20 November 2019

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents/Caregivers

Public School Review

All Western Australian public schools are reviewed every three years by the Department of Education’s Public School Accountability Directorate. A review gives assurance to the local community, the Minister for Education and Training and the Director General that a school is operating effectively and delivering high quality education to its students. A review of public schools is based on the following 6 domains;

• Relationships and Partnerships
• Learning Environment
• Leadership
• Use of Resources
• Teaching Quality
• Student Achievement and Progress

On behalf of all staff, the Administration team submitted a range of evidence through a self-assessment process. The review team then visited Somerly Primary School on Tuesday 12th November to validate our self-assessment. A range of staff, students, parents and community members were involved in the review day.

I am proud to announce that we were rated as an ‘effective’ school. The feedback we received from the reviewers was very positive. In particular, the review highlighted a strong sense of passion, collegiality, alignment, leadership and trust. Whole school programs with a continual focus on student progress was evident throughout. The review team made special mention of the high level of care that occurs for all students of Somerly Primary School.

The review team is currently developing a report, which we will make available for all to access when available.

City of Wanneroo Mayor’s Christmas Appeal

For two decades the Mayor’s Christmas Appeal has been helping people who are going through tough times have a brighter Christmas by providing local families with hampers made up of donated goods.

We will once again be participating in the Mayor’s Christmas Appeal; all donations will be distributed to those that are less fortunate throughout the community.

Non-perishable food items and toys can be placed in the donation bin, which is located in the front office.

We will be accepting donations until 22 November 2019.

Semester 2 Student Reports

Student Reports will be emailed out to families on Monday 16th December 2019. If you have recently changed your email address, can you please inform the front office of your updated contact information to ensure you receive your child/children’s Semester 2 Reports.

Key Events for the remainder of Term 4

Parent Helper Afternoon Tea – Wednesday 27th November at 2.00pm
Book Award Assembly – Friday 13th December at 8:50am
Graduation Ceremony – Wednesday 18th December at 9:00am
Christmas Concert – Thursday 19th December
Final day for students - Thursday 19th December

Planning

We are continuing to plan for 2020 and need accurate numbers so we can make up classes and ensure we have enough staff for the beginning of the year. If you know that you will be leaving Somerly Primary School and haven’t yet advised the school office, please call in and let us know.

Lost Property

We have a large amount of lost property located in the green buckets outside the medical room. If you have misplaced an item at school, please check the buckets as soon as possible. Items that are not collected by the end of Term will be donated to charity.

New students

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

Andrew Britton
A/Principal

Merit Certificates

Room 1: Warisha, Mia and Amelia; Room 2: Robbert, Nathan and Marley; Room 3: Scarlett and Aubree; Room 8: Laken and Maaria; Room 9: Emily, Rowan, Tyrell and Samara; Room 10: Cailib and Jessica; Room 11: Lawzayn and Jasper; Room 12: Beau; Room 14: Grace, Jenny and Jay; Room 15: Jai, Ryder and Poppy; Room 16: Teleah and Oaklan; Room 17: Tison, Devon and Leila; Room 18: Mia, Alia and Khloe; LOTE: Osama, Kale and Room 10; Art: Harrison and Kaiden; Music: Taj, Oaklan and Amelia

Stars

Behaviour Focus

Our behaviour focus for Week 6 is:-

SAFETY;

WHOLE SCHOOL

• We keep hands, feet and objects to ourselves

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.

Toddler Reading

On Wednesday 27th November the Children’s Librarian from Clarkson Library will be visiting our Toddler Reading Group to let us know about the services available from the City of Wanneroo Libraries. She will be bringing along some free Sing with Me packs and hosting a story session suitable for our young children. So come and join us in the library at 8:45am on Wednesday 27th November. We hope to see you there.

Kaboom Percussion Incursion

On the 29th of October, we were visited by KABOOM PERCUSSION. Kaboom is made up of two Musicians, Cat and Josh, who are from Perth and have been performing together for over 10 years. They both studied at WAAPA (Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts).

The students enjoyed a performance which featured bucket drums, cajon drums, PVC bottles, stick tricks and many weird and whacky instruments created by Cat and Josh.

Kaboom was a fantastic incursion that teaches you that you do not need expensive instruments to make music, you just need a little imagination and creativity.

City of Wanneroo Libraries Summer Reading Club

Who needs a passport these holidays? Go on a story adventure at your library, your very own roomful of stories. Collect some fabulous giveaways and try out a different activity each week in January.

• Week One – Chapter One – Help build your own reading city with boxes and recycled materials
• Week Two – Chapter Two – Go on a bear hunt through the library and join in a special story time
• Week Three - Chapter Three – Get inspired at the discovery table
• Week Four – Chapter Four – Boost your reading hours by watching stories on Storybox on the big screen
• VR Appendix - check out a different setting at one of our Virtual Reality experiences

This summer the whole family is invited to join the club. Pick up a reading record and activity book and make your life better by getting involved in a Roomful of Stories.

Register by December 13 to go in the draw for a $100.00 Dymocks Voucher.

