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Phone 9757 2666 Fax 9757 2863

Margaretriver.ps@education.wa.edu.au www.mriverps.wa.edu.au

CHALK DUST CHATTER 6th June May 2018 Newsletter issue: 8

Uniform Shop Tuesday & Thursday

8.30—11.15am

All enquires 9270 4688

or margaretriverps@uc.ubd.net.au

Last week MRPS participated in Musica Viva where they hosted Adam Hall and the Velvet Players.

The whole school got to take part in this awesome incursion, where they were thoroughly entertained

by this classic Rhythm and Blues band. The performance is part of the our music curriculum at MRPS and

builds on preparatory work done in the classroom. Musica Viva has been bringing live music to Australia

for over 35 years and specialises in highly interactive live performances.

Singer Adam Hall and his foot-stomping, hip-wiggling, shoulder-shaking “little big band” are certainly

that! Worshipping at the altar of soul icons James Brown, Ray Charles and Harry Connick Jr., Adam and

his Velvet Players took the students on a tour of some of the classic Rhythym & Blues hits of the 1940s

and 50s.They were thoroughly engaging with their dynamic performances keeping students of all

different ages captivated.

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Bands at Settlers Our bands have been rehearsing all year in preparation for their first performance which is on Wednesday 6th June at Settlers Tavern. Make sure you come along and see the talent on show as the students make the most of their time to shine. Thank you to all of the band coaches who have worked with the students and to parents for making sure that students can rehearse each week. Protective Behaviours Workshops We had a number of parents make the most of the opportunity to attend parent workshops over the course of the last two weeks. Parkerville Children’s Foundation presented a number of practical tips for talking with our children about how they can keep their body, identity and emotions safe and who they can seek for advice and support in doing so. Children are taught about protective behaviours at school as part of the Health curriculum and these workshops were an extension of this learning. P&C Our Parents and Citizens Association are very active in providing community building opportunities for our students and families. They have recently been organising sundowners for each year level to give families a chance to get to know each other in a social setting. They have managed to secure thousands of dollars’ worth of grants this year contributing to planning for a new nature play area, equipment for the Kitchen Garden program, subsidising the Year 4 bike camp, fruit on Walk and Ride to School Days and most recently cutting the cost of the Readers and Writers Festival student workshops. Later this term they will be holding PJ Day (the last day of the term) and are organising discos for later in the year. Thank you to everybody who gives their time to attend meetings or contribute in other ways – we really appreciate you and your commitment. Keep your eye out for the P&C raffle that is coming your way soon! IPS Review Report Last term we were visited by the Independent Public School review team who spoke with students, staff and parents and looked over the progress that we had made towards achieving the goals outlined in our three year Business Plan. The report findings are now available on our website https://mriverps.wa.edu.au/ . We are really pleased with the review findings and have been celebrating the successes of our school. There are some recommendations, listed within the report, that we are taking into consideration in putting together our next Business Plan. Congratulations to everybody in our school community for your contribution to making Margaret River Primary School a great place to Grow and Achieve Together.

Aaron Thomas, Principal

Room 1 Symal Thomas

Room 2 Layla Hester

Room 4 Indigo Dale

Room 5 Jemima Anderson

Room 6 Matilda Edwards

Room 6 Nico Chadid-Fischer

Room 7 Jesse Gelden

Room 8 Kai Reuben

Room 9 Maverick Thomson

Room 10 Daniel

Mottershead

Room 11 Harry Otto

Room 12 Millie Bailey

Room 14 Arlo Copley

Room 15 Lincoln Wittorff

Room 17 Hugh Campbell

Room 22 Grace Twine

Room 23 Che Eggleston

Room T4 Tom Edwards

Room T5 Poppy Passanisi

Room T6 Jed Pettit

Room T7 Grace Garrett

Room T7 Sage McBrearty

Room T8 BJ Tonkin

Room T9 CJ Sheahan

Room T12 Luke Tucci

Room T13 William Young

Room T14 Ruby Almera

Room T14 Dusty Oates

Bee Bop A Lula Award Year 2 – Room 17

Golden Broom Award Junior/Week 3 - Room 15

Junior/Week 4—Room T6

Senior/Week 3 —Room T10

Senior/Week 4 - Room T4

SIM Award Kai de la Mare

Merit Certificates

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What’s on this term? ...

