Filter Content
Welcome to the first newsletter for the year. I have been delighted with the manner that students have commenced the school year, setting quickly into new routines and remembering school rules and values. Thank you for supporting your children in this important area.
It has been wonderful to return and note the improvements to our school grounds. Shade sails have been installed along the outside of the Agora adjacent to the quadrangle, enabling students to enjoy the shade at eating times and to use this as another learning area. Our huge thanks go to our dedicated P. & C. Association for providing $10 000 for this project; a direct result of the amazing fund raising that has taken place. Our new play area between Gamma and Delta blocks is taking shape nicely, with a small stage now complementing the path. Our school is so fortunate to have a gardener like Mr Sparks who is so clever to be able to construct and create such a feature in our playground. I’ll keep you posted about the progress.
New Staff 2024 As I mentioned in my welcome Connect message, there a many new staff members at Alkimos PS for 2024. I am very pleased to introduce them to you:
- Mr Will Basson- EA Special Needs
- Mr Wei Chen- EA Special Needs
- Miss Ciara Delaney- Teacher, CR 15
- Mrs Abbey Glaister- Teacher, CR 12
- Mr Nick Hood- Network Support Officer
- Mrs Dannie Kemp- Teacher, CR 23
- Mrs Sarah Lanes- EA Special Needs
- Mrs Florence Angus - Teacher, ECE 7 (Wednesday)
- Mrs Hayley Wakefield- EA Special Needs
Further, we welcome the return of Miss Tegan Letcher from parental leave (ECE 1- Wednesday).
Getting Safely to School It’s extremely heartening to note an increasing number of students wearing helmets when riding bikes or scooters to school. Equally pleasing is seeing families model this positive behaviour by wearing one as well. Great work! Please always be vigilant for student movement around drop-off and pick-up times. Alkimos PS is also very fortunate to have a traffic warden on Benenden Avenue, so it’s excellent to see this be used by families.
I excited about the year ahead, our nineth since opening in 2016. I hope to see you at school events and activities, and that your children enjoy a terrific year.
Andy Gorton
PRINCIPAL
Dear Families,
Hello and welcome to our first newsletter for 2024, Id like to extend a big hello to all our new families who have joined our wonderful this year. I am sure your children will thrive here.
Brekkie Club
Last week was the first of our Brekkie club for 2024. I thought that everyone had forgotten as all the food was prepared and no students, then a few minutes later we had about 45 come in eagerly awaiting breakfast. For those who have not attended, students come to the art room at 7:40 (entry via gate1). You are welcome to stay with them or drop them off. We have toast, beans, spaghetti, and fruit.
Voluntary Contributions 2024
Thank you to all those families who have paid their voluntary contributions via your booklist. These have been processed on your child’s account.
I understand many in our community face financial hardship and with the cost of living increasing, school payments are unachievable. With this in mind, we have made some decisions that will help our community. You will note from the Schedule of Contributions and Charges previously issued, that there is a significant change.
- All incursions for 2024 will be funded by the school, this will ensure that all students will have the opportunity to attend.
- Our hardworking P & C have agreed to fund the buses for sporting excursions, so there will be no cost to our students.
- We have taken out exercise books from the 2024 personal items list (booklists) these will also be provided for your child at a cost to the school.
We feel that these small changes will help our families, and although Department of Education policy states that schools will send home statements of unpaid billing items, I would like to advise that the $30 contribution is Voluntary and can always be paid in a number of ways.
In cash, in person or over the phone via EFT
By direct transfer to our bank account BSB 066 058 A/C 1029 3855 Stating your child’s name and Voluntary Contribution as the reference.
Library Books
Last year $1675.73 worth of library books were either lost or damaged by students. Not all of books were paid for – this leaves a huge gap in budgets having to replace them. Please could I ask that you speak to your children and remind them that they are school property and are on loan to them. Our wonderful Librarian, Miss Tilley will continue to send out invoices to students who have damaged our misplaced them. I thank you on behalf of the school for your continued assistance in this.
