Uraidla Primary School newsletter

A message from Margie   

Phew, it's hot! 

It seems we spend most of the year complaining about the cold here in the Hills, but this week we have been adapting to the heat. Here are some of our classes practising mindfulness after lunch yesterday in different ways: with a quiet story, with 'belly breathing', listening to relaxing music, reading and mindful colouring. We have in place mindfulness activities across the school to help our students to be 'ready to learn', as part of our Berry Street Education Model wellbeing focus. 

Welcome Halle! 

A huge congratulations to Troy, his wife Lisa and son Jasper, on the arrival of baby Halle

 this week.  Troy is taking a few weeks of paternity leave and we wish him a wonderful time getting to know his beautiful little daughter. 

 

We need your help!

We've identified a potentially dangerous situation at pick up times after school. We have become quite concerned about the pick-up area on the town oval side, which is often congested with parents and carers talking while they wait to pick up their children and head home. We then have cars entering and exiting this area, some needing to back up into this space. To complicate matters, we have toddlers playing around parents' legs, kids on bikes and school children running across the traffic space to enter cars. Yikes! 😫 It feels like an accident waiting to happen. 

 

Here's our solution: 

If you are exiting your car to collect your children, can you please come directly into the school grounds and leave the parking and roadway clear of all foot traffic?  

 

We know, we know... we were the ones who ASKED you to stay outside of the gate during COVID times, and now everyone's used to it. 😏 Please help us to change these habits and keep the children safe. Thank you! 🙏🏼

Volunteering at school 

It has been great to hear some of our new families asking about volunteering at school. If you have a few hours to spare, here are some ways you can help us out: 

  • Join the Parents and Friends to help organise social events for the school community and raise money for the students' benefit
  • Join the Governing Council to help make decisions about the running of the school and OSHC, eg finance and policy
  • Help out with your child's class or another class listening to children read
  • Give us a hand in the library sorting books 
  • Help us out with a bit of gardening around the school 
  • Join our 'Green Team' to help the school became more environmentally sustainable 
  • Helping out at stalls for an hour or so when we ask for volunteers 

Families who help out in this way often say how rewarding it is for them personally as well, and what a terrific way it is to meet other school parents. Children also feel more connected to the school if their parents and carers become involved. We understand that life is very busy and that many of you will not have any time free to help out; but if you are available in some capacity, please send me a SeeSaw message and I'll connect you to the best volunteering fit for you! 😊

Communicating  

Our focus on communicating this past fortnight has been on conversation skills. Again, learning to hold a conversation that is satisfying for both parties can be quite a challenge even for adults, and many children need to be taught how to do this. 

 

You can help us out at home by teaching children to really listen to what the other person is saying, to not interrupt or change the topic, and to follow up with relevant questions.  When speaking you can teach them to look for cues that the other person is interested and understands what they have said, such as them nodding their head, maintaining eye contact and showing expression on their face. If they are losing attention, it is the speaker's cue to ask the listener to share their thoughts too! 

Zones of Regulation

We are continuing our work on the Zones of Regulation by asking students to 'check in' with their zones at various times of the day. In the older classes they have individual check in cards on their desks that they can adjust throughout the day as they move though different zones: 

  • Edward says, "I'm in the green zone because I'm feeling calm and relaxed and ready to learn".
  • Eloise says, "I'm in the yellow zone because the writing task I'm doing isn't my favourite. It's ok and I'm doing it, but I'd rather be doing something else". 
  • Lena says. "I'm in the green zone because I'm feeling positive, nothing is worrying me and I'm ready to learn".  
  • Ashton says, "I was in the blue zone today because I was feeling really hot; I fixed it by going into the shade and into the library at lunch time."
  • Ellie says. "I'm in the blue zone because I have hay fever and I'm feeling a bit sick."  

Donation 

We'd like to thank the Uraidla Concert Band for their kind donation of $150 towards our music program!  This was a surprise donation and such a pleasure to receive. We love being part of such a generous and connected community.  I'm looking forward to hearing the Uraidla Concert Band perform on Sunday at the community picnic to celebrate Uraidla winning the Tour Down Under Best Dressed Town (see Community Notices). I hope to see you there! 

Acquaintance Night 

Thank you to all of those who were able to come to our Acquaintance Night last week. The teachers were really happy to be able to talk to you about their students' learning program, and we all really enjoyed our picnic gathering with the whole school after. 

Emergency contact info

Two weeks ago, 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, and you haven't already let us know, please contact the front office to inform us or to update your contact details. 

E-safety 

All classes enjoyed the informative ThinkUKnow e-safety presentations this week put on by SAPOL. Please talk to your children at home about how they can keep themselves safe online. 

 

I also urge all parents to have a filter on all home devices and Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, I have seen very young children unknowingly exposed to harmful images and videos. It is hard to 'unsee' some images and children can be very distressed and confused following an exposure of this type. I've also experienced children who have been subjected to online grooming. Fortunately, in this case the children spoke to their parents and the police were able to intervene. In all of these cases, parents were shocked and horrified, and completely unaware that their children had access to this sort of content and/or communication. Children are naturally curious, and it is up to us as adults to ensure they are protected.  

 

The federal e-safety website is a great resource to get you started with e-safety and parental controls:  Parental controls | How to keep your child safe (esafety.gov.au) 

Top 20 school! 

It was rewarding to read in the Advertiser this week that we made it into the Top 20 best achieving schools in South Australia according to our NAPLAN data in 2022, public and private combined. We were the only school in the Hills to reach the top 20 this time. We always feel pretty proud of our students' achievement, but it's terrific to be acknowledged in this way. 

 

Have a great fortnight everyone! 

 

Margie