Nedlands Primary School Newsletter

"Experience the Opportunities"

Newsletter - August 31, 2011

35 Kingsway Nedlands WA 6009
ph: (08) 9386 2278 fax: (08) 9389 1922
web: http://www.nedlandsps.wa.edu.au
email: Nedlands.ps@det.wa.edu.au

Year 1 Room 2 Assembly

In This Issue

TOMS

2011 NAPLAN Reports

Massed Choir Festival

Year 6 / 7 Concert Band

Ensemble Evening

Years 1 / 2 Dance Demo

Did You Know?

Heathers Hutch - Important Notice

Have Sum Fun

Chicken Pox

Staff Changes (Term 3)

House Athletics 2011

Athletics Carnival Cafe

Dogs on School Premises

Kindergarten, Pre-primary & Year 1 - 2012

100th Anniversay News

Waste Wise Wednesday

Playground Use After School

Entertainment Books

NPS P & C Committee

Important Dates

Community News

From The Principal's Desk

Dear Parents and Friends,

Thank you to those members of our school community who have nominated some of our teaching staff for either a Western Australia Department of Education Teacher of the Year Award or a National Excellence in Teaching Award (NEITA). Congratulations to the following staff who have been nominated for an award for 2011: -

Carolyn Vuletic (Year 2)
Daryl Morris-Hall (Year 5)
Leila Earl (Year 1)
Veni Zeid (Kindergarten pre-primary)

Nedlands Primary School has a hardworking and innovative group of staff who are here for the children. Many staff volunteer their personal time for the benefit of the children and I know that the parents at Nedlands Primary school recognize these contributions and are appreciative of our whole staff.

Teaching is a very noble profession and the education and training of children is vital to the health of our society. The staff are charged with an enormous responsibility and they carry out this with compassion and care.

Thank you to those people who nominated these particular teachers for an award and also thank you to those parents who have nominated staff in previous years.

Garry Hewitt
PRINCIPAL

TOMS

Tournament of the Minds (TOMS) is an outstanding competition involving schools right across Australia. This competition involves creative thinking and problem solving in a team environment. Our school has been heavily involved over many years and our aim is focused on participation and involvement. In 2009 one of our teams was placed first in WA in the Maths / Engineering section and were also runner's up in Australia. This was a major achievement.

In 2011 we entered six teams in Maths / Engineering, Language / Literature, Social Science and Applied Technology. These teams competed last Saturday at the University of Western Australia and Curtain University.

Thank you to Mrs Nicholls, Mrs Smith, Mrs Fullgrabe and Mrs Morris-Hall for organizing this terrific opportunity and all the parent co-ordinators and families for their support. TOMS is an important and valued component of our school culture. Please also remember the children will not always get it right, this is all part of the learning process.

2011 NAPLAN Reports

The Year 3, 5 and 7 students who sat the 2011 NAPLAN assessments will receive their reports during the week of Sept 12 - 16, 2011. This information has just been communicated to all schools across Australia. The NAPLAN assessments are undertaken by Years 3, 5, 7 & 9 students right across the country and you can view how a school has performed on the MYSCHOOLS website. Schools are grouped according to socio economic status, disadvantage, ESL / non ESL... You will see that Nedlands Primary School's group comprises 35 schools across the country e.g. Sydney Grammar, Fitzroy Community. Christchurch Grammar, Annadale North Public School, PLC, Scotch College Melbourne, Camberwell Grammar, Caulfield Grammar, Geelong Grammar, Canberra Montessori, Loreto Primary School...(this is not the whole list).

Nedlands Primary School performs very well compared to its MYSCHOOLS group as well as our local WA independent and government schools in NAPLAN.

NAPLAN is a useful tool but we have to be very careful not to over emphasize, over fund or over politicize to the detriment of the students and the curriculum as a whole.

W.A. Band Festival

Massed Choir Festival

Our Senior Choir will be involved in the W.A. Primary School's Massed Choir Festival on the evening of Tuesday September 6. The festival is in its 16^th year and continues to grow each year. It is the largest choral festival in W.A. and is a showcase of excellence in primary choral music. Mr. Jones and Mrs. Conroy have been involved in its organization over many many years. Mrs. Conroy will also be the accompanist for this years' event . The festival involves 2300 children from 50 schools and takes places over five nights at the magnificent Winthrop Hall at UWA.

We wish the Senior Choir and their conductor Mrs Conroy good luck on the 6^th.

Tickets are still available this week from the office @ $15.00 each. We would ask that all parents support this special event - we want to sell all our tickets.

YEAR 6 / 7 Concert Band

Congratulations to the talented young musicians in our Concert Band that performed at Perth Modern School for the 2011 ABODA Festival.

