13 February 2019

Newsletter Articles

Dates to Remember

This is an outline of the events that will be coming up in 2019. Please note dates are subject to change.

Principal’s Introduction

Welcome

Welcome to all our new students, their families and all those who have been with us before. What a fabulous start we had. We are going to have a fantastic year! It was lovely to see our students back keen and excited about the challenges ahead. We welcome new and returning teaching staff. Mrs Megan Saggers with Year 3, Room 6 who replaces Mr Peter Blanch who has taken a six-month appointment at Alkimos Beach PS. If Mr Blanch returns he will take this class for the second half of the year. We also welcome back Mrs Bree O’Dea (Mon, Tues, Wed.) and Mrs Leah Balding (Thurs, Frid.) returning from parenting leave with Year 1, Room 10 tandem teachers. Mrs Kelly Hughes returns from parenting leave on Fridays with Mrs Farmers’ Year 4, Room 12 class. We also welcome back Ms Nadine Murray, Year 2, Room 7 from her secondment at ACARA (Australian Curriculum). Mrs Rebecca Lee and Amanda Edmondson join our valued Teacher Assistant team in the Pre-school area. Mr David Pemberton is now a permanent Japanese teacher allowing us to extend Japanese Language to Years 1 to 6.

Thank you to all parents for your preparation of students in school uniform and the friendly and warm manner everyone bounced back into school with. The staff and I look forward to catching up with old friends and meeting newcomers. Please make yourself known. If you have any queries, good ideas, problems or concerns at any time please let my staff and I know. We are keen to understand and help!

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 Rhonda Yates and the Uniform Shop team and Mrs Karen Winton 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.

Class Structure and Teacher Placements

With some great luck and sound management we have, for the second year in a row, been able to have straight classes across the whole school. There are two classes of each year level including Kindergarten. Several teachers have agreed to take slightly higher numbers and receive extra support rather than have split year levels. Whilst we have this structure for 2019(unless numbers dramatically change) there is of course no guarantee for future years. There are many advantages including preparing and teaching the curriculum for one year level rather than two, greater opportunities for like year level collaboration, easier for camp, sports, excursions and joint activities and for classes to work together. Teachers of like year level classes have joint Duties other than Teaching (DOTT) time to assist with collaboration.

We have made some adjustments to the locations of classes so that they are adjacent allowing greater collaboration opportunities.

CURRICULUM CHANGES

This year we have two changes to our curriculum. Japanese Language will be available for Years 1-6.

This year we are planning to run our Musical again. This will require lots of parent and community support.

ARRIVAL/DEPARTURE AT SCHOOL

Parents/guardians are reminded that students should not arrive at school before 8:15am. Teachers open classrooms by 8:30am (Except Kindy). Students from Years 1- 6 may play a variety of games in the main quadrangle or play in the playground located in front of the Music room between 8:15 and 8:30am. Pre-Primary students use the Pre-Primary playground. Both areas are supervised by the Principal and Deputies. At 8:30am ALL children are directed to move to their classrooms to get ready for the day.

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 note. If a late student is not accompanied by a parent, the parent will be contacted. Lateness disturbs learning for ALL children.

At the conclusion of the school day students are required to go straight home unless they are with their parents/guardians. We welcome after school play but do require students be under the direct supervision (Within eyesight) of their parent/guardian. We do not have duty teachers available after school. If parents/guardians are running late we ask students to wait at the office where their safety is assured and parents know where to pick them up from. Please don’t instruct children to wait at the Nature Playground or other areas of the school.

Our playground rules apply both in school and out of school hours for all children.

I have asked the cleaners to leave the Junior boys and girls toilets open until 4:00pm for all students. At 4:00pm they are cleaned and locked. All the other toilets are locked once they have been cleaned. We do ask that the Kindergarten and Pre-primary grounds are vacated by 4:00pm so that staff can get them ready for the next day.

The school is scheduled to be fenced, possibly during term one. This should not impact on before or after school play.

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.

