Future Events
- Wednesday 9 August P&C Meeting 7pm
- Friday 11 August Room 12 Assembly
- Monday - Friday 14-18 August Science Week
- Monday 14 August Year 6 Parent info & enrolment evening @ NSHS
- Wednesday 16 August ECE Carnival 8:30am
- Thursday 17 August Cyber Safety parent info session 2:30pm & 7:00pm
- Saturday 19 August Fortescue Festival
- Monday 21 August Fortescue Pupil Free Day
- Wednesday 23 August Book character dress up day
- Thursday 24 August Author Visit
- Thursday 24 August Twilight Carnival 4:30pm - 6:30pm
- Friday 25 August LATE START 10AM (due to Twilight Carnival)
- Friday 25 August Room 15 & 16 Assembly 10:30am
- Friday 25 August Books, Blankets & Biscuits 12:30-1:10pm
Principal's Report
Dear Families and Community members
How quickly time flies! The year is flying by. I cannot believe we are half way through our school year already.
Since the beginning of Term Three, we have been treated to very important and special visitors.
During the holidays I was informed that our WA Premier, Mr Mark McGowan requested to visit sunny South Newman Primary while he was in town meeting with BHP. Mr McGowan along with Mr Kevin Michel MLA, Member for the Pilbara met with staff, students and representatives from our school board and P&C on Friday 21 July 2017. Mr McGowan and Mr Michel viewed classrooms and were walked through some of the initiatives our school has developed with funding from BHP through the Pilbara Education Partnership. Our Year 4/5/6 Academic Enrichment class enjoyed conversing with the Premier and sharing stories of living in the country as Mr McGowan told the students he went to school in a small country town. Mr McGowan spoke with many students, a number of whom asked why he is always on the TV. Our students did us all proud demonstrating the Newman Values of Respect by the polite way they interacted with our VIPs.
Ms Milanna Heberle, former Principal of Newman High School visited us on Monday, 24 July. Ms Heberle was invited back to Newman as part of the reopening of the high school after the fire a few years ago. Whilst Ms Heberle was here she spoke with the leadership team of both our school and Newman Primary regarding working with her current school, Rossmoyne SHS in delivering German as a second language for all Year 3 students in 2018. We will be trialling the remote, interactive teaching of German to our current Year 3s in Term Four.
The West Coast Eagles through the David Wirrpanda Foundation entertained the students in a Resilience talk and footy coaching clinic during Week Two. Whilst I am a dedicated Freo supporter and Mrs Dickinson is an Essendon fan through and through we along with Miss Hammond who cannot get enough of the Eagles enjoyed the messages the WCE gave the students. We would like to sincerely thank the David Wirrpanda Foundation for the entertaining and highly valuable morning they gave our students.
I would like to thank the parents who attended our Número Parent workshop last week. Número is a fantastic card game that promotes recall of basic number facts and problem solving skills. Número is part of our everyday Maths at South Newman Primary. We are working towards building up the profile of Mathematics in our school and supporting the students in achieving greater understanding in this learning area. Mrs Brooke Donaldson is doing an outstanding job working with teachers and students in this area. If you have any questions, concerns or would like to suggest anything regarding Mathematics at our school please don't hesitate to get into contact with Brooke via our front office or email: Brooke.Donaldson@education.wa.edu.au
Another super initiative that staff have begun, is our new after school Code Club. Mrs Claire Chalk and Miss Brittany Green were overwhelmed with the number of students in Years 3-6 keen to stay at school for an additional hour each Tuesday to learn the skills of Coding. If you're interested in seeing these digital technologies please pop into, our library on Tuesdays between 2:30-3:30pm.
Sadly, we farewell one of our most proactive and supportive families in the coming weeks. We have been so fortunate to have Gabe and Liam Franklyn and their children at our school for the past few years. Gabe has worked tirelessly supporting our school as a parent, as a volunteer in classrooms listening to students read, as the P&C President, P&C Treasurer, Canteen Manager and currently Deputy School Board Chairperson. Gabe has been instrumental in helping us in planning and fundraising for a Nature Playground. Gabe was the leader in developing The Pilbara Pantry cookbook which raised significant funds for the P&C and is a beautifully produced cookbook with recipes from many of our families and community members. On behalf of our school community, I would like to sincerely wish Gabe and her family the very best for the future. I know that whichever school is lucky enough to have the delightful Franklyn children they will be extra lucky having such supportive and involved parents.
Regular attendance is imperative to success at school. Our school regular attendance is low, approximately 60%. I urge all parents to send their children to school every day they are well. Taking your children out of school for holidays during the term can affect your child's academic achievement in so many ways. We have a number of intervention programs running daily at our school. When your child misses time from school their opportunity to participate in some of these programs that are based on sequential learning are heavily impacted. To promote better attendance we are embarking on an attendance drive and rewarding 95% or more attendance at the end of the term. Students achieving 95% or more attendance will participate in a fun two hours of activities and a special lunch on the last day of term. Please refer to the table below about how missing time off school weekly adds up.
