Newsletter 26 February
Principal's Highlights
What a flying start we’ve had to the new year and yesterday’s open afternoon was no exception! A big thank you to all of those parents, families and community members who attended. One of the reasons we hold these events is because of the benefits that come with family and community involvement. When children feel as if they belong to their school, when they are able to share their schooling with the important people in their lives, attendance improves, behaviour improves, there is increased confidence and social connection. Most importantly, there is also increased academic performance. I received so many positives from students and staff about the afternoon, it is great to see our school in such a positive space.
A special thank you to Sari our Social Worker, Kelly our School Psychologist, School Lunch Matters and Children’s University for being available on the day as well. It takes a village to raise a child – we have a wonderful village developing!
We’re trialling a new way of supporting our students this year. In an attempt to reduce the number of teachers a student has interactions with, we’ve divided up the Senior Staff team with direct responsibility for different classes. Ms Wilde is responsible for supporting the 4/5 & 5/6 classes, while Mr Wood supports Kinder and the two 3/4 classes. Mr Bowden, our new Senior Staff team member supports Prep and the two 1/2 classes. One of the advantages of this model is that students are able to build relationships with one person because they more often than not maintain contact with the same person. It also means that generally, only one member of the Senior Staff team is calling home. This model also supports students to experience a greater level of success, dealing with challenges more consistently. As Principal, I will still be involved in supporting student behaviour, but it will be in cooperation with classroom teachers and the Senior Staff member responsible for that class.
I would be interested in hearing your opinions and experiences with this model as we move into the school year, please feel free to email me or contact me through the school office.
Nadine Davey
Principal
Important Reminders
- Validation Forms should now have been returned to the office, to ensure your child's inclusion in the upcoming school photos. Please ensure forms are returned no later than 7 March.
- School Lunch Program forms MUST be returned for your child to participate in the program.
- School hats MUST be worn in Terms 1 and 4. Hats can be purchased from the office or brought from home (NO CAPS).
- Book Club Issue 2 orders are due in by 28 March.
Kinder - O'Neill
It has been a busy first few weeks in Kinder O’Neill with lots of brave and excited students starting school! Students have been learning the new routine while developing social skills and exploring the classroom. It has been lovely to observe so many students being kind and sharing with their new friends.
What is the best bit about Kinder so far?
Xavier – “The Hairy Maclary book.”
Olivia – “The music room!”
Alyssa – “This one (Hairy Maclary story).”
Quinn – “Eating outside.”
Toby – “Eating time.”
Hasret – “The playground.”
Delilah – “Playing outside on the climbing wall.”
Arlie – “Play outside.”
Sophia – “The books.”
Finn – “Outside playing.”
Charlie – “Everything!”
We are all excited to learn lots this year!
Prep - Jardine
Prep Jardine has had a great start to the year! Reconnecting with classmates, learning new routines, and navigating the school were the focus for the first few days before settling into more structured learning, such as Playberry and other areas of study.
In Science, the Prep students are learning to use their senses to observe the world around them. We practiced this in the garden by finding various fruits, vegetables, and other plants to see, hear, taste, touch, and smell.
Benjamin: "I looked at apple, tomatoes and trees"
Milly: "I tasted the apple"
Jonah: "I saw chilli"
Summer: "Onion smells good"
Fin: "I can see green plants"
Felix: "I used all my senses to observe an apple, it tasted sweet"
Brantley-Jay: "I saw an apple"
Luke: "I smelled a tree, and it smelled very good!"
Ethan: "I looked at tomatoes"
Tane: "I tased an apple"
Mysha: "Looked, smelled and touched a tomato"
Joan: "I touched a pear, it was smooth"
Aabha: "Smelled an apple, it was good!"
Layland: "I found a spider, it’s dead"
Veer: "A tiny onion, felt soft"
Ciaran: "Apples taste good"
1/2 - Poke
Every week in 1/2P, we have a new fine motor task. So far, we’ve had chalk drawing, threading, cutting and mini drawing tutorials. Doing these activities helps to strengthen our hand muscles which we use for writing and drawing. Did you know, neat handwriting depends on good shoulder strength? Daily fitness is an opportunity to strengthen our gross muscles which supports our fine muscles. Doing a range of big muscle exercises, such as pushing against solid walls, throwing balls, bouncing balls, walking at a pace to raise our heartrate, hanging from monkey bars, climbing playground equipment, digging in sand, writing on a vertical surface (eg our daily sign in board) and more is so important for developing muscles. There are so many easy things we can do to help strengthen all the muscles in our bodies.
Below are some finished examples of students drawing from this week’s task.
3/4 - Balhatchet
The start of the year has all been making about connections in 3/4 B. We completed our ‘Museum of Us’ and discovered a lot about our new classmates. So, it came as no surprise, when we started making and naming patterns, bunnies and octopus appeared as visual supports for our number patterns. Members of this class managed to identify the pattern in the Fibonacci sequence, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13,? so be prepared to be work hard to solve some of the patterns they have created.
Here is a sample of the work and the rest are on our noticeboard with pen and paper answer sheets. Can you solve all 8 patterns?
School Lunch Program
We are into our second week of our School Lunch Program and what a success it has been! Please ensure your forms have been returned for your child to participate in this fantastic program.
24 Carrot Garden Excursion
Rewarding responsible learners
It was my absolute pleasure to attend an excursion to the 24 Carrot Materials Institute last week. A small number of students who had demonstrated a great start to the school year were given the opportunity to spend the day cooking, making perfumed body mist and creating clay works. It was a brilliant day!
The student feedback says it all:
-We made pasta dough and made it into spiral shapes (for lunch).
-We created a salad from vegetables from the garden.
-We made bread and cooked it on the grill (BBQ grill).
-We did pottery and made mugs from clay.
-We used a mortar and pestle to crush lavender and used it to make a body mist.
-We all sat together outside, under a really big tree and enjoyed eating the food we made.
-After lunch we got to explore the gardens and Ray got a mint plant (because he loves mint) that he named Dennis.
-We saw lots of really cool vegetables growing on vines.
-We had time to draw what we learnt today.
Upcoming Events
- March 4 - Athletics Carnival (Grades 3-6) Program attached
- March 13 - School photo day (Information sheets have been sent out)
- March 12-24 - Naplan (Grades 3&5)
- March 27 - Interschool Athletics carnival (Select students)
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