Our early years Mums from Kindy and PP are to be very specially pampered by their children this week!
Kindy Gold and Kindy Blue’s PAMPER morning is this Wednesday 6th May
PP Gold and PP Blue’s Pamper morning is this Friday 8th May
starting at: 10am
Enjoy it all everyone!
Moments like these make being a Mum fun!
Dear Parents,
A reminder that this Wednesday 6th May from 2.00pm – 3.00pm KZ Speech will be running a PARENT MEETING for all Kindy parents in the small school hall.
At the parent meeting, Kathy Ziatas will share the WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, HOW of the Speech and OT Screening process here at St Emilie’s.
We really encourage as many Kindy families as possible to please attend this meeting. If you do plan on coming, please sign up by popping your name on the sign-up form outside your child’s classroom.If you can’t know until closer to the time, feel free to pop in and sign up when you arrive.
As you will recall St Emilie’s has secured the services of KZ Speech and OT to run a screening process in Kindergarten each year. This screen results in some very valuable information that can then be used extensively by the classroom teachers to support each child as well as identified areas of need by the whole class. Parent funded opportunities for follow-up sessions with a qualified speech therapist and/or OT are also able to be organised here at school (saving money and avoiding taking children offsite).
It is an expectation that parents will support this school based initiative which means we would like to have all Kindy children screened. As the screenings take place as of next week, if you do not wish to participate, you are asked to please contact a member of the Leadership Team by the end of the week to discuss.
Thanks again for all your support – opportunities like this screen and the offer of follow up sessions for those who need it, ultimately ‘value-add’ to each child’s learning opportunity here in our school and beyond.
Attached is a Client Information Form which needs to be completed and returned to your class teacher by this Thursday 8th May.
CLIENT INFORMATION FORM St Emilie’s 2015
INFORMATION SHEET KZ Speech Screen 2015 – St Emile
Regards and thank you again for your wonderful support!
Tania Thuijs, Principal.
Dear Families
Welcome back everyone!
A warm welcome back to you all! We are really looking forward to another great term – all eleven weeks of it! We’ve had a terrific couple of days. Children are happy to be back at school and staff are enthusiastic about their ‘switched on’ attitude!
I have really enjoyed hearing all the holiday stories – bravo Mums and Dads – there has been lots of reading, playing imaginary games, playing board games, picnics, sports, camping trips, catching up with friends, bbq’s, watching a movie, cooking fun, walks along the beach, interesting road trips and more!
Staff have also had a really good break and are looking forward to offering many valuable learning opportunities throughout the term. Your ongoing support, encouragement and positive interactions with your teachers – whether face to face, by email or by note, really make a huge difference and help to pave the way for your child to flourish here at school. When they see and hear you relating respectfully and positively with teachers, it sends a very powerful message indeed and helps them to feel safe, secure and more confident in themselves.
Term 2 Planner Information for Families
The ‘Term 2 Planner Information for Families’ document has now been posted on the front page of the website (see the left hand column, half way down). This document essentially lists the main calendar dates with any explanatory notes underneath where applicable. Please check this document regularly to stay up to date with what isn happening / when.
Three Ways
As per the Term Planner we have a day set aside for our Three Way meetings on Wed 27th May. We will be trialling an ONLINE BOOKING SYSTEM. More information on how to book an interview time will be sent home shortly.
Maintenance
The school has been a busy place over the holidays with new toilets going in to Kindy and PP and the big Eucalypts having to come down outside the Kindy. This very big School Board decision regarding the removal of the trees was made because:
We look forward to lots of winter sun and we will explore moveable shade options for the summer months.
Kindy Interviews 2016
The next couple of weeks will be a busy time for the Leadership Team as we interview new families and their children, as well as siblings who will be starting Kindy next year.
NAPLAN
Naplan testing will be conducted throughout Week 4 of this term in Years 3 and 5. As always our best advice is to not stress children out unnecessarily. Tests are a normal part of the teaching and learning cycle here at school. If we don’t make them bigger than they need to be our children won’t. We want them to do their best for sure, however there is no need to ‘prime them’ for NAPLAN. Our messages are stay calm, read the questions carefully, do your best, check your work and don’t worry!
Parent Session for Families of Kindy, PP, Yr 1, Yr 2 and Yr 3 children
The School Board and Leadership Team request that one parent from each family K-Yr 3 please be present at a Parent Information Session on Wednesday 3rd June – 6.30pm -7.30pm, where we will share information about a possible 1:1 progressive rollout of devices next year, starting with Year 4’s.
