From the Principal Brian Davies

Transcription

1 An Independent Public School Friday 24 August 2018 TERM 3 NEWSLETTER No. 12 Week 6 From the Principal Brian Davies Dear Parents/Guardians OPEN NIGHT Last Wednesday night we celebrated our Open Night, where our students had the opportunity to showcase the wonderful work they have produced throughout the year. Thank you to all our parents, grandparents, relatives and friends who came to this event. I was delighted to see so many families attend the evening. I would also like to acknowledge the amazing contributions from the P&C whose teamwork was most impressive and appreciated. Special thanks are extended to Lisa Conn and our P&C who co-ordinated the Sausage Sizzle. The food was delicious and enjoyed by all. Our Book Fair proved equally successful with book sales of $5, Of this, the school received 35% commission on this total, which totalled $1, This money enabled us to purchase many wonderful new books for our school library. Thank you to Mrs Bushby for organising the event and also to the parent helpers who assisted her during the week. PALAEONTOLOGY EXTENSION GROUP YEARS 4-6 (DINOSAUR CLUB) Within the next few weeks, I will be running an extension group for one hour a week during school time. My first love is Archaeology, however, we have many students who are passionate about dinosaurs. I would therefore cease our lunchtime Dinosaur Club and run a Dinosaur extension group once a week during class time. Running a class one hour a week will allow for more serious research to be undertaken. I already have a strong core of year 4-6 lunchtime Dinosaur Club students who I would like to be part of this group. I will be discussing this with our year 4-6 teachers and students as to possible candidates. There will be a high expectation of commitment from students who join this extension group. Notes will be sent home to inform parents of their child s inclusion to this group. BIKE CLUB INVITE Last term we trialled running a lunchtime pop up bike track. The response from our students was very positive. Starting next Thursday 30 August, Mr Mitchel Paddick, our Aboriginal Islander Education Officer and I will be opening up a pop up bike track on our bush block adjacent to the basketball courts. The school owns this wonderful piece of land. This bike club will run every Thursday lunchtime and will be for any interested year 1-6 students. The year 1-3 students will use an inside area on flat ground to ride and the year 4-6 students will use the more adventurous BMX track that runs along the outside of this bush area. This will be on an ongoing basis every Thursday lunchtime. If interested, please ensure that your child has a helmet, bike lock and that his/her bike is in working order. FATHERS DAY STALLS Our P & C have organised a Fathers Day Stall on Wednesday and Thursday of next week. As with previous stalls there is a great variety of wellpriced items which all dads would delight in receiving. Please support your P & C and forward a few dollars with your child, so they can purchase a suitable gift. FUN RUN To date, we have raised $2,800 from our Fun Run. Any outstanding money can be forwarded to the front office. CONGRATULATIONS! Congratulations to Tytan L for winning the Book Fair Raffle. We hope you enjoy your prize.

2 NAPLAN ONLINE School Readiness Test You may have heard that NAPLAN Online was introduced in 2018, with 274 Western Australian schools participating. Our school will be transitioning to NAPLAN Online in NAPLAN online will provide better assessment, more precise results and a faster turnaround of information. Your child s results will be returned to the school faster, within a few weeks rather than a few months. This trial, called the School Readiness Test (SRT), will enable us to assess our technical readiness to implement the new online assessments. In addition, it will give us a chance to try out the new national online assessment platform in a real life classroom environment. During August 2018, all students in Years 3 and 5 at Illawarra Primary School will participate in a trial of the assessment platform, by undertaking one or two online readiness tests that include examples of the new NAPLAN online questions. Each test will take about 45 minutes to complete. Year 5 students will participate in an online writing test and Omnibus which is a combination of questions. Participating in this trial is important as it will help us ensure we have adequate internet connectivity and whether students have access to sufficient number of devices for NAPLAN Online testing. During the trial, our teachers will have the opportunity to practise managing the classroom logistics for an online assessment and the new test administration processes. The readiness test has not been constructed to assess curriculum knowledge, but rather to provide students with an opportunity to experience the types of questions that will be included in the new online assessments. As such, reports will not be provided. Participation in the SRT is a key step to ensuring a successful NAPLAN online experience in ONE BIG VOICE CONCERT Wow, what an amazing evening! I was extremely proud of our talented and dedicated students who were an integral part of the One Big Voice at Perth Arena last Friday night. Ms Ferrara did an amazing job in preparing our students and was assisted on the night by Ms Liddelow. Thank you to these dedicated staff members. It was a fantastic evening. The students absolutely loved performing on the night. Well done choir! STUDENT RESILIENCY Everyone understands the beneficial impact of having a positive outlook on day to day life and being resilient when things don t go as expected. Have a listen to this uplifting podcast. STUDENTS LEAVING IN 2019 To allow us to properly plan for class structures, staffing requirements and anticipated budgets, would you please notify the front office as soon as possible if your child/ren will not be returning to Illawarra PS next year and are currently in PP-Year 5. SILENT AUCTION Thank you to everyone who bid on the amazing art work from Rooms 11 and 12. A total amount of $ was raised. This raised amount will go towards benches for our school. Congratulations to Rooms 11 and 12 for organizing this fantastic fundraiser! There are still cards available for purchase and would make a unique present. Uncollected art work can be collected from the front office.

