Dear Parents,

Each week I try hard to communicate a positive message in the newsletter. Unfortunately, this week’s newsletter is written with a heavy heart with continued incidents of disrespect within our school environment and the heavy toll these are having on both staff time and school finances. Many of the incidents have happened in the school toilet blocks and include graffiti, toilet bowls filled with so much toilet paper they cannot be flushed, wads of toilet paper thrown on the toilet ceilings. Our COLA poles that were painted less than 12 months ago have been deliberately scratched and will require repainting, the new bubbler / refill station purchased by the P&F has been tampered with and required repair by a plumber. Mrs Del and I have spent countless hours investigating incidents of aggression, disrespect and inappropriate words and actions and then following up with parents.

Our very first rule at Mary Immaculate is about being respectful. This respect encompasses respect for self, for each other but also for our common home, our school environment.

I would be very grateful if every parent could take some time to discuss the matters below with their children. During this discussion it may be helpful to also explore what it feels like when their property is lost or damaged. Consider asking them what they would expect to happen if another student damaged their property. On the other hand, an exploration about damaging property that is not theirs would provide an opening to consider the need to replace or compensate for the damage.

These discussions could be extended to include how school property also needs to be treated with respect so it can be accessed by all students. Unfortunately, students who are found engaging in behaviour that damages school property will need to be held accountable and parents will be asked to compensate the school in some way for the damage or necessary repairs.

I thank you in advance for your support in this area and fervently hope we can work together to ensure these issues are resolved in our community. Thank you in advance for working together to make Christ our Way and Life a daily reality in our school community.

TOILETS

We are seeking parent support to reinforce the school expectations related to caring for our school environment. We continue to have issues in the school toilets related to respectful behaviour, demonstrated by the following photos shared with us by the school cleaner on Saturday 11 March.

PERSONAL BELONGINGS

We currently have a focus on all students caring for their personal belongings (jackets, lunch boxes, bottles) on the playground. Lost property continues to present a large problem for our community because so many belongings do not have any child's name marked on the items.

PLEASE LABEL EVERY ARTICLE OF YOUR CHILD'S CLOTHING AND EACH ITEM OF BELONGINGS WITH THEIR FULL NAME and CLASS.

Please also tell your child where the label is located so they know immediately where to look for it. We ask that parents encourage their children to take responsibility for their uniform and belongings and to check that they bring home their own clothing only, and not the uniform items of other students.

Each class currently has access to a class tub where items can be placed for safekeeping during the lunch breaks and collected before returning to class. Students are required to take responsibility for this process. 

UNIFORM

Wearing the full and correct school uniform is an extremely important and integral feature of our school community. The uniform symbolises identity and unites all students equally. When parents and guardians enrol their child at Mary Immaculate Parish Primary School, they agree to abide by the rules and procedures of our school. Adhering to the school’s uniform policy is, therefore, a parental responsibility that is taken on as part of accepting membership in the school community.

The following points are provided as timely reminders of the school uniform expectations.

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

• Wearing the correct school / sports uniform – as per the LOWES list.
• School / sports uniforms are to be worn properly.
• School shoes are to be black leather.
• All sports footwear must be predominantly white jogger style with white laces.
• All sports socks must be plain white, ankle length.
• No jewellery except for studs OR sleepers (one per ear lobe), watch, signet ring or religious medals. Earrings on boys are not allowed.
• Ribbons, scrunchies etc. are to be in school colours, i.e., green, gold.
• No nail polish / acrylic nails / make-up.
• All items should be clearly labelled with student name and class.
• Students not wearing the correct uniform are required to bring an explanatory note from their parents.

The correct uniform items can be seen on the Lowes website which can be accessed via the following link:

HAIRCUTS

• The emphasis is on ‘neat and tidy’.
• Shoulder length or longer hair for girls is to be tied back with school-coloured ribbons.
• No bleached / dyed hair.
• Extremes of haircuts are not permitted, e.g., undercuts, long fringes with short on top, tracks, shaved, words, lines etc., are unsuitable.

NSW K - 2 English and Mathematics Syllabuses

As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, all schools in NSW are implementing the reformed NSW English and Mathematics K - 2 syllabuses. These syllabuses highlight foundational literacy and numeracy skills. Please find below suggestions about what you can do as a parent or carer to support your child with vocabulary and phonological awareness in the area of English.

Helping your Early Stage 1 child at home with English

Vocabulary

Vocabulary focuses on developing the knowledge of words, their meaning and how they are used and understood while speaking, listening, reading and writing.

You can help your Kindergarten child at home by:

• using descriptive words for people and objects when you are speaking with your child. Instead of saying, There’s a dog going for a walk, say There’s a big, brown dog going for a walk with our neighbour, Mr Smith.
• discussing the meaning of new words that come up in everyday conversations with your child. Dad is going to reverse the car now. The word ‘reverse’ means to go backwards.

• talking about objects that you notice your child showing particular interest in such as That butterfly has such beautiful wings. They are red, blue and yellow.

Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness focuses on the sounds within spoken words such as syllables and rhymes.

You can help your Kindergarten child at home by:

• clapping or tapping the syllables they can hear in words when reading together. For example, dog (one syllable – one clap), zeb/ra (2 syllables – 2 claps) and el/e/phant (3 syllables – 3 claps).
• playing rhyming games such as starting with a base word and taking turns to say a new rhyming word. For example, the base word of hat, can be rhymed with bat, sat, mat and flat. Made-up words can also be used such as blat, lat and zat.

• reading or listening to nursery rhymes, songs and poetry.

Phonic knowledge

Phonic knowledge focuses on continuing to use existing knowledge of letter–sound relationships as well as digraphs (2 letters which make 1 sound) and trigraphs (3 letters which make 1 sound).

You can help your Year 1 and Year 2 child at home by:

• finding and discussing words which have common digraphs during reading and writing. These digraphs include sh, th, ch, ck, ng, ph and wr.

• discussing and grouping words using the vowel digraphs er, ir and ur found in term, bird and fur.

• finding and grouping words which have the same trigraph, such as air found in hair, lair, stair and pair. Other trigraphs include ear as in tear and hear. Also igh as in high and sigh and tch as in catch and witch.

New online resources help parents engage in their child's learning 

The NSW Department of Education has developed a Student Learning Library where parents can access online learning resources that are aligned to the NSW K-2 English and Maths Syllabuses. Parent learning resources can be accessed on the NSW Department of Education Website using this link  NSW Student Learning Library

Please don’t hesitate to speak to your child’s class teacher if you have any questions.

Mrs Lillian Del Giudice

Assistant Principal

ST PATRICK’S GREEN THEME DAY

The Year 6 Service Team has organised a ‘St Patrick’s Green Day’ for this Friday 17 March. This will be a ‘green themed’ day where students are invited to wear a splash of green. They may choose to wear a bright green scrunchie, green socks or even a St Patrick’s Day green hat with their school uniform.

Year 6 will also be leading us in prayer and showing service by making Green themed biscuits for the younger students in the school.