23 March 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.
Harmony Day
On Monday 21st of March Somerly Primary School celebrated Harmony Day. We share a diverse heritage that originates from every part of the world and builds upon our rich Indigenous culture. Harmony Week is a time to celebrate and acknowledge our unique community and reflect on the many social and cultural aspects that diversity brings to us all.
Some of the activities we have celebrated include
- Harmony Day Communications Assembly – Students sang the Community Song ‘What I am’
- All students were able to watch our Harmony Day video created by our community
- Students dressed in cultural dress or Orange
- Throughout Term 1 all year groups studied a national flower from around the world, led by our school Art specialist Mrs Defty
Thank you to Mrs Hill’s mum and dad, Mr and Mrs McLeod for their yummy treats and the amazing presentation about Scotland.
On Monday 28th we will also have our Taiko Drumming incursion, please get your notes and payment in as soon as possible. Thank you for helping us share our remarkable multicultural community. We look forward to making this event even bigger and better next year. Please be in touch if you have any ideas or would like to be involved.
Parent Interviews
Parent/Teacher Interviews will be held on Friday 25th 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 over 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.
Please book in as soon as possible using the link below
https://somerlyps.schoolzineplus.com/view-session/20
PP – Year 4 Swimming Lessons - Cancelled
In weeks 1 and 2 of Term 2 PP to Year 4 students were due to complete their in-term swimming lessons. Unfortunately, due to various factors the difficult decision has been made to cancel in-term swimming. There are significant challenges presented by COVID, including student attendance and separating class groups resulting in the need for an increased number of buses and increased costs.
Due to the number of schools cancelling swimming at this time it is unlikely we will be able to postpone to later in the year. We apologise for the inconvenience.
School Board
The School Board had its first successful meeting of the year on Monday.
The School Board is still seeking two more parent representatives. School board members take part in: establishing and reviewing the school’s objectives, priorities and general policy directions and evaluating the school’s performance.
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 2021
A big thank you to all new and returning parents that attended the P&C AGM held on Tuesday 15th March 2022. We had an extremely successful meeting and were able to fill all the positions on our Executive Committee.
The P&C welcomes the following Office Bearers and Executive Officers
President: Dee Bell
Vice President: Ashlea Bradley
Secretary: Sharnee Costa
Treasurer: Nik Chauhan
Fundraising: Rose Manson
Kristy Harris, Tania Viandante and Kathleen Milner
Another focus for the P&C was to increase our membership base and this included having a parent representative for every year level in the school. Every parent of the school is welcome to become a member of the P&C and I strongly encourage you to be a part of this new and energetic team. Membership is an annual fee of only $1 and the students of Somerly Primary School benefit from your involvement.
The annual Easter Raffle will be held on Thursday 8th April 2021 at 1.45pm information and tickets have been sent home with students, but due to COVID restrictions we are unable to hold our annual Easter Hat Parade.
Home Reading
Reading is the focus of our homework program at Somerly Primary School. Thank you to all parents for your support of our Home Reading Program and completing our Home Reading Logs for each night of reading. Reading is essential in students’ learning across all areas of the curriculum. Please see your class teacher if you are having any difficulties and concerns.
This term, teachers in each class are looking for the student with the most nights of reading per class to win a prize.
Winter School Uniform
As the cold weather approaches please ensure your child has the appropriate school uniform. School uniform is available from Uniform Concepts in Clarkson. Students will not be permitted to wear hoodies.
New students
I would like to extend a warm welcome to Amethyst who recently commenced at Somerly Primary School.
Zoe Hadley-Hawley
Principal
Merit Certificates
Room 1: Alastair and Alice; Room 2: Sophie and Shalom; Room 3: Eisa and Lincoln; Room 4: Cayden and Ahaana; Room 8: Phoebe and Skyla; Room 12: Kora and Chase;Room 13: Noah and Joshua; Room 14: Meyer and Poppy; Room 15: Summer and Maddison; Room 16: Hannah and Jiya; Room 17: Mabel and Titus; Room 18: Hazel and Layla; Science: Zachary and Susan; Music: Miguel and Pihu; Art: Madalyn LOTE: Jia and Noelia
Stars
Behaviour Focus
Our behaviour focus for Week 8 is:-
PLAY AREAS SAFETY
- We help others when required
- We wear shoes
- We keep sand in the sandpit
- We stay within school boundaries
- We use equipment with care
- We play running games on the grassed areas
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.
Payment Envelopes – Reminder
When using our school payment envelopes to pay for school activities, please ensure that you provide your child’s full name. This will guarantee that the payment is receipted to the correct student account.
Attendance
Going to school every day is the
Single most important part
of your child’s education.
Students learn new things at school every day
Missing school puts them behind
Why it’s important
We all want our students to get a great education, and the building blocks for a great education begin with students coming to school each and every day.
If students miss school regularly, they miss out on learning the fundamental skills that will set them up for success in the later years of school.
There is no safe number of days for missing school – each day a student misses puts them behind, and can affect their educational outcomes.
Each missed day is associated with progressively lower achievement in numeracy, writing and reading.
Getting in early
Attendance patterns are established early – a child regularly missing days in kindergarten or in the early years of school will often continue to miss classes in the later years, and receive lower test scores than their classmates. It’s vital that students go to school every day – even in the early years of primary school.
The main reasons for absence are:
Sickness – There are always times when students need to miss school, such as when they’re ill. It’s vital that they’re only away on the days they are genuinely sick, and setting good sleep patterns, eating well and exercising regularly can make a big difference.
