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Beaconsfield Primary School
Newsletter
Respect
Honesty
Doing Your Best
Newsletter No: 4
DATES TO REMEMBER:
Faction Swimming
Carnival:
Thursday 26 March
Years 3 - 6
School Photo Days:
Thursday 26, Friday 27
& Tuesday 31 (Rotto)
March
P&C Annual General
Meeting:
Monday 30 March
7:30pm Room 14
Parent/Teacher
Interviews:
Wednesday 1 April
Early close 12:00 noon
Term 1 ends:
Thursday 2 April
Term 2 commences:
Monday 20 April
ANZAC Day Public
Holiday:
Monday 27 April
SCHOOL HOURS
8:50am-3:00pm
EVERY DAY
EXCURSIONS &
SCHOOL VISITS:
Valuing Others
Tuesday 24 March 2015
News from the Principal
BREAKING NEWS
For me this is a bitter sweet announcement that this will be my last term as Principal of
Beaconsfield Primary School. I have won and accepted a position at Newborough Primary
School in Karrinyup commencing on the 20 April, the first day of term 2. I was advised that I
was the successful applicant Thursday week ago and it became official after the appeals
process closed last Thursday afternoon. I chose not to announce straight away as I didn’t
want to impact on Friday’s fantastic Harmony Day, and two P&C events, Beacy Welcome on
Friday and Nature Play on Saturday afternoon.
Newborough PS is just a stone’s throw from home. This was my main consideration as I was
finding the travel time very waring impacting on my family and personal quality of life.
Ironically this was a major reason for leaving Baldivis. I didn’t expect that my travel time
would be similar, indeed on many occasions worse than Baldivis.
This is a terrific school really heading forward with a great staff, lovely students and very
supportive parents. I would love to pack it up and take all of you with me.
I ask that everyone keep my last two weeks low key. I would rather not have any special
assemblies or going away shows etc.
I have asked Ms Lisa Gannon to be Acting Principal for term 2 whilst the Regional Office
organise advertisement and filling the Principal vacancy. Ms Gannon has agreed to this and we
have called for Expressions of Interest to backfill the deputies position for term 2. I will be
on the panel with the Chair of our School Board to select the new Principal.
Please get behind Ms Gannon and the new Principal commencing at the start of term 3.
LITERACY AND NUMERACY
Did you know that we have made some very significant improvements to our Literacy and
Numeracy programs this year? When we looked at how consistent our teaching and learning
was between classes with similar year levels and across the school we realised that a lot of
great teaching was occurring but not necessarily consistent. This of course makes learning
confusing for students and harder for parents to help at home. We began by looking at what
already works well and where we were having success. Last year a group of Literacy and
Numeracy leaders from school went to several Teacher Development Schools to see what
they were doing so we could build on the new Australian Curriculum now being implemented in
all Australian schools.
This year we started implementing our own school based scope and sequence of teaching
content. We have been doing a lot of teacher professional development sessions on School
Development Days to upskill staff. With teachers working in teams of similar year levels you
will now find classes of the same year level teaching the same thing at the same time. This is
complemented by common testing and sharing results. In Literacy we have implemented a
phonics and spelling program called Soundwaves. This program has the whole school doing
either the same or similar sounds at the same time and includes appropriate year level
activities to support the sounds and learning. This is a great advantage especially for split
classes. Soundwaves has a tremendous range of support material including student work
books and material for teaching on the interactive whiteboards. The children enjoy learning
from interactive whiteboards as it is visual and fun. The reinforcing games are a real hit. The
Literacy extension program is geared for older students who participate in the West
Australian Young Writer’s competition as well as the Speak Awards. We also have Reading
Eggs (K-3) and Reading Eggspress (3-7) paid for from contributions (school fees).
Continued over...