6th June School Bands @ Settler’s

6th June Year 4’s Adopt a Spot excursion

7th June P & C meeting 6.30pm

8th June Winter Sports Training

22nd June Winter Interschool Carnival

29th June PJ Day (P &C fundraiser)

29th June Last day Term 2

16th July School Development Day (Pupil free)

17th July Students resume Term 3

We were very excited last week to welcome two very special authors to school as part of the 2018 Young

Readers and Writers Festival. Deborah Abela shared her experience as an author of over 20 novels, taking

tudents through a series of fun activities to help them become better writers. She worked through ways to

develop ideas, and ways to create and plan characters and plots. Andrew Frazer is a multi disciplinary artist

who took students through a journey of exploration into illustrating their own special character, fuelled by the

imagination and translated through pencil on paper.

The Young Readers and Writers Program tours schools before the main event, which was also held on the

weekend, with its aim to promote the joy of reading from the earliest possible age. An great example of the

benefits of this were evident at the main event, where former MRPS students now attending MRSHS,

participated on a discussion panel with some very notable and respected authors. The panel included

Australian of the Year 2015 Rosie Batty, Author and Freedom of Speech Advocate Peter Greste, Greenpeace

CEO David Ritter and author Andrew Roff.

These students did an amazing job sharing their

knowledge, views and ideas on ways to move

forward and make change.

A huge thank you to our P & C for subsidising this

event to ensure all children could attend at a

reduced rate.

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SCHOOL-AGED HEALTH SERVICES PARENT SURVEY

Help the Department of Health to improve school-aged health services

Do you have a child aged between three and 18?

Child and Adolescent Community Health and WA Country Health Service are reviewing the community health

services provided to school-aged children and across Western Australia. You are invited to complete a short

survey to help them understand what is important to you, what is working well and what could be made better.

For more information and to complete the survey, visit

http://healthywa.wa.gov.au/School-health-services. The survey closes on Friday 8 June.

Important : Library Bag Information

Reminder—Could all students please remember to bring their library bags to the library for their lesson.

With the impending plastic bag ban starting on the 1st July in Western Australia, it is imperative that students

have a library bag to comply with the “no library bag, no book

borrowing” rule by this date.

It is not a requirement to have an MRPS library bag, but we do have

these available for purchase at the front office should you choose this

option. Any bag that will provide protection for the book is suitable.

For more information on ways to reduce single-use plastic, you can

visit www.plasticfreejuly.org

Year 6 Students Capture Our Margaret River Catchment

Over the last few weeks our year six students have headed off with their respective classes

on a Margaret River Catchment Tour Excursion. Activities included water testing, assessing

foreshores, discovering aquatic biodiversity, meeting landholders and learning about sustainable land

practices. Studies were undertaken to broaden their understanding of the importance of the catchment area

and students documented their findings by note taking and filming, participating in these activities to

ultimately create a production that highlights their key learnings.

Pictured left to right— Foy Bradford and Joshua Yates collect macroinvertebrate samples from Canebrake Pool; Conservation Margaret River Coordinator Tracey Muir is excited about Tom Utting’s discovery of a

mayfly larvae; Tully Sowden classifies a macroinvertebrate.

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Room 6 Famous Structure Models Room 6 welcomed parents to celebrate their child's learning in the Structures Inquiry by coming in on Friday 25

May to help construct their famous structure models. Students followed the Design and Technologies process to research, design, plan and write step-by-step instructions for constructing their models. As you can see, the results

have been truly spectacular! Students were really well organised, bringing in their materials (which had to be recycled materials) on the day and following their design plan. It was really beneficial having mums and dads there

to suggest adjustments and apply their own engineering and building knowledge as first hand 'experts' with hands-on support. Thank you to everybody who came along and made our day so successful and so much fun!

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Student Health and Wellbeing MRPS Code of Conduct incorporates six core values:

Cooperation, Empathy, Enthusiasm, Flexibility, Honesty and Respect

One of Margaret River Primary School Virtues is Honesty.

