5 March 2021 Week 6 Term 1

Principal's Report

CAMPS
I had the pleasure of attending the Year 7 camp at Victor Harbour and was delighted with the behaviour and enthusiasm of our senior students. Through the activities they were able to challenge themselves and develop relationships with staff and their peers. Over the course of the camp their excellent interpersonal and leadership skills became evident. As Year 7 students they take on many additional responsibilities across the school and it has been wonderful to see them fulfilling these duties to a high level. 

Similarly the Year 5 camp, provided opportunities for students to develop their personal skills and challenge themselves in activities out of their comfort zones. With the support of their peers and staff, many students achieved things that they never thought they would. Again the behaviour and enthusiasm of our students was exemplary.

Camps are an excellent opportunity for students to develop relationships outside of their usual environment and experience new challenges. We will be holding the Year 6 camp at Adare Victor Harbour early in term 2. A huge thank you to all of our staff that take on this additional responsibility.

NAPLAN
This year will see the return of the National Literacy and Numeracy tests early in Term 2. Unlike previous years, in 2021 students will be taking the Numeracy, Reading, Spelling and Grammar and Writing tests online. The online tests will be differentiated for each student depending on the answers they provide for each question, thereby enabling us to receive more specific information about what the student knows and areas for future learning. It will also mean that the school will receive student achievement data much sooner than the usual September date.

ROAD SAFETY

Staff have seen a number of parents and students dangerously crossing the road, just metres from the actual crossings.  I understand that at times we are all in a hurry but children copy what they see and we all need to be modelling excellent road safety practices.  Please use the crossings to ensure everyone remains safe.

We are also continuing to see very dangerous driving on Highfield and Hay roads.  Parents we urge you to take the time to follow the road rules:

• do not drive through crossings when the flags are up,
• do not park in front of crossings,
• please do not perform three point turns into driveways during the very busy pick up and drop off areas.

Please take the extra few minutes to drive safely around our school. 

EARLY DISMISSAL

As per the recent Chief executive “consent for early dismissal” recently sent to parents via Edsmart, the process of finishing early on Easter Thursday and the last day of each term has not changed, however we are now required to inform parents and obtain in principle their consent. These dates have already been approved by the Governing Council.

Linden Park will be finishing early on:

• Thursday 1 April – school finishes at 2:10pm – Easter Long Weekend
• Friday 9 April – school finishes at 2:10pm- End of Term 1

Our Out of School Hours Care will be operating for those families should it be needed.  Our Student Free Days were mentioned in the previous newsletter and can be found on our website.

I hope you enjoy the long weekend

Regards

Deb O’Neill

2021 Wellbeing and Engagement Student Data Collection

The wellbeing and engagement collection (WEC) is a survey that collects information from students in Years 4 to 7 about non-academic factors relevant to learning and participation.  Linden Park Primary will be conducting this collection in weeks 8-10 of this Term (15 March to 1 April).  The WEC gives schools, the community and government an insight into what needs to occur to ensure students experience success and are provided with resources and opportunities to reach their full potential.

At LPPS we use the survey results to help us develop strategies to understand and support students’ emotional and mental wellbeing. Parents will be sent an Edsmart email permission slip to consent for your child to participate in the survey.

Attached below is a letter from the Department for Education with more information about the survey.

Year 5 Camp

From the 22-24 February, our Year 5 students spent 3 days at El Shaddai campsite. Students were organised into teams and participated in a range of outdoor problem solving activities that focussed on developing teamwork skills including; canoeing, raft making, swimming, rock climbing, archery, vertical challenges, the giant swing and laser skirmishing.  The camp delivered some exciting challenges - clearly evident in the vertical challenge where they had to build a tower of crates for one team member to climb up to reach the ceiling.   Thank you to our parent volunteers and to all of the Year 5 students for making camp a big success!         

Year 3 & Year 4 Swimming

Last week and this week as part of the Health and Physical Education curriculum, our Year 3 and Year 4 students had swimming lessons at the Burnside Swimming Pool. The children engaged in a broad range of activities including using kick boards and noodles, learning how to tread water, floating, collecting items from under the water, duck diving and swimming with life jackets. The children developed a range of knowledge and skills including; water confidence, survival in the water, swimming technique, rescue of others, water safety, endurance and fitness.  Thank you to all our wonderful parent volunteers who accompanied classes on the buses and helped supervise the children.

