Issue 2 - 21st February 2018

Diary Dates

Assembly Thursday 8th March 2:15pm

March Public HolidayMonday 12th March

Pupil Free DayTuesday 13th March

Principal’s TourWednesday 14th March 10:00am

sports Day (Note change of date) Friday 23rd March

Young Leaders Day - sRC executive students Tuesday 27th March

Good FridayFriday 30th March

easter Monday Monday 2nd April

Year 6/7 Camp4th - 6th April

Assembly Thursday 5th April 2:15pm

Athelstone school 8 Brookside Rd, Athelstone, sA, 5076

Tel: (08) 8337 3300

or (08) 8337 1002

Mobile: 0429 324 428

(Voice or Text Message only)

Fax: (08) 8337 0030

dl.0419_info@schools.sa.edu.au

www.athelstone.sa.edu.au

Principal Gyllian Godfrey

Deputy Principal Leah Kelly

Governing Council Chairperson David evans

Acquaintance NightThank you to everyone who attended this year’s Acquaintance Night. We hope you enjoyed the opportunity to meet other members of the school community, share a slice of pizza and meet your child’s teacher.

Deputy PrincipalWe welcome Leah Kelly to Athelstone School, our new Deputy Principal who started in the role this week. Following is a brief introduction from Leah.I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to the Athelstone School community. My name is Leah Kelly and I have started here this week as the Deputy Principal for Terms 1 and Term 2. I have 16 years’ experience working in various roles in government schools, most recently working as Deputy Principal at Augusta Park Primary School in Port Augusta. I bring a passion for learning through inquiry and helping all members of a school community develop belief in themselves as learners. I have already been made to feel very welcome by the genuinely friendly and caring students and staff of Athelstone School and I am very excited to get to know all of the families of the school. Please feel free to come and see me and say hello. Leah Kelly.

Volunteering at Athelstone schoolAre you a current volunteer? Or are you interested in volunteering?DECD has made recent changes to the way schools manage and work with volunteers and these may impact you. These new measures ensure the safety and protection of children in our schools and the volunteers that are a valued part of our school community.The requirements for volunteering include:• A Department of Communities and Social Inclusion (DCSI) Relevant History

Screening for working with children• Completion of the online Responding to Abuse and Neglect – Education and Care

Settings (RAN-EC) Induction for Volunteers• Completion of the online Volunteers Induction Training• Completion of a Volunteer Application form, Volunteer Agreement, Role

Statement and site induction with a member of the school’s leadership team.If you are a current volunteer at our site, we will soon be following up on your current role in the school to ensure compliance with the new DECD procedures.If you are new to our community and wish to start the process the online training modules can be completed at the following link. Go to https://www.plink.sa.edu.au/pages/signup.jsf and create a PLINK account for Non-DECD staff. Once signed in you will see the available training.

PleaseseeJackieinthefrontofficeforfurtherinformationand to commence the Relevant History Screening. Once everything is completed please arrange a time to meet with Leah Kelly or Gyllian Godfrey to complete the process.Thank you for your patience as we work through these new processes and as always, your contribution to our school.

eXCeLLeNCe ResPeCT INTeGRITYResPONsIBILITY

Pupil Free DayTuesday

13th March

Parent Key CommunicatorsA big thank you in advance to the following Parent Key Communicators (PKCs) for 2018. Your assistance in helping with the communication between classroom teachers and the parent community is greatly appreciated.

Room 1 Alana Lintern Room 2 Valeska Waldron Room 3 Kelly Horne Room 4 Kelly Clark Room 5 shandi sansom Room 6 Karen sunstrom Room 7 Kylie Hollands / Bec Morrison Room 8 Vanessa Davis Room 9 Alex Manifold / Pip Manifold Room 10 sarah Coventry Room 11 Donna Grant Room 12 Karen sunstrom Room 13 Jo symes Room 14 Megan Keil Room 15 Kerryn Delen Room 16 Michelle Roberts

Before and After school supervisionPlease be reminded that children are not to play on the Junior Primary top playground or oval before or after school as THERE IS NO TEACHER SuPERVISION AT THESE TIMES. If you wish for your child/children to play on the playground or oval, they must do so under the direct supervision of their parent/caregiver.

