14 December 2016

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents

Book Award Assembly

Last Friday we had the great pleasure of hosting our annual Book Award Assembly. To the students listed below who received a Book Award, congratulations on your achievements throughout 2016.

5B – Matis and Luna-Rae; 6A: Fletcher and Jaxon; 6B: Lilly and Devon; Room 1: Ella and William; Room 2: Taj and Bianca; Room 3: Natalya and Emily; Room 7: Grace and Eddie; Room 8: Janah and Rojin; Room 9: Tiya and Tarak; Room 10: Hayley and Joshua; Room 11: Ashlee and Tayla; Room 12: Alfie and Asra, Room 13: Celina and Eve; Room 14: Kaitlyn and Stanislav; Room 15: Brody and Dharshini; Room 16: Tori and Ashley; Room 17: Kayla and Rowan; Room 18: Angus and Kai; Room 19: Moksh and Tyson; Room 20: Talitha and Bryan; Room 23: Billy and Charlie; Sport award: Kaiden; Art award: Elizabeth.

Congratulations also go to our 2017 Student Counsellors, Faction Captains, Vice Captains and Daily Operations Team who were welcomed into their new roles by our 2016 team.

Year 6 Graduation

Today we fondly bid farewell to our year 6 students as they graduate from primary school. I wish to congratulate our graduating seniors and wish you all the best in the coming years at your chosen high school. Please take with you fond memories of your time at Somerly Primary School, we would love you to come back to tell us of all of your successes.

Staff changes

Sadly several staff members won’t be returning to Somerly Primary School in 2017, we are saying fond goodbyes to Mrs Aylett, Ms Roberts, Mrs Buckley, Mrs Jones, Ms Ferguson and Mrs West.

I would like to extend a huge thank you to the teachers for their wonderful contribution to our school and wish them well for the future.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff, students and families at Somerly Primary School and wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

Tracey Renton
Principal

Merit Certificates

Room 1: Sanaver, Ivy, Bonnie, Tayah and Crystal; Room 3: Kevin, Lana and Driessen; Room 10: Elijah and Dylan; Room 11: Zac, Brock, Selwyn, Damen and Ashton; Room 12: Cameron and Dante; Room 13: Ella-Rose, Trinity and Dylan; Room14: Natalie and Layla; Room 15: Zaviah and Maaria; Room 18: Brock and Brayden; Room 19: Jayden, Kiah, Tyler, Shafayet and Evie; Room 23: Wes, Jamie and Leanne; Art: Abby, Tina, Alazae and Zeinia.

Somerly Stars!

Behaviour Focus

Our behaviour focus for Week 10 is as follows:-

Transitions

• We always walk quickly, quietly and respectfully around the school.
• We stay next to our partner and close to the person in front.
• We watch where we are walking and face the front.
• We carry our equipment appropriately.

The Schoolzine App update is now available

The update will automatically install on your Phone.

All app features and settings will remain the same.

Once you have updated the app, the following icon will appear on your Phone.

Depending on your devices settings you may need to visit the App Store/Play Store and search for Schoolzine to manually update.

If you are downloading the app for the first time, you will automatically receive the updated version.

The update features a new design and layout, with improved functionality and features. For more information about SZapp or for help installing SZapp, please see the instructions below.

If you have any questions regarding the release or experience any issues, contact us at szapp@schoolzine.com.au. Please include as much information as you can, including what device you are using, so we can assist you as quickly as possible.

Kindergarten Assembly

Last Friday the Kindergarten children performed the song 'Slipperyfish' at their assembly. We had lots of fish, whales, octopuses, sharks and tuna fish. The Kindergarten children looked amazing in the sea creature masks they made!

As we have been learning about Under the Sea this term we also told the audience lots of interesting facts about sea creatures, like; Dolphins sleep with one eye open! We were very clever at singing and speaking into the microphone and we had lots of fun!!

2016 Christmas Donations

This year’s Christmas donation collection was a great success! As a school we were able to collect over 850 items ranging from food to stationary for the Salvation Army’s Christmas Appeal. From all these donations, our community will be able to embrace the joy and harmony during this festive season. I would like to say thank you to all the families who donated this year and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Miss Angerson - Teacher

Santa Visit to Kindergarten

Our kindergarten students were yesterday treated to a visit from Santa. They were all very excited to meet him!

Somerly Art Show

The Somerly Art Show is taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday between 8.15pm and 3pm and Thursday morning this week. Please come along and view some of the amazing art work created by our students.

Learning Focus

Block 4

It is hard to believe that it is December already! This year’s end brings with it a tremendous sense of accomplishment that a fabulous amount of learning has taken place.

In Room 16, the students have been using the laptops in History to complete research on Australian Olympians. The students used a variety of sites including Wikipedia, Google maps and images to locate where these Olympians travelled to and mapped these places on their own world maps. They then took notes on these Olympians to write a report during our Big Write sessions. The students worked hard and thoroughly enjoyed these research projects.

In Room 17, the children have been immersing themselves with computer coding. Ms Mundy has been teaching the children how to use the program ‘Scratch’ using Ipads and laptops. The children had to design their own games aimed at a Year two target audience. They then collected data from the classes and used this to create their own particular game. We are looking forward to testing out the games this week.

In Room 18, we have been focusing on writing and the motivation to write. I recently attended a Professional Development Day and one of the major things that I took away with me was to use my classroom more effectively. That meant we now use our windows, door, cupboards and desks to write. The children and I have continued to use this strategy throughout the term and I have been highly impressed with their confidence and self-motivation to write.

December is always an exciting time for us in Block 4; we have been busy getting messy with papier mache, cooking, putting up our Christmas trees, singing carols and looking forward to our ‘Celebration of Learning party’ which will be held on Thursday in the afternoon.

Throughout the summer holidays we would like to encourage all our children to continue with daily reading (comic books, fairy tales, chapter books) and to take the time to unwind, enjoy the outdoors and just PLAY!

On behalf of Block 4 we wish all our families a very happy and safe Christmas and a fantastic New Year. We thank you for your continued support.

Mrs Grania Fawcett – Teacher Room 18

Music

I have to start by declaring that this is being written on the basis of having been at Somerly Primary School for 7 weeks and in a part-time capacity. However, since I had that as a time frame to work within the one big thing that I have harangued almost everyone from the pre-primary upwards has been to try and build a culture of singing as part the normal life of the school. A very simple thing, but a fundamental addition to the school culture. This meant singing as a class in every music lesson and building a repertoire of songs that we could sing as a whole school at our normal school assemblies on Fridays.

I’m really pleased to say that there has been a great response with student requesting to sing songs in class once they got used to it and above all coming to class expecting and looking forward to something as simple as this and we have already started on songs for next year's assemblies. Great times ahead!

Mr David Hardie – Music Teacher