Introducing our Student Leaders for 2016

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1 Friday 19th February, 2016 Introducing our Student Leaders for 2016 On behalf of the staff and school community, I would like to congratulate Alex, Dion, Safa, Tam and Zarrah on being selected 2016 School Leaders. The position of School Leader is the most highly regarded acknowledgement we can give to a Year Six student. Our students had to go through a rigorous selection process. Students prepared an application, a written speech that was read to their peers and teachers and attended a formal interview with a panel of 6 people comprising 4 staff and 2 student representatives. All applicants were asked to answer a number of questions about their initiative, strengths and skills and what they would bring to Koo Wee Rup PS as School Leader. The selection of the five leaders was based on the demonstration of outstanding qualities during the selection process and their capacity to rise to the challenges leadership will bring. Introducing our House Captains for 2016 On behalf of the staff and school community, I would like to congratulate Sophia and Ella (Eason), Indiana and Tahlia (McKenzie), Georgia and Jordan (Duncan) and Brodie and Rachel (Hurst) on being selected House Captain representative for The position of House Captain is an acknowledgement that we believe they all demonstrate leadership qualities and model s positive behaviours to other students. They will be representing their House at Student Voice meetings and working with Mrs McCurdy, Ms Disney, Mr Kennelly and Mr Jagoe.

2 Page 2 Principal s Report Nathan Jagoe I can t believe that we now find ourselves at the end of week 4 already!! Where has the time gone? Lots of exciting things have been happening here at KWRPS and plenty more ahead in the near future. Bully-Busters Last Monday and Tuesday all of our students participated in the Bully Busters workshops with Michael and Jessica, our presenters. It is already fantastic to hear students using the language and strategies that were discussed during these sessions. We will be doing follow up work with our students to ensure that these behaviours and strategies with the students become something they draw upon if they do find themselves in challenging situations. The parent session was attended by 22 parents/guardians. The feedback from those who attended was very positive with the main messages being: This is something that should be run on an annual basis for parents The content was extremely well presented and very informative Very helpful for how I can support my child when they come home with situations they have been involved in This would be an extremely worthwhile session for all parents to see in the future We are also looking into the possibility of running these sessions again in 2017 for students, staff and parents. Parents and Friends On Monday 8 th February, I met with our Parents and Friends group to discuss the year ahead. There are lots of great ideas that are being planned for our school community, both for fundraising purposes and also for fun activities for our students and their families. The first event they will be organising is a Getting to Know Your School Community morning tea. The purpose of the morning tea is to give all of our families a chance to meet other families in our school community in a comfortable, informal setting. The morning tea will take place in the old school building on Friday 26 th February from 9:00am-10:00am. Coffee, tea and biscuits will be provided. I m looking forward to seeing lots of our families on this morning. The other events for Term One will be our Easter Raffle and Easter Bonnet Parade. The Easter Raffle tickets will go home on Monday 7 th March and need to be returned by Monday 21 st March. The prizes will be drawn at our Easter Bonnet Parade on the last day of term, Thursday 24 th March. On Friday 18 th March, our school will be having a Free Dress Day! The fee for coming in free dress for the students will be a donation for our Easter Raffle prizes. This can be an Easter egg, chocolates or some other small item related to Easter that could become part of our raffle prizes. We are asking all students to bring in their Easter contribution on the Free Dress Day so that the Parents and Friends can collect them all on the one day. The next meeting for Parents and Friends is taking place this Monday 22 nd February from 2:15-3:15pm. Anyone wishing to join this active and very passionate group, please come along and join us this week. Meetings take place in the staff room. Swimming Carnival It was wonderful to see all of our students participating and supporting each other at our Swimming Carnival last week. The day was a great opportunity for the students to be involved in a range of swimming activities which catered for the range of swimming abilities. I must congratulate our House Captains who did a fabulous job leading their houses on the day. A huge thank you to Sheree McCurdy on her great organisation of the day. Thank you to all of our staff for their team work on the day and also our parent helpers on the day. Mr Price described it as our best Swimming Carnival. It ran so smoothly. Selected students represented our school at the District Swimming Carnival today and I am sure they did a fabulous job. At the time of writing this report, I was unaware of the results but will keep you up to date in our next newsletter.