Lastly, if you need any assistance with connect, or any other issues please feel free to contact us in the office, we are always happy to help.
Office Forms
This week we have sent out the 2024 Incursion Consent Form, please ask your child for this. We ask that this is completed and returned to your child’s teacher ASAP. We will advise via connect when an incursion takes place, if you decide you do not wish your child to participate, you have the option then to withdraw them from the activity. Please note that without this form they will not be able to take part.
The student Update Form will also be sent home in the next few weeks. Please make any adjustments and return this to the office. It is imperative that we have the correct information.
Sara Sparks
Manager Corporate Services
Work Placements
This semester, Pre-Service Teachers from ECU will be undertaking their professional practice in some of our classrooms. We also have some training Education Assistants and high school students joining us for their work placements. Please speak to your child’s classroom teacher if you have any questions.
Word Mapping
Word mapping is a physical way to represent the relationship between the phonemes (the sounds) and graphemes (the letters or letter combinations). It allows students to physically connect or match the letters with the sounds they represent and helps to encourage the process of orthographic mapping. Ultimately it helps build word recognition and decoding skills that improve fluency in both reading and writing.
When mapping a word with your child, these are the four steps to follow:
- Start with the meaning. Say the word aloud, show your child a picture of the word and make sure they know what it means.
- Now encourage your child to segment the word into sounds. They can tap their fingers together for each sound they hear.
- Next, place a manipulative into a box for each sound they hear.
- Finally, add the graphemes (letters). Match the letter or letter combinations to the phonemes in the given word.
This online word mapping tool is a great resource to use at home! https://phonicsandstuff.com/word-mapping
You could also try some of these fun ideas!
Silicone Bubble Poppers: These things are all the trend these days so your child will no doubt LOVE using them to help map out their words. They simply push down a popper for each phoneme they hear in the given word. They then write out the grapheme for each of the phonemes they “popped”.
Linking Cubes: Physical linking cubes allow children to build out the given word into phonemes. Children can touch each cube to represent each sound. They then link the cubes together and write out the graphemes that represent each cube. This helps to show children how mapping graphemes to phonemes looks visually.
Playdoh Balls: Have children create little balls of play-doh for each phoneme they hear in the given word. Then they squish the ball with their finger as they repeat each sound aloud. Finally, they can write the graphemes to match each sound. If you don’t want to use play-doh you can always do the same thing with counters, lollies, coins, whatever you have at your disposal!
Word Mapping in Action!
Here are some of our wonderful Year One students showing off their Word Mapping in the office!
Many Thanks,
Pip Ramsden
Associate Principal
Sometimes our children find transitioning to new classes with a change of teacher and classmates to be a challenge. At Alkimos Primary School we support our students to work through challenges they may face by explicitly teaching Social and Emotional skills. We use Zones of Regulations to help students to identify how they are feeling and what strategies they can use to regulate their emotions.
On Entry Testing – Pre-Primary
At the beginning of each year, our Pre-Primary students take part in a state-wide assessment called On Entry. These assessment give us some baseline data on where students are at in 4 domains, these are:
- Speaking and Listening
- Reading
- Writing
- Numeracy
Between Weeks 3 and 6 (12/2/24 – 8/3/24), Pre-Primary teachers will be busy completing these assessments with your children. Once completed, you will receive a report outlining how they went in these 4 areas. If you have any questions regarding this, please feel free to reach out to your child’s classroom teacher.
School Mealtimes
Back to school means the packing of school lunch boxes starts again. You may have seen in the media recently that there are some changes being made to the Health Curriculum and, in particular, how the topic of healthy eating is approached. If you are interested in finding out more about this, Dr Kyla (Paediatric Dietitian) has lots of great information for families on how to support your child to grow into teens and adults who: enjoy a wide variety of foods, listen to their hunger and fullness cues, feel in control around all types of food and feel comfortable in their bodies. Her website is:
Please remember that your child’s teacher is always happy to talk with you if you have any concerns or need any advice, support or suggestions. I look forward to an amazing year ahead.
