Year Level News

Foundation News

Patterns are all around us.  

In Numeracy, students have been learning about patterns and are aware that a pattern repeats. There are colour patterns; shape patterns; number patterns; action patterns, etc. Students had a go at continuing, copying and creating patterns. Also, it involved a discussion on how they know if something is a pattern and which patterns they found in the classroom or playground.

Bubble Incursion

What a great way to start the day! Students were treated with an amazing bubble incursion where they were entertained while learning about bubbles. Students got to see how bubbles are made and took part in trying to catch a few throughout the event. As a follow up, students blew their own bubbles and had an opportunity to write about their experience. What did they notice; what did they see and how it felt.

Buddies

We always look forward to our buddy sessions and this week we have read ‘Elmer the Elephant’ by David McKee. The moral of the story is that everyone is unique, and students got to use coloured strips to decorate their own unique Elmer.

Year 1 News

Special Person Morning

To support our inquiry question of 'what makes a place special', students have been asked to invite a special person to visit the school. Their special person could be a grandparent, uncle, aunty or anyone that they would like to invite. Parents are more than welcome to attend as a special person.

We know that the students have highlighted outdoors and nature as being special, so during this visit we will ask our visitors to work with the students in 4 rotations and help to plant the Grade 1 veggie and flower boxes, make some posters of how to care for the gardens, create some plant labels and share some stories or books together about special places.  This area will become one of our cohorts’ special places in the school. The special person should be prepared to share their experiences of primary school, such as why it was special to them and what they enjoyed about it.  It would be appreciated if they could bring in a photo of themselves as a young child / at primary school and be able to compare school in the past with the present.

Our special person’s morning will be Friday 15th March 2024 from 9am – 10.30am.If you could please talk to your child, decide on their special person, and invite them to attend on the 15th, it would be most appreciated.

Foundation & Year 1 - Classroom Helpers

From Term 2, parents and carers will be welcomed into Foundation and Year 1 classrooms to offer assistance during the morning Literacy Block.

There will be two information sessions offered to parents and carers, and all helpers MUST attend one of these sessions. 

To clarify, even if you have previously attended a classroom helper information session, you are still required to attend one of these sessions to be sure you are up to date with current teaching of reading and writing.

What will I be doing in the classroom?

Different classrooms will have different needs on different days.  Example activities that support the class include: reading with students 1:1, playing letter and word games with a student or a small group of students, setting up iPads or other resources for students or showing students how to organise the classroom library.

Sign me up!

If you would like to be a classroom helper, you must:

1  -  Sign up for one of the two induction sessions being offered (again, even if you’ve attended in the past). These sessions are being held on the dates below and you sign up via this link -  CompassTix.

• Tuesday 23 April, at 9.10 - 9.55am, or 
• Thursday 2 May, at 3.20 - 4.00pm

2  -  Ensure that you have a current working with children check and that this has been presented at the office. You can apply for WWCC's at https://service.vic.gov.au/services/working-with-children

3  -   Thoroughly read the Victorian Government’s eleven Child Safe Standards, and NLPS Child Safety Policy, available at Policies – Newport Lakes PS

4  -  Read the Volunteer OH&S Induction Handbook and return the signed Volunteer OH&S Induction Checklist to the office.

To reiterate:

• these are theonly two classroom helper information sessions being run this year, and 
• every helper will need to attend one of these two sessions (even if you have already attended in the past) to ensure that you are up to date and ready to support our students.

We very much look forward to welcoming you into the classrooms.

Year 4 News

Year 4 students and staff are off on a wonderful three-day camp to Campapse Downs in Tylden next Monday 18th March.

A few reminders for parents on camp requirements;

• Students are permitted to wear casual clothes - school uniform is not required!
• The weather forecast shows Monday and Tuesday will have temps in the mid to high 20s but Wednesday will be considerably colder. Overnight temps are quite low (12C) so make sure you pack clothes for warmth and cold.
• Students are required to bring a packed lunch/snacks and drink bottle for the first day. 
• Electronic devices, phones, or money is not permitted to be brought on camp. Please label all items with your child's name. 
• Students are required to be at school by 9am as per a normal school day. They will depart for camp at 9.30am.
• Medications must be clearly labelled and handed to Jess the nurse or Carolyn at the front office the morning of departure.
• Students (unlike previous years) are required to leave their luggage near the stage - grade names will be there for you to see.
• Students will return to school by 3:15pm on Wednesday 20th March. Updates on their ETA will be sent out via Compass accordingly on the day.
• We will be tweeting regular updates on X (formerly Twitter) so please make sure you follow the school account: @nlpstweets 

Please note:

The children will arrive home on Wednesday evening full of stories from their experience but without doubt, will also be very exhausted. We encourage where possible, that your child rests up at home the following day and catches up on their sleep and energy.  

If this is not an option, students are obviously very welcome to attend school, noting that the planned Thursday classroom program for Year 4 will be passive activities for the entire day. These passive activities will include board games, reading activities, a movie etc. and will be supervised by CRT staff as the regular Year 4 teaching staff will be taking the day as Time in Lieu in line with their EBA.  

Year 5/6 News

Year 5/6 Election Day 2024

On the 29th of February Year 5/6 students held an 'Election Day' where we elected a student to be the Prime Minister for Parliament Day later in the term. One of many highlights on election day was the democracy sausage otherwise known as a sausage sizzle. As real democracy, students voted on the Senate and The House of Representatives before getting their sausage. At the end the Labour Party won, making Emily K the PM and Grace C as Deputy as well as many MPs for other electorates.

By Eva Boyd

Tim Watts Visit

On Tuesday Tim Watts, Member of Gellibrand came to Newport Lakes Primary School to talk to the Year 5/ 6 students about the Australian government to tie in with their project on Australian parliament. Tim Watts talked about his job and what happens in parliament and we got the chance to ask him questions about the Australian Government. 

By George, Josh, and Souhail