Please also note that before school teacher supervision commences at 8:35am, some students are being dropped off earlier and gathering on the grass areas in front of the school. If you need to drop off your child before 8:35, please see OSHC for before school care.

Cyber-safetyunfortunately, this term there have been a small number of incidents involving improper use of apps on student devices. Iwillbeprofilingsomeofthemorepopular apps over coming newsletters as an advisory service to parents. This week I am featuring Musical.ly. I am also including an attachment regarding Snapchat. If you are a parent/caregiver of a student in Year 6/7 please take the time to read this important information.

2018 Literacy summitLast Thursday, Ms Fitzgerald and I attended the inaugural DECD Literacy Summit. This summit brought together 1600 educators together at the Adelaide Convention Centre to discuss how literacy achievement will be lifted for every child and young person in 2018. We had the privilege of hearing internationally acclaimed Professor Maryanne Wolf speak to the nature of the ‘reading brain’ and the importance of literacy as the key to equality. The capacity for our brains to develop reading, something that it wasn’t designed to do is quite incredible!

Parents play an integral role in setting the preconditions for the brain to learn to read. Teachers continue this process by activating and connecting many of the brain’s components, repurposing them for reading and enabling the child to move through the learning to reading processes, from the mechanics of reading to developing the skills for comprehension, deep thought and critical thinking.

https://www.ldaustralia.org/client/documents/Wolf_How_the_Reading_Brain_Resolves_the_Reading_Wars_2013.pdf

Interesting points raised for us included the importanceoforalliteracy,earlyidentificationofdyslexia and improving the methods for teaching reading based on current research evidence.

What was also of interest is the new research on the impact of reading from a digital screen where there can be an impact on attention and memory - too long, too much and too early will have a negative effect.Wherethereisinsufficientattentiontoconsolidating knowledge – the brain circuit becomes limited in its capacity for deep comprehension. There are ways to combat this and it will be interesting to see how we build brain circuits for deep reading for this medium.

Payment Options- Cash - eftpos - Cheque - Instalments

- Online Payments @ athelstone.sa.edu.au

Materials and services Fee $430.00

school Building Fund (Voluntary) $25.00

sAPsAsA Beach Volleyball $20.00

sports Day T-shirts $22.00/$25.00 (orders close Fri 23/2/18)

Year 6/7 Camp $230.00

Year 6/7 Girls Football A girls football team will be training over the coming weeks to participate in the "Crows Cup" which is held on 26th March at StIgnatiusSchool.Thiscarnivalwillbeafunfilleddayfor all of the girls involved and who know, maybe we’ll findthenextErinPhillips.If your daughter is interested in participating in this carnival please see Mr Wait to register.

Assembly AwardsCongratulationstothefollowingstudentswhowereawardedcertificatesatthelastassembly.Awards

are presented to our students for actively demonstrating our four school values, which are; excellence, Respect, Responsibility, and Integrity.

These values are the foundations of our school culture and are essential for children if they are to be successful 21st century learners.

eXCeLLeNCeSophie DyettYuri StrongPaul SfyriosSean LevitanusAurelia HollandsJake KennyAva Di GiacomoChiara FinoiaAiden Liebelt

ResPeCTJesse FragnitoLuke KarakoulakisNatalia LeonelloVenumi Parape ArachichigeErinaChatfieldLia SoLaura StockleAlexandra NobleMax Milosev

ResPONsIBILITYMaddie MasseyRyan TrudgenLuke KingTayla FoleyAlexia BerlingeriMason TambeAlexandra QuickChristian Visentin

Musical.ly - App in focus Musical.ly is a social media platform for creating, sharing and discovering short music videos. The app allows you to record and edit a 15 second music clip and share it with other users.

Musical.lyisforyoungpeopleaged13+,althoughtheTermsofServiceareconflictingandreference young people 18+. It is generally a fun lip-sync style app, where users can mime and dance to music they choose from within the app or create their own music videos.

