14 February 2019

From the Principal

Dear Parents and Families,

What a brilliant start to the year. Your children seem to be happy and they started off really well behaved. It must be the good parenting in you setting high expectations that your children do well at school.

We aim to keep building on our great results and good student behaviour. For the next three years we have a new emphasis on strengthening three aspects. The first is behaviour management and countering bullying. Second, is on effective group work and offering more extension to those who need it. Third, is authentic learning such as environmental sustainability and Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

We have 21 students less than we thought we would have this year. These families have left the suburb of Landsdale and not gone to neighbouring schools. The drop in numbers has surprised us and there seems to be a few houses for sale in Landsdale. We may need to readjust a small amount of classes to deal with this so that we can stay within the budget the Department of Education give us. So, stay tuned.

Regards,

Dr Tony Beswick
Principal

Newsletter Articles

School Calendar

Parent Information Sessions

Over the next couple of weeks teachers will be conducting parent information sessions. These sessions are an opportunity for you to meet your child’s class teacher/s and find out about the learning journey their children will be taking this year. Teachers will cover aspects of classroom organisation, behaviour management, curriculum programs and whole school activities. Every child should have at least one parent attend as vital information about your child’s learning program and your responsibilities as a parent will be discussed. This session is for parents only, children must not attend.

Parents are also reminded to keep an eye out in the school newsletter each fortnight for parenting articles and tips.

Sessions will last no more than an hour, and parents will have an opportunity to ask questions. Please consider your questions carefully and ensure they pertain to whole class or school processes and are not specific to your child. Parents can make an appointment with the class teacher if they have questions of a personal nature.

Please check class Dojo's and teacher communication avenues for further information.

1-1 Laptop Program

Thank you to all the parents of Year Four and new students who have joined, or are in the process of joining, the program this year. Teachers and students are spending the first few weeks establishing agreements that will give the grounding for high standards of self-regulation at school and safety online. Explicitly teaching how to responsibly and appropriately use technology and communication tools provides students with the skills and knowledge to make informed and appropriate choices now and in the future. To help keep informed about digital citizenship and online safety visit our digital citizenship page on our website.

In such busy times, inevitably some parents miss our annual information sessions in Nov/Dec. If you have questions, our website has information and Frequently Asked Questions to assist you.

The technical aspects of the program are also being established in the first couple of weeks. When you bring your laptop in to school the technicians “image” them. This means settings and software that are school specific are put onto the laptops to ensure a safer and more effective experience.

When the machines are imaged, a note is sent home with information regarding setting up passwords and home wireless, more information and “how to” tutorials can be found on the Apple Support site. We have a technician onsite every day except Wednesday. Your child is able to let the technician know of any issues with their machine by logging a job on the Helpdesk which you can access through the Helpdesk link on our website home page or by informing their teacher.

If your child is bringing in an iPad, a list of essential Apps and some information regarding their use at school will be sent home soon.

We are excited to begin the journey with your children to engage in rich learning tasks and teach them how to become responsible digital citizens.

If you are interested in attending a “hands on” introduction to Macbook workshop at school please fill in the form below, if enough interest is indicated a time and date will be advertised in the next newsletter.

Library News

LIBRARY NOW OPEN!

Welcome back! The start of a new school year is always so exciting.

The Library @ Landsdale is now open for student and parent book borrowing. We look forward to seeing our returning students again, and meeting families that are new to our school. The Library is a fun place to visit, as you will quickly discover! We hope to see you soon. The closing date for the return of all library books this term will be Friday 5th April, 2019.

Opening Times

The Library is open for book borrowing at these times:

All 32 classes have a weekly “Library Book Change Time” organised by their class teacher. Please check your child’s rostered borrowing day with their class teacher and assist your child with remembering their library book and library bag on that day.

Parents/caregivers are most welcome to visit the Library with their child to borrow books before or after school, or at any time during the school day. While here, you may wish to browse through our range of LEAP (Linking Education and Parents) parenting publications which are available for loan. Parents can also sign up to become Library members.

Lending Rules

Students may borrow two books for a period of two weeks. Books may be renewed if not required by other readers. Overdue notices are sent to classrooms every week. Please remind your child to return his/her library books by the due date. Library bags must be used for borrowing. These are available from the Uniform Shop and department stores. Shopping bags are also suitable to use as library bags.

Outstanding Loans from 2018

At the end of last year, we had 63 library books that were not returned, valued at $177. Invoices have been sent home to these families. Unfortunately, students who have not returned their 2018 library books will not be able to take books home from the Library this year until these items are sent back or paid for at the Front Office.

