30 November 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Message

As you read this, our Book Award assembly will be in full swing. This assembly, along with the Graduation Ceremony, is a wonderful celebration of the achievements of our students over the past year. Some students are specifically chosen by their teacher to receive an award, while others receive them as a result of commitment to homework, as with Mathletics Double Gold, or participation in a competition. What is always great to see is the many different reasons students are nominated; consistent effort, high academic standards, good citizenship or outstanding art work to name just a few. I think our teachers have a gift for pinpointing the good in their students and articulating it, although they do complain regularly about how hard it is to pick just one or two candidates. I don’t think anyone would disagree that with so many deserving students attending Mullaloo Heights, this is always going to be a challenge. Consequently, students who don’t receive an award should not be too disappointed. It has been a successful year for everyone, with many excelling in numerous aspects of school life throughout the year. Of course, the reward for their hard work and effort will come in the form of our Family Fun Day on Tuesday 11th December; a great opportunity to have some fun, get wet and forget about school work if only for a couple of hours. Parents are of course welcome to join in the frolics as long as you are prepared for the possibility of a soaking. I have to warn you that some of our staff are a dab hand with a hose pipe. Pauline Lyons from PEARD has promised to park her coffee van nearby to provide free beverages for anyone brave enough to join us. In addition, the P&C will be organising their very popular pizza lunch after the day’s activities are complete. A letter outlining important information for this annual fun day will be emailed early next week. We hope to see some of you there. Photos of the day will be in the next newsletter as will the names of successful students at the Book Awards Assembly.

Caroline Booth
Principal

Dates to remember

Term dates for 2019

Reading Club

Mathletics Gold

Pre-Primary Orientation

Our new Pre-primary students for 2019 got a taste of life at Mullaloo Heights on Wednesday during their special orientation morning. Miss Shaw and Mrs Koski prepared a range of stimulating activities and games, allowing them to make new friends and experiment with being a Pre-primary. Everyone had been having an absolute ball and they’re already looking forward to joining us next February.

Parliament House Visit

On Wednesday 28th of November, our student councillors were invited to Parliament House by Emily Hamilton, member for Joondalup - MLA. Students were treated to a tour which included visiting the Legislative Chambers, Parliament Library and the Labor Party Chambers all while learning more about the various levels of government and the parliamentary process. Students were then treated to lunch with Emily Hamilton where they were able to talk about their year and ambitions with our local member. The day concluded when the students got to watch Question Time in action. All the students were surprised by the animated debate that took place before them during this session. Mr Adlam and Mrs Magyar felt privileged to accompany the students on this visit. They were extremely proud of the way our students conducted themselves in this setting and the way they interacted with all the adults during this experience. Well done to all involved.

Salvation Army Appeal

Our Salvation Army fundraiser was really well supported by Mullaloo Heights’ families. By the end of Friday, each class basket was bulging with food. Our contributions will be used to compile food hampers for families who are less fortunate than us and will definitely be appreciated. Thank you for helping us to improve Christmas for many people.

French News

Chaplain’s News

Dear Parents,

The Year 6 Boys graduated from the Strength program last week and thoroughly enjoyed the time they spent learning about their value, purpose and potential. We ended the program with pizza and a panel where the mentors who have helped run the program were able to answer some questions about how they achieved their dreams and discovered purpose in life. Each boy received a certificate and got to bring home their journals with the notes they had written about each topic we did, which they can always look back on to help them.

In the last few weeks of school I will be continuing the values program I have facilitated this year, and the Pre-Primary’s and Year 1’s will get to learn about our school values through fun activities and challenges.

The Year 3 and 4 Girls have loved doing Girls Club for the last few weeks at lunchtime. They have participated in dodgeball competitions, as well as made collages and pom-poms which they were very excited about.

I also wanted to say a huge thank you for the donations made to the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal this year. Your generosity is so appreciated and valued and will bless so many families this Christmas.

Please see the article below “Why emotional intelligence matters” by Michael Grose:

As a parent your emotions as well as your child’s emotions give you information that directs your parenting behaviour. Your annoyance about a child’s behaviour provides important information about the nature and purpose of the behaviour. Your child’s feelings displayed either physically (slumped shoulders due to disappointment or jumping up and down with excitement) or verbally (“I’m annoyed that my sister won’t play with me.”) provide cues about how you should handle a situation. It’s easy to take your cues from kids’ behaviour or language, and at the same time ignore their emotional response. Emotionally intelligent parenting means we consciously take in the emotional cues that children provide, as well as the cognitive and behaviour cues.

Kind regards,

Jess Smith (Chaplain)

Community News