Filter Content
- Mr Gorton’s Gossip
- Mrs Chaloner’s Chit-Chat
- Mrs Sparks' Office Remarks
- Mr Bagnall's Broadcast
- Mrs Papadopoff's Ponderings
- Mrs MacLean's Memo's
- Chaplain’s Chatter
- Parenting Tips by Mrs McCarthy
- Attendance
- Music News with Mrs Coleman
- Winter Carnival 2022 by Mr Wulff
- Golfing Guys by Mr Wulff
- Our School Values
- Enrolments for 2023
- Term Dates 2022
- P&C News
- Community News
Dear Alkimos PS Families
I write my newsletter article as we think about entering the final week of the term- how this has flown by! I’m really looking forward to the activities that are planned during this time- tomorrow’s assembly, hosted by CRs 6, 7, 8, and our traditional Strength in Unity Week, featuring many activities, including tomorrow’s visit from Derek Nannup, and the community lunch to be held on the final day of term, Friday 1 July. There is more news about Strength in Unity Week elsewhere in today’s newsletter.
Winter Interschool Carnival We were fortunate that the weather was generally kind to us last Friday so that our teams could participate in last Friday’s Winter Interschool Carnival. What a fantastic time was had by all. As we’ve come to expect, the reports were glowing about the amazing performances, behaviour and sportspersonship of our senior students- we are so proud! Can I also acknowledge the fantastic multi-sports students who had a great day here with Mrs Waddell. Congratulations to our boys’ soccer team, who brought home the winner’s shield! A big thanks to Mr Wulff and our all of our coaches for supporting the teams on the day and for all of the training sessions leading up to the carnival.
Here’s some great action shots of the day. Thanks Scarlett P for being an excellent official photographer!
Reporting to Parents- Update As I mentioned in the previous newsletter, and also communicated since by Mr Bagnall on Connect, student achievement reports for Semester 1 are being prepared by teachers. Due to the COVID situation impacting student and staff attendance this semester, the reporting process has been affected. The major change is the date that reports will be made available to you.
Other than this, there is no change to what is reported to you in Semester 1 reports. This is a point I wish to strongly emphasize as in many, many other schools, there has been significant changes to reporting this semester.
I sincerely thank all Alkimos PS teachers for, as usual, going above and beyond for you and your children, by ensuring that this semester’s reporting remained as consistent and comprehensive as possible.
Please be reminded of these points concerning this semester’s reporting:
- In the event of your child having been absent to the extent that the teacher is unable to assign a grade for a particular learning area, this will be reflected in the report.
- To enable the maximum opportunity for teachers to be able to assess and grade students, reports will be made available to you in the first week of the July school holidays. You will receive a Connect notification when these become available.
P. & C. Update Our P. & C. Association, under the leadership of hard-working President Nicole Page, continues to it great success. Did you know that the Cookie Dough Fundraiser had raised around $5800?! Wow! Thank you for supporting this clearly popular venture.
Our school community is really fortunate too that the Association has organized a sausage sizzle for the community lunch on Friday 1 July- it’s hugely appreciated by everyone.
Semester 2 Staff Changes With this semester nearing completion, I wish to advise you of the following changes to Alkimos PS staff:
- Mrs Linda Ridley (Kindy 2) leaves to take up a permanent position at St Francis of Assisi PS. Congratulations and best wishes on for your new appointment Linda. St Francis is very fortunate to have you.
- Miss Cassidy Smith, presently in PP 1 on Wednesdays, will take over Kindy 2.
- We will welcome the return of Mrs Jessica Dann from parental leave, to take up the position in PP 1 on Wednesdays.
- We also farewell our wonderful long-term School Psychologist, Mrs Nicole McCarthy, who will take up a position with the Department of Education’s Service Response Team in Padbury. Nicole will excel in this role, as she has done in the past five and half years here.
- Alkimos PS welcomes Mrs Renee Rees to the School Psychologist role.
- We will also welcome the return of Miss Pip Ramsden from parental leave. Miss Ramsden will resume three days in the week in the Associate Principal role. Mrs Maclean, who has covered so brilliantly for Miss Ramsden during this time, will continue in the other two days, and resume as our Music specialist for the other three days. Mrs Coleman will continue in as Music specialist for two days.
