21 February 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Message

We’ve completed just 4 weeks of school, but already achieved so much. The Year 6 students, in particular, have hit the ground running with much to organise in this first term. Many of them have spent time preparing speeches for the councillor and faction captain elections which have taken place over the past few weeks. The preparation of a short speech sounds like such a simple task, but the reality is it involves a huge amount of care, thought and time. Of course, there is the added pressure of putting yourself forward and risking that you may not win. The fact that so many of students are prepared to nominate, despite these facts, illustrates the value placed on our student leadership program. Those that did nominate should be extremely proud. All students presented themselves well and spoke clearly and persuasively; a skill that will be valuable in the future. Although it is disappointing for those not elected, remember that there will be another chance to gain a position later in the year. It is always worth trying again. Our successful leaders are all photographed lower down in the newsletter. Congratulations to them. We are looking forward to seeing them develop as leaders.

It’s not just the Year 6 students who have made a great start. On my visits to classrooms, over the past few weeks, I have been struck by the studious atmosphere and the way students are engaged in their work. It seems our students have returned from the summer break well prepared and ready to learn. Evidence of this is the commitment already shown for our Values Passport program. As you know, students use their passports to monitor their progress towards milestones in Mathletics and Literacy Pro or Home Reading. We already have one student who has reached the first reading milestone. Adam in year 5 achieved 100 points in Literacy Pro this week and many of his classmates aren’t very far behind. This is pretty impressive when you consider children started the program less than 4 weeks ago. What I particularly like is the way in which our older students are leading the way with this; they are role models for our younger students and their achievement provides inspiration. This was evident when I was approached by a number of Year 3 students all excitedly telling me they were on their way to collect a Literacy Pro book in order to get a stamp in their passport. I now wait to see who will be next to achieve their 100 Club badge. I get the feeling we won’t be waiting too long – the race is on!

Caroline Booth
Principal

Dates to remember

Parent Consultation Meetings

Teachers will be offering individual meetings with parents later this term in order to discuss your child’s progress so far. We have scheduled these for Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th March. A letter will be sent to all families next week to advising how to book your appointment. We hope that you will take advantage of this opportunity to meet with your child’s teacher. It will help you understand the expectations for the year and how you can support your child’s learning. Remember, you can chat with your child’s teacher at any time throughout the year if you have a concern. Just pop in and make an appointment. Keeping the channels of communication open is essential in achieving the best education for your child. We are certainly looking forward to seeing you all at our Parent Consultation Evenings.

New Student Leaders

Meet our student councillors for Semester 1, 2018 - Ruby, Sarah, Ty and Luke. They have taken to their new role like ducks to water and are efficiently running the sports shed and keeping the students informed of what’s happening at Mullaloo heights through their daily announcements over the P.A. system.

Our Faction Captains for 2018 were also elected last week:

Tern: Nicole and Kaylum
Gull: Marcus and Ben
Albatross: Ethan W.B and Jade

Our captain’s first role will be to organise their factions for the upcoming swimming carnival.

Congratulations to all of our new school leaders. We look forward to seeing you in action over the coming months.

Reading 100 Club

Adam is our first student to gain his 100 badge for reading. It’s not really a surprise considering Adam is generally seen with a book in his hand.

Adam receives the first 100 badge of 2018

Bath Donation

We would like publicly thank Simon Gildon for donating a bath to our Early Childhood Block last week. Students will be planting a sensory garden inside the bath which they will care for as part of the science curriculum. For now, they are enjoying using it as place to relax and cool down.

Wallowing in our new bath

West Perth Football Club Visit

James from the Falcons Football Club popped in for a visit this week to let students know of all the forthcoming opportunities to play football. He asked the students lots of footy questions and rewarded correct answers with a prize. It wasn’t a bad way to start a Monday, judging by the smiles on faces.

