5 April 2017

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents

End of Term

I would like to congratulate our staff, students and parents/carers for their outstanding contributions in term 1. Staff have worked tirelessly to provide a challenging and engaging educational programme to meet the needs of all students. Students have worked diligently and are always striving for improvement. It is wonderful to have such supportive parents/carers of our students and the programmes we have in place around the school.

Principal’s Lunch

Last Thursday the administration team had the pleasure of hosting our second Principal’s lunch for the year. The selected students were served a yummy lunch of hot beef and pork rolls and salad followed by an ice-cream.

Congratulations go to the students who were chosen by their teachers for displaying outstanding behaviour throughout the term.

ANZAC Day Ceremony

All parents and community members are invited to the school ANZAC ceremony on Friday 28th April, commencing at 9.00am behind the library around the schools commemorative garden. If anyone has any flowers they could donate for our wreath and displays, we would be most appreciative. If you are able to donate flowers they can be left at the office on Thursday 27th April.

School Uniform

As the weather is finally starting to cool down and becoming a bit chilly in the mornings a reminder to all parents and students that jackets/jumpers that are not Somerly Primary School uniform are not to be worn. Uniforms can be purchased from Lowes, located at Ocean Keys Shopping Centre.

New students

I would like to extend a warm welcome to Asante, Alisha and Alex who recently commenced at Somerly Primary School.

Holidays

As this is the last newsletter of the term, I want to wish all our families a safe and relaxing holiday break. We look forward to seeing you all return next term well rested and ready to go! Well done to all our students who have worked so hard this term.

A reminder that school returns on Wednesday 26th April.

Tracey Renton
Principal

Behaviour Focus

Our behaviour focus for Week 10 is:-

Responsibility;

Classroom:

• Be on time
• Have your equipment ready
• Ask for help when you need it
• Be honest
• Practice active listening
• Help others at the appropriate time

Merit Certificates

Room 2: Kruze and Luna-Rae; Room 3: Amber and Kaiya; Room 4: Billie and Osama; Room 7: Natalie and Jesse; Room 8: Tiane, Lattrell and Jade; Room 9: Rashid and Jaimee; Room 10: Alizay and Ella; Room 11: Drishya and Lilly; Room 12: Kaiden and Lucy; Room 13: Maria and Tayla; Room 14: Kai and Tyran; Room 15: Tyler and Lilly; Room 16: Julio and Jamie; Room 17: Riley and Jacinta; Room 18: Mia and Savannah; Room 20: Trinh and Milly; Room 23: Ella and Annabelle; LOTE: Mason – Room 14 and Room 12.

Somerly Stars!

Kindy enrolment for 2018

We are now taking Kindergarten applications for 2018, if you have a child that was born between 1 July 2013 and 30 June 2014 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.

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 9407 7142 or sending an SMS to 0437 480 486.

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.

Parent Parking

Somerly Primary School is very fortunate to have ample parking space provided for parent parking around the perimeter of the school. Unfortunately a minority of parents/carers are still parking in the “Staff Only” parking area, staff car park entrance and the disabled bays. This car park is out of bounds to parents and students.

A big thank you to the families who are parking in the correct areas.

VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS

We have 4 $50 Lowes vouchers to give away. For your chance to win, simply pay your Voluntary Contribution by the end of Term 1.

Thank you to those of you who have already paid your 2017 Voluntary Contribution.

Voluntary Contributions play a significant role in providing resources for students in the classroom. The continuing partnership between the school and parents is vital to ensuring that all students receive a level of education sufficient to carry them forward in today’s society. Voluntary Contributions are utilized to purchase books, resources and equipment for classroom use and to support our school in the delivery of quality educational programmes. To enable the school to continue to deliver our excellent educational programmes, we urge you to consider paying your Voluntary Contribution at your earliest convenience.

Voluntary Contributions for 2017 is set at $60. However, if you pay before the end of Term 1 you will receive a discount of $10.

You can pay by cash, cheque or EFTPOS in the front office any day between 8:30am and 3:30pm or you can pay by direct deposit to Commonwealth Bank – BSB 066 040 - Account No. 19902052. Please type surname and room number in description field as a reference.

Thank You.

Susan Rose
Manager Corporate Services

Foodbank Visit

On Tuesday the 14th of March, Foodbank visited Somerly Primary School and provided a cooking experience to Room 13 (Year 4) and Room 16 (Year 2). Room 13 participated in the Takeaway vs Homemade program and Room 16 participated in the Eat Like a Rainbow Snake program. Both programs taught the students about eating a balanced diet, making sure that they ate the right amount from each of the food groups. After this discussion the students broke into small groups. Each group were responsible for cooking a dish that would later be shared amongst their class. The Faster Pasta dish was a firm favourite in Room 13 and the Chilli Con Carne Wraps a favourite in Room 16. All the students thoroughly enjoyed this experience.

Mrs Gane - Room 16

Constable Care Incursion

Protective Behaviours was the theme for the Constable Care Incursion held on Tuesday, 21st March. The themes were specifically chosen to support our Health curriculum specifically the Protective Behaviours program. Protective Behaviours is a child abuse prevention program that is a requirement in all schools.

