27 July 2016

Newsletter Articles

Principal's Report

Dear Parents,

I wish to extend a warm welcome back to school for all our students, staff and parents/care-givers.

Our new look newsletter is now being produced and emailed directly to you by Schoolzine. In the forthcoming weeks we will be adding additional links to the newsletter all of which will provide pertinent information in regards to the school. A mobile app is currently being developed and should be available for parents to download within the next month. Details will follow in the next newsletter

Term 3 promises to be extremely busy with many activities planned.

Dates to remember

Behaviour Expectations

At Somerly Primary School we are learners who are: Respectful, Responsible and Safe.

The focus for weeks 2 and 3 of this term is Respect in Italian, Physical Education, Music and Art.

• Pay attention and listen attentively
• Obtain permission to use others equipment
• Use inside voices
• Respect others that are learning by staying in your seat
• Respect other people's opinions

Would you please help us to encourage this expectation so that your child can be rewarded with Faction Tokens, Gotcha Cards and Badges.

Uniforms

With the mornings now being very chilly, we are encouraging all students to wear their school jacket or jumper to school as only Somerly Primary School jackets or jumpers are acceptable. Please make sure your child's name is written in them to avoid being put into lost property.

New students

I would like to extend a warm welcome Arjae, Beau, Dalia, Lucas, William, Lucas, Herewini, Melina, Zhan, Gracia-Patricia and Leanne who recently commenced at Somerly Primary School.

Independent Public School Application

Somerly Primary School is currently participating in the application process to become an Independent Public School (IPS).

Some of the benefits of becoming an IPS include:

• Increased independence in local decision making
• Establishment of open governance with the local community
• Increased flexibility with staffing, budgets and procurement
• Participation in external reviews to provide the school and wider communities with an independent assessment of the impact on student learning and achievement.

If you would like any additional information please feel free to contact the office on 9407 7142.

Tracey Renton
Principal

Somerly Stars!

NAIDOC Assembly

NAIDOC ASSEMBLY - By Aaron Parfitt

On Friday the 1st of July we had our NAIDOC assembly and the indigenous students did it. Their names were Aaron, Zeke, Marlee, Jazmin and helped by Rojin and Sonia.

First we had our face painted and after that Marlee and I did Welcome to Country. After that we acted out a story and then some students talked about what we did at the NAIDOC excursion in Mundaring. Then it was finished. That was the end of our NAIDOC assembly.

NAIDOC Assembly - By Marlee Fisher

On Friday 1st of July we had our NAIDOC assembly and the aboriginal senior students which are me (Marlee), Aaron, Jazmin and Zeke hosted the assembly with help by Rojin and Sonia. First we got our faces painted and then introduced the assembly and welcomed everyone; we told them what NAIDOC stands for and why we celebrate it. Then we told them about the smoke ceremony and my favourite part is when we acted out the Rainbow Serpent in front of everyone. Then my class room 10 and 9 sang We Are One. We had a nice ending with the choir singing Inanay Capuana.

Kindy enrolment for 2017

We are now taking Kindergarten applications for 2017, if you have a child that was born between 1 July 2012 and 30 June 2013 please come into the front office for an application form. As Kindy is non-compulsory, enrolments will be on a first in basis. When applying we need a copy of your child's birth certificate or passport, visa if applicable, current Medicare immunisation details and proof of address.

Pre-loved Uniform

If you have any Somerly Primary School uniform that your child/children have grown out of and you are looking to find a new home for it, we would be extremely grateful for any donations at the school office.

In Numeracy at Somerly

Welcome back to Term 3 and already we are straight back into our Maths activities.

This Term I am working with the Year 2 and Year 4 classes on all things Maths. If you don't know me, I'm Mrs Longthorn and I just LOVE teaching maths. I love it so much that I want to tell everyone how awesome Maths is, you may not believe me but it's true, Maths is AWESOME!

This week the Year 2's in Mrs Gane's class were working on numbers to at least 1000. We were learning about Place Value and that there are different ways of representing numbers. We were making the link between how many thousands, hundreds tens and ones a number is made up of by renaming numbers. To do this you expand the number by breaking it down into how many hundreds, tens and ones.

We started with a 2 digit numbers as a warm up.

How many hundreds, tens and ones are in 49?

