30 July 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

Welcome Back Semester Two

What a delight it is to be back and with somewhat more normal routine! A special welcome to our new students and staff. We are still of course in the State Governments Phase 4 Response that limits adults to 1.5metres or two metre square. This applies to staff and parents. As I reminded all staff on School Development Day and students when they returned we are so fortunate to live in Western Australia, and more particularly Perth especially given the raging pandemic across the world and parts of Australia. It is something we should all be appreciative of and remain cautious. Whilst we need to continue all the health and safety practices we also need to be mindful and ready should we go back to Phase 3 or even Phase 2 as has happened in Victoria.

Whilst we endeavour to run most of our regular activities such as Cross Country, Athletics, Choir, Graduation, Assemblies, Swimming Lessons, Excursions and Incursions etc. we still have restrictions. Planning for events takes months and with uncertainty we will act on the side of caution.

I am really pleased to advise that our Year Six teachers have worked tirelessly to find a suitable camp for our Year six students. Later this term they will have an overnight camp in the Swan Valley. It won’t be the same, and we can’t do all the activities we planned for the Bickley Camp, however this is a great effort as most schools who had camps earlier in the year have cancelled theirs. I am sure this will be a real highlight for the Year Six students.

P&C Meeting Monday 3rd August

Our wonderful, dedicated and hardworking P&C will meet this coming Monday 3rd August in the school Library commencing at 7:00pm. I encourage all families to have someone come along to support the school. It is time for parents to get on board and help out. No excuses. The P&C is a great way to engage with other families and help out. I hope to see you involved. School entry and exit through Mulberry Tree gate.

Retirements and Replacements

At the end of last term, we said thank you, goodbye and best wishes to two of our longest serving staff members, Mrs Robyn Parry (Head Cleaner) and Mrs Marie Lock (Education Assistant)

Mrs Parry is being replaced by Mr Moneer Markoub who will be our Acting Head cleaner until we can advertise and fill the position permanently. Mrs Lock is being replaced by Mrs Bec Lee who was on our staff last year in a fixed term position. We welcome both to our school.

Nature Playground Committee

Koorlangka Marlak Kadadjiny – (Children’s Bush Learning)

The P&C are putting together a Nature Playground Committee to look and act on what we can do to manage and improve the Nature Playground. This little patch has created so much happiness and joy in its short life. As the Noongar name suggests it is a wonderful place for children to learn in a bush setting. It is a living and changing thing that needs refreshing and renewal to keep and enhance its spark. The learning is about creativity, kindness, appreciation, cooperation, teamwork, sharing, constructing, respect of self, nature and others and of course lots to challenge yourself.

If you would like to be on the Committee please email John Worthy at John.Worthy@education.wa.edu.au or P&C President Wes Gregory at Wes.Gregory@iinet.net.au

Flag Pole Project

After several delays due to COVID-19 our Flag Pole Project is well underway and will be completed in about three weeks. Our old flagpole is being replaced with three flag poles on a little platform that will make displaying the Australian, Western Australian and Indigenous flags much more visible and functional. The platform will be most useful as a little stage and area children can sit and play around. This project is part funded by a Federal Stronger Communities Grant from the Department of Industries, Science, Energy and Resources and the school. It was to have been completed in time for our important and highly valued ANZAC Service earlier in the year at which our Local Member for Stirling, Mr Vince Connelly, M.P. We look forward to Vince being our special guest speaker next year.

The school has two other major projects that have been funded and are currently going through appropriate planning and permissions process. These are the Staff Car park at the front of the school and the Shade Shelter next to the Library for our graduating students to have their lunch and all to use at other times.

School Community Survey

All schools are mandated to undertake a National School Opinion Survey with Students (Upper primary years 5 and 6 students), Staff and Parents in 2020. This survey is currently being prepared will be distributed this week. Respondents will receive the survey via email. If you are not on email or our email list you can request a hard copy from the front office. This will be entered manually.

The school has capacity to add questions to the prescribed ones. The School Board and I are keen to seek feedback on what the collective school community sees as our strengths, areas to improve and focus areas that make or could make our school even better. This is not a popularity vote rather a guide for the Board’s consideration of areas to support and focus our planning as we develop our new Business Plan 2021-2024. Our current Business Plan 2018-2020 runs till the end of this year.

It is important that we get as many responses as possible so we are inclusive of our school community. The timeline for responses will be relatively short to encourage respondents to get cracking rather than put the survey to one side and so we can reflect and respond with planning. The survey will close on Wednesday 5th August at 3:00pm sharp.

Furniture Available

The Science room will be getting a further facelift with new desks, stools and resources purchased with the remaining funds from the State Government’s grant for Science labs in schools. This means that the current desks and stools will no longer be needed. They have been offered to classrooms in the first instance. There are currently 16 desks [to seat 2 students each] and 32 plastics seats with metal legs. See picture.

