Platinum Award

This week we received an email from the Department of Education congratulating us on achieving the newly instituted PLATINUM AWARD for our work with School-Wide Positive behaviour Support (SWPBS). (click for more info). 

The Platinum Award has been created this year to recognise schools who are at the very forefront of implementing SWPBS.  This follows on from our school receiving three straight years of Gold Awards. 

This is a tremendous achievement for our school and should be celebrated by students, staff and families. It reflects the amazing work, over what is now many years, from our SMILE team and is a testament to the leadership of our Assistant Principal, Rachel Roberts, who has spearheaded SWPBS since we first began out journey in 2018.  

Playground

We are so so close to the playground being operational again! We are waiting on the certification and a bit of tiding up of the area where the skip bins are currently. There's a big chance we could have students on the playground by next week. The plan will be to have a soft opening with students enjoying the new features, before an official opening ceremony later. Stay tuned. 

Rubbish and nude food

An visible issues in the playground is around the number of wrappers and other rubbish that is left following each play session. Whilst we continue to remind students to use the available rubbish bins provided, there are others ways for us to promote tidiness. By embracing "nude" food, we can help to reduce the rubbish that ends up on the ground. Nude food is when lunchboxes are packed without the wrappers etc. Many lunchbox designs allow for segmented spots to place wrapper less foods. By removing the wrappers it will reduce the chance of them ending up in the playground. This isn't mandatory, but it would be a great step in the right direction!

Expo

A reminder that we will be running our Term 1 Whole School Expo during two times to cater for as many families as possible. The first will be after school on Monday, March 30th and run from 3.30pm to 4pm. The second will be the following morning, Tuesday March 31st between 8.30am and 9am. The Expo is a great opportunity for students to share their term's learning by inviting parents into the classrooms. Specialist classrooms will also be open for visits too!

Industrial Action

Please make sure you read the Compass newsfeed regarding next Tuesday's Industrial Action and the impact on classes. 

The Prep students have been excited to begin learning to read and write graphemes (letters). So far, we have learnt to write m, a, t and s, and are using these to build simple words such as at, as, mat, Sam and Tam. We have also started using our new Handwriting Books to practise correct letter formation for both upper and lower case letters. We continue to explore rhyming and are now learning to clap and count the syllables in words we hear and say.

In Mathematics, we have been counting collections and using the terms more, less and equal to describe them. We enjoy playing a variety of games to practise subitising, counting and writing numerals. We have also been creating patterns and exploring the features of different shapes. With the help of our buddies, we explored measuring length by tracing around our bodies with chalk and counting how many footsteps tall we are.

In Connected Learning, we have been working on a special surprise poster for Expo. We have also been learning about our feelings and emotions, using good manners, and understanding our personal space bubbles. We are looking forward to a visit from the Fire Brigade next week!

Over the past two weeks, our Grade 2 students have been engaged in a range of exciting learning experiences across all subject areas.In Reading, we have continued enjoying our class novel Stuart Little. Students have been developing their comprehension skills by answering inferential questions and thinking more deeply about the text. We have also been exploring character traits, identifying both inside (personality) and outside (physical) characteristics of the characters. In Writing, we have been focusing on creating engaging “sizzling starts” for narratives. Students have been experimenting with onomatopoeia and dialogue to capture the reader’s attention and bring their stories to life. In Maths, we have been learning about place value. Students have been practising sorting and representing numbers using place value charts, helping them build a strong understanding of number structure. In Connected Learning, we have been exploring our personal strengths. Students are reflecting on what they do well and are beginning to work towards creating their own “Strengths Satchel.”

• Reading: We have continued reading our class novel Stuart Little, focusing on answering inferential questions and exploring inside (personality) and outside (physical) character traits.
• Writing: We explored “sizzling starts” for narratives, with a focus on using onomatopoeia and dialogue to engage the reader.
• Mathematics: we explored  place value by sorting and representing numbers on place value charts.

• Connected Studies: We focused on identifying personal strengths and began working towards creating individual “Strengths Satchels.”

   

  
   

This week we are celebrating Neurodiversity Week.

Neurodiversity means that everyone’s brain works in different ways — and that’s a good thing!

Some people might learn differently, think differently, move differently, or experience the world differently. This can include people with things like autism, ADHD, dyslexia, or other ways of thinking and learning.

At our school, we believe that everyone belongs, and everyone has strengths.

Some people might be:

• amazing problem solvers
• super creative
• great at noticing details
• kind and thoughtful friends
  
   

We want everyone to think about how we can be more inclusive.

That means:

• being kind
• being patient
• including others
• and accepting people for who they are

“We don’t all think the same — and that’s what makes us awesome.”

So let’s all try to:

• notice the strengths in others
• include everyone in games and learning

and celebrate what makes each of us unique
 

Phones, tablets, and other tools that access the internet can be amazing tools for communicating and socialising but unfortunately, they can also present challenges for children and their peers. Especially, regarding children’s use when communicating with each other. 

It is up to you as parents to have this conversation with your child and to make a decision as to whether they’re ready for social media and messaging or not. Whether they are using Messenger, Snapchat, Facebook, TikTok or Whats App, it is important to speak to your child about the risks online, posting messages, chatting or responding to someone online, especially in anger or on impulse. Ask them to think before they post anything, accept a friend request or become part of a group chat. 