Kind regards,
Kirstin MacLean
Hello families, it has been great to see you all over the first 3 weeks back at our beautiful school. I am excited to once again be part of School Leadership at Alkimos in my role as Associate Principal.
I have had many visitors to my office showcasing their excellent work, such as Rivaan from CR12 and Zoey from CR1. Seeing students amazing work always puts a smile on my face!
It has also been fantastic to watch our new student leaders in action. They are performing their jobs brilliantly, well done to them.
Kind regards,
Welcome back to the new school year! So lovely to see the students happy to be back at school and friends finding each other after a long holiday.
To kick off the term, we are focusing on one of our Alkimos School values, which is – Kindness
What is kindness?
Kindness goes hand in hand with Compassion which means we feel a strong desire to be kind and help people in need. Kindness is not just a feeling – it is an action. For young kids, kindness might look like giving a hug, making a card, or saying something kind to help a friend or family member who is feeling sad or upset.
The value of kindness enables us to understand ourselves and others better. It develops the ability in us to see things from someone else’s perspective and sympathise with their emotions and develop a desire to help others. Kindness plays a big role in creating a healthy mind.
In the chaplain’s room this term we are creating an ‘acts of kindness’ jar. We already have some great ideas from students in how we can spread kindness in our school.
Students are helping the chaplain make encouraging cards to hand out to those having a bad day; sowing ‘feely hearts’ for those who lost a pet; making birthday cards or act of kindness cards that can be given to someone new or in need by inviting them to join in a game or saying something positive to them.
How can we teach our kids about kindness at home?
- Read books or watch movies with compassion There are many books/movies for children with kindness as central themes.
- Ask children who they would want to help in the world. They’re likely noticing more suffering than you might realize. Compassion can be sparked by watching some age appropriate documentaries on how some children live in other parts of the world.
- Read about helpers in our community. Help your child understand the helpers in their world and how their work is valued. A great example is reading about our amazing firefighters, paramedics or nurses in our community.
- Point out kind behaviour in your kids and others as well.
- Help them learn. Teaching kids to be aware that their actions affect others, is vital in understanding empathic action behaviour.
- Model, Model, Model. Show your children what it means to show kindness toward others and toward yourself. You could even volunteer as a family for a day. The Salvation Army or your local animal shelter are good places to contact to offer your help, or you could do something simple like visiting an old neighbour or welcoming a new family into the neighbourhood.
School Chaplain
SCHOOL’S BACK! PARENTING TIPS TO BOOST KIDS’ SELF-ESTEEM AND CONFIDENCE FOR A NEW YEAR
As kids across the country return to school, experts at the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program are highlighting the important role that self-esteem and confidence play in a child’s academic, social, and emotional success – and how it may be one of the most protective factors against anxiety and depression.
Triple P International Country Director, Carol Markie-Dadds, said “A practical way parents and carers can help their children positively transition into a new school year and help them face any challenges that come their way is to focus on boosting their self-esteem, confidence, and coping skills,”.
“Research shows children and teens who have healthy self-esteem are likely to experience a range of lifelong benefits. This includes being more eager to learn, having more success at school, being more cooperative, having stronger social skills, and most importantly, improved mental and physical health,” she said.
“Children aren’t born with a sense of confidence and not all children develop it at the same rate or age, or with the same level of success,” Carol said. “The great news is that parents and carers can help children by modelling and teaching these skills and giving their child opportunities to practise them at home, school and in the community.”
Triple P’s top tips for building children’s self-esteem and confidence
- Praise your child’s efforts, not just their results or achievements. Talk about the things your child does well and let them know you’re proud of them for trying and making progress.
- Be a positive role model. Kids learn a lot by watching how you handle setbacks. Talk with them about how a problem can be worked out one step at a time. Try to respond calmly when things don’t go as planned.
