ENewsletter

From the Leadership

Welcome to our Week 5 newsletter. It certainly has been a busy term so far.

Parent Survey
Thank you to all families who completed ‘The Parent Survey”. We had 156 families complete the survey and whilst most of it was exceptionally positive, it has identified some areas for improvement, especially around engaging our parent community in student learning. We will ensure we add this to our Site Improvement Plan.

Class Struture 2021
We can confirm that we will start 2021 with a record 430 learners in 16 classes including 61 brand new receptions. We can hardly wait for what we hope is a return to normality in 2021, after what has been a very disjointed year.

Our class structures will be as follows:

3 x Reception classes

2 x Year 1 classes

2 x Year 2 classes

1 x Year 2/3 class

1 x Year 3 class

2 x Year 4 classes

2 x Year 5 classes

3 x Year 6/7 classes

We are awaiting confirmation of our teachers for 2021 but are hopeful we will keep as many of our current teachers as possible. We will keep you updated as the year progresses.

Christmas and Birthday Treats

The tradition of Christmas cards provides a great opportunity for children to write with authentic purpose and cards are often exchanged at school. However we strongly discourage giving candy canes as the school promotes healthy eating choices. We ask that candy canes not be distributed at school and thank you for your support. Thank you also to our families for not sending cakes, toys and/or lollies to school on your children's birthdays this year. We trust that we have been successful in making our learners feel valued on their special day with individual class rituals and traditions.

Dave Henty-Smith - Principal

Jo Meredith - Deputy Principal

Kathy Baker - Inclusive Education Coordinator

Celebration Dance Concert

We are practising hard for our Celebration Concert which will be performed to the staff and student audience on the morning of 2 December (sorry we can’t accommodate parents). The performance will be filmed and made available to parents, subject to parent permission for their children to be filmed for this purpose. Please look out for the consent forms next week and return them ASAP to ensure that we can film and distribute the video to our parent community.

Notices

Diary Dates

Week 6

CU Lunchtime Workshop - Monday 16 November
Swimming and Track and Field State SAPSASA - Tuesday 17 November - Friday 20 November
School Banking - Tuesday 17 November
7:00pm Volunteer Thank You Event - Tuesday 17 November
Move & Groove - Wednesday 18 November
Kindy Transition to School Visit - Wednesday 18 November

Week 7

School Banking - Tuesday 24 November
Move & Groove - Wednesday 25 November
Kindy Transition to School Visit - Wednesday 25 November
Assembly Rooms 11A & 16 - Friday 27 November
PRC Presentations - Friday 27 November

Hats on for outside play in Term 4

Absences, Late Arrivals and Early Leaving

Please note that the school SMS number has now changed. The new SMS number is 0436 483 127. This is our preferred method for letting us know about any absences.

Messages should include name, room number and reason for absence eg illness or family.

Alternatively, please call the Office on 8294 9811 to leave a message with office staff.

Uniform

The new Heritage Collection of our school uniform is nearly here!

Following consultation with parents student and staff, a new uniform – The Heritage Collection - is being phased in from Term 1 2021. This coincides with the 100 year anniversary of St Leonards Primary School. Here’s what you need to know:

· The key difference with the uniform is the predominantly red tops which provide more safely for our children as they journey to and from school.

· The summer dress and hat will remain the same.

· Samples are on display in the Office.

· Current uniform will remain available for purchase at reduced prices while stocks last.

· There will be a phase in period of two years. In 2023 all students will be expected to wear the Heritage Collection uniform.

· Photos of the new uniform will be published on the school Facebook page on Monday.

· Details of how you can purchase online will be available 25/11/2020.

Thank you to Sarah Darbyshire for the photo

Uniform - 2021 SLPS Heritage Collection

Download

Choir

The Year 5/6 choir members will be performing at Harbour Town on the morning of Tuesday 8 December.

Year 6 and Year 7 Senior Jumpers for 2021

If you have a student in Year 5 or 6 this year and are continuing on at St Leonards in 2021 you have the opportunity to buy special year level specific Senior commemorative jumpers (these are not compulsory).

The students of each of these year levels collaborated and voted on the design they wanted. Follow the links below to order. Orders are open for a limited time only so that the uniforms will be ready in Term 1. Please make sure you order for your child's year level in 2021 as the designs are different.

