Issue 3 29 March 2017

Hello Neerigen Brook Families and Community Members Project Recycle Project Recycle is a great program which is being run this term and is based on positive mentoring and linking children in our older years to role models. As part of the program the children develop leadership and resilience skills by building bikes for charity while also building and painting a bike for themselves. We were fortunate to receive funding for this program and are currently seeking further financial support to repeat the program with other children next term. MADI: Making a Difference Initiative We have also received funding for 20-30 of our Year 4/5 students to participate in musical theatre workshops next term. MADI is focused on addressing bullying and offensive behaviour and supports both our Business Plan and the feedback we received in the National School Opinion Survey last year. The messages from the program will initially be shared with the participating students who will then perform at a presentation assembly after being coached over a 5 week period (an hour a week).

As a school and wider community it is important that we continue to work together to address inappropriate behaviour. Positive Behaviour Schools (PBS) and Friendly Schools Plus are whole school approaches at Neerigen Brook PS that are incorporated across lessons to both prevent and respond to bullying type behaviour. Our school is also participating in the Bullying No Way! initiative which is linked to the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence which was on Friday 17 March. To support these programs and initiatives it is important that as adults we also model positive strategies to overcome disagreements.

Principal’s Pen

Cyber safety In addition to MADI, PBS, Friendly Schools Plus and Bullying No Way we are also teaching our children about cyber safety and cyber bullying through ySafe. This organisation is run by Jordan Foster who has a Master’s Degree in Psychology with a focus on cyber safety. Jordan has already conducted workshops with all students from PP-6 at no cost to parents and will be coming back throughout the year to work with our Year 4-6 students. Jordan has also provided professional learning to the staff. It was disappointing that the advertised parent session was cancelled due to lack of interest. If there are 15+ parents who are interested in learning about cyber safety and how to address cyber bullying at home I am happy to reorganise this parent workshop. City of Armadale Pauline Giblett, Community Development Officer, is working with our school this year. We are currently negotiating to run a High School Head Start program for some of our senior students and their parents later this year. This program is focused on supporting a positive transition and reducing the anxiety attached to moving to secondary school. Pauline is also interested in developing a “Walking School Bus” program with us this year. If you are interested in supporting a Walking School Bus please let me know. Staffing changes Fran Coen absolutely loves being a teacher at Winthrop PS and has decided that this is the direction she wants her career to take. As such she has accepted a long term contract with them and has resigned from her Deputy position at Neerigen Brook PS. We are currently advertising for a Deputy to replace Fran and will advise the school community of the successful applicant after the process has been completed. After much consideration Julie Good has accepted a Music teaching position at a new school which is within walking distance of her home. Our new Music teacher Shane Ostapenko, will be commencing at our school this week. Fiona Coffield, School Officer, is also moving schools after spending many years at Neerigen Brook. Fiona has been working hard to achieve her career goals over the last few years and has successfully won a promotion. This is a great achievement and we wish her lots of luck in her new school.

Helping Hands Helping Hands has advised the school that continuing low numbers of children attending the program has resulted in them finishing their work at our school at the end of this term. Occupational Therapy Our working partnership with the Challis Child and Parent Centre has continued this year with Matt, an Occupational Therapist, working with our Early Childhood students and teachers this semester. This supports the early intervention and Full Service model that we value in our school.

