22 November 2016

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Welcome to the newsletter for week six, I hope you are enjoying the warmer weather.

I would like to congratulate all students who participated in the sports carnivals over the past few weeks. It was lovely to see the active participation and sportsmanship. Thank you also to parents who attended the carnivals and joined in supporting the students.

The last two weeks have been busy welcoming new 2017 families to our school sites at Rockingham Lakes, Pinjarra, Bungaree and Mandurah. I would like to thank our school P & C members and members of the School Board for attending and speaking to the incoming families. We look forward to positive partnerships over the coming years with you and your child.

Thank you to community members, including the School Board who took the time to fill in the School Survey. Your feedback is valuable to us and we will review ways to continue improving our great school at our Whole School Review Day next week.

A reminder to call the front desk on 9593 9030 if you would like to nominate for the School Board. The next meeting will be on the 2nd December.

Our offsite classes are busy with; swimming commencing last week at Pinjarra and the Bungaree and Mandurah campuses getting excited about books by investigating ‘The Gruffalo’ and ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’.

Teachers and Speech Pathology staff are busy collaborating about reports and Individual Education Plans over the coming weeks. These will be posted to parents at the end of term.

Our exiting students will be going on Transition visits in weeks seven and eight. This will be an exciting time to meet new friends and visit their 2017 home school.

We look forward to formally thanking parent volunteers at our Parent Morning Tea on Tuesday 6th December.

You will also be receiving notes about the annual PLDS School Picnic. This event is always lots of fun and a chance to chat to other parents and enjoy a picnic lunch.

Stay safe and well till next time.

Shelley Collins
Principal

School Bus Services

If your child currently catches the school bus and you are changing address or campuses in 2017, you will need to re-apply for school bus collections as soon as possible for 2017. If there are no changes to your details, you DO NOT need to re-apply. You CAN NOT use the “Change of Details” form on the SBS website.

Please contact School Bus Services on 9326 2528 if you have any queries.

Pinjarra Campus

Mandurah Campus

Room 14 at Mandurah have been having a busy time in Literacy reading the story ‘The Gruffalo’ written by Julia Donaldson.

The class has been having lots of fun retelling the story using a giant story map that the whole class helped to create. They made finger puppets of the characters in the story along with masks so everyone can have fun role playing the story.

The class showed how well they have learnt about adjectives. Everyone made posters to describe the Gruffalo then used this information to write descriptive paragraphs. In our cooking session Room 14 made ‘Purple Prickle Pancakes’ in keeping with the Gruffalo theme.

RLPS Campus

Kindy & Pre Primary Sports Carnival

On Wednesday the 2nd November Rockingham Lakes campus held their Kindy and Pre Primary Sports Carnival. The students arrived wearing their faction colours creating a sea of red, blue, green and gold.

Firstly they had their running races which were over 50m. They then stayed in their classes and rotated around the activities and games that were set up. The parent turnout was phenomenal. It was so great to see all of the parents, guardians, grandparents, aunties, uncles and siblings coming down to cheer on the competitors.

The students thoroughly enjoyed the day and the support from their families. A big thank you to the teachers for their hard work and co-operation to make the carnival such a success.

Interschool Athletics Carnival

This year’s Interschool Athletics Carnival was held on Thursday 10th November at Hourglass Reserve in Cooloongup. The combined Rockingham Lakes/Peel Language team took on students from Bungaree, Rockingham Beach and Charthouse. This year Peel Language had 6 students representing the school at the carnival. They were Chase Amesbury, Jazmyn Bing, Tysen Bruce, Deegan Wood, Brett Moreton and Parker Johnson. These students competed to the best of their abilities and were extremely well behaved on the day. The school is very proud of these 6 students for their achievements. Rockingham Lakes ended up finishing 3rd with Charthouse taking home the shield.

Remembrance Day

On Friday the 11th of November 2016, Rockingham Lakes Primary School and Peel Language Development School students commemorated Remembrance Day by creating a fence of red Flanders Poppies.

The poppy has become a symbol of Remembrance Day, as it was the first plant to grow from the battlefields of Northern France and Belgium during the First World War.

The display encompassed classroom wreaths, individual poppies, strings of poppies and crosses. Many had little messages from students to our fallen service men and women. It was a very touching display and was wonderful to see students placing their poppies and asking many questions about Remembrance Day.

A significant part of Remembrance Day is observing the two minutes silence. Students displayed outstanding respect by ceasing what they were doing at 11.00am on hearing “The Rouse” and “The Last Post”, and observed the two minutes silence.

