8 March 2023

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.

Kaya Families

To achieve our vision, we will ensure quality delivery of the Western Australian Curriculum through consistent delivery, particularly in English and Mathematics, of a whole school instructional model that is explicit and evidence based. Currently our teaching staff are participating in professional learning through ‘Shaping Minds’, an organisation delivering an explicit teaching model, that will be used consistently throughout the school. Thank you to Mrs Hobson, Mrs Gane, Miss Hobson, Mrs Sneddon, Mr Gane, Ms Lipman and Mrs Brown for taking the leadership role with this professional development.

Furthermore, teachers differentiate their programs to meet the needs of individual students while ensuring high achievement and high progress. This is evident through the early intervention programs and Individual Educational Plans being developed by teachers and discussed with parents.

We are fortunate to have several Education Assistants who support our students in achieving set goals. They also play a vital role in the success of many initiatives implemented at Somerly Primary School. Including, but not limited to; intervention programs, differentiated programs, Personalised Learning Program, Wastewise initiatives, Containers for Change, Community Garden, Chess Club and support to the school community.

I would like to thank and introduce our Education Assistants;

Tracy Boyd
Jolanda Capes
Gail Esson
Naomi Facey
Ros Highley
Heidi Johnsen
Jo Kincart
Tania Marshall
Janet Metcalf
Jackie Plewright
Vicki Rees
Joan Riordan
Teresa Sanders
Sheena Sendzuik
Marilyn Senini
Faye Taylor
Katie Walkerden

Swimming Lessons

During the past week our Pre-Primary to Year 4 students have been attending their swimming lessons at Wanneroo Aquamotion, this will be their final week. Thank you to all staff who have supported our students, ensuring they are safe and challenging themselves to achieve their best. Thank you to Heather Barnwall, Katia Bue, Pam Lok and Sue Rose for all their organisation for our school swimming lessons.

I would like to share some feedback from a spectator;

“I was very impressed with the number of staff who were in the pool assisting students. Caring for all students.”

P&C

Our P&C committee are very excited to announce their organisation of the school Colour Run event, which will be held on the last day of term. Please keep up to date with the information relating to this event.

Our P&C are meeting on Tuesday 21st March at 6:30pm in the Somerly Primary School staffroom. Please feel welcome to attend, your participation is very much valued.

If you are available to lend a helping hand in the morning for our Breakfast Club or Wednesday for our Sausage Sizzle, please let our P&C know your availability. Many hands make light work!

We are fortunate to have Domino’s Pizza providing us with a fundraising opportunity. They are donating $1 from every pizza sold on Thursday 16th March from the Mindarie and Jindalee stores. Please tell family and friends about this opportunity.

We are very thankful to the enthusiastic group of parents that make this all possible for our students. We are looking forward to the special events ahead and the development of playground areas.

NAPLAN

NAPLAN is a national literacy and numeracy assessment that students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sit each year. Students sit assessments in Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy. These assessments are completed online, except for the Year 3 writing, which is completed on paper. The NAPLAN tests start on Wednesday 15th March and finish on Monday 27th March 2023. You can obtain more information about NAPLAN and see the types of questions and tools available in the online NAPLAN assessments at the link below:

Containers for Change

Thank you to Teresa Sanders, Gail Esson and Renae Mulder who make it possible for our school community to make the Containers for Change initiative sustainable. They have now organised collaboration with the school P&C and Good Sammys to coordinate the collection of the containers. This also means that we are not only supporting our school with funds, but also our community with connection to Good Sammy’s and their programs for people with disabilities and disadvantage, and our environment with the collection of containers.

Thank you for all you do to support our school community, maintaining a safe and productive learning environment.

School Leadership

Mrs Zoe Hadley-Hawley has asked me to share the news that she will be taking Term 2 to continue her maternity leave to spend time with her family. Her baby McKenzie is almost 4 months old, and they are both doing well.

I am honoured and feel privileged to continue in the Principal role whilst Zoe is on maternity leave. I thank you, the school community for your support, please feel welcome to meet with me to discuss concerns, provide feedback or share success stories.

I’m delighted to share some wonderful news and to congratulate Miss Bue on her pregnancy.

I’m also pleased to announce that Heather Barnwall will remain on as Deputy Principal.

Although, there are some changes with the Leadership Team, we all remain focused on the goals identified in our Somerly Business Plan, creating a supportive learning environment and catering for the needs of every student.