John Worthy
Principal

Term Dates

School Directory

Visitors to the school

If you are visiting the school to deliver your child’s lunch, hat etc or volunteering in a classroom, please ensure that you sign in at the front desk. This is a risk management procedure to ensure that all people on school grounds are accounted for in case of emergency and for the safety of our children.

2019 Voluntary Contributions

The Voluntary Contributions fees have been established and approved by the School Board, in line with Department of Education requirements. The contribution fee for 2019 will remain at $60 per child.

While contributions are voluntary, the quality of our teaching/learning programs will be enhanced by your contribution, which is used to supplement expenditure in the following areas.

• Reading Resources
• Mathematics Resources
• Art/Craft
• Technology

Total Contribution $60

The P&C contribution has now increased to $30 per child for 2019.

Payment is requested at the commencement of the school year.

Absentees

Just a friendly reminder that if your child will be absent, please contact the School directly either by:

Please include only the student’s name and room number, reason for absence and the date in any messages – the use of apostrophes, a colon or emoji results in the school receiving a blank message, and we are unable to accurately update your child’s record.

For Example: “John Doe Room 13 absent 1/2/2017 sick with flu”.

Thank You
Administration Staff

2019 Bring your Own

For the past three years the school has been running a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or Parent Owned Device (POD) program for Years 5 and 6. This was extended to students in Year 4 in 2017. The program has been endorsed by the School Board as an option for students from Years 4-6.

If you are to provide a device, the school requires the device to meet certain specifications, along with the student and parent signing the Student BYOD agreement. We will continue our partnership with Stott and Hoare to provide a full service option to purchase a device or you are welcome to source your own device. Through the Department of Education’s arrangement with Microsoft, students are provided with a suite of Microsoft Office 365 programs at no cost.

We would like to make it clear that bringing your own device is optional. While we can see the benefits of being able to bring your own device to school, we understand that there are also many factors that you will have to consider when deciding whether to provide a device or not. We would like to assure you that your child will not be disadvantaged if the decision is not to provide a device.

Further information regarding 2019 devices from Stott and Hoare will be available on our website shortly, alternatively please don’t hesitate to contact me at Nick.Stenhouse@education.wa.edu.au or ring to make an appointment.

Music News

Welcome back to all our choir members for what promises to be an interesting and exciting 2019! New members are always welcome and we have changed our choir format a little to allow for the WAMCF 2019. Students interested in joining the choir in 2019 must please collect a choir contract if they have not already done so. Choir Contracts for our Junior Choir (Years 1-3) and Senior Choir (Years 4-6) are due latest end of week 2 and must be handed to their classroom teacher for signage.

Junior Choir – Tuesdays 8:00am-8:30am
Senior Choir – Wednesdays 7:45am-8:30am

INSTRUMENTAL

2019 promises to be a rewarding year for our Instrumental Students. Some classes have already started and it was wonderful to see the excitement and enthusiasm from our students.

Clarinet – MUSIC ROOM

Year 5 – Monday 8:00am-8:30am
Year 6 – Monday 8:30am-9:00am

Brass – ROOM 17

Year 6 – Thursday 8:00am-8:30am
Year 5 – Thursday 8:30am-9:00am

Flute – LIBRARY

Year 5 – Thursday 12:30pm -1:00pm
Year 6 – Thursday 1:00pm-1:30pm

Guitar– ROOM 17

Year 6 – 1:15pm-1:45pm
Year 5 – 1:45pm-2:15pm

We are looking forward to hearing our Instrumental students perform during our assemblies and Choir and Instrumental Concert this year.

Yours in Music
Andrea Snelson

School Photos

Our school photos will be taken on Wednesday, 6 March and Thursday, 7 March 2019.

Information to follow regarding order forms and what day your child’s class photos will be taken.

Please note: Family photos will be taken each morning from 8am

P&C News

Welcome back for a fantastic 2019 at Newborough. The P&C have some great events planned for this year. The largest and most exciting will be our Inaugural Colour Run event. The day is going to be an amazing fun filled day of vibrant colour, running, getting wet, obstacles, live music and much more. This event will take place on Saturday 30th March, time to be confirmed, likely to be an early afternoon kickoff.