When using Musical.ly children are at risk of:-

• 18+ content – swearing, pornography, graphic content, suicide references

• Being followed by users in nearby locations

• user generated content can be viewed and shared by others onto other social media and messaging apps

• Bullying in comments, made easier by the amount of ‘fake’ user accounts, easily made, to hide from parents

• Publicisingusernamesonothersocialmediaprofiles

• Live.ly is not private if they choose to live stream content and at risk of interacting with others in real time

• Reporting of accounts is not easy

• Fake Musical.ly apps that charge for downloading

If your child is using Musical.ly please ensure their privacy settings are at the highest level and that they are not using live.ly for streaming. For more information please visit the following website:-

https://esafety.gov.au/esafety-information/games-apps-and-social-networking/musically

Canberra 2019 - Fundraisingsausage sizzleParents will be holding a sausage sizzle at Mitre 10 Glynde on Sunday 25th March to raise funds to help send our Athelstone students to the nations capital in Term 1 2019. If you are a parent of one of the students who will be attending and are able to help cook/sell snags on the day, please contact Mr Wait or Sonya Burkin.

RecyclingAn account has been set up at Newton Bottle Yard (Graves Street) to help raise money for the Canberra trip. People can simply take their bottles and cans there and ask for them to be added to the Athelstone School account and the funds will then be forwarded on to the school. Not only does the account help raise money but it also helps save the environment and teaches our students about sustainability.

Karin’s CornerHi Everyone,

Wearewellintoourfirsttermandsomestudentswillfacedifficultieswithintheirownfriendshipgroups,and there are those who are adjusting to making new friends in new classes. This can be tricky and overwhelming for adults let alone our children. Their confidencecanbeaffectedifrejectionhappensand they may blame themselves or others when things aren’t going as they would have hoped. All childrengothroughfriendshipconflict,evenpopularchildren. Learning basic social skills for friendships is important:

Here are a few basic, but important skills to develop:

* be honest * be helpful* show empathy * let others play* be friendly – smile * keep your promises* share and take turns * take turns leading* use manners * be forgiving* listen to your friends * no hitting or pushing

Maybe you can talk with your child and discuss how they could apply these skills within their friendship groups.

It’s not always going to work out how we would like, but keep encouraging your child to “Treat others how they would like to be treated” and to seek help if needed.

All the best

Karin Williams (PCW)

election Day BBQ Volunteers RequiredAs you would be aware the State Election will be held on the 17th March and once again, The John Poole Hall will be a polling station.

On election day, The Athelstone School Governing Council and the Parents & Friends Committee will be running an all day Sausage Sizzle at the school to raise funds to put towards future initiatives.

If you would like to be part of the Sausage Sizzle team and help out on the day, please keep an eye out for a volunteer form which will be coming home soon. If you have any questions in the meantime, please email Jo Symes; jo1977@adam.com.au

Foster Carers can be single, couples, people at home, working full-time, part-time or studying. Free

training and ongoing professional support (including 24-hour assistance) is provided. Find out more at one

of our upcoming information sessions:

Wednesday 11th Aprilst Bartholomew’s Ministry (Next to Church)

77 Beulah RoadNorwood sA 5067

6:30-8:30pmFor more information or bookings please call Linda on

8131 3456 or visit our website:

www.anglicaresa.com.au/foster-care

Is your child safe, confident and strong in the water?

Incorporating regular swimming lessons into your child’s weekly routine will ensure they are able to

participate in social activities such as pool parties, visits to the beach and of course the river.

Prime time places are filling fast, book now to avoid disappointment.

State Swim ClovercrestBuilding strong swimmers for 3 generations…

and counting!

P: 8264 1268e: clovercrest@stateswim.com.au

W: www.stateswim.com.au

every Friday in Term time from 9:00am to 10:30am

ALL WeLCOMe!

This year has gotten off to a bright and busy start! Term 1 is always busy as everyone is settling into their new classrooms and making and meeting new friends. It is, however a particularly special term for the Receptions in Room 2, as it is our first time being at school ever! We have been busy learning the class and school rules and routines, making new friends, learning our letter sounds so we can start to learn how to read, learning about our numbers so we can learn how to count and painting pictures to decorate our classroom!

