Primary Update Term 2 Week 4
Mother’s Day
We celebrated our wonderful mothers and mother figures over the past two days at our primary campuses. Our Lavalla Mass (Thursday) and Marian Liturgy (Friday) were beautiful celebrations of the wonderful mothers in our lives. Wishing all Newman mothers and mother figures a restful and enjoyable Mother’s Day this weekend!
2 Red Assembly
On Friday of last week, Year 2 Red entertained and informed us with their assembly about recycling. The Year 2’s have been learning all about the importance of recycling, and how the process works. They also participated in a recent incursion on waste. Students, staff and parents learnt a lot from the assembly. Thank you Year 2 Red for sharing this important message with our community! As a result of the Year 2’s passion for recycling, we will be introducing some recycling initiatives in the primary over the coming weeks.
Movie Night
It was wonderful to see primary families last Friday night at our Primary family movie night event. It was a wonderful evening of activities, followed by a fantastic movie – Elemental! The feedback from parents has been outstanding – what a fantastic event!
Morning Supervision at Lavalla
A reminder that morning supervision commences at 8:20am at Lavalla Campus each morning. Students who arrive before this time are not supervised by Newman College staff and therefore we ask that students do not arrive before 8:20am. For their safety, students have been told that should they arrive before 8:20am they are to sit on the oval in a designated area and wait for the duty teacher to start before moving around.
Lavalla Kiss N Ride
A reminder to all Lavalla Parents using the Kiss N Ride to collect your child in the afternoon, to please ensure that your family name sign is clearly displayed on your dashboard/visor so that staff can quickly and efficiently call your child to the car. If you did not request a family name tag previously but now require one, please email Mrs Johnson in the front office – Amanda.Johnson@newman.wa.edu.au
URSTRONG – Lesson 1 Complete
Lesson 1 Review
As mentioned in last week’s Newsletter, this term we have commenced the roll-out of the URSTRONG Friendship Curriculum across the Primary. All students through PK-6 engaged in Lesson 1 last week, which focused on each child’s ‘Inner Ninja’. The areas of focus across our year levels in Lesson 1 were:
Pk-2: Self-compassion, teaching students ways to treat themselves like a best friend.
Yr 3 & 4: Self-compassion, teaching students how to tame their butterflies and feel calm when they are experiencing big emotions.
Yr 5 & 6: Self-compassion, teaching students how to squash ANTs (Automatic Negative Thoughts) and dispelling myths around gender stereotypes and the ‘pressures of perfection’.
The feedback from teachers is that our students engaged and enjoyed the sessions, which is fantastic to hear. Lesson 2 will be rolled out next week in all classrooms.
A reminder parents have access to a FREE URSTRONG 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. We hope that, as a URSTRONG Family, you will reinforce the important messages of empowerment, self-compassion, & kindness at home.
As we start the program, I encourage all parents to watch the ‘Language of Friendship Introduction Video (the first in a series of parent videos) within the parent membership section of the website, and to engage in a discussion with your children about what they learnt and discussed during Lesson 1 in class.
Medals of Marcellin
Our new positive behaviour system, Medals of Marcellin, has commenced and our PP-6 students have responded extremely well to this new initiative. We had our first ’raffle draw’ at our prayer assemblies on Monday, where Charlotte (Marian) and James (Lavalla) were drawn out of the raffle and congratulated for demonstrating our Newman Norm of ‘Use manners and respectful language when talking to students and teachers’. Congratulations to all students who received a raffle ticket in Week 3 – over 300 raffle tickets were given out which is a fantastic effort! These raffle tickets have now been converted into faction tokens and placed in our faction token tubes in the front office of each campus! So far, red faction have the most tokens at each campus and are in the lead!
Newman Norms
Our new Newman Norms are now on our website and I encourage you to have a look at these expectations for our Primary students – Newman Norms – Newman College.
Each week our staff and students will focus on 1 Norm, to discuss and unpack what that norm means for our students in their day-to-day school life.
In Week 3, our focus was: Use manners and respectful language when talking to students and teachers.
In Week 4, our focus has been: Treat our classrooms and school with pride and respect by keeping them neat and tidy and using equipment responsibly.
Our focus in Week 5 is on Wear our College uniform correctly & with pride.
Parents Visiting Classrooms
A reminder about parents visiting classroom in the morning.
Parents are welcome to visit classrooms on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during the following morning times:
- Kindy & Pre-Primary: 8:45-8:55am
- Years 1-6: 8:35-8:45am
These morning times, as listed above, are provided to any parents who may wish to visit the classroom to view their child’s work, view the classroom environment or to participate in a quiet, small activity with their child.
A reminder that this period of time is not the time to speak to your child’s teacher about their progress or the time to socialise with other parents. We ask that parents are respectful of our Mindful Mornings routine and join in the activities or view the classroom in a quiet and calm way with their children. If you wish to have conversations with other parents, we ask that this is done outside of the classroom. If a younger sibling is attending with you, please be mindful of them as they move around the room with older students, and be aware of the play/work spaces that teachers have set up for their students to be used later in the day so that these aren’t interfered with.
When it is time to leave, we ask that parents quickly exit the classroom to ensure students are able to separate quickly from their parent. It may be worth speaking with your child over the coming days about how you may come into the classroom every now and then, but then when it is time for parents to go and class to start, the children will need to give their parent a quick hug/kiss and say goodbye. Preparing your child for this will be helpful in minimising any separation anxiety that may occur at this time.
Pk-2 Parent Information Session: Occupational Therapist
Marian parents are invited to attend an informative session, hosted by occupational therapist, Helen Cooper. The session is designed to provide valuable insights into the role of occupational therapy in your child’s development and education. Please see the flyer below for further information and to register your attendance.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Ryan von Bergheim
Head of Primary