Dear families,

Thank You

I would like to thank everyone for their kind words and support over the past few weeks. While it has been a very difficult time, it has been eased by the way in which the school community has rallied and shown their support for myself and my family.

Positive Parenting Program

A reminder that the launch of this exciting program will take place at Largs School on Monday 5th September. We are looking for as many families as possible to attend the launch.

Please check this newsletter for further information.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)

As I have indicated in the previous newsletters, Largs Bay School will receive up to a million dollars to improve STEM facilities at our school. Last week, both Simon Bowden and Bob Bowden attended the ACER Research Conference – Improving STEM Learning. What will it take? The conference focused on the importance of teaching and learning in the STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and to support students to:

engage in the STEM disciplines
improve the uptake of STEM subjects in Secondary and Tertiary education
have an awareness of STEM related careers

The aim for Largs Bay School will be to improve teaching and learning by improving subject and pedagogical knowledge, skills and confidence of the teaching staff.

Earlier this year, Largs Bay received a Bright Futures Grant from Mobil Birkenhead to implement STEM programs in schools. A group of year 6/7 students have started to build and program Lego EV3 robots. The students have been really excited by this opportunity and are looking forward to programming them to solve a variety of challenges.

Another group of students have begun to learn basic programming using Blue Bots purchased with the grant. The “Blue Bots” introduced students to computational thinking and can be programmed using an app linked via Bluetooth using iPads purchased with the 2015 Mobil Bright Futures Grant. It is anticipated that the older students will introduce the “Blue Bots” to the Junior Primary classes soon.

Book Fair

The Scholastic Book Fair was a huge success for our school and it was fantastic to see so many students enthusiastically purchasing books. Special thanks to the Parent Help Group who managed this event.

Book Week

Next week, we celebrate Book Week with a number of classroom and whole school activities planned. The highlight of the week will no doubt be the “Book Week” parade. All students (and staff) will be able to dress up as their favourite book character. The parade kicks off at 9:15am in Yard A on Friday 26th August.

Port Adelaide Youth Program

Our year 6/7 students are participating the 4 week Power Community Youth Program. The program delivered by the Port Adelaide Football Club will focus on healthy lifestyles, nutrition, exercise, sleep and positive decision making.

NAPLAN Results

Next week, you will receive your child’s individual NAPLAN results. As a staff we will be analysing the results from this year and identifying areas for improvement which will drive our 2017 Site Improvement Plan. If you have any concerns regarding your child’s NAPLAN results please make an appointment with your child’s teacher.

SSO Week

This week we celebrated School Services Officer Recognition Week 2016 . We acknowledge the work that our wonderful SSOs do throughout school, including working in the front office and supporting our students. SSO Recognition Week is an important initiative recognising the crucial work SSOs do in our school communities. A big thank you to all of them.

Maths Challenge

A reminder to look in this edition for our fortnightly family maths challenge.

Good luck.

Vacation Care

A reminder that our October Vacation Care program has been released and bookings can now be made.

Once again, it is a very exciting program with both excursions and in-house activities during the 2 weeks.

Please book early to avoid disappointment.

NAPLAN Online trials

During the week our year 3, 5 & 7 students have been trialing the new NAPLAN Online platform. It is anticipated that NAPLAN tests will be completed online in 2017, so this was a good opportunity to test our infrastructure. The students have all completed an online writing task and next week we will trial the omnibus test. The students complete the tests by given a random code and the test results will not be identified with individuals.

Dates to Remember

Book Week

Magic Millions

Newsletter & Assembly

School Photo Day

Aboriginal Education Incursion

Year 4/5

Rugby League Carnival

SAPSASA District Cross Country Championships