It's vital that holidays are planned during school holidays where possible, and not during the term if it can be avoided.
“Day off” – Think twice before letting your child have a “day off” as they could fall behind their classmates – every day counts.
Truancy – This is when students choose not to go to school without their parent’s permission. There can be many reasons for truancy. The best way to address this is for schools and parents to work together.
Remember, every day counts.
If your child must miss school,
speak with your classroom teacher as early as possible.
Our school is open, there is an expectation that unless informed otherwise children attend school. We are maintaining healthy hygiene practices in order to keep our school open.
If your child is unwell, you must notify the school by calling 6206 4200 or emailing somerly.ps@education.wa.edu.au
NAPLAN
Our year 3 & 5 students will be completing NAPLAN tests in Weeks 3 & 4 of Term 2. An information flyer has been sent home. If you have any questions, please contact your child's teacher or Louise Carroll 6206 4200. The students will be participating in practice tests and activities prior to the NAPLAN tests.
World Sleep Day
During the 2021 Health and Wellbeing Census that was given to the Year 4 – 6 students it was identified that sleep patterns and routines were difficult for some students to identify. From this census the 2022 Health Committee are organising events throughout the year to specifically focus on the needs of the students. Throughout week 7 students learnt about learning positive sleep patterns and ways to become more mindful, and to celebrate the week students and teachers dressed in their Pyjamas. It was lovely to see students, teachers and breakfast club all dressed in their PJS. The sleep foundation has resources readily available for students and parents. In Term 2, the focus will be Healthy Lunch Box week, more information will be shared in Term 2.
https://www.sleephealthfoundation.org.au/key-events/world-sleep-day.html
Harmony Week 2022
To celebrate Harmony Week 2022 this term in Art class students in Pre-Primary to Year 6 have been working incredibly hard to create native flowers from countries around the world that many of our school population has lived in, travelled from, or has close cultural connections to.
For this whole school Art project students have been busy researching native flowers from the locations of:
Australia - The Golden Wattle
Italy - The Lilium Stargazer
India - The Water Lily
Croatia - The Croatica Iris
Malaysia - The Hibiscus flower
New Zealand - The Kowhai flower
England - The Tudor Rose
All year levels have been learning some special information about many of the cultures that make up our Somerly Primary School community and have explored the unique native flowers from each of those places. Students have learnt to sketch and collage these unique flowers and decorated them using a combination of pencil shading techniques and paper collage. Well done to all of the students that have created a native flower, I am so proud of your artistic achievements so far this term. Keep up the amazing artwork!
Special Window Harmony Week Display:
Over the past few weeks on the undercover area windows a Harmony Week 2022 mural has been painted onto the windows. Each window symbolises the native flower/plant that originates from some of the many cultures in our school community. The flowers have been outlined and painted using different techniques to create varying textured petals, leaves and stems. On the windows facing the Year 5/6 block the art work has been inspired by our Italian Language classes which has been created highlighting some of the significant icons and landmarks of Italy, that the students suggested should become a part of the display including: The Leaning tower of Pisa, Vespa scooter, Italian Flag and Ferrari sports car. The artworks have brightened up this area and it has been an awesome project to share the native wildflower information with the students and community of SPS.
Lauren Defty – Art Specialist
Waste Wise Schools
Gardening Club
Over the last few weeks we have been working hard in our Gardening Club planting our Autumn seedlings.
We now have tomatoes, carrots, peas, snap peas, mixed lettuce leaves and onions growing in our garden.
Thank you staff, students and our Somerly families for your participation in our weekly challenges. We have now collected over 10000 containers this is a fantastic achievement!
So far we have collected 10917 containers raising $1091.70.
Our challenge winners for weeks 6 & 7
Mrs Hobson’s room 15 Congratulations
Our next challenge for weeks 8 & 9
Is
Be A Container Saver!
Save your containers
Bring them to us!
Help our Somerly Community
Congratulations Somerly Primary School, we have collected as a whole school 10917 containers raising $1091.70! AMAZING!
Thank you!!
Learning Focus
ITALIAN Term 1 2022
The students in Year 3 have begun learning Italian diligently and enthusiastically. They have been learning the Italian numbers using songs, art and craft and Seesaw activities. I have been very pleased with their retention of knowledge and how they are now able to apply their learning to different tasks.
Singing and talking in Italian have been the highlight for the Year 4 students. Using the topic Come stai? (How are you?) a tremendous energy has come from the students singing the Come Stai? song. I look forward to hearing more Italian singing from these classes.
The Year 5 students have been working on Italian numbers and extending their growing knowledge in this area. With the use of Italian puzzles, learning has been fun and challenging in this topic.
The hit Italian movie Luca is the current topic for the Year 6 students. Activities have focused on identifying Italian adjectives for the movie characters, analysing Italian sayings, reading short Italian passages, and creating character profiles using ICT. Fantastico effort Year 6’s!
Mrs McCulloch – Italian Specialist
Online Canteen
http://www.quickcliq.com.au/
Orders must be placed online no cash orders.
YOUR CHILD’S CURRENT 2022 ROOM NUMBER MUST BE UPDATED OR THEY WILL NOT RECEIVE THEIR LUNCH!
Somerly Primary School
Phone: 6206 4200
Dental Therapy: 9407 9457
Email: Somerly.ps@education.wa.edu.au
http://www.somerlyps.wa.edu.au
To advise of your child’s absence text mob: 0437 480 486