nailsworth newsletter # 12, 12th august 2021

Principal’s Report Diary Dates

www.nailps.sa.edu.au Principal: Jenny Parhas | Deputy Principal: Toni Ballard

2 Balfour St, Nailsworth SA 5083 | Ph: 8269 4622 | Fax: 8269 5330

Email: [email protected]

Student Absence email: [email protected]

Nailsworth P r i m a r y S c h o o l

NEWSLETTER # 12, 12th August 2021

Term 3, Week 4

NPS Pupil Free Days and School Closure for 2021:• Term 3 - Monday 6th

September, School Closure (Royal Adelaide Show)

• Term 4 - Monday 1st November, Pupil Free Day

Respectful Relationships I am a firm believer in nurturing respectful relationships with all stakeholders of our School community. I consider it imperative that this is embraced from a young age, and accordingly we will focus on teaching our students the importance of forming healthy, positive, and respectful connections with fellow students, staff, parents, and the broader Nailsworth community.

Reconciliation in Education Proud in Culture, Strong in Spirit Wednesday 4th of August 2021 was National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day. The theme this year is: “Proud in Culture, Strong in Spirit”. This theme chooses to reflect on the strength of culture and its importance in growing strong children: "Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander families and communities have provided love and

care for children, growing them up strong and safe in cultural traditions, for

thousands of generations. Safety, wellbeing and development are closely

linked to the strengths of children's connections with family, community,

culture, language, and Country."

Restore and Repair ‘Empowering our students with tools to problem solve and reflect’ At the heart of restorative justice is the idea that everyone is inherently worthy and that our connection to one another is what matters most. How can we create a restorative culture where both individuals and the school community can thrive?

What is restorative justice /conference? In a restorative approach, the inherent worth of each individual is recognised, and we seek to strengthen the essential ties that bind us to one another – in the classroom, school and the community.Restorative justice is a framework that educators can use to create safe, supportive spaces in our schools. All members of the school can learn to bravely engage in that

• Sunday 15th August UNSW ICAS online payment closes

• Monday 16th August Governing Council meeting 7pm

• Saturday 21st - Friday 27th August Book Week

• Friday 27th August Book Week Parade

• Sunday 29th August Parent survey closes 5pm

• Wednesday 1st September UNSW ICAS Mathematics Assessment Father’s Day Stall

• Friday 3rd September Premier’s Reading Challenge concludes

• Monday 6th September School Closure Day (Royal Adelaide Show)

• Wednesday 8th September Festival of Music NPS performance

• Monday 13th September Governing Council meeting 7pm

• Friday 17th September Premier’s Be Active Challenge concludes

• Friday 24th September Last day of Term 3

Below are some examples of the questions leaders have been using to restore and repair issues with groups of students.

Newsletter #12, 12th August 2021


Cancer Council school hat reminder

Term 3 - Hats are back on!We know that skin damage which can lead to the development of skin cancer, can occur when the Ultraviolet (UV) Index is 3 and above.The UV Index averages at 3 and above from 1st August to 31st April.This means that Term 3 is the time to slap on a hat and start prioritising SunSmart behaviours.

Wednesday 1st September 2021

Father's Day Stall

Due to covid

restrictions no

change can

be given

Gift donations are greatly appreciated

Feel like getting crafty?

We always appreciate the creative gift

donations from our wonderful NPS community.

Stuck for ideas on what you could donate?

- Plants - Chocolates/lollies

- Masks - Bookmarks

Please drop gift donations to our lovely front office staff

before Tuesday 31st August.

Gifts From

$2 - $7

On entry

children will

e%change money

for tokens

Celebrate your loved ones and special

people and buy a gift from our NPS

Gift bags can also be purchased for $1

Australian Primary Principals Day

Staff celebrated Australian Primary Principals Day on Friday 6th August with cake and gifts. We welcomed Jenny as Principal, Toni as Deputy Principal and Leadership/Deputy Principals, Jake, Jodie and Marika.

Principal's Message (continued)

community, and learn from honest – and sometimes difficult – conversations.When relationships break down – as they will – it is about having fair responsive processes in place in which everyone can share their stories, hear the impact of their actions, repair the relational harm and figure out the best way forward, together.It builds capacity – in students and in adults – to live in, understand and embrace the real world, with all its contradictions and complexities.

