Newborough Primary School
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178 Newborough Street
Karrinyup WA 6018
Subscribe: https://newboroughps.wa.edu.au/subscribe

Email: newborough.ps@education.wa.edu.au
Phone: 08 9278 0450

20 May 2020

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

Great to Be at Newborough PS

We are so pleased to have all the children back at school. Our staff are totally focussed on ensuring we do the very best for every child and that we acknowledge and treat the uniqueness each brings to the school. Our school is a safe place for children and staff as we follow the health and safety guidelines provided by the experts. We are ‘In this together’ and we look after each other. Newborough values shine!

One of the anomalies staff have observed is that our attendance rates have increased in the last week or so well above our average of the last few years. Our attendance target is 94.5%. We have achieved around 93 to 94% over the last three years. Currently we are running at 96% (Including schooling at home students in the last three weeks). We attribute this to several factors. Firstly, how keen the children are to be at school with their friends and teachers, secondly much better health habits have reduced the spread of regular colds and flus and thirdly no international flights, so we are not losing families for in Term holidays. All this makes for a much happier and healthy school environment. The more the merrier, the more we can do. Thank you to parents for keeping children home who are unwell or showing symptoms of illness at home until they are well.

As we cautiously reduce restrictions there is much we have learned about the school and how we operate. In a timely fashion, as we enter the last year of our 2018-2020 Business Plan, the Staff, Administration Team and Board are reviewing how we went and planning for our next phase.

Parents, students and all staff will be given the opportunity to provide feedback as we plan to move forward. One of the feedback mechanisms will be the biannual ‘School Survey’ that all schools are required to do by the Federal Government every second year. As well as baseline questions on the school’s performance and your view of the school there will be additional opportunity for your feedback on future directions. This survey will be conducted early in term 3 and will help inform our planning.

Meetings with Parents

Parents or teachers may initiate, by agreeance to meet at school to support students. If you are organising a meeting, please ensure the following.

  • Meetings are by appointment
  • Arrange an agreed time and safe venue (Classroom, meeting room etc.)
  • Parents report to the front office, sign in and wait to be picked up to be taken to your meeting place
  • Keep meetings short and to the point
  • Apply social distancing, hand washing and health practices. Arrange seating to support this.
  • Parents are escorted back to the office to sign out as they leave

Parking on Wilding Street

A local resident has advised there are issues with parent parking on Wilding Street during drop off and pick up from school. Some parents are parking on private verges and across residential driveways. The City of Stirling have been advised and will be stepping up Ranger visits to issue verbal or written cautions and infringements if necessary. The situation has been exasperated by roadworks, housing construction and limited pick up and drop off times. I would ask staff who park on Wilding Street to consider parking on Newborough Street whilst we have this congestion period to allow more street parking and free up traffic movement a little. A brochure provided by the City of Stirling about safe parking around schools is attached to this newsletter .

Additional School Development Day – Friday 29th May (Week 5)

The Director General of Education has advised all public schools that they are entitled to an additional School Development Day (SDD) following the allocation of the one granted for COVID Response Planning Day at the start of this term. NPS had already allocated this day as a SDD so we are very pleased to be able use this opportunity for staff development as planned.

The additional SDD or Pupil Free Day will be on Friday 29th May at the end of week 5. For families this will extend the Western Australia Day long weekend to four days providing opportunity to take advantage of the opening up of regional travel restrictions for a little extended break.

The focus for staff on the 29th May will be preparing a whole school approach to Semester One student reports and working on our Business Plan.

“A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.

William A Ward”

KINDNESS

John Worthy
Principal

Term Dates for 2020

Term 2, 2020

Wednesday 29 April – Friday 3 July

Term 3, 2020

Tuesday 21 July – 25 September

Term 4, 2020

Tuesday 13 October – Thursday 17 December

School Directory

Department

Number

Email

School Office

08 9446 1025

Newborough.ps@education.wa.edu.au

Absentee

SMS 0409 088 585

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

Website

www.newboroughps.wa.edu.au

Department

Number

Email

School Office

08 9446 1025

Newborough.ps@education.wa.edu.au

Absentee

SMS 0409 088 585

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

Website

www.newboroughps.wa.edu.au

Absentees

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

SMS:

0409 088 585 (preferred method)

Email:

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

Phone:

9446 1025

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

LIBRARY BOOKS & STATEMENTS

Please be aware that in accordance with Department COVID guidelines, students are currently not able to take school library books home however they may borrow books and keep them in their classroom. Classes are continuing to visit the school library as per their usual schedule.