3 Page 3 Principal s Report Nathan Jagoe Getting to Know You Sessions It was great to see so many parents here yesterday afternoon and evening to meet with their children s teachers. The sessions gave teachers a chance to meet lots of parents and have a chat about how each student has settled in to the new school year. It was nice to meet more of our families out at the BBQ. If you do have any questions or concerns throughout the year, please don t hesitate to talk with your child s class teacher. Curriculum Days As was mentioned in the last newsletter, I was proposing some changes to the Curriculum Days for this year. I finalised these dates and took them to School Council on Tuesday night. These dates were approved by School Council and have now been locked in as follows: Term 1 Wednesday 9 th March - All teaching staff will be attending Transforming Collaboration Forum. The focus of this forum will be on strengthening our collaborative practices and ensuring that when we do meet we are discussing the right topics which have the greatest impact on student learning outcomes. Term 2 Friday 10th June - The focus of this session will be around further developing our numeracy (maths) teaching practices. The day will be facilitated by Ryan Dunn, an education consultant who has extensive experience both here in Australia and in the US working with schools on developing their pedagogy around numeracy. We are currently in negotiations with Ryan about doing some follow up days here at KWRPS to support staff in embedding the learning from the day. Term 3 Friday 29th July - The focus of this day will be around reviewing and strengthening our assessment practices and strategies. We will examine the different ways we can collect learning data and how we can most effectively respond to this data to move students forward in their learning. As you can see, these days are being used in a very purposeful manner to specifically target areas of our learning that I believe are going to only further strengthen what is happening here at KWRPS. House Captains/Student Voice Congratulations to the following students who have been selected by their peers as House Captains. Eason McKenzie Duncan Hurst Sophia Tavares Indiana Boswell Georgia Sharp Brodie Simpson Ella Wasley Tahlia Travis Jordan Sprie Rachel Bachelor At the time of me writing this entry, the Student Voice representatives had not been finalised. They will be announced in the next newsletter. Badges for all of our School Leaders, House Captains and Student Voice representatives will be presented at an assembly in the very near future and we will notify parents before the assembly. Insurance at school Parents sometimes ask whether the school has insurance to cover student accidents at school. Most often this inquiry follows an accident at school. I remind parents that the Department of Education and Training does not provide personal accident insurance for students. Parents and guardians are generally responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including any transport costs, unless the injury is caused by the negligence (carelessness) of a Department or school council employee or volunteer.

4 Page 4 Principal s Report Nathan Jagoe Future Camps I received 19 responses from parents regarding the whole school camp structure proposal that I put forward. Below is a summary of the responses: 2 people expressed disappointment that the Year 4 students would not go on another camp until 2018 when they are in Year 6 1 of these responses also wanted there to be a Senior School camp every year. 17 responses were in favour of the 2 year structure put forward, with the most popular reason put down being the financial pressures of yearly camps 9 of the responses specifically wrote about the importance of the camps developing the independence and social skills in the students. The preferred time of the year varied, with some suggesting early in the year would help students develop relationships with their teachers, whilst others suggested later in the year. The one common point about the time of the year was for the camps to not take place in winter. 2 responses identified the importance of giving families enough time to pay off the camp and as much notice as possible. 5 people suggested Canberra as the location for the Year 5/6 camp. 3 people put forward Sovereign Hill as the location. 2 people suggested an Urban Camp experience. There were a number of other specific adventure camps that were suggested also. These included Licola, Forest Lodge, Phillip Island, Mt Morton, Allambee Camp, Ace-Hi, YMCA camps, Wilsons Prom, Rubicon, Buchan Caves, Harriettville. Based on the feedback, I proposed to School Council that the 2 year structure to be implemented. This was approved. The dilemma we now find ourselves in is being able to identify where our Year 5/6 camp will take place for We need to consider a number of factors: camp availability, cost of camp, the amount of notice we are able to provide families with. I have now asked all of our teaching staff to find out what specifically is available for our 5/6 camp. Once we have concrete options (with dates and costs), I will survey all Year 5/6 parents to determine which option is most popular. This will be our 5/6 camp for As a staff we will also begin investigating long term options for both camps and bring this information back to School Council. We will also begin putting together a timeline for our Junior School events. This information will be shared with all families as soon as possible. Thank you to those parents who shared their thoughts on this matter. Obviously we are unable to accommodate all ideas, however it certainly gave us some insight into the aspects that were seen as important by some of our families and supported us in coming to our final decision. Working Bee We are spoilt here at KWRPS to have such spacious grounds for our students to play in. There are some specific areas that I would like to tidy up to ensure our grounds are safe and well presented. To do this, we have decided to run a Working Bee on Friday March 18 th from 4:30pm-7:30pm. It would be fantastic to see lots of our families coming along to help out at this twilight session. The reason we decided on a Friday timeslot was to not impose upon families on the Saturday or Sunday, whilst also allowing some of our parents who work to come into the school to support this event. A note will be going home early next week giving more details about how people can help. If anyone has access to a bobcat or dingo (the mechanical variety) can they please let me know in advance. Toilet reminder Just a quick reminder for parents needing to use the toilets during the school day, can they please come through the front office and use the toilets in the administration building. This is to ensure our practices are in line with Department Requirements. We thank you for your support on this matter. Parent Helper Training session Our Parent Helper training afternoon will be held on Monday 29th February from 2:30-3:15pm. The sessions will be run by Linda King and Belinda McNaughton. This is an opportunity to find out how you can help in a variety of different ways at school including classroom reading, maths and writing as well as some of our extra curricula activities including excursions. If you are interested in coming along please register your interest at the office.

