School Newsletter – 1 June 2016

On Tuesday the Year 3 to 6 students competed in the Faction Cross Country at Menzies Park. The weather was kind and it was wonderful to see so many parents attend to support all the children in the spirit of the event with a focus on participation! Each faction cheered on the participants in a lively, spirited way and all the competitors gave their best effort.
Congratulations to the winning faction – SHAKESPEARE!
Visit the website to see lots of pictures and the champion runners from each year level.

Student Safety

Ensuring student safety is a job for everyone.  I am very concerned about the roads around the school – the movement of traffic, where people park, and the number of children and families who cross the roads.   A number of measures have been put in place such as no parking areas around the school, yellow lines, and alterations to the verges to help everyone stay safe.  These measures are only going to be successful if everyone does their bit to abide by the rules of the road, exercise some patience and look out for their own and everyone else’s children.  A child injured on the way to or from school has huge ramifications for all of the people involved.  Please do your bit to make sure that 827 children leave the school at 3.00pm and 827 children return the next day.  It makes everyone happy!

Staff Congratulations

We have some lovely staff news to share with the community.

We extend our congratulations to Mr Rohit Azra, our gardener, and his new bride Gauri on their recent marriage in India.

Miss Bree Rampel and Tom, her partner, are celebrating the birth of their son, Louie in April.

Mrs Ane Bogdanoski, one of our cleaners, and her husband Dejan are the proud parents of Antonio.

We wish all of these new families every happiness today and always.

Enrolments

Enrolments for Kindy 2017 are being accepted at the office.  Children must be born between 1^st July 2012 to 30^th June 2013 to go to Kindy in 2017.

The enrolment process for Kindy is:

• Complete an application for enrolment before Friday 22^nd July 2016.
• The Principal considers all applications and takes into account local intake area and number of classroom places before advising parents if their application is successful.
• If there are too many applications for the available spaces, those who do not live in the intake area are no longer considered. If there are still too many applications, priority is given to those who have siblings enrolled at the school and who live closest to the school, and then those who live closest to the school but without siblings at the school.
• Once a decision has been made about each application, parents are notified and they can complete the enrolment process.

Please note:  Acceptance into the Kindy program does not guarantee placement in the Pre-primary to Year 6 program at Mount Hawthorn Primary School.

For current Kindy children the enrolment process is simple.  Families will be notified through the newsletter and liaison parents that they need to advise the class teacher if they are or are not returning to the school for 2017.  Contact detail forms are sent home towards end of year to ensure details are up to date ready for the next year for any communication.  During Pre-primary orientation in Term 4, parents are required to present two items as proof of residence within the local intake area to the school office. We keep a checklist of the address we have on record and the address which is on the proof of residence document.

The documents that are required include birth certificate, immunisation records (available from the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register), proof of address, and if relevant, Family Court orders.

Parent Conduct at Sporting Events

Once again our children are participating in a range of sporting events such as cross country and interschool sporting carnivals.  Whilst there is always an element of competition, the focus for these events is on participation, having a go, improving skills and working as a team, and generally they are umpired by teachers who volunteer.  This means that sometimes:

1. the best players get subbed out;
2. children decide the make-up of the team so it might not be perfect;
3. children play in an unfamiliar positions; and/or
4. umpires get it wrong.

It is important that we all remember that teachers are in charge of the team arrangements and it is their job to oversee events and make decisions for the good of all involved.  Parents are very welcome at all of the school’s events and have a responsibility to spectate respectfully and to enjoy the opportunity to see their child compete with others, do their best and importantly have fun.  There really is no place for behaviour which is inconsistent with our school values of being responsible, respectful and caring.  The overwhelming majority of our parent community do hold these values and we can be very proud of that fact.  However, I am raising this issue because I have been concerned about a number of recent examples of parent comments and/or behaviour at sporting events which on any view have been unacceptable.

Naidoc

All students in Years 2, 3 and 4 have paid $5.00 towards a NAIDOC incursion which will take place on Friday 10th June 2016 .The NAIDOC Day Experience has links to the History curriculum for these three year levels. The day will be led by students from Balga Senior High School. The day will start at 10.10am with a thirty minute Opening Ceremony. Then from 11.00 -11.45am the Year 2 students will be involved in a six activity rotation. The Year 3 students will participate in the same rotation between 11.50am and 12.35pm and the Year 4 students will have their rotation from 12.35 to 1.00pm and then following lunch 1.40 -2.05pm.
During the lunch break there will be Kangaroo/Damper Tasting.  As this is just a tasting experience students need to bring lunch from home as there will not be an opportunity to order lunch that day.
Parents are very welcome to attend part or all of this NAIDOC Experience. Bronwen Mears, Associate Principal

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