Sawyers Valley Primary School Newsletter

Issue 4

Dear Parents and Carers

So much has changed since our last newsletter in Week 6! Then, we were looking forward to a number of school events and now, due to the impact of the coronavirus, we have had to rethink how we carry out the most day-to-day activities. I am very proud of our staff and students who have worked so hard to adapt to the changes in routines required in hand washing, good hygiene and social distancing, as well as the disappointment when events have had to be cancelled or postponed. The speed at which the COVID-19 situation changes has meant that we are working extremely hard to keep parents and families well informed. Our priority remains on the health and wellbeing of our students, staff and school community.

COMPASSION AND HARMONY AT SAWYERS VALLEY PRIMARY SCHOOL On Monday our ‘Bears of Compassion’ were raffled over the public address system and hand delivered to some delighted children. A big thank you must go to our wonderful Year 6 students who dressed these bears as Sawyers Valley kids and created a personality for each of them, and then sold raffle tickets. We raised $216.05, with our wear orange and/or pink free dress and teddy bear raffle, towards much needed resources for our sister school in Cambodia, Ang Phek Primary School. What a great way for students to show compassion! Our students in Rooms 5 & 6 were privileged to hear from a special guest speaker, Sebastian Anderson, who delighted and inspired us with his talk on ‘kindness’. Sebastian was our school’s representative for the Hills Education Community’s Public Speaking Competition, which was cancelled last week. However, on Friday, Sebastian delivered his wonderful messages to an enchanted audience!

The Fortnight Ahead

Thursday 26 March Thursday 2 April 2.30pm Early Close Parent Interview Pupil Free from 11.45am Friday 27 March Friday 3 April 2.30-3.00pm Uniform Shop Room 4 Assembly

COVID-19 UPDATE

School Closures On 22 March State Premiers and Chief Ministers agreed that at this time schools will remain open through to the end of the current school term to support students whose parents choose to send them to school.

If a WA school has to close due to a confirmed case, it will be on advice from the WA Health

Department’s Chief Health Officer.

The Chief Health Officer will, if there has been a positive COVID-19 test result in our school, close our

school temporarily while assessment and tracing of exposure is conducted. A thorough school

clean will then be carried out to make the school safe for the return of students and staff. In this

situation the principal will receive direct advice and support regarding the closure process and

communication materials from the Department of Education’s Coronavirus support team.

Upon the school being notified, all families will be immediately contacted and provided with the relevant information. This contact may be during the school day, or before or after school. It is therefore important that we have up-to-date contact details for your children, please notify the front office if these have changed.

School at Home Support With current issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic and parents choosing whether or not to withdraw children from school, we have developed a set of strategies, ideas and web links to support parents and students who are learning from home. These will be available from a link on our school webpage by the end of the day today. This page will be continually updated by our teachers, who will maintain contact with you all throughout this time. I would like to acknowledge the other schools in the Hills Education Community who have contributed to the ongoing sharing of ideas of support for our students. It’s terrific to see the collaboration between schools that is occurring at this time. In the event of a mandated school closure, teachers will develop more specific packages of work for their students. The Department of Education WA has developed a set of resources, activities and information to help children and young people continue to learn while at home. You can find this information at https://www.education.wa.edu.au/learning-at-home. We will continue to look at ways we can support our students with curriculum delivery at school and at home.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR STUDENT COUNCIL FOR 2020 Congratulations to Ryan and Ethan who were chosen to be our School Captains and to lead the Sawyers Valley Student Council. Congratulations also to our Student Council members: ROOM 8: Billy and Lilli ROOM 5: Tilly, Taj and Matthew ROOM 6: Liam-Josh and Meg ROOM 7: Emelia and Cloudy ROOM 4: Shaun and Savannah ROOM 1: Bella and Ethan These students received their badges on Friday with a special elbow knocking celebration (instead of handshakes), and then introduced themselves over our public address system, before doing a school tour to introduce themselves to each class.

MISSION STATEMENT

Sawyers Valley Primary School aims to create and foster an environment where students

become independent learners, enabling them to take responsible control of their lives and

PARENT INTERVIEWS – HALF DAY PUPIL FREE DAY On Thursday 2 April our school will hold a scheduled Pupil Free Day, and will only be open for a half day. On that day our school will close at 11.45pm to allow time for teachers to prepare communication about the progress of your children. Previously we had held parent interviews during that time, however with our new direction on limiting visitors on site, no face-to-face meetings will be held. Normal school will occur on the Friday 3 April. More information will follow from your children’s teachers about how this communication will occur.

