Term 1 Week 4 Newsletter
From the Principal
Dear Families,
Thanks for coming along to our Welcome BBQ last Monday. It was great to see so many families come along to enjoy a sausage, the Gecko Gang and to visit classrooms. Teachers also enjoyed meeting many of you for our “Getting To Know You” interviews last week. If you could not come along and you would still like to meet your child’s teacher then please contact the front office to organise a suitable time.
Special thanks needs to go to our parent volunteers who helped out with the BBQ last week. Thanks to Tanya and Troy Goodman, Daniel Hoffman and Megan Fox for your organisation and cooking skills. Speaking of parent volunteers……. The Parents and Citizens Association Annual General Meeting is being held on Monday 4th March at 2.30 pm at the school. Being a part of the school P and C is a great opportunity to meet other parents, support school initiatives and be part of whole school community events. We welcome anyone who is interested to come along and find out more at the AGM.
I would like to congratulate our students on the settled and calm start they have had to 2024. Our teachers are running Circle Time each morning which is a process designed to help our kids work collaboratively to discuss classroom and playground problems or issues and to develop their problem solving skills.
I have been reflecting on the many great learning opportunities that have already occurred for our students over the first 3 weeks of school. These include:
African Drumming lessons
Year 5/6 Menslink course- Silence is Deadly
Year 3/4 E Safety course about being safe while online gaming
IMP Band- Year 6 continuing and Year 5 Assessments
Year 6 students have done their school leader applications
Year 6 students have started lunchtime sports equipment borrowing
Year 5/6 are preparing for our first assembly this Friday
Our first House Group Meetings will happen this Friday
Thank you to all of our parent community who have prepared our students so well to return to school for 2024.
Please contact your me if you have any questions about your child’s experience at Calwell Primary School.
Kind Regards
Ben Roberts
Principal
CARES
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.
- Lunch order Wednesday 21st February (available every Wednesday through the FlexiSchools app)
- Stay 'N' Play Wednesday 21st February
- Drumming Payment due this Friday 23rd February
- Year 5/6 Assembly 9:15am Friday 23rd February
- Kindergarten Health Check notes due back Monday 26th February
- Years 3-6 Drumming 26th and 27th February
- Swimming Time Trial notes/payment due Friday 1st March
- Years 3-6 Drumming 4th and 5th March
- Swimming Time Trial Thursday 7th March
NAPLAN
NAPLAN testing will occur in our school between 13 and 25 March 2024 for students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.
Online NAPLAN tests provide more precise results and are engaging for students. The tests are tailored (or adaptive), which means that each test presents questions that may be more or less difficult depending on a student’s responses. This helps students remain engaged with the assessment.
Tailored testing allows a wider range of student abilities to be assessed and measures student achievement more precisely. A student’s overall NAPLAN result is based on both the number and complexity of questions they answer correctly. Your child should not be concerned if they find questions challenging; they may be taking a more complex test pathway.
All Year 3 students will continue to complete the writing assessment on paper.
NAPLAN provides valuable information to schools and parents about literacy and numeracy achievement. It supports school improvement processes by enabling teachers to monitor student progress over time and to identify areas of strength and development.
All eligible students are encouraged and supported to participate in NAPLAN testing. Visit www.nap.edu.au to see interactive versions of the test and for more information.
Googong
The 3/4 students and staff have enjoyed their first weeks at school and the teachers have been very impressed by the way students have settled into being focussed on task learners, who are ready to get smarter. They have been busy learning about the day-to-day routines and procedures which now includes starting each day with Circle Time. The circle encourages unity, respect, turn-taking and working together towards a shared vision. We have engaged in some fun getting to know you games and art activities as part of this. Our first focus was how we can show kindness to others. As part of this we listened to the story ‘Kindness is my Superpower’ and then designed our very own superheroes to share ways to be kind.
One of the highlights so far has been our introduction to Drumming on Mondays where students have been learning to play the Djembe. Students love the opportunity to learn different drumming techniques and rhythms.
During English sessions we have started our focus for the term which is persuasive texts. We are engaging in the sharing and reading of exemplar texts to highlight the key features and structure of persuasive writing. Students are enjoying trying to persuade each other using various language techniques. Hopefully they are attempting to use these at home (sorry!).
3/4 have started revising and looking at a variety of mathematical concepts this term. So far, we have discussed the probability of an outcome occurring by using terms impossible, unlikely, even chance, likely and certain. While also writing the probability of an outcome as a fraction. Students have also been working hard to develop their understanding of the place value of whole numbers while learning to represent and read numbers in a variety of ways such as; expanded notation, standard form, written words and pictorial representations using MAB blocks.
National Ride2School Day
Join in the fun on National Ride2School Day where students are encouraged to ride, walk, skate or scoot to school.
National Ride2School Day is the perfect opportunity for students and school communities across Australia to embrace a healthier start and to try riding and walking to school for themselves.
At Calwell Primary, we will run our ‘walking school bus’ to our school again. The walk will be held on Friday 22 March 2024 (week 8). We are hoping to get lots of students and parents involved this term again. We will meet in the car park at the bottom of Casey Cres at the start of Calwell District Playing fields next to the netball courts where it’s easy to park. Staff members will meet students from 8am and will walk together to school from there. Parents/carers are more than welcome to join us on the walk. We will start the walk at 8.15am.
We hope to see as many students, teachers and parents/carers riding, walking, skating or scooting to school as possible.
Kindergarten Health Check
Stay N Play
PBL Spotlight
During weeks 3 and 4 students across K-6 have been learning about the PBL Expectations for how to be a Safe, Respectful and Learner when using the playground equipment. Students have discussed the ways that they can be successful on the playground with their classroom teacher in these settings.
Cawell Primary Community Association
In accordance with section 29 (Notice) of the Calwell Primary Community Association, the Annual General Meeting will be held on Monday 4 March in the school library.
Please join us for light refreshments from 2.30pm, the meeting will commence at 3pm. There will be supervision and activities available in the library for students and younger siblings of parents/carers attending the AGM.
As an incorporated association, we are required to elect Committee members, including the office bearer roles of President, Treasurer and Secretary, and 3 general committee members from our school community. There will be support and training available for all roles. The committee will meet formally once per term for approximately an hour.
Our association is a bit different to other school connected parent bodies (P&Cs). We do not usually run fundraisers or organise big events. Our focus is on supporting school-based activities by organising volunteers. We also host information/education sessions for our members, and we advocate for our students and our school. We can apply for a wide range of grants to raise funds for specific projects, many of these grants are not open for schools to apply for directly.
The AGM agenda is quite short, and we expect will be completed within 15 minutes. Once the AGM is over, we will have an open discussion on what you, our community, wants to achieve with the Association this year. We will also discuss opportunities to support school-based activities. Please bring your ideas and suggestions and let’s help make 2024 a fantastic year at Calwell Primary.
If you are unable to attend the AGM and would like to nominate for a Committee role or put forward your suggestions for 2024, please email calwellpca@gmail.com or leave a message with the Front Office and one of our current Committee members will contact you.