Here is a look at some of the things we’ve been doing…

ROOM 2

Bring your Coles sports for sChools VouChers to the front offiCe

and plaCe in the Box proVided.

We also haVe a ColleCtion Box at the Coles store at neWton

thanks to parents Who haVe shared their Child’s token photos (and mr Wait).

Are you the parent of a 5 - 12 year old? Want fewer behaviour dramas at home?

Hear psychologist, parenting author and commentor Jodie Benveniste talk about:

• dealing with challenging behaviour in ways that bring out your child’s strengths and true character

• alternatives to discipline and punishment

• encouraging cooperation rather than conflict.

Free parenting seminar

Wednesday 21 MarchWhen: 7.00 - 9.00pm

Where: Adelaide Convention Centre North Terrace, Adelaide Riverbank Room 7 & 8 (easy access via West entrance)

For the benefit of all participants we request no babies and young children.

Presented by Parenting SA. For more information about raising children visit www.parenting.sa.gov.au or www.cyh.com

Register to attend in person or view the live webcast at:

Online: http://parentingsa.eventbrite.com.au Phone: 8303 1660 Email: health.parentingsa@sa.gov.au

Raising brilliantly behaved children

In June each year, students aged 15 - 16 years from France will be arriving in Australia to study at local

schools for 12 weeks. Opportunities are available to become a host family in a volunteer/unpaid capacity.

Host families help provide each student with the chance to study and experience life in Australia. This is a

great way to practice your French, share your stories, learn about another country and culture, establish a

lifelong link to a family in another country and contribute to international goodwill.

Our students bring with them their own spending money, health insurance, a wonderful

attitude and desire to learn about their new host country. Your extended family and

friends will grow and learn as you all get to know your new ‘son’ or ‘daughter’ from

another land. If your family can offer a friendly, supportive and caring home environment,

we would love to hear from you...

For further details, please contact Jenny Hanson (SPANZ SA Placement Co-ordinator)

Ph: 08 8323 0973 / Mob: 0409 890 184 / Email: info@studentplacement.com.au

TAKE HOME A BIG BROTHER OR SISTER

EXPERIENCE FRANCE AT HOME

HOST FAMILY OPPORTUNITIES

Wednesday 21st March 2018

Disability Policy and Programs Parent Forum Parents or carers of a child or young person with a disability are invited to attend the first Parent Forum for 2018 hosted by the Department for Education and Child Development.

You are welcome to join us to:

Hear about the services, policies and support available for children/students with a

disability regardless of their setting

Have a say, be listened to and be engaged in conversations to help inform policy

development

Share your ideas with others and be informed about initiatives and new directions

Visit the Special Education Resource Unit and see the range of resources available for

borrowing to support your child or student.

Wednesday 21 March 2018 Special Education Resource Unit & Fulham Gardens Primary School Performing Arts & Media Centre 72A Marlborough Street 9:30 am – 10:00 am Tea and coffee Henley Beach SA 5022 10:00 am – 2:00 pm Parent Forum Please book your seat by registering and notify us of any dietary requirements. Email your RSVP to the Special Education Resource Unit Julie.cakebread68@schools.sa.edu.au by Friday 16 March 2018. Phone (08) 8235 2871.

A light lunch will be provided for registered participants. A map of the site and parking areas is attached

A detailed agenda will be forwarded on confirmation of your booking.

Location and access to the Special Education Resource Unit (SERU)

Location and access to the Special Education Resource Unit (SERU)

Parking and Registration Parking is available in Northey Avenue, Marlborough Street and surrounding streets.

The entry to the Special Education Resource Unit and the conference is from Northey Avenue via SERU entrance and reception office. You will be greeted at SERU where you can register before being shown through to the conference room in the grounds of Fulham Gardens Primary School.

Buses The H33 bus travels to and from the city via Marlborough Street. Stop 27 is the closest bus stop to SERU.

SERU Entrance & Reception

PERFORMING ARTS AND MEDIA CENTRE