Scholastic Book Club

When ordering from Book Club, you are not only helping your children, but you are also helping our school. 20% of your spend comes back to our Library in valuable Scholastic Rewards, which are used to buy new library books. Order forms for the first issue of Book Club have now been distributed to classes. The due date for return of Issue 1 Scholastic orders is FRIDAY 22nd FEBRUARY @ 9am. Please submit your orders online using the Scholastic LOOP (Linked Online Ordering and Payment) Platform.

The Parent LOOP Platform can be accessed at the link below.

Ordered items are delivered to school (usually within a two week turnaround) and distributed to classrooms. Cash orders can also be placed at the Front Office before the advertised due date.

On the Ball …. With Mr P

Hi everybody,

Welcome back to 2019 and this year is another busy one for the Physical Education program. We hope to have a number of interschool events available to Landsdale students this term, involving interschool tennis.

This year we again have Mr Joshua Brown teaching Phys Ed on Thursdays and Fridays and he and I will teach a similar program. Mr Brown will also oversee the middle sport program on Thursdays.

Please encourage children to wear appropriate footwear and a hat when attending Physical Education lessons. A water bottle at the moment would also be handy!

If your child is unable to participate in a Phys Ed lesson due to injury or illness, please communicate this to myself or your child’s classroom teacher.

Students are able to wear their faction shirts on their ‘Phys Ed’ day as well as Thursdays for the year 3 and 4’s and Fridays for the year 5 and 6’s, their nominated sport days. Students can also wear their Faction t-shirt on special sporting events days in which they are competing, such as the Faction Athletics Carnival.

Faction Captain and Vice-Captain Voting

Faction Captain & Vice-Captain voting will take place on Friday, February 22 at approximately 12.30pm.For each faction, there will be a boy and girl captain and a boy and girl vice-captain. Vice-Captains will be taken up by year 5 students, with year 6 students holding the Captain roles. Grevillea will vote in LA 15, Hovea in LA 30, Cassia in LA 14 and Banksia in LA 29.

Runners Club

Has commenced last Monday and will run every Monday & Friday on the top oval. As the oval isn’t marked, runners will run from a starting cone, around the goal posts, to another cone and back around the opposite goal posts to the starting cone. I will explain on the day. Once I have an indication of runners, they will receive a QR code to put in a lanyard and laps will be recorded from this. Students will receive badges for achieving certain milestones- these will be worked out later!

Before School Tennis Coaching

Hot-Shots Tennis lessons with InStyle Tennis! Tennis lessons at Landsdale Primary school are held Wed 7.45-8.30am, starting week 2 of this term. All players receive a free t-shirt! Details and online registration at the link below 0433 777 195.

Academy Plate Tennis Try-Outs

Upper school students with some tennis experience are encouraged to try out for the Academy plate tennis competition. It would be great to have a boys and girls team entered this year. Try outs will take place at 2pm this Friday (senior sport time) on the tennis courts.

Chaplain’s Chat

Hey All,

It’s great to be back for 2019. My name is James Middleton, I’m the chaplain at Landsdale Primary School. In case you missed it, I started at the beginning of Term 4 last year. I very much enjoyed being part of the school community last year and look forward to getting to know the school, and yourselves even better across 2019. I’m looking forward to playing my role in continuing to develop a positive school atmosphere, ensuring your children have the best opportunity to develop and grow into the healthy, happy and successful students.

The chaplaincy program at Landsdale is an ‘Opt-Out’ programme, and thus if we do not hear from you and receive a completed Opt-Out form, the assumption is that you give permission for your child to access chaplaincy services if needed. You’ll find another section in the newsletter that outlines this process.

Looking forward to partnering with you in ensuring 2019 is another great year at Landsdale Primary School.

James
YouthCARE Chaplain

CANTEEN INFORMATION

Supervisor: Jo Gaugg/Lisa Innes
Phone: 0410 894 457
Opening hours: 8:30am to 1:45pm

Welcome back to term one 2019, I hope everyone had a lovely break.

This year the canteen will be using Qkr! for all online lunch and recess orders. Please download the app to your mobile device and set up an account for each of your children to order.

Important Note: Quikcliq is no longer available to use for ordering, please close your quikcliq accounts and request any refunds from them directly, their helpline number is 1300 116637.

Thank you,
Jo and Lisa

Uniform Shop News

Uniform Shop Hours

School Banking at Landsdale Primary School!

Welcome back and I hope that everyone enjoyed the holidays!

School banking is temporarily suspended and we are hoping to get going again by Week 3. Please accept our apologies and updates will be posted via the newsletter and Facebook pages.

You can still bank and earn tokens by depositing money online or at the branch.

Please see the Commonwealth Bank link below for any questions or please contact me at rowenacasilli@bigpond.com or 0431 333 002.

Rowena Casilli
School Banking Co-ordinator