2 November 2022

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents/Caregivers

OUR SCHOOL VISION IS TO SUPPORT STUDENTS IN BECOMING STRONG, THOUGHTFUL AND INDEPENDENT INDIVIDUALS WHO ASPIRE TO BE THE BEST THAT THEY CAN BE. OUR ETHOS OFFERS STUDENT CENTERED EDUCATION THAT IS FOCUSSED ON BOTH THE PRESENT AND DEVELOPMENTAL NEEDS OF STUDENTS.

I would like to personally acknowledge the diligent leadership that Zoe Hadley-Hawley, as Principal, has demonstrated over the past two years. It has been an honour working with her as Deputy Principal. I have been in the educational profession for 30 years, in that time I have had the pleasure of being a Teacher, Curriculum Leader, University Lecturer and Deputy Principal. I have accepted the position of Principal whilst Zoe is on maternity leave, until her return in Term 2, 2023. I’m very grateful for the opportunity and confidence that Zoe has in me to ensure the continuation of our Business Plan and school direction. I wish Zoe and her family all the best with the new addition to their family.

SCHOOL BOARD

Our School Board met to discuss NAPLAN results and NQS data, referring to the Strategic Directions of school improvement. Minutes of the meeting are available on request. The next Board meeting is scheduled for the 22 November 2022.

P&C

On behalf of the school community, I would like to thank the members of the P&C and other parent helpers for their amazing efforts in organising a wonderful school disco. It was fantastic to see so many students all dressed up in costumes and having a great time. Many helpers commented on the good manners of the children.

PLANNING 2023 AND STUDENT PLACEMENT

We are undertaking the complex process of planning for 2023 class structures. It is important that detailed and accurate information is completed so that we have enough staff for the commencement of the new school year. If you are leaving Somerly Primary School and have not yet advised the front office, please do so as soon as possible.

Planning classes for 2023 is no easy task and staff spend considerable time and effort to ensure suitable placements, balancing every individual student’s needs, including academic, social, emotional, and behavioural. I do ask that if you have specific requirements or considerations that you please put this in writing to myself as soon as possible. Please note that all requests will be considered, but cannot be guaranteed.

MENTAL HEALTH WEEK

We have enjoyed a very busy start to the term, during the past week we had an opportunity to celebrate Mental Health Week as a whole school community. Our Mental Health Week Coordinator, Sarah Berry organised a variety of activities to promote positive wellbeing for students and adults. Events included;

Kindy - Our Chaplain, Elle-May Wong made fruit kebabs and Ms Ritchie conducted fitness sessions.
Pre-Primary and Year 1 - enjoyed planting seedlings, hosted by Bunnings.
Year 2 – fun fitness workstation led by Elle-May Wong.
Year 3 – Origami with Sanny, EdConnect Volunteer and bubbles fun session with Ms Russell.
Year 4 – had cooking sessions with Foodbank.
Year 5 and 6 – enjoyed a rugby training session with Western Force players.

As a whole school, we had the privilege of listening to inspirational Paralympian basketball champion, Amber Merritt. Her life experiences, challenges and achievements were motivational. Throughout the week, students enjoyed dance lessons and many found themselves happily bouncing to the beats. Also, during PE lessons some students had an opportunity to play soccer with Perth Glory players. The finale event of the week provided our school with another opportunity to be inspired by motivational speakers, including a Parent Workshop, Raising Resilient Children.

Thank you to our school community for wearing green and contributing to the funds for Paralympics and Kids Helpline.

Mental Health Week reminds all of us to take a moment and feel gratitude for what we have and for those around us. A simple phrase “Thank You” goes a long way. We thank you for all you do to contribute to our school community.

Louise Carroll
Principal

Stars

Behaviour Focus

Our behaviour focus for Week 4 is:-

Safety

• We sit on chairs ‘4 on the floor’
• We tuck in chairs when they are not being used
• We walk in the classroom

Students Late to School

If your child arrives late to school, they are missing critical morning routines and learning activities. The school day begins at 8:40am and students will be considered late if they do not arrive by this time. If your child arrives after 9:00am you are required to enter through the front office and provide us with a reason for the lateness. A late slip will be printed for you to give to the class teacher.

Not Feeling Well?

If your child is not feeling well before school, please keep them home and notify the office by phoning 6206 4200, sending an SMS to 0437 480 486 or emailing somerly.ps@education.wa.edu.au

Late Collection of Students

Somerly Primary School has a student finish time of 2.45pm each day. If your child has not been picked up before 3pm, you will be required to come to the front office to sign them out.

Road Safety

Just a reminder to please take the time to discuss road safety with your children, especially crossing our roads and using the designated traffic wardens who are available before and after school at the dedicated crossing area on Connolly Drive. Connolly Drive is an extremely busy dual carriageway.

Also, parents/carers and students should keep to footpaths when arriving and leaving school, avoiding cutting through car parks. Our car parks get extremely busy and congested and are not safe to cut through. Remember our students’ safety is of paramount importance.

Car Park Safety

The school is aware of the continuing and ongoing concerns being raised regarding the school car park at pick up times.

According to the current Department of Education standard the school contains an adequate percentage of car parking places available according to student enrolment numbers. This does not change the fact that parking is still an ongoing and difficult issue.

