Week 3 Term 1 2022

 Dear parents, 

I hope you have had a great start to your week and have enjoyed hearing about our swimming adventures over the past week and a half. We have loved being down by the bay despite the cooler weather, the water has been like glass! The children were all beautifully behaved and comments were made from the teachers how awesome the Year 1 bunch are which is so great to hear.  We all had a blast! Have a look at some of the pictures from our lessons below...

Just a few messages this week...

Parents in the classroom:

Sadly at this stage parents are no longer able to enter into the classroom in the mornings during gathering time.  As per the government information for schools, parents must also wear face masks at school even when outside. Unfortunately, this also extends to parent teacher interviews so therefore our main port of call will be via email. Please see the previous blog posts if you do not have my email address.

Parent Information Night:
Due to COVID requirements there will not be a parent information night this year. We will pass on the required information in a powerpoint presentation early next week in another blog post.  Please feel free to email me if you have any questions before or after reading the information.  I will include an updated version of our weekly timetable as a few things have changed from the swimming timetable shared last week.  

Assemblies and Merit Awards

Assemblies have also been cancelled for Term one, however, Merit Awards will still be going ahead in our classes. They will be presented by Mr. Torrese or Mr. Lee on Friday afternoon. If your child is a lucky recipient, I will be taking a photo and putting it up on your child's Seesaw, so make sure you are connected and have notifications alert set on your phone settings.  

Seesaw:

Seesaw logins will be handed out this week however the good news is from my end it seems all families seem to be already connected as they were rolled over from last year.  Could you please let me know if there is any issues and I can send you a email link to join up with your child's Seesaw. The QR code can be used multiple times so feel free to connect both parents or grandparents. 

Throughout the year Seesaw will be used to show you what the children have been up to in school and also inform you of assessment in the learning areas. The "Formal Learning Samples" will include rubrics and/or teacher comments to help you understand your child's current skills, achievement levels in relation to curriculum standards and identifies areas of need or future goals for your child.  This will be in place of comments in the Religion, English and Mathematics learning area of the end of semester reports, however grades for these subjects will still be given. 

Don't forget to change the notifications settings for Seesaw to allow so that you are aware when something new is added to your child's learning journal.  I know that parents are unable to visit the classrooms at the moment so I have shared two examples of your child's amazing work we did in the first week of school on Seesaw.  

Homework:

Homework in the form of home readers and word fluency grid reading will start next week and further information will be shared in the next blog post in a few days along with the parent information.  We ask if you can send your child's thick/heavy duty plastic homework folder that they used last year back to school, otherwise your child will use a thin green folder that we already have at school starting next week. 

Hats/Uniforms:

   

Hats are kept in bags for Years 1-6.  We are back to formal uniforms for the week finishing it with sports uniform (teal shirt, shorts, joggers) on Thursday and faction sports uniform on Friday.  Please see the school website for uniform details.  Hats are kept in bags for Years 1-6.

OLC Character Strength of the week:

To be brave is to face your challenges, threats, or difficulties. It involves valuing a goal or conviction and acting upon it, whether popular or not. A central element involves facing – rather than avoiding – fears.

There are three types of bravery (an individual may possess one of these or a combination):

• Physical bravery (e.g., firefighters, police officers, soldiers)
• Psychological bravery (e.g., facing painful aspects of oneself)
• Moral bravery (e.g., speaking up for what's right, even if it's an unfavorable opinion to a group)

This would provide a great conversation starter for your family around the dinner table, asking them where they have seen bravery or have been brave themselves.  

When our strengths are spotted by others and we are using them well, it helps us to feel strong and confident within ourselves.

Have a lovely rest of your week! 

Penny and Gemma