As this is the last newsletter of the term, I hope all students and families take the opportunity to have a good break and be refreshed, ready for our new term that commences on Monday 18 July.
I look forward to seeing plenty of pirates in the school tomorrow!
Regards,
Andy Gorton
PRINCIPAL
National Quality Framework and Standard aims to improve the quality of early childhood education (from birth to age 8) and care services across Australia.
Starting Blocks.gov.au explains “Providing children with quality experiences early in life can lead to better health, education and employment outcomes, building a productive and fair Australia.
The National Quality Framework includes legal requirements that all services must comply with.
These include requirements for:
- the number of staff and their qualifications
- ensuring children’s health and safety
- service space and layout
- the quality of developmental and learning experiences for children.”
The National Quality Framework sets a higher national standard to encourage services to continue to improve their programs and practices.
Services (including schools) are assessed and rated against seven quality standard areas of the National Quality Standard (NQS) as seen here:
Here at Alkimos Primary School the NQS is led by Mrs Cochrane. Mrs Cochrane has led staff to reflect upon our current practices and pedagogy. We will be having an NQS verification early next term.
National Quality Standard (NQS) verification provides schools with a supportive process to see how they are tracking against the NQS from an external perspective.
Verifications also help the Department make consistent and relevant decisions based on the:
- content of the NQS
- intent of the NQS
- unique school contexts across Western Australia.
During the verification visit the verifiers will:
- meet with school leaders
- visit all Kindergarten to Year 2 classrooms to observe usual teaching practice. The time in each classroom may vary
- speak with staff and engage with students
- visit outdoor areas and other learning spaces used by students
Verifiers will prepare a verification report based on their observations and discussions during the visit. The report will be available within four weeks of the visit. We look forward to sharing the report with our school community once it has been received.
As we head into our two-week school holiday break, I encourage all of our families to take a moment for rest and relaxation. We have had such a busy term, and with the addition of students, staff and families being sick with COVID (or other illnesses) it is important for everyone to recharge their batteries ready for Term 3. Below are some ideas for families to engage in over the break, in our local area that can help us all fill our brain and cup (without costing a fortune)
https://www.wanneroo.wa.gov.au/info/20062/youth/170/school_holidays
Mrs Sarah Chaloner
Associate Principal
Dear Families,
We are almost at the end of another term! It has been a term like no other, we have seen so many families impacted with Covid, staff have been sick with covid. During this time, we have managed to ensure that there is a teacher in every class and continue with learning. I hope that term 3 will be easier to manage relief staff.
Our wonderful team of cleaners will continue to uphold their high level of sanitising and cleaning throughout the school next term. This has become a priority for us at Alkimos and with the retention of our day cleaner, we are hoping to continue into 2023.
Interschool Netball
Some of you will know that I have a passion for netball, and I like nothing more than getting out of my office and helping coach the netball teams in term 2 in readiness for the interschool tournament. This year was no exception, we had some keen students, and I was excited to see more boys had chosen to play. We took 2 teams to Halesworth Park last week and despite the rain, both teams played with such enthusiasm. We relished in the fact that we beat some teams by over 10 goals. It was great to see smiles and great sportsmanship that APS students are known for when representing their school. Despite having many wins both teams came 3rd, this is a fantastic achievement, as some students only had a few weeks to learn the game. I was so impressed with some students, I advised them to join a local team and continue building on their skills. – There are photos of the day later in the newsletter.
Aircon/Heating – Agora
Just an update on the situation with the aircon in the Agora. There has been a delay due to the contactors being able to obtain the equipment. This is now intended to be installed in the Sept/October holidays.
Lastly, I look forward to an exciting “Strength in Unity Week" for our final week of term, and hope the weather is kind for our community lunch. I hope you all have a restful holiday, stay well and I look forward to seeing you all in Term 3.
Kind regards
Sara Sparks
Manager Corporate Services
This term has flown by, and it is hard to believe that we are already at the end of Week 9! Tomorrow, we have our assembly presented by CR6, CR7 and CR8 which fits into our Pirate Day – I can’t wait to see what they have to show everyone!
