7 May 2021 Week 2 Term 2

Principal's Report

Welcome back to Term 2, we hope that you had a lovely break with your family and got some well earned rest and perhaps had the chance to travel somewhere nice for the holidays.

Staffing

We have had a few staffing changes over the holidays. Tricia Milan will be on sick leave for the whole of term 2 and Kate Bowers will be taking her place in Room 8. We wish Tricia a speedy recovery.  Sheree Wingard will continue as Operations-Assistant Principal for the rest of the year and Dionne Madden, our Library Assistant, has accepted a role at Walkerville Primary School. We wish her the best in this new role.

External School Review

All public schools are required to participate in the Department for Education's External Review process every three years. The 2021 LPPS review will take place during week 9 of this term (21 June -23 June). The review team will spend three days visiting classrooms, talking with staff, parents and students and analysing our improvement processes. They will provide the school with recommendations and areas for future improvement.

NAPLAN 

NAPLAN tests will be commencing on Tuesday 11th May. These tests will be online with the exception of Year 3 Writing and will finish by Friday 21 May. We have sent a class schedule via the EDSMART email system to parents however we will need to be flexible and allow for any technical difficulties to reschedule as required.  For more information, parents can visit the NAPLAN ACARA website.

COLA Update

Work on the covered outdoor learning area (COLA) is progressing well and we hope the project will be completed early next term. I am sure the community is impressed by the sheer size and scope of the project and we are certainly looking forward to using it once completed.  We appreciate all of the families that have purchased the LPPS Commemorative pavers and look forward to including them in the landscaping redevelopment on site.

Parent Information Session - The Impact of COVID

We would like to extend an invitation to parents and caregivers to attend an informal information session and morning tea in our staffroom to hear about how we are addressing the impact of  COVID-19 on our global community.  We know that many of our families have relatives and friends overseas and that at times it can be distressing for your children to be faced with the media coverage.  This event may be an opportunity for you to share strategies and is a great opportunity for you to connect with other families who have extended family overseas experiencing similar circumstances. It will be held on Wednesday 2^nd June, 9.00am – 10.00am. Please RSVP by email: dl.0647.info@schools.sa.edu.au and state 'Parent morning tea 2nd June', your name and your child's room number and if you have any dietary conditions for catering purposes.  Additional information can be found on SZapp.

Congratulations

Thank you to our very hard working Community and Fundraising Committee and parent volunteers for organising the school holiday film and raffle and also the highly successful Mother’s day stall this week. The children were delighted to select a special gift for their special person.  We hope all our LPPS families have a wonderful Mother's day on Sunday and will update the community on the monies raised for the school in the next newsletter.  

Finally our Year 6 students are very excited to be going on their Leadership camp next week, we will feature them in our next newsletter. 

Deb O'Neill, Principal

Yr 4-Yr 7 Athletics

Year 4, Year 5, Year 6 and Year 7 students completed their Athletic events over the last week.  Classes rotated through four activities: sprints, high jump, long jump and discus with individual student results recorded and tallied into house points which will be added to Sports Day scores in Term 4.  The individual scores will also be used to identify students who will be selected to represent LPPS in the District SAPSASA Athletics competition on 7th September.

A very large thank you to ex-LPPS parent Wes Legrand, who managed the discus station and taught many children their first discus throw!

Kathy Wall, Geoff Mills and Harry Slee, PE Teachers

Yr 2 Burnside Library Excursion

This week as part of their Unit of Inquiry “Where we are in place and time”, the Year 2 classes have walked to the Burnside Library to view a presentation about local history that focuses on the changes to the district over the last 150 years, including school and home life.  A highlight was being able to see early photos of LPPS !  Thank you to all the parent volunteers who assisted the classes.

Yr 4 Art Performance Incursion

As part of their current Unit of Inquiry ‘How we express ourselves’, the Year 4 students are exploring how they can express themselves creatively through the Arts.  On Thursday 29th April we welcomed Michael from Making Merry Entertainment who kept the children engaged throughout his 40 minute show - delighting a few students who were thrilled to be invited onto the stage to join in the performance. 

Yr 1 Science Incursion

On Tuesday 4th and Wednesday 5th May our Year 1 students enjoyed a hands on science incursion on “See Hear: Light and Sound” delivered by Sciworld.  https://sciworld.org.au/ 

The workshop covered topics including: How do you see, How do you hear and lenses, reflections and vibrations. The incursion combined practical demonstrations as well as various workstations to help students explore the phenomenon which many of us take for granted – sight and sound!

