It was like the holidays didn’t even happen! If you are able to reflect, I hope everyone had a relaxing break and enjoyed some quality time with your children. We are back for Term 2 and it has been a great week 1. All of the students have settled back into the routines of school and had an excellent start to the term.

The Fiesta

A big congratulations to Luisa for the organisation of last term’s fiesta and school cultural week celebration of Uruguay. It is always a fantastic way to finish off the term with our Bilingual festival where students have the chance to not only eat food, jump on a castle and participate in lots of activities, but this year they had the opportunity to see our incredible music teacher Felipe and his band put on a show!

Parent Teacher Interviews

Thank you to all the parents for ensuring they attended our termly interviews. The feedback from parents was that it was worthwhile and teachers were able to give detailed information about how their child is going socially, emotionally and academically. If you were unable to attend or need to arrange a further meeting, please contact your child’s teacher on SENTRAL.

Prep

Incredibly, guided reading groups have started in Foundation this week. I sat with Ari and heard him read the classic ‘Tap the tin’. Ari told me about all the heart words he knows and was not only sounding out letters but blending them together to read fluently. He was able to tell me about Sid the cool cat and Pam the friendly golden retriever and its obsession with tapping tins! We both agreed it was Sid’s tin.

1/2

In Sergio’s class, I sat with Molly and Gene while they recorded themselves having a conversation in Spanish. They answered and asked each other a range of questions including the things that they like to play and food they like to eat, how old they are and describing to each other about what they look like. It was great to hear them both talking about what they like most about their mums. Molly is a big fan of her mum because she is funny and kind, and she loves to cook and walk. Gene spoke about how his mum is strong and fast and being a great runner and swimmer.

3/4

I joined in with Angelica’s 3/4s collective this morning as they were reading about Vivimos en Costa Rica. Together they were finding out all the facts about Costa Rica. It is incredible to hear the students not only understand Angelica, and read the story, but also be able to correct their grammar. I asked Esme what she loved about learning Spanish with Angelica was and she replied that it was always fun and she always helps me. She also said that it is easier learning Spanish than English.

5/6

Darcy showed me the ‘Roll and Write’ activity he was doing to create simple, compound and complex sentences. Darcy clearly explained to me that a simple sentence has one subject and verb (I played music with my friend), a compound sentence was two independent clauses joined by a conjunction like but or yet (I went on holidays but it was ruined) and a complex sentence combines an independent clause with one or more sentences (Although I wanted to travel alone, I decided to go on holidays with my friends and had the best time I have ever had). Very impressive Darcy!

Sub Committee

It was very exciting to see new faces attending our school’s subcommittees. The PFA have many events organised this year for our community to come together and are always looking for volunteer help. There will be a callout in the next couple of weeks and we highly encourage that you support such an important association for our community.

School Tours

Our school leaders have been working tirelessly to prepare for our first 2025 School Foundation Tours next Tuesday. It has been a pleasure working with Scarlett, Adam, Marlowe, Sam, Addison & Addelynn and I look forward to seeing them present to the future families of Newlands. If you haven’t handed in your child’s enrolment form for next year, we encourage you to go on our school’s website and fill out the 2025 enrolment form.

Climate Action Lunch Club

A big shout out to Lowri, Nancy, Ren, Genevieve, Bonnie, Max and Etta for organising a Climate Information session at the Blue Banded Bee hotel at lunch time yesterday. They discussed ways that we can improve to save our planet. They talked about not bringing rubbish to school, turning off electronic devices before leaving the house and why you should have short showers. We talk about leadership and being global citizens at Newlands and this is one incredible example of it!

Thursday/Friday Off

Just a reminder that there is no school on Thursday as it is ANZAC Day and Friday is a curriculum day where our teachers will be completing some final work around our school’s wellbeing processes. Jillian, our incredible OSHC coordinator has organised a fun CAREERS day for families who need to access the service on Friday.

Have a great weekend,

Luke