21 February 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents/Caregivers

Students have had a wonderful start to the 2018 school year. As I have visited classes it has been great to see rigorous learning occurring as well as the high level of engagement of all students. A common characteristic of successful schools is the provision of a positive, engaging and challenging learning environment and it is really pleasing to see this exemplified at Somerly Primary School.

Harmony Day – Can you help?

We are looking for a parent/community member that has a drone and is able to take an aerial photo on Wednesday 21st March.

As part of our celebrations for Harmony Day, we would like all students to wear the colour orange to school (recognised colour for Harmony Day) we will be forming a human letter H on the oval to enable an aerial shot to be taken. If you are able to assist with the photography can you please contact the school on 6206 4200.

Details of additional Harmony Day activities will be released in the coming weeks.

Parents & Citizens Annual General Meeting

The P&C held their Annual General Meeting on Monday 15th February. As is customary at the meeting, attendees voted in the Office Bearers and Executive members for 2018.

Our Office Bearers for 2018 are:

President - Tania Stern
Vice President - Chenara Braysher
Secretary - Nishita Shah
Treasurer - Jodie Osman
Fundraising - Hayley Galluzzo

Executive Committee:

1. Kristy McDonnell
2. Danielle Hutchings
3. Mira Ivanova

School Council

We are calling for members of the School Council 2018.

The major focus for the School Council this year will be to ensure the school has all the necessary practices and protocols in place to best enable the school in becoming an Independent Public School in 2019

Other tasks for the council also include:

• Establishing and reviewing the school’s priorities and general policy directions
• Financial planning
• Evaluation of the school’s performance
• Promotion of the school throughout the wider community
• The approval of charges, contributions and fees, items for personal use and advertising and sponsorship.

Our first School Council meeting will be held on Wednesday 7th March at 2:00pm, we would love to welcome any new members.

Why we wear broad brimmed hats

As a SunSmart School, we request that all students wear a broad-brimmed hat as part of our uniform for the following reason:

Skin cancer rates in Australia

Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world. About two in three Australians will be diagnosed with some form of skin cancer before the age of 70. Skin cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in Australia. More than 12,000 cases of melanoma are diagnosed each year, with the highest incidence in people over 40, especially men. It is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in people aged 15–29. Most skin cancers occur around the head and neck area - areas exposed when wearing a cap.

Evidence suggests that childhood exposure to UV radiation contributes significantly to the development of skin cancer in later life. Educating school children and reducing their UV exposure is expected to have a major impact on the future incidence of skin cancer in Australia.

Tracey Renton
Principal

Merit Certificates

Room 1: Leigha and Raiden; Room 2: Eva and Curtis-James; Room 4: Aizayr and Chiara; Room 7: Zac and Jade; Room 8: Kai and Lily; Room 9: Liam and Layla; Room 10: Marshall and Masei; Room 11: Kevin and Ethan; Room 12: Leiara and Lars; Room 14: Kiah and Danika; Room 15: Mia and Ruby; Room 16: Oliver and Gwen; Room 18: Jessica and Kyle; Room 23: Thomas; Physical Education: Hayley, Harmony and Room 2; LOTE: Room 14 and Marcus.

Behaviour Focus

Our behaviour focus for Week 4 is:-

RESPONSIBILITY;

TOILET

• Keep toilets clean and tidy
• Wait your turn patiently
• We put rubbish in the bin
• We go into the toilets to use the toilets
• We report problems or any mess to the teacher

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.

Road Safety

It has been brought to our attention that students are not using the dedicated crossing area on Connolly Drive when travelling to and from school. Connolly Drive is an extremely busy dual carriageway and our students’ safety is of paramount importance. Please take the time to discuss road safety with your children, especially crossing our roads, using the designated traffic wardens who are now available before and after school and keeping to footpaths when arriving at school.

SCHOOL PHOTO DAY IS COMING!

Dear Parents,

Our school photo day is coming! All students should have received a Kapture Photography order envelope. 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.

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.

The photo day schedule is as follows:

Peter Combe Visit

On Tuesday 13th February, we had the pleasure of receiving a visit from Peter Combe. Peter Combe is a well-known child entertainer with such hits as Mr Clicketty Cane (Wash Your Face in Orange Juice), News Paper Mumma, Toffee Apple and many more. The students, teachers and parents thoroughly enjoyed joining in and singing along to all of the songs.

Chaplain Chat

MEET YOUR CHAPLAIN DAY

Friday 2nd March 2018

Good day Parents

Please join me for a cuppa and a friendly chat straight after Assembly next Friday in the Chaplain's room ( room 21).

Looking forward to meeting you all.

Have a great week.

Marilize

Learning Focus

Art

This Semester in Art students will be extending their understanding about how artworks can represent the world and creating art that represents their own ideas and experiences. Students will be sharing their artworks with peers and providing responses to each other’s work.

As they make and respond to artworks, students will explore meaning and interpretation, forms and processes, and social and cultural contexts of the Arts. They will make early evaluations of artworks expressing what they like and why.

To support their skill development at home, you can provide your child with a variety of resources and materials to explore:

• Suggest drawing from an experience to include as much information as they can. ‘What was the most interesting part that we can show? How did you feel? How can you show that? What did you see? What were we standing on- grass, sand etc? What was in the sky- trees, birds, clouds? What kind of weather was it, and how can we show that?’
• Develop your child’s ability to think about detail, proportion and perspective by looking at other artworks in books, the newspaper, or photos. Encourage them to look closely in a mirror or look at family photos. Check over their pictures together- ‘Have you included all parts of your face? Have you included all parts of your body?’ ‘Have you shown the foreground (front), mid-ground (middle) and background?’
• Give appreciation statements including Elements of Art language: line, shape, colour, texure for juniors, plus form, space and value for older children. We use a ‘Two Stars and a Wish’ structure- say two things that you like and positively suggest one thing to think about e.g. ‘I love the way you created hair using long lines. I appreciate the way you have used bright colours. One thing to think about is have you included all parts of your face?’

Please feel free to send in photos of you and your child engaging in Art activities at home or in the community for our Art in Society photo board. It is always great to hear about children’s experiences, whether you’ve been to see an interesting movie with amazing animation or you have a picture together by a sculpture or street art. We enjoy sharing and responding to experiences of art around us. Similarly, if you are an artist yourself and you would like to share photos of the skills and processes you use, please feel free to get in touch.

If you have any queries you’re welcome to contact me through the front office.

Our junior students have been creating beautiful artwork inspired by 'The Crow's Tale' and 'Deep in the Woods.' We have also taken time to write little letters to thank people who brighten our lives!

Rhiannon Bartley
Art Specialist

Literacy

Reading is ‘brainfood’

A child who reads for 20 minutes a day, for 5 days a week will be reading for 87 hours a year and will reap HUGE LEARNING BENEFITS.

This year begins with a whole school focus on Guided Reading. All students will have regular lessons where their teacher will model a reading strategy using an engaging text and then students will practice the strategy with a text at their own reading level.

There are many strategies we use when we read and teachers are working hard to ensure the children have these tools at their disposal.

On March 28th we will be hosting a Literacy morning where we would we love you to pop into your child’s class and see these Literacy lessons in action! There will be more information nearer the time.

Students in Year 3 have been focusing making connections to texts. Relating to what we read helps us to read more easily. The children are learning to connect events and characters in books to their own personal experiences (text to self), to other books, movies, stories (text to text) and to news and events in the world around them (text to world).

P & C