Henley Beach Primary School Newsletter

Sports Day.

Sports Day was held last week and all students are to be congratulated on striving for their best and showing great enthusiasm throughout the day. A big thank you to the many people who contributed to the success of the day: Ms Renee Hanna for her preparation and coordinating of the events, our Sports Captains for their great job with encouraging and assisting their team and our comperes who lead the whole school warm up and event announcements. Thanks also to the canteen team, including our parent helpers, who did a fantastic job catering for students, and Jim, our groundsman, for his excellent job in preparing the oval for each event.

Thank you to our families who supported the school’s request to stay outside the perimeter fencing. Your presence and support, even though at a distance, was appreciated. Congratulations to Sandpipers on being the winning team on the day.

Term 4 Planning

Over the past few weeks staff have been discussing strategies to re-engage with families during what has been a challenging time due to COVID-19. From next term, provided that there is no change in advice from SA Health and DfE, we are excited to be able to have families join us for some valued school events.

·        Book Week Parade: Thursday 22nd October. The theme of Book Week is ‘Curious Creatures, Wild Minds’ and children are encouraged to come dressed in a costume that either reflects this theme or a favourite book character. We will have a school parade at the following times:

R-2, 9.00am – 9.30am

3-7, 9.50am – 10.20am

·        Wk 4, 6 and 8 assemblies: Thursdays, from 2.20pm in the gym.

For each of these activities we will be setting up an online RSVP system to manage the number of parents on site. Further to this, if the opportunity arises, we will endeavour to film some of our Book Week parade and class presentations at assembly and upload them for families to view. Images of children will only be uploaded if consent has been given to do so via the media permission form eg. if your child had permission to have their photo taken on Sports Day. Details of the RSVP system will be shared at the beginning of next term.

Staff have appreciated the patience and understanding shown by families this term and we look forward to having an increased family presence at school in the future. Details regarding our end of year concert and year 7 graduation will be provided to families once arrangements have been finalised. Please be aware that the expectation of families not entering classrooms will remain in term 4 with the designated drop off/pick up areas being at the court spaces or Metcalfe Lawn.

Wellbeing and Engagement Survey.

Over the past week our year 4-7 students have completed the DfE Wellbeing and Engagement Survey. This survey provides an important insight from our students’ perspective into a variety of wellbeing areas related to their social, emotional and physical health. Attending to wellbeing and mental health is a vital part of our work with students. Research clearly indicates that when students have a positive level of wellbeing, they learn to function well in the world by showing respect towards others and possessing a sense of security and trust in themselves and other significant people in their life. Improved wellbeing outcomes are also linked to academic performance. Children’s wellbeing and engagement at school is influenced by self, peers, staff and family so the data gained from this survey will help inform how we can ensure our school community is being proactive in this very important area. The results of the survey are anonymous, with the data being presented at cohort levels rather than for individual students.

Thanks

I would like to thank the Henley Beach community for making me feel very welcome this term. I have thoroughly enjoyed my short time here and am looking forward to the future with much optimism and excitement. The staff have been very supportive and their dedication and commitment toward student learning and maintaining a positive school culture is to be acknowledged. This term I have been provided with valuable insights into the school from staff, students and families and I am looking forward to working with the community to build on the positive foundations already in place; continually reflecting on, and improving the quality of teaching and learning are areas that will be central to this work.

I would also like to make a special mention to the students, it has been great getting to know them and I have been impressed with their friendliness, respectful behaviour and commitment to their learning.

The 2020 parent engagement survey closes Friday 25 September. To help us give your child the very best education, we would like your honest feedback on a few key topics, including school communication. Your feedback will help us understand the things we are doing well, where we can improve, and what is really important to you as a parent. 

How to complete the survey

All parents and carers who have their contact details recorded with our school will receive a unique link to the survey (if you have not received a link, please email education.parentsurvey@sa.gov.au with the name of our school and a link will be sent to you). IAlternatively, families can access the survey via the following link :  Parent 2020 Survey

The survey will be open until Friday 25 September 2020 and should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete.

Survey responses

All responses are confidential. Only collated feedback will be provided to our school.

Thank you. We know your time is valuable and we appreciate it.

Curious Creatures, Wild Minds

Our book week dress up will be on Thursday 22 October.

1st - Sandpipers 1,728

2nd - Herons 1,589

3rd - Seagulls 1,559

4th - Pelicans 1,410

This Term we have been very excited to meet up with our friends from Henley Beach Kindy. They have been to visit us in our new outdoor learning space and we went to visit them at Kindy.

We are looking forward to seeing them again soon!

Congratulations to everyone who recently entered the PRC STEM design challenge.

Pupils had to read one of the PRC books with a Space related theme and create a poster.

All children who entered have received a Certificate. We were very excited to learn that Grace (Year 4) had been awarded a runners-up prize. A representative from the PRC and a Space Scientist attended Assembly to present Grace with her prizes. Well done Grace!

In Term 2 of this year, a few year 6 boys were keen to start a school chess club.  From their enthusiasm and the support of Dr Donna, the HBPS Chess Club was formed.  The club meets twice a week at lunch times in the library.  During our sessions, students practise their skills with other members.  More able players also teach and mentor newer players.

At the beginning of Term 3, the club organised a chess competition.  Forty players from years 4 to 7 entered and were assigned matches through a random draw.  The competition had many twists, turns and surprises but we eventually had three finalists.  Trophies were awarded for First (Luka D.), Second (George G.) and Third (Hugh J.).  Congratulations to these three and to all who took part in our competition or who just enjoyed playing during lunchtime.   

Thank you to all the families who have paid their school fees for 2020.  A reminder to all families that school fees are a legally recoverable debt and are now overdue. If you think you may be eligible for school card assistance please make sure you have completed the online application form. A new application is required each year. If you are experiencing financial difficulties, please contact me to arrange a payment plan.

It has been wonderful to see volunteers and students back at the garden this term! They have been working hard moving the mulch into the garden. We have had an excellent harvest of peas, lemons and kale. Looking forward to doing some spring planting in the new term!

OSHC update

Well it has been an extremely busy, but super fun term at OSHC. We have had fun baking up a storm for ourselves and for our dads/carers for Fathers' Day, making hama bead creation, painting rocks for our garden, playing with ooey gooey slime and just having a great time.

We had fun on Show Day making our own show bags and filling them with all sorts of amazing goodies.

On the Pupil Free Day we made ourselves into Superheros and took our framed photos home to hang on our wall.

For Sports Day we created streamers in our team colours and made our special OSHC team fuel packs filled with all the things we may need on the day.

We must also mention our community activity of painting pictures on boards to beautify our Stobie Poles. We did this in conjunction with the Charles Sturt Council.

(please keep an eye out for them in the near future.)

So to everyone, have a lovey holidays and we look forward to more adventures in term 4.

OSHC sub-committee

Currently at OSHC we are looking for a parent using our service who would like to become a member of the OSHC sub- committee for Governing Council.

We meet twice a term, for about an hour, usually during school hours (but we can be flexible) to discuss needs, wants and issues for OSHC for now and in the future. If you would like to be a part of our team could you please contact me

 by text on 0401 121 087 or

 email: tammyhbpsoshc@yahoo.com.au.

We look forward to you becoming part of the team.

Thank you to all the Sports Day volunteers.  You really made our day amazing and fun.  It was a record day for lunch orders and over the counter sales.

We will be switching over to our summer menu next term with some new foods to try.  Remember our canteen is run as a not for profit with any profit used to continually improve and change our menu to healthier food.