21 September 2016

Newsletter Articles

Principal's Report

Dear Parents

Faction Sports Carnival

Our 2016 Faction Athletics Carnival was a huge success. Students competed extremely well in both the individual and team events. I would like to thank all staff for the role they played on the day. Furthermore an extended thank you Mrs Ochieng and Mrs MacNicol for all their hard work leading up to the carnival, making it a smooth and enjoyable experience for our students. See enclosed page for results and photos.

An Interschool Athletics team will be selected based on student's individual results, the carnival will be held at Somerly Primary School this coming Thursday 22nd September. Families are welcome to attend to support our students.

Open Afternoon

A big thank you to our parents and families who attended our open afternoon. The response was wonderful and it was great to see so many families engaged with their child's education.

We had stalls selling veggies from our wonderful school garden together with a sausage sizzle and cake stall organised by the P & C.

Dogs on school grounds

Dogs are wonderful pets; however, like children they require care, education and restraint. Some of our students have an aversion to dogs while others have an allergy associated with dogs. Please support these students and refrain from bringing your dog onto school grounds.

Swimming Reminder

In-term swimming is a component of our Health and Physical Education program; we strongly encourage all children to participate. Swimming lessons commence on Monday 24th October to Friday 4th November (Term 4, week 3 and 4). There are still a few students yet to pay and this must be done as soon as possible as we need to confirm student numbers with the bus company and HBF Joondalup Arena. The cost of the lessons is $50 per student.

Money can be paid either by direct depositing into the school bank account (BSB 066040, ACC 19905052) with your child's surname as a reference, EFTPOS, or through your child's classroom.

Assemblies

A reminder that our Friday assemblies in term 4 will return to being held at 9:00am.

I would like to wish our students and families a safe and enjoyable holidays. We are looking forward seeing our students return fresh and energised on Tuesday 11th October.

Tracey Renton
Principal

Somerly Stars!

Behaviour Focus

Our behaviour focus for week 10 is:

• Wear a hat;
• Play in your own area;
• Report issues to the duty teacher/mentor peers;
• Use/return equipment properly;
• Use sand equipment for its designed purpose

Somerly Primary School App

Our Somerly Primary School App is now available.

EFTPOS Facilities

EFTPOS Facilities are now available at the school office for payment of voluntary contributions, excursions etc for amounts of $10 and above.

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.

2017 Enrolments

To assist our planning for 2017 please let the school office know if your children will not be attending Somerly Primary School next year. As you can appreciate with the opening of Catalina, the school will be under pressure to accommodate the growing population and we need as much advanced notification of enrolments as we can to plan for additional classrooms and staff. If you know anyone in the community with school aged children please encourage them to come to the school and enrol early.

Learning Focus

Big Write/Literacy

Our school has implemented a Whole School writing program called Big Write. Big Write and VCOP is designed to bring the fun back into writing, to make the children want to write and to be continuously challenged throughout the writing journey.

Big Write is based around The VCOP Gang.

Vinny Vocabulary is the leader of the gang because 'WOW' words are really empowering in a piece of writing.

Connie Connective is an Aviator Mechanic because she loves using her tools to join and connect sentences to ensure they make sense.

Ollie Opener is a very cool Viking ands protects the start of sentences to make them more powerful.

Penny Punctuation is a Princess who stands at the top of a pyramid and she helps to make the story sound correctly through using the right punctuation.

Below are some examples of Big Write's from the Pre Primary and Year One's. All the work below was completed independently by the children.

Miss Prue Roberts - Teacher

Block 4

Term Three has been extremely busy for Block 4. The classes have been learning about coding and experimenting with giving robots instructions. Some of you may notice that we have set out our wet area in accordance with Quality Standards, making it more functional for small groups and creative play. The children love it!

In maths the classes have focussed on capacity, volume, area, money, multiplication, division and fractions. The children very much enjoy the rotational activities and being able to demonstrate their skills through practical activities. In English the children have been working hard to improve their grammar skills. We have continued to work hard on our Big Write sessions with special emphasis on (VCOP) vocabulary, connectives, openers and punctuation. In History we have been learning how to use PowerPoint and continue with our touch typing skills. Our History topic has been based around the Olympic Games – Ancient and Modern. The children have tried really hard to develop their researching skills and then applying this to a four slide PowerPoint.

It was amazing to see so many parents and family members at Parents Night. You could really see the progression that is taking place in the classrooms and it was lovely to listen to the children explaining the tasks and expectations to their parents.

All the teachers in Block 4 are extremely proud of the children's achievements and we are looking forward to another wonderful, busy and successful term.

Mrs Grania Fawcett - Teacher

The Veggie Man visits Somerly Primary School!

On Thursday the 8th of September, the children of Somerly Primary School were very lucky to have a surprise visit from The Veggie Man! In celebration of Healthy Food Week, the students participated in 'The Great Aussie Crunch.' Our aim was for every student to crunch on a healthy piece of fruit or vegetable, to encourage the consumption of healthy food options. While the students were enjoying their healthy snack, the teachers measured the volume of their crunching with a crunch-o-meter. Veggie Man did a little dance when they successfully crunched as loud as a crocodile!

Miss Bachiller - Teacher

Athletics Carnival

The annual Somerly Athletics carnival was on Friday 9th September. It was a great day with the students participating in the team games, jumps, throws, Bluearth games, sprints and relays. Villalta was victorious overall, taking the shield for 2016, followed closely by Centaur, Gemini and Alkimos. The medal winners were:

Mrs Ochieng – PE Teacher

GKR Karate Visit

On Tuesday 13th September Sensei Gavin and Sensei Jenna from GKR Karate conducted workshops with Mrs MacNicol's Pre Primary and Year One sport classes. During the workshops the students were taught how to protect themselves inside and outside of school. Sensei Gavin showed the students how perform a Rocket Release and discussed stranger danger. The students loved responding to Sensei Gavin's instructions by proclaiming 'Hey!' and also when they very loudly practised how to tell a stranger to 'Go away!' Sensei Gavin and Sensei Jenna also demonstrated kicks, punches and stances which the students really enjoyed trying out on their own. They were rewarded at the workshop by each receiving a medal and a high five from Sensei Gavin and Sensei Jenna. Both of our visitors were very impressed with the students' behaviour and Mrs MacNicol was so proud of the way each student represented Somerly Primary School.

Mrs MacNicol - Teacher