23 February 2022

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.

After our smooth start to the term, we hit a little road bump last week facing, for the first time COVID in our community. I would like to start by thanking all the staff, students and parents for your calm, patient and considered response.

Our preparation was tested last week but I am proud to say that we were able to establish Remote Learning for all our students in some form. I would like to thank the staff involved in supporting this and who spent time maintaining connections with our families and providing support during this challenging time. We knew this was coming and we also know that it will come again. At a school level we now know what we are facing, what to expect and will be spending some significant time adapting, reviewing and revising our plans to make further improvements.

Some important things to note

• Communication comes directly from WA health and the Department of Education
• Detailed information regarding a positive case cannot be provided and the definitions of close contacts in schools are strictly adhered to. Please see attached
• Only students and staff identified as close contacts will be required to quarantine
• The rest of the school will continue with face to face learning other than for those identified as close contacts
• Remote Learning in some form will be provided to only those identified as close contacts
• Please ensure your emails with the school are up to date. If you have not received an email from me in the last week, please check your email address with the front office
• If you did not receive communication from Seesaw, please check with your class teacher to connect

Please ensure that good hygiene practices are maintained. Keep students home if they are unwell and get them tested if they develop any symptoms.

With the opening of the borders on 3rd March 2022, I expect further changes to follow. I will be in communication as this develops and requirements are operationalised at a school level.

We encourage parents to continue to assist their child/ren in developing healthy routines for school, including regular attendance and strong partnerships with the teacher through regular contact. The school home reading program utilises the Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress platform and we ask that this is another important daily routine you support at home. The school has developed a ‘Home Reading Log’ for all students to record their daily reading. Students will be rewarded for reaching different milestones for the number of nights read. Teaching staff will connect you with your Reading Eggs log in information and can support you if you are having any difficulties. We look forward to presenting our first reading rewards soon.

School Board

As an independent Public School we are governed by a School Board which plays an important role in ensuring that school resources are used efficiently and community expectations and the school’s priorities reflect the needs of students. The Somerly Primary School Board is still seeking two parent representatives. The School Board meets twice per term on a Monday morning, but times are subject to change dependent on availability.

The School Board takes both approval and advisory roles. Some of the matters councils and boards may make decisions on include fees and charges, book lists, sponsorship and dress codes. Councils and boards make these decisions with the Principal and others who ensure the decisions adhere to legislative and policy requirements.

If you are interested in supporting your school through the School Board, please email me. For more information, please see

School councils/boards - Department of Education

P & C Meeting

Please see attached information regarding everything you need to know about the P&C. This information will be coming home soon, so please be on the look at. We require several members and committee members to continue to be viable.

Come to the AGM and our first meeting of the year on Tuesday 15th March at 6pm in the undercover area. The cost to join the P&C is $1 and is required at the time of the meeting. The AGM is the same as a general meeting with three special functions

• The election of office bearers and executive members including President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer
• Presentation of the Financial Report
• President’s report

Harmony Day Videos – ‘We Need You’

As mentioned in the last newsletter, a focus for the school is to increase our cultural awareness and celebrate our cultural diversity. We have had to make some changes to our original Harmony Day plans. We would still appreciate your help by creating a short 30 second to 1-minute video to share with us about your nationality and culture. We will join these together to create a video for all students to watch on Harmony Day. If you have some cultural dress that you could wear that would be fantastic, but completely optional. Some things you could share would include

• Where are you from?
• Something interesting about living there or the country
• What is the traditional dress or food?

These videos can be emailed directly to the school’s email address – somerly.ps@education.wa.edu.au.

To begin Harmony Week, students are able to wear cultural dress to school on Monday 21st March.

Parent/Teacher Meetings

As per previous years we will hold our Parent, Teacher Interviews on Friday 26th March from 12pm to 5pm. This means that on this day, students will finish at 11.45am. Due to COVID restrictions these interviews will take place on the phone or via Webex.

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 students’ progress and achievement.

Bookings will open on Wednesday 10th March and will close on Wednesday 24th March.