Parent Survey You’re invited to complete the 2021 annual parent survey, which is now open.On Monday 2nd August you would have received an email or SMS from the Parent Survey Team with a unique link to participate in the survey.If you did not receive an email or SMS with your unique survey link, please contact [email protected] and include our school’s name in your email.The survey takes less than 10 minutes and will help us understand:

• what we’re doing well• where we can improve• what’s important to you.

It has been coordinated centrally so that added administration workload isn’t placed on the school. Your answers will not identify you or your child. Only collated feedback will be provided to our school. Information collected will inform school improvement planning and activities at the school.The survey closes 5pm Sunday 29th August.

SA Support Staff Week: Monday 16th - 20th August 2021 Shout out to our SSOs at Nailsworth Primary School Next week we celebrate the exceptional work of our SSOs. We would like to take this opportunity to share with our community that our SSOs at Nailsworth Primary School go above and beyond, building strong connections with our learners, supporting with accommodations and building strong relationships with our community. We look forward to acknowledging their work and celebrating with them.

Warm wishes,

Jenny Parhas, Principal [email protected]



Thank you and Farewell from Nathan

Book Week plans for parents

Hello Nailsworth Primary School, What a crazy couple of weeks it’s been! Although lockdown and Covid restrictions have made life a bit more tricky, I hope there’s been some small moments of joy along the way.

I know we’d all love to talk about Covid for a bit more. I have some exciting but sad news to share. Unfortunately, Friday August the 13th will be my last day at Nailsworth PS. This year has been a rollercoaster for many people. Both in joy, sadness and sometimes a mixture of the two. Recently I’ve been presented with some more opportunities at my other workplace. After some lengthy discussions, we’ve decided that these are good opportunities and should be pursued. Unfortunately, that means I am needing to resign from my position as the Pastoral Care Worker at Nailsworth PS.

The last year has been amazing! You’ve welcomed me in with open arms and made me feel like part of the family. Although it hasn’t been too long, these memories will remain with me for a long time. To all the students, staff and greater Nailsworth community that I’ve had the opportunity to work with, thank you so much! I've got so many memories!! From playing handball at lunch, to basketball in the yard and all the conversations around a uno card game. I’ve been super honoured to be able to be apart of this school and help contribute to the lives of this community. I’m going to miss this school and its community a lot. All the best with the rest of year.

Yours sincerely,

Nathan Hale, Pastoral Care Worker

Best wishes from the NPS community

On behalf of all the staff and students from NPS we wish Nathan all the best for the future and his journey ahead.

A Pastoral Care Worker plays such an important role in supporting the wellbeing of students. Nathan has been a positive role model and great support at our school over this past year. Thank you for working with our NPS community and for the care and support you have shared with us. Below are some of the highlights students will remember you for.

As I mentioned in the Week 2 newsletter, Book Week is set to take place in Week 6 this term: 21st - 27th August 2021.

At Nailsworth we have always made Book Week a special event. Encouraging children’s love for books, engagement in literature and a positive attitude towards reading is so important for students of all ages.

Class teachers are busy planning a variety of activities to explore this year’s short-listed books and to celebrate a love for reading. I wonder if you can think of some fun and creative ways to promote a love of reading in your home? If you come up with any great ideas that you think might be worth sharing with other families, please feel free to email me something that I can share with the community on your behalf.

The traditional NPS Book Week dress-up and parade will take place on Friday 27th August. All students are encouraged to dress up as a book character or something to match this year’s theme: Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds. Remember, we don’t want fun things like this to be an expense for families - we believe that the best costumes/outfits are ones that are made from things that you already have around home - so think creatively.

Starting at 9am on Friday 27th August, students will gather on the asphalt and sit in their class groups. One-by-one, classes will stand up and begin their parade around the school. The parade will leave from the Balfour Street office gate, proceed up the footpath, turn left onto Emilie Street, and left again onto Thomas Street, with classes re-entering the school via the Thomas Street kiss-and-drop gate. Please note, students and staff will not be crossing any roads.

We invite our school community to join us for the parade, but we ask that you watch on from the opposite side of the road. We also ask that all visitors wear a mask and remain socially distant, to keep yourself and others safe.

It is always lovely to see the fun and creative costumes across all year levels, and the students certainly love it when their friends and family can join in the fun. So please come along and give a big wave as we parade around the school. We can’t wait to see you all then!

Jake Blunt, Assistant Principal - Teaching and Learning in Literacy [email protected]

‘Thank you Nathan for making slime

with us... even when it went all sandy.’

‘We always had fun playing games

with you.’

