22 August 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Welcome to week six and at last we are having a taste of spring weather!

Our schools are looking forward to celebrating Book Week. Part of the celebrations will include the ‘Books on Blankets’ session on Friday at RLPS campus. Notes have been sent home and we look forward to parents sharing this great literacy event with us. Thank you to parents and caregivers for supporting this community event and assisting your children to dress as a book character.

I would like to say a big thank you Ms Murray and her wonderful Science Team for the exciting activities across all campuses last week. The students thoroughly enjoyed being budding scientists and we hope you enjoy reading about the activities in this newsletter.

I would also like to congratulate the worthy recipients of the Warnbro Cell Excellence in Education Awards. The recipients were nominated by their colleagues for their exemplary education skills and improving outcomes for their students. Ms Laraine Rose was selected for the Support Staff award and Mrs Samantha Fyfe and Ms Emma Claxton were selected for the Teaching Staff awards.

Mrs Forbes hosted a meeting with members of the Australian Special Education Principals Association (ASEPA) Management Group onsite yesterday. The visitors came from every state and territory from around Australia and enjoyed seeing our staff and students engaged in learning activities.

We will shortly be holding Transition meetings across all sites. The meetings are an opportunity to find out about the Transition process for 2018 and 2019. This is a positive experience for all students and we ask that parents support their children’s transition from PLDS to their mainstream school. We would like to ask that parents who are intending to leave PLDS for various reasons, other than our normal exiting process, to please phone or write to us about your intention as soon as possible.

Could parents and caregivers please check that emergency contact numbers on file at PLDS are current and updated. It is vital that in the event of an emergency, we are able to contact a family member or delegate.

Please make sure that all items of clothing are named. As the weather begins to warm up in the coming weeks students will take off jumpers and jackets. The Sports Carnivals will be held this term, so please make sure footwear is appropriate to join in active sports lessons.

Stay warm and enjoy the rest of this exciting and productive term.

Shelley Collins
Principal

Mrs Forbes with members of the ASEPA Management Group

Voluntary Contributions and Charges

A friendly reminder to our families who have not yet paid their voluntary contributions and charges. Payments made before the end of term would be greatly appreciated.

Options for payment:

• Cash
• Cheque payable to Peel Language Development School
• Direct deposit to BSB : 036-074 Account Number : 226824 Reference : Child’s name

Important information for Parents

Bungaree Campus

Science week at Bungaree was celebrated with all things Science.

The students had a fantastic time learning about ‘Change’ as they engaged in various activities and experiments. The day was filled with curiosity, imagination and loads of laughs as the students shared and tested ideas together.

Mandurah Campus

Room 14

The term has been very busy for everyone in Room 14. During week two students celebrated 100 days of school with a variety of activities. Some of these included the students searching at home to find and count 100 things they could fit into a small bag.

The students then shared and re-counted their 100 items with their classmates. The favourite activity of the day was making painted toast. In this activity the students painted toast with food colouring and were required to paint lines of 10 dots and then skip count to 100. We had a very busy and enjoyable day celebrating 100 days of school.

On Friday the 27th of July the students in Room 14 got their ‘hands dirty for a better environment’ when we took part in national tree day by planting a nectarine tree in the meeting place.

Topsy Turvy was another busy day as parents transformed into students and experienced some of the day to day activities of their children. Our new teachers introduced themselves to their new students and welcomed them into the classroom. The new teachers were very professional when they introduced their students to some new and exciting learning adventures. We would like to say a special thank you to our parents, Mrs Moignard and Miss Sullivan for being their students and for their participation on the day. We hope you all enjoyed the experience.

Celebrating Science Week at Mandurah

On Thursday 16th August the students transformed into inquisitive scientists as they explored the wonderful world of Science. The students witnessed liquid in motion with lava lamps as they investigated the principle of “oil and water don’t mix” in action, using cooking oil, bicarbonate soda, vinegar and food colouring.

Making lemon volcanoes enabled students to experience the magic of chemical reaction, as they excitedly placed bicarbonate of soda on top of lemons to form carbon dioxide and sodium citrate. This caused the liquid to fizz and bubble, creating screams of amazement and delight. You might have heard the term “faster than the human eye and believe it or not, it’s possible” as the students discovered by exploring spinning disc illusion. This activity created much discussion and was a great way to learn how easily our eyes can be tricked. Another fun activity on the day may become one of your child’s favourite make at home chemistry experiments. The students were mesmerised as they experienced some very unusual interactions take place when they mix a little milk, food colouring, and a drop of liquid detergent.

As you can see from the photographs taken throughout the morning, the children have been on a wonderful voyage of discovery. We hope that this week’s hands-on approach to Science has demonstrated some of the ways Science shapes our lives and the world about us. A special thank you to Mrs Panhuysen, from everyone at our Mandurah campus, for all her preparation and organisation. We hope these special hands on Science activities inspired our amazing young scientists and left them with a hunger to learn more.

Pinjarra Campus

Room 30

The students at Pinjarra Primary school all got on board to support our Aussie farmer families who are doing it tough over east in the midst of a terrible drought. Students dressed up as farmers and raised some money to help the farmers buy much needed hay. There was lots of discussion and new vocabulary centred on farmers and farming life. Room 30 learnt about paragraph writing on the topic of ‘If I was a Farmer …’

National Science week has just finished and students explored the concept of ‘change’ through a variety of experiments. Room 30 students challenged their brains by trying to solve a science conundrum each morning. On the final day of Science week all the PLDS students participated in rotations where they created lava lamps, volcanoes, learned a new way to inflate a balloon and observed the exciting reaction that occurs when coke-a-cola and mentos are combined.

Volcano with bicarbonate of soda and vinegar

Lava jars

Blowing up a balloon using bicarbonate of soda and vinegar

After all this hard work Pinjarra students were rewarded for their efforts and good behaviour with the PBS reward day. Room 30 worked on pragmatic skills through games and team activities in the morning and then all the Pinjarra PLDS classes ended the day with a disco complete with balloons and disco lights. Everyone had lots of fun and were developing gross motor and coordination skills without even knowing it. All the students participated in a range of dance games but limbo was the highlight.

RLPS Campus

D2

This term has been tremendously busy already in D2. We celebrated National Science Week in week 5 by completing a wide range of wonderfully exciting science experiments out on the oval with the rest of the school. We got to observe what changes occurred when mixing milk, food colouring and dishwashing liquid.

This is what happened when water and skittles mixed..

…and we even got to make slim!

We were also lucky enough to get to visit the Life education van in week 5 where we got to participate in interactive experiences to help learn about making safe and healthier choices.

Life education van

At the beginning of this term we have been focusing on learning all about Australian animals. The highlight was definitely making edible wombat stew with our year 2 buddy class. We have a very busy end of term coming up and can’t wait to discover what’s next.

Fun Science Facts

School Nurse

Backpacks

Carrying a backpack can injure your child’s back if care is not taken. Here are some helpful tips for protecting young backs:

• Make sure that your child’s backpack does not weigh more than 10% of his/her bodyweight.
• Choose a backpack with broad shoulder straps that are well padded and adjustable so it sits comfortably on the shoulders. Backpacks with waist and chest straps will help to evenly distribute weight.

• Encourage your child to wear both straps at all times to distribute the weight, adjusting so the backpack fits close against the child’s back.
• Choose a backpack which fits the child.
• Make sure that your child is carrying only what she/he really needs to carry, packing the heaviest items closest to the spine.
• Do not carry the backpack for long amounts of time, take regular breaks.

For more information visit: go to the link below and check out the ‘Physiotherapist's Guide to Fitting Backpacks’.

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