While much of the time it can function positively as a way for young people to interact, we have seen many instances when the comments can become aggressive, demeaning or inappropriate in a sexual manner. The first port of call in many instances will be reporting via the eSafety Commissioner - an online reported method to  deal with harm caused by serious online abuse or illegal and restricted online content. It also has information of what you can report and how to do so. It is also often at this point that the school is alerted. 

It is extremely difficult for a school to manage incidents that may occur online when the it occurs outside of school hours. Yet we do understand there can be a flow on effect into school that we will need to manage as best we can. On the whole, school will continue to provide Cyber Safe information and lessons to students and families; ask students and parents to read through and sign our school’s Internet Agreement; refer to our ICT Matrix and adhere to the current Mobile Phone Policy. We follow our policies in regard to bullying and wellbeing, working with families to inform and support. 

While it is important for students to understand the issues and difficulties around social media use, it is just as important for you as parents to understand too. The ways you may use social media may be very different to how your child will interact online. With new sites and games gaining prominence each month, it is difficult to keep up. Resources such as https://www.commonsensemedia.org/social-media are useful tools to keep yourself educated. 

Having educated yourself and your child on the dangers and etiquette of the online world, it is important to continue to monitor how your child is interacting online. Supervision remains a vital part of ensuring your child's online safety and wellbeing. Many accounts have a minimum age requirement which we encourage you to strongly consider. 

Have a conversation with your child to ensure they know they have reporting pathways if something negative happens online. Make sure your child knows to come to you with a problem when it occurs, so you can help. Whether something is happening on their accounts, or on a friends’ account they need to know to report it to you and then on to the eSafety Commissioner.

The most important thing in this is communication. Together, we need to talk about how to treat others online with respect and what is and isn’t appropriate online behaviour. 

Thank you for your support. The safety and wellbeing of your children, our students, is paramount. Please see below for some online safety tips and programs.

eSafety’s Top 5 online safety tips for kids and How to report cyberbullying material. The eSafety Parents pages on our website have more tips and resources about the use of digital technology at home.  

eSafety programs 

Explore the huge range of advice and resources at our national online safety hub, esafety.gov.au – we have programs tailored for all ages.

• eSafety Parents — Advice for parents and carers to help children have safe experiences online. 
• eSafety Kids — A platform for kids to learn about online safety in a way they can relate to.

eSafety Young People — A platform for older children to learn about online safety in an environment that appeals to them. 

Year 4 Term 1 Week 8

We have had a great couple of weeks in Year 4!

We have… 

• been consolidating our use of strategies to efficiently solve addition and subtraction problems
• started planning and creating a board game with a focus on understanding emotions 
• planned and started writing our procedural texts to explain how to play our created board games
• been analysing character traits 
• practiced measuring different items with rulers and converting the units of measurements 
• analysed different procedural texts including games and crafts
• enjoyed mixing as a cohort for basketball sessions on Fridays 
• discussed emotions and strategies to manage emotions

There are only 2 weeks left of Term 1. We look forward to welcoming our students’ nearest and dearest into our classrooms for Ashy’s Term 1 Expo! 

Our last camp of primary school has been quite a blast, and we can say for sure that we are sad it has now passed. We did tons of fun activities!

On the first day, we went on a bus to Cave Hill Creek. The bus ride there was about 2 hours and 10 minutes long, but some people decided to bring games such as Uno. We stopped in between at Hannah Watts Park and had morning tea. After we got back on the bus, we had 1 more hour to go, and then we were there.

Activities we did:
-  canoeing
-  low ropes
-  giant ladder
-  map reading
-  hut building
-  bush art
-  bush walk
-  ultimate frisbee
-  archery

CANOEING
 We played great games, such as tag and who can collect the most ducks. At the end of the session, we jumped into the water, and we got soaked!

LOW ROPES
 We were in groups of 3. One person did the course, and the other two had to spot them (make sure they didn’t fall) while they were doing the low ropes. There was even rock climbing!

GIANT LADDER
 One of the most liked activities was the Giant Ladder, made up of large logs attached by a strong rope. It was 16 metres high. Many people found it a challenge, but they had a go and kept going, achieving their very best and having fun. When you’re not climbing up the ladder, you’re on the belay team. The belay team helps support the people climbing and allows them to go up and down safely. Before all that, we were given harnesses and helmets for safety reasons and learned how to put them on. Overall, Giant Ladder was really fun and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

MAP READING
 For map reading, we found all the letters and things, but we didn’t finish figuring out the sentence.

HUT BUILDING
 In hut building, we had to build huts out of sticks, branches, bark, and leaves. Then, once the session was almost up, the teacher would pour water all over the hut while we were inside to see if it was waterproof.

BUSH ART
 We would go on a short walk to find sticks, leaves, and many other things. Then we would come back to the main area to build things, for example, a dream catcher, a nose tickler, and many more.

BUSH WALK
 We had to walk up this very tall mountain. In some parts, it was very steep and muddy. Some people did slip on the way down, though, but they were fine! We were near an artificial waterfall. The view was really good, though.

ULTIMATE FRISBEE
 We played frisbee just like normal frisbee. We were in 2 teams and just tried to score, but on the oval, which was the place we played on, there was so much kangaroo poo.

ARCHERY
 We used a bow and arrow and tried our best to score. We played a game to see who scored the most points. It was super incredible!!

NIGHT ACTIVITIES
 bush walk
 trivia
 movie night

BUSH WALK
 It was really fun. We would walk up and down while looking at wildlife.

TRIVIA
 We would get into groups that the teachers chose and answer questions together.

MOVIE NIGHT
 It was fun. We watched the movie Cheaper by the Dozen 2, and it was good!!