10 August 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.

School Board

This week we held our fourth School Board meeting. Minutes are available in the front office to view, if desired.

I welcome our newest School Board parent representative, Kayleigh James and thank her for her contribution to Somerly Primary School.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday 6th September 2022 at 9am and will be an OPEN Board meeting. We encourage you to come along and observe the School Board in action.

School P&C

A big thank you to the P&C for the purchase of our new Automated External Defibrillator. It is not a requirement for schools, and we hope that it is never required, however a much-appreciated step to help keep our entire community safe.

Our next P&C meeting is 30th August 2022, Week 7, commencing at 6.30pm. We look forward to your attendance.

COVID-19

We continue to have students, staff and families impacted by COVID and other winter illnesses. Hopefully, as we move towards the warmer weather we will see a reduction in numbers affected.

In Term 3, 2022 an additional allocation of rapid antigen tests (RATs) is being provided to schools to support continuity of teaching and learning and school operations. Each student will be given 20 tests. Further information regarding collection will be provided via Seesaw this week, however if you require further tests before then, please see the front office.

Term Three Upcoming Activities

Please read below about the exciting activities we have coming up including Science Week and Book Week. In Week 5, our Year 5 and 6 students will also have an exciting opportunity to participate in the Clarkson STEM Challenge. More information will be provided to successful students in the coming week.

School Grounds Update

This last week we have had our fair share of wet, wild and windy weather. This has provided several challenges with regards to flooding across the school grounds and car parks. As a result, students and staff have had to remain indoors during playtime, which is not the ideal situation, however necessary to ensure student safety. This week staff will be reviewing our Wet Weather Policy to see how we can make further improvements. After seeking out further solutions to our flooding issues which have impacted us twice this year, I have liaised with the Department of Education this week to further investigate long term options to solve our flooding issues.

We have recently received some new sets of outdoor seating that we are looking forward to having set up around Blocks 3 and 4 over the next week.

Staffing Update

We would like to welcome Miss Madyson Lewis as our new Aboriginal and Islander Education Officer. Mady will be working with the school on Tuesdays, to support our indigenous families and improve community connections. A big focus will also be improving our connections with the local high school to support transitions and we welcome her to Somerly Primary School.

Personally, I would like to announce that I will be commencing maternity leave for the last 4 weeks of 2022. I will return to Somerly Primary School in Term 2 of 2023, after the arrival of my third child. At this stage my replacement is unknown, but I am confident the plans and processes in place will make the disruption minimal.

2023 Enrolments

Children born between 1 July 2018 and 30 June 2019 will be eligible to start Kindergarten next year. If your child has a birthdate between these dates, please complete an Application for Enrolment as soon as possible.

Please click on the link below to access our Application for Enrolment. Once completed, please submit your application as soon as possible.

Pre-primary Re-Enrolment

All existing Kindergarten students are required to enrol for Pre Primary in 2023. To complete the enrolment process, it is necessary for you to come to the school office as soon as possible to sign your child’s enrolment card and update your child’s information.

This process will ensure your child’s placement in our Pre Primary program for 2023.

If your child will not be returning to Somerly Primary School in 2023, please advise the school office as soon as possible.

New students

I would like to extend a warm welcome to Tass, Lily and Tessa who recently commenced at Somerly Primary School.

Zoe Hadley-Hawley
Principal

Merit Certificates

Room 1: Carter and Sophia; Room 2: Grace, Francis, Jordyn and Sophie; Room 4: Gillian and Milah; Room 7: Justus, Neveah, Austin, Chase and Mati; Room 8: Emily, Zach, Mikayla and Sami; Room 9: Heath, Nadia; Aisha; Room 10: Tyson, Hayley and Cahil; Room 11: Jasmine and Daniel; Room 12: Keegan and Louis; Room 13: Liam and Emmett; Room 14: Jai and Sienna; Room 15: Savanah and Harper; Room 16: Cooper, Mila and Mason; Room 17: Moniqua and Bella; Room 18: Tyler and Aminah; Science: Julieanne and Hannah; Art: Matthew and Kingsen; Music: Raffa, Enzo and Carter; LOTE: Kai, Lawson and Amelia.

Stars

Behaviour Focus

Our behaviour focus for Week 4 is:-

RESPECT

Play Areas

• We agree on and follow game rules before starting

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.

