Kai (Year 11 Heaslip) both progress through the Prep School. The Bigwoods were made aware of the direct impact of the bushfires that affected many Parndana School families. Through their connections with Westminster, they instigated the collection of stationery items at the start of the school year. The Year 5 staff heard about this initiative and could immediately see valuable links with the curriculum. The Year 5 students have been looking at bushfires as part of their geography unit. It has been powerful for our students to realise how communities can come together and provide support on many different levels to assist people in rebuilding their lives.

As a result, the Year 5 students decided that they wanted to help a community within South Australia. We have been in contact with a Parndana School on Kangaroo Island, which currently has 159 students. Many of these students lost their homes in the recent bushfires and are rebuilding their lives with their families. Through discussions with their teachers and families it was decided to fundraise to purchase 25 trampolines, one for each of the families who lost their homes in the fires. Jumpflex, an Australian trampoline company, is providing these at a reduced price and will ship them to the island for us. Together, we aim to raise $5000 to provide the trampolines.

We chose an initiative that we believed could foster empathy and care towards children of a similar age. Parndana School suggested that any assistance towards purchasing trampolines for the families who suffered significant loss of property, would be gratefully appreciated.

The Year 5 classes are organising a bake sale to help raise money for this real life cause.

KI Bushfire Fundraiser Bake Sale

Wednesday 11 March (Week 7)
Lunchtime in the Shelter Shed (Prep Oval)
All goods from 50 cents
Please support this very worthy cause.

Thank you from the Year 5 classes

Swimmers Selected

After time trials were conducted at School, 17 Westminster students have been selected to represent South West District at the upcoming Metropolitan Swimming Championships. Westminster has 17 of the 35 swimmers chosen which is an impressive achievement.

The Championships will be held at SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre Marion on Thursday 26 March. Tim Weatherald will accompany the students that will represent the School and the district.

Congratulations to the following students on their selection:

Jordan Tucker (Year 5 Wyvern) – freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle relay
Aiden Williams (Year 4 Abbey) – butterfly
Sophia Hallam (Year 4 Wesley) - freestyle, backstroke, butterfly and freestyle relay
Jessica Jongejan (Year 4 Crown) – breaststroke and freestyle relay
Ella Lunn (Year 5 Wesley) – freestyle relay
Oliver Maynard (Year 5 Charter) - freestyle relay
Gerard McGinley (Year 6 Mace) - backstroke, butterfly and freestyle relay
Axel Tucker (Year 6 Wyvern) – freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and open medley
Poppy Doyle (Year 6 Crown) – freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle relay
Lara Wright (Year 5 Crown) – backstroke and freestyle relay
Quinn Hammersley (Year 6 Wesley) - freestyle relay
Tahli Charles (Year 7 Dunstan) - freestyle, breaststroke, medley relay and freestyle relay
Zachary Tucker (Year 7 Clark) - backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle relay
Jason Lim (Year 7 Clark) - freestyle relay
Harriet Robertson (Year 7 Forder) - freestyle, butterfly, open medley relay and freestyle relay
Eliza Maloney (Year 7 Carter) - breaststroke, backstroke and freestyle relay
Olivia Fok (Year 7 Fricker) - backstroke and freestyle relay

Recycling Efforts

Please join us this year to make a difference to our environment and those in need. We are passionate about recycling and this year Mrs Cassie Schreuder and 4S, together with Mrs Sara Mori and 5M are helping us to lead the students in collecting bread tags, oral waste and used batteries.

Bread tags are being recycled to help pay for wheelchairs for the needy in South Africa. This has been happening since 2006.

Collection of used batteries

Batteries contain heavy metals such as Mercury, Lead and Nickel. Over time, batteries in landfill will leak these metals. This can contaminate the soil and have a huge impact on our environment. Please help the environment by bringing in your used batteries.

Oral Care Waste collection

This cause encourages students to be actively recycling. TerraCycle is a non-profit organisation that runs many recycling programs to encourage student participation. The recycled goods from this will be used in new and innovative ways to make products such as benches.

Program accepted waste: Any brand of used toothpaste tubes, non-electric toothbrushes, floss containers, interdental brushes and electric toothbrush heads.

You can help! We are now collecting oral waste and used batteries to be recycled and bread tags to support the charity who purchase wheelchairs for those in need in South Africa.