The Kindy to Year 3 students watched an interactive puppet show called 'Fun Scary'. Students learned about the difference between 'Fun Scary' and 'Bad Scary' and enjoyed the engaging show and quiz. The Year 4 to 6 students watched an interactive play called 'Screen Name'. The students really enjoyed the performance and they provided a great opportunity for discussion and learning around being safe online.

Learning Focus

Robot Wars

Throughout the term, Room 7 students have been exploring coding and robotics. We have investigated how to use Edison Robots and completed various challenges to help us develop our problem-solving skills and "debugging" abilities. We had lots of fun programming the Edisons to respond to our claps to drive, to follow a light source and to track a line. It was interesting to develop tracks and see which specific features our Edisons responded to best. In our latest challenge, we were asked to collaborate with a partner and design a "shell" for the Edison from Lego, which would help our robot to win a sumo wrestling competition. Our completed robots featured in a short media clip, which can be viewed on the Somerly YouTube channel at:

Mrs Jodie Brown

Physical Education

This term in Physical Education the Upper Primary has focused on the sports of T-ball, Cricket, Basketball and Speedball.

Through our Sporting Schools Grant, students in years 5 and 6 were able to choose the sport they would like to focus on and be trained by specialist coaches. Over 4 weeks the students learnt a lot from the specialists about all aspects of their chosen sport. This then led into the Interschool Carnival where selected students played against Clarkson and Merriwa Primary Schools for T-ball, Speedball and Basketball. The Cricket team played at Butler College against 12 schools from the northern suburbs.

Somerly had some great results with our Speedball teams winning their competition, Basketball and T-ball teams placed 2nd and Cricket placed 9th against some highly skilled teams.

All the staff and spectators were very impressed with the level of sportsmanship showed by the students, which made it an enjoyable day for all involved.

Music

"WELCOME TO THE MUSIC ROOM!

To all the staff, students and parents of Somerly Primary School I would like to say a heartfelt thank you for making me feel so welcome in the final weeks of Term 1.

My name is Miss Olsen and I am the new Music Specialist at Somerly Primary School. It has been an exciting few weeks getting to know all the students at Somerly and I am looking forward to see what the rest of 2017 will bring.

Chances are you will hear the Music Room before you see it! The students have been experimenting with sound and exploring the instruments in the Music Room in the morning as well as during Music. It has been fantastic to see so many students excited about playing the drums, keyboards, ukuleles, guitars and basically anything that makes noise which will make learning next term very exciting! As well as this, they have been learning concepts based on the elements of music and use of technology with music!

On Friday, Somerly Primary School will have its first ever “Community Song” where the whole school learns one song to sing at the assembly. This fortnight’s community song is the, “RESPECT RAP”! “RESPECT R-E-S-P-E-C-T - I give it to you! And you give it to me! RESPECT R-E-S-P-E-C-T - You got to treat people respectfully”. Each fortnight there will be a new Community Song which you will be able to find in the newsletter, so watch this space!

I wish everyone at Somerly a safe and happy holidays, and look forward to seeing you in Term 2.

Miss Olsen! "

LOTE TERM 1.

The Year 3's have begun learning Italian with wonderful enthusiasm! For example: Marco in Ms Moore's class - " I want to learn lots and lots of Italian words!" Rowan in Ms Pavlinovich's class - "How do you say my name in Italian?" Trinh in Mrs West's class - "I know how to say the numbers up to ten in Italian!"

The Year 3's have learnt how to count to ten, say the colours and use common greetings. It has been a joy to teach these learning enthusiasts.

The students in Years 4-6 have been studying the topic of Carnevale. Carnevale occurs in Italy prior to Easter and is the largest and most popular winter festival in the world. The students made beautiful Carnevale masks using a variety of art materials. The students had lots of fun using the masks to talk to each other in Italian.

The next main festival in both Italy and Australia is Easter. I wish all the families a Buona Pasqua! Happy Easter!

Chaplain Chat

Farewell Somerly

My time at Somerly has come to an end. Thank you for a warm welcome you all gave me in my time here at Somerly. I have connected with Students, Staff and Parents on multiple levels and it’s been a privilege to work with you all.

Reflection on Chaplaincy at Somerly

Global Heart Mentors successfully completed another year of mentoring workshops and is up and running to do it all again this year.

“Lego Club” had some great gains with students in the areas of team work and self-confidence and still continues to run every Tuesday lunch time.

A Peer Mediation Program was successfully coordinated and run out and the students chosen demonstrated an outstanding interest in wanting to be a part of their school community throughout the training. The new selection process is underway for this year.

The games room has been open most Tuesday and Fridays where it has bridged a platform for me to be able to get to know students on a more personal level and learn how I can support them more by the numerous insightful one-on-one conversations that have come from being in that space with them.

The one on ones and personalised programs have also allowed me to assist and support both the students and the staff in creating a common goal. In these one-on-one programs I have seen some great gains with students in moments of self-reflection and awareness. Thank you to all the teachers and parents who reached out to ask for support - it’s been great working with these students and offering my support where I can.

I am looking forward to hearing how the next Somerly Primary School Chaplain makes an impact and contributes to the community spirit that thrives here at Somerly.

I pray you all have a blessed journey as your students go through their schooling years always remembering you and your young people are never alone and support is always available.

Blessings,

Lauren D’Castro

P & C