With the school holidays approaching, I hope that everyone has a fantastic break, and look forward to seeing everyone back on Monday 18th July for Term 3!
Mobile Phones and Smart Watches at school
This week, we have been talking to students about mobile phones and smart watches that they may bring to school. Earlier in the week, this information was also posted on Connect to help remind families of the expectations around these being at school. Whilst we understand that students may have a valid reason to have these devices to communicate with families on their way to or from school, students are not able to use these during the school day. As per the Department of Education policy around this, and our own policies around this, if a student brings a watch or phone to school they must:
Sign phones in to the library
- Keep phones in bags or pockets while on school grounds (before or after school)
- Turn watches to flight mode, or classroom mode
- Sign watches into the library if they cannot be turned to flight or classroom mode
Please note, if a student is unable to turn their watch to flight or classroom mode, they will be asked to take it off and sign it in to the library.
If you would like more information around this, please feel free to contact me, or, refer to the policies at the following websites:
Department of Education Policy - https://www.education.wa.edu.au/web/policies/-/student-mobile-phones-in-public-schools-policy
Alkimos Primary School Policy - https://alkimosps.schoolzineplus.com/mobile-phone-policy-endorsed-pdf
CR20’s Fantastic Singing!
This week, CR20 invited me up to hear their fantastic singing with Miss Coleman! They have been learning an amazing song about resilience and ‘getting back up again’.
They did a fantastic job and should be very proud of themselves!
PEAC Testing – Year 4
In Term 3, all students in Year 4 complete PEAC testing. These tests form a part of the Department of Education’s ‘Gifted and Talented’ programs. These tests will be taken during Week 3 (1 August – 5 August) and each class will sit these at a different time; this will be communicated to you by your child’s classroom teacher.
The results from PEAC testing are expected to be returned during term 4, at which point, students may be invited to enrol in the PEAC program for Years 5 and 6. For more information, please see the North Metropolitan PEAC website: https://www.northmetropeac.wa.edu.au/
Regards,
Tom Bagnall
Associate Principal
Reinforcement is used to increase the chances a learner with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) will use a target skill or behaviour. The SLP Homerooms use positive reinforcement in the classroom to teach skills and increase desired behaviours.
If a child’s use of a skill/behaviour is positively reinforced, it increases the likelihood that the child will perform the skill or behaviour again.
After identifying a behaviour or a skill that we would like increase, we establish a clear goal or outcome and then decide on a suitable reinforcer.
A child has to be extremely motivated by the reinforcer and for this reason we often ask families to complete a Reinforcement Inventory or Get to Know You Form. Teachers sometimes will negotiate a reinforcer with a student after observations in the classroom.
Teachers then track the behaviour or skill before, during and after the reinforcement is implemented to determine the success of the reinforcement.
If you would like to chat about or find out any further information about Positive Reinforcement, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher anyone in the office.
Wishing you all a very happy, safe holiday.
Mrs Papadopoff
SLP Coordinator
Dear Families
What a busy last few weeks we have had. Our Dance Proms incursion was such a positive, fun experience for all. The students were introduced to a variety of different dance styles and music. The hit of the day was learning some Hip Hop moves and getting the chance to dance with some of our very ‘cool’ teachers!
Alkimos Choir
A huge congratulations to our Choir members and Mrs Coleman, who have been chosen to sing at the upcoming WAPPA (WA Primary Principals Association) conference next term at the Crown. The special guests who came to listen to them sing were amazed at how much they had learned in such a short space of time. This is a testament to their dedication and hard work
Next term, the students will also be singing again at the WA Massed Choir Festival held at the Perth Concert Hall. This will involve rehearsals with the other schools involved culminating with the showcase concert on Friday Sept 16 – save the date if your child is involved! Information on tickets for audience members will come home early next term. More information can be found on the website – www.massedchoirfestival.org The students have also been given a special log in to enable them to access songs and choreography so they can practise at home – they could entertain you with mini home concert over the holidays! ?
Strength In Unity Week
Strength In Unity Week at Alkimos Primary School is held each year in the last week of term 2. This is an opportunity for us to celebrate the themes of Naidoc Week and Harmony Day as a school.