Morning Teas this term
Please make sure you check in with the school website regularly so you can stay up to date with class news, school news and P&F/Board news.
All the best for a wonderful term ahead everyone
Kind regards
Tania Thuijs
(on behalf of the School Leadership team)
Wow! What a busy fortnight we have had, hosting many visitors and making new friends!
KANYANA
Volunteers from the Kanyana Wildlife Rescue Centre brought some Native Australian Animals for an incursion to Kindy.
We met a Black Cockatoo, an Echidna, a Python, a Bearded Dragon, a Bobtail Lizard and a Boodie!
We were so lucky to be able to learn about these rescued animals and we even got to touch them!
It was exciting to meet some reptiles in particular and see their scales, claws and other features up close!
OPEN NIGHT
So many of our families came along to Open Night at school to see some of the things we have been learning about at Kindy this term.
We were very informative hosts, teaching our visitors all about the different activities and opportunities we have been involved in with our friends at Kindy.
FAMILY PLAY DATE
Our Play Date was lots of fun to share with Mums, Dads and Grandparents!
We played indoors and outdoors with our families in all the different centres at Kindy that we use each day.
The grown ups really enjoyed play dough, painting, making a cuppa in the home corner, building, sand play and chatting with lots of new friends!
We then shared morning tea with our visitors on the grass outside. What a great morning it was !
BUDDIES
Our Year Three Buddies came to collect us from our classroom and walked us to the Junior primary playground.
We had a super time on the big climbing equipment.
Our buddies took such good care of us, chatting with us and keeping us safe as we climbed, jumped, slid, swung, ran…!
We look forward to spending time with our big friends again next term!
NEW LIFE
Our learning about Jesus’ life has taken us to Holy week.
We have learned about Jesus’ last meal with His friends on Holy Thursday, His death on Good Friday and His new life on Easter Sunday.
Jesus teaches us to love as God wants us to so we can share in new life too!
We have been learning more about this concept through practising friendly behaviours, through our Godly Play and stories such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar!
Thank you to our families for sharing in our learning over this term
We wish you a Very Happy Easter!
Our 8am Community Mass will not be held this Wednesday 1 April due to the focus on Holy Week celebrations.
We look forward to seeing you all at our next Community mass which will be celebrated at 8am on Wednesday 6 May 2015.
We encourage all St Emilie’s children and their families to join the St Emilie’s Parish Community for
9am mass – this Sunday – Palm Sunday.
The Parish Liturgy Committee would like the children to line the pathway from the school to the church waving palms (provided) as Father recreates Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem.
This will be a very special experience and will be one the children will remember well into the future.
Dear Parents
I highly recommend that you take a listen to this TedTalk if you get a chance amidst your busy lives – it is 17 mins long so perhaps wait until you have dropped the children off – or at some time when the house is quiet and you have a bit of time to listen.
Bottom line : Happiness and resilience = a more positive life!
Developing a sense of well-being is so important – and it means taking charge of our own emotions and thought processes…
Certainly a daily effort! 🙂
NAPLAN RESULTS
ACARA recognition for Catholic schools
Message from the WA Catholic Education Office:
“We have previously communicated that the Catholic Education system achieved the best WACE results in five years in 2014. Following on from that success, we have also been advised that 25 of our schools achieved an above average NAPLAN gain, compared to other similar schools.
The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) looked at the comparative gain of each school to the previous reporting period, the relative starting point of students at a similar level, as well as the school’s ICSEA rating.
I would like to congratulate all of the CEWA schools that have been acknowledged by ACARA. This is a significant achievement which is the result of many hours of hard work by school leadership teams and classroom practitioners. “
St Emilie’s was one of only 25 Catholic schools from across WA recognised by ACARA in this way!
Suffice to say that as a community we can be very proud of the hard work and dedication of all our staff and students.
Teachers are the decisive difference in the classroom and everything that we individually and collectvely can do to support and encourage our teachers in their work, the better the outcomes for each and every child.
When families support teachers, when families build a safe, happy, stable, loving family life, this too helps children to learn – so go for gold families!
We know that NAPLAN results are only one part of a much bigger learning picture where each child is supported to ‘do’ and ‘be’ their best self…
But for this week let us all celebrate our good news!