Playgroup

Learning Focus

Literacy in Focus: Book Week 2022

It’s coming up to that time of year again – Book Week! Starting on the 20th of August and running until the 26th of August, Book Week is just a couple of weeks away. The Book Week event is a fantastic experience that promotes the joy that reading can bring to young minds!

This year’s theme is "Dreaming with eyes open...” and it aims to acknowledge Australia's First Nations People and their rich story based culture. Darug woman, Jasmine Seymour, won the New Illustrator Award in 2020 for her beautiful picture book 'Baby Business‘, and as a part of her prize, she was commissioned to produce all of the poster artwork for ‘Dreaming With Eyes Open...’.

The images on the poster represent the ideas of stepping into your own story by dreaming with your eyes open, listening to Country as the first storyteller and learning from friends who help you on your personal journeys.

We encourage all families to get involved with Book Week in one way or another this year. You can get involved with your local library, you can read new and different books to your children, or you can visit the Somerly Primary School Book Fair with your children. Students can also enter our ‘Redesign Your Favourite Book Cover’ competition for the chance of winning a $15.00 voucher to spend at the book fair!

Of course, the crowning moment for students is the Book Week Parade held at school. Over the years, we have seen some wonderfully creative outfits go through the school. Elaborate, funny and imaginative costumes that amaze the audience. I admire these families for their skill and dedication to what is, inarguably, a positive learning experience for children of all ages. No matter what your skill level, your child is welcome to take part in our parade on Friday the 26th of August by dressing up as a book character. This year we would love it if they could bring a copy of their book along as well!

Finally, for those parents of older children hearing the complaint that, “I’m too old to dress up!” please be assured that they are indeed not too old. They are never too old to play! You can get them involved by encouraging a clever or humorous outfit and by explaining to them finding the fun in things can help them learn new ways to express themselves! Get them to give it a go - they are too young to stop playing!

Warm regards
Mr Daniel Gane - English Lead Teacher

Science Week

Art Class Projects - Term 3 Progress

This Term in Art the Year 4 students have been developing their clay sculpting skills in designing, moulding and etching a blues musical-themed saxophone clay tile. The students have been enjoying researching the history of the instrument and getting to use the clay medium. The projects are beginning to take shape and are looking wonderful already. Students have also begun to mix up some blue tints and shades using acrylic paints to form the background space. This has established a monochromatic-themed background with a golden textured saxophone to highlight the style of music.

The Pre-Primary Students have been learning about how to construct a collage and the layering that is involved throughout the process. Working towards our Arts Assembly at the end of term three, students have been busy learning about the shapes, textures and colours of blues-style instruments such as the Saxophone, Piano and Drums and have been using a variety of materials to design their collage. Experimenting with printing, sketching and painting to name a few of the techniques explored so far. The projects are looking amazing, and we are excited to share with you the final artworks during the Arts Assembly at the end of this term.

Kind regards
Miss Defty - Arts Specialist

Chaplain’s Chat

Hi School Community

Hope you're all keeping well.

Please find attached some information of 3 FREE online (via Zoom) parent education workshops, facilitated by Anglicare, that you may find helpful as parents.

Topics include:

• Co-Parenting Peacefully (a 3-week program)
• Learning to Thrive after separation (a 4-week program)
• Supporting Children to Transform Anxiety into Resilience (a 2-hour workshop)

Each flyer has the number and email address for Anglicare where you can register.

Elle-May Wong
Chaplain

Waste Wise Schools

Gardening Club

Unfortunately, due to the bad weather lately we haven’t been able to do any work in the garden.

Thank you staff, students and our families for continuing to support our Containers for Change challenges raising money for our community and our students. Our first Term 3 block challenge result was fantastic! We collected 2327 containers raising $232.70!

Challenge winners were

Block 2
Collecting 792 containers
Thank you to all our participating Blocks:
Block 1 collected 476 containers
Block 3 collected 216 containers
Block 4 collected 777 containers

Our next challenge is…

SHOUT OUT!
We are looking for some local small businesses to support our Containers for Change fundraising, so please, parents and carers, if you know of any small businesses that could support our fundraising by donating their containers, please let us know.
We also need some helpers to put together a small shed and lay 6 large slabs for the floor of the shed. If you are free any time to help, please call Teresa on 0400 512 299.
Thank you for helping us to help you!

P & C