9 February 2022

Newsletter Articles

Dates to Remember

Please refer to the side panel “School Calendar” section for the “live” calendar of events for information

Principal’s Introduction

WELCOME

Welcome to all our new students, families and all those returning. We are going to have a fantastic year! It was lovely to see our students and families back keen and excited about the challenges ahead.

It is certainly setting up to be an interesting year with the anticipation of Omicron coming into WA. I have asked all my staff to focus on establishing the year with a focus on teaching and learning. In our first days back without students we workshopped the new Oxford Mathematics, Soundwaves, our Positive Behaviour Program and like year level teachers working together on planning continuity for learning. We also went through all the safety and well-being processes put in place by the Government for COVID-19. This includes ventilation, mask wearing, social distancing and hygiene practices including washing hands, coughing into elbow and use of tissues.

Our school prides itself on community engagement and parent involvement. The last year or so has been quite difficult so now is the time to get involved and contribute to this fantastic school. One of the best ways to do this is to join the P&C. The first meeting for the year is Wednesday 16th February in the Library starting at 7:00pm. Enter through the Mulberry Tree After School Care gate between the Kindergarten and After School Care rooms. I look forward to working with our fabulous P&C and getting to know new members. It’s a lot of fun and really supports the children and school.

We welcome new and returning staff. This year we have had very few changes to our permanent staff. Ms Kate Tyndall has moved to a new school, Shorehaven PS, to be closer to her home. We have been fortunate to appoint Mrs Lynda Henderson as Acting School Officer until this position is permanently filled.

Mr Dylan Roggio is our new School Psychologist replacing Mrs Rita Burgess who has retired from her position at Newborough. Dylan will be at school each Thursday. Welcome back Miss Katie Ahrens after your well-earned LSL.

Ms Kris Williams will be taking LSL from the start of week three. We are currently in a selection process to fill the PE position. Mrs Megan Saggers is returning from Queensland after supporting family and will be with us shortly once her quarantine period lifts. Mrs Mandy Farmer has broken her wrist in a freak bike accident and will be away for at least the next four weeks. Miss Shareen Sidhu will be the relief for this period in Room 5.

Thank you to all parents for your preparation of students in school uniform and booklist items. Some uniform items are still on back order due to transport issues from the east. Parents will be advised as soon as possible when items arrive. Nearly all students wore the school uniform and a hat to wear out in the sun during the breaks. This is so important as it gives a sense of identity and belonging as well as being most functional. Having clothing, pens, pencils etc. labelled clearly with names is most helpful. The P&C have once again been fantastic with their support running the uniform shop. Many thanks Mrs Miriam Lopes and Mrs Emma Martin and her team in the Uniform Shop and Ms Jackie Stott and the Booklist team who packed and distributed all the booklists. They all did a brilliant job.

We know that preparing our children for school and settling into good patterns really helps with learning (and sanity at home and school). Please ensure your child (ren) have a substantial breakfast, plenty of sleep and get to school in time to prepare for the day ahead. Every day at school is important. Don’t let TV and electronic devices rule your life. A little time and effort put into these areas now will set up a great year. We remind everyone that our school policy is that any students with mobile communication devices, including mobile phones, are dropped off at the front office before school and picked up after school. The exception to this is the years 4-6students participating in the bring your own devices program.

A reminder that the Department of Education require that students do not use mobile phones during school time. Our school requires that students hand in their mobile phones to their class teacher at the start of the day and pick them up after school. Students who may require contacting parents during the school day can do this on the school landline phones with permission of the Admin team.

COVID19 ARRANGEMENTS

As we have experienced in the first week the school needs to be responsive to changes as directed by the Health and Education Departments’. Our aim is to run as many events and activities as normally as possible. I will limit the frequency of communications to essential. The two main communication methods will be email and this newsletter. Please read them carefully. I suspect there will be regular changes as we adjust to COVID-19 and the latest Omicron variant.

At school we are teaching and supporting students to wash their hands regularly and sneeze/cough into the elbow bend. If your child has symptoms of a cold or flu please keep them home and seek medical assistance ensuring they are well before returning to school. I encourage all those eligible to be vaccinated, especially with the third booster that has proven to be effective with Omicron. All staff are double vaccinated with many triple vaccinated (71%). All staff are required to be triple vaccinated within three months of their second vaccination.

CLASS STRUCTURE AND TEACHER PLACEMENTS

Every effort has been made to place students to assist them with their learning journey and maintain social interaction with their like year level peers. Whilst we would like to have straight classes this year our numbers have meant we have six split classes. All year levels are involved in splits, K-6. Children in all classes are taught the curriculum for their year level with like year level teachers working collaboratively to ensure continuity between classes. Long term research (Hattie) indicates that there is no advantage or disadvantage for a student in split or straight classes. We are fortunate to have excellent teachers in all classes.