3 DINOSAUR CLUB When I was in the United Kingdom over the last holidays, I brought home some rocks from the Jurassic Coast. This coastline is rich in fossils. Last week our lunchtime Dinosaur Club members became amateur Palaeontologists and chiselled and hammered one of these rocks (safely with glasses and under supervision). Wow! We successfully found hidden, 2 million year old Ammonites within this rock! We also found a shell in one of the pieces that was chipped away from the rock. Well done Dinosaur Club! ATHLETICS CARNIVAL 2018 HELPERS NEEDED! ONE BIG VOICE 2018 We require the assistance of 26 parents to help with scoring of these events. The scoring procedure is simple and will be explained on the day. More helpers are also needed for setting up on the day. Set up time is 6:30 am and breakfast will be supplied. If you are able to assist, please see the attached form and return it to Mr Kelly, or your availability to: Illawarra.PS@education.wa.edu.au PRE CARNIVAL EVENTS Distance races, jumps and throws will take place on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 August. A timetable and names of competitors for these events will be placed on: The Staff Room window, Library window, in the Senior Block, P&C notice board and Health room window on Friday 24 August. Thank you Paul Kelly Deputy Principal Wow! What an absolutely fantastic effort from our talented After School Choir who took part in the One Big Voice Performance last Friday night. Our students joined in singing with 4,000 other Western Australian children. Absolutely breathtaking! Every child is to be congratulated on the way that they represented Illawarra Primary School from the moment that they left the school. This commenced with entertaining the bus driver with some of the night s songs, lining up outside the Arena and joining in with the crowd, running through the rehearsals and finally, presenting an outstanding performance. I was so proud of all of the students, as I know their families were too. Bravo, girls and boys! Miss Ferrara Music Specialist We require pre-loved uniforms for the office. If you have any uniforms that are no longer being used we would appreciate any donation. COMMENTS FROM STUDENT IN CHOIR We have loved being in the One Big Voice Choir since It s been a great experience to have participated in such a grand event. Our favourite part this year, was when all 4,000 kids from across Western Australia sang together as one. This was truly a fantastic way to end our primary school years

4 Room 5 has been busy over the last week, especially undertaking STEM activities. Did you know that STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics? For one part of our STEM program which we are doing with Mr Lowden, we have been looking at bird s nests and where birds live. We went down to the local park and lake to see what was around there and we were able to see so many different types of birds. We took a survey of our findings and next week we will be discussing our results! In keeping with STEM, we also had a representative from Bunnings, Sandy, visit our class and Miss Curley s class. Sandy came in to help us create something special for our dads for Father s Day! Please scan the QR code below (with a QR code reading app available for free download on either PlayStore for Android devices and the Apple app store for Apple devices) to check out a quick video on how it went. Breakfast Club I wanted to share a little about the BUZ (Build Up Zone) program Ms Liddelow and I have been facilitating during Health with our year 4 students on Tuesdays. BUZ is an 8-week long interactive social and emotional wellbeing program. We have had 4 sessions so far and through games, stories and group work, we have been learning about communication, friendship, cooperation, emotional vocabulary and how to manage feelings, such as anger. I have enjoyed the fun and games, while hearing students discuss important skills. Topics still to be covered include: bully-proofing yourself, conflict resolution and much more. If you have a year 4 student at Illawarra, ask them about what they have been learning through BUZ! School Chaplain Jaylene Tweedie Free cricket clinic at Illawarra Primary School Tuesday 18 September 2018 From 2.50 until 3:45pm Play Games, join the fun, bring your friends and get involved. When: Tuesdays and Thursdays 8:15 8:35am Where: Undercover area Clean Up: 8:40 9:00am Thank you very much to the families who kindly donate Milo, jam and bread to the Breakfast Club. Your contribution is very much appreciated. Foodbank supply most of the food items we use for free, such as Weetbix, spaghetti, baked beans, milk and fruit. However, we do regularly request Milo donations as Foodbank does not supply Milo and it is very popular. Donations of Milo can be left in the front office. Thank you Jaylene Tweedie and Breakfast Club Committee For more information see the attachment to the Newsletter.

