23 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

COVID Response

Our staff, with fantastic support from parents/carers, continue to do an amazing job with teaching and learning, face to face, as normally as possible whilst keeping everyone safe. All schools across WA have been advised that mask wearing is compulsory for adults and high school age students in schools unless you have an authorised exemption. It is imminent that mask wearing for students from year three upwards will shortly be implemented. We have purchased a supply of smaller student masks for those who are unable to bring their own mask.

Thank you to those parents/carers and staff who have contacted me directly to seek advice or provide updates on your COVID situations. John.Worthy@education.wa.edu.au Mob: 0409558820. I am contactable 24/7. The current advice from Health WA/Department is that if you have been in a close contact situation to isolate and get a PCR test ASAP. If this is negative you can return to school without isolating further. RATs are a good indicator but not as reliable as the PCR. For any school related positive cases I need to know immediately to initiate a response with the support of the Department and Health WA.

Miss Tucknott and teachers have prepared small work packs for each year level that will be sent home to keep to aside should classes or individuals need them to work at home. Please don’t use them without permission. They are a safety ration pack.

The school continues to run as many events and activities as normally as possible. We adapt by doing things differently to comply with Health Department restrictions including the use of technologies such as WebEx.

We are looking at how we can invite parents/carers to WebEx events, particularly if your child is involved or receiving a certificate. There are some privacy and protection issues to address for some families.

Whole School Assemblies: These are scheduled for the year. Currently they are through the PA with a WebEx set up so classes can participate in activities such as Merit Certificate presentations, the whole school song lead by Mrs Snelson and the host class

Mini Assemblies: These are in-school assemblies each fortnight hosted by classes teaching the expected behaviours to support our four school values. These are over the PA and on WebEx to classes.

Year Six Camp: Year Six teachers and Mr Stenhouse managed to get a new booking at Point Peron for Term 4, Week 6 14th, 15th and 16th November. Great job as this is such an important annual event.

School Photos: Running as normal this week.

P&C: Meeting at Doubleview House.

School Board: Meeting via Teams/WebEx.

Harmony Day: Through PA and WebEx.

Choir: Mrs Snelson is looking at how we can run the Choirs either in smaller same year level groups or through WebEx.

ANZAC Ceremony: The theme this year is ‘Animals in War’. Planning is underway for a special visit and online ceremony in classes.

Edudance: Commences next term as usual. Information for this is being sent home today.

I will continue to keep parents/carers and staff informed about our COVID -19 response through email updates. If we need to act quickly I will send an SMS message to alert you that an important email is coming to your inbox.

School Review

At the end of 2021 our school was reviewed as part of the Public School Review process. The findings of the review has been posted on the Department of Education’s Newborough Primary School Schools Online website at Public School Review Report Newborough Primary School (det.wa.edu.au) Once we get our new website up and running it will also be available there. Hard copies are available in the front office brochures display.

The review looks at six key areas of performance:

• Relationships and Partnerships
• Learning Environment
• Leadership
• Use of Resources
• Teaching Quality, and
• Student Achievement and Progress

A sincere thank you to all the parents and staff who participated in the review, many attending interviews with the reviewers to validate information presented by the school. Given such a busy time of the year we really appreciate the commitment of our school community.

In each area the reviewers provided commendations and recommendations. The school has received two further letters of commendation from the Deputy Director General and North Metropolitan Regional Director. All the recommendations made in the report are being acted upon as part of our school planning. Our next School Review is scheduled for Term 4 in 2024. This aligns with the review and development of our next Business Plan and the Department’s next Strategic Plan.

BUNURU – Noongar Season for February/March

Bunuru is the hottest part of the year with little to no rainfall.

People would stay close to the coast and to reliable water sources due to the drying up of water bodies inland.

Fish were trapped and speared. They made up a large part of the diet and fish bones were a good source of calcium.

Many reptiles including Kurda (goannas) lay their eggs at this time and the Kabart (dugite snake) may be active during long hot days.

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind.”

Henry Ford

CHALLENGE YOURSELF

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. 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.

STUDENT UPDATE FORMS

Student update forms were sent home with your child this week. Please edit these forms, if necessary, and return them to your child’s classroom teacher by Friday March 4, even if there are no changes.

It’s important that we have the correct information for your child on our school database, should we need to contact you at any time and particularly if your child’s health circumstances have changed.

If you have misplaced this form, please let your teacher or the office know and we will print out a new one

Thank You
Administration Staff

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

We have good news and bad news this week. The good news is that school hats are back in stock, yay!

The bad news is that our supplier has just informed us that the yellow school polo shirts will unfortunately remain out of stock until April! They have been trying to source a new factory to supply the fabric (the previous factory closed due to the impact of Covid-19). As Perma-Pleat only works with Ethical Manufacturing companies, this has taken some time. They have now found a supplier and are expecting the fabric to arrive on the 25th March. Then shirts will then go for printing and be delivered to us. Again, yay! We apologise for all the inconvenience, we were first led to believe that they were on a shipping container somewhere, however that is not the case.

If you have any good quality uniforms at home i.e. minimal stains and current stock that your child has grown out of then please do bring them into the uniform shop. This will assist the families who are awaiting stock

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

PL

Community News

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