As we come to the end of a term that was like no other, I wish to thank all of our community for the continued focus on making Safety Bay Primary School such a special place to learn together.  While we worked together to navigate the ever-changing impacts of COVID-19, the communication and support between our families and our staff has been paramount.  I cannot thank you all enough for the calm and considered manner in which you have supported our school and students to ensure the continuity of learning and growth. 

Despite some disruptions to the regular school routine, our students have consistently engaged in learning opportunities across subject areas.  There continue to be outstanding examples of learning across the school and I have enjoyed sharing some of these on our school Facebook page.  I have been particularly impressed with the improved phonemic awareness of our junior primary students.  This is a result of the common language and ‘segmenting’ and ‘blending’ actions of our Letters and Sounds program.  It is great to visit classrooms in the morning and see students using this learning independently in their reading and writing.  Our upper primary students have continued to demonstrate a keen interest in all things STEM and there have been many exciting projects around the school, including towers in C11, circuits in Science and literacy based STEM tasks in P10.

One of the most important aspects of student wellbeing is the belief students hold that they can make an impact on their community and environment.  Enabling student voice and agency is central to the vision of Safety Bay Primary School.  This term has seen the beginning of two student action projects that aim to enact positive community change.  Students in C12/13 have taken on the ‘Containers for Change’ program to fund their project to bring drink bottle refill stations to Safety Bay Primary School.  They have created a video to promote their project and sought support from our fabulous P&C.  Our Year 5 students, led by C15, have been collecting data regarding student support for a change to our faction names.  This data has been collated and a presentation will be made to the School Board on their behalf by our student board representatives at an upcoming meeting.  We thank both our P&C and our School Board for supporting our student action projects and ensuring student voice is central to the work we do.

This term we have said goodbye to two long serving staff members as they head off on long service leave, with a view to retirement.  Mrs Sonya White (Physical Education) and Mrs Jenny McDonald (ECE Education Assistant) will be greatly missed at Safety Bay Primary School and we thank them for the huge contribution they have made to our school community.  We look forward to officially acknowledging their retirement in the near future, on the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, with our school community.  Further information regarding this will be forwarded via Connect.

We are very excited to be able to welcome parents and families back onto school grounds next term to share in special events.  Please continue to monitor Connect for updates on COVID-19 guidelines for schools.

I wish all of our Safety Bay Primary School community a safe and happy holiday break.  I hope you enjoy some special time with family and friends, and perhaps an Easter egg or two!

Mrs Milne
Principal

It is important for children to attend school all day, every day.

When is it OK to not go to school?

An OK reason is one that prevents your child from getting to school.  This could include:

• your child is unable to attend because they are sick
• attending cultural or religious observances such as sorry time and funerals
• an unavoidable medical appointment
• an unavoidable natural event such as flood waters or a cyclone

The Principal decides if the reason given for your child’s absence is acceptable.

It’s NOT OK to miss school if your child:

• is celebrating a birthday
• is going on a family holiday
• is visiting family and friends
• has slept in or had a big weekend
• is looking after other children
• has sport or other recreational activities that have not been approved by the school
• has appointment such as haircuts and minor check ups

If possible, routine medical and other health appointments should be made either before or after school, or during the school holidays.

Do you need to let the school know if your child will be away from school?

Yes, you need to let the school know the reason why your child is going to be, or has been, absent from school as soon as possible.  Where possible, please discuss any upcoming absences in advance so we can let you know of important learning or activities your child will miss out on.

This requires a responsible person, usually a parent, to provide a reason for the absence within three school days.

Having information about why your child is missing school helps us plan for their return to school and work out whether we can provide any further help to you.

Why is going to school so important?

• At school, many concepts such as literacy and numeracy are taught in a sequence. Missing school means missing out on learning – which can often make it difficult to catch up later. This is particularly important in the early years when essential foundation skills are being taught.
• Going to school every day helps children learn the important life skill of ‘showing up’ – at school, at work, to sport and other commitments.
• Research from the Western Australian Telethon Kids Institute shows that every day at school counts towards a student’s learning. Students who attend regularly, generally do better at school and in life.