If you are interested in finding out more about football for your child, you can attend the Ocean Ridge Junior Football Club Open Day on Sunday 25th February in the clubrooms at Heathridge Oval between 10am and 2pm. There is a footy option for all ages (PP-Year 6) and genders.

Feeling pleased with our prizes

Cybersafety

As the new school year begins, our class teachers are ensuring students are well versed on cybersafety. Many of you will have viewed our school online agreement which sets out the rules and expectations for working online. Lessons have already started about the risks attached to social media and online activity and also how to treat others with respect and care when using these resources, both in school and out. We take cybersaftey very seriously at school and use a number of resources to explicitly teach key behaviours to apply whenever they go online. These include:

• Keeping personal details private – using a nickname rather than their real name and asking parents before giving out their name, address or phone number
• Not to share username or passwords
• To always think before posting something on social media, as once posted, messages can be difficult to remove
• Not to post images or messages that they would not want others to know about or that they would not say directly to the person
• Being respectful of other’s content, e.g., not to post photos without the owner’s permission
• The possible negative consequences of publishing identifying information, including images of themselves or others

We use age-appropriate teaching tools, from Kindy to Year 6, to reinforce these messages, many of which can be located on the Department of Education esafety website. This website also has excellent advice and resources for parents who are concerned about the dangers associated with online activity and social media in particular. Please investigate the following link to find out how you can support your children when they are working online. This will help to reinforce the message we are giving as a school.

Parent Information

Voluntary Contributions

Thank you to all who have paid their child’s contribution for 2018. Monies collected through this scheme enhance the learning program at MHPS. If you have overlooked payment, please come in and see us at the front office or alternatively, payment can be made via direct deposit into the school bank account.

Bank Account details for MHPS.

For your convenience to make direct deposits:
Mullaloo Heights PS (MHPS)
BSB: 066 040
A/C No.: 19903178
Please include your child’s name as reference.

Eftpos facilities at MHPS.

We have Eftpos facilities available, accepting Visa and Master Card. Please see the front office to make payments.

Student Health Form 2018 (Excursions)

A hard copy of the 2018 Health Form for Excursions has been sent home with students. Could parents/ guardians please complete these forms and return them to their Class teacher by Friday, 2 March 2018.

Parent/ Guardian Contact details

If you have changed any of the following details, could you please notify the school, as soon as possible;

• Residential address
• Contact numbers – home, mobile
• Emergency contacts
• Email address

Medical updates

If there has been any change in your child’s health, that you may feel the school needs to know, for the safety of your child, for example; If your child has an anaphylactic reaction to anything, an allergic reaction or asthma, please notify our school in writing so that we can update our medical records.

Chaplains Corner

Dear parents,

I hope you are having a great start to 2018 and enjoyed your Christmas Holidays and New Year celebrations. I would like to welcome all the new families to Mullaloo Heights Primary School. I hope that you are settling in well and I look forward to meeting and getting to know you all!

We have had a great start to 2018 so far and the programs and activities I have been running have been well received and enjoyed by the students.

This year I am excited to support the whole school values program through running classroom activities and discussions on important values to help the students apply them both in school and out of school and as a part of their life. Along with supporting the values program, I will also be running some small group programs which the students are very excited about. I am looking forward to running these activities and programs and to see the students apply the skills and strategies they are learning.

And of course by popular demand, I will be running the Girls and Boys Club at lunchtimes for each year level!

I am available every Thursday and Friday from 8.10am-3.20pm if you have any questions or if I can help in any way. I can be contacted through the school or by email: jessicas@youthcare.org.au .

Please see the attached article on “Raising a little shrugger” from the Parenting Ideas website:

‘Everyone knew a shrugger when they were young. They seemed to be everywhere in my neighbourhood. Shruggers are the kids who can shrug off the teasing and negative comments from peers and siblings. If you have a sensitive child who wears his or her heart on their sleeve, or child who reacts impulsively too taunts and witticisms alike, then it may be wise to introduce the art of shrugging into their repertoire of responses.’

Kind regards,
Jess