ARRIVAL/DEPARTURE AT SCHOOL

Parents/guardians are reminded that students should not arrive at school before 8:20am. When gates open. Teachers open classrooms at 8:30am. There is no play before school.

School commences at 8:40am Sharp! Late arrivals need to go to the front office with their parents to sign in and get a yellow Late Pass. If a late student is not accompanied by a parent the parent will be contacted. Lateness disturbs learning for ALL children.

Unfortunately, after school play is currently cancelled with the Department’s Directions on gatherings at school. Once these are lifted after school play can resume.

School gates are locked at 3:10pm. The Mulberry Tree gate next to the Day care and Kindergarten is left unlocked until 6:00pm.

ATTENDANCE

Every day at school is important for every child from Kindergarten to year 6. Our attendance mantra is EVERY CHILD, EVERY DAY AT SCHOOL. This includes being on time and ready to start the school day.

The school and principal does not endorse children’s absences to go on holidays, greeting or saying goodbye to fly in fly out parents, special shopping trips and the like. These are unacceptable excuses that we hear too often. Parents are responsible and legally obliged to ensure their children attend school every day possible. Poor attendance not only severely impacts on your child’s learning but also on other children in your child’s class.

If you are having any difficulty getting your child to school let us know and we will try and help. Sometimes it seems easier to give into a child and keep them home for trivial reasons. This is fraught with short term and long term danger. We have had a lot of success in this area when parents and the school work together. Make no excuses for not attending school.

SWIMMING CARNIVALS

Unfortunately, our school and Interschool swimming carnivals will not go ahead this year. This is the result of not having PE and support staff available, COVID gathering restrictions and the Churchlands pool not being accessible.

GET WILD ON WILDING

Congratulations and thank you to Simon Zuvich and helpers who set up and supported the P&C stall at the City of Stirling’s “Get Wild on Wilding” community welcome event on Saturday. The P&C donated free slushies to all new students to welcome them and their families. Slushies were on sale for everyone else and were extremely popular on such a hot day. The P&C had a display showing some of the many activities they do to support the school encouraging parents to sign on for the year. It was great to see so many students, former students and families come and say hello and enjoy the festivities.

“A great relationship is about two things, first, find out the similarities, second, respect the differences.”

RESPECT

John Worthy
Principal

TERM DATES

School Directory

Useful School Information

SIREN TIMES

School commences at: 8.40am – Please arrive to your classroom by 8:30am

Morning recess: 10.40am – 11.00am

Lunch: 1.00pm – 1:40pm

School finishes at: 2:55pm (apart from Tuesday, early finish 2:30pm)

ATTENDANCE AND ABSENCES

Department of Education (Western Australia) policy states that all children from Pre Primary attend school for 5 full days as from the commencement of the school year.

Attendance details are entered electronically twice daily by classroom teachers and the information fed onto a school database. An SMS messaging service endorsed by the Department of Education operates to enable parents to inform the school by text message if their child is going to be absent. The system also automatically sends a message to parents if their child has not arrived at school and no notification has been received. This service assists parents to advise the school of absences and also ensures the safety of children by letting parents know that the child has not arrived at school.

If your child will be absent/sick or late, please contact the School directly either by:

SMS: 0409 088 585 (preferred method)

Email: Newborough.ps.absentee@education.wa.edu.au

Phone: 9278 0450

Please include only the student’s name and classroom number, reason for absence and the date in any messages. For Example: “John Doe Room 13 absent 1/2/2021 sick with flu”.

Notes are requested from parents for:

• Any absence from school
• Permission to go on vacation during term time
• Permission to leave the school grounds at any time including lunch time
• Non participation in sport and physical education lessons

LATE ARRIVAL AT SCHOOL

Parents/guardians are reminded that students should not arrive at school before 8:20am. When gates open. Teachers open classrooms at 8:30am. There is no play before school.

School commences at 8:40am Sharp. Late arrivals need to go to the front office with their parents to sign in and get a LATE PASS.

SIGNING OUT EARLY

If your child needs to be collected from school during school hours (e.g. attending an appointment or leaving early), can you please email the school at newborough.ps.absentee@education.wa.edu.au and your child’s class teacher ahead of time (the day before or in the morning would be great). Please include a reason for early pick up and the approximate time you will be here. This will help with coordinating your child to be waiting at the office when you arrive and lessen your wait time

EXCURSIONS AND INCURSIONS

During the year teaching staff plan a range of suitable excursions and incursions to introduce, develop or reinforce learning experiences for their class.