5 Hale Street, Beaconsfield 6162 p: 9430 7055 f: 9430 5086
Beaconsfield Intensive English Centre p: 9335 5806 f: 9336 4994
Rottnest Island Campus 14 Kelly Street, Rottnest Island 6161 p: 9292 5005 f: 9292 5024
e: beaconsfield.ps@education.wa.edu.au
w: http://beaconsfieldps.wa.edu.au/
News from around the School
In Numeracy we are implementing two new programs to support the Australian Curriculum. These are Origo Maths
and MTS. Both have a huge range of excellent interactive whiteboard resources and student material. A feature
is regular unit testing to check progress and show where students are doing well and need further interventions.
Our numeracy extension program’s continued to run for years 3-7 with students competing in the Have Sum Fun
On-Line competition run by the Mathematics Association of Western Australia, the Australian Mathematics
Competition run by the Australian Mathematics Trust.
PARENT MEETINGS
Teachers have excellent information about how your child is progressing in class. When you meet with your child’s
teacher ask them to show you progress tests in Literacy and Numeracy and discuss what you can do to help
learning at home.
REPRESENTATIVES SCHOOL BOARD
Thank you to all those who voted in the School Board elections. The old Council and new Board will meet this
evening finalising the transition from Council to Board.
Voting Results
Parent Guardians
Staff
1. Lisa Gannon
1. Jason Beeley
2. Lisa Dopheide
2. Anne-Sophie Deleflie
3. Bhavneet Singh
3. Alison Luobikis
4. Kate Yeomans
4. Sharon Morris
5. Richard Bostwick
PARKING ISSUES
All visitors to the school are reminded to respect the privacy and rights of our neighbours when dropping off,
picking up and parking around the school. Whilst parking beyond the school grounds is not in our jurisdiction it is
important we maintain sound relationships with everyone.
CROSS WALK ON LEFROY ST
I have been advised by the Children’s Crossing and Road Safety Committee run by police that our crossing on
Lefroy Street is currently under review. We are asked to encourage student pedestrians to utilise the facility so
a true picture of usage is gathered during two survey periods.
ACROSTIC POEMS
DROUGHT
Dusty sandstorms without rain
Rusty sand is dry and hot
Outback troubles on farms
Underground water is pumped into tanks
Glum animals and sad farmers
Hay is expensive for farmers to buy
Terror for animals and death
By Aiden Soljan Year Four Room 13.
John Worthy, Principal
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Caring about others, running the risk of feeling,
and leaving an impact on people, brings happiness.”
Harold Kushner
News from around the School
Harmony Day
iPad Easter Fundraiser
Its Easter Raffle time and we are aiming to
increase the number of iPads for our students.
Currently we only have 17 iPads to share amongst
our whole school. This year we are aiming to
increase that number so that our students have a
greater opportunity to access this technology
for learning.
Each student is asked to contribute to the
Easter Fundraiser by donating an Easter item to
be raffled e.g. Easter chocolate, Easter toys etc.
The tickets for the raffle will be $2 each or 3
for $5. Tickets will be available from tomorrow
and will be sold before school in the undercover
area by the student Councillors and Captains.
The raffle will be drawn at the final assembly
for this term, Thursday 2 April.
B r i n g y o u E a s t er r a f f l e
contributions into you classroom
and purchase your tickets for a
chance to win!
Parent Teacher Interviews
Endorsement has been received from the School Board
to close the school at 12:00 noon on Wednesday 1 April
(see planner) to undertake a Reporting to Parents
afternoon in the form of individual Parent Teacher
Interviews. Interviews will focus on literacy and
numeracy, emotional, social and values development.
Supervision will be provided only for those students who
cannot be collected, with Kindy to Year 2 students to be
supervised in Pre-primary while Year 3 to 7 students to
be supervised in the library. It is strongly requested,
however, that parents make arrangements for their
children to be picked up and cared for during this time,
wherever possible. Parents are also welcome to sign
students in and out of these areas for the duration of
their interview. Please see the notice attached to the
email for further information and care request forms.
