23 August 2017

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents/Caregivers

Principals’ Lunch

On Tuesday 9th August the administration team had the pleasure of hosting the first Principals’ lunch for this term. The selected students were served a yummy lunch of spaghetti bolognaise, garlic bread and ice cream. Congratulations go to the students who were chosen by their teachers for displaying outstanding behaviour throughout the term.

Choir

On Saturday morning the school choir had the honour of singing the National Anthem at the W.A.Council of State School Organisations Inc. (WASSCO) Conference being held at Crown Convention Centre. All choir members sang beautifully and were a credit to themselves. I wish to thank Miss Olsen for her awesome effort in organising the performance and Ms Pavlinovich and parents for supporting Miss Olsen and the students on the day.

Sports Carnival Faction

A reminder to all parents that our Sports Carnival will be held on Friday 1st September. We look forward to seeing lots of parents coming along to support their child/ren in the day’s events. We have a limited number of faction shirts for sale, the shirts are $10 each and can be purchased from the front office.

Please see timetable for events below.

The P&C will be running a sausage sizzle and hamburger stall throughout the day of the carnival. No pre-orders are necessary. If you are able to spare an hour to assist with the cooking on the day, please contact the front office. Any help, no matter how big or small is greatly appreciated.

NAPLAN

If your child is currently in year 3 or 5 and sat the NAPLAN assessment in May this year, they will be bringing home their individual report this week. The report shows how your child is performing compared to all Australian students, students within the school and in relation to the national minimum standard. If you have any questions in regards to your child’s results please contact the school on 9407 7142.

Website

Our much awaited new web site has gone live. Follow the link below to view the website.

New Students

I would like to extend a warm welcome to Baylen and Jessica who recently commenced at Somerly Primary School.

Tracey Renton
Principal

Behaviour Focus

Our behaviour focus for Week 6 is:-

RESPONSIBILITY:

LIBRARY

• Use shelf markers
• Return your books on time
• Keep your book in a library bag
• We put our books back on the shelf

Merit Certificates

Room 1: Kiean, Jaylah and Mason; Room 2: Braxton and Dylan; Room 3: Arjae and Abraham; Room 4: Lincoln and Cahil; Room 7: Bree and Alex; Room 8: Jackie and Kyle; Room 9: A’Janae and Jacob; Room 11: Ashley and Ywa Hae Tha; Room 12: Aliyah and Gabriel; Room 13: Kaelah and Damen; Room 14: Angus and Emily; Room 15: Shehbaz and Jasper; Room 16: Ethan and Universe; Room 18: Oliver and Ainara; Room 23: Wendel and Bianca

SOMERLY STARS!

Kindy Enrolment for 2018

Kindergarten enrolments for 2018 are due to close shortly. 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.

If you know someone who has a child due to start Kindergarten next year, please let them know that enrolments are open.

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.

Swimming Lessons

Payment for swimming lessons is now due. If you have not already done so, please complete the consent forms, return this to the classroom teacher and arrange for payment to be made by cash, EFTPOS at the front office or by direct deposit to Commonwealth
Bank – BSB 066040 – Account Number: 19902052.

Choir

On Saturday the 19th of August, the Somerly Primary School Choir attended the 83rd Annual WACSSO Conference at the Crown Convention Centre.

The students met at school in the morning and travelled via bus to the Crown Convention Centre where they opened the WACSSO conference by singing the Australian National Anthem to over 400 people! The choir did an amazing job! Following this, they had some yummy morning tea before getting back on the bus and commuting back to school.

Miss Olsen would like to thank Mrs Renton and Mrs Pavlinovich for assisting on the day, as well as all the parents and students who were involved. Miss Olsen is extremely proud of the choir and is looking forward to more performance opportunities for the choir and music students at Somerly Primary School.

Miss Olsen – Music Teacher

Nunzio Returns to Somerly

Our students were once again treated to authentic delicious woodfired pizza prepared by Nunzio! Wearing his special chef’s hat and engaging smile the students also enjoyed his vibrant personality. A vast range of pizza was cooked to perfection and Nunzio and his wife worked at amazing speed to ensure that the students received their hot pizza. Thank you to all teachers and administration staff for their assistance with the Incursion.

Mrs McCulloch – LOTE Specialist

Kapahaka Assembly

During our week 4 assembly, we were treated to a performance from our Somerly Primary School Kapahaka group. It was a delightful performance and our students did us proud! Big thanks go to Miss Mundy who dedicates so much time and effort to our Kapahaka group.