5 Page 5 Junior School Update with Linda King, Fraya Lamont, Sheree McCurdy and Belinda McNaughton What a fantastic start to the year we have had! It has been full steam ahead with all classes establishing the expectations for students in the classroom and in the playground. We are pleased to see that all students have remembered to have their hats at school for recess and PE sessions. We have had the opportunity to experience all specialist classes PE, LOTE (Italian), Sustainability and ICT (computer/ipad technology). PE lessons are held on a Monday so if your child would prefer, they may bring sneakers to wear. Art lessons will be taken by home group teachers in their classrooms. Art smocks will still be required but most Year 1 students have their smocks from last year at school. During Reading lessons we have focussed our learning around Fairytales. It has been a lot of fun and please lookout for our display board in the main building which showcases the work of your children and their learning in Reading. Thank you for your responses in daily reading journals which come home each day with takehome books. We appreciate the fact that your time can be stretched but this is a great way to communicate when time is so precious. In Maths lessons we have continued with subitising (instant recognition of clusters of objects) and extending our counting skills and other number activities, as well as some problem solving and collecting data to make graphs. To support our Integrated Studies about community and our school values we had a very beneficial session with the Bully Busters team. Students were encouraged to be Cool, Calm Kids in the face of adversity and to communicate their concerns with an adult if they were unable to sort things out for themselves. They participated in role plays to practise what standing tall and being cool looked like. We had a great day at the swimming sports at the Koo Wee Rup pools and thank all those parents who gave assistance. We will shortly, once our routines are established, be seeking parent support for our classes. Some parents have already volunteered, which is much appreciated. Keep an eye out for the Parent Helper sessions, the next to be held Monday 29th February at 2:30pm. It is a requirement for parents to complete this session before they can assist in the classroom.

6 Page 6 Sustainability Update with Indira Quin Waste Free Wednesday This year as part of the Sustainability program we are introducing a Waste Free Wednesday at school. The aim of this initiative is for students to pack a lunch and snack that has no rubbish to reduce their environmental impact and to try and make healthy lunch and snack choices. We are encouraging students to pack lunches that will reduce landfill by simply avoiding the use of plastic, foil or commercial packaging. Students are learning about the benefits of packing a rubbish free lunch and the need to reduce, re-use and recycle, while also having fun and looking after their health. We hope to have your support and that the information below helps you and your child to pack a Waste Free Lunch. To pack a waste free lunch or snack you will need: Reusable containers for putting all of your food, snacks and drinks into lunch boxes that have lots of separate sections can be useful to avoid lost lids or containers Plastic or metal drink bottles are recommended for refilling with water Try to avoid: Zip lock or plastic bags, plastic wrap or aluminium foil Tetra packed drinks, single serve yoghurts and cheese, Pre-packaged food, i.e. biscuits, snack bars. and chips Tips to packing a waste free lunch and snack: Try to pack the lunches the night before and store in the fridge overnight to avoid the mad rush in the morning. If your child normally enjoys chips, yoghurt or other pre-packaged snacks, buy these in a larger format and you can decant these into smaller reusable containers or lunchbox. Try to use fruit and vegetables that are in season. Seasonal produce is friendly to the environment as well as to your budget, as less fuels are used to transport it into your supermarket Try to involve the kids in helping decide what to take. This will help to avoid uneaten foods being thrown out, plus will save your family money as well.

7 Page 7 Sustainability Update with Indira Quin Class Compost Buckets 2016 As part of the Schools Sustainability program classes will have compost buckets for Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Scraps. The compost will be used within the Student s gardening program and for feeding the chickens. Benefits of compost: Improve soil quality and garden vitality by releasing the rich nutrients in the compost into the soil of the garden beds the students will create. Prevent greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging the aerobic breakdown of organic material and reduces the amount of lunch and snack waste going to landfill. Recycle valuable nutrients and reduce the use of artificial fertilisers because we are trying to have an organic garden. Schools Clean Up Australia Day 2016 All students from Year 1 to Year 6 will be taking part in the Schools Clean Up Day on Wednesday 2 nd March 2016 at Cochrane Park. This event allows students to demonstrate their support for caring for the environment through participating in cleaning a community area. If you would like to be involved as a parent helper please contact your child s classroom teacher. Swimming Carnival Thank you We would like to say a special thank you to all of you that attended the Koo Wee Rup Swimming Sports and volunteered your time to help us at the pools. We thank you so much for all the jobs you did including scoring, giving out ribbons and helping us get out of the pool safely. This school event is an exciting day and could not go ahead without our awesome volunteer parents there to help us. We wouldn t have been able to run this day without the parent s help. We hope to see you all next year, Ella and Sophia Eason House Captains

8 Page 8 Assembly Awards What s happening Assembly every Thursday at 2:15pm Friday 26th February 9am Parents & Friends Getting to Know Your School Community Congratulations to our Classroom award winners: Charlotte (1/2L), Nakitah (1/2K), Charlotte (1/2M), Brodie (3/4K), Chloe (3/4M), Brodie (5/6D), Jordan (5/6P) Congratulations to our Specialist award winners: Damon (PE), Jordan (LOTE), Decklan (Sustainability) & Amelia Allan (ICT) Monday 29th February 2:30-3pm Parent Helper Training Wednesday 9th March Curriculum Day Tuesday 15th March School Photos Payment Envelopes available soon Friday 18th March Free Dress Day Easter Raffle Donation Thursday 24th March Last Day of Term 9am Easter Raffle & Easter Parade