2 December 2020

Newsletter Articles

Important Dates

Principal’s Report

We’re almost to the end of the year and will soon be saying goodbye to the year 2020. I do try to always look for the positives in life and when reflecting on this year there are a few positives I believe we can take from 2020. While COVID-19 might have kept most of the children home from schools for a period, our teachers took the opportunity to learn new skills for communicating electronically. Zoom meetings and Webex have become the new normal. Certainly on-line Professional Learning has become very popular and it is indeed much easier logistically to be able to do a two hour course online in my office, rather than having to drive to a different location. The implementation this year of Talk for Writing has been a huge success. The teachers can see greater depth in the children’s writing and vocabulary, which is wonderful. I wonder what your positives of 2020 are?

Enrolments

We still have places in our Kindergarten classes for 2021. If you know anyone who has a child turning four before June 30th 2021 then they are eligible to attend Kindergarten. Some of our surrounding schools have capped their classes and are now full. We have the opportunity to expand our classes a little further, so we have several places still available. Please pass this on to any friends that are still looking for a place or possibly are on another school’s wait list.

Videos for Swimming

Thank you to those children who participated in the videos for the Department of Education Swimming and Water Safety Division in conjunction with the Royal Life Saving Society. We have received very positive feedback about the wonderful behaviour of all the children involved. In particular, our Head Boy Luca S, for the amazing respect he shows to all. He is just a wonderful young gentleman.

Cricket

Many thanks to Mr Lee for arranging some recent Cricket Clinics through the Sporting Schools Program. It was terrific to have Henry Beus, the Community Cricket Officer from the WACA here giving coaching sessions to the children.

Reporting to Parents

The Semester Two Summative Reports will be ready for collection by parents from the classroom teacher on Wednesday 16th December between 3:00pm to 3:15pm. Any reports not collected will then be held in the office until 9:30am Thursday morning. After this time they will be posted home. With the recent decrease in Australia Post hours there may be a delay if you are receiving your child’s report in this manner. Reports will not be given directly to the students. K1 children will receive their report on the Tuesday, which is officially their last day, though we do hope many will be able to come to the Presentation Assembly on the Wednesday morning.

This semester, reports will have the A – E grades included. For some of the children that have a Language Background other than English (LBOTE) they will not be graded with an A – E in English but have instead been graded using the LBOTE Progress Maps. This gives a better description of what your child is able to do rather than what they can’t do in English.

STEM Challenge

Six Year Five children were given the opportunity this year to participate in a STEM challenge at Hampton Senior High School; Ariane S, Maddison M, Eliana A, Hiroki G, Svyatoslav M and Hayden B. STEM is an approach to learning, based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – in an interdisciplinary and applied method. The children have attended the high school once a week for several weeks, finalising in a challenge on the last session. Our girls team were the 2020 Winners, successfully beating teams from several other primary schools. This has given the girls an opportunity to participate in further STEM workshops after school hours, at the high school next year. Congratulations to all the students for their work, representing the school so well, in particular congratulations to the girls.

Change of Gardener

Mr Warren Barnard is taking four months off work, which commenced on Monday 30th November. We farewelled Warren last Thursday during a special morning tea in his honour. Warren’s replacement is Mr Tony Cox, Tony comes to us with a wealth of knowledge from many years of experience. Tony has been working here for the last two months on a Wednesday, which should allow for a seamless transition into the role. While we will miss Warren we do also welcome Tony.

P&C

The Parents and Citizen’s (P&C) held their last meeting for the year on Monday 30th November. I would like to thank them for the work they have managed to do during this challenging year. The Treasurer, Jo, was successful in applying for Job Keeper, which allowed the P&C to pay their canteen staff during the worst of our COVID shut downs. Fortunately, the P&C had some funds in reserve, which still allowed them to pay for a section of the shade shelter on the oval steps and also pay for the replacement bridge on the playground in the Early Childhood Centre. I would like to acknowledge and thank the committee for continuing on during very trying times for fundraising, especially thank you to Amy Fellepa, the P&C President.

