Newsletter 3 – Term 1, 2021 – Message from Admin Team, Edu-Dance, Faction Swimming Club, Book Club, P&C Welcome Picnic, P&C Kindy/PP Subcommittee AGM, P&C AGM, Harmony Week, Canteen, Design a Olive Oil Label Competition, Mulberry Tree Kids Club, YMCC Hockey

Message from the Executive Administration Team

Dear Parents and Caregivers

We are already in the fourth week of a short term and as I walk around the school, it is wonderful to see motivated students engaged in deep thinking and diving straight into learning with resilience, courage and commitment. Swimming lessons are over for another year for our Year 4-6 students while our junior students are dancing up a storm in their Edu Dance classes.

We wish you a safe and happy long weekend ahead and look forward to seeing you all back on Tuesday 2 March ready for the final 5 weeks of Term 1.

Teaching and Learning

Two strategies for improvement in the current school Business Plan include equipping students with the social/emotional skills and learning dispositions to engage in the curriculum with confidence and maintaining a focus on oral language and vocabulary as a foundation for enhancing writing using the Talk 4 Writing framework.

In Room 27 this Term, Year 3 students have been working hard on writing effective sentences while also thinking about how they can be imaginative and engage in creative habits of learning. Ms Leila Sugden co-developed a split-screen learning intention with the students so they could focus on both effective sentences and thinking about how they could be more imaginative in their writing.

Ms Sugden modelled this writing, some collaborative work was done with peers, and then students independently used these skills to create effective and imaginative sentences using picture prompts.

I think you’ll agree, these Year 3s are set to become skilled and effective writers. Congratulations Ari on some great writing!

Leadership

Our new Year 6 student leadership team, led by Head Girl Juliet K and Head Boy Lachlan P, presented their first whole school assembly today online via WebEx. This format was used in 2020 to connect our whole school, deliver important messages, present merit certificates to deserving students and provide leadership opportunities for our elected Year 6 students. This format will continue in 2021 due to the growing enrolment of our school and continuing to ensure we adhere to COVID-19 guidelines.

A difference this year is to bring back a spotlight on our students in the classroom, with every class given an opportunity to celebrate their learning by sharing a pre-recorded video with the whole school during assemblies. We hope you enjoy this item by Year 5s in Room 24. Thank you to Mrs Geelhoed and Mrs Turner for their work in preparing for the video, please click here to view

Engagement and Relationships

Parent Information Sessions – Feedback and Questions

Last Wednesday, classroom teachers shared two videos and the 2021 Parent Information Booklet with you via Seesaw to enable you to ‘meet’ your child’s classroom teacher/s through an introductory video and listen to a narrated presentation about your child’s classroom learning this year. As promised a link to a digital form will be shared with you tomorrow via email. This will provide an opportunity to ask any questions you still have for the teachers after reading the parent information booklet and viewing the presentation and for us to gather feedback on the format.

Although the sessions looked and felt different to previous years, we are hoping the flexibility of accessing the information at a time of your choosing will suit busy parents and enable us to reach more family members who perhaps would not have been able to make it to the face to face sessions in the past. We would appreciate you filling out the short digital form by next Tuesday 2 March.

Community Engagement

You, as parents and carers are important partners with us in your children’s education. As we did in Week 1 of term, we are inviting you into the classroom using a pre-booked staggered start time when we return from the long weekend on Tuesday 2 March. As the square metre rule has been relaxed from 4 square metres to two, we can invite more of you in at one time. To minimise disruptions to learning time, the available times will start from 8:30am and conclude at 9am from Pre-primary to Year 6. Kindergarten parents are also invited to book a time via the link below. This is a time for you to spend a few minutes in the learning environment with your child, say hello to the teacher and for your child to show you their classroom.

Please follow this link to book your time on Tuesday 2 March: https://sobs.com.au/pt3/parent.php?schoolid=1085.

Bookings for our usual parent-teacher meetings in Week 9 will also be advertised in the coming weeks, enabling you to have important face-to-face conversations about your child’s progress, academically and socially.

In the meantime, for more urgent meetings or longer conversations about your child please email your child’s classroom teacher, allowing two working days for a response.

We also encourage you to join the Welcome Picnic on the school oval this Friday afternoon so you can have the chance to engage socially with other families and connect with the community.

Important Updates:

Ms Tamara Doig is Acting Principal from Friday 19 February until Thursday 25 February while I am attending leadership training. For all urgent communication please contact Tamara via email tamara.doig@education.wa.edu.au or by phoning 9253 9400

 

 Collaborate, Connect, Communicate.

Yours in learning

Executive Admin Team

Donna, Alan, Tamara, Milani and Rachel