If ever you have a concern, query or suggestion please email me or call me at school. Enjoy your weekend and may the days warm up soon.
Eagles Rock my School
The Wirrpanda Foundation visited our school in week one, with Troy Cook former Fremantle Dockers player, David Wirrpanda former West Coast Eagles player as well as the hilarious Rick the Rock who put on a fantastic show for our whole school assembly. They demonstrated the importance of eating healthy, staying hydrated, keeping up your fitness and being good to your mates, team members and opponents.
Premier Mark McGowan & MLA Kevin Michel
Science Shout-out
Attendance Report
Merit Awards - Week 2
Room 17 & 18 Assembly
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
At the beginning of Term Two the Pre-Primary students wrote about and read the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff for Talk 4 Write. It inspired much pretend play inside and outside of the classroom. The Kindy students were introduced the story later in the term and soon began telling the story on the interest tables. Miss Overing cleverly cropped the music for the story to unfold as it did. They were all very excited to perform it in front of the school, especially the Kindy students as they don’t normally attend. What a fantastic job they all did!
Miss Stacey Gardiner
Room 17 K/PP Teacher
Room 4 Assembly
ALIEN INVASION AT SNPS!
Don’t worry, Room 4 have it sorted. We have been working hard in Talk 4 Write to improve our persuasive texts to stop the alien invasion. In week one, Mrs Wheat showed us the very real news report about the two space crafts spotted above our school. We learnt to write a persuasive letter to stop the invasion and performed it at our assembly last week. Next we will write our own letters in class. So just like Maui says – You’re Welcome!
100% Attendees
South Newman Primary School is focusing on the importance of attendance. Friday 28 July, students with 100% attendance so far in Term Three were rewarded with an extra 10 minutes of play after lunch and icy poles!
Fantastic Work
Students are encouraged to show off their achievements to the Deputies and Principal. Below is a snap shot from only a quarter of the work that has come through the office this week. The Pre-primary students showed Ms Wallace their amazing Letters and Sounds writing, While Jaelen read to Mrs Dickinson. They were very impressed.
Constable Care
Pre-primary through to Year 3 students enjoyed the performance "Getting to School" which took students on a wild ride in Professor Tells-You-Stuff’s time machine to explore the ways we can travel to school safely all in one morning!
Year 4 - 6 students watched the performance "Frenemies" where students had the opportunity to take part in some acting themselves.
Room 101 has been busy...
...Look at what they have been getting up too
The Mural
At the end of Term Two, Room 101 painted a mural on the side of their classroom. The task was to paint a Pilbara landscape. We worked in a committee to design, sketch and write about the mural. The sketch committee were the people that brought students’ ideas together, the writing committee wrote about the final mural, and the journalists had the task of reporting on each committee’s progress each day. It took a day and a half, but the beauty of the mural was worth it. We all felt a grand feeling, as this monumental task was finally completed.
Mufaro Mafuma and Alex Stephens
Eric Frangenheim
On Monday 31 July, South Newman had a very special visitor all the way from Queensland, his name was Eric Frangenheim. He developed a thinking skills framework, and has authored books on how adults can help kids to develop higher order thinking skills like create, judge and investigate. Room 101 and Room 4 worked together in the thinking skills workshop at our school library. Eric worked with the story of Goldilocks, and taught a workshop on the Reconciliation of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. He was trying to have us think of all the possible things that could have happened when Goldilocks went into the house. For example she could’ve stepped on a rusty nail. Eric also had us extend our vocabulary and think of Tier 2 words to describe how Goldilocks and a puppy are similar. We are excited to use these skills in our learning.
By Levi Bateman and Riley Matthews.
Code Club
Code Club met for the first time this week. Over 25 students came along to the first meeting which was organised by Mrs Chalk and Miss Green. In Code Club we started learning about Scratch, and everyone was working on different projects. Even the teachers learnt something from students while using the app! We hope Code Club stays running for a long time, and we would like to learn how to control robots, and maybe create our own games with coding apps. You should come along to the next Code Club. It will be on 15 August, 2:30pm-3:30pm at the library. We hope to see you there!
By Jack Lewis and Matilda McInerney.
Counting on with Room 8
Our Banner is Up!
Last term, South Newman Primary School’s Year 5 & 6s were involved in the “Banners In The Terrace” competition. We are very excited to now have our banner up and flying in Perth City. Well done to all the students who contributed to our design. Ms Marie Morrell, thank you for pouring so much enthusiasm in to this project.
E: SouthNewman.PS@education.wa.edu.au
Ph: (08) 9175 1061 Fax: (08) 9177 8381