This is a traditional annual event with our first Strength In Unity week being held in the school’s foundation year in 2016. It was created to celebrate the coming together of students, staff and families as we created a new school culture, reflective of the cultural diversity of our community.
Teachers have organised some wonderful activities for students to participate in through out the week. The week will finish with a community lunch on Friday July 1 that we welcome all family members / carers in our community to attend. We are really looking forward seeing you there. Don’t forget that our fantastic P & C have organised a sausage sizzle on the day – please pre-order for this through QuickCliq
Supporting Reading at Home –
Young Readers
As with anything, the only way to get better is to practice. Young readers need to spend time reading “just right” books every day. They need to hear their parents reading out loud to them as they look at the text on the page and begin to make sense of the emerging language patterns.
How can you help? Consistent practice and meaningful text-based discussions at home are really important. Prompt your child to support their answers with evidence from the text.
- What are the major events in the story?
- What does this story remind you of?
- Can you think of another book that is similar to this one?
- Pretend that I am your friend who has never read the story. Can you retell the story to me?
- Who are the characters in the book?
- How did the pictures help you understand the story?
- Why do you think the book was called ________?
- Did you enjoy the story? Why or why not?
I hope you all have a restful and safe holiday and I look forward to seeing you all back in term 3.
Good Day Everyone
Hope you have all been well since out last newsletter.
With the rise in living costs more families in our community are finding it harder to cope with financial demands. This can be a tough situation, as we all find it hard to reach out for help in this area. Well done to families who have reached out and made use of the help in our community.
I would love to highlight 2 great services who assist with food vouchers, meals and financial counselling for families who are doing it real hard. Sometimes we just need a little hand up.
Salvation Army Merriwa
Doorways
This is a great service running every Friday providing food to the community between 9am -2pm. (please bring ID with you)
They provide emergency relief to people who find themselves in extremely difficult circumstances. The lounge room is also open on the day offering a chance for a chat as well as free toasties, tea and coffee, a free haircut, or fruit, vegies and bread. Referrals for food vouchers are also provided in emergency circumstances or referrals to other services as needed.
Phone 9305 2131
Merriwa Corps Community also offer a free community lunch once a month on a Sunday at 12noon and a Community Dinner on Wednesdays from 5.30 - 6.30pm. All are welcome.
Address: Merriwa Corps
26 Jenolan Way
MERRIWA WA 6030
Foodbank is Australia’s largest food relief organisation, operating on a scale that makes it crucial to the work of the front line charities who are feeding vulnerable Australians. Transport can be a barrier for people experiencing hardship, so Mobile Foodbank brings food directly to the people who need it most throughout the Perth metro area. To access Mobile Foodbank you will need a referral. For referrals, please call 1800 979 777. A referral can be obtained by the school chaplain as well. Click on the link below for a mobile foodbank nearest to you.
Metro-Mobile-Foodbank-Locations (1).pdf (schools.internal)
For more information please call Foodbank’s friendly team on 08 9258 9277 or email wa.info@foodbankwa.org.au
Kindly let the School chaplain know if you would like a referral or know of families doing it hard.
Marche Smith
School Chaplain
Parenting Tips!
There are five key principles that underpin Triple P’s positive parenting. These principles are relevant whether you’ve got toddlers, teens or in-betweens!
1. CREATE A SAFE, INTERESTING ENVIRONMENT
Bored kids are likely to misbehave. Bored teenagers may find trouble. So create an environment that allows kids to explore safely and develop their skills.
2. HAVE A POSITIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
If a child or teenager comes to you for help or a chat, they’re ready to learn. Give them positive attention, even if only for a minute or so. Encourage their ideas and opinions.
3. USE ASSERTIVE DISCIPLINE
Set clear rules and boundaries and follow through with fair consequences. You can negotiate some of these with older kids and decide on the rules and consequences together. Praise little and big kids to encourage the behaviour you like.
4. HAVE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
Nobody’s perfect – kids, teenagers or adults – so don’t expect your child to do more (or less) than they’re capable of. And remember, we all make mistakes sometimes.
5. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF AS A PARENT
It’s all about balance. You’ve got to look after your own needs too, so make sure you’re getting some support, time with friends, and maybe even a little time to yourself!
http://www.triplep-parenting.net.auNicole McCarthy
School Psychologist
At Alkimos Primary we know that attending school every day enables your child to get the most from their education and create a bright future. This helps them create more opportunities for their future and leads to better health, social and work outcomes. Every day your child learns something new at school. Every day they build on what they already know, growing their knowledge and skills.
While the majority of our students miss school for legitimate reasons such as illness, we do have a concerning amount of unexplained student absences.
If you receive a letter from the school noting days of unexplained absences for your child, please complete this and return it to the class teacher or front office as soon as possible. Over the next week, teaching staff will be contacting families to follow up on any remaining unexplained absences.
Reminder – if a student arrives to school after the siren at the start of the school day, they are required to go through the front office, provide a reason for being late, and collect a late note.
Thank you for assisting us with this. If you have concerns regarding your child’s attendance or would like further information about how the school can help if you, please contact your child’s teacher or Mrs MacLean in the office.
Jocelyn Birchall
Music Specialist
A day of four seasons greeted our students as they competed for Interschool glory last Friday, giving their absolute best in AFL, Soccer and Netball.
Despite some last changes due to illness and COVID, we left school full of excitement and anticipation, wondering what the other schools would be like in terms of skills and competition. As always, Alkimos Primary School put in 100% energy into each sport and match, and each student should feel proud how they represented themselves, their team and the school. The support from our parents gave us that extra push, something we all needed with the wild weather that was dished out throughout the day.
We had some great highlights, including our netball teams, who played for most of the day without any substitutions. A tremendous effort by our teams, who were well coached by Miss Castleden and Mrs Sparks. Our AFL team played with great heart throughout the day and had close results all day. We were able to get over the line against Merriwa PS, which had a bit of extra meaning as their coach was Mr Fenn. Well done to Mr Alexandre for his commitment to the AFL team this year. In Soccer, we had a great day, with our ‘B’ Boys team only conceding one goal all day, our Girls team coming runner up, and our ‘A’ Boys team winning the shield, in a dramatic penalty shootout. A great team effort who was led expertly by Mr Sparks, Miss Sparks and Miss Thomas, who was a last-minute replacement, demonstrating our wealth of playing and coaching talent in the school.
I am so proud of the sportspersonship displayed by all of our players; it makes taking our students to carnivals an absolute pleasure. I look forward to seeing how we go as we progress to Semester Two with our Faction Athletics Carnival and Interschool Cross Country event.
Will and Josh O'Hare competed in the School Sport WA Golf Championship at Mandurah Country Club on Monday. Despite battling the weather the boys played very well against other schools, only just missing out on the prize spots. They both enjoyed testing themselves in a competition for the first time and playing a course which was unfamiliar to them. Will is already preparing to compete next year in the Primary School Championship!
If anyone has any great sporting stories they would like to share with the school community, please feel free to email me at Jak.Wulff@education.wa.edu.au. We always like to hear great news stories!
This term, the value that we will be focusing on is Honesty. Honesty is being truthful in what you say and do.
Honesty is:
- Always telling the truth based on facts and real things.
- Never stealing or cheating
- Not hiding the truth about something, being sincere and not acting in a way to try and trick or deceive others.
- Being able to share honestly about how you feel.
Some examples of Alkimos students showing this value are
- Being able to own up fairly
- Speaking the truth, even if it is difficult for you
- Knowing that sometimes telling the truth, even though we have been told not to tell, is the best thing to do
- Not covering up the truth
- Having courage to tell the truth
- Having the sensitivity to know how and when to speak the truth
- Sharing insightful understanding of possible consequence to not telling the truth
- Being honest about how you feel.
We would love if you could discuss honesty with your children at home and explore ways to reinforce it. We have some resources of books and videos to help.
Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo1n3JzEt7Y
Books
- Don’t Blame Others Little Wolf
- Little Llama Tells the Truth
- Be Proud – Talking with trees bk 1
We are very proud of our students who continuously show these values. When a student shows an Alkimos Value, another student can write a Ray of Sunshine token, A few are picked each week and read out at Muster and assembly. The students receive faction points if theirs are read out.
