Term 4 Week 1

Telephone : (08) 80882181 www.alma-p.schools.nsw.edu.au Fax : (08) 80873691

Visit our Website: alma-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au or download the Alma App to your smartphone through the Apple App Store or Android Google Play Market

Tuesday 11th October 2016

Inside this Issue *From the Principal *Andrew Manely *2017 Enrolments *Power to Learn *Kindergarten Orientation

*Bucket Hats *What’s on this Term *Community News

No Assembly this Week

WELCOME BACK!

Our

amazing

ears!

Book week

Come and celebrate

book week with us in

Week 3. The Book

Week parade will be

held on Thursday 27th

October. Time to start

getting your favourite

book character

costume ready!!

2017

Kindergarten

orientation

Visit 1 Friday 14th October 2.00pm to 3.00pm

The first orientation visit for Kindergarten 2017 children and their parents will be held this Friday.

Parents and children will meet at Kester Hall

Parents attend an information session whilst children participate in story reading and art and craft activities with Preschool and Kindergarten teachers.

Afternoon tea will be provided by the school.

(See page 4 for futher dates and details for Kindergarten

Orientation )

Dear Parents and Community Members,

Multi-Purpose Court How exciting! Our multi-purpose court has been started. Hopefully the weather will give us a break and allow the workman to complete this wonderful addition to our school as soon as possible.

Social Work Student This term we welcome Andrew Manley to our staff. Andrew is a social work student with the URDH and is attached to Alma for the whole term. He will be based in the health hub.

Coding Workshop Some lucky Stage 2 children have attended a coding workshop this morning with Mr Lardner. I’m not technological enough to understand it but the children who were involved in coding last term tell me it is about programming and robots and “good stuff like that”.

Short Black Opera A number of Aboriginal students from Alma are involved in the Short Black Opera program that ran so successfully last year. They are attending singing classes each day this week with a performance on Friday at 12 noon. (see the flyer in this newsletter). I saw the video and news coverage from last year and it was a truly wonderful experience for the children involved and their families. I encourage as many people as possible to attend the concert.

Busy Friday at Alma This Friday, we are hosting 14 Kindergarten children from the School of the Air. The students will be coming to Alma to participate in a kitchen lesson with Angela Langdon. We will also be hosting the Broken Hill Principals for their term meeting. The first Kinder Orientation session will also be happening in Kester Hall.

Safe Place There has been a huge amount of publicity lately on the news and various social media forums about clowns scaring or attacking people in America. Unfortunately, the publicity has led to a spate of copycat incidents in Australia and elsewhere. Yesterday, a number of children made comments to staff about clowns, some even claimed to have seen clowns in the school. This is not true. Please speak to your children – Alma is a safe place, there are no clowns. I would appreciate your support in this because I suspect that the whole clown issue is going to be ongoing for a while.

Busy Term and New Appointment At the end of last week, I received a call from the Department of Education staffing directorate. I have been appointed to Ourimbah Public School on the Central Coast starting in 2017. This is my 5th year at Alma and it has been a privilege and a pleasure leading the school. I truly value the relationships I have with staff, parents and students and, while I am looking forward to the challenge of a new school closer to my family who are spread from Sydney to Brisbane, I am sad at the thought of leaving such a wonderful school. In the meanwhile, Alma is looking at another really busy term and I’m focussing on reports, Annual School Report, Presentation Day, Year 6 farewell etc. I hope to catch up with you all during the term.

Glynis Lugnan

Alma Public School Kindergarten & Bugdlie

Preschool 2017 Enrolments

Enrolment applications are now being accepted for Kindergarten and Alma

Bugdlie Preschool for 2017. Enrolment forms can be collected from the Alma

Public School administration office. For all enquiries please contact the

school on (08) 8088 2181

Hello Alma school community. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as I am sure some of you may have seen me around the school grounds already and been at a loss to know

