Newman News Term 1 Week 10: From the Deputy Principal Primary
I can’t believe we are here at the end of Term 1! It has been a busy but productive term in the Primary, with plenty of exciting learning opportunities for our students across the entire range of learning areas. We have some wonderful Curriculum and Social/Emotional initiatives to look forward to as we enter Term 2 and I encourage you to continue to read our Newsletter to keep up to date with the developments within the Primary. You can read about our new Spelling Program further in this Newsletter, and next term we will share information about our new social/emotional program, Zones of Regulation, which you may have heard me speak about at the Zero2Hero parent night last week.
It has been wonderful to get to know students, staff and parents over the past ten weeks and I look forward to learning even more about our wonderful community as the year progresses. As we finish up at the end of Term 1, I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to the parent community for your support. We have a wonderful community here at Newman, with fantastic students and incredibly committed and skillful teachers, and your support and partnership allows us to work together for the benefit of all of our children.
I wish all families a Happy and Holy Easter holiday break and hope all can find time to relax and spend quality time with family. I look forward to welcoming students back for the start of Term 2 on Wednesday 26th April.
4B Assembly
On Friday of last week, Year 4 Blue presented their assembly which was a dramatisation of Stone Soup by Ann McGovern. 4B students did an amazing job of reading and acting out this story with passion and enthusiasm. Through this story, 4B reminded us about the importance of welcoming others and being warm, friendly and generous to others. Congratulations and thank you to Miss Crostella and 4 Blue.
Marcellin Awards
Congratulations to Oliver Slavicek (Y5) and Jasielle Tan (Y2) for being nominated and selected as our special Marcellin Award recipients for Term 1 for living out our Marist Characteristics. These two students are wonderful example of what it means to be part of a Marist school.
Year 1 Excursion
The Year Ones went to the Perth Zoo on Monday the 3rd of April to enrich their learning in Science where students have been exploring the external features of living things and examining animal habitats.
Students enjoyed participating in an “Australian Bush Party” and were delighted to see animals from all over the world!
Lavalla Running Club – Change of Day
Lavalla Run Club will be held on a Wednesday morning throughout Term 2. The sessions will be coached by Lenny Hughes and start at 7.45am-8.20am.
The sessions will commence in Week 2 on Wednesday 3rd May.
This is great preparation for the Cross Country Carnival on Friday 19th May. Year 3 and 4 students are required to complete a 1.5km course and Year 5 and 6 students will complete a 2.5km course.
Tasha Richards – Health and Phys Ed Teacher 3-6
Wellbeing
iMessage
iMessage is Apple’s instant messaging service that allows users to send text messages, photos, videos, and other content to other Apple devices. It’s a popular choice among students, as many of them have iPads, iPhones and other Apple products.
One trend we’ve noticed among students is that they are using iMessage to keep in touch with their friends when they are off sick or on a family holiday. As you can understand and appreciate, students who are at school need to focus on their education and shouldn’t be distracted by constant notifications. Therefore, we recommend students turn off iMessage notifications whilst at school.
This can be done by going into the Settings app on your iPhone/iPad, selecting Notifications, and then turning off notifications for iMessage.
Additionally, we have recently become aware of some activity on iMessage group chats. Some students outside of Newman have joined groups with our students and have been using inappropriate language that is not conducive to a positive school environment. To add another layer of complexity, these groups have been sharing images, videos, and audio clips that are not age-appropriate and can be harmful to our students.
We encourage all students to be cautious when participating in online conversations and to only communicate with those they know and trust. We encourage parents to talk to their children, and if they find themselves in a group chat that makes them feel uncomfortable or it violates our school’s code of conduct, we recommend that you leave the group immediately.
To leave a group chat permanently, you can follow these steps:
- Open the iMessage app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap on the group chat that you want to leave.
- Tap on the group chat name at the top of the screen.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and tap “Leave This Conversation.”
In addition to encouraging students to use iMessage responsibly, we also want to remind parents to monitor their children’s online activity. This is especially important as we go into the holiday break, when students may have more free time to spend online. It’s important to talk to your children about the dangers of inviting strangers into their online conversations and to remind them to only communicate with people they know and trust.
Justin Kirry (Leader of Wellbeing 3-6)
Learning
In Term Two we will be embedding PLD – a new PK-6 approach for our Literacy education program. PLD is an Australian, evidence-based, structured synthetics phonics program, that is recommended by leading literacy education authorities (such as AUSPELD).
PLD allows for targeted teaching based on screening tests and a wide scope of resources suited to all ability levels. The Program includes explicit instruction of phonics and spelling patterns, vocabulary development, fluency reading and dictation. Students begin each lesson in an engaging, whole class, explicit session before breaking up into small groups for targeted practise.
This program is supported by homework to consolidate the skills taught in the classroom. Your classroom teachers will explain the new homework process on Seesaw in Term 2. We are excited to roll out such a widely recognised, effective program that will greatly benefit our students.
Catherine Young (Leader of Learning PK-6)
Lion King Jr. Production
Throughout Term 1, Lavalla students have been learning choreography and music from the Lion King Jr. as part of their performing arts classes. If your student is not currently part of the Lion King Jr. Cast, but has enjoyed the learning process so far, they may choose to be a part of the Lavalla General Ensemble. You will need to register your child by Monday 24 April. Please click HERE for details.