Calwell Primary School eNewsletter

From the Principal

Dear Calwell Families,

Mask rules remain in schools

The mask rules for ACT schools and early childhood settings have not changed. Face masks must be worn by staff and visitors in all indoor spaces at school. The wearing of masks for primary school students is at the discretion of the student and their parents/carers but is not recommended for children in preschool to year 2. The measures we have in place, including mask-wearing, are helping to limit the impact of COVID-19 and ensure continuity of learning for our students.

Arriving at School too Early

A friendly reminder that the playground area is not supervised until 8.45am. We have noticed a number of students arriving well before staff are required to be on site. The safety and well-being of students is a priority and we encourage families to use the Camp Australia Before School Care Program if your child/ren need to come to school before this time.

Afternoon Pick-up

While the proces we have in place to support collecting students is working well, we continue to have cars waiting on Downard St and Casey Cres before 3pm. PLEASE, PLEASE do not arrive at the school gates before 3pm. Classwork finishes just before three o'clock and then students need to packup and move to the carpark. Please also ensure that if your child/ren are in K-Yr 2 that you have a surname clearly visible for staff to see when calling students to be redy for collection. Your cooperation in meeting this request will be greatly appreciated.

Meet the Teacher Interviews

Thank you to the many parent/carers who engaged in phone calls with teachers. Teachers value the opportunity to hear from families about how best to support individual students and what parent/carers hope their child will achieve in the coming year. We are all hoping that in the near future parent/carers will be able to come into the school, meet face to face with teachers, see student learning first-hand and assist in classrooms with programs such as Home Reading.

Linda Neeson

Principal

Calwell CARES

NAPLAN

The National Assessment of Literacy and Numeracy will occur for our Year 3 and Year 5 students between Tuesday 10^th May and Friday 20^th May (weeks 3 and 4). An information flyer about this assessment program was emailed to families in week 4.

NAPLAN assesses the literacy and numeracy skills that students are learning through the school curriculum and allows parents/carers to see how their child is progressing against national standards and over time. The program assesses student understanding in the four domains of Reading, Writing, Conventions of Language and Mathematics.

If you have any questions or concerns about your child’s participation in NAPLAN, please contact Emma Vince via email: emma.vince@ed.act.edu.au or by phoning the front office on 6142 1900.

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.

- Book Club due back Thursday 24th March

- Monday 14th March Canberra Day Public Holiday

Preschool

Each week at preschool we continue to see children strengthening relationships and becoming increasingly independent. This term we are exploring the concept of ‘belonging’. Children and educators have engaged in conversations about family, community and our preschool. Children are taking ownership of our learning environment through caring for our space and making decisions together. At group times we are sharing about ourselves as we continue getting to know one another.

Scrivener

Students in Kindergarten are enjoying weekly gross motor rotations in the hall. Gross motor skills are those that involve the whole body using your core muscles (belly and back) and the muscles in your arms and legs. In small groups students take part in a range of activities that develop their balance, coordination, hand-eye coordination, reaction time and physical strength. Students have particularly loved using the scooter boards, skipping ropes and completing the obstacle course.

Corin

In Readers Workshop this week 1/2 have been learning to use the predicting strategy. We can use the clues in the book such as the words and the pictures to helpus to work out what might happen next in the story, or predict/suggest what the story will be about.

Googong

Year 3/4 students have started their History Inquiry unit by investigating what life was like as a convict in 1770 England. Using websites to research convicts, the language and what England was like at the time they wrote journal entries or letters from the perspective of a convict.

Bendora

Year 5/6 students have been learning how to read, interpret and create their own line graphs, plotting the change of a single variable over time. Some students looked at how the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in Australia impacted car sales month to month and others plotted wind gusts in various Australian towns. For Inquiry, students have been delving deeper into their understanding of the key events and figures involved in Australia’s F ederation, and creating a Hall of Fame to showcase their research.

Parliament

Parliament Leaders and Classroom Representatives participated in their first official Parliament meetings last week. It was fabulous to hear the wonderful ideas and solutions students from K-6 discussed in their classrooms during their meetings.

Some of the topics discussed were the continuation of:

plastics recycling and bread tag collection – bread tags will be collected in class and red cycling will occur in classrooms
end of year game – the tradition year 6 versus teacher game will happen again this year
possible fundraising events for the year – discussion about who we might fundraise for over the coming year
Special celebration events for the school – discussion about which special events could happen and when these might occur. Keep you eyes out for communication about these!

Students also raised the need for additional PBL signage to be placed on ovals for games such as soccer and football. The Parliament Leaders during the next Parliament meeting will investigate what these expectations might contain for our students.