Leadership 

We have reached the end of Week 5 which finished with a great turnout to our Open to Learning afternoon. There have been many events, celebrations and more importantly, lots of learning taking place in the classroom. Let’s get into it!

Cross Country

A group of our students in Grades 4, 5 & 6 went off to represent our school at district cross country this week. Everyone knows how wonderful Raul and the Physical Education program is, but what you don’t know is his pre-race motivational speeches worked wonders for all the students involved. We want to congratulate all the students for participating and demonstrating our values to the other schools in our district. A big congratulations to Isla, Florence & Claude for making it through to the regional rounds for placing in the top 10, and a round of applause to Paxton who finished in first place!

2025 Foundation Information Night

A big thank you to Jess, Luisa, Sonya, Raema, Katherine, Paula, Juan & Jill for giving up their Wednesday night to showcase our school to prospective 2025 families. It was fantastic to see our teachers talk so passionately about our school and the program we deliver. I would also like to thank both Kate and Melissa who shared their experiences at Newlands. We really appreciate you both for being so positive about the school and discussing it with our new community!

PFA Fete Organisation

Our wonderful PFA are already in preparations for our school fete. Everyone at the school knows the amount of effort they put in for our school events. This event promises to be even bigger and better than last year, but they need your help. We love that our families support all the events our school puts on, but for this upcoming fete, we need your help in any and every capacity! Please see any of the PFA leaders around the school for ways that you can help. Olivia, Clare, Jess, Andrea, Morag, Adam, Lou, Alberto & Sarah.

IDAHOBIT celebration

IDAHOBIT is an important day against LGBTQIA+ discrimination to specifically include those of us who are lesbian, queer and asexual. Newlands has been a ray of colour today as our students show support for everyone to be themselves. The teachers in the classroom have been engaging in conversations and activities related to IDAHOBIT. Below are a few comments from our students, that make us proud of the community we have. 

Lowri – This is a day for us to show support to all people so they can be themselves and be recognised for who they are.

Etta – IDAHOBIT means recognising people that are transgender, gay or lesbian and to show support to those people, that we want you to be able to celebrate yourself.

Wren – We are recognising different families and people that identify as lesbian, gay, non-binary, transgender and queer, that want to celebrate you. 

Bilingual Principal Network

This week Newlands hosted all the principals in our Bilingual Network. It was great to have our network here to showcase all the work that our school has been doing in the Bilingual space. We want to thank all the teachers and students for opening their rooms to the 12 principals. We will be hosting the Teachers Bilingual Network on the 30th of May. 

Emergency Lockdown Drill

On Thursday, we were able to have our first Lockdown drill. This was the first time we have ran the drill since we have opened our new buildings. We are glad to say the process went well and that all communication to and from the classroom was successful. These types of drills happen once a term in line with Department expectations.

Open Learning Afternoon

It’s always great to open the classrooms and let our families roam through our school space. It was a fantastic turn out this afternoon considering the rain! We look forward to continuing to provide these opportunities to our families. 

Foundation

Lots of learning took place in Foundation this week and it was fantastic to see our students and parents eating food while sharing their culture and family traditions. It was a great opportunity for families to meet Colleen who we cannot thank enough for coming in to support the foundation team for the rest of the term. She has been excellent, and the school is lucky to have her!

1/2 

I had the opportunity to read with Dom on Wednesday during the day’s soft start. Dom’s ability to read Spanish fluently with a continuous smile could become one of the next greatest wonders of the world. I also sat in with Evie, June and Azra as they showed me some of the work they have been doing in the Code as they looked at the Bossy R. They were able to help me spell all the ur, er, ar, or and ir words! 

3/4

There was lots of learning taking place in the 3/4s this week. Ari and Lenny were showing me how to change Improper Fractions to Mixed Numbers effortlessly. I jumped into Angelica’s room while the students were writing their Spanish Cold Writes. It is incredible to see the amount of Spanish writing the students are producing. On Yard Duty, I also spoke to Eadie and Gabriel about their favourite specialist subjects this week. Eadie was pumped to talk about the props the grade is making for the school concert in STEAM and Gabriel was excited about the upcoming Ugly Monsters project in Visual Arts.  

5/6 

This week during builders, the 5/6s have been learning about long division through problem solving activities, fluency tasks and using Mathletics as a way to consolidate learning. They have been finishing up their Spanish information reports which are funnily enough about Spanish speaking countries. All the students are excited for their incursion next week about Parliament House. 

Upcoming Events

• Next Friday to coincide with Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week, the school will have a smoke ceremony at 2:30pm.
• Our PFA Colour Run Fundraiser has raised an incredible amount of money for the school. The event is only 2 weeks away! 

Have a fantastic weekend!

Thanks, 

Luke