Friday 31 March Assembly – Room 11

Friday 7 April End of Term

Monday 24 April Staff PD Day

Tuesday 25 April ANZAC Day Public Holiday

Wednesday 26 April Term 2 Begins

Thursday 27 April ANZAC Assembly 9:30am

Monday - Friday

8 – 11 May NAPLAN

Thursday 29 June Staff PD Day

Friday 30 June Staff PD Day

Friday 15 December Staff PD Day

Upcoming Events

Principal’s Pen cont…

In and Around Our School

Library News

Leadership Conference

On Friday of Week 7, the Neerigen Brook Primary School student leaders attended the Halogen “IMAGINATION’ leadership conference at the Perth Convention Centre in Perth. The program is designed to benefit students who show an interest in developing their leadership potential. Over 23,000 students along with their teachers/principals attend this event around Australia annually. The school leaders were able to listen to a number of influential and motivational speakers from a variety of fields, including Tracy Vo – Channel 9 News, Ashleigh Nelson and Rach Lynch – Hockeyroos and Sam Skinner – GM of the Halogen Foundation. They were able to build upon their understanding of leadership and responsibility, and conducted themselves in an exemplary manner. Mrs Clark and Mrs Siddique were very proud of them all. Congratulations Emily, Claudia, Kaleb, Sohayla, Sarah, Alyssa, Jalaya, Jonathon, Rand, Jay, Whitney, Ethan, Tyler and Mya! Mrs Clark and Mrs Siddique

In Room 11 this term we have been focusing on different reading strategies to help us learn how to be competent and enthusiastic readers. Here are some examples of reading strategies we have focused on this term. Predicting is where I think about what will happen before and during the story.

Connecting to the text is where I connect what is happening in the story to things that have happened in my own life. Creating images is where I use words from the text to make pictures in my head. Sounding out is when I see a word I don’t know and I sound out the letters and put it together to say the word. Reading on is when I keep reading to work out the meaning of the text and predict an unknown word. Term One is nearly over and it’s time to return any outstanding library books and home reading books to the library. The students have been enjoying visiting the library at break times to read, play games, dance and draw. Students are also welcome to exchange any books during this time. Years 1 to 3 visit at recess and 4 – 6 at lunchtime. The library monitors are a great help to me during these times and I thank them very much.

Room 11

Duty of Care Before school, students who are not accompanied by a parent/caregiver must be in either the new Undercover Area near the canteen or in the Breakfast Bowl. Students who are accompanied by a parent/caregiver can sit quietly until the beginning of the school day in the old Undercover Area. Please help us to have a positive start to the school day by ensuring that all children come to school after 8am and are in class by 8.30am. As a school community it is also important that we model Be Safe, Excel, Show Respect and Take Responsibility (BEST) so that we’re all being positive role models for the children of our school.

On Tuesday 28 March we held our first Brilliant Kids Morning Tea for the year. There was a wonderful feast of delicious morning tea treats for our Brilliant Kids to enjoy whilst they shared with Mrs Instance and Mrs Anderson what they enjoyed most about our school and how we could make NBPS even better. Some of the things our students have enjoyed this term included how welcoming our school felt to all students, Maths, Sport, Morning Meetings, warm ups and how our teachers help them to achieve their goals. Our Brilliant Kids suggested that to make our school even better all students should clean up the rubbish around the school, more writing and Maths, introducing a language, a nature playground for Year 1 – 6 students and our choir having the opportunity to perform for different audiences. Thank you to our wonderful Brilliant Kids, not only for their feedback but also for being role models by demonstrating consistent positive behaviour throughout the term.

School News

A friendly reminder that the 2017 In Term Swimming Lesson forms and payments are due by 16 June. Payments can be made at the office and we accept cash, cheque or EFTPOS. If you require a payment plan please come speak with the front office staff.

Brilliant Kids Morning Tea

Our annual Easter raffle sheet has been sent home and tickets are due back Tuesday 4 April 2017. We are asking for donations to go towards the hampers, all donations can be taken to the canteen and are greatly appreciated. The raffle will be drawn Thursday 6 April 2017. Just a reminder to please do not allow students to go around the neighbourhood door knocking unless accompanied by an adult. Please keep a lookout for the Mother’s Day note coming out next week. We thank you for your continued support.

Canteen News

P&C News

Community News

Bits n Bites Canteen News Bits n Bites new menu for Term 2 will be coming out this week and is open every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Volunteers are needed to keep our canteen in operation. If you can spare an hour or two, please call in and see Teegan for more information.

Helpful Numbers Neerigen Brook Dental Clinic – 9399 4601

School Security – 1800 177 777