Dear Parents and Carers,

What a brilliant start to the term we have had, our students came back to school refreshed and ready to learn. On Friday we celebrated NAIDOC day with the theme “For our Elders”. We were blessed to be able to welcome several Aunties and Uncle Jeremy Saunders to our school community. They were joined by the dancers from Chatham High and our students spend an afternoon learning about and celebrating culture. Congratulations and thankyou to Aunty Kylie and Mrs Fraser for all they did to make the day such a success.

Cooking with Mrs Hunt

One of our Gotcha rewards is cooking with Mrs Hunt. Last term we had several students choose this reward and they made fruit kebabs, mini pizzas, and chocolate balls.

Congratulations Eleanor

A huge congratulations to Eleanor Healy who travelled to Sydney last term to compete in the Polding Cross Country. She came 10th out of 40 competitors, and we are so proud of her efforts.

ICAS Closing 31st of July.

What is ICAS? 

ICAS is an online academic competition that is designed to assess students’ higher order thinking and problem-solving skills in English, Mathematics, Science, Writing, Spelling Bee, and Digital Technologies. 

 Each assessment celebrates students’ accomplishments by providing opportunities for recognition and development. Every student who participates will receive a printed certificate and an online results report. Top performers will be eligible for medals. 

 How to participate in ICAS If you wish for your child to participate in ICAS this year, please: 

1. Go to Parent Portal to purchase tests here: https://shop.icasassessments.com/

2. Enter our school’s access code –  KFW569

3. Enter your child’s details, select the tests you would like to purchase, then proceed to payment. 

After payment is made via the Parent Payment System, you will receive an order confirmation email, please keep this for your records. 

Closing Date for Online Orders Monday 31 July

Sitting Dates for Assessments

Digital Technologies 7 August

Writing 8 August

English 14 August

Science 21 August

Spelling 22 August

Maths 28 August

Playground Fundraising Update

As you are aware, we have been fundraising for the past few years to replace our playground equipment with new equipment suitable for K-6 students. The team have worked tirelessly towards reaching our goal with $8700 being raised so far this year alone, from the following events: Trivia Night, Bunnings BBQ and Raffle, Mother's Day Stall/Raffle, Scottish Festival Stall and Market Stall. These events represent countless hours of organisation and work for the team. There have been many generous donations from school and community members as well as local businesses to help us with these events. We are now able to begin planning the playground. We are very close to our goal, needing only $8000 more to begin. Our ventures this year have been widely and generously supported by the school and the community and we are incredibly grateful for this support. If anyone can support us further by donating a lump sum (no amount is too small!) to help get us started, we would be extremely grateful. We hope to have our new equipment installed by the end of the year.

Welcome Ms Walton

I would like to formally welcome Ms Walton to our staff for the remainder of the year. She will be teaching Year 6 on Monday and Tuesday in a job share with Mrs Cleaver.

Please join me in a prayer for our elders. The knowledge and wisdom that our elders hold is a true gift to each one of us. I pray that they continue to feel the love and respect they deserve from their families and loved ones.

Prime Minister Award

'Being a steward of creation’, ‘Trying your best’, ‘Speaking with kindness’ and ‘Being a responsible learner’ are some of the qualities that teachers consider when awarding ‘Prime Minister’ at our weekly assembly. It is an acknowledgement of the student’s efforts and they have the privilege of wearing the badge with honour, of suggesting a focus the school can work on, award Gotchas to other students at lunch time as well as earning Gotchas for themselves.  Congratulations to Joseph Ayres (Week 10).

MJR Awards

As part of our MJR system, we acknowledge that the following student, Ella Housen-Helmer has reached 300 Gotchas. Well Done!

Mary Mackillop Award - Term 2

This award is presented to one student each term that consistently goes above and beyond to put the needs of others first. This award is founded on one of the most motivating and known sayings of Saint Mary MacKillop “never see a need without doing something about it” (1871). We present this award to someone who follows in Saint Mary’s footsteps by reaching out to the most needy and vulnerable in our school community. Congratulations goes to Joseph Hillenberg. 

Learning Support News

Lots of great things are happening at school in Learning Support. Our fabulous Learning Support Assistants Jane, Natasha, Jenna and Kylie work really hard to support our students in Literacy and Numeracy. They work daily with groups and individuals delivering targeted intervention programs, in reading groups, fluency and flexible learning groups in maths. Our LSAs go above and beyond to support our students' educational journeys. Jane continues to teach ukulele on Thursday afternoons, this term year 3  is having their turn and enjoying this challenge. 

We have been very lucky to have Sommer completing her work placement in term 2 and 3 as part of her School Based Education Support training. She has been a wonderful addition to our Learning support team and has made some great connections with staff and students. We hope to continue to see her in our school after her placement in completed. 

Mrs Downie has been very busy with the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data, and gathering the information she needs about the individual adjustments that are made for all of our students, and to make sure that our wonderful LSAs will continue to provide as much support to our teachers and students as possible. 

* Willow Eijkman turned 11
*Matilda Ryan turned 10
*Harley Stewart  turned  7
*Foxx  Williams  turned  8
*Dakota Robinson turned  7
*Samuel Ungaro  turned 10