So please put the date in your diary now so you don't miss out. Watch out for information in future newsletters and notes going home over the next couple of weeks.

In other important news, many students may have noticed a new face in the canteen during Week 1.

Newborough has a new Canteen Manager. Amanda Meyer is the mother of a Year 2 student and has been busy over the summer preparing to keep our children well fed with healthy home cooked meals. Please go and say hi to Amanda when you get a chance, use the canteen service throughout the year and when lifepermits put yourself down for a quick shift helping out.

The first meeting of the P&C for the year is always the Annual General Meeting. At this meeting the new executive committee for 2019 will be elected. This meeting will be held on Monday 18th February (Monday of Week 3) at 7pm in the school library.

We need parents to attend this meeting, without the necessary numbers, a quorum will not be achieved and a new committee can not officially be elected. If we cannot elect a new committee then the Newborough P&C will not be able to continue to serve the children of our school in 2019.

If you are interested in getting more involved in your child's school and keeping up to date with what is happening, then please do come along. Please don't be worried that you will get forced into taking on a role that you don't want/are not ready for/don't have time for. Many members of the 2018 executive committee are willing to take the roles on again if elected. You are however needed to assist with voting, general support, sharing of ideas, getting to know more parents and volunteering with events when possible. If you are of course interested in taking on a role in the committee then please do come on the night and express your interest.

We hope to see you there!

Any questions at all please don't hesitate to email our current Secretary Carly on newboroughpcsec@gmail.com

School Banking

SCHOOL BANKING IS BACK!

I’ve received our box of goodies from the Commonwealth Bank and this year’s rewards are extra cute! Themed around a Polar Adventure – there’s everything from a Snowy Origami Set (term one) to a Yeti Fluffy Notebook (term two) to collect.

Don’t forget banking is on every Wednesday morning before school in the library (8:10 to 8:30). If you’ve banked in previous years and have already earned tokens, pop in and check your tally. And to all our new bankers – from Kindy to Year 6 – welcome!

We believe the Newborough School Banking program is an important way to teach kids about saving money. If you’re interested in knowing more, feel free to download the info pack HERE (attach PDF)– or come and see me and I’ll explain the easiest way to sign your kids up for an account.

Sonia Johansen
Volunteer School Banking Coordinator

Uniform Shop

Welcome back to the returning families and hello to the new ones!

Uniform shop has new opening hours starting last week. We are open Tuesdays 8 - 845 am.

All orders out of the hours, please email thru to newboroughuniforms@gmail.com.

and will be delivered to class after payment is received to P& C account on order form.

Got any pre-loved uniforms in good condition? We'll take them.

Rhonda Yates
Uniform Shop Co-ordinator
newboroughuniforms@gmail.com

Canteen News

New Canteen Manager

My name is Amanda Meyer, I'm a Newborough Mum and I have the privilege of managing the Canteen.

Having a young child myself, I understand the juggle of providing nutritional food whilst keeping it tasty and varied, to keep children interested in their food.

My focus is making meals on site with quality ingredients. I appreciate that parents have a very busy schedule and don't often have the time to volunteer. However, I would really appreciate your support in making the Canteen a success. If you are able to assist, please complete the volunteer spreadsheet with your details, send me an email or come to the Canteen and have a chat.

My background is Australian/Italian. Below are a few pictures of my creations that demonstrate the love I have for cooking and particularly baking.

If you have any feedback or queries, please feel free to contact me by e-mail at newborough.canteen.manager1@gmail.com.

New Rooms for Students and Room numbers for the school

Dear Parents,

As room numbers have changed for both your child and the school, you are now required to log in to your canteen online account and change room numbers etc. This will help us greatly in the canteen. Thank you for your understanding

Volunteering

We are always looking for help in our school canteen. If you could spare an hour once a week that would be appreciated. Please click on the link below to register.