Mrs Ceri Leeming & Mrs Kirsten Maclean
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Term 1 |
(holidays Saturday 9th April – Monday 25th April) |
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Term 2 |
(holidays Saturday 2nd July – Sunday 17th July) |
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Term 3 |
(holidays Saturday 24th Sept – Sunday 9th October) |
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Term 4 |
(holidays Friday 16th Dec – Tuesday 31 Jan 23) |
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School Development Days Friday 3rd June Monday 22nd August Friday 11th November |
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I can’t believe we are at the half way mark for the year. Thank you to all our families that have supported our fundraising activities, we are happy to announce that we have raised $10,160.15 so far this year. We couldn’t have done this without you, and we can’t wait to bring you more great activities for the second half of the year.
Sausage Sizzle:
We have one more fundraiser this term, which is a sausage sizzle for the Strength in Unity Community Lunch next Friday, 1st July. Orders for the lunch can be placed via the Events tab on Quickcliq, and includes a gluten free bread option available for anyone with allergies.
The Sweet Gatherings coffee truck will also be on-site serving hot drinks, and will be donating $0.50 to the P&C from all coffee sales.
Cookie Dough Update:
Thank You for all the support you showed our Cookie Dough fundraiser, we are absolutely amazed at how successful it was. We raised a massive $5760 from the sales.
As mentioned in the connect notice the other day, there has been stock issues due to transportation delays which means our delivery won’t be received next week as planned. The new delivery date will be Thurs, 21st July. Further details will be sent out a few days prior with collection information.
Prizes for the fundraiser are due to arrive next week, and will be sorted over the school holidays all ready to be handed out with the cookie dough.
General Meeting:
Our next P&C meeting is being held next Wed, 29th June at 6.30pm. Everyone is invited to attend and we would love to see some new faces join us. Membership is just $1 for the year (renewable at every AGM), and allows you to vote and have your say on all items presented.
Pyjama Day:
Our first fundraiser for Term 3 will be a Pyjama Day. All students can come to school wearing their favourite pyjamas for a gold coin donation. This will be held at the end of week 1 on Fri, 22nd July.
Entertainment Books:
The P&C is once again selling the Perth Entertainment Books, with 20% of each sale being donated towards our fundraising. Books are $69.99 each and currently come with a Bonus $10 eGift card.
Orders can be placed using the following link: https://subscribe.entertainment.com.au/fundraiser/9m30602
Kind regards,
Alkimos Primary School P&C
Want to return to work or change careers?
Want to work in a school?
There has never been a better time with unemployment under 3%.
Schools and other organisations are desperately hiring people for the following roles:
- Gardener, cleaner, administration, management, canteen, education assistants and many other roles.
Starting in July 2022, North Metropolitan TAFE are running a one-semester course on the skills required to be a successful candidate for employment in a school or elsewhere. The course aids in preparation for entry into gardening, cleaning, administration, management, education assistant and any other types of work.
We have had huge success supporting people to find work and the chances of gaining employment are strong. This course is suitable for people new to the workforce and people looking to change career or looking for a return to work.
The course includes:
- Training in skills specific to the role you are interested in e.g. IT skills
- Work experience in a school or other organisation
- Help and support to find work
- Help accessing further training as required e.g. Certificate III in Education Support
- Development of your job application cover letter, resume and help with selection criteria
Entry requirements:
- 18+
- Strong work ethic
- Good oral and written communication
- Must be able to read procedures, safety sheets and chemical bottles
- Must be able to send and receive emails
- Successful completion of an entry interview
- Working With Children Check and a Department of Education Clearance
Course details:
- Dates - Starts week 1 of term 3 and runs for up to 20 weeks
- Many students finish the course early because they find work
- Days - 3 days per week, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 9:15 until 2:45
- Cost - Approximately $170 (subject to change) total course fee for full 20 weeks
- Location - North Metro TAFE Leederville and on work experience
- Qualification - GATE (Gaining Access to Training and Employment) Certificate I
If you would be interested in this course then please email:
Chris Hodson