What a wonderful performance which impressed the adjudicators. A just reward for the time and effort put in by all the students in preparation for this special performance.

Ensemble Evening - Wed 31 August

A reminder that this short concert takes place tonight in the Altius Centre and commences at 7pm before concluding at 7.40pm.

Everyone is welcome.

Years 1 / 2 Dance Demo

A reminder that parents are invited to attend the last lesson for their children. The children will present the dances they have learnt this term and parents will have the opportunity to join in and have a dance with their child at the end.

Thursday 22^nd Sept at 9am - 10.30am.

Book Week - Friday 26th August 2011

Did You Know?

PEAC stands for Primary Extension and Challenge and is a Department of Education funded extension program aimed at extending to top 1% of students in Years 5, 6 and 7 in government school. All Year 4's in every government school sit a series of intelligence and knowledge assessments which will determine eligibility into specific courses in Years 5, 6 and 7. Nedlands Primary School always has a very large number of students involved in this program. The assessments used are a series of knowledge / learning tests (TOLA 1, 2, 3 & 4) combined with a SPM (Standards Progessive Matrices) and is a non verbal problem solving intelligence test. These assessments are aggregated and the students are allocated a score for SPM and TOLA. The top 1% of students are identified then allocated a placement in the PEAC (district) program in Year 5.

At NPS we have a large number of students who fall outside this 1% and we endeavour to offer a broad range of extension opportunities which are school based. These opportunities include Year 3 and 4 extension programs, TOMS, Have Sum Fun Maths competition, ICAS competitions, Maths Association of WA ( MAWA) annual Maths competition,(Phoebe Strickland and Chantel Chen won 1^st place in Australia in 2010), Nedlands Primary School and WA Young Writers, Instrumental music tuition, orchestra and band involvement, recorder extension, Oracy Australia, Mathletics (funded by the P & C) Spelladrome, HOTS, Music Eisteddfod, Hey Hey, Interschool Sport, Science challenges, Mandarin and French.

On average 40% of students who gradate from Nedlands achieve scholarships or specialized placements in their respective secondary school programs. In 2011, 15 of our graduating Year 7's won Gifted and Talented placements to Shenton College, Perth Modern, Churchlands and John Curtin College of the Arts. An additional number of students won scholarships or partial scholarships into independent schools.

All independent schools in our area now take Year 6's for Year 7 as a start to secondary school. As a consequence a number of our Year 6 students are now winning scholarships for Year 7.

Heathers Hutch - Important Notice

Please be advised that HEATHERS HUTCH will be closed for trading:

Week 10 of Term 3 and Week 1 of Term 4.

Ensure all children bring lunches from home during these two weeks.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Have Sum Fun

The school has entered six teams of Year 5, 6 and 7 students who are involved in an online Maths competition run over three weeks. Good luck to the Year 5 - 7's involved and we will watch your progress with interest.

Chicken Pox

We are experiencing a small outbreak of chicken pox especially in the Year two and Year three area. Please check your children especially the torso area.

Staff Changes (Term 3)

Congratulations to Mr. Malcolm who is Acting Principal at Heathridge Primary School for the remainder of this term. Mr. Phoebe has stepped into Mr. Malcom's role but will continue with a lot of his teaching commitments in Year 6. Mrs Pember will undertake some teaching in Year 6 for the rest of Term 3.

House Athletics 2011

A reminder that the Junior Athletics carnival takes place on Thursday Sept 8^th commencing at 9.15am. The Senior Carnival is on Friday Sept 9^th commencing at 9.45am. Please note that the juniors compete up to lunch, then they have their lunch break as normal 12.40 - 1.30pm (families are welcome to stay).The Year 1 and 2's will have dancing in the afternoon.

The seniors start the day later a 9.45am, break for a quick lunch and continue into the afternoon. Some students are welcome to go home with their families at the end of the day but must be collected from the students' classroom.

Athletics Carnival Cafe

Delicious food will be available to purchase at the Carnival Cafe on both days.

Cupcakes, slices, sausage rolls, soup, quiches and pizzas as well as drinks, chips, the popular 'Lolly Bags' and more.........

This year the Carnival Cafe will be open during lunchtime on both days, so why not encourage your child/ren to purchase their lunch. There will also be a sausage sizzle running all day.

Parents will be able to purchase their morning coffee from a coffee van.

Please support this fundraiser for the Nedlands Park and On-site Pre-Primaries.

Dogs on School Premises

Are reminder that dogs are not permitted on school premises regardless of whether they are on a leash or not. Thanks you for your co-operation with this requirement.

