3

Issue No. 2

45 Gawthorne Drive,

Millars Well, Karratha 6714

Upcoming Events

1st Apr - Easter Hat Parade

1st Apr - Last day of Term 1

19th Apr - Staff Development Day

20th April - First day of Term 2 for students

23rd Apr- ANZAC Assembly

26th Apr - ANZAC Day Public Holiday

IN THIS ISSUE

Principal’s message P.1

Principal’s message cont. P.2

HOUSE Excursion/ Community Choir P.3

Closing the Gap P.4

Dockers Cup P.5

Bebras Challenge P.6

Principal’s Message

End of Term Celebration To mark the end of term, we will have a special Easter Hat parade on Thursday morning. Parents are welcome to assist their children to make a special hat to wear. We would love to see parents come along to the parade, which will commence at 8.40am. This is optional of course. I recognise that not all families celebrate Easter, or have the time or materials to help their child make a make a hat, but if you do, we would love to see it! Students may also choose to wear free dress on Thursday – something with an Easter theme, or just a favourite outfit – so long as it is suitable for school (i.e. sun safe, and with no inappropriate logos or images). At lunch time, we will have some special games and activities for our students to enjoy. We want to acknowledge the efforts of our students for wearing their uniforms with pride all term and working and behaving so well.

Health Food Policy reminder Parents are welcome to send Easter eggs or chocolates to school for their own children in their own lunch boxes, but students should not bring sweet treats to give as gifts or share with their classmates.

Staff movements and vacancies Mr Jackson will be extending his leave through to the end of the year to clear long service leave. He will be in Karratha on and off during this time so you will still see him around! I am delighted that Mrs Janice Fox has agreed to continue at our school through to the end of the year, supporting staff and students as Deputy Principal and maths specialist in tandem with Mrs Erin van der Sluys. Both Mrs Fox and Miss Westberg will have some medical leave from the start of next term – we will look forward to seeing them back once they have recovered. We welcome Miss Madani to the team at Millars Well Primary School. I thank Miss Kate Roff for her contribution as our Phys Ed teacher this term. She has done a stirling job! The successful applicant for this position for the remainder of the year will be finalised over the term break. The school has advertised a pool for Education Assistants to fill upcoming vacancies as they arise during the next year. Information is available via the Jobs WA website. Applications must be received by 9th April 2021. Neither qualifications nor previous experience is essential, but good organisation, communication and teamwork skills will be required. I encourage parents and community members to apply if they want to contribute to the education of students at our school. We are keen to encourage diversity on our

staff. Please speak to me or Mrs Tammy Brown for more information.

Millars Well Primary School is a collaborative, safe, vibrant school, focusing on values, literacy and numeracy. All students are empowered to realise their full potential as happy, independent, responsible members of our rapidly changing society. In achieving this vision, parents are partners in the education of their children.

Positive Behaviour Support A Positive Behaviour survey has been written and posted on Seesaw for parents to complete. If you have some time, please jump on and give it a go. The PBS team wants to know what YOU value and which behaviours you think are most important for our students to be learning so we can help them be the best Millars students they can be. This will be open until the end of school on Thursday. Once this information has been collected, the PBS team will combine it with both student and staff responses to similar questions and use it to come up with a school mantra to remind everyone of the expectations, along with a set of specific behaviours that we can explicitly teach in classes across the school. We look forward to your input!

School Council vacancy At our School Council meeting last Wednesday, we thanked Mrs Natasha Payne for her contribution to the school as a parent, long-time P&C member, and member of the School Council. With Natasha’s departure from Council, there is now a vacancy for a parent representative. School Council is the decision-making body for the school. It sets the school’s direction, provides checks and balances to the school’s management, and is a direct voice for parents and the community into the school’s future. Our current parent representatives are Zoe Rutherford (Chair), Gil McComb, Rene Vanderwal, Karen Hancock and Kevin Ugle. If you are interested in joining them to ensure that the school hears a range of voices and achieves real excellence for your children, please complete the nomination form attached to this newsletter. We encourage parents of children from Kindy through to Year 6 to be involved.

Nature playground planning Our School Council, along with our wonderful proactive P&C association, is keen to see the school pursue a Nature Playground project, and planning has already begun. Our School Council community rep Jodie Swaffer and school rep Erin van der Sluys joined me to meet with Kristen Jamieson of Kidsafe for some initial planning for the playground. During the first weeks of next term, our students will have the opportunity to share their thinking about what elements they would like to see in a nature playground, and create dioramas or models of what it might look like. No ideas are off limits! We will have an afternoon event for students to show their dioramas off, get information from parents, and enjoy a sausage sizzle. We want parents to have a wander around and give us input on the best location for the playground and how we might best get it happening. There is so much practical expertise in our school community. It’s going to be FABULOUS!!

Enjoy the term break! This has been a short term, but a busy one. I thank all our families for your positive support for your children’s education. Our staff have all been working exceptionally hard, and we know our students have been also. But our parents are the ones who negotiate between the expectations of school and home, juggle a thousand demands, take time to keep in touch with teachers to ensure their children are learning well and doing well, tend to bruised knees and feelings, and give their children the love and attention they require to thrive. Thanks for all your efforts.

HOUSE Excursion

In week four, students from Years 3-6 attended an excursion to the Red Earth Arts Precinct funded by Woodside. We were lucky enough to see a production by The Barking Gecko Theatre Company called HOUSE. Three actors and actresses, along with the moving set of a magical flying house, told the story of the loneliest girl in the world. Students and staff oo’d and ah’d at the dynamic production, as the trio learned to be themselves and slowly became confident enough to go out into the real world. I was very impressed with how the students represented the school in a sea of maroon and gold, both while in the theatre and traveling to and from the production. If this wonderful production has sparked an interest in the dramatic arts, Barking Gecko is running drama classes on Wednesday afternoons at the REAP.

Red Earth Arts Festival - Performance Troupe On Sunday, 21st March the Millars Well Primary School Senior Choir combined with other primary and high school choirs along with the Red Earth harmony adult choir to create a community choir. The community choir supported the final act in the Red Earth Arts Festival at the Red Earth Arts Precinct and it was a fabulous performance opportunity for our students.

Closing the Gap On Thursday, 25th March our whole school showed support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander health equality by gathering in the undercover area for a short healthy afternoon tea to observe National "Close the Gap" Day.

Dockers Cup Congratulations to our fabulous Dockers Cup teams who represented Millars Well on Friday at Bulgarra Oval. Our girls were semi-finalists, our boys won two of their four games, and all of our participants showed great behaviour and sportsmanship. Their coaches Mr Maxwell, Miss Powell, Miss Smeding and Mrs Moar were all very proud of them.

Bebras Challenge Bebras is an international initiative aiming to promote Informatics and Computational Thinking among students. Started in 2004 by Professor Valentina Dagiene from the University of Vilnius, 'Bebras' is Lithuanian for beaver. This refers to their collaborative nature and strong work ethic. Students can participate individually or in teams of up to four and have 45 minutes to complete the Bebras Challenge, however Years 3+4 are given an additional 15 minutes to bring their total to 60 minutes. Each challenge has 15 questions with the highest possible score being 135 points. The level of difficulty of a question determines how it will be scored. Easy questions are worth 6 points, medium questions are worth 9 points, and hard questions are worth 12 points. Any incorrect or unanswered questions are awarded zero points. Mrs Fox has been working with Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 students who are up for an additional challenge. The students have been motivated to extend their skills and take on students from all over Australia. We wish them well in their challenges - the competition closes this week.