Hallett Cove East Primary School

We would like to acknowledge and pay our respects to the Kaurna people, the traditional custodians whose ancestral lands we gather on. We acknowledge the deep feelings of attachment and relationship of the Kaurna people to country and we respect and value their past, present and ongoing connection to the land and cultural beliefs. 

• Monday March 13th - Adelaide Cup Public Holiday
• Tuesday March 21st - Harmony Day (Gold Coin Donation)
• Thursday April 6th - Charity Champions Easter Raffle Drawn
• Friday April 7th - Good Friday Holiday
  
• Monday April 10th - Easter Monday Holiday
• Friday April 14th - End of Term - Early Dismissal

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

This week I had the privilege of joining school and preschool leaders from across the state to discuss and workshop the purpose of public education. It was an opportunity to hear from world leading education experts and to participate in shaping South Australia's education future focus. The discussion is very targeted on our South Australian story, in our state’s context. Some themes that shone through included; excellence and equity, belonging and connectedness and student agency in learning. This is an important conversation as the purpose will direct how education is delivered in our public education system into the future. Recently, you should have received a link through Skoolbag to a survey so parents and carers could have their say in shaping the purpose of public education. I encourage you to participate and have your say.

NAPLAN

As you are no doubt aware, the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy or NAPLAN will occur from Wednesday 15 March and continuing through until Monday 20 March, with additional catch up sessions available for students who miss a particular test day. NAPLAN is held annually and at Hallett Cove East, students in years 3 and 5 will participate.

All tests are completed online, with the exception of year 3 writing which is still in hardcopy format.

NAPLAN tests four areas namely:

• Writing
• Reading
• Conventions of Language i.e. spelling, grammar and punctuation
• Numeracy

The key aim of the test is to monitor student progress annually in areas of literacy and numeracy. Results from NAPLAN are useful to monitor learning progress and to help our school set goals for teaching and learning over the coming year. As parents, NAPLAN provides you with a snapshot of how your child is progressing against the education benchmarks.

Students have already participated in a practice test so they are aware of the types of questions and the test conditions. As parents and caregivers, the best thing you can do before each test day is to be positive and encouraging. All children should be encouraged to complete questions to the best of their ability on the day.

Governing Council

Thank you to parents who attended our Governing Council AGM on Monday night. I particularly want to acknowledge and thank the Lighthouse Leaders for their exceptional work in sharing the highlights of 2022. Their delivery of the 2022 school year was done with clarity and good humour. Thank you to Raya, Casey, Zoe, Alex, Neil, Cooper and Laura. You should be very proud of your public speaking and presentation skills. A draft Annual Report was presented to the AGM. It is anticipated that a final Annual Report will be available to the community in early April.

It is not too late to nominate for a role on the school’s Governing Council. We still have some vacancies and would love to have your voice as part of the council. You can attend meetings in person or online, with meetings held twice per term. Please contact the front office if you would like to nominate. 

Last week our year 3 / 4 classes participated in an excursion for Clean Up Australia Day in their local community. A significant amount of rubbish was collected including some unique items! Special acknowledgement to Mr Marks and the Waste Warriors for your organisation and to all students for demonstrating care for our local environment.

With regards

Matthew Champman

Principal

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

On Wednesday of this week I was fortunate to go to a series of lectures from Professor Barry Carpenter. I attended with Renee Fisher in her capacity as Autism Inclusion Teacher. The topics were ‘Mental Health, Neurodiversity and routes to learning’, ‘Girls and Autism: new voices, new perspectives’ and ‘Decoding Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: improving learning and living opportunities.’ Whilst much of the information was confronting it indicates our need to begin to understand the neurobiology of the brain. We have printed a pamphlet from Professor Carpenter’s website entitled “Cues & Clues: Early Indicators of Autism in Young Girls” if you wish to begin to explore this area. If you have any queries, or would like copy of the pamphlet, please ask at the front office.

Swimming week is now completed with many memorable experiences for our R-4 students. I would like to thank all of the teachers and SSOs who have made it a successful week for the students of our school. The many, many hours of organisation and follow up that go into a week such as this is, I am sure, acknowledged and appreciated by the school community.

I have been asked by Governing Council to remind families of our uniform policy. The policy is available on the website. Maroon, Light Blue and Grey are the colours of our uniform and not black. This includes leggings.

I have been asked to particularly reiterate that the preferred top is the one available from the front office with the school name in the collar and the school logo screen printed on the front. The alternate is a maroon polo top with the school logo sewn onto the left hand side. There are a limited number of these logos available for purchase from the front office.

Speaking of Governing Council, I too would like to thank our Light  House Leaders Laura, Neil, Casey, Cooper, Raya, Zoe and Alex for the wonderful job they did presenting the Highlights of 2022 at the AGM. The way in which they conducted themselves was a credit to their families as they embodied our school values.

The year5/6 students received their traffic monitor certificates today and we thank them for volunteering to help keep our community safe.

I hope you all get to enjoy the long weekend with your families. I am looking forward to the day off on Monday but I am also keenly anticipating our Harmony Day celebrations in week 8.

Kind Regards,

Andrea Hayden

Deputy Principal

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

I would like to introduce you to our new display in the front office. We have received a range of Parent Guides from Parenting SA that offer useful tips and strategies for parents to help deal with a range of different situations and scenarios. Parenting SA is a partnership between the Department of Human Services and the Women’s and Children’s Health Network. We currently have more than 30 guides available in the front office and some of the topics include bullying, self-esteem, children with a disability, children’s mental health, grief and loss, single parenting, blended families, body image and depression. Please have a look through the guides and take any that may be of help or, alternatively, you can message me on Class Dojo with any concerns and questions that you might need assistance with.

