11 April 2014

From the Principal

Dear Parents and Community

As many of you are aware Madeley Primary School is an Independent Public School with the autonomy to make decisions that are in the best interests of the school community. Recently I have had queries about the role of the School Board and that of the P&C. This information is provided below.

Term One has been a very busy but enjoyable term with many highlights, one of which was the success of Easter on the Green. It was a fantastic evening with all members of the school community participating enthusiastically.

I wish everyone an enjoyable and safe holiday break and look forward to seeing everyone revitalised when they return to school. Students return Tuesday 29th April.

Student Safety

Madeley Primary School is committed to ensuring the safety of all students, at school and when travelling to and from home. Working closely with other schools in the area, local police, and MPS parents, we can enhance the safety for all. By using common sense and preventative measures students can lessen the likelihood of their safety being compromised.

Take control of your own personal safety.

• Always travel in a group
• Stay alert - don’t have headphones on or your head down
• Travel safely along main roads rather than isolated side streets
• Do not approach an unknown car if it stops near you
• Walk facing on-coming traffic to prevent vehicles driving slowly alongside you

Be aware of your surroundings at all times.

• Always travel the same way and let someone know if you change your route
• Know the area you are travelling, including safe house and places
• Inform family and friends of any changes to regular plans
• Walk at a steady pace. Body language is an effective means of promoting confidence.

Know how to react in a situation in order to maintain your safety.

• Do not be afraid to run from potential danger
• Say “No” to people who may be asking you to do something that you do not feel comfortable with
• Seek assistance in safe places you are familiar with
• Physical violence against another should only be used as a last resort

School Board

The Board is formed with the fundamental purpose of enabling parents and members of the community to engage in activities that are in the best interests of students and will enhance the education provided by the school.

The Board has the powers to and duties to make recommendations in the following:

• establishing and reviewing from time to time, the school’s objectives, priorities and general policy directions;
• the planning of financial arrangements necessary to fund those objectives, priorities and directions;
• evaluating the school’s performance in achieving them; and formulating codes of conduct for students at the school;
• to promote the school in the community;
• to approve for example; charges and contributions for the provision of certain materials, services and facilities under section 99(4) of the School Education Act;

The Board cannot:

1. intervene in the control or the management of the school;
2. intervene in the educational instruction of students;
3. exercise authority over teaching staff or other persons employed at the school; and
4. intervene in the management or operation of a school fund.

P&C Association

P&C Associations are an officially recognised forum where anyone interested in the welfare of government schools can meet to discuss educational issues.

The objects of an association are to promote the interests of the school or group of schools for which it is formed through;

• cooperation between parents, teachers, students and members of the general community;
• assisting in the provision of resources, facilities and amenities for the school or schools; and
• the fostering of community interest in the educational matters.

P&C’s give parents an opportunity to learn about the school’s policies and programs; organising ways in which parents can share in shaping and developing school policies; bring parents together to information and views; assist the school in building positive attitudes to students and their families; help raise funds to provide extra resources.

Term 2 Dates

Please refer regularly to the School Calendar on the Newsletter sidebar for up to date information and dates regarding incursions, excursions, P&C Disco, NAPLAN testing and much more.

POSITIVE EDUCATION – A NEW DIRECTION AT MADELEY

One of our goals as educators is to help our students become lifelong learners. We are encouraging our students to become more intrinsically motivated and less extrinsically motivated to complete a task. We will expect our students to put their rubbish in the bin because they want a clean school, not because there is a chance they will get a sticker for it. We expect our students to do all their class work so they can improve their knowledge and skills, not because they will get a stamp.

Positive education can be broadly defined as:

"Education that promotes high levels of wellbeing in students, staff and the school community.”

Positive Education is one of our school’s priorities and at Madeley Primary School it has a strong focus on anti-bullying initiatives, values programs, student wellbeing initiatives, and social and emotional learning programs.

