8 September 2021

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents/Caregivers

OUR SCHOOL VISION IS TO SUPPORT STUDENTS IN BECOMING STRONG, THOUGHTFUL AND INDEPENDENT INDIVIDUALS WHO ASPIRE TO BE THE BEST THAT THEY CAN BE. OUR ETHOS OFFERS STUDENT CENTERED EDUCATION THAT IS FOCUSSED ON BOTH THE PRESENT AND DEVELOPMENTAL NEEDS OF STUDENTS.

Somerly Athletics Carnival – Somerly Olympics

On Friday, 3rd September we held our Faction Athletics Carnival and what a fantastic day it was, including perfect weather. The Carnival was a great success as always and the students were kept very busy throughout the day with their four rotations through sprints, team games, team skills and Bluearth games. The Carnival at Somerly Primary School has been set up this way to ensure that all kids stay active throughout the day rather than sitting watching events, as per the traditional carnival set up many of us would have been used to.

It was fantastic to see all the students displaying our school values of Respect Responsibility and Safety, as well as outstanding sportsmanship. I was truly proud of all our students for their efforts throughout the day and for their active participation. The words of encouragement, pats on the back and shaking hands that occurred throughout the day and the team spirit was to be commended. A big thank you to Mrs Ochieng for her organisation of the Carnival and all the staff for their assistance that made the day such an amazing success.

I would also like to acknowledge the P&C for their organisation of the ice cream van and the Father’s Day stall. I hope that all the father’s and father figures out there had a happy Father’s Day for last weekend and that you had a great day.

School Board

As part of the School Board’s commitment to establishing and reviewing the school’s objectives, priorities, general policy directions and evaluating the school’s performance, the School Board met on Monday 6th September for our first open Board meeting. Thanks to all that attended.

The agenda included a review of

• The voluntary contributions and charges for 2022, which were approved
• A review of the draft Business Plan for 2022 – 2024
• A Review of the current membership

Please remember that a copy of the School Board minutes are available at the office for parents to read following each Board meeting.

As a result of our membership review the School Board is calling for nominations for parent and community representatives. Nominations will close onFriday 15th October. Please contact me if you would like more information on how to nominate. Further information can also be found by clicking the link below.

School councils/boards - Department of Education

P&C

A big thanks to all those who attended our P&C meeting last Wednesday 1st September. It was great to see some new faces as well as old. At this meeting the P&C approved their monetary contribution to the Senior Block and Library for new board games, the ongoing funds to support the Fathering Project and their $1000 donation towards our Mental Health Week Initiative.

McGowan Election Commitment

At the 2021 election, the McGowan Government made a commitment to boost science resources at public primary schools. It is with great pleasure that I was informed by our local Member Mark Folkard MLA that Somerly Primary School will receive a $25,000 science equipment grant and a science laboratory conversion. STEM subjects equip our students with the skills they need to pursue the jobs of the future. We look forward to this exciting opportunity.

National School Opinion Survey

Thank you to all the parents, student and staff who completed our biennial National School Opinion Survey. We will now take the time to analyse the data and plan for future improvements. I look forward to presenting you with a summary of the results.

Parent Meetings Half Day Close

A reminder to all parents that this Friday 10th September will be a half day close for our parent, teacher meetings. This means school will finish at 11.45am. Thank you to all those parents who have made an appointment in order to support their child’s learning. If you have missed out on an appointment for this Friday, please contact the class teacher to organise a suitable time.

Please note due to teacher absence – Room 9, Mrs Julie Donohue, parent interviews will be conducted on Thursday 9th September from 9am to 12pm.

Parent, teacher interviews were endorsed by our School Board and approved by the North Metro Regional Education Office. Reporting to parents in this way makes up part of our strategy to improve parent communication regarding student’s progress and achievement. Our 2022 dates for parent closure have now been approved for the 25th March 2022 and 9th September 2022.