Kindergarten, Pre-primary & Year 1 - 2012

Letters have now all been sent home for 2012 placements.

You now need to come to the office and formally enrol, bringing in necessary original documents as requested in your letter.

100^th Anniversary News - Oral History Search

K - Yr 7's have recently brought home some information pertaining to an Oral History activity that all of our students will be participating in. We are asking the students to undertake an oral history interview; record the interview; complete an evaluation and present their findings via to their class. We are going to identify recollections of times past to be included as research for our 100^th anniversary book.

The Kindergarten and Pre-primary students have developed their own process for this project and the Year 1 - 3's and Year 4 - 7's also have different expectations and requirements. We would like you to interview a person (any age) who attended Nedlands Primary School or lived in the Nedlands, Dalkeith, Claremont or Crawley area if at all possible. However if this is not possible please interview and older neighbour, parent, grandparent, friend about their school days and growing up.

Good luck and have fun.

Waste Wise Wednesday

A reminder that on Wednesdays no bins are put out for the students. We do collect food scraps and paper only wrapping / bags. It would reduce waste quite a lot. Sandwiches, pies, pasties, sausage rolls etc. are not a problem. Thank you to the Year 6's who collect the recyclable materials on Wednesdays and add them to our compost bin.

Playground Use After School

Did you know that it is a requirement that students leave the school site immediately after the bell and do not play on the school equipment? However, if you are supervising your child, Duty of Care shifts from the school to the parent as would be the case on weekends. Other children cannot play at the playground without their own parent supervising them.

Just a reminder that students need to be picked up before 3:30pm from our pick up zone. Students who are left on school premises after 3:30pm will need to be collected from the school office. If you are continually having difficulty picking up your child on time, arrangements can be made to send your child to after school care provided by YMCA. This will ensure their safety.

Entertainment Books - Nedlands Park Early Learning Centre

I've just got a few more Entertainment Books to sell before I wrap up what's been a great fundraiser for the centre.

So, if you've already bought one - thanks! You know how great they are so if you can think of any friends/family that would also like one, let them know. And if you haven't got one yet - check out a few of the great offers to help you save - and don't forget the savings aren't just for dining out.

Estimated value:
Take the family for a fun night out at the Hollywood-themed Jimmy Dean's Diner	$30.00
Lose yourselves in 32 acres of gardens and parklands at The Maze	$20.00
Bring out your competitive side with a game at AMF Bowling	$14.00
Relax with friends whilst the children play at The Beach House	$10.00
Enjoy a huge selection of exceptional meat and seafood dishes at Outback Jacks Bar & Grill	$35.00
Enjoy a fun-filled day at The Great Escape, Perth's ultimate leisure park Leave the kids at home and enjoy a romantic dinner date at Coco's Restaurant	$24.00 $50.00

TOTAL ESTIMATED VALUE:	$183.00

Plus the great Coles offer - 5% off every time you do your supermarket shopping!

The details again;

The books are $65 each and the easiest way to pay is to simply click on the link below and pay online with your credit card. Otherwise you can pay by cash or by cheques made out to the Nedlands Primary School P&C. There are order forms and a box in the school front office.

https://www.entertainmentbook.com.au/orderbooks/87324

Contact your NPS P&C Committee

Sharmistha Bose President 9386 5684 sbose@iinet.net.au
Ian Crooke Vice President 0437 486 373 iancrooke@bigpond.com

Jean Choo Treasurer 0421 465 623 NPS.PandC.Treasurer@gmail.com

Janet Jayasundera Secretary 0433 108 573 janetjayasundera@hotmail.com

Oliver Berry Building & Grounds 0400 747 197 ollyberry@westnet.com.au

Jacinta Dharmananda    School Board Rep 0416 472 342 jacintamd@yahoo.com
Jenny Edis                   Social & Fundraising    0408 954 129 jen@edis.com
Anne Gribble               Communications & Tech     0400 108 805 agribble@bigpond.net,au
Jane Leaversuch          Centenary    0419 944 528 jane.leaversuch@bigpond.com

Meg Ostler Uniform 0414 664 747 megsmail@iprimus.com.au
Christina Pascall School Pool 0405 148 764 christinapascall@gmail.com

Jenni Harden-Jones General 0413 049 992 jennihj@gmail.com
Trish Hepburn General 0422 503 410 trishhep@bigpond.net.au

Important Dates

Thurs 1st Sept Year 1 & 2 Dance Lessons (9.00 - 10.30am)

Frid 2nd Sept Athletics Assembly

Mon 5th Sept Uniform Shop open (8.45am - 9.15am)

