Welcome to a new school term. I am delighted to be at school once again and as Term 3 is my favourite term, the timing is perfect. There are many things to look forward to including the One Big Voice choir festival, Faction Athletics Carnival, Book Week and Science Week. Please make sure that you read the newsletter and Connect notices carefully for details.

ThinkUKnow

I would like to invite parents, particularly those with children in Years 5 and 6, to an information session on Wednesday 16 August 2023 at 6:00 pm. ThinkUKnow is an education program led by the Australian Federal Police and addresses the use and misuse of technology. Topics include sharing of videos and images, social networking, messaging, and online gaming. There will also be an in-school presentation for the students on the 19 September to further promote the safe use of technology.

Working With Children Check

We thank all our parents who generously volunteer their time and energy to support our school community. There are some changes to the Working with Children Check policy, to ensure the safety of children when we have volunteers in the school.

If you would like to volunteer at our school, you will need to sign a ‘Parent and child volunteer declaration form’. You cannot volunteer if you have a current Working with Children Negative Notice or Interim Negative Notice.

These changes affect parents who are engaged in volunteer work. For example, you are considered a volunteer when you assist with activities such as reading sessions, day excursions, canteen duties, helping at a sports carnival or carrying out P&C duties.

 You are not a volunteer when:

• picking up and dropping off your child
• observing events like school assemblies
• attending parent and teacher interviews

If your circumstances change, and you are issued with a Negative Notice or Interim Negative Notice after completing the ‘Parent and child volunteer declaration form’, you must advise the principal.

A current Working with Children Check is required by all other family members and friends over 18 years of age who want to volunteer.

It is a collective responsibility to ensure the safety of our children. We appreciate your ongoing support and dedication to our school community.

Wrap free Wednesday

Thank you to all of the families who consciously chose to go wrap free last Wednesday. There were some good discussions about reducing food wrappers and waste. Please make wrap free part of your everyday decisions when packing food for school.

Kiss & Drive

Please remember that the designated Kiss & Drive zone on Candlewood Boulevard means that drivers cannot leave their cars unattended. The zone is for a quick drop off or pick up. Please leave Kiss & Drive and park elsewhere if your children are not ready to be picked up. It is a priority that drivers act responsibly and respectfully so that families are safe. The success of Kiss & Drive is down to how drivers act.

P&C Meeting

The next P&C meeting is tomorrow, Wednesday 2 August 2023, at 7:00 pm. It is held in the staffroom and everyone is welcome.

School Board meeting

On Wednesday 9 August 2023 the School Board will be meeting from 6:30 pm and everyone is welcome to attend. If you have never been to a Board meeting and are interested in what the Board talks about and would like to meet the current members, this is the meeting for you. At this meeting we are talking about Sounds Write and share the findings of the National School Opinion Survey. Please RSVP to the office at joondalup.ps@education.wa.edu.au

Assembly update

The next assembly is being presented by the Pre-Primary classes on Tuesday 8 August from 2:15 pm.

Ms Selley

Principal

It has been fantastic returning to another term of music-making. The students have been showcasing their exceptional talent and passion for music, exploring various elements with enthusiasm and creativity. 

The initial focus has been on movement, improvisation, body percussion, and vocal ensemble work. The students have crafted improvised movements to classical musical pieces, incorporating contemporary dance elements, resulting in creative and imaginative performances. 

In addition to their movement improvisations, students have also crafted body percussion compositions set to speech rhymes. These compositions were performed in harmonious canon, resulting in diverse and rhythmically rich musical arrangements. 

I would also like to extend my congratulations to our choir members for their progress and hard work in preparing for the upcoming One Big Voice choir festival. Their dedication to learning vocal parts and choreography has been commendable, and I am confident they will shine brightly at the event. 

Additionally, I would like to express my gratitude to all the parents for bringing their children to choir early for the second rehearsal; your support in your child's musical education is greatly appreciated! 

Equally, I would like to congratulate our clarinet students for their fantastic performance last term, which delighted the Pre-Primary cohort. Their musical abilities and dedication to their instrument have been impressive. 

Mr Sutherland 

Music Teacher

The Year 1 students started the term off with these stunning ink jellyfish. They were having fun learning new techniques with ink, like tapping, blowing, and dripping.

The students in Year 5 are developing and applying new artistic techniques with charcoal to create these spectacular sketches of a 3D Moon. The students have used the art elements of Space with shading, creating an illusion of depth with their moons.

Can you support the art projects coming soon?

The art room is after 2-litre empty soft drink bottles; if you wash them out and drop them off at the art room, that would be greatly appreciated.

Ms Thronton

Art Teacher

The students from Year 5 had the opportunity to visit the Curtin University Labs through the BASF grant. The students looked into how different chemicals and scientific procedures can be used in the real world and had the chance to participate in some experiments, focussing on a range of different chemical reactions. This was a fantastic learning experience for all students and showed potential career pathways as students engage further with Science. Hopefully we have some young aspiring scientists amongst us.