Our goal is to keep the parents and community members of Madeley well informed. To support and gain a better understanding of our initiative please click on the readings attached. These are the same readings Mr Moon gave to the P&C members at the presentation last week. The P&C are very supportive of what we are aiming to achieve and we are hoping all parents will take the time to read the attached research and support our new direction.

Download: Positive Ed Flyer

Why the changes?

• During 2012 Madeley Primary School undertook its first School Review, although the feedback was extremely positive, an area for future focus was highlighted, that being our reliance on extrinsic rewards.
• Mr Moon and Signora Vinci attended the Positive Schools Conference in early 2013. Many of the points made by Professor Helen Street supported those changes Madeley PS was seeking from the review.
• At the beginning of the year Mr Moon was asked by admin to review the schools Behaviour Management Policy, he shared these updates with staff and the way we reward and acknowledge came under the microscope.

What are the changes?

• Many of the daily acknowledgements that your child/children receive during the day may be reframed to inform rather than just congratulate. Madeley Primary will remain a very positive place to be.
• Rewards for expected behaviour have been removed. This will affect Merit Certificates, Blue Slips, Specialist Teacher class awards and multiple rewards for the one act, such as Champion Boy/Girl.

What won’t change?

• Sport Carnivals will still run as this is a competition and reflects sport in society. We will continue to teach our students how to deal with winning and losing.
• Students will still have the opportunity to share good work/efforts with administration staff so their efforts can be acknowledged and maintain a positive relationship with the office.
• The positive, fun vibe of Madeley Primary School.
• Achievements will still to be celebrated in class.
• Madeley Cup, Teacher/Student netball competitions and faction lunchtime competitions will still take place.

How long will it take?

• This is a process and we will encounter many questions along the way as staff reflect upon their teaching and behaviour strategies.

What do the kids think?

• All classes have discussed the changes and why they are happening. Students have responded well to the reasoning behind the decisions and they agree there is no need to reward expected behaviour or efforts, although above and beyond should be acknowledged.

This is the first step in an exciting change at Madeley Primary School. Teachers are still transitioning to the new direction and will be regularly reflecting upon its implementation.

Thank you for the ongoing support!

Starting Kindergarten Next Year?

Kindergarten information packs and Expression of Interest forms will be available after Easter from the school office for collection.

Kindergarten enrolments commence at the beginning of Term 2 and close at the end of July 2014. Children with a birth date between 1st July 2010 and 30th June 2011 are eligible to apply to commence Kindy in 2015.

Information will also be provided with the Kindy pack regarding the popular Play n Learn sessions which are held as an introduction to Kindy later this year.

Our Garden

The morning was muddy and messy, which ensured that we had a marvellous time!

On Wednesday the 26th of March the Pre-Primary students from LLA3 and the Year 5/6 students from GLA4 worked together to weed the garden beds before planting and then watering. Prior to starting the Yr 5/6 students were ask to buddy up with a Pre-Primary student. Initially the Pre-Primary students were shy but before long they were talking, laughing and working as a team. It was GREAT to see.

When the Pre-primary students returned to class they were telling each other about their buddies. The consensus was that the big kids were kind and FUN! It was amusing to hear Imogen describe how lucky she and her buddy Montana were to be chosen to collect the worm juice. Although she added that Montana quickly approached Callum and Ethan to help her after looking at the buckets filled with brown liquid. Way to problem solve Montana!

Our ‘Battery Collection Bin’ has a new home

Please deposit any used batteries in the bin outside the library. It is easy to recognise because it has a painting of Grouch from Sesame Street on the front. At the end of each Term someone from Mindarie Regional Council—Tamala Park Waste Management Facility comes to our school and empties our bin. By participating in this program we reduce the waste that is sent to landfill.

‘FEED ME BATTERIES! ME HUNGRY!