Mr Mark Folkard MLA, our local Member of Parliament also attended our assembly to present our new school flags. Thank you Mr Folkard.

Mrs Susan Rose, Somerly Primary School Manager Corporate Services was recognised at our assembly for her outstanding service, dedication, loyalty and commitment to our whole school environment. Congratulations once again Sue.

Waste Wise Update

Thank you to everyone who has kindly brought in items for our Terracycle Recycling Program. The students have been amazing with some bringing in a bag of items on the very first day we started!

Please be sure that the things you bring in are on the poster - empty beauty product boxes, dental hygiene items and the big plastic and padded Australia Post envelopes.

An easy item to remember is your empty shampoo and conditioner bottles- if everyone could bring those in some time this term, we will reach our 1000 item target in no time! We have 118 items so far and 5 weeks to go.

Many thanks.

Rhiannon Bartley - Art Specialist

Woolworths Earn & Learn 2017

Dear Parents

This year we will be participating in the Woolworths Earn & Learn program. Through this program we will be able to get new educational resources for our school and all we need you to do is shop for your groceries at Woolworths.

From Wednesday 26th July to Tuesday 19th September or while stock lasts, we are collecting Woolworths Earn & Learn Stickers. You will get one Woolworths Earn & Learn Sticker for every $10 spent (excluding liquor, tobacco and gift cards). Place the Woolworths Earn & Learn Sticker onto a Woolworths Earn & Learn Sticker Sheet and when it’s complete, the Sticker Sheet can be dropped into the Collection Box here at the school or at your local Woolworths.

At the end of the promotion, we’ll be able to get some great new equipment. The range is extensive and offers lots of items ideal for our students – including resources for Maths, English, Science and some fantastic fun supplies for Arts & Craft, Sport and for our library. If you’d like to know more visit the link below. A link to the sticker sheet can be accessed below if you require this.

Learning Focus

Year 1 Math Problem Solvers ROCK!

Solving maths word problems can be tricky and very frustrating for students from all year levels. The problem is that solving maths word problems requires a deeper level of understanding than the automatic recall of number facts or the memorisation of math concepts, and for these reasons many students will give up when trying to solve word problems, or even, refuse to try because they think they are not smart enough! (Just so you know EVERYONE is SMART at maths and there is no such thing as a maths brain!)

Unfortunately, many children wrongly think that being good at maths is determined by how fast they can come up with an answer, so myself and the Year 1 Teachers have been teaching the students that being good at maths is so much more. We have been helping the students build their levels of confidence, perseverance and risk-taking to show them that ‘Good Mathematicians’ make mistakes as well as get the right answer!

Researchers have found that students struggle with solving word problems because it involves a higher order level of thinking than the recall of information. Problem solving involves a series of steps. Professor Anne Newman’s research into successful problem solving found that students who were successful at problem solving followed a series of 5 steps, including:

1. Reading
2. Understanding
3. Transformation
4. Processing
5. Encoding

She came up with 5 prompts that we use with the students during problem solving:

1. “Read the question to yourself. If you don’t know a word, leave it out or use another word.”
2. “Tell me what the question is asking you to find out.”
3. “What could you do to get the answer?”
4. “Try to answer the question and explain to me what you’re thinking.”
5. “Write your answer. Does it make sense? Have you answered what was being asked?”

We have all found that using these questions has really helped the Year 1’s to be more successful and positive about problem solving! Now they realise that there’s more to it than just the right answer. More of the students take part and can reach the correct solution! Give it a try yourself!

Check out this powerpoint

Remember Maths is Fun..ny!

Mrs Vikki Longthorn - Numeracy Coach & Level 3 Teacher

P & C

We're Fundraising with The Entertainment Book

Order forms can be collected from the school office.

Alternatively, you can order your book or your Digital Membership securely online by visiting the link below

Books are available immediately and can be collected from the school office.

20% from every membership sold contributes to supporting our fundraising.

Community Notices

Kurlangas Aboriginal Playgroup

This term we will be looking at the numbers 1-5 and the colours red, yellow, blue and green.

We will have coloured playdough, make collages and cellophane windows, do paintings and pasta gluing.

A lot of our work will be based around the “Very Hungry Caterpillar” book.

Please note our new time of 12.30pm-2.30pm. Playgroup is FREE, and held every Wednesday at Somerly Primary School during term times, for Aboriginal children up to 5yrs of age and their carers.

An afternoon tea of fresh fruit is provided for the children, and tea, coffee and biscuits for the adults. You do not need to have a child attending this school to attend.

Hope to see you there!

Aboriginal Early Years Team