Incursions are an opportunity for the children to experience high standard performances covering a wide range of learning areas. The children are able to see national, and sometimes international, performers including musicians, storytellers, artists and many others at a reasonable cost. Particular attention is given to developing the social skills of the children, as well as their confidence and independence.

Formal written permission is required before any child can be taken on an excursion. Every endeavour is made to space excursions/incursions during the year to avoid costs being too great at any one time. If payment is not received by the due date and a payment plan has not been entered into, students will not participate in that particular excursion/incursion and will join a buddy class on that day.

MONEY COLLECTION

When paying for incursions, excursions or other school activities, please pay via direct deposit into the school bank account.

Newborough Primary School no longer accepts cash payments.

Money can be paid by online banking (please include your child’s surname and incursion/excursion name as reference). Our school bank details are:

BSB: 016 350
Account No: 3408 71304

SCHOOL DIARIES AND LIBRARY BAGS

If your child still needs a school diary and/or green library bag from their booklist, these are no longer available for purchase through the P&C however they can be purchased from the front office.

Please make payment via direct deposit to the school’s bank account (diaries are $10 and the green library bags are $6.95), including the child’s name and the item in the reference section eg Janet Smith, diary/bag. Once the transaction appears on the next morning’s bank statement, we will deliver the item/s to your child in their classroom.

No Dogs on School Grounds

Deputy News

SCHOOL PHOTOS – WEEK

Newborough Primary School’s School Photos are will be taken on: Wednesday 23rd February and Thursday 24th February 2022 by MSP Photography.

Every student will have their photo taken, whether they are purchasing photos or not.

We have chosen to use the online ordering system only and in the coming week or so, every child will be given an online ordering instruction slip and a unique student Shootkey.

To order, you will need to Log onto www.msp.com.au and follow the prompts to place your order.

If you lose your Shootkey, your class teacher will have a copy to quote back to you.

The expiry date for online ordering is the Wednesday 2 March 2022. Any orders received after this date will incur a $30.00 archive fee. You can email your order request through to reorders.perth@msp.com.au or call their office on 9240 8000.

Family Photos will be taken both mornings before school in the undercover area and envelopes can be obtained from Administration. Please ensure that your family envelope and payment are handed to the Photographers on photo day. If you do not have the correct money, the photographers will provide any change needed when photos are delivered to school. Family photos cannot be ordered online. Once the school has received photos, family photos will remain at reception for parents to collect. Please Note: Individuals and Family Photos are not available to view online.

The timetable for photos is:

Wednesday 23rd February 2022

8am Family Photos before school

Thursday 24th February 2022

8am Family Photos before school

We apologise in advance but we cannot change the timetable if your child is late, has a planned absence or is sick on the day. Sorry.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

DoE Security

Keep an eagle eye on our school!

School Watch encourages the school community to report any suspicious activity in and around school grounds, after hours and on weekends, as well as during school holidays.

Telephone 1800 177 777 (free call) or 13 14 44 (WA Police).

Please do not approach any individuals, just contact security and they will investigate the situation or contact the Police. Working together will help protect our school.

P&C News

Canteen News

The school canteen operates on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for morning recess and lunches

Regards
Amanda
Canteen Manager

Uniform Shop News

If you have some spare time on Tuesday mornings we would welcome your help in the uniform shop Your valuable time is greatly appreciated

UNIFORM SHOP Hours

Tuesdays 8:15-8:45am.

ORDERS

Uniform ordering can be made via QuickCliq (if you know the size). The cut off time is Mondays at 6pm to receive by Wednesday of the same week. Any orders after Monday at 6pm will be processed the following week.

Birthday Cakes/Gifts for Students

A reminder that we are not allowing the sharing of birthday cakes, presents etc. for birthdays or other celebrations due to the COVID restrictions. It remains too risky.

NEWBOROUGH PRIMARY SCHOOL NETBALL CLUB

PLAY NETBALL FOR NEWBOROUGH IN 2022

If your son or daughter is in year 2 to 6 and is interested in playing netball for Newborough this year, we’d love to hear from you!

Training is held at school and games are played at Matthews Netball Centre in Wembley.

All the details can be found in our information pack -

Please register your child’s interest using the following form:

Forms close Monday February 14

Any questions? Please contact Club Coordinator, Sonia Johansen on 041 77 333 57 or newboroughnetball@gmail.com

* Pre-Primary and Year 1 aged students will be invited to participate around week 4. A separate information pack will be emailed to parents

Sonia Johansen
Club Coordinator
Newborough Primary School Netball Club

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