Arbor Grove Primary School eNewsletter

Thursday 28 May 2020

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Thursday 28 May 2020

It has been very pleasing to see daily student attendance soar to well over 90% since the Government announced that schooling was returning to compulsory from Monday May 18.

Whilst schooling is now compulsory we remind parents that

Staggered drop off and collection remains for students in Kindergarten and Pre Primary.
Parents are not permitted onto the school grounds.
Students that are sick, or showing signs of sickness, should not attend school.
Parents will be contacted to collect their child should they present as unwell during the day.

Parents and carers are to be thanked and congratulated for their support of the school and the children during this very unusual “new normal”.

I also would like to thank the many families that have sent messages of support, thanks and appreciation to the school during the last two months. These messages have been greatly appreciated by the staff and are a boost to our school morale.

School Development Day

As mentioned in the last newsletter the School Development Day originally scheduled for Friday 29 May, has been deferred until Monday 20 July (Day 1 Term 3).

Semester 1 Reports

Given the disruptions to student attendance and teaching and learning programs due to the COVID-19 virus, Semester 1 student reports will look different this semester. Grades will not be provided for the various learning areas due to disruption to the learning environment, instead teachers will be providing feedback on student effort and outlining the content covered. In the key learning areas of English and Mathematics the teacher’s comments will indicate student progress based on the work each student was able to complete during the semester. Further explanatory notes will accompany the reports.

Reports will be issued in Week 10 in line with previous years.

Term 3 Events

The Principals of the Ellenbrook Schools are working very hard to ensure that as many of the events originally planned for in 2020 are rescheduled, where practical, to ensure that the students year is not lost to the COVID-19 virus.

We have decided that the flagship interschool athletics carnival will be given maximum opportunity to go ahead with adequate planning time. To this end we have decided to reschedule the Interschool Carnival until Term 4 Week 4, Wednesday and Friday 4 and 6 November. We have also decided to push the Arbor Grove faction carnival to Wednesday and Friday 21 and 23 October.

2021 Kindergarten

Every year the demand for Kindergarten places across Ellenbrook exceeds the number of spots available across all the schools. Unfortunately, this means many children miss out on Kindergarten and the important preparation for formal schooling. We strongly encourage all families with children eligible for Kindergarten to secure their spots at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment. Families living outside our school intake zone should enrol at their local school. Please see the ladies in the front office to complete an application or download an application form from our website.

Child and Parent Centre

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all our families for their patience and understanding during the construction of the Child and Parent Centre. The building is nearing completion with internal fit out and playgrounds to be finalised. I am sure you will agree that the new buildings look amazing and I am very confident that the services on offer when the CPC is operational will be of great benefit to the Ellenbrook community.

Glen Purdy

In conjunction with Reconciliation Week and as an acknowledgement of the diverse and rich cultures at Arbor Grove we have created a Community Calendar. The calendar highlights important dates and events in our school community.

This wonderful calendar has been created by Rachel Wilson and Lana Viska in consultation with our families.

The calendar is going home this week – so check your child’s bag.

Barbara Newman

Room 17

In room 17 we have been researching how the Titanic sunk after it hit an iceberg in April 1912. We also drew pictures of its last moment, just before it sunk beneath the waves.

We drew fractured faces in Art.

Some people have been using colour to make some awesome patterns.

We challenged ourselves to build a ‘House of Cards’. It was difficult to get the cards balanced but we used our Arbor Values and persevered.

We made our own Soma Cubes in Maths. They are made up of 7 pieces. Did you know that there are over 240 ways of solving the cube?

Room 11

During Art we designed unusual portraits and repeated patterns within a circle.

We enjoyed celebrating Harmony Day by wearing cultural clothes or orange. We coloured in flags that represented our cultures and enjoyed playing a Harmony board game together. We also wrote Harmony Soup recipes.

During recent Maths lessons we have had fun learning to divide and adding up amounts of money.

We have been working hard to write interesting narratives. We wrote retells of The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Lion Inside and The Koala Who Could. We have been learning to make our narratives interesting by using descriptive vocabulary, including dialogue between characters and to use paragraphs. We have also learnt to edit our work.

We enjoy participating in the Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up activity during Speaking and Listening.

We enjoyed participating in activities and learning about the significance of Reconciliation Week. The theme this year is: In This Together.

Children born between 1 July 2016 and 30 June 2017 are eligible to attend Kindergarten next year.

Application forms are available from the front office or can be downloaded from the website.

Click here to view Application for Enrolment Kindergarten 2021

You are encouraged to submit your application as soon as possible.

Pre Primary Enrolments 2021

If your child is currently attending Kindergarten at Arbor Grove Primary you will need to re-enrol them for Pre Primary next year. We ask that you please come into the office to do this with current proof of your address and your child's updated Immunisation History Statement at your earliest convenience. Immunisation History Statements can be obtained by logging into Medicare online via MyGov (https://my.gov.au) or calling the Australian Immunisation Register on 1800 653 809. If your child will not be staying on at Arbor Grove Primary for Pre Primary we also ask that you notify the office as soon as possible.

Defence News

Hello Families, I hope you’re all looking forward to getting back to some form of normality in the coming weeks. As you know our current COVID crisis meant we couldn’t have our usual assembly or ANZAC Day assembly or services to honour those who have served and those who continue to serve our country. Thankfully our community rallied and there were some awesomely creative driveway commemorations from our staff, students and local community. If you would like to share your ANZAC Day commemorations please feel free to email me pictures at Janelle.wallace@education.wa.edu.au, I’d love to see them!

Janelle Wallace

Canteen

The Canteen has now reopened. We hope you are all able to continue to support our canteen during this time. Over the counter sales will not be open for the moment and we will keep you informed as to when we are able to open this service again.

For the moment we will only be open Thursdays and Fridays for Term 2. All orders must be placed online through Flexischools.

www.flexischools.com.au (please note there is also an app you can download onto your phone).

All orders must be placed by 9.15am.

The menu has been reduced for the moment so please have a look at the following new menu.