School Board

The School Board has also held their last meeting for 2020. Thank you to Mr Xavier Teo, Chairman of the Board, for his ongoing commitment to the school and the School Board in particular, and to all the other members who give their time so willingly. The School Board is part of the governance of the school. They review the School Budget and the Business Plan, they give approval for the Professional Development Dates and also approval for the provider of the Personal Items list. Another task they do is to review the student data. This was not possible this year as owing to COVID there were no NAPLAN tests, nor A – E report scores. Members of the School Board are also invited to be part of the school’s external review, which is in Week Seven of Term One next year.

At the commencement of 2021, there will be two vacancies for parent representatives on the School Board. Nominations will be called for at the commencement of next year. The first meeting is scheduled for Week Three, when the elections will be held. Please keep this opportunity in mind over the holidays.

Administration Building

Next Wednesday 9th December is the practical completion date of the Administration Building. We commence moving into the building after that and will be completed by the end of Week Ten. Unfortunately, the playground has had an issue occur and further progress has been halted while they redesign the protective matting. There will be an official opening next year.

End of Year Activities

As mentioned in the last newsletter, we do have restrictions still in place as to the number of family members on site, we are capped at 100 family members on site at any one time. Thank you to everyone for respecting this and for remembering to be social distanced. A reminder of what this looks like in relation to our end of year formalities is:

Wednesday 9th December
Year Six Presentation Assembly
Two Family Members

Tuesday 15th December
Meritorious Awards Assembly
Two Family Members per Award Winner

Wednesday 16th December
K/PP Presentation Assembly
One Family Member Only

Values Day

Every year we finish the year with water slides for our last Values Day. This year we have swapped days. The water slides will be on next Friday 11th December. Further notices will be distributed at the commencement of next week.

Hampton Park Talent Show

We will still be having a talent show to finish the year. Auditions are under way. Hopefully we have many budding artists and singers in our school. The talent show is on Thursday 17th December from 1:30–3:00pm.

Student Councillors Disco

The Student Councillors are running a Christmas disco on Thursday 17th December from 10:30am – 11:00am. All children are welcome to attend. There will be free dress in Christmas colours for that day.

Merit Awards

Congratulations to the Certificate and Award winners at our last assembly.

Yvonne Arnott
Principal

SciTech Excursion

On Friday 27th November, the students from C5, R1, R2 and R3 visited Scitech. They had a fantastic time celebrating the end of the year learning together, laughing, exploring and discovering the wonders of science.

Cluster Five News

In Design and Technology, the children in Cluster Five created designs for their masks. They used a variety of materials and the masks have evolved over the weeks. The enthusiasm and excitement of the children working on their masks has been a delight to watch. Parents will be given these pieces of love for their end of year gift.

Michelle Avizcher
Cluster Five Teacher

Has your contact information changed?

Please notify the office if any of your contact details have changed. It is important that we have the correct contact information for Parents/Carer’s and Students for general correspondence and in the case of an emergency.

Christmas Cards and Gifts

Whilst we love seeing children spreading the joy of Christmas through the giving of cards, candy canes and the like we ask that this is kept for the last week of term. It can be quite disruptive to the class. We appreciate your co-operation with this.

Community Notices

City of Stirling – School Holiday Programs

The City of Stirling’s school holiday programs keep kids active and engaged during the school break. Registrations are open to children from 5-12 years and sports and programs are run by fully qualified instructors and coaches.

Festive Christmas cooking and craft programs are available at Hamersley Leisure Centre between 21st – 22nd December, $30 per session.

Sports holiday programs will run at Scarborough, Mirrabooka and Hamersley Leisure Centres; from 11th – 29th January 2021 from 8.45am to 12.30pm. Early bird of $20.00 per session if paid before 23 December or $25 per session thereafter.

To view the program timetable and register online visit: