3 June 2020

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents/Caregivers

I find it hard to believe that we are already in Week 6. This term has flown by and I would like to personally thank you for all your support during this very unusual time. I am pleased that together we have been able to make the best of this situation and ensure your child’s safety and continuity of learning. It has been great to be getting back to what we do best, achieving our school vision of developing strong, thoughtful, independent individuals who aspire to be the best they can be. We do this through our school beliefs of Excellence, Equity, Care and Learning.

COVID – 19

As we move in to the Phase Three easing of restrictions, as of Monday 8th June parents and carers of students in all year levels are expected to be allowed on school site to drop off children. I will send clarification on what this means for parents entering classrooms as more information is provided. I will however take this time to say that the level of independence and organisation shown by students in getting themselves unpacked and prepared for the day has significantly improved.

Parent meetings may occur at school at an agreed time to support students learning, however we do ask that you apply social distancing and appropriate hand washing practices.

As cold and flu season approaches we ask if your child is sick with any symptoms of a sore throat, fever or cough that you keep them at home until they are well and seek medical advice. With the increased testing for COVID-19, I do ask that you report any testing to the school as soon as possible.

Reporting to Parents

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected our entire community and has presented us with extraordinary challenges in managing schooling during the first half of 2020.

With the regular attendance of many students being lower over this time, the depth and breadth of the curriculum covered throughout Semester 1 may have been reduced. For this reason, schools are not required to include A to E grades on this year’s Semester 1 student reports. This will mean the components for each learning area will be marked as “Not Assessed”. It also means that your child’s attendance will not be reported.

Written comments however will provide as much information as possible on their progress in Mathematics and English based on the content taught. They will also receive a general comment as normal and receive grading on their effort for every subject area. For other subject areas where grades are not provided, teachers will provide you with an overview of topics covered in that learning area.

On Wednesday 1st July parents will receive their child’s Semester 1 formal report via Electronic Delivery through your recorded email address. There are many benefits to electronic delivery but to ensure you receive your child’s report, it is imperative that your email address recorded with the school is accurate. Please contact the school immediately to update your details if required. Please also note that the link to the reports only lasts for four weeks, so it is important that you download and save your child’s report.

Schooling is once again returning to normal and our students are engaging in the regular curriculum, in their usual classroom environment. Semester 2 reports will reflect this and therefore provide the usual, more detailed information on your child’s progress and achievement.

School Board Update

On Wednesday 20th April the School Board met for the first time post flooding and COVID-19 which interrupted meetings throughout Term 1. It is a privilege to welcome our new parent representative Alessandro Prunali and our new staff representative Louise Lipman.

The School Board Chair works closely with the Principal to ensure the effective running of the School Board. Kristy McDonnell was our first School Board Chair and played a major role in assisting with the school gaining its Independent Public School status. Kristy has stepped down as School Board Chair for 2020 and I would like to personally thank her for her contribution to the Somerly Primary School Board over the last two years. She will however continue in her role as a parent representative.

It is with great pleasure that I introduce our new School Board Chair, Mr Arthur Ventham.

As a Community Representative and Chair of the School Board, tell the community about your background:

I came to Australia from England in 1959 as a “ten-pound tourist” and had a normal childhood until I turned 17 when I joined the Australian Army. I served in the Army, both Regular and Reserve for over 25 years and served in Vietnam as an Engineer in 1969 – 1970.

I also served with the Australian Customs Service for 17 years before transferring to the State Public Service working with the Ministry of Justice, WA Police Force before retiring as a General Manager with the Department of the Premier where I was responsible for coordinating projects of significance for the State of Western Australia in excess of $2.5 billion per project.

In 2002 – 2003 I worked in Iraq for the United Nations Oil for Food Program conducting investigations in accordance with the UN Sanctions imposed on Iraq.

I have been retired now for 14 years during which time I set up and successfully ran the Northern Suburbs Veterans Support Centre, providing advice and support for Veterans from all conflicts to ensure that each and every one of them received the care and support that was due to them and during this time I successfully lodged over 3000 claims on behalf of Veterans who were suffering from various illnesses and injuries associated with their military service.

Over the years I have been involved with many schools such as Wanneroo Junior Primary School, Wanneroo Primary School and Wanneroo Senior High School in a volunteer capacity as P&C President, Secretary and Treasurer and was fortunate to have a school building named after me in 1990 at Wanneroo Junior Primary School, something that I will always remember and be honoured with.

I firmly believe that our children are the future and that they need to be taught, nurtured and guided to live life to the fullest and to look after those less fortunate than themselves.

How did you become involved in Somerly Primary School?

When the school first opened, I was the Secretary/Treasurer of the Quinns Rocks RSL Sub Branch and I was contacted by the then Principal to present a speech at its first ANZAC Day Assembly and since then I have been back every year in one capacity or another.

Somerly Primary School, being only 300 metres from my house has always been a part of my life since opening, firstly on ANZAC Day and later Graduation Day where I present a prize for one of the categories nominated by the teachers.

Since it opened I have also provided the school with opportunities to apply for various grants to enhance the understanding of what is known as the “ANZAC Spirit” and the results of these grants can be seen in and around the school for all to enjoy.

