22 May 2019

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents/Caregivers

Tell Them from Me Parent Survey

Thank you to all the families who completed the ‘Tell Them from Me’ survey last term. We have just received the results and have spent some time reflecting on these. Please find below the ‘mean average’ for Somerly Primary School for each category. The score provided is out of 10. I have also included the ‘regional mean average’ so we can see how Somerly Primary School compares to other schools.

Areas of strength

• School supports positive behaviour – it was pleasing to see that our Positive Primary Behaviour (PBS) processes are having a great impact on the learning environment. Students engage lessons based on Respect, Responsibility and Safety.
• Safety at School
• Parents feel welcome

Area of focus

• Following staff reflection, we want to improve the category of ‘parents are informed’, particularly in regards to students’ academic progress and social/emotional development. We are currently researching models of best practice in this area and I will inform you of future developments via our Newsletter.

Uniforms

With the mornings now being very chilly, we are encouraging all students to wear their school jacket or jumper to school as only Somerly Primary School jackets or plain black jumpers/jackets are acceptable. The school jacket can be purchased from Uniform Concepts Nell Gray, 5/7 Delage Street, Joondalup, WA 6027. Please ensure jackets are labelled with your child’s name to avoid them being placed in lost property.

NAIDOC Excursion

As part of our NAIDOC Week this year we will be taking the whole school on an excursion to Kings Park. The excursion will be spread over 3 days Tuesday 2nd July to Thursday 4th July with each class attending on one of these days. The students will be involved in educational programs looking at the Nyoongar culture as well as experiencing the Rio Tinto Naturescape. The cost of the excursion is $20, which covers the cost of the educational programs and transport. Payment is due no later than Friday 28th June 2019. Please refer to the Consent Form for more information.

Indigenous Breakfast – Thursday 13th June 2019

We would like to invite all indigenous students and their families to join us for pancakes on Thursday 13th June, from 8:00am in the staffroom.

New students

I would like to extend a warm welcome to Leah, Frances, Memphis and Antonio who recently commenced at Somerly Primary School.

Andrew Britton
A/Principal

Merit Certificates

Room 1: Amelia and Abdulhamed; Room 2: Enaj and Bailey; Room 3: Enzo and Lily; Room 4: Matthew, William and Rylan; Room 7: Naman, Ashlee and Finlay; Room 8: Dani and Laken; Room 9: Dudi and Tan; Room 10: Gabriel and Lily; Room 11: Aisha and Chisanga; Room 12: Osama and Kahcyn; Room 13: Ebony, Evie and Mwila; Room 14: Dziah and Jay; Room 15: Ivy and Liam; Room 16: Eva and Keeley; Room 17: Kulijah and Klarissa; Room 18: Thomas and Thiana; Room 23: Maya and Chase; Music: Madalyn – Rm.14, Mia – Rm.14, Amber – Rm. 14 and Room 7; LOTE: Chisanga – Rm.11, Bruce – Rm.9 and Room 14

Stars

Behaviour Focus

Our behaviour focus for Week 4 is: RESPECT

CLASSROOM

• We obtain permission to use others equipment
• We respect other people’s opinions, ideas and everyone learns differently.
• We treat other people’s equipment with respect.

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, sending an SMS to 0437 480 486 or emailing somerly.ps@education.wa.edu.au.

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.

48 hours only Now is the perfect time to purchase your new Entertainment Membership! Not only will you be supporting Somerly Primary School, but you will also enjoy FREE POSTAGE. Hurry, offer ends 9am 24th May 2019 (AEST)!

Kindergarten Enrolments 2020

We are now taking Kindergarten applications for 2020. If you have a child that was born between 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2016 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 History Statement letter 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.

Please click on the link below to access the Application for Enrolment for Kindergarten in 2020.

Woolworths Earn & Learn

Woolworths has just launched Earn & Learn, and we're once again taking part. For those parents who aren't aware of the program, if you shop at Woolworths between 1st of May and the 25th of June you can earn stickers. Our school will be collecting these stickers which we'll be able to swap for new school equipment; things like art and craft supplies, sports gear, teaching aids and more.

So for any parents who shop at Woolworths, please collect the stickers and drop them in to our collection boxes, which are located in our school library or at Woolworths in Ocean Keys Shopping Centre.

The Fathering Project

Thank you to the families that joined us for an afternoon of fun, creativity and conversation on Wednesday 15th May. We enjoyed drawing collaborative pictures as a team, and families worked together to make some awesome ink prints. I was very impressed with how quickly everyone created their designs, and how beautifully they came together when printing! They look fantastic!

Our next Fathering Project is bound to be amazing with our ICT guru Miss Mundy. It is scheduled for late Term 3. More information will be released early next term.

Learning Focus

ReadingEggs/ReadingEggspress Update!

Thank you to all those parents who are supporting their children to regularly complete the expected 20 minutes per night homework using the Reading Eggs program.

The program supports all readers from those beginning to make letter to sound correspondence right up to those who are reading and comprehending more complex texts.

The improvements made by students who are regularly reading AND completing the aligned lessons is fantastic!!

Each Monday morning assembly, selected students receive a certificate in front of the whole school, that recognises their perseverance and progress.

Since the program was introduced, our students have

• read over 5000 books
• completed over 3000 reading lessons - with an average test score of 86%
• earned over 272 gold certificates
• been reading for over 2000 hours

And yet….we can do better!

The Somerly expectation is that ALL STUDENTS read from the program at home on a regular basis.

Just like when you are reading a paper book with your child, they will need you to sit with them, guide them through the activities and discuss the text.

Ivy in Year 1 has made fabulous progress in reading by regularly using the reading program at home, to supplement the learning she is doing in school.

She has completed 87 lessons and achieved an average score of 95% in the online quiz which concludes the lessons.

Ivy has read over 7000 words and has made a wonderful reading growth of 288 Lexile points!!!

Ivy says “It’s fun” to use Reading Eggs at home, even though sometimes “mum makes me do it”.

Ivy likes to read animal stories and says “I feel happy when I read.”

Remember

Reading is important, because if you can read, you can learn anything about everything and everything about anything. —Tomie dePaola

Art News

Pre-Primary and Year 1 students have been experimenting with painting different lines and printing patterns on paper to create colourful collage beetles, flowers and chameleons.

Year 2 students have been focusing on tessellating shapes and symmetry, creating whimsical, symmetrical ‘Imaginary Friends.’

Year 3 students are learning about tints and shades, painting a beautiful monochromatic background for a selected sea creature.

Year 4 students have been developing their clay techniques to create awesome Big Mouth creatures out of pinch-pots. They have scored, joined, etched and pressed their creatures to show a range of fun implied textures and emotions.

Year 5 and 6 students have been exploring the art of Dean Russo. Year 5 students have designed expressive animals, and the Year 6 students are honing their skills to draw accurate portrait proportions.

Across the school, students are developing their ability to give thoughtful Art Responses using appropriate Arts language. Wonderful work, everyone.

Miss Bartley

Block 1

In Pre-Primary this term we have been reading the story 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' by Michael Rosen. We decided to read this story after finding 'bear foot prints' in Pre-Primary! We read the story and created actions as a class to go along with the words. We then acted out the story by going on our own bear hunt and using the actions to remember the sequence of events. We have made our own bear in class to practise labelling the features of a bear and created story maps to show the sequence of events in the story. We are now changing parts of the story such as the setting and characters to soon be able to create our own story!

Pre-Primary: Room 1 (Miss Avins), Room 2 (Miss Rosielle) and Room 4 (Miss Hobson)

P & C