Thank you to all teachers, staff and students.

Liz Mickle
Defence School Transition Aide

Bungaree Campus

On the 8th of November 2016 students from room 3 and room 4 produced an assembly item based around the story of the Very Hungry Caterpillar. In class students were required to paint, cut, draw and laminate their own costumes or make their costumes at home. It was wonderful to see the creativity in the students come out as they designed and planned their costumes. Well done on a fantastic production and excellent use of voice and listening skills during the performance. You should all be highly commended on your efforts. Well done!

VACSWIM Summer 2017

Enrol online via the link below.

Sun Safety

With the hot weather approaching, it is important to talk to your children about sun safety and teach them good sun protection habits.

• Slip on some sun-protective clothing – that covers as much skin as possible
• Slop on broad spectrum, water resistant SPF30+ sunscreen. Put it on 20 minutes before you go outdoors and every two hours afterwards. Sunscreen should never be used to extend the time you spend in the sun
• Slap on a hat – that protects your face, head, neck and ears
• Seek shade
• Slide on some sunglasses – make sure they meet Australian Standards.

Extra care should be taken between 10am and 3pm when UV levels reach their peak.

For more information see the Cancer Council website below.

Water Safety

In Australia, drowning is the number one cause of death for children under five. To keep your children safe around water;

• Always stay with your children and watch carefully when they are near water, even if they can swim
• Teach your children about water safety and make sure they learn how to swim.
• Have the whole family learn first aid
• If you have a pool have it fenced with self-closing gates
• Never leave children alone in the bath or paddle pool
• Beware of garden ponds, large buckets and other small bodies of water

For more information on swimming lessons during summer via Vacswim is available on the Education Department website and for water safety tips see the links below.

Head Lice

Tips for preventing head lice

Check your child’s hair regularly for head lice and eggs (‘nits’). Use a metal fine tooth ‘nit’ comb and plenty of hair conditioner applied to the dry hair, to make the task easier and more effective. To help children sit still for this, offer distracting activities, e.g. play a favourite video, provide games, encourage reading, offer a head massage

Tie long hair back. Braid long hair and/or put it up if possible.

Consider applying hair gel or mousse. These do not prevent or repel lice but may help to keep stray hair strands from contact with other heads.

Avoid sharing combs or brushes.

Remind your child to avoid head-to-head contact with other children, e.g. when working at the computer with others, or when playing, or hugging.

If your child has head lice please notify their teacher.

For more information:

• The Head lice Fact Sheet available from the school

Personal Hygiene

Having good hygiene helps to prevent illness and ensures that our bodies are acceptable to others. Here are some tips for maintaining good hygiene;

• Wash your hands before and after touching food, and after going to the toilet, touching animals or being around someone who is coughing or has a cold
• Wash your body daily and keep your hair clean
• To prevent body odors, change your clothes regularly and use deodorant if necessary
• Change underwear and socks daily, and leave shoes outside to dry
• To prevent bad breath, brush and floss teeth and visit the dentist regularly
• If you are ill, try not to cough or sneeze on others, clean things that you touch, and throw away things with germs on them (like tissues)

Should you require further information about hygiene, contact your local Community Health Nurse, Leona Martin on 08 9419 2266, or go to the link below.

Useful information on hand hygiene can be found via the link below.

Sleep

School-aged children need 10 -11 hours sleep a night. Getting a good night’s sleep will help your child to be more settled, happy and ready for school, and will strengthen his/her immune system. Here are some sleep tips;

• Have a bedtime routine – this will help your child wind down from the day
• Keep the bedroom dark, cool and quiet - this will help your child drift off easily
• If your child has a restless night or bad dreams, it may be because the day’s events and worries are still rattling around in his/her head. Help your child to settle and relax for sleep by promoting good sleep habits
• Remember, medication is not the answer to children’s sleep problems

Contact your local Community Health Nurse, Leona Martin on 08 9419 2266, or go to the link below for more information.

Screen Time

Limit your child’s use of TV and computer games

Children and adolescents should not spend more than two hours a day on screen based activities. Excessive screen time often leads to poor health, poor fitness and overweight.

Activities like surfing the net, social networking, watching TV and playing screen games can be educational and fun, but all involve sitting still for long periods of time. Set family rules around screen time and encourage your child to try a range of active pastimes.

For more information, go to the link below.

Better Health Program