24 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.

Last week was Science Week with the theme ‘More than Meets the Eye’ and we had a fantastic array of activities organised by our Specialist Science Teacher, Mrs Mulder. The junior students enjoyed making kaleidoscopes and the senior students experimented with solar powered cars. Students were able to access and explore our new range of microscopes at lunch time and other science displays and quizzes were set up in the Library. It has been a fantastic year for the Science learning area with the opening of our new science lab and the first year with Science as one of our specialist subjects. We look forward to seeing how the students’ scientific knowledge and skills develop over the coming years and we continue our curriculum extension this week with Book Week.

Athletics Carnival

Our Faction Jumps and Throws Carnival will be held on Wednesday 31st August and the Faction Sports Carnival on Friday 2nd September 2022. Students have been practising hard in their classes and with their class teacher to prepare for the big day.

The P&C have kindly organised a coffee van for the carnival we ask that only parents utilise this facility and not students. It is important that the students stay with their allocated Faction teacher for supervision purposes. At lunch time, we invite parents to enjoy a picnic lunch with their child/ren.

As always this is a regular school day and all high school students are required to attend school on this day. We do not encourage older siblings attending the carnival on this day.

Please see the Athletics Carnival section below for further details for the Faction Carnival on 9th September 2022.

Father’s Day Stall

We would like to acknowledge the significant male role models in our students’ lives and thanks to our P&C, a gift stall has been organised. Students can order one gift per family or one gift per child and this is of course up to individual families.

Parent Meetings Week 8 Friday 9th September

Just a reminder to parents that our Term 3 Parent Meetings will be held on Friday 9th September 2022. On this day school will close at 11.45pm, any student that is unable to be collected will be supervised on school site until our regular closing time. We will ensure that we have someone posted at the cross walk for students walking home.

This term, parent meetings will have a phone appointment option and all in person parent meetings will be held in classrooms. This is to help manage risks presented by the continual impact COVID is having in our community.

The purpose of these meetings is to provide you with an opportunity to talk to your child’s teacher about their progress, learning, celebrations and concerns.

Bookings are now open and can be made by clicking on the link below.

Before School Drop off

This is a reminder that students are not to be in attendance on school grounds prior to 8.15am. We have some students arriving prior to 7.45am and this is of grave concern. Staff commence duty from 8.15am and are not officially required to be on site until 8.20am. To ensure effective duty of care for your child, it is essential that these rules are followed. Parents of students that continue to arrive on school site prior to this time will be contacted to arrange outside hours’ school care.

At 8.30am our classroom doors open and it is at this time that students are invited into the classroom to set up for the day and complete morning activities. Morning activities are planned, focussed activities set up by teachers to review important, previously taught content. The siren goes at 8.40am and this is when the day’s lessons commence.

Outside School Hours Care Survey

We are looking to collect parent feedback and information on the use of Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) providers. The existing service run on school site has been delivered by the same provider for greater than 5 years. As such, we are required to run an open market expression of interest process. To help us with our decision making, we would like to find out more about current usage and seek parent feedback. Please click on the link below and complete the short 5-minute survey by close of business on Friday 9th September 2022.

Thank you for taking the time to complete our survey. Your feedback is valuable to us.

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. Places are filling fast!

Please click on the link below to access our Application for Enrolment.

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.

School Board

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.

New students

I would like to extend a warm welcome to Azaria, Memphis, Saige, Slade, Noah and Eli who recently commenced at Somerly Primary School.

Zoe Hadley-Hawley
Principal

Merit Certificates

Room 1: Evie, Emmanuel and Rylee; Room 2: Michael, Uc and Vincent; Room 3: Dakoda and Cameron; Room 4: Jye and Ayaana; Room 7: Annalisa, Josie and Tyler; Room 8: Tison, Ayia, Mason and Karma; Room 9: Kyle, Kevin and Emily; Room 10: Ivy, Sarra, Anna Rose and Shah; Room 11: Tyler and Hannah; Room 12: Julieanne and Abdulhamed; Room 13: Jai and Kevin; Room 14: Henley, Poppy and Taleeya; Room 16: Maitland and Lily; Room 17: Tyson and Lily; Room 18: Scarlett and Violet; Room 20: Samantha and Matthew;

Stars

Behaviour Focus

Our behaviour focus for Week 6 is:-

Whole School Safety

• Keep hands, feet and objects to yourself
• Saying Stop

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.

Attendance

It is important for children to attend school all day, every day.

When is it OK to not go to school?

An OK reason is one that prevents your child from getting to school. This could include:

• your child is unable to attend because they are sick
• attending cultural or religious observances such as sorry time and funerals
• an unavoidable medical appointment
• an unavoidable natural event such as flood waters or a cyclone

It’s NOT OK to miss school if your child:

• is celebrating a birthday
• is going on a family holiday
• is visiting family and friends
• has slept in or had a big weekend
• is looking after other children
• has sport or other recreational activities that have not been approved by the school
• has appointment such as haircuts and minor check ups

If possible, routine medical and other health appointments should be made either before or after school, or during the school holidays.

Why is going to school so important?

• At school, many concepts such as literacy and numeracy are taught in a sequence. Missing school means missing out on learning – which can often make it difficult to catch up later. This is particularly important in the early years when essential foundation skills are being taught.
• Going to school every day helps children learn the important life skill of ‘showing up’ – at school, at work, to sport and other commitments.
• Research from the Western Australian Telethon Kids Institute shows that every day at school counts towards a student’s learning. Students who attend regularly, generally do better at school and in life.

VacSwim Enrolments

Learning Focus

Science week 2022

Last week Somerly Primary school students celebrated Science week. This year’s theme Glass: more than meets the eye proved to be a very interesting subject with lots of new information presented. Students learned how glass was made using the float glass method, what it was made of, learning that beach sand is the best sand for glass. They also discovered some naturally occurring glass including Fulgurites or lightening glass as it is more commonly called, which was really cool.

Students from Pre Primary to Year 6 were involved in a range of different activities from making, stained glass windows and kaleidoscopes to conducting a solar panel car experiment. The students were engaged and really enjoyed the different glass themed activities.

The Science room was also open at lunch time for students to come and explore the world of the microorganism, mini beasts and cells through microscopes and magnifying glasses which was very popular.

I hope the students came home and shared some of their Science Week learning and activities with you.

Mrs Mulder

P & C