The children of W5 love learning about different cultural celebrations from around the world and last week we learned about St Patrick's Day.  We watched an interesting video about St Patrick's Day, then we joined in the celebrations by cooking some green mashed potatoes and sausages.  After cooking and eating our yummy treat, we learned all about procedural writing.  Finally we completed our activity sheet by gluing the steps for the procedure in the correct order and drawing a picture.  

Mrs Nunn
W5-Year 1

Our P10 Year 3 class have been working very hard to create a beautiful Harmony Day Mural for our classroom. The outside has love hearts in rainbow colours to represent “Love” and “Differences”. The inside has a sunflower as this is the National Flower of Ukraine and the centre is the “White Dove of Peace”. Each child in the class had a different colour unique to themselves to print inside the dove using their finger print a few times over. There is a key with their name and colour at the bottom of the mural.

The class have also been reading about Nobel Peace Winner “Wangari Maathai”. She is an African woman born in Kenya. In response to the deforestation of her homeland, Wangari started the Green Belt Movement in Kenya in 1977. The Green Belt Movement focussed on planting trees and environmental conservation. More than 30 million trees were planted in Kenya as a result. This assisted to restore peace by providing its people with filtered water, firewood, timber, food and helped to prevent soil erosion.  The children in P10 had to make a “Peace Tree” using 15 pipe cleaners, tape and cut out leaves in groups of three. They had to plan, construct, modify and work together to make the tallest “Peace Tree” that was free standing.  They then had to write a Persuasive Text around deforestation stating their opinion with three examples to support their opinion. This resulted in a lively classroom debate. Everyone has thoroughly enjoyed the lessons over Harmony Week.

Mrs Petersen
P10-Year 3

The Year 6 Team spent an awesome two days at Point Peron joining together in team building games including raft building, crate climb, beach games and team competitions.  We finished off a busy two days with some cooling off in the water.

Our annual Term 1 Lightning Carnival for years 5 and 6 were held on Friday 25 March on a hot and humid day!  Our teams were very resilient and performed admirably in trying conditions throughout the day.

All of our teams – two Cricket teams, two Teeball teams and two Rugby teams travelled to Lark Hill for each of the carnivals.

Congratulations to all of our students who reportedly had a great day, with very pleasing sportsmanship and behaviour shown by Safety Bay Primary School participants.

There were four to five schools represented at each of the Black division carnivals in two divisions.

Our results for the day were:

CRICKET:                                                                                                 

“A” team: 1^st  

“B” team: 2^nd

Overall: Shield Winners!

Thank you to Mr Vaz and Mrs Maumill for helping our teams on the day.

TEEBALL:


Boys: 2^nd  

Girls: 2^nd   

Overall: Shield Winners!

Thank you to Miss Harris and Miss Venn for their coaching on the day and Mr Pudney for training the teams leading up to the day.

RUGBY:


Boys: 2^nd   

Girls: 4^th   

Overall: Third

Thank you to Mr McCaskie for coaching and training the Yr 5s leading up to the carnival and on the day.

Thank you very much also to the many parents who came along to the carnivals, followed the Covid protocols and supported our teams.

Mrs White and Mr Brown
Physical Education Specialist Teacher

This year we started working in the Physical Science Understanding area. This gave us all the chance to practice writing Science Investigation questions and predictions/hypotheses for our investigations. The Year 4 and 5 students have also been learning how to put the data they have gathered during investigations into graphs.   

The Year 6 students are learning about the different parts of a circuit and the difference between a series and parallel circuit. Now as we head towards the end of the term they have been given the challenge to create and light up a small model house with at least two lights and a buzzer (for the front door of course) on a parallel circuit.

The Year 5 students have been exploring observable properties associated with light and are exploring the transfer of light and understanding that light from a source forms shadows and can be absorbed, reflected and refracted. 