Year 6 2021 link: https://bit.ly/35L49Qq

Year 7 2021 link: https://bit.ly/3e6Ssau

Library

Borrowing

As the end of the year is approaching please note that the last week for library borrowing is Week 7.

All library books need to be returned in Week 8 ( Friday 4 December) for stocktake over the holidays.

Premier's Reading Challenge

The PRC Readers For Life certificate presentation will occur at the Week 7 assembly (Friday 27 November) and the rest of the medals and certificates will be presented in classes.

We are really proud of all our readers. After a slow start and COVID interruptions we ended up with 400 students completing the challenge.

Book Club

Keep and eye out for Issue 8 of the Scholastic Book Club coming home soon. This is the last one for the year. If you are ordering online and want the items as gifts you can select the gift option so that we know not to send them home with your child/children. If order via the school please put a note on the order so that we know that it is a gift.

Every order the school receives scholastic rewards points that we use to buy new books for the library. Thank you.

Kelly Peterson, Library Manager

Billy G Cookie Dough Fundraising

A little while ago we trialled the cookie dough fundraiser and it was so successful that we have extended it to the whole school. The forms and fundraising information went home last week. Orders need to be in by Wednesday 18 November. All funds raised are going towards upgrading the playground equipment. Please see class Facebook pages for details or visit www.cookiedough.com.au and select St Leonards Primary School.

What's Been Happening at St Leonards

Remembrance Day

Our Ambassadors led a special Remembrance Day assembly outside. They led a minute silence after the oath and concluded with the national anthem.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them. Lest we Forget.

Room 2 created beautiful art works for Remembrance Day.

NAIDOC Week

This week Room 5 took time in class to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We collaboratively created a collage where each student coloured their own piece to our Australian puzzle.

Year 6 Masterchef

Over the last two terms, the Year 6s have been working in groups with Nicola in the school garden. Miss Tayla and Mrs Baggio planned a MasterChef cook off where students were put into groups of four and given $20. We needed to plan a healthy menu that included produce from our school garden.We planted most of the things we needed for our lunch. We had to decide what meal we were cooking, plant the veggies and use the $20 to buy those things we couldn't grow. We had planned to visit the Glenelg shops to buy the things we couldn't grow, but the excursion was unfortunately cancelled due to very hot and stormy weather. The Year 6 teachers decided to do our shopping for us.On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, the students had to set up and decorate the tables and Room 11b was transformed into a restaurant. We cooked, fried rice with vegetables, pasta with homemade sauce, tacos, san choy bau, tortillas, sausages, American burgers, extremely colourful salads with edible flowers, sweet potato chips and potato wedges with sweet chilli sauce, lentil stew and pizzas made from homemade yeast dough, to name a few.There are a range of prizes to be given out next week, like the best table decorations, the cheapest meal, the meal that used the most produce and the most appetising dish. On Thursday we all got a huge surprise when Mrs Baggio's daughter, Izzy baked us some delicious cupcakes.We really are lucky to have such outstanding Year 6 teachers but they tell me that they're the lucky ones; having such awesome learners! Thank you to everyone involved.

Lauren W, Year 6

National Outdoor Classroom Day

National Outdoor Classroom Day was celebrated on Thursday 5 November. With more than 90 students enjoying Glenelg Beach for a beach volleyball carnival, students at school enjoyed a variety of activities in the spring sunshine. Carrots were picked, flowers were smelled, herbs were tasted, worms were examined, compost was turned, experiments were conducted, and giant games of chess were played. Students explored the five senses of taste, smell, touch, sight and hearing.

Making friends with a monarch

Digging for spuds

Garden News

What a huge week for our Kitchen Garden!

Early in the week we were busy harvesting produce for the Year 6 Masterchef Challenge. Students were able to cook a dish of their choosing using a variety of garden produce. We dug up sweet potatoes, potatoes, and onion shallots. They picked lettuce, herbs, lemons, limes, zucchini, spring onion and edible flowers. Students also had the opportunity to use produce harvested earlier in the year and frozen such as sweet corn, chillies, broad beans, broccoli and spinach. There was also school grown garlic and saltbush for added flavour.

Later in the week we picked Warrigal greens and saltbush from our Indigenous edible garden in celebration of NAIDOC Week. Our staff were treated to a morning treat of Warrigal Greens filo pie. We are so excited to be cooking with Indigenous produce.