You can help by bringing your collection of bread tags, used batteries and oral waste to the various collection points.

We have Bread Tag and Used Battery containers for collection in the Junior Primary (Ms Sullivan’s room), in the Prep Vandepeer courtyard, in the Tuckshop and in Classroom 4S. Oral Care waste can be brought to Mrs Mori’s Year 5 classroom.

We are going to share our progress with the Marion Council recycling group, and we hope to have someone come in later in the year to show the students what we have achieved.

We hope you will join us in our recycling ventures and can feel as good as we do about helping our environment and the planet we live on.

Years 4 and 5 students

The Fun Fair is Approaching

The Westminster fair is only 30 days away, and our attention is turning toward preparations. The students love the Fair and in order for it to again be an outstanding community event we rely on families to support the Prep School stalls by sending in donations for the lucky dip and mystery bottle stalls.

Please avoid perishable food in the mystery bottles. Families are welcome to donate a bottle or jars of jams, syrups, marinades or even bubble bath. Jars filled with sweets, pens, pencils or erasers are just a few suggestions.

Commencing shortly the School leaders will come around and collect donations of goods that have been brought in from each classroom. If you are able, please send items for the lucky dip stall wrapped and state whether the gift is suitable for boy, girl or either and what age group. The cost of each item will be $3 so please ensure that donations give them good value for their hard earned pocket money.

Dogs on the School Grounds

As previously mentioned in the eNews and as detailed on signs around the School, we have guidelines as to when dogs can be brought into the School grounds. This has come about due to some reported incidences that involved student safety and dogs being brought to School. The key point to the guideline is that families and visitors are asked not to walk (or run) their dogs on campus during school days between 8.00 am and 4.00 pm. Outside of these hours on school days, dogs must always be under effective control, which is to include a restraining leash for sporting or community events. Effective control can extend to verbal or non-verbal command when students are not present (eg outside of sport on weekends, or school and public holidays) and therefore the grounds are typically much quieter. All dog owners are asked to clean up after their dogs and this remains unchanged. If you need to bring your dog to school during school days between 8.00 am and 4.00 pm, you are asked to keep your dog safely within your vehicle. The exceptions to the guideline are assistance and service dogs. We thank you for your cooperation. The full guideline can be downloaded for your reference.

Holiday activities

Parents may have recently received information about two opportunities that exist for keeping the children occupied and engaged during the April School holidays. While this is still a little way off, planning is underway. One option is the April OSHC Vacation Care program which runs weekdays after the Easter break from Tuesday 14 to Monday 27 April. The staff organising this have a variety of activities scheduled for the children who attend. If you are considering Vacation Care bookings for your child(ren) in the upcoming holidays, please book by Wednesday 1 April. This enables us to have the correct level of staffing during the program. If you have any queries please contact Joel Steer at OSHC – T: 08 8276 0390 or via Email.

The other opportunity for students who are interested is our Code Camp that will be running again at Westminster School in the Haslam Library from Monday 20 to Wednesday 22 April. From drag and drop coding to java script, children aged 5–13 years of age will enjoy getting creative and building their own apps, games or websites. Code Camp aims to help the students code a journey that they will want to continue. If interested, you can book at www.codecamp.com.au. Please note that the early bird discount will be extended to Tuesday 17 March.

Term Dates

Please note there has been a minor change to the 2021 Term Dates. The updated dates can be found on our Term Dates page.

Diary Dates

Adelaide Cup Day Public Holiday – Monday 9 March
KI Bake Sale - Wednesday 11 March
JP Sports Day – Friday 13 March
Parent/Teacher Interviews – Week 8, commencing Monday 16 March
Prep Sports Day Field Events – Tuesday 24 March
Prep Sports Day – Wednesday 25 March
SAPSASA Swimming Championships - Thursday 26 March
Westminster School Fun Fair – Saturday 4 April, Prep School Oval
Tenebrae Service – 7.00 pm, Sunday 5 April, Sir Shirley Jeffries Memorial Chapel
End of Term – 1.00 pm finish, Thursday 9 April
Vacation Care - Tuesday 14 to Monday 27 April
Code Camp - Monday 20 to Wednesday 22 April
Start of Term 2 – 8.45 am, Tuesday 28 April

Grant Bock
Head of Preparatory School