Around The Primary

Dear Parents

Our students and staff have returned from the holidays with such energy and enthusiasm and have all enjoyed the first week of Term 4. We have hit the ground running and are looking forward to a busy and productive nine weeks of teaching and learning.

It was lovely to welcome Grandparents and significant others to enjoy a picnic lunch with their grandchildren on Thursday. Over 700 visitors joined us and the feedback from the event has been so very positive. We would like to thank all the Grandparents in our community for the special role you play in our students’ lives and how this helps our goal to educate the whole child here at John XXIII. Special thanks to our talented students for sharing their musical talents too!

Save the date! We are hosting our first ever Primary Disco on Friday 4 November! (details below).  We are sure it is going to a super event for our students and staff!  Book tickets using this link - https://www.trybooking.com/959256 

Special thanks to all our staff for supporting this new event on a Friday night – you really are amazing! 

Kind regards

Antoinette De Pinto

Head of Primary

Dates to Remember

Please check the College Website to note all the important Primary school events for your family calendar http://www.johnxxiii.edu.au/view/for-parents/calendars and subscribe to the Primary Calendar.

Visual Art Exhibition

Our Visual Art Exhibition runs from Monday 17 October (Opening Night) to Saturday 22 October 2022. The Exhibition features artwork from both the Secondary and Primary students.

All students participating in specialist Visual Art lessons from Year 3 to 6 will have a piece of artwork exhibited and a small selection artwork from the Early and Junior Primary will also be displayed. It is a great opportunity for parents and the community to view artwork across all years and for students to showcase their artwork.

Everyone is invited to come and celebrate the students design and creativity with both 2D and 3D work from a range of forms being exhibited. 

I look forward to seeing many of you at the Exhibition throughout the week.

Fiona Blaauw

Primary Visual Art Specialist Teacher

NAPLAN

As you may be aware, earlier this year, Education Ministers around Australia announced that from 2023, NAPLAN will be conducted in Term 1 rather than Term 2, enabling schools and parents to receive their children’s results earlier in the year.

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has advised that in 2023, the NAPLAN test period will be from Wednesday, 15 March to Monday, 27 March.

Schools and parents will benefit from receiving their children’s results earlier in the year. Teachers will be able to use these results to further tailor teaching and learning programs to each student’s needs.

Schools will receive results in two parts. Preliminary results for the non-Writing tests will be available in the beginning of May 2023. Final results, which will include the Writing results, will be available after the Writing tests have been marked. Parents will receive one report after the Writing results are made available to schools. This will likely be in early July, 2023.

Answers to frequently asked questions can be found on the Authority website www.scsa.wa.edu.au 

Information is also available on the ACARA website: www.acara.edu.au 

Library Author Visit

We are very excited to have local author, Jonathan Macpherson, visiting our library on Thursday 20 October between 8am and 8:30am. The Rotto! series is very popular with our students, and I am sure they will enjoy talking to Jonathan and having their books personally signed! If you would like to order any of Jonathan’s books at a discounted price, please see attached form. Please ensure your child has the correct amount of money and the order form in an envelope ready for Thursday morning.

Sasha Cattapan

Primary Library Teacher

Sports Update

We have a big term of sport coming up, starting with the Junior Primary Athletics Carnival on Thursday 27 October on the Junior Primary Oval - it is always such a colourful and fun event.  It   would be fantastic to see lots of parents and significant adults attending to cheer our junior athletes on.  To keep you going throughout the morning, Gingernut coffee will be onsite.

On Friday 11 November (from 4pm to 6pm), Cottesloe Golf Club are running a free event for girls 8 and over.  Please see the attached flyer for more information and registration. 

Afterschool sport

Before and after school sport begins next week and there are still some spaces left.  Please see the registration details below:

Soccer

Coach Adi and his team at J&J are back on Tuesday afternoons for Year 1 to 6 students from 3:30pm to 4:30pm on the Junior Primary Oval.  The program starts on Tuesday 18 October, please contact Adi to register juricadi@hotmail.com

Tennis

Nick Kirkbride is back with Monday morning tennis for Pre-Primary to Year 6 students from 7:45am to 8:30am on the College tennis courts.  Please check the flyer for more details. 

Basketball 

Redhage Basketball continues on Thursday afternoons from 3:20pm to 4:20pm.  Please register at www.redhagebasketball.com/schools-program

If you have any queries about anything sport related, please contact me via email steve.williams@cewa.edu.au 

Steve Williams

Primary Sport Coordinator

Primary Music

Choir Rehearsals

Congratulations to Year 5 Band, Mini Minors, String Orchestra, Primary Singers and Wanju Voices on a fantastic performance at the Grandparents’ Picnic yesterday. 

All primary ensembles return to normal rehearsal times in Week 2.

Save the Date

Please save the following performance dates in your calendars for Term 4:

If you have any queries regarding Primary Music, please contact me via email: catherine.haydon@cewa.edu.au

Catherine Haydon

Primary Music Teacher

Counsellor's Corner

It was lovely to see such a happy, lively buzz on Tuesday as students returned to school after the break. There was lots of excitement with the children reconnecting with friends and sharing what they did during the break with teachers. 

This term across the Primary School the children will continue to learn the Keeping Safe Curriculum. 

This term they will cover the fourth focus area:

Strategies to stay safe.

• Younger children learn to know their home phone number and who to trust with this information
• Supportive networks are reviewed, and children learn about community services which can help like 000.
• Students learn a range of problem-solving strategies using relevant age appropriate scenarios. 
• Assertive communication, persistence and resilience are all explored in this process. 
• Persistence is reinforced so students understand that they need to keep telling until someone listens and takes action.

Children are also learning about the URSTRONG program. URSTRONG is an internationally recognized Social Emotional Wellbeing program, that empowers children with the skills, language, and self-confidence to be better friends and develop healthier relationships. Friendship is such an important part of children’s lives and across the primary school children are learning practical useful strategies to help make this a positive, happy part of their life

As a URSTRONG school our parents are invited to take advantage of a FREE Parent Membership to access hundreds of resources – including an 8 session video series. This will allow you to learn the same language & strategies being taught in the classroom through the Friendology 101 curriculum. Just follow the link FREE Parent Membership

I will be on Long Service Leave in Weeks 2 to 6 of this term.  I look forward to seeing you on my return. 

Anne Murphy

Primary Counsellor