Containers for Change

Big congratulations go to Mrs Teresa Sanders for her support with our Waste Wise and Containers for Change initiative. Due to the generosity of our families we have raised over $400 for our school ‘Community Pantry’.

New students

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

Zoe Hadley-Hawley
Principal

Behaviour Focus

Our behaviour focus for Week 4 is:-

WHOLE SCHOOL RESPONSIBILITY

• We place our rubbish in the bin
• We immediately follow all staff instructions inside and outside the classroom

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.

Voluntary Contributions

Voluntary Contributions play a significant role in providing resources for students in the classroom. The continuing partnership between the school and parents is vital to ensuring that all students receive a level of education sufficient to carry them forward in today’s society. Voluntary Contributions are utilized to purchase books, resources and equipment for classroom use and to support our school in the delivery of quality educational programmes. To enable the school to continue to deliver our excellent educational programmes, we urge you to consider paying your Voluntary Contribution at your earliest convenience.

Voluntary Contributions for 2022 is set at $60. However, if you pay before the end of Term 1, you will receive a discount of $10.

Would you like a night at the Joondalup Resort?

Thanks to the generosity of Mark Folkard MLA, Member for Burns Beach you could be checking in soon!

We have a voucher for a one night stay for two people with breakfast included on a date of your choice.

To be in the draw to win this fantastic prize, simply pay your Voluntary Contribution before the end of Term 2. If you have already paid, you are automatically in the draw.

Draw will take in Term 3.

You can pay by cash or EFTPOS in the front office any day between 8:30am and 3:30pm. Alternatively, you can also pay by direct deposit to Commonwealth Bank – BSB 066 040 - Account No. 19902052. Please enter surname and room number in description field as a reference.

Road Safety

You will note that we have a dedicated crossing area on Connolly Drive for students and their families to use 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 available before and after school and keeping to footpaths when arriving at school.

School Photos – 22nd and 23rd March 2022

Photo Day is almost here!

Before Photo Day:

• Individual Order Forms will be handed out to each student
• Photos can be ordered online at www.3p.net.au
• Shoot Key: ML6T47P
• After Photo Day a Late Fee may occur

Photo Day:

• Students need to bring their own Order Form when being photographed, whether they are ordering photos or not
• Please ensure correct uniform, hair neat and tidy
• Preferably no large side/high ponytails, it may be cropped out

Sibling Photos:

• Sibling Photos will be taken at the photo area before and after school
• Students cannot be not be collected from class
• Order only on eldest child’s Form, unless ordering multiple sibling packs

After Photo Day:

• Digital Downloads available at www.3p.net.au after delivery
• Any queries? Contact 3P on (08) 9250 6244

Intervention Programs

The Personalised Learners’ Program aligns with students Individual Education Plans created by teachers in collaboration with parents, caregivers, and any possible outside therapists. Students are individually selected to attend specific group sessions relating to their individual needs and learning outcomes.

The Personalised Learners’ Program runs every day and is an explicit, effective small group program aimed to assist students with their communication, social, emotional, fine motor, and gross motor skills. The program is run with the support of Education Assistants and the SAER Deputy Principal. This occurs within a safe, supportive learning environment that caters for the developmental needs of every student within the program. Each day students will engage in activities which will include, but not limited to; obstacle courses, fine motor crafts, small world role play, building communication skills, turn taking, gardening, cooking and many others. Students will learn to be environmentally friendly and sustainable by planting and caring for vegetables to then be used during cooking sessions. Our focus for the group is to create and foster every individual’s academic and social development driven by high expectations for individual success.

English Intervention

Mini-Lit and Macq-Lit are reading intervention groups that are systematic and explicit to a selected small group, aimed to assist students reading skills. Currently the intervention program is delivered to selected students from Pre-Primary through to Year Six. The program is delivered throughout the week, for 45 minutes per lesson. Students work with Education Assistants on a rotating roster and to minimise whole chunks of curriculum being missed in other subject areas, we have chosen to run it on a rotating weekly timetable. The Reading Intervention is not designed to be the main teaching program of literacy for students, and it is a program to supplement the great work the teachers do. The initial steps for a student to be selected is through a placement test that indicates the ideal starting point on the program for each student. From there the Education Assistant will complete regular assessments throughout the program. These will be used to monitor progress and reported back to classroom teachers. Each lesson comprises three main components:

• Sounds and Words Activities
• Text Reading
• Story Book Reading

The program has seen many students thrive and become more confident and independent readers. This has been lovely to see as the students progress through the program and their overall data improves, resulting in more literate students.