Girls in Tech Expo

On Thursday 4th March nineteen girls from Year 6 and 7 had the opportunity to attend the ‘Girls in Tech Expo’ hosted by St Peter’s Girls School. This outstanding learning opportunity promoted technology and the rewarding career paths associated with this field. Throughout the day students participated in a range of workshops.  Hands on activities were a highlight as students flew drones, participated in game making through coding, tinkered with robotics, experimented with LEGO EV3s and delved into the world of Makers Empire. Students enjoyed the interactive activities and meeting a variety of industry experts.

Nicole Scrivener, Deputy Principal: Innovation and Inquiry

Clean up School's Day

This year marks the 30th year of Schools' Clean Up Day.   This initiative is a fun and engaging way to teach students about the responsible disposal of rubbish, resource recovery and the repercussions of rubbish dumped irresponsibly in the local environment. 

Our Year 2 students (rooms 2 & 3) with parent volunteers were hard at work clearning up the crossing at Hay Road on Thursday 25th February!  https://www.cleanup.org.au/about-us

New Pastoral Care Worker

At the beginning of this year our previous Pastoral Care Worker, Ellen O’Dea informed us that she had found work as a youth worker much closer to her home. Although this is a great opportunity for Ellen, we were sad to see her go and thank her for the support she has provided to students during her time at LPPS.

We are however, very excited to welcome our new Pastoral Care Worker, Ashlee Beecroft to our school community. The Australian Federal Government provides a variety of information and resources to schools, parents, and students to support the resilience and wellbeing of students. This includes the National Safe Schools Framework, the Student Wellbeing Hub, Cyber Bullying resources, Bullying. No Way! Resources, the Child Protection Curriculum and the National Schools Chaplaincy Program (NSCP).

Within SA government schools, the NSCP funded workers are called Pastoral Care Workers (PCW). It is voluntary for schools to apply for NSCP funding. Pastoral Care Workers are trained to support individuals to connect with or develop their sense of self, resilience and capacity to cope. Based on community feedback via a survey in 2019, the Governing Council endorsed an application for the National School Chaplaincy Program 2020 – 2022. As a result, the school secured funding to engage a Pastoral Care Worker.

The Department for Education does not employ Pastoral Care Workers, rather they are employed by third party service providers and in Ashlee’s case, Centacare.

Ashlee has a psychology honours graduate from the University of Adelaide. Last year Ashlee worked with trauma affected students in the region of Cudlee Creek after the 2019 Adelaide Hills fires. Ashlee has worked with students at risk of disengagement and has written tailored case management plans for these students and their families. Ashlee works in another government school in the capacity of a PCW.

All students at LPPS have access to emotional, wellbeing and mental health support from their teacher, myself as Student Wellbeing Leader and from the Leadership staff at the school. The PCW is an additional support service to this and is often seen by the students as a neutral alternative.

What will Ashlee do at Linden Park Primary School?

• Teachers are able to nominate students who they believe are at risk social or emotionally to Ashlee or myself. Generally these students will present with concerns around having worries, anxiety, self-esteem issues or friendship concerns.
• Ashlee’s conversations with students will be solutions focussed. Primarily she will provide an environment where students feel safe to talk about any concerns. Ashlee has current DfE required training and certificates and will share any concerns with me that need to be addressed with parents or to other Leadership staff.
• Ashlee is also aware of using pro-active strategies in developing social skills and to build students resilience.
• Ashlee will be working at LPPS each Friday. Ashlee and I will meet regularly to discuss on-going student needs or new student cases.
• For any student who we believe would benefit from Ashlee’s support, the parents will be given an ‘opt-in’ or permission form they will need to complete via EdSmart.
• If any parents would like to access Ashlee’s support for their child, please speak with your child’s teacher, enquire at the front office or send an email to dl.0647.info@schools.sa.edu.au Ashlee will be more than happy to make contact with any parent who wishes to discuss their concerns about their child.

