Term 2 Week 5

Dear Parents,

"Friday Football Madness!" What unadulterated, amateur, footballing joy that was, even though DPS have bragging rights for the year. We are so proud of Mr. Jones, Mr. Mac, Ms. Horrocks, and so many of our Year 5 mums and dads who went into battle for OLC. 

Special mention must go out to the fans. Having some serious team spirit includes not only shouts of, "Bend it like Beckham!" and "Suuuuiiii" but also, "Run, Mister Joooones... yay, shoot... NOOOOOO!!!!"

 Yoga:

We had a lovely and very timely session on Thursday afternoon with Mrs. Heather Starr, in which the students had a chance to experience a guided meditation, that included a gong, sound bowl and rain stick! Some of the wriggliest among us were lulled into calm, relaxed .... zzzzzzzz's (I'm pretty sure).

We will have another session this Thursday ...a massive thank you to all involved in facilitating this experience, we loved it!

Drum roll please .......

Congratulations to our Week 3 Merit Award winner, Phoenix Kerr

Congratulations to our Week 4 Merit Award winner, Davie Saayman

COMMUNICATION

I would like to acknowledge YOU as your child's first, ongoing and most important teacher. In this light, I feel that it is vital for parents and teachers to work together, and it is important to keep communication open and flowing. I invite you to contact me as soon as anything arises that you feel may affect your child at school, or if there is something that is concerning you. I am the person that is on the ground with your child every school day, and therefore best placed to answer any questions, or provide clarification.

Chinese whispers and misinformation are counter-productive for everyone. It is never a bother for me to receive a quick email from you, or for you to pop your head in at pick up or drop off. If there is something that involves discussion, I will phone or email you after school and we can arrange a meeting if necessary.

STATIONERY

Please send in spare stationery items with your child this week, in particular erasers, glue sticks, a ruler, a blue and red ball point pen, a lead pencil and sharpener. I ask that they are in a Ziploc bag clearly labelled with their name. I will place these in our class storeroom for the students to replenish their pencil cases as required. I am finding that during work time, students are out of their seats rummaging through shelves and bags looking for items or trying to get a peer's attention to borrow stationery, and then not returning them, or asking me for essential items. This is causing unwanted disruption and wasting valuable learning time. Please check with your child what items they need, and / or I will ask them to take their pencil cases home for you to look through this week.

Expectations & Consequences:

We are now at the pointy end of primary school. To help prepare the students for high school, I feel it is time to increase my expectations and as a result, consequences for those expectations not being met. I will be expecting the students to step up in general, however the following areas are those that I will be focusing on in particular for the rest of the term:

1. Consistent with the school IT policy, if laptops are not fully charged for use within the school day or the device is being used inappropriately, your child will receive an infringement notice which gets sent to admin and parents. If this continually occurs then the student's personal time, such as recess and lunch will be taken away from them, and you will be contacted by admin for a meeting.
2. As you are aware the students participate in Banqer jobs, for which they are paid up to $200pw into their bank accounts. Admittedly this has fallen somewhat by the wayside during transition between Ms. Lombardi and I, but last week I added some exciting new employment opportunities for them, which will be launched today. I have decided that participation in these jobs is not a given, it is something they need to earn. Therefore, if students are consistently not demonstrating our school CARE values throughout the week, they will not participate in their jobs and not be paid for the week. Instead, at a designated time of my choosing, they will be in class writing about the school value/s that they chose to break, and this will be sent to admin, and home to parents that afternoon.
3. If students are off task and not completing work in class, this will be sent home to be completed that night and is expected to be returned (completed) the next day.
4. Homework is school policy. Four out of twenty-three students completing their homework to Year 5 expectation, speaks for itself. This was one of Ms. Lombardi's reflections to me at handover, so it was clearly not happening in Term 1 either. If students do not complete or return their homework, an email will be sent home notifying the parents. If this becomes a regular offence, the students will spend their recess and lunches completing the weekly homework from scratch. Homework is not meant to be torturous, but rather a way to instill routine, organizational, and healthy work habits in readiness for high school. It also gives parents an insight into how their child is travelling. This is my expectation:

• Homework runs from Monday to Monday.
• Reading - your child is expected to record in their diary each night what they have read and how long for (minimum 20 minutes). You can engage with this by asking your child to read aloud to you, retell what they have read and asking them comprehension questions. These skills are in line with the IPI testing I do throughout the year with your child to establish their reading age / level and progression.
• Times tables practice sheet.
• Maths concept sheet, congruent with the current maths focus.
• Parent signature in diary and on Maths sheet before it is returned each Monday.
• Incomplete classwork.

I have noticed some undesirable habits in the few, short weeks I have been in this class and am hoping that by introducing these measures we will move forward and see our next school leaders flourish and be role models to each other and those in junior year levels.

What... you're still here?! I applaud you for persevering through this marathon blogpost. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Warmly,

Anne Coltrinari