Last term, the students in Kindy and Pre-Primary had a visit from Farmer Mick. He showed the students different farm animals and taught us about the jobs they have on the farm. We got to hold some baby chickens, feed lambs and kids some milk and give the animals a pat. We all had a great time!

At the end of last term, the students from Years 1 and 2 went to Kings Park to participate in a Noongar educational program at the Rio Tinto Naturescape. It was a fabulous day! We hope you enjoy reading some of the children’s writing about our excursion.

Unlocking Earth’s treasures

Plant Earth is a tiny dot in space, simply put, it is a rock going around a star!

However, Planet Earth is so much more than a rock, it is a blue jewel, a magical and unique planet, and it is the only planet in our solar system where known life exists. The depth of life on this planet comprises of microscopic bacteria to the giant Blue Whale, a seed to a forest, an embryo to an elderly person…what all of these have in common is that they are living things and together we all share this special blue planet.

The Earth is a treasure chest, full of natural resources that all living things use. Through science lessons, students in Year One and Year Two have been unlocking these resources, the first resource they unlocked was beneath our feet, in the soil and leaf litter. Through a Veolia incursion, students explored and discovered a range of bugs and critters that are natural composters in our school soil.

Mrs Phillips

Science Teacher

Kaya Wanjoo – Hello and welcome,

The Noongar season is Makuru. Makuru sees the coldest and wettest time of the year in the South West. Traditionally, this was a good time of the year to move back inland from the coast as the winds turned to the west and south bringing the cold weather, rains and occasionally snow on the peaks of the Stirling and Porongurup Ranges.

As the waterways and catchments started to fill, people were able to move about their country with ease and their food sources changed from the sea, estuarine and lake foods to those of the land, in particular the grazing animals such as the kangaroo.

Makuru is also a time for a lot of animals to be pairing up in preparation for breeding in the coming season. If you look carefully, you might see pairs of 'wardongs' (ravens) flying together.

Upon the lakes and rivers of the South West, you'll also start to see a large influx of the Black Swan or 'Mali' as they too prepare to nest and breed.

Flowers that will start to emerge include the blues and purples of the blueberry lily (Dianella revoluta) and the purple flags (Patersonia occidentalis).

As the season comes to a close, you should also start to notice the white flowers of the weeping peppermint (Agonis flexuosa) as the blues start to make way for the white and cream flowers of Djilba.

There are still places left for this term, with spaces limited to 20 students. See attached invite for the term. The club will run from Week 3 to Week 9 on Mondays 3:15-4:00 pm.

Garden Club Term 3 invite 2023

Garden Club Term 3 invite 2023 122.59 KB

Remember to keep on bringing in your items for recycling.  See the attached for what you can bring in. When dropping it in to the school please put it into the correct bin. Make sure items are not in a plastic bag and are clean. Our students diligently go through the bins in order to pack and send off for recycling and we don’t want nasty surprises for them. Our focus bin this newsletter is Coffee Pods – the need to be clean, not leaking and not in another bag. These are then packaged and sent to a local TerraCycle Material Recovery Facilities located in the same country in which the waste originates. Once sorted by category, the different material types are cleaned and then sent to third-party partners to process the materials into usable forms.

For example, metals and aluminium are shredded and smelted into metal sheeting, ingots, or bar stock. Glass is crushed and melted to be used in new glass bottles (if clear), or brick, cement, or concrete applications (if coloured). Rubber is generally cryo-milled into a powdered state for flooring applications. Organics are composted or used in industrial and commercial fertilisers.

Plastics are the largest category of material collected.  These materials are size-reduced (made smaller by being shredded or ground), then melted and reformatted into pellets, flakes, or a powder format.

After TerraCycle recycle the waste into raw material, it’s sold to manufacturing companies who produce the end product and complete the recycling journey. These end products may include outdoor furniture and decking, plastic shipping pallets, watering cans, storage containers and bins, tubes for construction applications, flooring tiles, playground surface covers, athletic fields, and more!

If you would like to know more about what you can do at home for recycling, go to www.terracycle.com.au

Containers for Change

Continue to bring in your Containers for Change bottles/cans (clean and LIDS removed). Place in the big blue bin near the library. Leave your ring pulls on but take your plastic lids off. Alternatively use our school ID number at a community drop off point C10339712

Did you know our blue plastic school bench near the front office was made from 15 000 600ml water bottles?

Worm Whisperers 

Welcome to our Worm Wizard students who collect the organic waste from around the school and look after our worms. Amir, Riley, Kobi and Zoey.

Plastic Free July

As part of our commitment to this vital cause, we held our first Wrap Free Wednesday last week. There were 2 classes who were completely wrap free. Please think about the alternatives to wrapping food or using single packet item such as chips, popcorn and squeezable yoghurts. We all need to think of the impact these non recyclables have on our environment. Let’s see how many classes can be wrap free next time.

Happy gardening and sustainable thinking,

Sandra Bennett – Sustainability Teacher (JESC).

Sustainability Coordinator (Joondalup Schools)