Working collaboratively, students have built mazes to show how they can make light travel around corners and have conducted an investigation using shadow puppets to answer ‘What happens to the size of a shadow as the light source moves further away from the puppet?’

In year 4, students are learning that objects move as a result of a push or pull force. They have been investigating that forces can be exerted by one object on another through direct contact or from a distance. Our investigations have focused on how different types of forces, including gravitational force and magnetism, affect how things move.

Our year 3 students have been busy learning about different sources of heat and how heat energy moves and flows from one object to another, using terms like conduction and convection.  We are ending the term learning that we measure heat using thermometers.                                    

Mrs McCulloch
Science Specialist Teacher

We have had a great term in Performing Arts even though we have had to put a few of our learning activities on hold for the short term. Recorder lessons will re-start once COVID restrictions have been removed and we are looking forward to having our Junior and Senior Choir back at this time too.

We have seen some fantastic learning happen this term despite restrictions. As usual the students at our school have amazed me with their creativity, fabulous musicality, and wonderful resilience!

Highlights this term have been the Year 6 parachute choreography and hand clap skit, Year 5 Crab Rave stick drumming, Year 4 recorder and note reading,Year 3 ukulele and note reading, Year 2 ‘birds’ themed lessons, and Year 1 who are all round superstars, especially with xylophones!

Mrs Quealy
Performing Arts Specialist Teacher

AUSTRALIAN MILITARY AND VETERAN FAMILIES STUDY

The Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) is seeking current or former ADF members and families to take part in their Australian Military and Veteran Families Study.

The study is open to families of current ADF members and members who have left the ADF in the last five years, who have children under 18 or who are expecting or planning children. Participants need to be in families where the current or former serving member is under 40 (and over 18) years of age.

To volunteer to participate in the study contact the AIFS research team at amvf-study@aifs.gov.au.

Further information on the study can be found at: 
https://aifs.gov.au/projects/australian-military-and-veteran-families-study.

Any queries, please contact Mrs Debra Batey (Defence School Mentor) on 9591 6800.

Mrs Debra Batey
Defence School Mentor

EASTER RAFFLE 

What a wild ride 2022 has been so far! We are so grateful for the support shown by the school community in these challenging times. Because of this support and generous donations, the P&C committee have been able to run a successful Easter Raffle fundraiser which will go towards buying classroom sports equipment. The total amount raised is $2,149.20. 

Thank you to everyone who bought raffle tickets, gave donations and their own time to make this happen. Thank you, Loraine and team, for organising the raffle - you did a wonderful job! Congratulations to all the students who won a prize. 

Have a Happy Easter! 

P&C COMMITTEE 2022 

The P&C AGM was held in March and we are pleased to announce that the following people have been elected to the committee for 2022: 

President: Janelle Fleay 
Vice President: Corrine Moseley 
Secretary: Sarah Picolli 
Treasurer: Kathryn Bunting 

• Loraine Harding
• Ashley Cragan
• Michaela Driessen
• Sammi Lucas
• Emma Lohoar
• Jonathan Peace

School Board Liaison: Michaela Driessen 

Fundraising & Events Coordinator: Loraine Harding 

• Sammi Lucas 
• Michaela Driessen
• Sarah Picolli

Second-Hand Uniform Stall Coordinator 

• Jenny Pettet

• Corrine Moseley 

There are still a few vacant positions that we would appreciate some help with. Please email  safetybaypc@gmail.com if you are able to assist or would like to find out more: 

• Fundraising & Events Team Member
• CLP Coordinator
• Second-Hand Uniform Stall Coordinator
• Facebook Administrator
• Sustainability Team Liaison

WHAT’S COMING UP IN TERM 2 

• Mother's Day Stall in Week 2
• Democracy Sausage Sizzle and Bake Sale on Election day, waiting on confirmation school will act as a poll station
• Community Heroes Gold Coin Donation Day in Week 8