We will continue to assess the situation according to Department of Health advice, and are hoping to return to normal borrowing procedures as soon as possible.

In the meantime, if your child has not yet returned their library book/s from last term, or you have received an invoice for a lost library book, we encourage families to return the books or pay the replacement costs as soon as possible so students may borrow books this term.

Usually in Week 4 of each term, we send out ‘Reminders of Unpaid Billing Items’ (statements) to families for each student. The Department has suspended this practice this term in order to assist our families during these economic times. Statements will only be sent out in Term 3. You are still very welcome to pay for the voluntary contributions and/or P&C contributions, if you’d prefer to do that this term. Please contact the front office on 9446 1025 for any additional information.

DEPUTY NEWS

Reconciliation Week

National Reconciliation Week 2020 is being held from the 27th May - 3rd June.

The theme for #NRW2020 is In this together – a theme that is now resonating in ways that could not have been foreseen when it was announced last year, but one that reminds us all that whether in a crisis or in reconciliation we are all #InThisTogether.”

https://www.reconciliation.org.au/national-reconciliation-week/

The Department of Education have also produced a video called Building On Strength in Uncertain Times: In this together. The video provides relatable and culturally responsive information for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, parents and community members about these challenging times from both a system-level and Aboriginal perspective. You can view the video here.

The video is narrated by the Department’s Elders in Residence and senior Aboriginal staff.

Reporting to Parents

Reporting to Parents: Changes for Semester 1, 2020

On Wednesday 1st July, parents from Pre-primary to Year 6 will receive their child’s Semester One formal report via email. In Western Australia, student achievement in the learning areas taught is reported on a five-point scale for all years from Pre-primary to Year 10. Teachers use the Achievement Standards from the Western Australian Curriculum to assess students against to make valid judgements on your child’s grades. However, due to schooling in Semester 1 2020 has been widely disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, schools are not required to report learning area achievement as grades, or equivalent ratings, for Semester 1 2020.

This means the Overall Learning Area achievement section of the report will be unshaded, and the components for a Learning Area will be marked as “Not Assessed”.

However, teachers will provide a comment for both English and Mathematics based on the evidence of work of what your child has produced this semester. The comment will state whether your child is currently working below, at or above their level standard in the learning area or if there is not enough evidence to make this judgement. However, it is important to note that the evidence teacher’s do have may not be a true indication of student ability due to the disruptions, and neither should be used as a predictor for future achievement as new content, concepts and skills will taught in Semester Two which students will be graded against.

Your class and specialist teachers will, however, let you know if your child is either on a Group or Individual Education Plan (Students of Educational Needs), or is working below year level standard. Teachers are able to meet with parents individually in prearranged meetings without children present or conduct phone interviews. Please email your class teacher to arrange an appointment if needed.

Kindergarten students will receive a portfolio of work along with a Kindergarten Social and Emotional Checklist. These will be delivered hard copy and not electronically for Semester One. In Semester two, Kindergarten students will receive and electronic report.

Reporting to Parents – Electronic Report Delivery Semester 1, 2020

As per last year, Newborough Primary School will again be delivering your child’s Semester 1 school report via email on Wednesday 1st July 2020. (Week 10, Term 2)

The benefits of an electronic report provide advantages for schools and the parent community including:

  • timely delivery of reports to parents and guardians;
  • administrative savings in the printing and collation of reports;
  • an ability to easily provide copies of reports to each parent or guardian where dictated by family circumstances; and
  • parents being able to retain a digital record of student achievement.

However, as the link to the reports only lasts for four weeks, it is vitally important that parents SAVE their child’s report ASAP.

To ensure you receive your child’s report, it is imperative that your email address is correct with the school. If there have been any changes to your email/email addresses, please contact the school immediately.

We have also asked that for the purpose of different family circumstances, anyone requesting a copy of the report be sent to a second family member inform the school in writing via newborough.ps@education.wa.edu.au immediately please.

Please do not hesitate to contact Deputy Principal Karen Tucknott with any queries about the delivery of the reports electronically.

Technology

On Thursdays, Room 15 has been going to Mr Pemberton’s classroom to do Technology. Wind energy was our topic for this term. For example, the wind turbine uses the wind’s force to make electricity. Our task was to build our own wind turbine in assigned teams. The aim was for the wind turbine to successfully spin and pick up the 30cm string with a teabag attached to it at the end. All 7 teams engineered and designed their own wind turbines using various structures and strategies. Two teams managed to accomplish those tasks but everyone tried their best and enjoyed the process.