Regards
Amanda Meyer
Canteen Manager

Scholastic Bookclub

Welcome back returning families and newcomers to Newborough Primary.

My name is Michelle Brankovic and I am the new Scholastic Book Club Coordinator. Scholastic Book Club- issue 1 out now. Don’t forget to look for the Book Club Issue catalogue that will be coming home in your child’s schoolbag by the end of this week.

Book Club provides a fun and convenient way of bringing the best in children's literature into your home. It’s packed full of exciting books from best-selling authors, popular titles and series that kids love, as well as products and books that make perfect gifts for younger siblings who may not be at school yet.

Ordering from Book Club is easy—simply go online and place your order and then Scholastic’s ‘book elves’ take care of the rest. Before you know it, your child will have a lovely surprise to take home once their order gets delivered to their classroom. When ordering from Book Club, you are not only helping your children, but you are also helping your school—20% of your spend goes back to your school in valuable Scholastic Rewards, which are used to buy classroom resources.

To celebrate the start of the New Year, any family ordering from issue 1 will also receive a free All About Me Activity Journal to help us kick-start our 2019 plans.

Deadline for ordering is Friday 1st March. Also, if you have any other queries regarding the Scholastic Book Club please contact me at michelle.slobodan@gmail.com

Happy reading!

Michelle Brankovic
Scholastic Book Club Coordinator

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 (freecall) 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.

Community News

Netball News

Newborough Primary School Netball Club - 2019 Winter Season

Information and registration forms for Newborough Netball Club should have gone home with all children (boys & girls) in Year 2 to Year 6 on Wednesday February 6th. There are spare forms in the office if you missed out. Forms must be returned by MONDAY FEBRUARY 18th to the box in the front office or via email to kazmoid1@bigpond.com and fees are due at the end of March. We are really excited about another fun year of Newborough netball! If you have any questions feel free to contact me. Newborough Netball Club is supported by the Newborough P&C - thanks to the P&C!

Karen Winton,
Club Coordinator
0400 805 567 or via email address above.

North Cott Splash n Dash

Safety House

Newborough Primary School has been a proud supporter of the Safety House Program in our community for many years. We currently have 9 safety houses in our neighbourhood. The Safety House Program is always looking for new volunteers from the local community to become a ‘Safety House’, if this interests you, please email halijah.hyder@gmail.com for more details. FEELING UNSURE? KNOCK ON A SAFETY HOUSE DOOR!

Halijah Hyder - Safety House Coordinator

Are you interested in safety for kids in your local community? It’s easy to help and you could make a difference.

Safety House is a community based “Good Neighbour” program of volunteer householders organised by a local Safety House Coordinator. It’s easy to be a Safety House, it will cost you very little for a 3 year Working with Children Card and you could be doing something important to help protect vulnerable young children. The program is supported by the school and the local Parents Association. You can make a difference for kids in your local community.

WHO CAN BE A SAFETY HOUSE?

A Safety Householder must be a caring adult who is usually in or around their home during school travel times and be ready and willing to assist any child who might seek help at their door. This is to make sure that a child in need will find someone at home if they knock on the Safety House door for help. Your house must have easy street access to the front door, no screening walls or trees and a Safety House sign easily visible from the street. If you have a dog it should be secured behind a fence at the rear of the building or be kept under control in the house.

This is to make sure that a young child will be able to find the Safety House door easily and will not be frightened away.

Before you can be a Safety House, any eligible adult who is likely to help a child at the door must have a valid Working with Children Card. Also everyone living in the house aged fourteen and over must consent to having a continuously monitored police check which is fully paid for by Safety House. Your local Safety House Committee will help you fill out a simple Safety House WA application form. We need to make sure that anyone who might answer the door at a Safety House has been carefully checked out.

For further information please fill in the coupon below and leave it at your local School Office or you can contact the Safety House Head Office direct by email at safety@safetyhousewa.org.au and our website.

Schoolzine App

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