Hello Everyone,

This newsletter is full of dates we have pencilled in for next year.

What we have in store in 2023

This year has been tough. There is no doubt about that. Our Regional Director commented at our Principal Regional forum the other week, that of all the pandemic years, 2022 was the toughest.

Students have been dealing with mental health situations that they have never had to deal with before as well as dysregulation on a large scale. Teachers are leaving teaching and families are feeling the effects of social and workplace unease.

This term we focused on providing our students with experiences that would ease their anxieties, help them put brave in front, and challenge them while keeping supporting structures in place.

Extra ES staff supported our students directly, extra teachers were timetabled for small group work. Parkour, Badminton, and our Melbourne excursion were booked. Buddy classes and Social and Emotional learning time were also increased. We have had our disco and soccer colour day, spooky day and kitchen garden afternoon tea to name a few.

We saw this as just the beginning! 2023 is going to be about constructing a new normal post-pandemic!

To begin with, our 5/6 class will be down in the main building so that they can develop working relationships with the youngest members of our school, the Prep/1 class. The 5/6s are very excited to be able to contribute to their student family.

They will become buddies for the P/1s as well as help run the Perceptual Motor programme (PMP) for the class. In 2019 we had a play program where the 5/6s learned how to run games for students at recess and lunchtime. We will be reintroducing this program.

The 2/3s and the 3/4s will be in the top portable. This portable has more working space than the other and the classes in here are excited to be making the increased space their own. The 2/3s and the 3/4s will be involved in Swimming and we will be booking excursions and incursions as they become available. Keep a look out for a Fungi excursion! Kitchen garden will be opened to both of these classes as well as the 5/6s. 3-6 will be attending an overnight City camp in Melbourne in July. Our whole school Hanging Rock excursion will be in term 1 as well (date to be determined).

Please mark the date in your calendar for our Welcome back to school afternoon/evening. FRIDAY 10th February from 3.30- 6.30pm. There will be a BBQ, and we will ask families to bring a salad and we can enjoy some tabloid sports games and other activities. On past evenings such as this, things got very competitive!

At the end of this year staff will send home suggestions for families to support their children with reading, writing and maths activities just to keep minds ticking over throughout summer. Please consider supporting your child’s class with reading, because…

On Monday 6th February we will be having a BIG READ from 2.30pm. ALL parents are welcome to come and read with us. There will be whole class activities, small group activities as well as individual opportunities to sit and read, all of us all at once!

Sometimes folk aren’t keen on helping with maths, however it is rewarding and not as daunting as you might expect. Please consider volunteering for some maths sessions in your child’s class because in term 2 we will once again have a maths Olympics (date to be determined).

We will continue looking for even more opportunities for sharing our learning and school activities on a regular basis.

Our sport association is in the process of determining the timeline for external school sports in 2023. As soon as we have dates, we will inform families.

Tim Furphy will be our Sports co-ordinator, organising the sports program for our classroom teachers to undertake and attending sports meetings on our behalf. With the continued support of our Sporting school grants we will be introducing external sports coaches as often as possible. Watch this space for early term 1 confirmations.

Rai Jones is our Community engagement leader. Not only will she be overseeing ‘The second breakfast club’ – the breakfast that comes with student social conversation (with her trusty student helpers and sandwich makers) she will be co-ordinating parent helpers for activities and will be happy to answer questions about any of our activities.

Also please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s classroom teacher.

Our first academic meeting with Parents will be on Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th February for parent/teacher & student conferences (parents of prep students will see their teacher during the Wednesday testing sessions). The times will be after school on these days and will be booked on uEducateUs closer to the dates.

We begin each year with our ROCK SOLID START to SCHOOL

Over the first 2 to 3 weeks of school, all staff use a part of every day to explain, explore and reinforce the high expectations, routines, and systems we have in place that make our school, our classes and our social connections run smoothly.

Students will be working towards ‘Resetting their classroom’ at the end of each day in preparation for learning the following day. Developing habits of mind and routines that support a positive learning space. The School wide positive behaviour Program, Kimochis, and Respectful relationships work will continue in 2023 and are an integral part of our Rock-solid start. We will also be participating in the pilot program for Modelling Respect and Equality (MoRE). This program explores as well as challenges stereotypical gender norms including toxic masculinity. Staff will be working on professional learning throughout term 1 in preparation for extending Kimochi knowledge to the next phase for our students as well as undertaking the initial MoRE requirements. Thank you to parents who participated in the SWPBS survey. Your feedback was greatly appreciated and will be forming a basis from which to improve our SWPB work.

We will not be running our own Art therapy sessions through the school in 2023 however if parents wish to continue with Art therapy privately, please consider contacting:

https://ballaratarttherapies.com.au/

0437 236 411

admin@ballaratarttherapies.com.au

Lily Fraser who was our art therapist this year is local to our area but working for the Ballarat business.

School's Out! - out of school hours care will be returning onsite to Newham Primary School in 2023. They will be situated in the main building, providing before and after school care daily. Enquiries and bookings can be made directly to them on 1300 329 106 or visit https://www.schoolsout.net.au/home for more information.

Supporting the Ramshaw and O’Donohue Families

One of our school parents who recently entered a radio competition to try and get some extra support for Sally R and her family, won the first prize, a $1000 E&S Voucher. The voucher together with $1000 from the Trivia night event will be given to Sally R and her family as they continue to rebuild and recover from their devastating house fire.

So close to Christmas, the O’Donohue family have on the weekend also experienced a devastating housefire of their own. In support of the family, School Council have donated $1000 to their recovery. The O’Donohue family have said that they have been overwhelmed by the spirit of kindness and support shown by the Newham and Woodend communities and would like to thank everyone for their best wishes.

Our class of 2022 are graduating this evening!

Congratulations to our year 6 students, you made it!

The rest of the school cheered them out of the school grounds this afternoon after assembly. They will return with their families this evening to relive some highlights of their Primary School years. Onward to secondary school!

Photos are further on in the newsletter.

This afternoon at assembly the following students were presented to the school as our leaders for 2023!

Iris, Jessie, Harvey & Luke will be our School leaders.

Freya, Sophie R, Leo R & Lewis will be our Sustainability leaders.

Sadie, Coen and Leo H will be our Sports leaders.

Congratulations to you all!

and

Thank you to our 2022 student leaders for your leadership this year.

A huge thank you to all our families! Your support has been invaluable this year. A fond farewell to families leaving us at the end of the year. Thank you for choosing Newham Primary School for part of your child’s learning journey and our best wishes for the next exciting phase!

Thank you to the staff of Newham Primary School. We are a tight team and together this year, they have rocked!

Sharon Gledhill who has been at Newham for the past 12 years will step into a new position as Business Manager at Lancefield Primary in the new year. We will still see her a little as she transitions to Lancefield and supports our new Business Manager to settle in. Introductions to our new BM will be in the first newsletter of 2023.

Have a safe, joyful, and relaxing Summer break! I do hope that we actually get something warm in the way of summer weather! We look forward to seeing students back in 2023 for the first day of school (Preps included) on Monday 30th January 2023.

Postscript: and a Final farewell to Pandemic School-Operations guides! In the pictures below are the first and final copy of the mandated Covid instructions for schools. The first was in 2020 and the last was in October this year. At the height of the pandemic these were coming out to schools once or even twice a week. You can see from the photograph the number of copies there were. I kept them all! At least those I printed off, often underlining or marking pages for easy reference.