School Council

Positions on School Council are open, if you would like to be on School Council please pick up an application form from the office. If we have more applications than positions, we will go through a voting election process.

Student Leadership Positions

At Oatlands we put in a lot of effort into developing students’ leadership ability and responsibility. All of our senior students and especially our grade 6 students play a big role in leadership around our school, whether they have an official role or not.

In the past, we have had some outstanding leaders who have not had an official role. They have been outstanding leaders because they have displayed and encouraged others with our core values (respect, effort, kindness, resilience and creativity). Leadership is developed through consistent determination to display leadership when people are looking and when they are not looking. Everyone can be a leader and should be a leader, whether they have an official role or not.

Congratulations to the following students who were presented with their official student role at Assembly this week:

Student Leadership 2020

School Captains Jordan (6JR)

Shin Ee (6JR)

School Vice-Captains Ridhi (6NM)

Mitch (6EB)

Hrishi (6NM)

Naveen (6EB)

Sports Captains

CAPTAINS	VICE CAPTAINS
Diesel 6JR	Dale 6EB
Chloe 6JS	Natasha 6NM

House Captains

FRASER
CAPTAINS	VICE CAPTAINS
Cooper 6JR	Allie 6EB
Abbey 6LH	Rhiannon 6EB

ELLIOT
CAPTAINS	VICE CAPTAINS
Rabee 6JR	Ethan 6DJ
Aaliyah 6DJ	Hunter 6EB

BOYLE
CAPTAINS	VICE CAPTAINS
Beau 6DJ	Liam 6JS
Alyssia 6LH	Makalya

PERKINS

CAPTAINS	VICE CAPTAINS
Jemma 6EB	Diyathi 6LH
Miriam 6JS	Angus 6LH

World Read Aloud Day at Oatlands

On Wednesday the 5th of February, our whole school paused to celebrate the joy of reading!

This is a worldwide event which calls attention to reading aloud and sharing stories. Now in its 11th year and celebrated in over 173 countries, World Read Aloud Day is a wonderful reminder of the power and importance of this best practice.

World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults to celebrate the power of words. This global literacy movement is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people. World Read Aloud Day asks everyone to celebrate the day by grabbing a book, finding an audience, and reading out loud.

An abundance of research points to how reading aloud is both beneficial and beloved. Reading aloud is a special bonding experience for your whole family. Research tells us that reading aloud to children is the single most important activity for building their knowledge for eventual success in reading.

Our staff chose one of their most beloved picture books and visited a new class of students to share the joy of reading aloud with our kids! We think it is fair to say that both students and staff thoroughly enjoyed taking time out to just read for the love and enjoyment of sharing our favourite books!

Helen Connell & Tania Nicholas

KEYS TO CONNECT

A group equipping children with self awareness, social understanding, interpersonal skills and emotional resilience.

Resiliency is linked with the ability to relate to others and develop social networks. These skills are often not taught and are assumed to be naturally acquired through life experience. Unfortunately some children are unable to pick up these necessary social skills naturally. They require training in these areas that are generally not explained or discussed in the home or school environment.

A failure to develop the social understanding and behaviours necessary to form these friendships can cause social isolation, school refusal, social conflict, oppositional behaviour. Negative social experiences can have long term consequences on future family, relationships, career success, general well being and self esteem.

This program is aimed at providing an accepting and welcoming environment that does not assume social understanding and teaches keys to connect with others. The program begins with a focus on understanding their own and other people’s feelings and behaviours. Once this understanding is established then interpersonal skills are taught, giving children the keys to develop meaningful friendships and connections with others. This in turn is likely to build their confidence in social settings, and increase their sense of well being and belonging as they experience success in their social world. This program will benefit children with Autism spectrum disorders or any children who experience difficulty in their social understanding or behaviour.

This program involves 10 sessions beginning in Term 3, 2020 at Oatlands Primary School. This program will occur on a weekly basis for 1.5 hrs. There will be 8 places available with 2 facilitators; Emma Healey, Psychologist and 1 ABA (Applied Behavioural Analysis) Therapist. Emma Healey has worked extensively with children and adolescents with a range of social and emotional difficulties over the past 18 years at both the Andrews Centre and in a range of school environments.

The cost of the program will be $450.00 to be paid prior to the beginning of the program. Medicare will refund $21.60 after each session when provided with a receipt of service, coming to a total of $216.00 after 10 sessions. A mental health plan with an accompanying letter of approval for your child’s participation in GROUP WORK is required through a General Practitioner for each child to be eligible for the $216.00 refund through Medicare.

A list topics covered can be found on the attached page.

Sessions:

1/ Understanding my feelings –Introduction, identifying the link between thoughts, feelings and actions, expressing and grading my emotions, accepting emotions and controlling behaviour.

2/ Owning my feelings – handling emotions appropriately/ self regulation, support strategies, relaxation, communication.

3/ Awareness of self and others – physical appearance, personality, people in my life, likes and dislikes, strengths and needs, problem solving, differences between me and you.

4/ Introduction to Conversational Skills – verbal and non verbal communication, conversational rules, assertiveness.

5/ Body Language – appropriate use of gesture and facial expression and personal distance.

6/ The way we talk – volume, rate, clarity intonation and fluency of verbal communication

7/ Conversations – listening, starting a conversations, taking turns, asking and answering questions, being relevant, repairing and ending conversations. Different communication modes such as phone conversations, face to face etc.

8/ Assertiveness – problem solving approach, expressing feelings, standing up for yourself, making suggestions, refusing, disagreeing, complaining, apologising, requesting explanations.

9/ Friendships – what is a friend, friendship skills, making and maintaining friendships, practicing friendship skills.

10/ Team work – leadership, fairness, cooperation, review and certificate.

Grade 5