7 February 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents/Caregivers

Welcome to the 2018 school year. We look forward to another great year at Somerly Primary School. We are very fortunate to have a dedicated and supportive staff. Everyone from the cleaners, office staff, education assistants and teachers have worked incredibly hard before school commenced to ensure a smooth start for all students. The new year has been very encouraging with students settling very quickly and staff establishing their routines, ensuring a positive start for all.

I would like to extend a warm welcome to several new staff members:

Mrs Jessica Mason – Kindergarten
Miss Louise Bernau– Pre-Primary
Mrs Taryn Jackson – Year 1/2
Miss Katia Bue – Year 3
Miss Jessica Mann – Year 3

Teacher Parent Note

Within the forthcoming week all teachers will send home a detailed note outlining their teaching programme, behaviour strategies and expectations. Should you have any queries with regards to this information provided please contact the school on 6206 4200.

Pre Primary, Year One and Year Two On-entry Assessment Programs

Letters are coming home to parents with children in Pre Primary, Year 1 and Year 2 explaining the On-Entry Assessments that will occur between weeks 3 and 6. Please read these letters to gain a better understanding behind the programs. Once the assessments are complete a written report will be sent home to parents. If you have any questions please call the office on 6206 4200.

Independent Public School

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 to be actively involved in the application process please contact the school on 6206 4200.

Voluntary Contributions

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 2018 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 credit card in the front office any day between 8:30am and 3:30pm alternatively you can pay by direct deposit to Commonwealth Bank – BSB 066 040 - Account No. 19902052. Please enter the student surname and room number in description field as a reference.

Tracey Renton
Principal

Behaviour Focus

Our behaviour focus for Week 2 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

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 6206 4200 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.

Attendance

Did You Know? – Developing the habit of going to school every day is vitally important so your child does not miss out on important ideas, concepts, knowledge and skills they need for future learning. Going to school every day helps children learn the important life skill of ‘showing up’ – at school, at work, to sport and other commitments.

Somerly Primary School recognises that students should attend school on a regular basis to gain the maximum benefit from schooling in order to optimise their life opportunities. Research shows that for a maximum transfer of knowledge 95% attendance is necessary. Attendance rates lower than 95% will impact on academic standards. At Somerly Primary School there is an expectation students will attend on a regular basis. It is our intent to support all families to develop positive attitudes towards school attendance.

What Should I do If My Child Is Sick?

A student’s absence must be explained by the parent or caregiver only.

This can be done by

1. SMS – Send an SMS to advise of your child’s absence and the reason to 0437 480 486 before 9am
2. Make a phone call to the front office advising staff of the reason for your child’s absence.
   Telephone: 6206 4200
3. Send a note upon your child’s return.
4. Verbally discuss the reasons with the teacher.
5. Send an email.

Regards.

Zoe Stenhouse
Deputy Principal

SCHOOL PHOTO DAY IS COMING!

Dear Parents,

Our school photo day is coming! Approximately two weeks prior to the photo day every student will receive a Kapture Photography order envelope to bring home. The recommended method of ordering your photos is online through Kapture’s website as your payment is secure and can be easily verified at any time. If you pay online, there is no need to return the order envelope to school.

Alternatively you can pay by cash and return the provided envelope to the school on the photography day. Please note the photographers cannot open sealed envelopes and cannot provide change.

You also have the option to order a sibling photo package online, however please note sibling orders will close at least one day before photo day. We suggest you place your online sibling order as soon as you receive your order envelope with your order instructions.

Log on to kapture.com.au for your sibling photo order cut-off date and time.

Late requests cannot be granted.

Late payment envelopes cannot be accepted by the school office or by Kapture. You can place an order online for class or individual photographs at any time for the remainder of the current school year however a $15 fee will apply if you order more than 10 days after photography.

If your child is in a sports or special group photo, you can use the same school code on your order envelope to view and order these photos on Kapture’s website, around the time that school photos are ready to be delivered. Please note; Class group, individual and sibling portraits are not available to view online.

Kapture offer a money back guarantee for any parent who is not fully satisfied with their photo package. Should you have any queries before or after photo day, please direct them to the Kapture office on 9240 1714 or email enquiries@kapture.com.au.

All students will be photographed individually on photo day for school administration records AS WELL as included in their class group photo available for purchase to all families. Should there be any reason why your child should NOT be included in the photo shoot –please contact the school office.

Gymbaroo

GYMBAROO FOR KINDERGARTEN AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS: THE UNLOCKING POTENTIAL (UP) PROGRAM

ABOUT THE UNLOCKING POTENTIAL PROGRAM

Unlocking Potential is a unique sensorimotor movement program specifically designed for Australian primary schools. This program focuses on motor skill development and draws on the latest research to assist the stimulation of brain development important to learning, skill development and behaviour. GymbaROO firmly believe that all students need to be given the opportunity to lay the crucial neurological building blocks essential for learning and thus given the chance to reach their optimum level of both mental and physical function. This program proposes to unlock the potential for all children.

Your teachers have attended a comprehensive training program run by professionally qualified GymbaROO consultants allowing the school to run the daily program throughout the next 5 years. Children from Kindergarten to Year 2 have been chosen to participate.

