Calwell Primary School eNewsletter

From the Principal

Dear Calwell Families,

It has been a busy first semester in the school with teachers and students focussed on learning in the classroom together with a range of other activities including sporting events, excursions, 5/6 Camp and clubs to enrich school days for our students.

Staffing News

Goodbye Ashley Coutts - It is with very mixed feelings that I let you all know that Ashley Coutts has been appointed as the Deputy Principal of Fadden Primary School as of next term. Ashley has made many valuable contributions to our school over the past five years in a wide range of areas including leading the implementation of PBL, curriculum review and renewal (particularly in the junior school) and promoting the Team Calwell initiate. She has been instrumental in guiding staff in the use of data to inform planning and programming, mentored and coached staff, managed the school Facebook page and had been the driving force behind many fun staff and student activities. It is fair to say that Ashley has been involved in many aspects of the school and will be very sorely missed by us all. However, this is a wonderful career move for Ashley and we wish her all the very best. We will formally say goodbye to Ashley at an assembly early next term.

Welcome Katie Brown – We warmly welcome Katie brown to the deputy position at Calwell, starting next term. Katie has a wealth of leadership understanding having executive teacher experience and working as a Deputy Principal in two schools, most recently Isabella Plains Early Childhood School. Katie has a keen interest in Early Childhood Education as well as Community Engagement, an area Calwell is currently focussed on enhancing. Having worked in the Tuggeranong Network for some time, Katie has strong system and community networks which will enable her to very capably fulfil the deputy role at Calwell Primary supporting students, staff and parents/carers.

Mid-Year Reports

K-6 Semester 1 Reports will be arriving home today via email. Please be aware that students will only recieve a PE and Science comment once per year. This semester Kinder to Year 2 will receive a Science comment, while year’s 3-6 will receive a PE comment. If you have not received a report for your child/ren by 5pm this evening, please contact the front office tomorrow morning on 6142 1900.

Mid-Year Parent Teacher Interviews

As part of the Mid- Year Reporting process, parent/teacher Interviews will be held in Week 2 next Term Monday 19^th July to Friday 23^rd July. Interviews will be held in classrooms and will run for approximately 15 minutes. Students are not required to attend. We are using an online platform to manage interview bookings https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/. Please open the website and select ‘Make a Booking’ on the top right. Enter the school code cceb3 then your relevant details and select your preferred interview time. Please feel free to contact your child’s teacher via email if you have any questions. We look forward to speaking with you about your child’s learning and achievements this semester.

Parent Engagement Survey Results.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete this survey. It has provided some valuable information that will inform decision making next semester. The full survey results are available on an attachment to this newsletter email. The key outcomes are as follows:

A strong preference for using Seesaw for communication, followed by the newsletter
A strong focus on parent/carer engagement with the school through learning
83% of the community feel part of Team Calwell
53% of the community are interested and able to help during school hours (a strong preference to volunteer during or straight after school)
54% of the community are interested in fund raising
Close to 1/3 of the community is interested in reinvigorating a P & C
There is a strong focus on learning-based events e.g. Learning Journey, assemblies

We have arranged for Terry Sanders from the P&C Council to come to the school on Thursday 15^th July at 7pm to talk about what is involved in establishing and maintaining a P&C in the school. We plan to record his presentation and make it available for parent/carers together with a Q & A for those members of the community who are unable to attend.

Movie Night

It was great to see so many families together enjoying an evening at the movies. Last night’s movie was chosen by our School Parliament. Movies that are just about to be released are considered and chosen so we avoid movies that student may have already seen. It can be a little challenging to find a movie suitable for such a wide age range, however it’s fun for everyone to be able to talk about the same movie at school the next day.

Paint & Pizza

A big ‘thank you’ to the parents/carers who together with some of our students painted the new signs that will be appearing around the school. A huge thanks also to Chris our BSO who made the signs. Our students are looking forward to seeing the messages they voted for appear around the school next term.

COVID Term 3

COVID continues to have an impact in the school. We appreciate that it is has affected parent/carer engagement, particularly for our Kinder and Year One families who have not had the same opportunity to come into the school or volunteer as has been the case in previous years. Currently we have limited access to classroom units by parent/carers which will remain in place next term. It is also very important that children and staff presenting with cold, flu or gastro symptoms remain at home until well, as it is almost impossible to find relief staff.

Class Parliament Representatives Semester 2

I would like to thank the students who represented their class on the School Parliament in Semester 1. They very capably brought forward ideas and engaged in discussions at Parliament meetings. School Parliament is a great leadership opportunity in our school. The following students will be class reps for semester 2. 1B Logan A, 1L Clara M-S, 2P Ryan T, 2H Eve C, 3/4D Eloise V, 3/4C Clara S, 3/4P Noah G, 3/4L Harper M, 5/6C Sara L, 5/6P Sophie F, 5/6J Alex N.

School holiday travel and COVID-19

As we head into the school holidays, it is important to note the ACT Government has updated travel directions for people considering travelling to COVID-19 affected areas of New South Wales.

The ACT Government advises people should not be travelling between Greater Sydney and the ACT at this time.

If you must travel for essential reasons, you must abide by all public health directions in place in NSW and the ACT. This includes changing travel plans and adhering to public health instructions upon your return.

At 4.00pm Wednesday 23 June, the ACT Government introduced a new ‘stay-at-home’

requirement for anyone who leaves the following seven Local Government Areas of Greater Sydney and enters the ACT – City of Sydney, Waverley, Randwick, Canada Bay, Inner West, Bayside and Woollahra.