Zoe Hadley
Principal

Merit Certificates

Room 2: Jodie and Lily; Room 3: Sophie and Jack; Room 4: Farryn and Kaiya; Room 7: Ebony and Sam; Room 8: Eliano, Cahil and Shad; Room 9: Israel and Wendel; Room 10: Jesse, Dharshini, Deacon and Oscar; Room 15: Mariia, Mirriam and Amali; Room 16: Braxton and Amie; Room 17: Phoenix and Mirha; Room 18: Louis and Amelia; Room 20: Aiden and Reeti; Music: Bree – Room 18 and Dakotah – Room 13; Art: Kruze – Room 14

Stars

Behaviour Focus

Our behaviour focus for Week 8 is:-

Play Areas

Respect

• We are thoughtful of others who might like to play
• We listen to others and talk calmly if someone gets hurt

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.

Special Children’s Christmas Party

Triple P - Positive Parenting Program

Learning Focus

Literacy in Focus: Using High Level Oral Vocabulary at Home

Why Using High Level Oral Vocabulary at Home is Important

There’s an episode of the popular TV show, ‘Friends’, where Joey (the lovable character) tries to write a recommendation letter for his friends, Chandler and Monica. He wants to spice it up a little, so he uses a thesaurus (on every word!) to make it sound more sophisticated. The dialogue goes something like this:

Monica:

What was this sentence originally?

Joey:

Oh, "They're warm, nice people with big hearts."

Chandler:

And that became, "They're humid, prepossessing homo sapiens with full-sized aortic pumps."?

Joey:

And hey, I really mean it, dude!

This is NOT what I am talking about today.

What I am talking about, is ways by which we can all improve the oral vocabulary of our children. Oral vocabulary refers to the words that children can use and understand when speaking and listening. Here are some simple tips to keep in mind when aiming to grow your child’s oral vocabulary.

1. Children learn the words we teach them
   Try to use precise words with your children. If you are referring to your surname, call it a surname. If you are asking them to get dressed, ask them to get a t-shirt, or a shirt, depending on your needs and discuss the difference between the two. If you want them to walk on the footpath, tell them precisely, ‘Please don’t walk through the garden bed – we are walking on the footpath.’ There are a million moments each day to show them how to use precise vocabulary.
2. Play word games in the car (even on short trips!)
   a) The Alliteration Game
   Give your child a sound and challenge them to come up with a silly sentence that uses that sound repeatedly at the start of multiple words. For example, give your child the ‘f’ sound, and they may come up with something like this: ‘The fish couldn’t physically fit into the flip-flops!’
   b) The Synonym Game
   Challenge your child to come up with 3 to 5 synonyms (words with the same or a similar meaning) for a word. For example, give them the word ‘hot’, and they may come up with warm, scorching, blistering, boiling and burning.
   c) Categories
   Give your child or children a topic and have them cycle through the alphabet naming items or elements that apply to the topic. For example, a beach topic may illicit responses such as; algae, beach ball, children, drift wood etc.

There are a great number of resources online to help you grow your child’s vocabulary. This is a link to just one:

https://www.understood.org/articles/en/7-ways-to-improve-vocabulary

Good luck trying out some of these ideas!

Mr Daniel Gane
English Lead Teacher

Physical Education

Term 3 has been a busy one for Physical Education with the focus being on Athletics. We held our Faction Carnival on the 3rd of September where students participated in a variety of activities. After a fun and full day, the results were as follows:

Individual Medal Winners

The House totals were as follows:

1st Alkimos 1851
2nd Gemini 1583
3rd Villalta 1460
4th Centaur 1282

Waste Wise Schools

Gardening Club

Students have been weeding and preparing soil for planting.

Student planting capsicum seeds (from whole capsicums that were used in Oz Harvest cooking lesson with seniors).

Waste Free Lunches

We even had this waste wise student packing a waste free lunch at our Somerly Olympics. Well Done!!

Thank you to all students, staff and our many families that have contributed to our Containers for Change Fund Raising Scheme, all moneys raised are put back into our students for activities and excursions.

So far this term we have collected:

Week one: 193
Week two: 457
Week three: 222
Week four: 281
Week five:206
Week six:201

Thank you for your continued support, there is a large bin located at the front of our school for easy drop off!

Let’s see how many containers we can collect this week!

P & C