4 November 2020

Newsletter Articles

Important Dates

Principal’s Report

Swimming Lessons

It is terrific to see children taking advantage of the in-term swimming lessons. As I mentioned to the children last week, in-term swimming lessons are the cheapest lessons that you can have for your child. When doing vocational lessons parents have to pay for the pool entry for themselves. At $6.70 per day that is an additional $67.00 on top of the cost of the lessons, the wear and tear on the car, plus additional fuel, replaces the cost of the bus fare. I again urge everyone to send their child to lessons. Even if your child can manage in an enclosed pool, that does not give them the skills and confidence that may be required for them later in life in a river or ocean setting. Having your child taught to swim is you giving them a life-long gift.

This year our school has been asked to take part in producing training videos for student swimming teachers. Video sessions for the Education Department’s Swimming and Water Safety department will be taking place during the in term swimming lessons. Six children from each level 5 - 9 will be chosen during the first week and then they will be required to stay at the pool after their lesson to film them having another lesson. The videos will be used as part of training packs being developed for swimming instructors. If your child is selected, then you will be contacted during the first week of swimming lessons to gain parental approval. There is no additional cost for the selected students, there is however the benefit of your child having four extra lessons.

School Board

Next Monday 9th November is the last School Board meeting for this year. Next year there will be an opportunity for parents to nominate to be a member of the School Board. If you are interested and would like to be involved with the Governance side of the school, then please take the opportunity to attend next week’s meeting to get a taste of the running of the School Board. The Board meet at 5:30pm in the school library, next year we will be able to meet in our new boardroom which is part of the new administration building.

Covid-19

We are very fortunate that the government is paying for continued daily cleaning during the school day of all high touch surface areas. We are still under stage four restrictions which affects parents on school sites. Parents are still asked to maintain social distancing when at the school, especially at the assemblies. We are also limited as to how many parents can be on the school site at any one time.

Worm Wiz

Commencing today at the school assembly the Year Sixes will be selling Worm Wiz. This is the liquid that is collected as a run off from the work the worms do turning over the casings and breaking down the food scraps. The Worm Wiz is diluted with water and is ready to use in handy 2ltr containers. The plants love the extra nutrients that this fertilizer delivers to them. The Year Sixes have this as an ongoing learning activity as part of the HASS curriculum.

Yvonne Arnott
Principal

Public Speaking Assembly

On the 21st October we held our annual Public Speaking Competition. The judges were Mrs Jo Carroll and Mrs Jan De Jonk. They were very impressed by the quality of all the speeches. Congratulations to all the finalists who spoke with clarity and expression on the day and to our Winners and Runners Up.

Year Six Worm Farm Graduation Fundraiser

Throughout this year, the Year Six students have been managing and maintaining a worm farm. As a part of this, they have been collecting and bottling up the Worm Wiz, with the aim of selling these bottles to members of the school community. The funds raised will then go towards their Year Six graduation activities.

The Worm Wiz does wonders for your gardens and is bottled up, diluted, and ready to pour. Our Year Six worm farm team are excited to announce that they are now ready to sell these bottles at a bargain price of $2 each. We will have a stall set up after the upcoming assembly on Wednesday 4th November for anyone who would like to support us and purchase a bottle or two for their gardens.

Thank you for your support!

Mrs Cunningham, Mr Evangelista and the Year Six students.

Room 1 News

The children used their maths skills to accurately measure the volume of the ingredients needed to make cookies. They had to time the number of minutes needed to beat the butter and sugar. They had to read the recipe and follow the directions. We will be writing the procedure they followed next week. It was pleasing to see all the children displayed co-operation and patience when sharing the jobs and equipment. They used their art skills to decorate their cookies. At the end of the day they were convinced they had not done any work.

The children in Room 1 have been studying the artwork of Reg Mombassa. We have looked at his detailed drawings of trees and have used this as inspiration for our own tree drawings. We then used our tree drawings to create a block print. The results look amazing!

Glynis Cardy
Teacher

WAAPA Summer School 2021

This summer WAAPA is thrilled to be able to offer an exciting school holiday program at our campus in Mount Lawley. There are classes for students from Year 1 to Year 12 in drama, acting, screen performance, film making, music theatre and of course Shakespeare. For information about the many courses on offer please visit waapa.ecu.edu.au/summer-school or contact Gabrielle Metcalf at explore.waapa@ecu.edu.au or 9370 6775.