Hello Everyone!

We are almost at the end of the term; it feels as though the time has flown by. Next week there will be a short newsletter to remind families of upcoming dates in Term 2.

This week we had our first school council meeting with our new school council team. I would like to welcome Paul Hosking, Peter Schreiber, and Liz Pape. Paul and Peter have been elected to two-year terms and Liz has been co-opted into our 1-year vacancy. Thank you for your commitment and the school looks forward to your contribution.

Our administrative team are:

President: Sarah Crozier

Vice President: Paul Hosking

Treasurer: Peter Schreiber

Liz Pape, Peter Brown, and Shane McClure make up the rest of the parent body on school council. Please do not hesitate to contact school councillors for any administrative support.

For school operations concerning classes, curriculum, and anything to do with students (yours or others), it must be remembered that this is the prerogative of school staff.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind parents that should you be concerned about your child’s progress or social and emotional wellbeing, the first person to contact is always your child’s teacher (from this first contact, teachers can escalate concerns to the principal as required).

If there is an issue with another child, please contact your child’s teacher to find out if there is a backstory and if the issue is in hand. Attempting to handle a situation yourself may not be the wisest choice.

In the past there have been cases of parents approaching children in the school grounds, the car park or even up at the hall. This is less than ideal. I would highly recommend that parents allow the school the time and space to rectify a situation and therefore to contact teachers as soon as you are able with any concerns. We have the supporting background information for our students, we work with all the students involved in a matter, we call parents in as required and when necessary, we seek as much support as DET can provide. It is also important for all stakeholders to evaluate a situation carefully and to apply a filter of resilience, respect, unity and responsibility to the matter and approach everything with co-operation and an equitable resolution in mind. Please remember that the best resolutions take time and consideration.

DET have been concerned by the state-wide increase in instances of school staff being subjected to unsatisfactory, aggressive interactions/communication from parents (perhaps such behaviour is a side effect of Covid stress). Here at Newham, we have had instances of staff being subjected to aggressive messaging from parents. Thankfully these instances are rare as we have a wonderfully supportive parent community. However, parents, please consider and reflect upon the intent of any communication and as we say to the children in our Kimochi sessions, it’s okay to feel mad but it’s not okay to be mean.

Newham Primary School Day at Hanging Rock

The whole school day at Hanging Rock was a fantastic day!

The 4/5/6s played Petanque with the Woodend Hanging Rock Petanque club and now that Covid restrictions are easing we have invited the club to visit us at school for a return contest. Being able to also run our 'school level' cross country on the same day, gave our students practice on the District course. As each group ran it was wonderful to see our students from other age groups standing and cheering or running alongside in support. A huge thankyou to our parents who came along to point runners in the right direction or to run alongside as well. We also walked up the Rock to complete some art and environmental activities, listened to a talk presented by the Park rangers and finally ensured our footprint on the reserve was minimised by helping the rangers to sweep, rake and clean areas of high use. Thankyou to Mrs Hammond for her organisation of the day, our staff for their organisation of activities, the Woodend Hanging Rock Petanque players for their instruction, patience and competition and finally thankyou to the Rangers at Hanging Rock for taking the time to encourage the environmental interests of our students.

District Cross Country

Well done to all students who participated in the District Cross country at Hanging Rock on Monday. What an effort and what great resilience was demonstrated! Each age group has an incredible number of students setting off at the same time. There is jostling for space, falls, missed starts as well as their consideration of race strategies. In all age groups our students equipped themselves well and congratulations to those off to Division next term.

Also, a huge thank you to Mrs Hammond and her team who stepped in, organised, and ran the day, making it such a success. Please see the report later in the newsletter.

Kitchen Garden

Kitchen garden is back! The first session was this week and students are pleased to be getting back to their kitchen skills. The second session for the other 4/5/6 class will be next Monday due to the Yr. 6 KTK DAL online workshops and excursion on Tuesday.

From Next term all future kitchen garden sessions will be on a Tuesday.

In term 2 they will be

Tuesday 24th May 4/5/6 A

Tuesday 31st May 4/5/6 B

Kids teaching kids DAL workshops and excursion

Next Tuesday 5th April, the Yr.6s are involved in several online workshops in the morning culminating in a small excursion in the afternoon to two different types of forest within the local vicinity. This is an excellent opportunity for all the Yr.6s to delve deeper into their understanding of environment and the variety of flora and fauna they can help to preserve with their design and implementation of their own Kids teaching kids workshop in September. Please see the student report later in the newsletter.

NAPLAN

The last of the NAPLAN trials went off without a hitch last week. No Australia wide crashes occurred! At the beginning of Term 2 the NAPLAN system opens for schools to input the students in years 3 & 5 sitting the NAPLAN testing program. If any parents are concerned about their child’s participation or require further information, please contact your child’s teacher as soon as possible. Don’t even leave it until next term, consider contacting the teachers before the term break.

Celebrate Autism in April

As part of World Autism Acceptance Month in April, teachers will be running activities with their students to raise understanding and acceptance of people with autism. The United Nations' World Autism Awareness Day on Saturday 2 April 2022 will begin a month of events to celebrate autism.

We will be doing our celebrating as soon as we return to school in Term 2. Mark this date on the calendar. Friday the 29th of April will be our Autism activity Day. Next week and at the beginning of term we will send out messages around what we will be doing.

Were you aware.

That 11% of our students here at Newham Primary School are on the Autism spectrum?

That 75% of those students also have ADHD.

Celebrating Autism in April is a significant step for all our students to recognise just how many of their friends find it difficult to do things such as navigating social situations. Please take the time to read the page specifically set aside in this newsletter to better understand Autism in the varied forms it presents here at school and what many of our students face daily. Let’s become more aware of living with Autism, together.

Easter/ANZAC Day

This year Easter is right in the middle of the term break. Our Easter activities will begin next week, culminating in a whole school activity at assembly on the last day of term.

Due to ANZAC day being on the Monday, school will return on Tuesday 26th April for Term 2. On this day we will hold our own ANZAC commemoration. We are yet to hear from the RSL regarding any formal commitment they may require from Newham PS on the Monday. However, it would be wonderful to see as many students as possible, in uniform, at the ceremony in Woodend. As soon as we hear, we will let everyone know.

End of Term

And finally, just a reminder that Term 1 concludes on Friday 8th April. Bell time is at 2.30pm after our Easter assembly.

Have a lovely break, perhaps you might be getting away for some rest and relaxation. Whatever your situation, on behalf of the staff, I hope that your downtime is Covid free, stay well, stay safe and we look forward to seeing you back bright eyed, and bushy tailed for learning in term 2.