Thank you.
The All Day Cultural program was a great success.
Many students and staff wore orange which added to
the atmosphere of the day. After being introduced to
Brazilian Capoeira in the morning, the children
rotated around four other workshops throughout the
day. Mrs D’s class did a special activity with their
buddy class before the program began.
Students enjoying some Tai Chi
School Assembly
Our next whole school assembly will be conducted by
IEC Rooms 15, 16, 19 & 20,
in honour of Harmony Day on Friday 27 March at 9am
in the undercover area.
All IEC parents are welcome to attend the assembly
and visit their child in their classroom after the
assembly for a short time.
https://www.facebook.com/beaconsfieldps
Don’t forget the….
BROWSE AND BUY BOOK SALE
Get some bargain books for the holidays!
Ex-library resources will be on sale
in the school library until
Thursday 26 March, 8:30am-3:30pm.
School Photo Days
Don’t forget that school photo days are this Thursday
26 and Friday 27 March! (Rottnest is Tues 31 March).
By now, students should have brought home their
individual envelopes. Please bring these in on the photo
day with payment.
If you have not received an envelope or you would like a
sibling envelope, please see the front office .
Thank you
We have new resources in the library which need
covering. If you have time to help please call into the
library on Mondays, Tuesdays or Thursdays. Covering
is already cut to size and I am happy for books to be
taken home.
School and Community Notices
Sustainability news
Can you help?
Autumn weather has finally arrived and the edible
gardens are being cleared and planted with seeds and
seedlings. It is a busy time and there are lots of jobs to
do. A list of jobs will be written on the door to the
library block - at the eastern end. Claire, our garden
specialist from the Kitchen Garden program will leave
tools needed under the red gazebo each week. Please let
her know you are keen to help by leaving your contact
details with the front office as she has a regular session
in the garden each week that you might like to join and
all work together.
Kitchen Garden news
The two classes from the Intensive English Centre will
finish their Kitchen Garden sessions at the end of this
term. It has been wonderful to see them sitting down to
a meal each week that they have helped prepare using
some ingredients sourced from the edible gardens at
school. Teachers find
these sessions provide rich
opportunities for student learning across a range of
learning areas including our school priorities of
mathematics and literacy. Two new classes will be
starting at the beginning of next term (Ms Freel and Ms
McCann). Sessions will run on Tuesdays and letters will
be going out shortly to parents of students involved in
the program, letting them know more it and how they can
participate in either kitchen or garden sessions. The
Kitchen is up and running which is a real achievement as
we have done it mainly with donations and time
volunteered by staff outside their normal work hours.
Gardening club update
Sessions are held on Mondays at lunchtimes. Students
bring their lunch and have a picnic in the garden area
near the library. They start activities as soon as they
finish lunch. Thanks to the parents who have been coming
along to work with the children at this time - it simply
would not have been possible to have done all the things
we have done without you! If you would like to come along
on Mondays (12.30-1.30) and join in the fun - please
leave your name at the front office.
Megan Ewing
CHOIR NEWS
Thanks to Parents who are bringing their children to
choir rehearsal on time. We get so much more
completed when the children are punctual. Choir was
late starting this year and we have lots to learn
before the Easter Raffle and ANZAC Day
assemblies. There are 62 children in the Choir this
year, which is fantastic, and we may need to seek
adult assistance with this many children. The ladies
in the front office and I are compiling a list for
emailing Choir notices out to you.
Our first
performance for the year is at the Easter Raffle
Assembly, on Thursday 2 April at 9am.
It is a Choir rehearsal day and the children will be
required to wear their white Choir uniform
shirts.