who I am or what it is I am doing! My name is Andrew Manley and I am a third-year social work student from La Trobe University. I have come from another little rural town just down the road – Mildura, Victoria. I have been given the privilege of being the very first social work student to be placed in this great school of yours! You’re possibly asking yourself: What is social work? What does this mean for me? Social work, especially within schools, is a profession that seeks to work with schools, teachers, families and students together around any disadvantage or barriers that get in the way of your children’s opportunity to learn and succeed. My profession is concerned with giving each and every one of your children opportunities to thrive and succeed. It is important to also point out that this is achieved through working together – with your children, yourselves and the school together to achieve this. If anything, I would like the following to be my key message to you all – social work is about working with you, not against you – in achieving what is best for your children and their education. And it is about working with those who know best how to achieve this – your children, you, your teachers, and your school! Please feel free to say hello or to ask any questions that you have and I look forward to seeing you around.

Cover photos: Kindergarten & Year 1 students participated in the Breathe-Blow-Cough-Chew-and-Wash Program to help prevent fluid build up and ear infection

Super Heroes bring the

In 1-2R we have been learning Rezilia and Innovatrix. Rezilia has helped us learn to

manage our distractions and to be mindful. Innovatrix is teaching us to use our brains in

clever ways. We use these desk plates to help remind us of their super powers.

Holy smokes!

Hiya Ben and 1/2N (that rhymes)! It's so great to hear from you! Thank for that complement, I've heard that you guys are awesome too.

With these learning habits, you will be learning heroes just like us! But it's not an easy task. It will take a lot of hard work and determination. That's ok, though. There aren't many things in this world, worthwhile, that don't require effort, and you have a lot of support around you if you require help.

We got our names by showing great care in our particular learning dispositions and learning habits. Rezilia is great at self regulation. One habit that helps with this is resilience. Get it? Innovatrix is innovative and uses her imagination and all of the resources that are around her to solve problems and learn.

We haven't always been super heroes. We don't fight crime or catch baddies like the other heroes that you may know. Instead, we use our powers to help people realise that they are all capable, intelligent and important enough to deserve a shot at success. To be successful, we can never stop learning. Not even after school or when we are on holidays!

As far as special privileges, Rezilia gets free massages and Innovatrix gets half price KFC on Tuesdays, between 4 and 6.

Rezilia remembers visiting Alma a few weeks ago! It was so cool. She felt very welcome, thank you! Innovatrix is due to visit very soon but we had a scheduling conflict and are not sure on the exact date, sorry.

I think that it's great that you and your class are striving to be learning heroes.

Keep it up, Ben and 1/2N. Lots of love, Learning Heroes.

Hello Rezilia and Innovatrix,

We are writing to say hello and to tell you both that you are awesome! We are trying very hard to be like you both. We are ignoring distractions, asking clever questions, making connections and being resilient. We were wondering how you both got your names? Have you always been superheroes?

Do you have special privileges because you are superheroes? We met Rezilia at our school assembly. She was cool and we liked her. Will Innovatrix visit us at Alma? At our assembly we get awards if we are like you both. Did you know that? Last week Lachlan, Preston, Emily, Bryton, Talitah and I got one of these awards because we really tried our best. We look forward to seeing you both!

From Ben and 1-2N

1-2N classroom displays posters and quotes as well as student artwork as a reminder to manage emotions, stay connected to learning and how to use our brains in clever ways. 1-2N students love receiving replies to the emails they send to the Power to Learn Super Heroes. Below is an email written to Rezilia and Innovatrix by Ben and 1-2N last term.

to Alma Public School!

What’s

on this

term!

TERM 4

October

Friday 14th

* Kindergarten Orientation

Wednesday 19th

* Kindergarten Orientation

Wednesday 26th

* Kindergarten Orientation

Thursday 27th October

* Book Week parade

November

Wednesday 2nd

* Kindergarten Orientation

Wednesday 9th

* Kindergarten Orientation

December

Wednesday 7th

*Presentation Day

*Year 6 Farewell

Community news

Bucket Hats Winter is over…..Spring

has arrived…..and

summer is on the way!

We are enforcing the

rule NO BUCKET HAT NO

PLAY IN THE SUN - Caps

will not be accepted.

Children who are not

wearing a hat will be

confined to shade

areas. Our climate can

be extremely hot and all

children need to be

wearing hats for their

own safety.