NEWSLETTER

Dear Families,

Finally a burst of sunshine this week. Despite the low temperatures the sunshine certainly makes you feel more positive. We have enjoyed the last three weeks participating in class and yard activities focused on the Book Week theme New Worlds, Old Worlds, Other Worlds. As well a number of class, buddy class and yard activities have addressed the Science Week theme of Food: Different by Design. A big thank you to Ms Taylor for putting this together for us to enjoy.  

Parent Engagement Survey

The Parent Engagement Survey closes on Sunday 29th August. The survey asks families about how they perceive their child’s school, including how well the school supports their child’s learning and wellbeing, and communicates with students and families. Survey results will help us understand what we are doing well, where we can improve, and what’s important to parents and carers. If you haven’t already, we would appreciate you completing the survey. It only takes about ten minutes.

Pupil Free Day

Pupil Free Day is on Friday 3rd September. Staff will spend the day continuing their work on Teacher Clarity, and Student Wellbeing.

School Closure

The Chief Executive has given approval for school closures to go ahead, even if the event of local significance has since been cancelled. Our School Closure Day is Monday 6th September.

Progressive Assessment Test (PAT)

The Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) are online assessments that provide diagnostic information to teachers relating to the learning strengths and needs of their students. All South Australian Department for Education students in years 3 to 10 are required to undertake PAT Reading Comprehension (PAT-R) and Maths (PAT-M) annually, with optional testing for years 1 and 2. Over the next three weeks our students’ year 1-7 will participate in these tests. Results will then be analysed by teachers to determine student growth, as well as areas for teaching and learning improvement.

PAT Reading assess students’ reading comprehension skills, vocabulary knowledge and spelling. Comprehension assesses retrieving directly stated information, interpreting explicit information, interpreting implied information and reflecting on texts in multiple-choice format. These skills reflect comprehension skills described in the Australian National Curriculum for English.

PAT Maths assess students’ skill and understanding in multiple-choice format in the six strands of Number, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement, Statistics and Probability.

NAPLAN

Schools will receive student NAPLAN results in week 8 to send home to families. At this stage we have only received a brief summary of our results which is not enough to publish to families but what I can see from the summary is a significant number of students reaching the standard of educational achievement in Reading and Maths, and making good progress between tests. More details will be made available next term.

Phonics Screen Check

The Phonics Screening Check is a simple formative assessment that tells us how students are progressing with phonics. It takes 5 to 7 minute per student and is compulsory for all year 1’s. The results are used for further learning and, if necessary, provide any additional support that students might require. Year 1 students completed the Phonics Screen Check this week with a significant number scoring 28 and above. 28 is the expected benchmark. Please contact Mrs Irwin, Mrs Hearnden or Ms De Meur if you would like details in relation to your child.

“Your positive action combined with positive thinking results in success.”  Shiv Khere

Lynda Fitzpatrick-Brown

Book Week 2021

“Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds”

What a spectacular end to our Book Week celebrations today, with perfect weather for a parade of imaginative book characters!

We have had three weeks of exciting activities in the lead up to this day with students busily filling their Book Week Passports with stickers.  Each student was given a passport and staff and SRC offered over 35 different activities for students to attend and get involved in to prove that they had visited the three “Worlds” of the theme; Old Worlds, New Worlds or Other Worlds.

The participation level was exceptional, with students racing around during break times to participate in crafts, quiz challenges, active games, science experiments and more.  The excitement for stickers earned was absolutely wonderful to see and I am very proud of the students who chose to try something new during this time and be involved.

Since the students had embraced the Passports so enthusiastically, I decided to run a raffle at the Book Week Parade.  Students earned a raffle ticket for every 5 stickers they had in their passport.  Our lucky winners from each unit building were:

Junior Primary: Ivy M.

Middle Primary:  Dillon L.

Upper Primary:  Ebony G.

Congratulations to all students for embracing books and fun with reading.  I would also like to give a huge thank you to staff who ran activities and families who helped with activities at home and with dress ups.

I am very proud of the Angaston Primary School community for the way you value our school library and reading!  Thank you for your support.

Happy reading!

Nicole Taylor

A.P.S Teacher Librarian

Junk Journals

This year Mrs. Darmody’s class made junk journals for Design and Tech. We started with recycled Little Golden Books. We pulled apart the book so we could later add our own pages. We decided on a criterion of things we could include in our junk journal; this criterion included different papers, ribbon, envelopes, pockets, original story pages etc. Once we gathered all our pages we selected a binding method our options were ring binding, sewing and spine binding. We then added the finishing touches such as ribbon, stickers, book corners and things in pockets. This unit was fun and let us be creative and imaginative.

By Zinnia and Riel