If you have any further questions or queries about Ashlee’s work in the school please do not hesitate to contact me via the front office.

Rachel Pontifex, Student Wellbeing Leader

Student Wellbeing

Supporting your child with Self-Awareness

This term at Linden Park, the staff are focussing on self-awareness strategies with students. Self-awareness is one of the four key components of the Department for Education’s Personal and Social Capabilities. Students need to develop an awareness of their own emotional state, needs and perspectives. Being self-aware of ourselves allows us to experience ourselves as unique and separate individuals. We then become empowered to make changes or to build on our strengths as well as areas where we would like to make improvements.

During Term One the teachers have been provided with many professional development opportunities and practical strategies to teach and promote self-awareness in their classes.

• Recognising, naming and using a broad range of emotions (emotional literacy).
• Recognising personal qualities, achievements and learning styles.
• Understand them as learners.
• Develop reflective practises.

What you can do at home to support your child’s self-awareness development.

• When discussing your child’s emotions (feelings) try to include other simile words to recognise exactly how your child may be feeling. i.e., When you child says they feel sad, they actually may be feeling embarrassed, jealous, hurt or anger. Help your child understand that there are a range of words to describe emotions that have a similar meaning.
• Have a time during a day when the family does a ‘check in’. Each person in the family discusses how they are feeling about their day. This can be done in the morning or as a reflection over dinner. Some families call it ‘Roses, Thorns and Weed’; a positive thing, a negative thing and a worry they may have. Each person has an opportunity to share and each person needs to listen to the other family members.
• Encourage your child to discuss their emotions they express in a range of circumstances and make connections with how their body responds to emotions. When they are excited, they might jump around and flap their arms. When they are feeling embarrassed they may hang their head and hide their face.
• Borrow books from your library that have characters who experience a range of emotions. https://www.weareteachers.com/15-must-have-picture-books-for-teaching-social-emotional-skills/
• Model your own self-awareness. When you feel a range of emotions discuss this with your child but also make sure you talk about how you regulate yourself back to a calm state. Children are developing their own self-soothing (self-regulating) strategies and often ‘borrow’ an adults strategies.

https://www.thepathway2success.com/teaching-kids-to-be-self-aware-2/

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or queries.

Rachel Pontifex, Student Wellbeing Leader

Early Years (Rec– Yr 2) Student Action Committee

The Early Years (Rec– Yr 2) Student Action Committee had their first meeting on Thursday to raise and discuss issues important to the students to make the school a better place to play and learn.  

Congratulations to our Semester 1 Early Years SAC representatives: Haneef H, Linda L, Analise T, Henry M, Quinn E, Katie L, Luc H, Eva G, Liam F, Neili G, Evelyn G, Daniel W, Liam A, Bethany S, Arlo M, Holly D-R, Lakhshh A, Tiana N, Mia M, Yiran W, Shekar K, Amber L, James Y, Mia C, Billy S, Hope H, Henry W, Belle Z, Eloise R, Varin V

All Student Action Representatives are invited to purchase a badge via the Qkr app at a subsidised cost of $4.00 (GST free).  Receipts and badges will then be delivered to the students via the classroom.  NOTE: Orders must be placed on the QKR app in the Linden Park Primary School (Tree Logo) customer under “School Payments” – SAC Badge.  

Library News

In the last newsletter, we shared with you our library inquiry for 2021: What strategies can we use during library borrowing to enhance reading for pleasure? Our aim is for LPPS students to become lifelong readers and we believe that using borrowing time effectively can help with this goal. Students have already generated many ideas of ways students, teachers and library staff can improve practices during library borrowing.

Some of the ideas are:

• “more reading challenges like book bingo”
• “more time to borrow”
• “more comfortable reading areas”
• “talk to your friends about different books”
• “ask library staff for suggestions”
• “writing down a to-read list”
• “read after you’ve borrowed your book”
• “Have ‘If you like…, then read…’ lists”
•  “Borrow different types of books.”
• “When you’re in the library, sit down quietly and read your book after you borrow.”
• “Students should be able to share about books to others so they can find a good book.”
• “Read a bit of the book to see if you like it.”
• “Teachers could read to the class.”
• “Teachers can introduce a new book they have liked.”
• “Bookmarks with book suggestions”
• “Library staff recommends shelf”

Parent Volunteers Needed

Linden Park Primary School would like to invite you to join our Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group. We are looking for members of the community to establish a diverse working group that ensures the responsibility of implementing reconciliation.