These requirements will remain in place for at least one week, until 11.59pm Wednesday 30 June 2021.

ACT Health will continue to monitor the situation very closely and put in place further directions if required in order to keep our community safe.

Further information on these requirements is available on the COVID-19 website.

On behalf of the staff, I wish everyone a safe and happy mid-year break.

Linda Neeson

Principal

From the Board

Recently there has been some interest in exploring re-establishing a P&C at the school. The ACT P&C Council is the peak body in Canberra which supports individual P&Cs and advocates to the ACT Government on issues raised by parents across ACT Public schools - preschools, primary schools, high schools and colleges. They produce a range of resources so that individual P&Cs don’t have to invent things from scratch.

Since the P&C was dissolved, I’ve continued to attend ACT P&C Council meetings to hear what other schools are doing and about any burning issues coming up across schools in Canberra. I’ve reported back at our School Board meetings when items that relate to Calwell Primary School have popped up.

I have contacted the P&C Council and their Executive Officer has agreed to come to talk with interested parents about the legal, regulatory and financial aspects of running a P&C on Thursday 15 July at 7pm at the school (Week 1 Term 3).

For parents who are unable to attend, we will share a recording of the presentation and a written summary of the questions and answers after the meeting.

Please contact the Front Office to RSVP on 6142 1900.

Cheers

Megan Fox

PBL Awards

Notes Home/Due & Dates to Remember

A reminder for parent's to please download the SZapp to view our Newsletters and upcoming events. If you access the calendar and click on the date on an excursion/incursion permission notes are attached to re-print if needed.

Crazy Hair Pyjama Day Cockatoos, K-Year 6 - Friday 25th June
Last Day of Term 2 - Friday 25th June
First Day of Term 3 - Monday 12th July

Payment Options

Thank you to everyone who has made the switch to QuickWeb. We encourage everyone to use QuickWeb Banking for future payments, we will still be accepting Cash and Credit Card.

We are no longer accepting direct deposit payment.

QuickWeb Banking Information – Preferred banking method

QuickWeb is now available using Westpac Banking Corporation on our school website www.calwellps.act.edu.au

To make contributions to the school’s bank account go to the “payment” tab, click and that will redirect you to our Westpac QuickWeb site.

Contributions can be made using a credit/debit card, for any school event, excursion or other financial contribution.

Complete the following information for us to accurately identify the funds and the purpose. The terminology used is listed below

Family Key: your family’s identifier, first five letters of your last name and the first letter of your first name.

Student key: first five letters of the students last name and first letter of his/her first name.

Preschool

It has been pleasure to watch the preschoolers grow over their first semester of Preschool. This semester educators have noted the children’s ongoing interest and enthusiasm for construction. As the children’s social skills continue to grow we are observing episodes of cooperative and collaborative play. Groups of children are coming together to negotiate, plan, problem solve and be inventive.

Scrivener

Kindergarten have been busy practising for their very first assembly! We loved working together to create songs, artworks and dances to share with the school.

Corin

Year 1

In Year 1 we have been exploring the Learning Asset, Researcher. Students are learning how to gather and source information from quality texts and Google to assist them in gathering relevant facts. We have also been practising how to be a Researcher in our Unit of Inquiry, ‘The World’. Students have been selecting foods, landmarks and or animals from one of the seven continents and collecting facts to share with their peers.

Year 2

Year 2 have been enjoying going to Gross Motor and practising their balancing, throwing, catching, rolling, bouncing and kicking skills. They work in groups, taking turns and collaborating with each other. Activities they have participated in are badminton, tennis, using belly boards for core strength, balance beams, basketball throwing, kicking soccer balls, using skipping ropes and many more.

Year 1

Year 2

Googong

Students in 3/4 have been learning how to tell the time to the minute on anlogue clocks. We have been playing a variety of games to consolidate our learning such as ‘Time Machine’ and ‘Telling Time to the Minute Bump’. We also have had the opportunity to make our own clocks to help us practise reading the time.

Bendora

Over the past two weeks Bendora students have been participating in Touch Football Clinics. Students are working as team players in activities practising the skills of throwing, catching, kicking, side stepping and roll balls.

Parliament

Time has gone so quickly and on Monday week 10 we held our last Parliament meeting for the Semester One class representatives. Teachers and students are now busily listening to speeches and voting for their Semester Two class representatives. We look forward to announcing these at an upcoming assembly where they will also receive their Parliament badge.

Students have been enjoying the chess board over the last term and asked Parliament to develop a set of PBL expectations for students to use at the game board. These were developed a few weeks ago and are now on display at the chess space so students at Calwell can continue to be Safe, Respectful, Learners when playing chess.

It has been wonderful to see so many children wearing their Team Calwell Hoodie and Parliament representatives have been particularly proud of their request for this initiative. If your child would like to order one, please contact the front office for an order form and to arrange payment of $30.

Students at the previous Parliament meeting raised concerns about lighting around the school as it is now much darker earlier in the afternoon. Sensor lights were raised as a way to light up paths and stairs. A number of these have now been placed around the school.

It has been a pleasure working throughout with the Parliament this semester and I thank the Semester One representatives for all of their hard work and great ideas! I look forward to supporting the Parliament in Semester Two.

Kind regards,

Emma Vince

Executive Teacher