New students

I would like to extend a warm welcome to Coral-Lee, Kiara and Elya who recently commenced at Somerly Primary School.

Louise Carroll
A/Principal

Merit Certificates

Room 2: Temata and Jett; Room 4: Ryder and Olympia; Room 5: Summer and Bonnie; Room 7: Moon and Jai; Room 8: Sienna and Enzo; Room 12: Ella and Summer; Room 14: Joseph and Amelia; Room 15: Lincoln and Gillian; Roon 16: Gillian, Hendrix and Logan; Room 17: Cayden and Alicia; Room 18: Mila and Titus; Room 20: Aarya and Violet; LOTE: Mabel, Teleah and Classe 12; Art: Stevie and Maddison.

Behaviour Focus

Our behaviour focus for Week 6 is:-

RESPECT

• We put our hand up to be dismissed when we have finished eating our lunch

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.

Parent/Teacher Meetings

As per previous years we will hold our Parent, Teacher Interviews on Friday 24th March from 12pm to 5pm. This means that on this day, students will finish at 11.45am.

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 5pm on Wednesday 8th March and will close at 5pm on Wednesday 22nd March. Please click on the link below to book:

Somerly Primary School Playgroup

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 2023 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.

Uniform Donations

If you are cleaning out your old school uniforms, please note that we always welcome donations of second-hand uniform. We use these uniforms to support families in need and for students who may need them for various reasons throughout the school day. Donations can be brought to the front office.

Learning Focus

Year 6 Workshed Mosaic Incursion

During week 5, the Year 6 students were given the opportunity to participate in a Mosaic incursion in collaboration with Workshed Mosaics and the City of Wanneroo. Paul and Lisa from Workshed Mosaics visited our school and taught us all about the history of Somerly and Clarkson and with this we collaboratively created a mosaic artwork based on the history of the area. The student’s determination and great efforts were shown throughout this project, and I am incredibly proud of their participation and support throughout. The artwork will officially be placed by the City of Wanneroo in Homestead Park for everyone to view and appreciate. There will be a grand opening in the coming weeks, on which I will share more information as soon as possible regarding a date and time, if you would like to come along and view it. This artwork was a special opportunity for the Year 6 students to make their mark in their final year of primary school and we want to thank Paul and Lisa for coming to our school to conduct this incursion with us.

Year 2 Visual Art class Project

Over the past few weeks, the Year 2 students have been busy exploring the following Elements of Art: Shape and Colour. The students have mixed their warm and cool colours using acrylic paints and blended them together to create a backing paper, followed with learning how to draw a symmetrical organic “alien” shape. The students have done an incredible job working hard on this project and some wonderful artworks are currently on display in our front office if you would like to have a look.

Lauren Defty - Art Specialist

Waste Wise Schools

Gardening Club

Gardening Club has been closed during weeks 5 and 6 due to swimming lessons.

See here in week 7!

Don’t feed the fill!

Congratulations everyone we had our first challenge this year! As a community we have collected 3324 containers raising $332.40 for our garden. Our total collected so far this year is 4434 containers. Two hundred dollars was spent to stock the community pantry from our Christmas Challenge last year.

Our Challenge winners were

Miss Colleran’s Room 4 collecting 504 containers!

This was a very close challenge, and we thank everyone for participating!

Classroom totals:
Room 1 – 136 Room 2 – 456 Room 3 – 41 Room 4 – 504
Room 5 – 404 Room 7 – 45 Room 8 - 327 Room 9 – 69
Room 10 – 10 Room 11 – 75 Room 12 – 485 Room 13 – 142
Room 14 – 21 Room 15 – 21 Room 16 – 113 Room 17 – 172
Room 18 – 351 Room 20 - 54

During weeks 6 & 7 we have our Zooper Dooper Thursdays!

Our next classroom challenge will be in weeks 8 & 9 raising funds for NAIDOC Excursion.

Our grand total this year is 4434, we have 564 containers to reach our term target!

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.

Thank you for helping us to help you!

Containers for Change Partnership

Somerly Primary School has created a partnership with the Good Sammy's through their Containers for Change depot in Wanneroo. They will be coming and collecting the containers we get from each challenge, with a percentage of the money we raise going towards their organization's goal which is to provide more opportunities to people with disabilities through traineeships, education and employment. We are also helping the environment by stopping items going into landfill. As a team we will be supporting people in the community with disabilities, so please donate your containers.

P & C

Meet the P&C

Doughraiser – Mindarie and Jindalee