‘You taught us how to do gardening

and help look after the environment.’

‘Nathan was very funny, he always

had lots of jokes to make us laugh.’

From the NPS community, we thank you.



PAT Early Years

Learning at NPS

As part of our school’s ongoing commitment to student’s improved learning outcomes, our

Foundation students participated in their second Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT).

These online, diagnostic tests assist teachers in the assessment of students’ skills and understandings in early maths and reading. They are designed to complement other methods of early years’ assessments, such as interviews, portfolios and observation logs. Our teachers use the results to plan for targeted teaching.

PAT Early Years Maths covers the early development of mathematical skills with a strong focus on number. A range of measurement, geometry and statistics skills are also assessed, with some coverage of algebra and probability.

PAT Early Years Reading focuses on pre-literacy and early reading skills, covering print conventions, decoding, listening comprehension and reading comprehension.

Each Foundation class had senior students to assist with the technology and ensure the younger students were supported with completing the questions. It was a great example of our students working together.

Jodie Ralph

Assistant Principal Numeracy and Mathematics

[email protected]

Literacy Club

Earlier this year, we formed a Literacy Club for students who are interested in all things Literacy. The big project that the group wanted to tackle was a student-led newspaper. The group began by exploring a variety of newspaper articles, learning that they usually fit into one of two categories:

1. News articles - covering the basics of current events, answering the questions of who, what, where, when and how.

2. Feature articles - generally more in-depth articles that focus on one specific topic. After exploring different articles and learning about how they are structured/written, the students chose topics that they wanted to write about. They then transformed themselves into student reporters, interviewing people and gathering information to include in their newspaper articles.

Despite countless interruptions to our Friday meeting time, the newspaper is something that the Literacy Club students have been working extremely hard on, and I could not be prouder of what they have produced for their first ever published newspaper!

The newspaper, titled ‘NPS KIDS PRESS’, has been distributed to classes as a hard copy for students to read. An electronic copy of the newspaper has also been attached to the email containing this week’s newsletter – we hope you enjoy reading it!

A big congratulations to Arjun P (Room 10), Nishchal H (iLab), Amber M (iLab), Ellie S (iLab), Ilena K (Room 13) and Ava S (Room 13).

Jake Blunt, Assistant Principal – Teaching and Learning in Literacy

[email protected]



Parent Update Week 3, Term 3 – 2021Feeling comfortable in high school.

Starting at a new school is a big step for any student. Many of our current year 6 and 7s will be starting high school in a new school next year, with new adjustments like moving between classrooms for some subjects.

We know from our pilot program that our year 7 students are well and truly ready for high school. The pilot has involved three public high schools that started welcoming year 7s in 2019, providing early insights on the move for the rest of the state.

Many of the families we spoke to at the start of the pilot initially wondered how their children would find their way around high school. They also wanted to know how their children would fit in with older teenagers and what the workload expectations would be.

By the end of Term 1, 90% of parents said their child’s year 7 experience met or exceeded their expectations overall and these factors were no longer concerns.

Navigating high school settings.

High school campuses are generally larger than primary schools, with higher volumes of students. An initial concern for many students in our pilot program was that they might get lost in high school, but in reality, they quickly found their way around.

Your child’s wellbeing is just as important in high school as it is in primary school. Our high schools help all new students to adjust to routines, find their classrooms, get organised and read timetables.

“I liked to know the teachers were always ready for a question” – pilot program student.

“In our diary we’ve got a map of the school, so we know where we’re going and, if we ever get lost, there’s always people to help you.” – pilot program student.

Fitting in with older teenagers

Some families of students involved in the year 7 pilot were initially concerned their children might find interactions with older teenagers challenging. Our schools are very aware that most 7s will be 11 or 12 years old when they start high school. This is also the case in all other states and school sectors across Australia which already have year 7 in high school.

Frameworks already exist to manage interactions between students of different ages in our Birth to 12, Reception to 12, Area schools and primary schools. For example, many have peer mentoring programs or different lunch and recess areas for different age groups.

Our pilot schools initially established dedicated spaces just for year 7s and 8s, but quickly found they were no longer needed after a few weeks.

Ask your school what they will offer to support younger students on site.

“I really did think they (older children) were scary but, after a while, they’re literally just like everyone else.” – pilot program student.

“We have a spot where it’s only year 7s and 8s that can go into so that is kind of good” – pilot program student.

