Welcome back!

It's been such a great start to the year. I don't know if it's the feeling of freedom with relaxed Covid restrictions, the lovely weather, the great work we're doing in wellbeing education, or just that we're all so happy to be back; but we are all noticing how calm, settled and 'ready to learn' the students are at the start of this year, and the general 'vibe' at school is just wonderful! Yay! 😀

We'd like to welcome everyone to the 2023 school year, and especially our new Reception students (pictured below) and their families. We're so glad you have come to our school, and we are all looking forward to getting to know you.

Swimming

It's swimming week for all students Reception to Year 5, and we've been really lucky with the weather this year. We've been really proud of the students for 'having a go', encouraging one another, being respectful to instructors and showing a positive attitude. The focus on school swimming lessons is safety, and it's great to see the students learning to become comfortable in the water, and the older students confidently manoeuvre in and out of the deep end of the pool... even wearing clothes!

It's such a HUGE week for our Reception students, going on the bus and attending swimming every day... when they are just getting used to school life. We're really proud of how well they have managed everything. Well done Katie's class!

I hope you enjoy these photos of swimming lessons:

Communicating

Every school term we have a focus area from our school values Learn Stand Give Fly. This term our focus is Communicating, under the theme of Learn. To launch our theme, we are learning to greet others using their names and making eye contact. This basic skill is so important in communicating to others that they are seen, known and valued. It also means they are more likely to listen to what you have to say. But it's not easy for everyone! For most children, this is a skill that needs to be taught. You can help at home by teaching your children to respond to others they know by looking at the person who has spoken to them, and gently encouraging them to respond using the person's name, ie

'Hello Suzie, how are you today?'

(Suzie looks, makes eye contact with Grandma and smiles),

'I'm fine, Grandma, how are you?'

Result- Grandma is delighted and the foundation for positive communication is set. You may need to roleplay at home first, and to be patient - it really is a challenging skill for some children.

Students and staff have also set the goal to learn every child's name in the school. My personal goal is to learn all of the parents' names too, so please bear with me as I continue to ask you your names until I am 100% sure. 😏

Zones of Regulation

We have been working with students over the past couple of years on recognising their emotions and learning strategies to help them manage their feelings and bodies so they are 'ready to learn'. This year we are excited to be introducing the Zones of Regulation to all students Reception through to Year 6. This is a tool to help us identify what state we are in at any stage of the day. Zones are neither good or bad; they just help us to be more aware of our feelings and our bodies and reflect how we can look after ourselves in the moment to achieve what we want to achieve.

The Four Zones

The Red Zone is used to describe extremely heightened states of alertness and intense emotions. A person may be elated or experiencing anger, rage, devastation, or terror when in the Red Zone.

The Yellow Zone is also used to describe a heightened state of alertness and elevated emotions; however one has more control when they are in the Yellow Zone. A person may be experiencing stress, frustration, anxiety, excitement, silliness, the wiggles, or nervousness when in the Yellow Zone.

The Green Zone is used to describe a calm state of alertness. A person may be described as happy, focused, content, or ready to learn when in the Green Zone. This is the zone where optimal learning occurs.

The Blue Zone is used to describe low states of alertness and down feelings such as when one feels sad, tired, sick, or bored.

We have sent home a small Zones poster for each family today with the eldest child in the family. It would be great if you could pop this on the fridge and ask your children to identify which Zone they are in from time to time. Children also love to hear other family members identify their Zone, and even talk about the family pet's Zone!

Thank you for supporting us at home with this important social / emotional learning. I've found it really interesting to reflect on my Zone since we did the training, and I hope you will find it helpful too.

Catastrophic fire danger days

Our school has detailed plans in place to keep your child safe in the event of a bushfire:

On catastrophic fire danger days in the Mount Lofty Ranges fire ban district our school will be closed and no one is permitted on site. Whilst our school’s bushfire risk rating is R3 (medium to low risk), we are in close proximity to a nearby R2 (very high risk) school.
If a catastrophic fire danger day is forecast, we will inform you of a closure after 4pm the day before.
If the CFS upgrade the fire danger rating to catastrophic on the day, our school will remain open for the remainder of that day. This is in line with the department’s processes and allows us to more easily manage communication with parents and caregivers in the event that a closure of the school is recommended by the department.
We practise Bushfire drills with the students every Term 1 and 4 so that students are prepared in case of an emergency. Our Bushfire Shelter is in the school Hall (OSHC room) in the main building.
We also practise communication with families through text messaging system in case we need to contact the whole school community in case of an emergency, and we are unable to send a SeeSaw message due to the internet being down, or if there is an urgent need for immediate communication. It is very important for this reason that we have the most up to date mobile phone number for your family at all times.
Yesterday all parents and caregivers should have received a test text message in preparation for bushfire or other emergencies. The message read: This is a test text message from Uraidla Primary School in preparation for our emergency procedures. Please do not reply. Thank you! Margie. If you did NOT receive this message, please contact the front office to inform us or to update your contact details.

We encourage you to read the Department’s Bushfire and your child’s school or preschool brochure for more information on school closures and how we will act if threatened by a bushfire. Search ‘bushfire information’ at www.education.sa.gov.au .

Child Protection Curriculum

You may be interested to know that in addition to our assessed areas of the curriculum, we also teach child protection across the school. The Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum (KS:CPC) is a respectful relationships and child safety curriculum for children and young people from age 3 to year 12. It teaches children to:

recognise abuse and tell a trusted adult about it
understand what is appropriate and inappropriate touching
understand ways of keeping themselves safe.

The KS:CPC is mandated in all public schools and is taught every year by our class teachers who have completed a full day KS:CPC training course. It is a world-class, evidence-based child safety program that is used by a range of other Australian and international schools. If you would like more information about the content of this curriculum please follow this link to the Department for Education website Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum information for parents and carers (education.sa.gov.au),or feel free to contact me or your child's teacher.

Acquaintance Night

We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday night for our Acquaintance Night with a different format this year. This year we are acting on feedback from families that you would like more information about your child's learning program, so each teacher will be giving a short presentation about the learning in their classroom. We hope you enjoy the evening and stay around to socialise too!

Have a great fortnight everyone!

Margie

Mon 13 Feb	Gov Council 7pm
Wed 15 Feb	Acquaintance Night
Fri 17 Feb	Assembly - Alex
Wed 22 Feb	Think U Know ESafety Presentation
Thurs 23 Feb	SANFL Clinic
Thurs 23 Feb	Choir Littlehampton
Thurs 2 March	Courier Cup Swimming*
Fri 3 March	Assembly - Stephen/Henry
Fri 3 March	Tuck Shop - Sam's class*

Important dates