5 Illawarra Primary School P & C Association Fellow parents, thank you for your tremendous support of our school Open Night last week. I would like to formally acknowledge the huge effort made by Lisa Conn and a host of new P&C volunteers. It is reassuring to know that our school spirit is alive and well! Our school motto of Caring for people could not have been more appropriate than on Open Night! I would like to extend a personal and heartfelt thanks to all volunteers and teaching staff who went above and beyond to make this a special event for our children. We need more helpers like you! Your P&C have lots of activities planned for the remainder of this term and I ask that you continue with your generous support of our P&C activities. Father s Day Stall Wednesday and Thursday August 2018 FATHER S DAY TIMETABLE Wednesday 29 August Thursday 30 August Time Classroom Time Classroom K K LUNCH LUNCH LUNCH LUNCH Fathers Day raffle (Raffle will be drawn at the Athletics Faction Carnival). Volunteers are required to help with organising this event by selling tickets at the carnival. We have some awesome prizes this year and we are expecting a great response from our entire school community. Athletic Faction Carnival Sausage Sizzle and Cake Stall Friday 31 August Please don t forget to volunteer either in the canteen or at our cake stall. Father s Day Bunnings Sausage Sizzle (Year 5 Parents only - for Year 6 Camp 2019). Bunnings Sausage Sizzle Monday 24 September 2018 (all year level P&C event). School Busy Bee Event (date to be confirmed). P&C Uniform Shop payments. Our new caretaker Uniform Shop Co-ordinator, Katerina, has instigated a new process that will assist parents with paying for uniforms. We will soon have EFTPOS facilities available, where we will be able to accept credit cards to make your purchases more convenient. P&C Uniform Shop donations. If your child has outgrown their school uniform and it is still in good condition, please consider recycling it back to the Uniform Shop. We are always looking out for pre-loved uniforms that we can help out other families with. All donations will be greatly appreciated and your help will go a long way, to help us, help those that need it most! Show your school spirit and DONATE your pre-loved uniforms. Please support your school P&C Association wherever you can. Your assistance will ensure that we can continue to provide our most precious resource OUR CHILDREN with the best possible future. There is no better feeling than knowing that you have given your child/children the best start in life. Help us, help them be the best that they can possibly be. I welcome anyone to step forward and make any suggestions that will assist the P&C, in being able to deliver better service for our students. If you are able to assist in any way, or have any ideas that can make a difference, I would encourage you to contact the front office and leave your suggestion or contact details. Alternatively, you may wish to contact me directly on Your input would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to your continued support of our P&C. Vince Randazzo President, Illawarra Primary School P&C Association THANK YOU! A huge thank you to the 19 families for donating supplies or volunteering their time at our Open night. Also, thank you to Janine Freeman MLA for her $300 donation. Thank you to the families for supporting the Sausage Sizzle. We sold 270 sausages in a bun. Leftovers were appreciated at Breakfast Club the following day. We raised just over $900 profit for our students.

6 Before and after school care on the school grounds. Before School Care 7.00am 8.40am After School Care 2.45pm 6.00pm Further information is available from the school office or at: ph: August 27 Athletics Pre Carnival Distance races & throws 28 Athletics Pre Carnival Distance long Jump 29 Father s Day stall 30 Father s Day stall 31 Athletics Faction Carnival September 6 Newsletter 7 Assembly Room Interschool Athletics 20 Newsletter 21 Assembly Rooms 5 & 6 Footy finals dress up LAST DAY OF TERM 3 Please note it was incorrectly published Students start Term 4 on Monday 8 October when it should be Tuesday 9 October.