IN 2022

Parent Update Week 3, Term 3 – 2021Feeling comfortable in high school.

Starting at a new school is a big step for any student. Many of our current year 6 and 7s will be starting high school in a new school next year, with new adjustments like moving between classrooms for some subjects.

We know from our pilot program that our year 7 students are well and truly ready for high school. The pilot has involved three public high schools that started welcoming year 7s in 2019, providing early insights on the move for the rest of the state.

Many of the families we spoke to at the start of the pilot initially wondered how their children would find their way around high school. They also wanted to know how their children would fit in with older teenagers and what the workload expectations would be.

By the end of Term 1, 90% of parents said their child’s year 7 experience met or exceeded their expectations overall and these factors were no longer concerns.

Navigating high school settings.

High school campuses are generally larger than primary schools, with higher volumes of students. An initial concern for many students in our pilot program was that they might get lost in high school, but in reality, they quickly found their way around.

Your child’s wellbeing is just as important in high school as it is in primary school. Our high schools help all new students to adjust to routines, find their classrooms, get organised and read timetables.

“I liked to know the teachers were always ready for a question” – pilot program student.

“In our diary we’ve got a map of the school, so we know where we’re going and, if we ever get lost, there’s always people to help you.” – pilot program student.

Fitting in with older teenagers

Some families of students involved in the year 7 pilot were initially concerned their children might find interactions with older teenagers challenging. Our schools are very aware that most 7s will be 11 or 12 years old when they start high school. This is also the case in all other states and school sectors across Australia which already have year 7 in high school.

Frameworks already exist to manage interactions between students of different ages in our Birth to 12, Reception to 12, Area schools and primary schools. For example, many have peer mentoring programs or different lunch and recess areas for different age groups.

Our pilot schools initially established dedicated spaces just for year 7s and 8s, but quickly found they were no longer needed after a few weeks.

Ask your school what they will offer to support younger students on site.

“I really did think they (older children) were scary but, after a while, they’re literally just like everyone else.” – pilot program student.

“We have a spot where it’s only year 7s and 8s that can go into so that is kind of good” – pilot program student.

IN 2022

Workload expectations

All South Australian school students learn the Australian Curriculum. This will not change under the year 7 to high school move. Students will be supported to adjust to new routines and different academic demands through support systems provided by their school. Teachers will also help your child to adjust to high school expectations and build confidence in their learning.

“She is pushed and challenged to be her best in all areas.” – pilot program parent.

“My daughter no longer complains about being bored at school; she is happy to go to school.” – pilot project parent.

Don’t just take our word for it

A new video titled ‘There’s a lot to look forward to in 2022’ is available on the Department for Education website at www.education.sa.gov.au/7toHS.

It features, students, teachers and principals from high schools that have already welcomed year 7s talking about their experiences.

Find it on the year 7 to high school section of the

site, under the heading ‘Benefits for your child’.

Where to find out more

Stay informed through your school and the Department for Education’s website: www.education.sa.gov.au/7toHS.

Or share your feedback with the project team by emailing: [email protected].

IN 2022

Workload expectations

All South Australian school students learn the Australian Curriculum. This will not change under the year 7 to high school move. Students will be supported to adjust to new routines and different academic demands through support systems provided by their school. Teachers will also help your child to adjust to high school expectations and build confidence in their learning.

“She is pushed and challenged to be her best in all areas.” – pilot program parent.

“My daughter no longer complains about being bored at school; she is happy to go to school.” – pilot project parent.

Don’t just take our word for it

A new video titled ‘There’s a lot to look forward to in 2022’ is available on the Department for Education website at www.education.sa.gov.au/7toHS.

It features, students, teachers and principals from high schools that have already welcomed year 7s talking about their experiences.

Find it on the year 7 to high school section of the

site, under the heading ‘Benefits for your child’.

Where to find out more

Stay informed through your school and the Department for Education’s website: www.education.sa.gov.au/7toHS.

Or share your feedback with the project team by emailing: [email protected].

IN 2022



Community Notices

Talented Nailsworth Primary student,

Eva performing in the

State Theatre Company South Australia

by Finegan Kruckemeyer

HIBERNATION

15+

School uniforms can be purchased through UMS

on Hampstead Road (next to IGA and across the road from the Hampstead

Rehabilitation Centre).

You can purchase school uniforms from the shop or online:

https://umspl.com.au/collections/nailsworth-primary-school

nailsworth newsletter # 12, 12th august 2021

Documents