Honesty is being fair, just and truthful; not cheating or stealing. Honesty means you don't say things about

people that aren't true. You are not being honest if you make up rumours about someone. An example of not

being honest is when people spread rumours about others at school or on social media.

Honesty includes not hiding the truth because that is deceiving, not breaking rules to gain an advantage

because that is cheating, and not taking something that isn't yours because that is stealing.

Remember that, “Honesty is the Best Policy.”

SDERA Self – Management

It is important for your child to learn the personal and social skills that will help them to become more resilient

and cope with problems and difficult situations that may come their way. Being able to manage strong feelings

such as fear and anger, and turn these feelings into better ones. Find something funny in a setback or problem

to help keep things in perspective. Develop a sense of purpose and practise positive self-talk. Provide children

with opportunities to practise persistence, decision making; goal setting; problem predicting and solving and

organisation skills.

Let your child sort out their own problems, sorting out conflicts with friends and peers are important skills for

healthy social relationships. Encourage your child to talk about things that bother them. Learning to seek help

when a problem can’t be solved is an important lifelong skill. Let your child know that unhappy or difficult times

are normal part of life and don’t usually last for long.

Appropriate expression of emotions

Self-discipline to control impulses and persevere to overcome challenges

Responsibility for own behaviour

Organisational skills

Skills for setting, planning and achieving realistic goals

Age-appropriate levels of independence and initiative

Creativity and adaptability

Confidence to be courageous

Optimistic thinking

Normalising setbacks rather than personalising

Using humour in a helpful way

Be able to manage strong feelings such as fear and anger and turn these moods into better ones.

Be able to focus on the positive things in negative situations

Thank you for playing a vital role in your child’s resilience and wellbeing education.

For more information visit www.sdera .wa.edu.au

Sundowner Success

Thanks to all the families that came along to the our recent

Sundowners. It was a great opportunity for families to get

together on a Friday afternoon to catch up and also to meet some new people.

Thanks also to the Brewhouse for being such great hosts. Our P & C is hoping to run

a similar event, so it would be great to see some more new faces at these.

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Never Stop Reading! Reading is a fundamental skill your child will use for the

rest of their life – so why stop when they’re just getting

started? Sharing stories and reading aloud with your

child strengthens their skills in reading, writing and

comprehension. It builds their confidence and sense of

security. It creates those special moments with your

child that you cherish. That’s why you should Never

Stop Reading!

Recent research by literacy expert Dr Margaret Merga1

found that over half of parents stop reading aloud with

their children once they begin to start reading for

themselves. This happens even though children enjoy it

well beyond their early years of schooling. Reading

aloud with your child throughout their primary school

years has significant, positive effects on their learning

and reading skills. Listening to your child as you read

together also builds their social skills and confidence as

they engage with you, and the quality time that you

spend with them raises their mood and sense of

wellbeing.

Not only that, your child will simply enjoy reading to

you, and having you read to them. They won’t ever

forget the special moments they had reading and

sharing stories with

you – and you won’t

either. Give your child

the best start for a life

of learning and

discovery.

Never Stop Reading!

Want to find out more? Click on the links below to

access some great information flyers -

Building a love of reading

Ideas for reading aloud with your children

A starting guide to stories to read aloud with your

children

For more info visit www.education.wa.edu.au/

neverstopreading

Sea of Hands

This year during National Reconciliation Week, 27th

May to 3rd June, all Australians were invited to learn

more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

cultures and histories, to share that knowledge and

help us grow as a nation. The 2018 theme, “Don’t

Keep History A Mystery: Learn. Share. Grow “ ,

encouraged everyone to learn more about the

Australian story. Students from across the school

were invited to decorate a hand to be placed in our

'Sea of Hands' at the entrance to the school in

acknowledgement of National

Sorry Day and National

Reconciliation Week.

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MARGARET RIVER PRIMARY

Piano Lessons

Enthusiastic, successful and highly recommended piano

teacher with over 20 years experience would delight in

teaching children 6—12 years in my home

1/2 hour lessons at $25

Contact Helen on 0467 554 271 (5 minute drive from MRPS)