WHAT WILL THE CHILDREN BE DOING AS PART OF THE PROGRAM?

The UP Program is a 25 minute daily lesson of activities that will involve students removing their shoes, including

• Fun warm up activities
• Specific developmental movement exercises
• Body awareness games, dance, group games
• Relaxation

The activities will be done every day as a block or split into shorter segments depending on the classroom teachers and daily routines.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF DOING THE PROGRAM?

The UP Program has been trialled in 5 Australian schools so far and the results are very exciting. Children doing the daily program have shown improvements in:

• Learning ability
• NAPLAN results
• Classroom and playground behaviour
• Concentration
• Handwriting
• Letter reversals
• Ability to follow instructions
• Coordination
• Fitness
• Overall happiness and enjoyment of school

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT YOUR CHILD?

It is important for children to enjoy the program and participate every day for the best results. If your child does not want to participate please speak to your teacher as activities can be adapted to suit.

Your teacher may send home “Movement Homework” in the form of the simple exercises. These will be explained to the children and instructions included for them to do at home. The more often children repeat these exercises the better their results.

Tracey Renton
PRINCIPAL

Chaplain Chat

Good day everyone

I would just like to introduce myself to you all. My name is Marilize Basson (Miss B to the kids - just to make it easier). I am your new Chaplain at Somerly Primary and I am really looking forward to get to know you all. My plan is to spend my first weeks making myself familiar with students, staff, parents and your beautiful school.

A bit about myself - I was born in a small town in South Africa where I completed my primary and secondary years. After that I obtained my Social Work degree and worked as a Social worker for about 18 years before me and my familiy emigrated to Australia in 2012.

I will be at Somerly Primary every Tuesday and Friday and am hoping that I will get to know all of you.

Please don't hesitate to give me a call if you just want to have a chat, have any questions at all or if you would just like to know what I do. And if you see me on the playground, please come and say hello.

I am looking forward to all the wonderful possibilities this year may bring as well as to meet all of you.

Marilize Basson – School Chaplain

Peter Combe is coming to Somerly Primary School!

Consent forms and payment for our Peter Combe incursion are due by Friday 11th February 2018.

Toddler Reading Group

Parents with young children are invited to our Toddler Reading group on Wednesday mornings between 9:00am and 9:30am. You will be able to read some beautiful picture books with your child, there will be a fun craft activity and your child can borrow a book to take home for the week. I look forward to meeting you there.

Natalie Hughes
School Librarian

Learning Focus

Maths

Happy MMXV111 everyone!

It is so good to be back and I am very excited to be continuing my role as Numeracy Coach this year at Somerly. I can’t wait to get involved with all the maths that is going on around the school this year – it is going to be AWESOME!

One of the things we are focussing on this term is making our students feel safe as learners. We know that many of our students think that being good at maths means that you can’t make mistakes. This is NOT true and to improve and get better at something you need to make LOTS of mistakes. We will be working with the students on changing this mindset so that they will feel brave enough to have a go, take a risk, challenge themselves and make LOTS and LOTS of mistakes.

Our biggest challenge as educators, carers and parents is to help our students build up resilience and the ability to ‘bounce back’ when they experience failure!

Did you know that failure is really a good thing in School?

The brain grows every time we make a mistake! So, if you are getting everything right first time then you’re not learning anything new.

We started the first week back by sharing this message with the students. As well as this, teachers have been creating maths activities, opportunities and investigations that promote mathematical thinking and lots of mistake-making in maths sessions. We have also been retraining students’ thinking to see the importance of making mistakes and how to deal with the feelings of failure.

The research shows that too many students often don’t achieve to the best of their abilities in the maths class because they are afraid to get something wrong and they feel anxious and embarrassed if they fail at something, so they just avoid taking part.

During our workshop we learnt about encouraging a growth mindset in our students and the importance of making mistakes and failing.

We then compared this fixed mindset about learning maths to the growth mindset of athletes. In the world of sports, mistakes and failure are seen as important to success. Athletes, sportsmen and sportswomen, spend hours learning new skills which also involves hours of making mistakes and failing! They NEVER give up and they use the failure to help them improve. This mindset is what we are working on with our students in the maths class and we hope that YOU can help too!

Remember, to be successful you need to:

Fail EARLY…
Fail OFTEN…
Fail FORWARD…

Mrs Vikki Longthorn - Numeracy Coach

ICT

Welcome back to 2018! This term there will be a big focus on the Design Curriculum while incorporating digital technologies. Teachers will be concentrating on student creativity by exploring the role of people working in Design and Technology and their products and then thinking of how technology might change in the future. Design Technology also focuses on students creating new products for a particular function that would improve society today such as a motor-powered skate board. Teachers will also be continuing with supporting student development in the use of different digital technologies in the school such as iPads, Laptops, Robotic components and different software they provide. To support your child at home you can investigate the Word, Power Point and Excel programs, play robotic games such as code.org, the Foos and Kodable and particularly for the lower years, support the students to locate the letters of the alphabet on the keyboard.

P & C