27 July 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Message

Welcome back to another exciting term at Mullaloo Heights! A variety of whole school events are planned to enhance the great teaching already happening at our school. Science and Book Week immediately come to mind, as does the One Big Voice Festival. Luckily, staff and students returned from the mid-winter break with plenty of energy and enthusiasm for the weeks ahead. Our students have already taken advantage of the new and improved courtyard in Tern Block. It’s been lovely to see them gathering there to sit and chat at various points in the day. Once tables are added, this will become a great outdoors working area for our older students, allowing them additional space to collaborate on group projects in a pleasant setting. The upgrade to this area was funded in part by proceeds from the Lapathon; thank you for supporting this earlier in the year.

From the old to the new - our new courtyard.

This is not the only planned enhancement of our school environment, as I am sure your children have told you. We are currently working on adding a nature play area for students in Year 1-6 alongside the Twin Peaks. Our aim is to complement the play equipment we already have, offering more options for creative play during recess and lunch. Of course, to create something that will really benefit our students, it is essential that we listen to their ideas. With this in mind, Kimberly Beasley from Childscapes visited every class last week to gain an understanding of what they would like. After this consultation, the students created drawings of their ideas which she will now use to draft a design proposal. As you can imagine, we are all excited to see how her design matches our ideas. We will let you know how our new playground evolves.

Students show their Nature Playground designs in our newly improved Tern Block Courtyard

Sport is certainly a focus this term with AFL Football clinics taking place last week, the Interschool Cross Country Competition next week and the Athletics Carnival taking place as this newsletter is published. Our next edition will contain photos and news of our winners. Watch this space!

Caroline Booth
Principal

Dates to remember

Planning for 2019

Our school is actively planning for the 2019 school year and to determine the staffing arrangements, we need to establish the number of students attending next year. If your children are not attending our school next year, please let us know as soon as possible. Your assistance with this matter is greatly appreciated.

Student Councillors Semester 2

We are pleased to introduce our student councillors for Semester 2, Cooper, Liam L., Ruby T. and Olivia. After facing tough competition from their peers, the four were democratically elected by staff and students from Y3-6. All students who nominated for these positions did a great job in preparing a speech to persuade voters and should feel proud of their efforts. It shows great strength of character, particularly when there are limited positions available. We hope that you will all continue to put yourself forward for future opportunities. In the meantime, congratulations to our new student leaders. We are looking forward to working with you in the coming weeks.

Our student councillors for Semester 2

Tree Planting at Periwinkle Park

At the end of Term 2, students from Room 9 and 6 took the short walk to Periwinkle Park where representatives from the City of Joondalup and volunteers from ‘Friends of Periwinkle Park’ Community Group were waiting to welcome us.

Students learned about the benefits of planting trees in the park and were shown how to plant the seedlings correctly. The City of Joondalup provided the seedlings, including a range of local tree species which were planted to rejuvenate some areas of the park and stabilise banks. The whole exercise was a great success and the students loved getting their hands dirty. Even one of the local kookaburras decided to join us to see what was going on. They planted around 170 seedlings during the afternoon while giving Mother Nature a helping hand after the recent storms.

Many thanks to the Friends of Periwinkle Park and the City of Joondalup for organising the event and we look forward to maintaining this relationship in the future.

Have a look at a few photos of our students working hard.

Tree Planting

Adopt a Bushland Program

The Year 4’s from Rooms 5 and 9 were invited by The City of Joondalup to participate in the ‘Adopt a bushland’ environmental program. The program involves education, rehabilitation and protection activities along our bushland areas and the students learnt about these concepts during two workshops at school. They got to put this theory in practice when they visited Shepherds Bush Reserve on the 20th and 27th of June in Kingsley and undertook weeding and planted around 250 plants and trees - a fantastic achievement by the students. We were very excited to be working alongside City of Joondalup Environmental Officers in rehabilitating the Shepherds Bush Reserve area. Throughout the program, students were learning about the delicate bush environment, teamwork, volunteering in their community, as well as sustainability and environmental responsibility through active citizenship.

Congratulations Year 4’s, you have successfully planted around 250 plants/trees for our community. Well done!

Adopt a Bushland Program

Gold Medal – Daniel Moorhouse

Recently, Year 5 student Daniel Moorhouse travelled to the Gold Coast to compete in the Australian Judo Championships. The event was held over four days and attracted the best judo athletes from across the country. Last year, Daniel achieved a Silver medal in his division. In 2018, he went one better and took out the Gold Medal in the Under 46kg, 9 -12 year division. An amazing effort. Congratulations, Daniel.

Daniel’s older brother and former student at Mullaloo Heights, Owen Moorhouse, also competed in the event and achieved a Gold Medal in the 12-15 year age group. Congratulations to Owen as well.

Gold Strike!

Interschool Lightning Carnival

Last term, on Friday 22nd June, the Interschool Lightning Carnival was held at Kingsway Sporting complex. Selected students from years 4-6 participated in AFL, Netball A and C, Soccer and Modcrosse.

Results:

Netball A - 5th
Netball C - 3rd
Soccer A - 3rd
AFL A - 4th
Modcrosse B - 3rd

Thank you to all our parent helpers who gave up their Friday afternoons and on the day to coach;

Brad Archer – AFL
Ryan Syers – Soccer
Lil Rybinski, Mel Elliot and Jasmine Clarke – Netball

AFL Clinic

Last week on Wednesday and Friday, all classes from PP to Year 6 participated in AFL clinics run by Coach James from West Perth Football Club. The students learnt AFL skills such as handball, kicking and how to mark correctly. These skills were then applied to modified games.

Parent Information

REMINDER - Rangers Parking and Community Safety – Safety around Schools

Vehicles which park contrary to parking signage around schools are a major hazard and impact on the safety of children, pedestrians and other road users in these areas. It is imperative that drivers are aware of, and park in accordance with, the parking conditions which apply near schools.

As part of the City’s continuing effort to provide a safer environment for everyone City of Joondalup Officers conduct patrols of school parking in the mornings and afternoons throughout the school term.

As part of this initiative Officers use patrol vehicles, which have been fitted with Licence Plate Recognition (LPR) cameras, to capture digital images of vehicles which are parked contrary to parking requirements near schools. Any infringement notices, issued as part of these patrols, will be sent via mail to the registered owner of the vehicle.

Please see the link below for a copy of the City’s School Parking brochure which provides additional information in relation to parking near schools. This is a reminder for parents and caregivers of their responsibility in ensuring that they park correctly near schools.

VacSwim 2018

With swimming pools and beaches a big part of the Western Australian lifestyle, ensuring your children can swim competently and safely is essential.

You can now enrol your children in VacSwim swimming lessons during the October and December/January school holidays.

VacSwim is for all children - from beginners to more advanced swimmers and young people doing their Bronze Medallion. Your children can start as young as five years old.

Your children can join in the fun of learning to swim at pools and open water venues across the State.

Enrol your children in VacSwim now at:

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