- Guide them to solve their own problems, rather than trying to solve everything for them. Simply pausing and giving them a few moments to figure something out can help, or ask questions such as “What have you tried so far?”
- Show confidence in your child’s abilities by letting them do things for themselves. This helps them learn what they can do, and that they have some control over their world.
- Respond to any negative self-talk or feelings of disappointment by letting your child know that it’s okay to fail or make mistakes. Try talking to your child in a positive, optimistic way about the year ahead.
- Encourage your child to name their emotions, express their ideas, and make their own decisions. Give your child a sense of agency around the things they enjoy doing, rather than pushing them to do an activity you want, like playing a particular sport or musical instrument.
“Children with low self-esteem are at risk of more serious emotional concerns such as anxiety or depression. If low self-esteem or a lack of confidence is impacting your child’s day-to-day life, it may be time to chat with your GP, seek professional health advice, or check out the evidence-based parenting support program Fear-Less Triple P Online,” Ms Markie-Dadds said.
For more information visit https://www.triplep-parenting.net.au/au/triple-p/
Kind regards,
Renee Rees
School Psychologist
Welcome back for another school year. The P&C are gearing up for another fantastic year of fundraising for our wonderful school, and we hope you are as excited as we are.
Coming up in the next few weeks will be our AGM and we would really love to see lots more parents join the committee so we can keep bringing our students and their families these fantastic events.
Icy Pole days
Our first fundraising activity for the year are our Icy Pole days which are happening this week. Our Kindy green students had theirs this Tuesday, with the rest of the school having theirs tomorrow. With the new play then eat breaks occurring at school this term, students in year 1 to 6 will now have the opportunity to grab an icy pole at the end of the lunch break once they have finished eating. Kindy & Pre-Primary students will still have theirs handed out by teachers at a suitable time during the day.
Subway lunch
Our next activity will be on Thursday 7th March, and will be Subway lunch for all students (and teachers). Ordering for this will start tomorrow, and all information will be on our Facebook & Instagram pages as well as a connect message coming out.
Easter colouring competition
Last year we started colouring competitions at Easter for our students as a way of giving back to them and their families for all the support they show us with our fundraising. We received a lot of entries and the feedback we got was that they all loved it, so we will be continuing with these again this year. Colouring sheets will be ready to go at the end of February, and copies will be available to collect from the school as well as being available to print at home.
Easter raffle
We will once again be holding an Easter raffle for our students and families. Tickets will go on sale in a few weeks, so please keep an eye out on our socials for all the information relating to this. If anyone would like to donate an item that we can add to prize hampers, these can be dropped off to the school office.
Kind regards,
Alkimos Primary School P&C
|
Term 1 |
(holidays Friday 29th March – Sunday 14th April) |
|
Term 2 |
(holidays Saturday 29th June – Sunday 14th July) |
|
Term 3 |
(holidays Saturday 21st Sept – Sunday 6th October) |
|
Term 4 |
(holidays Friday 13th Dec – Wednesday 5th February 25) |
|
School Development Days (Subject to Change) Tuesday 4th June (Week 8, Term 2) Friday 23rd August (Week 6, Term 3) Friday 15th November (Week 6, Term 4) |
|
Attendance Every Day
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.
This term, teaching staff will be contacting families to follow up on any remaining unexplained absences. It is a Department of Education requirement that schools follow up on absences and record the reasons for these. If your child is absent, please let the class teacher or school office know the reason why they have been away from school as soon as possible. Thank you to those who are notifying the school regarding their child’s absences in a timely manner. You can do this via email, phone call, letter to the teacher or using the Schoolzine app, ‘SZapp’ that can be downloaded from the school website:
Where a student’s attendance falls below 90%, it is classed as ‘at risk’ by the Department of Education. If you have any concerns regarding your child’s attendance, please discuss these with the class teacher or contact Mrs MacLean in the office.