Jumps and Throws and 800m (Jnrs Yrs 4 & 5)

Snr Choir / Massed Choir rehearsal (am)

Tues 6th Sept AFL Footy Clinic (Year 5's)

Jumps and Throws and 800m (Snr Yrs 6 & 7)

Snr Choir / Massed Choir performance (6 - 10pm)

Wed 7th Sept Yr 2 Excursion Kings Park (9am - 1.15pm)

Thurs 8th Sept Jnr Athletics Carnival (am)

Year 1 & 2 Dance Lessons (1.30 - 3.00pm)

Frid 9th Sept Snr Athletics Carnival

Mon 12th Sept Year 3 / 4 Violin Concert 7pm

Wed 14th Sept Nedlands Park Incursion

P & C Meeting (7.30pm)

Thus 15th Sept Year 1 & 2 Dance Lessons (9.00 - 10.30am)

Whole School Incursion (Shock Proof)

Frid 16th Sept Year 5 Room 13 Assembly

Unveiling of plaque for new buildings (BER)

Experience Babysitter Wanted

Young family looking for an experienced babysitter who is able to look after two children (4 & 7 years olds) at dinner and bath time, 1 - 2 times per month. Please contact Ian on 0437 486 373.

Open Day at Hollywood Bowl

Sunday Sept 11th at 1 - 4pm - OPEN DAY at Cnr Verdun & Smyth Road, NEDLANDS

Come and join us for a fun family day of bowls and entertainment.

Live music and kids' entertainment.

Food and drinks.

If youv'e got any questions about the OPEN DAY or holding a function, call the club on 9381 8941 or email hsbc@three.com.au

www.hollywoodbowling.com.au

Redkite - Quiz

Take on the challenge to find out who is the smartest company in Western Australia. Join host Ian Blackley from Mix94.5 for a fantastic night in support of children and young people with cancer.

Date: Friday 9^th September 2011

Venue: Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre

Time: 6.30pm till 11.30pm

Tickets: $220 per ticket or $2,200 for a table of 10

(includes three course meal, beer wine and the chance to compete against other corporate supporters)

Dress: Lounge Suit

Book: www.redkite.org.au/redkite-coporate-quiz

Stage Door School of Performing Arts is now operating its Singing, Acting and Dance programme from the heritage buildings in Perth Modern School (off Hamilton St) as well as Kent St SHS (Rathay St). New students 7yrs to 17yrs, are welcome to come and try out from 4pm to 7pm on Tuesdays at Perth Modern School or 4pm -7pm Thursdays at Kent St. Check out the web site for other classes including classes for persons with disability. The new Stage Door Glee Club (filling up fast) is Fridays at 4.00 till 530 for all the 7yrs to 17yrs at Perth Modern School. www.stagedoorschool.com or Robin 0416 251 265

PS: Please watch out for the auditions for Oliver the Musical, to be presented by the ICW Foundation (a Charity which has been created to assist persons with disabilities). Performances will be in the Regal Theatre from April 10^th to 21^st, 2012. The auditions for girls and boys (8-150 are on September 17/18^th. If interested, please call Robin, after hours, on 0416 251 259

Riverside MultiSports at Trinity College

Riverside MultiSports are hosting a sports programme for students aged 6 -14 at Trinity College from Wednesday, 12^thOctober to Friday, 14^th October. Each day will commence at 9:00am and conclude at 12:30pm with the focus being on a wide range of sports supervised by specialist coaches in a fun yet safe environment. To secure a place on this exciting programme or for more information, email riversidesports@live.com.au or call David on 0413342999.

Christ Church Grammar School

Boys and Motivation Seminar and Workshop -

Saturday 10^th September 2.00pm to 5.30pm in the School Chapel.

Claremont Campus Queenslea Drive, Claremont

For more information e-mail cdangerfield@ccgs.wa.edu.au

Booking via www.trybooking.com/TKG

FOR PARENTS
1-2-3 Magic and Emotion Coaching Parent Courses
A flexible but firm approach to discipline with 2-12yo.

Wembley, 3 Saturday afternoons of 27th Aug, 3rd & 10th Sept, 1pm to 3.30pm, Behaviour Tonics Rooms. (Smaller group session for parents of children 2 - 5 years*).
Wembley, 3 Thursday evenings of 1st, 8th & 15th Sept, 7pm to 9.30pm, Behaviour Tonics

Rooms. (Smaller group session for parents of children 2 - 12 years*).

*What's the difference? They are exactly the same course it is just that the course for parents of 2-5 year olds has more examples of how to use the program with the younger age group. Those with older children still welcome to attend.

For more information please follow the link.
http://behaviourtonics.com.au/parents