When I was approached to become a Community Representative on the School Board the answer was yes and I have been on that Board since conception.

Uniforms – Watch this space!

The School Board recently approved a number of new additions to our school dress code policy. These include a black polar fleece jacket with the school logo, unisex black short with the school logo, black school skirt with in built shorts and school logo and finally a school dress.

These uniform items are not currently available but will be available from our uniform provider Uniform Concepts Nell Gray, 1 Sarasota Pass, Ocean Keys, Clarkson, WA, 6030.

Seesaw

With the increase in use of technology over the last few months there has been an increase in the use of various social media. This technology has provided a fantastic opportunity for student and parent communication with teachers. I would like to remind parents that our Seesaw platform is for the specific use of sharing school content and curriculum. I would also ask that you support our staff by respecting their right to not immediately respond to you in the evenings and over the weekends.

New students

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

Zoe Stenhouse
Principal

Merit Certificates

Room 1: Aarya and Carter; Room 2: Gitta and Marlee; Room 3: Taj and Hazel; Room 9: Tan and Mikayla; Room 10: Room 11: Mati, Zion and Klarissa; Room 12: Grace, Tison and Leila; Room 13: Natalya; Room 14: Madalyn, Ivy and Elvis; Room 15: Warisha and Kaylee; Room 16: Ruby and Charlee; Room 17: Jai and Oliver; Room 18: Reeti and Kiara; Room 20: Sami and Phoebe; Room 23: Laksh and Henley; LOTE: Tyrell and Riley; Art: Aarav and Arhum; Music: Ruby, Room 14 and Room 10.

Stars

Behaviour Focus

Our behaviour focus for Week 6 is:-

CLASSROOM

RESPONSIBILITY

• We follow all staff instructions
• We ask for help with our school work when needed

SKILLS

• Actively listening

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.

Kindergarten Enrolments 2021

We are now taking Kindergarten applications for 2021. If you have a child that was born between 1 July 2016 and 30 June 2017 please come into the front office for an application form or visit our website.

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 (Refer to paragraph below) and proof of address.

Kindergarten children must be up to date with all scheduled immunisations for their age to be able to enrol.

To enrol in kindergarten, a child must have one of the following documents:

• an Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) Immunisation History Statement, no more than two months old with a status of 'up to date’
• an AIR Immunisation History Form, no more than six months old, if the child is on a catch up schedule
• a valid immunisation certificate issued or declared by the Chief Health Officer.

If a child does not have an up to date Immunisation History Statement, exemptions because of particular family circumstances may apply. These exemptions are determined by the principal.

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 2021.

Learning Focus

Mathematics Competitions

In Term 1 students across the school competed in Manga High’s M-Influencers competition, which saw students competing across the Asia Pacific region. At a school level, we had high levels of participation and Deacon (Room 7) was placed first with over 250 points and earning a competition medallion, followed closely behind by Isaac (Room 18) in second place and Mark (Room 7) placed third. I congratulate these students on their huge effort and commitment to practising their Maths skills on the platform. Well done!

In Term 2, Somerly PS has four teams of Year 5 & 6 students entered into the Mathematics Association of WAs online competition, “Have Sum Fun Online”. This competition has three rounds of ten questions and each week a league table will be released with the school’s results.

In Week 4, the students participated in a practice round to help familiarise them with the type of questions and to learn how to effectively collaborate with their team. I am very excited by this opportunity and look forward to informing you of their achievements.

We are also looking forward to selected students competing in the Australian Maths Competition, which will occur in July.

Mrs Brown
Maths Lead Teacher

ReadingEggs and Reading Eggspress

We would like to extend a big THANK YOU to all the parents who continue to support the home reading programme with their children. The data we have gleaned from the last few months clearly shows a correlation between regular reading and reading progress.

Children who read regularly make the most progress in reading!

Reading is the main homework for all our students here at Somerly, and our expectation is for each child to read for around 20 minutes per day.

Access to the ReadingEggs and ReadingEggspress programme has been made freely available to all our families, and provides a clear and structured path towards reading success. The programme has a variety of games that aid learning the essential skills; but completion of the reading LESSONS is what will support what your child in learning at school.

Here are some examples of how the time spent on the programme is substantially improving our students reading ability. Progress in this programme is measured by an increase in Lexile points. Lexile points measure both reading ability and the difficulty of a text. Please note, all students learn at different rates but this data shows fantastic improvement in reading!

These results are from Year 5

Please contact your child’s teacher via Seesaw if you have any questions regarding this programme.

Louise Lipman
Literacy Specialist

Inventor’s Club

Inventor's Club has resumed on a Thursday lunchtime, with a maximum of 20 students from all year levels. Any student is welcome to attend, so if you have a budding engineer, a problem-solver or inventor please encourage them to come along.

This term, there will be a weekly challenge set and every student will have their own tray of materials to build and solve with.

Last week saw some interesting designs, and some very proud students, in the 'build the tallest tower' challenge!

Julie Ixer
Year 5 Teacher

We are Fundraising with Entertainment

Please see below details of the latest offers from Entertainment.