What is a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP)?

The Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) program provides a framework for organisations to support the national reconciliation movement. Schools and early learning services can develop a RAP through Narragunnawali.-Reconciliation in Education. Narragunnawali supports all schools and early learning services in Australia to foster a higher level of knowledge and pride in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and contributions.

RAPs are making a difference across Australia in workplaces, universities, schools, government and community organisations.

The RAP framework enables organisations to contribute to reconciliation by:

• building and encouraging relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, communities, organisations, and the broader Australian community
• fostering and embedding respect for the world’s longest surviving cultures and communities.
• develop opportunities within your organisation or services to improve socio-economic outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.

Anyone can join our RAP working group. If you are interested, please email Nicole Scrivener with your interest at Nicole.scrivener83@schools.sa.edu.au.

We will then organise a day and time to have our first meeting. Reconciliation is everyone’s business. We hope to hear from you soon.

Please note if you were on our working group last year you will be automatically invited to attend meetings. If you no longer wish to be a member please email Nicole Scrivener to remove you from the mailing list.

Year 6/7 to high school parent update

This year marks the start of a new phase for our education system, as we finalise our preparations to welcome your year 6 or year 7 child to high school in 2022.

Please find attached a flyer from the Department for Education regarding transition to high school in 2022

School Photography Day

Your child should now have brought home their school photo envelope.  School Photos will be taken at our school on: Wednesday 17^th & Thursday 18^th March, 2021.  Class times will be confirmed closer to the time.

Please take time to read the relevant information on the MSP Photography payment envelopes and remember these helpful points

• Don’t seal envelopes inside each other. You can pay for all children in one envelope however each child needs to have their own envelope on photo day
• Family envelopes are available at the school office upon request and need to be ordered before or on photography day. 
• Please enclose correct money as no change is given. Cash, cheques, credit card and money orders accepted.

Placing your child’s order online is the safest & easiest way to order school photos. Just enter the shootkey printed on your child’s envelope and make your selection! If you are having a Sibling photo taken, do the same with the shootkey printed on that envelope (envelopes available from schools front office) and you’re done. It really is that easy!

An added incentive for our families is that MSP now offers a 10% discount for all orders above $90.00 a family. To receive this discount online your orders must be placed in one transaction. 

Should you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact MSP.  

email:  admin.adelaidesouth@msp.com.au    ph: 08 83913951

LPPS 70th Anniversary

1. LPPS 70th Anniversary 2021 Whole School Photo : A whole school photo, which was taken this year (29th January 2021) for families to purchase. There are two sizes available: 12x8” for $15.00 and 10x15” for $20.00.  Order via the Qkr app or webstore: https://qkr-store.qkrschool.com/store/#/home under "70th Anniversary" Menu.
2. LPPS 70th Anniversary Pavers: We are offering families the opportunity to order a personalised paver. The pavers will be incorporated into the existing named pavers at the gym entrance to the school. Purchasing a paver is a great way to be remembered as part of Linden Park Primary School’s history.  Families can purchase a paver to display your family’s name which continue our "legacy walkway" acknowledging some of our past pupils and staff.  Order via the Qkr app or webstore: https://qkr-store.qkrschool.com/store/#/home under "70th Anniversary" Menu.

Community Notices

ORIENTEERING AFTER-SCHOOL

Learn this exciting navigation strategy sport!  Practise finding your way around a course using a map. Have fun! 

Training sessions are held on Thursdays from 3.45pm-5pm at various near-City parks.

Beginners welcome. $5 per session, first lesson free. Parents to provide transport and supervision.

To register or for more information, please contact Aylwin Lim ayllim@netscape.net

Check the Orienteering SA website for other events for the whole family  https://sa.orienteering.asn.au/