Err...please …..xx ’

Pre-Primary visits AQWA

On Monday the 31st of March the four Pre-Primary classes went to AQWA at the Hillary’s Marina. We had an amazing time exploring the aquarium and using the special AQWA app for Ipad to play spotto. Once we found each of the animals the app gave us interesting facts about them. We explored the different regions and the animals that live there and even got to touch starfish and baby sharks in the touch pool. We had a delicious lunch of fish and chips or nuggets and chips at Whitfords Nodes park where we then played games. We took it in turns to go on to the beach to build sandcastles and search for flotsam and jetsam. It was an exhausting but brilliant day. What a fantastic way to consolidate all we have learnt about oceans this term.

THE SCITECH SPACE DOME LANDS AT MADELEY PRIMARY

On Wednesday 2nd April the Year Three students had the opportunity to enter the Space Dome to boost their understanding of Space. Mike and Emma from Scitech were amazing hosts and the classes were very starry eyed about the whole experience.

Here are some of comments written in the Year Three recounts of the incursion:

• Mike and Emma showed us the awesome show in the black space dome.
• We saw millions of stars in the sky, it was amazing!
• I wanted to see more because it was awesome. I thought it was the best incursion yet.
• Mike showed us Orion and we saw that Beetle juice was the cold red star on Orion’s shoulder.
• I found it very awesome especially when the projector projected all over the dome so it felt like you were actually there!

An experience we will remember for ever.

We survived a term of Survivor!

Week one, term one started in the ‘Stovens’ GLA4 class with four tribes and four different coloured buffs. Together we designed our area of the class, name, logo and strategies to become the Ultimate Tribe at the end of the term.

Throughout the term we have participated in Reward and Immunity challenges, incorporated survival into our class work and done a lot of reflection!

In week nine we were lucky enough to have a survival day and stay at school until 8pm!

We had to build shelters for the day, complete challenges and participated in a brilliant incursion of team games by Adventure Builders. Our ultimate survivor was decided through nominations and a class vote – Congratulations Joshua Meconcelli.

It was a huge week as we also had our assembly which was written by the students of GLA 4 as we wanted to reflect what we had done in class. Montana was a natural host and improvised much of the script! We had a lot of fun writing and performing our assembly but the highlights were interrupting Miss Stitfold and getting to smear cream on Miss Waddell and Miss Fould’s faces.

P&C News

Last week the P&C sent home a letter explaining a little more about the education budget cuts and how they affect our school and your children. We are hoping that you will take the opportunity to write to Margaret Quirke, as suggested in the letter, to voice your concerns and encourage them to help reverse the cuts.

Thankyou to everyone who helped to make Easter on the Green a success. We have heard from several teachers that their night was also very successful and they are now planning on how to spend the money on extra classroom resources. The Election Day stall the next day was also very well supported with a constant stream of customers. The P&C raised $3000 on both events over the weekend which will help to pay for some of the many submissions the school has put in requests for to date. A big thank you to all of the volunteers for both events.

You can view the current submissions on the school website under the P&C minutes from the last meeting. They total $25, 230. Most of these submissions, except the library chair, the art bins and the sports equipment, would have been covered under the budget before the cuts were made.

School Canteen

A new Winter menu has been created for the start of Term 2 with the addition of warm soup and lasagne. Wednesdays are now burger days with the addition of Mini Cheeseburger Sliders which we hope are more suitable for the younger students. Please check the sidebar on the Newsletter for the updated Canteen menu

Grasshopper Soccer

Soccer continues at Madeley in Term 2 on Wednesdays. First week will be Wednesday 14th May.

Download: Grasshopper Information Flyer 1

Download: Grasshopper Information Flyer 2

Keyed Up Music

Keyed Up Music will be teaching keyboard and guitar group lessons after school next term. Lessons start from $17 for a group of 3 lessons. If you are interested in your son or daughter learning an instrument, ring Therese on 1300 366 243

Download: 2 Page Winter Menu Flyer

Download: City of Wanneroo Aquamotion Open Day Flyer

Download: Poster Tennis Flyer

Download: Tennis Nomination Form

Download: Helen O’Grady Drama Flyer