Reception Swimming program

In the last week of Term 1 our Reception students participated in their swimming program travelling to the Adelaide Aquatic Centre on Monday 6^th-Wednesday 8^th April. Students thoroughly enjoyed the energetic programme and we thank the many parents who volunteered to help class teachers, your assistance was invaluable!

Library Update

National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) will feature the book "Give me some space" by Philip Bunting on the 19th May. This year it will be read live by astronaut Dr Shannon Walker from the International Space Station. This is in thanks to Storytime from Space: https://storytimefromspace.com/  On the day, junior primary teachers will share the book in different ways with their classes. We have hard copies of the book and there are a few digital options as well. If you have preschool children at home, check with your local library about how they are celebrating NSS.

Unfortunately, our wonderful library SSO, Dionne, has taken a job as library manager at another school. We wish her well but she will certainly be missed. Dionne was an integral part of our library team. We hope to have a replacement for her soon.

The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has announced its shortlist for Book of the Year. Please visit their website to see the full list: https://cbca.org.au/shortlist-2021

This year we have Year 7 Senior Library Monitors who are in their third year as library monitors. These very capable and responsible senior students are helping train our new year 5 and 6 monitors. Thank you to Jasper, Jiani, William, Tharinsa, Raeva, Vito, Allegra, Theeshan and Alannah for their amazing contributions to our library.

Mother's Day Stall

The Community & Fundraising Committee held a Mother’s Day Stall on Wednesday 5^th May for LPPS students to buy something special for their mums.  The stall featured many local artisan products and we hope all our LPPS mums enjoy their special day on Sunday. 

We would like to say a big thankyou to all the parent volunteers who helped work on the stall. 

Early Year SAC – Action against bullying

The National Day of Action Against Bullying was acknowledged on Friday 19^th March around Australia.  The Early Years SAC representatives discussed how the students and teachers could acknowledge this day and what action we could take to stop bullying at Linden Park Primary School.

Lots of suggestions were spoken about at our meeting but the students finally decided that each classroom should make their own pledge against bullying. A pledge is a promise that the students in the class agree to and they thought it would be a good idea to display the pledges on the doors of the classrooms. This would mean that when children walk in or out of their classrooms, they were reminded of their pledge; what they would do if they experience bullying or see bullying at school.

On Thursday 1st April, Rachel Pontifex (Student Wellbeing Leader) and the representatives walked around to all of the classrooms to see the door pledges. All classrooms did such an amazing job and we were very proud to hand out certificates to all classes for their efforts in saying no to bullying.

ANZAC day

Anzac day was commemorated on the Monday Public Holiday (29 April 2021) at the start of Term 2.  Students acknowledged the role of Australia and New Zealand soldiers who have served in wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations in various activities completed in Term 1.

Students' work  included:

• Room 13 (Year 1) designed a display in their classroom to reflect their knowledge.
• Room 41 (Year 6) as part of their investigations into significant events of the twentieth century wrote poems and presented them on beautiful silhouette posters.

Sanitary products available for our girls in emergencies

The Department for Education has allocated funds to each school based on female enrolments in years 5-7 for the school to purchase a range of sanitary products.

The rationale is that sanitary products will be readily available so that students feel comfortable to access these products in an emergency and use in a safe environment without needing to speak to a staff member in the front office which is in a high traffic area. Providing sanitary products will also ensure that students, who are not prepared at home or school, feel comfortable to access these products so they can continue to learn and feel supported in their school environment.

The year 5 to year 7 female SAC representatives are currently working with me to;

• Allocate a safe environment / bathroom where the products will be discreetly stored and students feel comfortable accessing.
• To select a range of products most suitable.
• To inform our female students in years 5 – years 7, without judgement and with encouragement, about the products and bathroom where they can go.

All staff will be informed about the options and space available, in particular the front office staff who will allow calm and discreet access for students who access this space. A budget allocation will be made each year to support this initiative. Ongoing and regular information and reminders will be provided to our female students in these year levels each year. Students will continue to be encouraged in the decision making, including reviewing the initiative and selection of products.

We encourage our parents to discuss this initiative with their daughters, in case of an emergency, but also reinforce the provision and preparation of products at home where possible. Most girls keep a discreet toiletry bag of products in their school bag.

If you have further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me via email; Rachel.pontifex604@schools.sa.edu.au

Kind regards,
Rachel Pontifex

Australian Early Development Census (AEDC)

Between May and July this year, our school will be taking part in the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC). This is a nationwide census/survey of early childhood development held once every three years. The AEDC is an Australian Government initiative run by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment and includes all children in their first year of full-time school (Reception students in 2021).

School Notices