If any of these can be of use to you, please contact our Science Teacher, Mrs Metcalf. Samantha.Metcalf@education.wa.edu.au

John Worthy
Principal

Term Dates for 2020

School Directory

Birthday Cakes/Gifts for Students

In the past it has been traditional for some children to bring sweets, cakes, lollies or other treats into school to share with their class to help celebrate their birthday. For the remainder of this year, however, due to being cautious about COVID-19 and aiming for a healthier school, we will no longer be accepting them. We shall, of course, celebrate your child’s day with recognition, a song where appropriate in the class and make them feel very special. Please do not send treats to school for your child’s birthday. Thank you.

PICKING UP YOUR CHILD DURING THE DAY

If your child needs to be collected from school during school hours (eg. 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.

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

DEPUTY NEWS

Year 4 2020 PEAC Testing

The Year 4 students undertake testing for PEAC each year in Term 3. This was originally scheduled to be conducted in Week 4 of this term; however, due to the impact of Covid-19 it is unable to be conducted at that time. We have been advised that PEAC testing is still likely to go ahead in Term 3 and will happen later in the term. When we are advised of dates we will let Year 4 parents and students know. Thank you for your understanding.

Important Information: Cross Country and Faction Sports Carnival: Term 3 2020

Newborough Primary School will be holding our Faction Sports Carnival on Friday 4th September.

We would love to see parents come and watch their child/children’s race; however, we are asking parents to carefully read, and abide to the information below.

• All parents and extended family are most welcome to attend.
• However, we ask that once you have watched your child’s/children’s races, you leave the school site immediately.
• Parents are to observe good hygiene practices including handwashing and physical distancing of one person per 2 square metres.
• Parents are not to interact with their children and are to stay in the zoned parent area only.
• Parents are not to bring their dogs to the school grounds or school oval at any time.

If heavy rain is forecast a date will be decided as soon as possible.

In-Term Swimming Program – Weeks One and Two, Term Four

This year’s In-Term Swimming program will be in Weeks One and Two of Term Four: Wednesday 14th October to Friday 23rd October. The swimming lessons will again be at Scarborough Beach Pool and will cost $39.00 per child. An Advice and Consent Form went home on Tuesday 28th July 2020, giving parents hopefully plenty of time and notice to pay this amount. Unfortunately, students will not be able to attend swimming without the full amount being paid.

We encourage any parents who may have difficult in paying for the in-term swimming lessons to contact Sharon Singleton, Manager of Corporate Services, to immediately to develop a Payment Plan.

Smiling Mind @ NPS

If you haven’t already heard your child speaking about it, this year Newborough has begun implementing a program called Smiling Mind as a way to support student well-being.

This program compliments our ‘Newborough Way’ behaviours of Kindness, Respect, Teamwork and Challenge Yourself and together this forms what we call Positive Behaviour and Well Being or PBW.

Smiling Mind is a program grounded in science that teaches mindfulness through lessons and meditation practices. In today’s world, mindfulness teaches students to be present, to be more aware and focused and to take time out to put a smile on their minds. We are hoping by teaching this at Newborough to support the Smiling Mind vision of “helping every mind thrive and to provide accessible, life-long tools to support healthy minds.” You can't separate learning and wellbeing; it is essential for learning.

The benefits of teaching and practising mindfulness for students include

Teacher have engaged in Smiling Mind professional learning and as a school we are now implementing the Mindfulness curriculum and incorporating mindfulness practices such as brain breaks, breathing and meditations into our classroom and in the playground.

We are hoping that students will also start to use this free program and the tools it provides outside of school. We want to encourage our Newborough families to try Smiling Mind at home. In order to use the program log into the link below and sign up for a free account or download the app.

Take a look at the ‘Families’ program which is designed to be listened to with the whole family. Currently there is a featured program on Bedtime. Other sections in the ‘Family’ program include:

• After School
• Any Time’
• Introduction to Mindfulness
• Meal Times
• On the Go
• Weekends

Practising at home as a family has benefits for the whole family and your child can explain how meditations are practised at school.

In the Newborough spirit, challenge yourself to have a go and remember to be kind to your mind!

Kindy Green putting a Smile on their minds!

Sports News

After injuring my knee early in Term 2, it is so lovely to be back at work and greeted so warmly by the children, parents and staff. I am looking forward to assisting the children to continue to develop their physical education skills with athletics being our focus sport for Term 3.

A huge thank you to Mrs Coleen Dayman who has taken on my teaching role over the last term and ensured that all the children have continued to develop their fitness, knowledge and skills.

This Term’s athletics program will see many new changes as a result of the restrictions placed upon schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The local schools that we compete against in Cross Country and Athletics, have all agreed to not participate in any interschool events, again this Term.

Our school has taken this opportunity to trial a different approach to our annual faction athletics carnival. This year we will be conducting a Faction Athletics Tabloid Carnival on Friday 4th September, (Week 7) which will focus on the “Newborough Way” values. This will mean that the children will participate in their year level and in their faction in a small team to complete six games at six different locations (stations) around the oval in the morning.

In the afternoon, the children will participate in a division based running race determined by their timed and recorded running times. There will also be relay events for Division 1 runners only and a grand relay for the fastest boy and girl in Division 1 in each year level and faction. As our result of the cancellation of the interschool athletics carnival this year, there will be no championship events, and as such no championship medallions will be presented. More information regarding the organisation of the faction athletics carnival will be emailed to parents later this term.

