19 October 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Message

Welcome back to what is looking to be an action packed final term. It certainly got off to an exciting start with the opening of our new nature playground, last week. This new addition to the school environment has sparked some very creative play from our students. Within half an hour of being opened, some children had built cubby houses from natural debris, while others had devised tag games that involved moving around each piece of equipment without touching the ground. All students, from kindy to Year 6, have made use of the playground, as have their younger siblings who have yet to start at Mullaloo Heights. I can safely predict this is going to be a well-loved feature of our school. I would like to thank the P&C who have made the acquisition of the new playground a priority for all fundraising over the past couple of years. They donated a whopping $25 000 to this project, enabling us to get everything completed within a short timeframe and the children are definitely making the most of it. Have a look at the photos later in the newsletter.

Our teachers started the term in their usual hard working manner on our Staff Development Day. We spent part of the day evaluating our success in achieving the targets on our current school business plan. At Mullaloo Heights, ongoing critical self-review is a key feature of our school and guides the setting of our targets and planning for improvement. One of our current school targets is to raise standards in student achievement in literacy and numeracy. As a result, over the past 3 years we have spent much time reviewing and refining our approach to teaching and the new approaches employed by teachers are having an impact, as illustrated in our recent NAPLAN results. The graphs below show achievement by our Year 3 and 5 students compared to schools with a similar socio-economic background. A full analysis of NAPLAN will be available in our Annual Report 2018, which will be published in Term 1 next year.

Of course, Open night is always a great opportunity to view your own child’s work and the improvements made as a result of the quality teaching at Mullaloo Heights. Open Night will take place on Thursday 1st November, from 5:30-7:00pm. We hope to see you all there.

Caroline Booth
Principal

Dates to remember

Nature Playground

Our students had great fun trying out the new playground with their buddy classes last week. A big thank you to the P&C who donated $25 000 to this project - as you can see, we love it!

Class Placements 2019 - Reminder

Later in Term 4, we will be organising classes for 2019. When placing students, teachers will take into account educational and social needs to ensure that classes are well balanced and provide an effective learning environment for all. If you have a request regarding the placement of your child and it is based upon an educational reason, please put this in writing and forward to Caroline Booth before Friday, 9th November – Caroline.Booth@education.wa.edu.au. All requests will be considered, but as we are a small school, they cannot be guaranteed.

Please read our Class Placement Policy to find more information about the way in which we organised classes. Click upon the link below:

New Microscopes – Thank You Hillarys Rotary Club!

Mullaloo Heights Primary School would like to say an enormous thank you to the Rotary Club of Hillarys for their very generous donation of 30 brand new Microscope to our Science Department. Mr Jeffery Trudgian and some representatives from the Hillarys Rotary Club presented these to our school late last term.

This gives the opportunity for every student to have an individual microscope when we take a closer look at some items indoors and out. Some of the activities we will use the microscopes for include observing leaves under the microscopes to see how plants have developed and adapted to their environment, looking at the roots of plants to see how they work, looking at insects, soil composition and many other ‘close ups’ of different materials. These microscopes are available to be used by all our students.

Mullaloo Heights Primary School received these microscopes after putting in a written submission to the ‘Microscopes in Schools’ program coordinated by the Rotary Club of Freshwater Bay. Once again, we would like to thanks the Hillarys Rotary Club for their very generous support of our school – Thank You!

Please enjoy a few photos of our students using our new science equipment.

Parent Information

Sports News

Last week on Wednesday 10th October, some classes had the opportunity to participate in soccer clinics run by Nick Corrigan's Soccer School.

Students learnt many soccer skills and had the opportunity to apply these skills through lots fun games and activities with Nick!

French News

Chaplain’s News

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to school and to the last term of the year! I hope it’s off to a great start.

This term I am running a Year 6 Transition into High School program which is called ‘Shine’ for the girls and ‘Strength’ for the boys. This is to equip our senior students with skills and strategies to help them cope with the changes of high school and all that the move entails.

I have started the Shine program for the girls and they have been learning many helpful topics and strategies which I believe will greatly help them before they go into high school and even in the years to come as they go through high school. The program has covered self-esteem, potential, confidence and resilience, and the girls have thoroughly enjoyed being able to eat food, chat through the topics together and participate in fun activities related to the topics. I will begin the ‘Strength’ program for the boys in week 3 this term.

I will also be starting another friendship club for the middle primary girls. I am looking forward to seeing the students develop skills of resiliency and conflict resolution.

Boys and Girls Club are back again this term, with the students participating in dodgeball competitions at lunchtimes, crafts and fun activities, which are always a highlight for them.

Please see the article below ‘Make your compliments count’ by Michael Grose:

‘Ever notice how small hinges can swing really big doors? It’s a reminder that it’s the smallest things we do in our families that often have the biggest impact. One way you can maximise your impact on your family’s wellbeing and your children’s self-esteem is to make your compliments count.’

Kind regards,
Jess

P&C News

Community News