Dear families,

As this is the last newsletter before the holidays, congratulations and thank you to all students and staff on a very successful and busy Term 3 full of learning and opportunities. Please enjoy a well-earned holiday with your families and friends. If you are travelling, cherish the opportunity and please be safe on the roads.

We look forward to seeing everyone back at Greenwith Primary School on Monday, 17th October 2022, ready for a busy Term 4.

'New look' newsletter

Have a read through our new look newsletter. We will be using this format moving forward and look forward to being able to continue sharing our information and the 'good news' stories with you. Grab a cuppa and take the time to flip through the pages to see what has been happening at the school over the past few weeks. When trialling this modern, user-friendly format it certainly made it a far easier read. We hope that you enjoy it as much as we do!

National Day of Mourning

To acknowledge the passing of Her Majesty and as a sign of respect, the South Australian Government supported several observances.

On the National Day of Mourning, Thursday 22 September, there was a one-off national public holiday to mark the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The Australian National Flag was flown at half-mast until the day after the Queen's funeral.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was a monarch who sealed her place in history with a life that lasted 96 years (1926-2022) and a reign spanning seven decades, the longest of any British monarch.

Site Improvement Plan

Over the past year, we have been working extremely hard in implementing our 2022-2024 Site Improvement Plan (SIP) to increase the number of students who achieve high bands in mathematics and reading. A focus on our upcoming Pupil Free Day (4/11) will be to unpack our recent NAPLAN and PAT data to review our actions in our Site Improvement Plan in 2023.

During the past 3 weeks, our Year 1-6 students have all participated in our annual PAT testing. These assessments are part of the data sets we use to determine and measure student growth against our SIP targets. We are highly committed to tracking and monitoring our student’s growth to ensure all our students are making progress every year.

NAPLAN Results Distribution

Students in Years 3 and 5 will bring home their NAPLAN results by the end of this term. NAPLAN is an annual assessment for students and tests the types of skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. The tests cover skills in reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy. NAPLAN testing is considered a ‘snapshot’ of student achievement, taken on a single day and under test conditions.

We are very pleased with our 2022 NAPLAN Results as we have shown improvement in our Year 3 and 5 Reading and Numeracy results with an increase of students moving into the higher bands compared to previous years. This is a credit to our staff who have worked extremely hard in our targetted focus of mathematics understanding and delivery over the last few years.

2023 Planning

Thank you for completing and returning the ‘Student Placement Process’ form. This enables detailed and thorough planning for our school for next year.

We will start the complex task of creating our classes for 2023 next term. When placing students in classes, the school will consider a range of information in order to form educationally and socially balanced classes. Classes will be formed to best meet the needs of the students within the constraints of the resources provided. Class structure, class compositions and the allocation of students to classes are all developed through consultation with teaching staff and the Leadership Team. We consider parent information carefully, however, sometimes the parent requests can be conflicting (to another family's request and from the professional opinions of the teacher) and may result in your request being unable to be accommodated. Teachers are not generally assigned to a class until after the class placement process. Teachers focus on class balances to ensure a successful year for all students.

Please remember that staffing is dependent upon the enrolment in each grade. The class distribution is considered on the basis of student numbers. The distribution of classes may change each year according to enrolments in the school and the numbers in each class or year group. This information determines the creation of composite (multi-year level) classes, as opposed to straight-year levels. In any classroom setting, there is a diverse range of abilities that the teacher is required to differentiate.

If you are yet to complete the form or advise if your child will not be attending Greenwith Primary School next year or plan to enrol a new student, please contact us as soon as possible.

Festival Choir

Congratulations to our wonderful school choir. As expected, they did us proud with their attitude, behaviour and the way they performed. Well done and thank you to our teachers who supported our students on the day, Lesley Raeside, Debbie Hoffmann and Andrew Drake.

Fun Facts - did you know that it is the 131st year of the Primary Schools Music Festival (PSMF), a school-based music education program provided by the Department for Education and the SA Public Primary Schools Music Society. The Adelaide Festival is usually held at the Adelaide Festival Theatre in September. Regional festivals occur at various locations in South Australia from July to November. There are festival choirs in over 300 schools across South Australia, as well as 2 orchestras and performance troupes in metropolitan Adelaide. All South Australia public primary schools are eligible to participate. Our Greenwith Choir participated in the Tuesday 20 September Choir and it was a sensational performance by our students.

Lost Property

As the term draws to an end we have a lot of lost property including, jumpers, hats, lunch boxes, drink bottles, balls and toys. If you have lost any items we ask that you come and check the cupboard in the Front Office before the end of Week 1 – Term 4.

If items have not been collected by the end of Week 1 we will dispose of any property which has been left for more than 3 months and is not labelled. It is very important to label all the items that your children bring to school, especially HATS as they are easily lost or misplaced. If items are clearly labelled it is easy for our staff to return the lost property quickly.

Early Finish and the Start of Term 4

Just a reminder, the school will conclude for Term 3, tomorrow at the earlier time of 2:10 pm. We wish everyone a relaxing and safe break. The school will resume on Monday, 17th October.

Footsteps