Waste Wise Schools

Gardening Club

Our students have been very busy over the last few weeks during gardening club spreading gravel in our community garden. They have been working very hard to finish this job so we can commence planting. We do have some lovely red tomatoes growing and hopefully will be ripe soon and we are looking into purchasing some fruit trees to complement our community pantry.

Wow what a start to the term we have had with our Containers for Change Challenges. So far this term we have collected 4493 containers raising $449.30 for our community pantry. A big thank you to all staff, students and our families for being so generous.

Our winners for our challenges so far are:

Challenge one winners Room 9

Challenge two winners Room 18

Thank you and good luck with Challenge three!

Swimming Lessons

The Year 5 and 6 students will be undertaking their swimming lessons at Yanchep Logoon Beach in Week 5 and 6 this term. In term swimming is provided by the Department of Education and helps to ensure children develop vital swimming and water safety skills. Permission notes have been sent home. Swimming for the rest of the school is scheduled for later in the year.

Learning Focus

Literacy in Focus: Learning from Home

So, it’s a weird time and it’s going to be a bit of a weird year. We all know this and, for the most part, have accepted it. Many of us will experience being isolated within our homes, finding ourselves being stuck with the kids (in my case, possibly all 4 of them!) in a daily grind of ‘What shall we do next?’. Some of you will have to face your biggest fear, while others will get to embrace something that they love to do anyway – home-schooling! Kind of.

In the event of needing to isolate for days on end, your child’s education must continue. Support will be provided by the school and work will be available for your child, but you may be asking yourself ‘What else can I do to help?’. In this instance, I would like to direct you here:

This resource, provided by our very own Department of Education, is filled with interesting and easy-to-follow educational activities that you can use to support (read: keep engaged in something other than asking for more food) your child during a period of isolation. Not only might this resource help maintain their thirst for knowledge, but it may also help save your sanity as you dig in and tackle a range of topics with your child or children.

Daniel Gane - English Lead Teacher

Snapshot of some Art projects this term

The Pre-Primary students have been learning about famous Dutch Artist Piet Mondrian and his particular style of art. The students have been exploring the Primary Colour Wheel along with different line styles and have been busy creating their own interpretation of Piet Mondrian’s artwork which we named ‘Mondrian Hearts’. The students painted their Hearts with red, yellow, and blue (primary colours) and attached straight lines both horizontally and vertically just like Mondrian’s style in assembling their artworks.

The Year 5 students have been busy developing their sketching abilities to create 3-dimensional appearing English Red Roses, which will become a collaborative piece between all year 5 classes in the lead up to an installation piece for Harmony Week 2022. The students created their Roses focusing on overlapping of lines in varying direction to create delicate petals and explored varying ways in how to shade using coloured pencils to create light and dark highlights and shadows on their flower designs.

It has been wonderful to see all year levels diving into their new Art projects for 2022 and I am really excited to see what awesome artworks the students create throughout Term 1.

Miss Defty - Art Specialist

WA Childhood Constipation Study

Davina Houghton is undertaking this research as a PhD student at Edith Cowan University, Joondalup. She is a Registered Nurse (Child) currently working on the Children’s Ward at Joondalup Health Campus.

Facebook Page: WA Childhood Constipation Study

If your child is aged between 5 and 16 years old and has been diagnosed as having constipation, please visit the Facebook page above to view the Recruitment Post and check your eligibility to participate in this ground-breaking Australian study.

With Thanks.

Davina Houghton (RN) 0426 036 594

P & C

Wednesday Lunches

Please note, there will be no Wednesday P&C lunch until after the P&C AGM on 15th March 2022. A message will be sent to families confirming the date of the first P&C Wednesday lunch in due course.