Harmony Day
2015
TERM DATES 2015
Please note there are no Student Free
days on the first day of any term
Term Commences
Finishes
Student Free Days
Thu 2 Apr
Week 4 - Fri 27 Feb
1
Mon 2 Feb
2
Mon 20 Apr Fri 3 Jul
3
Mon 20 Jul
4
Mon 12 Oct Thu 17 Dec Week 4 - Mon 2 Nov
Week 6 - Fri 29 May
Fri 25 Sep Week 7 - Mon 31 Aug
School and Community Notices
UNIFORM SHOP NEWS
LEAVERS SHIRTS
Leavers' Shirts are due week one of Term 2. You will
have them delivered to your classrooms.
JUMPERS
Jumpers have been ordered and should be in the shop by
the beginning of Term 2. Meanwhile, if you need a
jumper, we have plenty of second hand on the rack, in
both blue and jade.
SECOND HAND
The second hand rack is full. Come grab polos, tee shirts
and more - all for $5.
Scholastic Book Club Volunteers needed...
The School are seeking two volunteers to run the
Scholastic Book Program for our school.
Please contact the office and we will put you in touch
with our current volunteers who have done a magnificent
job to date. They can give you more information about
what the job involves.
Without
volunteers
this
service
will
discontinue. Currently we get 4 deliveries per year, one a
term. The ordering is done online by interested parents/
children.
SCHOOL BANKING
Don’t forget the school banking day is Thursdays in the
resource room of the junior block.
There are great rewards to earn as you save and it’s
really easy to sign up. The school also earns money for
every new sign up. Come and see Jenny or Anna for more
information, and start saving for the things you want!
Afterschool care program on
Beaconsfield school site.
Caring, fun environment.
Contact us for more info.
Enquiries: 0435 884 887
www.wanslea.asn.au
beaconsfield@wanslea.asn.au
Useful Contacts @ Beacy
Kindy: 9335 7625 Pre Primary: 9335 4259
Intensive English Centre: 9335 5806
Dental Therapy Centre: 9335 8758
P&C Association email: beacypc@gmail.com
beaconsfield.ps.schoolboard@education.wa.edu.au
Community Notices
• Fremantle Topspin Summer Junior Holiday Clinics @ Fremantle Tennis Club - Week 1 Mon 6 - Thu 9 April,
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Week 2 Mon 13 - Thu 16 April, Time 9am - 11am (4-6yrs), 9am - 12pm (7+yrs). The clinics are super fun and a
great way to improve your child’s tennis - morning tea provided. Term 2 before school tennis program
commences Wed 29 April 8-8:45am, to enrol contact Brendan 0401565051 or fremantletopspintennis@gmail.com
Melville Hockey Club - Hookin2Hockey (PP-Yr4) rego now open, season starts 9 May, melvillehockey.com.
Bunnings Easter Family Night - Wednesday 25 March, 6-8pm, O’Connor store, bookings essential 9338 9200.
Spare Parts Puppet Theatre - all-day puppetry workshops for 4-12yr olds in the holidays, www.sppt.asn.au.
Friday Night Games 2015 - Easter theme on 27 Mar - 2 hrs of fun from 6:30pm, melvillecitychurch.org.au.
East Freo Tricolore Soccer Club - Registration open for 2015 season, myfootballclub.com.au.
Dr Helen Street-Better than OK - Freo City Library, Tue 31 Mar 11:30am, fremantlelibrary.eventbrite.com.au.
A-One Maths & English Tuition - After school classes PP-Yr7, register for free trial, AOneAcademy.com.au.
Shop Now HQ - for all your party supplies - Flat rate postage, O’Connor store, 9331 4969 shopnowhq.com.au.
Active Gymnastics - Autumn Holiday classes available. 0417 503 517 or activegym.com.au.
Nearer to Nature - nature based activities Woodman Point & Canning Eco Centre. Check out the N2N Autumn
calendar, dpaw.wa.gov.au/n2n. Bookings essential Ph: 9295 2244.
See the noticeboard on the outside wall between the office and staffroom
for further details and flyers on the above community notices.
School and Community Notices
School and Community Notices