Mental Health Week

Somerly Primary School celebrated Mental Health Week from the 4th to the 8th of November. Mental Health Week is celebrated all around Australia and aims to increase mental wellbeing in WA communities by:

• Encouraging each of us to support and look out for one another
• Promoting mental health discussion – learning the ‘language’ of expressing feelings, good and bad
• Continuing to raise awareness of mental health issues and reduce the stigma of seeking help.

On Monday we had an official opening at the Communications Assembly with the school Chaplain, Marilize Basson, talking about the aim of Mental Health Week and showing a video. The students were shown the kindness tree. During the week if teachers spotted students being kind, they received a green faction token which they then stuck on the tree. The students then did an activity with Miss Rosielle from the whole school MindUp program, completing the Core Practice using mindful listening. At lunchtime there was bunting craft in the Chaplain’s room for years 1 to 6 and story time with the Student Councillors for the Kindergarten and Pre-primary students.

On Tuesday students completed an art activity on the early childhood benches and in the art room with Miss Bartley.

On Wednesday the students were able to participate in physical activity. In the Kindy/Pre-primary area the Peer Mediators helped the students to do the obstacle course. It was beautiful to see how involved the older students were, even leading the students on the obstacle course. The Years 1 to 3 students played “What is your name?” and really enjoyed the physical activity they had to do for every letter of their name with Ms Ixer and Mrs Reyneke. The Years 4 to 6 students played a combination of Narnia and Speedball with Mrs Ochieng. There was also a Parent Workshop Evening from 5:30pm until 8pm on Cyber Safety and Digital wellbeing (WA Child Safety Services).

On Thursday there was karaoke in the music room for Years 1 to 6 and the Kindergarten/Pre-primary students completed a feelings song before lunch.

On Friday we started off at Breakfast club with a positive message written on bananas for the students. There was a Hip Hop class by Da Beat Dance School in the undercover area at lunchtime. The students thoroughly enjoyed learning some dance moves with the dance teacher, Jamie Rolton. The Kindergarten/Pre-primary students played Simon Says with the peer mediators at lunchtime. The staff also participated in Mental Health Week by completing a Survivor game in groups on Friday afternoon.

Outdoor Classroom Day

Pre-primary Outdoor Classroom Day is a global campaign to celebrate and inspire outdoor learning and play. On the day, thousands of schools around the world take lessons outdoors and prioritise playtime. In 2018, over 3.5 million children worldwide took part, over 300,000 of those were in Australia. Outdoor learning improves children’s health, engages them with learning and leads to a greater connection with nature. Play not only teaches critical life skills such as resilience, teamwork and creativity, but is central to children’s enjoyment of childhood.

Rooms 1, 2 and 4 all completed the following outdoor activities; bean bag relay, sponge throwing and counting, pirate story time, treasure map drawing, scavenger hunting and outdoor fence painting. The students had so much fun and the teachers were impressed with the amazing engagement in every activity.

Janelle Avins (Room 1), Aneka Rosielle (Room 2) and Natalie Hobson (Room 4)

Learning Focus

Year 2

In Year 2 this term we have been learning about multiplication and division, fractions, area, maps and picture graphs. For multiplication and division, we read the book ‘Pirates Gold’ and explored different ways to partition a quantity into equal groups, using treasure. A chocolate bar image was used to demonstrate that multiplication is the inverse of division.

Students had various opportunities to use blocks to demonstrate sharing and grouping.

After reading the book ‘Munch and Crunch’, students had the opportunity to investigate the relationship between halving and doubling through the use of concrete and pictorial materials.

We also looked at fraction notation where students used linear and discreet models to compare fractions using strips of paper and counters.

During lessons about area, students used grids to measure the area of a partner’s shoe or hand print. Blocks were also used to build rectangular shapes to explore area.

We had loads of fun looking at simple maps. We had to interpret simple maps of familiar locations and identify the relative positions of the key features. Students enjoyed describing routes between locations and were then able to draw a map of a 3D town model.

In data representation and interpretation, we learned how to collect data. We used tallies to survey class mates’ favourite Marvel characters and TV channels. Students then had to show the results on one-to-one picture graphs.

For the remainder of the term we will be learning about money, shapes and working with numbers to 1000.

LOTE Term 4

The students in Room 10 having been working on 3D models of houses in Italian lessons. Groups have been working cooperatively to plan, decide on resources and make the models. I look forward to seeing the completion of the models. Magnifico ragazzi!

Chaplain’s Corner

Good day Parents!

Just a quick reminder about our Community Pantry located in the undercover area, right next to the canteen area.

The Community Pantry is accessible to all Parents or carers of students attending Somerly Primary School and will be open on Wednesday and Fridays form 08h00 – 09h45 and again from 14h00 – 15h45. The door will be left open so that any parent or carer can go and help themselves to food items they need.

Have a great week!!

Kind regards,
Marilize

P & C

P&C AGM meeting will be held on Tuesday 3rd March 2020, commencing at 9:00am in the staffroom.

Nomination forms for elected positions will be made available early in Term 1, 2020.

Positions that you can nominate for are:

• President
• Vice President
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Fundraising