Now I know there aren't any hundreds in this number… but we should never assume children knows this, they are clever critters & cope well & hide what they don't know, so it's best to really see what they know.

Hopefully you said 4 tens and 9 ones… now here is the tricky part writing this in numbers…

49 = 40 + 9

My next question was how many ways can we write this number sentence?

I got 4 ways how many did you get?

49= 9+ 40
49 = 40 + 9
9 + 40 = 49
40 + 9 = 49

Next we went onto 3 digit numbers… Try this one 777

How many ones, hundreds & tens

Did you get it?

7 ones +7 hundreds & 7 tens = 7 + 700 + 70

This one was a bit tricky and is really confusing for children because the way we say numbers does not help us to write them. Have a go a saying the number 777 then writing what you have said. If you wrote it as you said it you should write 700707, but because you know about place value you know different!

If your child does this, writes 1002 for 102 don't worry it's a stage, and your teacher will be helping them. You can help by talking to your child about writing & saying numbers & by practicing counting & bundling popsticks into tens to match a number.

You may be wondering why we do this? Well it is really important to understand how numbers are made up so that children can progress onto double digit addition with regrouping (Known as Borrowing & Carrying in old money). If you miss this understanding out then children will have problems with decimals in the senior years!

Give it a try with this quick Video:

Want to do some online maths with your child…?

Check out this awesome website to help your child with maths

Finally a quick word about Pokemon Go….. It's AWESOME and packed with tons of maths learning! Check out the maths you could talk about with your child…

• Measurement - Estimate or calculate how far you have travelled e.g strides, metres, km
• Directional Language - Use the game to develop positional language by talking about position & direction e.g. … walking forwards, behind, around, turning a quarter turn clockwise, anticlockwise, left, right, next to opposite, North, South, East, West…
• Angles- Turn 360 degrees, 90 degree turn right…
• Maps- Mapping, co-ordinates, Street views,
• Early Algebra - Sort & organise the Pokemon into different groups or categories e.g. by colour, feature, height …
• Measurement - Compare the weight & height of the Pokemon, using the language of measurement, smaller than… But taller than… heavy, lighter, lightest, tall, taller, tallest...
• Money & Budgets - Work out a budget & what you can buy with $5, $10 etc, devise chores that can be done to earn $$
• Enjoy yourself and be safe!

Mrs Longthorn
Numeracy Co-ordinator

ICT at Somerly

This year has started off with a bang for ICT at Somerly Primary School. Blocks 2, 3 and 4 have received 28 laptops for students to use. Teachers have been incorporating technology into curriculum programs, allowing students to research information and produce text. The school is also excited as we are about to receive some new residents this term, Robots! Students will have the opportunity to learn how to code a robot, designing the instructions to make it move.

Dyan Mundy
ICT Co-Ordinator

National Consistent Collection of Data - School Students with Disability

All schools in Australia, including Independent and Catholic schools, will participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability every year.

The Data Collection is an annual count of the number of students with disability receiving educational adjustments to support their participation in education on the same basis as students without disability.

All education agencies are now required under the Australian Education Regulation 2013, to provide information on a students' level of education, disability and level of adjustment to the Australian Government Department of Education. Data will continue to be de-identified prior to its transfer and no student's identity will be provided to the Australian Government Department of Education.

The collection of this information from states and territories will inform future policy and program planning in relation to students with disability.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Tracey Renton on 9407 7142 or the Western Australian Department of Education NCCD Helpline on 0477 741 598.

Further information about the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data for School Students with Disability you can visit this website:

Year 6 High School Transition

For our Year 6 students and parents it is now time to start thinking of High School enrolments for next year. It can be a daunting decision and I am happy to discuss options with you upon request. I will provide more information at the Year 6 Camp Parent Information Session. Please note the recent information received from Warwick Senior High School in regards to their specialist programs.

Please contact the school to make an appointment with me.

Regards,

Zoe Stenhouse
Deputy Principal
Somerly Primary School

P & C NEWS

We're fundraising with Entertainment Books.

With thousands of up to 50% off and 2-for-1 offers available, the new 2016/17 Entertainment Book will be available for purchase from Somerly Primary School at a cost of just $65, Giving you over $20,000 of value. Somerly Primary School will receive 20% from every Entertainment Membership sold. Order forms are available from the school office. Available for use straight away (subject to availability).