Written by Yujin

P&C News

Canteen News

We are so happy to be able to announce that the canteen will be re-opening on Monday 25th May (week 5), just in time for a much needed break from the monotony of lunchbox packing!

The canteen provides an important service to our school community, it however can't run effectively without the assistance of parent volunteers. The advice from the Department of Education states that if a canteen is unable to operate without parental assistance, then parents are able to assist with staffing the canteen. Parents will adhere to social distancing where possible, there will be increased cleaning and parents will need to minimise contact with the broader school population. Amanda and our regular volunteers will undertake online COVID training provided by the Canteen Association to ensure that we operate safely and within all guidelines. Amanda will brief all other volunteers at the start of their shift to update them with current advice on safety and hygiene. All volunteers will need to ensure they enter and leave the school via the office and obtain a visitor pass. Amanda will let the admin team know who to expect each day.

We will be needing parents to volunteer to assist in the canteen on Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays. This can be for a shorter two hour shift 9-11am or 11-1pm or for the whole four hours if you are available and keen! If you can assist on any day please contact Amanda by email on anmeyer18@gmail.com and let her know what times you are able to help, we can then work out the roster to ensure we are able to open all days. It would be extremely helpful if we could develop a list of volunteers who we could call on with short notice if needed or who could regularly do a shift every 3-4 weeks. If this is you, then please do let Amanda know. If we don't get the support from our parents in regards to volunteering, then we will have no choice but to close the canteen for the remainder of the term. We are not sure that Mr P would be able to cope if this was to occur, his reliance on the canteen is next level...:-)

The canteen may offer a reduced "specials" menu to begin with, please ensure you check the online menu. Amanda will update this regularly, so if an item is not available online then it is not available to order. All orders will need to be placed online, with no envelopes/cash placed in lunch baskets in the classroom. Online orders are placed using Quickcliq registering is super quick and easy. Snack items will still be able to be purchased from the window at recess and lunch.

https://quickcliq.com.au/

We look forward to once again being able to provide our families and staff with this great service. If you have any questions at all please contact either Amanda on the above email or the P&C on newboroughpcsec@gmail.com

Uniform Shop

The uniform shop is now completely ONLINE!!

It is so easy to order, simply login to Quickcliq (the same account for your child’s canteen orders) to place your order and we will get it delivered to your child’s class.

http://www.quickcliq.com.au/

Deliveries will be made on a Wednesday, for orders placed before Monday evening of the same week.

If you have ordered the wrong size and need to exchange something, simply return the unused uniform to the office the next day and send us an email telling us which size you would like to swap it for.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, we can not accept or sell any second hand uniforms at the moment.

If you have any questions, email us newboroughuniforms@gmail.com and we will help you.

Thanks!

Fiona & Miriam

Book Club

Online Book Club orders Closing Soon

Hello everyone, hopefully by now, you've had a chance to have a look through the online catalogue for Book Club this term. The club has not distributed physical catalogues due to COVID which has definitely decreased the 'pester power' factor from your children, however, the school still benefits greatly from any orders that come in. 20% of the purchase price of your orders is then available for the school to spend on library books so please, do continue to support the Book Club and in turn support our wonderful school.

Please have a look through the Scholastic Online catalogue:

Scholastic Book Club Issue 3

and order as usual, online or using the 'scholastic loop' app.

I will be closing the orders THIS FRIDAY 22nd MAY.

As usual, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions: michelle.slobodan@gmail.com.

Happy reading!

Michelle

Entertainment Book

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.

School Calendar

Schoolzine App

Have all our school’s information accessible at all times – download the FREE Schoolzine app to your mobile device to readily access the latest information in real time.

Newsletter, School Calendar, Term Dates, Dates to Remember – It’s now all at your fingertips!!

SZapp

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NOTICEBOARD

Mulberry Tree Childcare

Working in partnership with Newborough Primary School

The services we offer are:

Before School Care - daily 7:00am – 9:00am

After School Care - daily 2:30pm – 6:00pm

Vacation Care – School Holidays 7:00am to 6:00pm

For more information visit our website at:

http://www.mulberrytree.com.au/doubleview-oshc/

For all enquiries please contact us on:

Doubleview.kidsclub@mulberrytree.com.au or on (08) 9244 2920

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