We ask parents to read the attached document to see how you can support safety within our school car parks.

Foodbank Visit

On Thursday, 20th and Thursday, 27th of October, Room 13 and Room 14 had a Food Sensations® for Schools incursion. They learnt about healthy eating, did a fun nutrition education activity and cooked up a storm! Both classes cooked a few healthy and delicious recipes together, and at the end they all sat down and had a feast. Students were given recipe books to use at home and we are looking forward to seeing what they cook next with their awesome cooking skills!

If you want to know more about Foodbank WA and their FREE programs, go to the link below for more information.

Mental Health Focus Week

What an awesome week we had for our whole school Mental Health Focus Week! It was so nice to see so many smiles in what has been a super challenging year for us all.

The week started with the amazing Paralympian, Amber Merritt as a special guest at our Monday morning assembly, who spoke about how resilience and a positive outlook has helped her to overcome a variety of obstacles on her way to achieving within her sport. Some lucky students even got to try on her silver medal from the Tokyo Olympic Games!

There were seedling workshops for the Pre-Primary and Year 1 students hosted by Julie and Sarah from Mindarie Bunnings in which students were taught how to plant and care for their coriander or thai basil seedling, before they were allowed to take them home and help it to grow.

Kindy students were expert fruit kebab makers and had special fitness stations with Miss Ellie and Ms Ritchie on Tuesday.

It was lovely to see our Student Councillors be such positive role models within the playgrounds. Some took on the role of Kindness Monitors throughout the week, helping answer students’ questions, helping problem solve or find a duty teacher and handing out faction tokens.

Year 3 students’ Helpline Incursions started with the topics of Managing Emotions and Resilience being covered as well as some special Blu Earth activities with the Year 2 students focusing on bubbles and mindfulness.

Year 4 students completed their two-hour cooking workshops with FoodBank, prepping six different meals in small groups and learning all about how healthy eating helps a healthy mind and body.

Sanny from Ed Connect, along with Miss Ellie had a HUGE turnout to the special event Origami Lunchtime Club for Year 1 and 2 students, with his next Year 3 and 5 classes also silent, mouths open and trying to wrap their minds around the art of origami, as he wove a beautiful story around the meaning of the completed work between instructions.

Senior Sport had a super special guest from Western Force, Bo Abra – much to Mr Gane’s and many students’ delight. He spoke openly and honestly about anxiety and how it has impacted his journey within sport.

Thursday’s PE lessons had the SEDA Year 11 soccer squad assisting with the students. They were so impressed with skills and behaviour; they have asked to come out again next year!

Friday we had special guest speak Tiah, a friend of Miss Ellie’s to speak about how important the impact of our words are including the words we choose to say to ourselves and that using a positive growth mindset can help us to achieve further. While we gathered to listen to Tiah, some stand-out students for the week (one per class) received a special ‘Choose Kindness’ keychain from Smiggle, presented by Mark Folkard and his therapy dog Chey.

As part of our Mental Health Focus Week, all classes received a one-hour dance lesson from Jaimie or Nicole at Schools Go Dance. What was extra special about this was the inclusion of a Smiling Minds music meditation to conclude lessons.

How lucky were we at Somerly Primary School that all these awesome volunteers turned up to help us in our quest to learn all we can about how important our mental health is for our overall wellbeing.

Friday’s Wear Green fundraising will be equally shared and donated between Kids Helpline and Paralympics Australia on behalf of Somerly Primary School.

The Health Committee hopes that you enjoyed lots of moments throughout the focus week and would love any feedback to build upon next year’s Focus Week. Special thanks go to the parents who attended the Helping Minds Workshop - Raising Resilient Children, we appreciate your support.

Sarah Berry
Mental Health Week Coordinator

Learning Focus

Physical Education

On the 14th October students from Somerly Primary School attended the Interschool Athletics Carnival hosted by Mindarie Primary School. It was a great day with Somerly placing 4th overall. There were some highlight individual performances with many of our students placing in the events of the T-ball throw, Long Jump, 200m and A division sprints. Aubree Seumanu achieved Runner-Up Champion girl for Year 4 which was a great result.

In the team events Somerly Primary School excelled in the Star Relay and the Shuttle Relays with some stellar performances from the Year 6 girls winning both of the events convincingly. We were very impressed with the efforts, attitude and overall conduct of our students at the event. A big thankyou to all the staff who helped on the day!

Overall Points

Mindarie – 531
Kinross – 344
Beaumaris – 334
Somerly – 254
Quinns Rocks – 216
Burns Beach – 167
Clarkson – 136

Mrs Ochieng – PE Specialist

Waste Wise Schools

Gardening Club

This term, Gardening Club will run two days per week, on Mondays and Wednesdays as we have lots to do!

Week 3 was very exciting as we harvested lots of our crops such as cabbage, cauliflower, beans and mixed lettuce. With this fresh produce we then made up a box for our families for a small donation. This was very successful. Look out for our next available fresh produce!

Thank you staff, students and our families for continuing to support our containers for change challenges raising money for our community and our students. The final weeks of term we started our Zooper Dooper Challenges and we collected 4253 containers raising $425.30!

Our challenge winners were Room 18!

Collecting 722 containers!

Our next challenge is….

Thank you for helping us to help you!

P & C