BEHAVIOUR WHEEL ‘SPIN OFF’ Last Monday we held our last assembly for the term where we had all students in the undercover area. It was an operational assembly and our SPIN Off, and we were able to show off our new Behaviour Wheel! Congratulations to our ‘Spinner Winners’: Emelia, Josie, Angus, Emery, Kit and Jack. These children were able to spin the Behaviour Wheel to earn a reward for their whole class. It is great to see so many of our students earning tokens for displaying our focus behaviours in the Expected Behaviour areas of Be our Personal Best, Show respect, Be Responsible and Show Compassion. Congratulations to the winning faction for the fortnight: Swans! I think that this would be a new record for how many faction tokens were awarded in such a short time!

NAPLAN CANCELLED FOR 2020 Education Ministers met on Friday 20 March and decided that NAPLAN will not proceed in 2020. The NAPLAN test window was scheduled for 12 to 22 May. The decision to not proceed with NAPLAN in 2020 has been taken to assist school leaders, teachers and support staff to focus on the wellbeing of students and continuity of education, including potential online and remote learning. Other reporting requirements of schools will also be put on hold for the time being. Our school was scheduled to have a School Review on Friday 1 May. However this event has been deferred until further notice.

Stay well and thank you for your continued support of our school.

Kind regards. Fiona Collopy

Principal

MAGPIES 252

PENGUINS 310

SWANS 319

BREAD TAGS

Save your bread tags and get your families and friends to do so too.

Bring your collection to the office.

Collecting bread tags, even broken ones, makes a difference to our environment too as they are

recycled into seedling trays, picture frames, coat hangers and other items.

VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS ARE NOW DUE

We realise this is an extremely uncertain time at the moment with job security for some families. We

urge you take advantage of making small frequent payments to pay the contributions.

Direct deposit account details are:

BSB 633-000

Account Number 150617231

TULIPS WITH A DIFFERENCE FUND RAISING FOR 2020

If you would like to order, complete the order form, place the cash or cheque payment with it into the

marked box in the front office.

Delivery from Tulips is usually very quick and I hand them out to the eldest of each family.

Last day for orders is 13 May 2020. There is still plenty of time to ask family and friends if they

would like to add some bulbs to their garden.

Any funds raised will be used to finish off some projects around the school grounds.

I will keep you all informed as to how the fund raising went and what the funds were utilised for.

So order away, include some sunny bulby faces in your garden and help us to make the school grounds

brighter for our children.

Mrs Kent

Gardener / Handyperson

Aussie OF the Month

Aleah

Term 1 Planner

MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

1 4/2

3/2 Students Return

5/2

6/2 7/2

2

10/2 11/2 12/2 13/2 Rooms 6 Class Meeting 2.15pm

14/2

Assembly

3

17/2

Board Meeting

18/2

19/2 20/2

21/2

4 24/2 P&C AGM 6.30pm

25/2 26/2

27/2 Faction Swimming Carnival

28/2

5 2/3 Labour Day Holiday

3/3

4/3

5/3 6/3

6 9/3

10/3 11/3 12/3 13/3

7 16/3

P&C Mtg @ 6.00pm

17/3 18/3 19/3 20/3

Harmony Day Show Compassion Mascot

8 23/3

School Board mtg (cancelled)

24/3 25/3 26/3

27/3

9 30/3

31/3 1/4 2/4

Parent Interview Pupil Free Afternoon from 11.45am

3/4

10 6/4

School Board mtg (cancelled)

7/4 8/4 9/4

Last day of Term 1 for students

10/4

Good Friday

Staying Sun Smart at Outside School Hours Care

At OSHC, we love outdoor play – whether it be group sport, imaginative playground play or even doing homework with some fresh air – it promotes an active lifestyle and an appreciation of the outdoors. Whatever the activity is, we put the

utmost importance on the health and safety of the children, so remaining sun smart is always a priority.

Our sun smart policy complies with the SunSmart Guidelines to ensure all children, educators and visitors are protected from over-exposure to UV radiation while maintaining adequate vitamin D levels. To stay sun smart over the hot months, children are required to wear their hats during outdoor activities. We suggest wide-brimmed hats as these cover the neck, ears and shoulders – these areas are prone to sunburn.

Children are also advised to wear sunscreen which we provide at our services.

It’s FREE to Register. (and if you want to use OSHC, you first need to register).

Register at pp.campaustralia.com.au/account/login. Once registered, it’s easy to make and manage your bookings

online via our Parent Portal.

You may be eligible to claim subsidies on your care usage!

If eligible, to help you with the cost of childcare, you may be entitled to receive the Australian Government Child Care

Subsidy. Visit my.gov.au to find out more.

For more information on our service and fees, visit our website www.campaustralia.com.au. Alternatively, come and meet the team in the OSHC room. We’d love to meet you, and you can find out more about OSHC from our friendly, qualified

Educators.