Faction Cross Country

Congratulations to all the children from Years 1 – 6 who have trained so hard for this event which was held on Wednesday of this week. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this event; however, I have heard that the children performed superbly demonstrating their Newborough values throughout the event. Well done girls and boys! Results of this event will be published in the next newsletter.

I would sincerely like to thank Ms Tucknott, Miss Kos and Mrs Dayman for their wonderful assistance to prepare the children for this event and for the organisation of this event in my absence. Thank you to all of the staff for your assistance with this event.

‘Timing Solutions’ – Timing Gates: Wednesday 12th August, Week 4 -

Please put this date into your calendars.

In order to determine which running division your child will be running in this year at our faction athletics carnival, we have booked “Timing Solutions” to once again bring their timing gates to our school for EVERY child in Years 1 – 6 to have a minimum two, timed runs on the running track. If your child is unable to attend school on this day due to illness, the staff will time your child using a hand held timer at their athletics sports practise session.

The time trails will commence at 8.50am with all students from Rooms 13 and 14.

Your child will need to wear sport shoes (no spikes) for their running trials and sports practise sessions. They will also need a water bottle and a hat. Please ensure your child’s name is marked clearly on their personal property (hat, jumper and water bottle).

Junior Athletics Sport Practise (Years 1 – 3): Thursday – 8.45am – 9.35am
Senior Athletics Sport Practise (Years 4 – 6): Friday – 1.50pm – 2.50pm

Ms Kris Williams
Physical Education Teacher

Newbros

Hello Newbros.

It’s been a while; hopefully everyone is keeping well!

We are looking for a couple of like-minded Dad’s to take over Newbros and keep it going! The last year was a big one (we did 3 camp-outs [1 whole school], a Bingo night, daddy/daughter hair workshops and 2 Bunnings sausage sizzles) and it’s now time for Newbros to be handed over and for someone else (the next generation of Newborough dads perhaps?) to keep it going.

April 2020 was meant to be our next whole School Camp on the oval which obviously got COVID-cancelled. There is interest to host this later in the year but without the offer to take-over Newbros, unfortunately it won’t happen. Should a couple of dads be keen to take over Newbros as your own, I can do a handover and offer my services from the sidelines (a lot of the hard-work has already been done for the campout).

E-mail me at newbrodads@gmail.com and we can chat. Have a think about what Newbros means to our kids and school community. Many hands make light work as you know, so if a few dad’s took it on you could even run it as a committee and lessen the load.

Over & out for now!

Newbros

Music News

Cultural Assembly – 3 July 2020

Gundulla – We Dance -

Living in the Bush -

Newbeatz – Prayer in C -

Tiddalik the Frog -

Honour Certificate Recipients

Term 2 - Week 10 – Friday, 3 July 2020

P&C News

Book Club News

Welcome back to Term 3. This term we have been able to go back to distribution of physical book club catalogues and your children should have brought one home with them by now.If you did not receive one, there are spare copies in the front office at the school.

Please make sure you complete your orders online, using the 'Scholastic Loop' app by Friday 7th August.

Don't forget that for every purchase made, the school receives 20% in credits to buy books and resources for the library.

If you have any other queries regarding the Scholastic Book Club please contact me at michelle.slobodan@gmail.com

Happy Reading!

Michelle Brankovic

Canteen News

Canteen Open - Term 3

The Canteen is open again for Term 3. Even though we are now accepting orders over the counter before school, where possible it is our preference that accounts are set up with Quickcliq and orders are placed online. If you would like to place a Canteen order and have not yet registered, please log on to the link below and follow the instructions.

Menu Changes

Until we can secure more regular volunteers, some of the menu items (such as the Burgers and Meatball Subs) may not be available. Please refer to the notes updated on Quickcliq to advise if the items are available. If we have sufficient volunteers for a particular day, the menu item will be available.

Volunteers

We are going to recommence requesting volunteers through each class year's Parent Rep. Please keep a lookout for an e-mail from your Parent Rep when it is your class year's week to assist. As always, if you have any spare time and wish to assist, please email me at anmeyer18@gmail.com. We are always looking for help Monday / Wednesday / Friday from 9am - 11am & 11am - 1pm. However any time you can spare is very much appreciated.

Canteen Notice Boards

Our new notice boards are starting to take shape...Thank you to Rhonda Yates for your creativity and enthusiasm.

Kind regards
Amanda

Uniform Shop

Uniform shop Volunteer needed ASAP!!

The uniform shop is looking for a volunteer. Working with the wonderful Miriam Lopes, It would be around 1-2hours a week managing the emails and updating the quickcliq website, which is all very straightforward and would be easy for someone with computer skills to manage from home using the uniform shop laptop. Please get in touch ASAP if you would be keen!

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) at the link below to place your order and we will get it delivered to your child’s class.

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.

Uniform Shop Hours

Uniform Shop is open on Tuesdays from 8:15am-8.45am

Miriam & Fiona

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.

Community News

Bricks 4 Kids

Target Sport

Barnes Karate

North Coast Raiders Hockey Club