Remember 20% of every membership sold goes to support our school.

Your bonus WISH eGift Card will be sent by email within 30 days of purchase. A $10 WISH eGift Card will be issued when a Single City Membership is purchased, or a $20 WISH eGift Card when a Multi City or Multi Plus Membership is purchased between 15:00pm Friday 22 May 2020 and 09:00am Monday 13 July 2020 AEST. One eGift Card per order. Offer excludes Entertainment waitstaff and Corporate Partner offers. View WISH eGift Card FAQs here - WISH eGift Cards do not expire. Lost or stolen cards cannot be replaced. If you request a refund on your Membership within 30 days of your purchase and it is after receiving your eGift Card, the amount of the eGift Card will be deducted from the original value of your Membership purchased.

*2 months extra Membership applies to activated Single City and Multi City purchased between 22 May and 13 July 2020. From time of purchase, an Activation Code must be activated within three months. If activated within three months, the Membership will expire 14 months from the Activation Date. If not activated within three months, the Membership will expire 17 months from the Purchase Date.

+Bonus $50 Discover Queenland Voucher. T&Cs apply. See the link below:

#WIN 1 of 5 x $1000 WISH eGift Cards. T&Cs apply. See the link below:

*All member offers are subject to terms and conditions. Check individual offers on the Entertainment Membership App or the link below for more information. For all dining offers, it is optional for participating businesses to accept your Entertainment Memberships on all official Australian and New Zealand public holidays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Valentine’s Day. © 2020 Entertainment Publications of Australia Pty Ltd.

Chaplain’s Corner

Good day Parents and Caregivers,

It is week 6 already – can you believe it?? Time surely flies amazingly fast, doesn’t it!!

In our last Newsletter, we spoke about how anxiety can present itself in different ways in our children’s behaviour. As promised, I will share a few coping strategies that might help to calm your children down when they feel anxious, worried, scared or even angry.

Coping strategies or coping skills, are the abilities and activities we use to help us manage our tough emotions on the spot. Simply put, everyone needs these strategies. If you find that your children don’t cope well with their emotions, spend time practicing and teaching these skills explicitly. It’s important to note that all people are different; some children will calm down best by colouring or drawing, while others might need to get up and take a walk. It’s helpful to try many different strategies when the student is already calm so that they can actually use the skills when they are emotionally overwhelmed.

Here are a few examples of coping strategies that I have found on the Pathway 2 Success website. You can practice these strategies with your child and then decide which one works best.

If you have found any strategies that worked for your child and for you, please share it with some of your friends or family. It might just be helpful to them as well.

As always stay safe, stay connected, and remember that I am always ready to help in any way I can. I will be at the school every Tuesday and Friday. If there’s any way I can support your child/children, or yourself – please feel free to give me a call on (08) 6206 4200.

Have a great week!

Kind regards,
Marilize Basson (Chaplain)

P & C

A big welcome to all our families returning back to school after the holidays. We hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable break and we look forward to a busy and exciting term ahead.

On the P&C calendar for Term 2:

Our next P&C meeting will be held on Monday 8th June at 9am in the staff room. We welcome all parents and carers to join us. There is no obligation to become a member, just come for a nosey to see what we are about.

We have started the P&C fundraising sausage sizzle back up. Ran every Wednesday (unless otherwise stated), your child can order a sausage sizzle and a juice cup (costing $5) to be delivered to their classroom in time for lunch. This is a great way to help support the fundraising efforts of the P&C and save yourself some time prepping lunch! Pop the correct change into an envelope with your child’s name, room number and sauce choice written on the front and hand to your child’s teacher.

The P&C are also adding an extra day to our Breakfast Club. Breakfast Club will now run Monday, Wednesday and Friday. All students are welcome. From toasties to cereals, there is always a fun menu to choose from. We would also like to take the time to thank all of the families who made food donations to the P&C for Breakfast Club. These were and continue to be very much welcomed. If you would like to donate food items, please hand them into the office. Margarine, cheese, milo and cereals are always greatly appreciated.

Look out for information on how to get your hands on the money saving Entertainment membership! 20% of your membership cost gets given back to our school. With thousands of up to 50% off and 2-for-1 offers near you, the entertainment subscription is instantly available, valid year-round and gladly accepted.

If you would like to be involved with any of these fun activities & events, grab a friend and get in contact with us!! Volunteering at school is a great way for you to meet people and make wonderful friendships. Your kids love you being involved in their little world. They love that you know their friends and teachers, that you visit the classroom to help, that you take the time – just for them! There are many ways you can volunteer and we appreciate any time you can. It could be once a month serving at Breakfast Club, delivering sausage sizzles or helping out with a raffle. You may prefer to help with projects, like helping the P&C with fundraising, the Fathering Project, or even consider taking on a role within the P&C Exec Team!!

If you are interested in finding out further information, please reach out, our wonderful office staff or the P&C would love to hear from you. Drop your details FAO P&C into the office, or come along to our next meeting.

We wish you a very happy return to school and look forward to seeing you all soon.

Laura Woodford - P&C President