Nicola Ross, Gardens

zuccini

sweet potato

Roots and Shoots

SLPS is lucky enough to have received a Roots and Shoots resource box from the Jane Goodall Institute of Australia. The box contained these four beautiful books as well as a bunch of lesson plans and ideas.

Kathleen Rollings,

Frogs

Some of our tadpole friends have developed front and hind legs but have not yet lost thier tails.

The lifecycle of a frog

Karen's Corner

Hi Everyone,

Well here we are again … I was reminded it’s newsletter day and I couldn’t be more excited to touch base with you and see how you are going!

It’s such a beautiful day as I type this, listening to some relaxation music playing in the background to soothe a young student having some quiet time, the hum of the school a distant but comforting sound as the students are all in their classes learning, collaborating and sharing with their peers. Generally speaking, there is something quite calming about hearing all the familiar sounds of life around us, would you agree? I’m talking about noises we associated with feeling a sense of normality (and yes, even including the hustle and bustle noises of the morning as we endeavour to navigate the routines associated with getting out the door and to school and other destinations as unscathed as possible!)

For our children (as well as ourselves) there is something quite reassuring about routines (please don’t think I have this sorted, sadly I’m more of a ‘fly by the seat of my pants’ person who really wishes I had all my ducks in a row or in the same pond at least!! Alas, my parenting skills are certainly a work in progress … yes even as the mother of a 24 and 12 year old!! I am, a work in progress that is for sure!! And my housekeeping attempts (I can’t really say ‘skills’ are more akin to people who enter our home assuming there appears to have been some sort of an attempt but more likely a struggle … they might be correct! But I digress!! Even in the midst of organised chaos there is still more often than not, some sort of routine … whether it be strict and well controlled or (slightly) more random, one can usually point to a routine nonetheless being in place. It’s like the ebb and flow of life I guess … things happen of which we can be certain … the sun rises and the sun sets, and we can guarantee that with each new day comes new opportunities and yes of course, many times challenges which, as we navigate each new experience on more than one occasion in turn, become familiar and hopefully less worrisome.

With all that goes on in our busy lives, I would love you to give yourself permission to take moments out of your schedule to really listen to those familiar noises around you, those noises that may possibly give you a sense of calmness and peacefulness … the birds, the wind, the gentle hum of life, waves crashing to the shore at the beach, even the quiet breathing sounds as you

stop and listen … it may take a minute or 5 or 10, however long you can manage, but please try to just stop and listen … you might be pleasantly surprised as to what you actually hear, and those few precious moments might just be enough to enable you to muster the energy to deal with the next thing, person or situation with a level of peace, compassion and calmness you thought impossible. My challenge to you is in those moments of reflection and quietness, to not fall asleep!! I bet you know exactly what I’m talking about!

Here’s to exquisite moments of peace and tranquillity and finding moments to ‘smell the roses’ as the saying goes!

Hope the week ahead is filled with the love of family, friends and those important to you, laughter and happy times, but also moments and opportunites to take time …. housework, chores, commitments and schedules will still be there (trust me) but a moment spent doing ‘nothing’ in quiet contemplation is never wasted and anyway, YOU deserve it … really you do!

Take care and remember to take moments throughout your days when you can for yourself! Self care should NEVER every be underestimated!!

Karen Marks, PCW

Community News

School Dental

Children with poor oral health are more likely to experience pain, to miss days from school and to perform poorly in the classroom.

Untreated tooth decay can lead to problems with speaking, eating and learning.

SA Dental Service sees over 80,000 children for dental care each year, but data shows that 57.5% of eligible children in SA are not using the Medicare Child Dental Benefits Schedule.

There are no out of pocket costs for children covered by the Medicare Child Dental Benefits Schedule

School Signage

We are excited to announce that we are now offering signage on our school’s fence line in Glenelg North.

This is an opportunity for SLPS to partner with the community and help with promoting local businesses.

You can benefit by purchasing your space and gain invaluable exposure to families, passing motorists and locals as well as showing your support for our school community.

There is a limited number of signs so get in before they are all gone.

If you are interested or know of someone that might benefit from advertising to our local community please contact

Michael on 0414 350 225 or Sponsorship.StLeonards392@schools.sa.edu.au

St Leonards Primary School

Newsletter 18, 13 November 2020