16 October 2024

Principal’s Report

Our vision is to foster every individual’s academic and social development driven by high expectations for success and aspirations for them to become resilient, respectful individuals.

Kaya Families,

We hope you all enjoyed the two-week school break. It is wonderful to see everyone back and ready to learn! The term has started with the excitement of swimming lessons for our Pre-Primary to Year 4 students. They have been very organized so far, and we are confident they will continue to demonstrate our school values of Respect, Responsibility, and Safety as they move to and from the school, as well as during their swimming lessons.

Week 2

Wednesday 16^th Thank you Cleaner’s and Gardener’s Day! Please take a moment to thank and acknowledge our amazing cleaning staff, they work tirelessly and proudly to keep our school grounds clean and safe.

Interschool Athletics Carnival

Mrs Ochieng has notified the families of students who have earned their place to represent Somerly Primary School at the Interschool Athletics Carnival on Friday 18^th Oct. There are 72 students attending - we wish them all the best and we are very proud of their achievements in being selected. Can I please remind students and families as they are representing our school, they must maintain their good standing to ensure they can attend. Please check that permission and payment has been made through Consent2Go. Please contact our front office if you need to clarify anything.

Week 3

We have our school photos scheduled for Wednesday 23th and Thursday 24th, please ensure students are at school on time and dressed in full school uniform, not faction shirts. Photos are ordered by the codes on the flyers sent out at the end of last term.

World Teachers’ Day - Friday 25^th October 2024

Australia will celebrate the teaching profession on World Teachers’ Day on Friday 25th October 2024.  

Let’s celebrate Australia’s teachers for their skilled work in educating, inspiring and supporting our young people.

Hats off to teachers this World Teachers’ Day!

Share a “hats off” selfie of you and your kids to celebrate teachers. Make sure to tell teachers what they mean to you.

This is your chance to join Australia in celebrating teachers.

You can show your appreciation by posting a “hats off” selfie on social media, either on your own or with family or friends. Grab your hat – beret, beanie, bucket, bowler – and remember to tag #WorldTeachersDay2024 @aitsl  

Week 4 – Mental Health Week

We are hosting two free incursions for our students evoking the power of music for wellbeing. On Tuesday 29^th October, West Australian Symphony Orchestra String Quartet will be performing to our PP – Yr.6 students. On Thursday 31^st October, the Akaawba Drummers will be conducting a workshop with our students. We hope they all enjoy these experiences.  Thank you, Ms Ritchie for organising both these events. 

Week 5

Mrs Sutherland-Mundy has returned from maternity leave and has organised our Digital Olympics, which will occur on Wednesday 6^th November for our Yrs. 3 – 5 students. If you can spare any time on this day and would like to volunteer to join in the fun of this event, please contact your child’s teacher. We are very excited to be hosting this event again this year.

Reporting

The Department of Education has advised schools of changes to Reporting requirements.  Somerly Primary School will:

• continue with reporting strand grades and overall grades for each learning area.
• there will be no learning area comments.
• include a general comment.
• information on the student’s attitude, behaviour and effort/personal and social learning will also be included.

Parents can request teacher meetings to gain information regarding a student’s achievement relative to the performance of the student’s peer group.

Planning for 2025

This term, we are excited to begin preparations for 2025, including class structures and student placements. To ensure we have the most accurate information for our planning, please inform the school if your child will be moving to a different school in 2025. We welcome any requests for your child’s placement next year and will do our best to accommodate them, although we cannot guarantee all requests will be fulfilled.

Parent/Teacher Meetings Survey

I have sent a message on Seesaw regarding a survey to complete, requesting your choice of parent teacher meetings for 2025.

During the past 4 years we have offered our school community the opportunity to meet twice a year as per the Department of Education's Directions. The choice to close the school early, providing an opportunity for parents to meet after work, was a request from parents as presented in the School Community Survey in 2020. We would like our decision for 2025 to be made in consultation with staff and families. The responses from the survey will be presented to our School Board, and a decision made regarding the meeting structure and dates. This will then be presented to the Department of Education for approval. Once approved we will notify staff and families. Please see the link below to complete the survey, it should only take a minute. Thank you!

Future Newsletters

We are trialling a reduction in newsletters this term from one each fortnight to three per term. The next newsletter will be published on Wednesday 13^th November. Please stay updated through Seesaw and our Facebook page.

PEAC

Year 4 2024 PEAC test results have been received by our school. Placements into PEAC, based on testing, are highly competitive, and those students who have been identified for the PEAC program have been notified.  If you have any questions about the testing process or would like to obtain your child’s results, please contact Mrs Williamson. 

Save the Dates Please refer to Term Calendar

• Wednesday 16^th October – Thank you Cleaner's & Gardener's Day.
• Friday 18^th October - Interschool Carnival.
• Monday 21^st October – Kindergarten Faction Carnival.
• Wednesday 23^rd and Thursday 24^th- School Photos.
• Friday 25^th October - World Teachers’ Day – Room 7 Assembly – WasteSorted Incursion.
• Tuesday 29^th October - WASO incursion and School Board meeting.
• Wednesday 30^th October - 2025 Kindergarten play date.
• Thursday 31^st October - Akaawba Drumming incursion.
• Friday 1^st November – Assembly - Room 8.
• Wednesday 6^th November – Digital Olympics Yrs. 3-6.
• Friday 8^th November – Assembly – Rooms 12 and 20.
• Friday 11^th November – Remembrance Day – Student Councillors to attend Cambrai Village.

New students

I would like to extend a warm welcome to Susie, Saman, Braxton, Karl and Waka who recently commenced at Somerly Primary School.

Louise Carroll
Principal

Stars

Behaviour Focus

Our behaviour focus for Week 2 is:-

We are learning to: walk safely and responsibly on the pavers and at the pool.
This is because: we want to get from one location to another safely.

What we will see:

• Students walking.
• Students waiting if someone is in front of them.
• Students walking in lines.

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.

Waste Wise Schools

Gardening Club

Kaya everyone and welcome back to Term 4. Over the holidays we had a few things going on in the garden - we had the foundations, electricity and water tap installed for our green house and we had the foundations done for our new garden shed which will be located closer to our garden for easier access. During our first week back in Gardening Club our students also tried some of our mulberries, which are now in season and very delicious, and maintaining and watering our salad mixes which will be harvested for Friday’s assembly.

New Garden Shed!

Watering our year 1 garden beds with our lettuce mixes, which will be ready to harvest for Friday’s assembly!

Don’t feed the fill!
Be the Change!

Thank you to all our staff, students and community for continuing to support our Containers for Change challenges!

Congratulations!

2023 Total 51526 containers!
2024 Goal 60000 containers!
Our current total is 43611 containers!

Our Term totals this year are Term 1 -15093 containers, Term 2 -14732 containers and Term 3 -13786 containers. Congratulations!

Here is our Term 3 spreadsheet showing each classroom's total:

For the first two weeks of school, we will be having our Spring Refreshers!

We will also be celebrating our amazing school cleaners in week 3 and will be helping them keep our school clean!

We are the Change!

P & C