School News
Music In Term 2
2022 has had its interruptions, but we have been gathering momentum in music at White Gum Valley. In Week 8 of Term 2 the whole school sung The Beatles’ famous song “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da”, accompanied by the very talented Theo Caillot on piano and Mr Kaloczy on ukulele. It was such a fun song to sing and the students made a huge sound.
Choir rehearsals have also started, with a record number of students attending. We are going to learn three or four songs with the aim of performing them at the Music Assembly in Week 10 of Term 4.
Mr Kaloczy has been choosing and arranging music for the Xylophone Group to start learning. This year we will be playing music from the animated film “My Neighbor Totoro” and the accompaniment to a whole school song.
Across the years students have done really well at learning new rhythms and solfa sounds, listening to famous pieces of classical music, understanding and singing from music notation, teaching themselves songs on instruments, completing rhythm dictation tests, singing in two or three parts simultaneously, and learning about interesting scales.
We are looking forward to the second half of the year!
Mr Kaloczy
Music Specialist
NAIDOC Week
On Wednesday 29 June, we had a whole school incursion to celebrate NAIDOC Week. The Madjitil Moorna Noongar Choir ran an interactive performance and workshop, teaching students and teachers songs in both English and Noongar language. Everyone enjoyed the experience, making it a great addition to our NAIDOC activities and last week of Term 2.
Teachers are also running a range of class NAIDOC Week activities to further promote reconciliation and appreciation for Aboriginal culture and histories. Some class focuses and activities have been based around looking at our newly completed mural, painted by local Aboriginal artist Jade Dolman. We also encourage parents and community members to come in and have a look at our great new addition.
Mrs John & Mrs Maciel
Room 3 Assembly
We celebrated NAIDOC week with our assembly. Following this year’s theme of ‘Get up, Stand up, Show up’, we highlighted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contributions to all aspects of Australian life through an informative BTN episode. We hope that you all enjoyed the episode and remember all those fun activities you can do over the holidays!
Honour Certificates
Congratulations to our Classroom recipients:
Room 1: Kai, Annabell and Max
Room 2: Leon and Heidi
Room 3: Kimberley, Zaine and Clancy
Room 5: Zara, Rory and Leo
Room 6: Katie, Ted and Alia
Room 7: Abbie, Myla and Biara
Room 8: Sabine, Emmy and Elliott
Room 9: Ii'esha and Stephanie
Room 10: Olivia, Luminara and Fynn
Room 11: Eloise and Ranger
Room 12: Orla and Beau
Room 14: Basil and Niari
Art: Charley and Zoe
E-Safety with the E-Safety Commissioner
At White Gum Valley Primary School, we teach students how to be responsible digital citizens and safe online at the earliest appropriate opportunity. Students are supervised closely when on-line and mechanisms to monitor students are in place. We know that parents also want to ensure that their children are safe and responsible when engaged with screen time at home.
Identifying and managing internet safety risks with children is about helping them become responsible digital citizens. Parents won’t always be able to supervise their children online, so it is essential to empower them to manage their own internet safety risks to give them the ability to respond positively and deal with online threats if and when they occur. Parents can do this by:
- Being a role model for safe internet use.
- Talking with your child about internet use and online content.
- Guiding the way your child builds their online reputation.
- Teaching your child to be careful with personal information.
- Teaching your child about online purchases.
The following links are good jumping-in points for parents to start chatting about online safety issues and strategies with their kids. They contain age-appropriate information about internet safety and practical ways to keep children safe online.
Our fist go to source of information is the e-Safety Commissioner website https://www.esafety.gov.au/
Parents and carers might also want to click on the following links;Internet safety: children 6-8 yearsInternet safety: children 9-11 yearsInternet safety: teenagers
For those feeling overwhelmed with information and analysis-paralysis, one practical way to start thinking and talking about how we can use technology responsibly in the home is to create a Family Media Plan. It’s best to make your plan with your child and ask them for suggestions. Your plan can cover things like screen-free areas in the house and what online behaviour is OK. If parents follow the Family Media Plan rules, they’ll be role-modelling good online behaviour, too.Other handy references to bookmark include;
eSafety parent resourcesOnline safety and familiesHow to stop cyberbullyingAnti-bullying
IDCARE: identity theft and cyber-crime support service
Many thanks to one of our parents, Daniel Gretton, for passing some of the links on.
Have fun in exploring how you can all be safer online.
WGV Good Standing Policy