Regards,

Aaron Charlton

Wellbeing Leader and Year 5/6 Teacher

Hi Everyone,

Wow! It is already over halfway through the term. Time passes by so quickly and it can feel overwhelming sometimes to try to fit everything in whether it is practical day to day tasks or just spending quality time with the people we love. Sometimes we just need some support or ideas to know how we can manage to build strong relationships with others or have someone to talk to about what life is looking like and feeling like right now.

The raisingchildren.net.au has information on building positive relationships Positive relationships for families: tips | Raising Children Network or if you are just feeling the need to speak to someone about family life Kids Helpline offers information about the parent helpline on their website Parent Helpline | How Parentline Can Help You | Kids Helpline. I also would love to connect with you so feel free to connect with me through the front office if you would like a good old chat.

The weather is looking to be beautiful this weekend maybe your family would like to try a picnic in the backyard or one of these other family friendly activity ideas 21 Family Bonding Activities to Strengthen Your Family's Connection (selfsufficientkids.com).

Have a great weekend!

Erin Finch

We are now half way through the first half of term 1 and planning and preparation is being carried out for Class Excursions and much more.  A timely reminder that incursions/excursions/camps etc must be paid prior to students attending and participating.

Please make sure you have cleared your accounts to allow your child to attend and participate in all planned activities.

MATERIALS AND SERVICES FEES/INCURSION EXCURSION LEVY/SCHOOL CARD

 Materials and services fees together with the 2023 incursion/excursion levy invoices of $60 should now be cleared,

 if you have overlooked settling your account we urge

 you to pay the $60 incursion/excursion levy as soon as possible. 

We provide our community with several payment options, cash, cheque, EFTPOS, a 24/7 BPOINT payment option via our school website, alternatively

fees can be paid via the Qkr App which is our preferred form of payment.

We also have an online direct debit payment option which allows our families and caregivers to select a regular payment option to be deducted from a selected bank account or credit card on a weekly/ fortnightly or monthly basis. If you would like to take up this option please complete the application online via the school website. Details on how to access the Qkr App are available via the school website.

Please note this year school card applications should be submitted online, please read the attached information and click this link for step by step instructions to lodge your application online

If you do not qualify for the 2023  School Card but you are experiencing financial difficulty with settling your account please contact the school finance officer to arrange a payment plan.

Kind Regards

Imelda Jolly

Business Manager

The charity champions have met for the first time this year and we have decided to have a fund raiser that will tie in with Harmony Day which is on 21st March. Students are asked to dress in Orange or wear a cultural dress associated with a country in the world. A sport guernsey is not considered cultural dress. We ask for a gold coin donation on the day and all funds collected will go to a not for profit organization called MYSA which stands for Multicultural Youth in South Australia. It is based in Adelaide and provides a diverse range of services and programs to support multicultural young people and young families living in South Australia. MYSA works besides young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds to advance their needs, interests, and concerns through the provision of direct support to  help young people be the best they can be.

We will also be raffling 3 easter baskets. There will be a prize for the early years, primary years and the middle primary. Tickets for the raffle will be on sale for $1 via the Qkr! App from Monday 27th March until Wednesday 5th April. The raffle will be drawn on Thursday 6th April before the Easter weekend. Please support our fund-raising for Charity efforts.

Did you know lunch orders can be placed up to 2 weeks in advance.  If you utilize the pre-order process via the Qkr App please be aware that you can also cancel the order prior to 9.15am if your child is going to be absent for the day.  All you need to do is simply login to your app, cancel the order and a credit will be placed on your Qkr App ready for the next time you order. We hope utilizing the pre-order system will alleviate some of the morning rush pressure and mininise the current issue regarding so many students presenting at the office with NO LUNCH, we understand everyone has busy lives and we do our best to accommodate our community by providing a quick and easy  ordering system via the Qkr App. Unfortunately it seems in the morning school rush more and more parents are forgetting to submit their children's lunch orders.  

We respectfully ask all families to please be diligent in regard to checking you have entered the correct order date and please make sure you finalize your order by entering submit.  It would be a great help to the office staff and our canteen manager if all parties can be diligent with the ordering system.  

We appreciate you support with this matter, thank you.

Volunteers are important to our school community. Our canteen relies on help from volunteers to deliver a meal service to our pupils.

To enable us to provide a varied recess and lunch menu offer to our pupils we really do need your help.   

If you have a spare hour or more we would welcome your support.

Not registered with the school as a volunteer?  Volunteer application packs are available from the front office containing all the information you need to submit your registration as a volunteer...... WE NEED YOU

Are you free one morning (8.30-9.00am) a week or one afternoon (3.00-3.30pm) to open the uniform shop, then please contact Mel Vlachos on hcepsfundraising@gmail.com.  It would be great to have the shop open on a different day other than Wednesday to help those that can not get there on that day.

Clearance - ALL shorts, skirts & skorts are just $ 2!

Open every Wednesday 8:30-9am and 3:00-3:30pm in House 1 - first building near the gates at the drop off/pick up point.  The shop is stocked with a variety of second hand uniform items. The money raised is given back to the school and utilised in fundraising projects. Remember that if you have any uniforms that no longer fit or are not being worn and in good clean condition, we'd love to receive them. Thank you.

Exciting news – we have a Kids Dance School starting on Thursday nights in Week 6!  Here is the link to book and note there is a PROMO code to book the first week FREE !!!

Trott Park Dance School Tickets, Multiple Dates | Eventbrite

Qkr App (pronounced quicker) is Hallett Cove East Primary School and Out of School Hours/Vacation Care preferred form of payment. 

Please click for more details Qkr App

Download on the App Store or Get it on Google Play