5 April 2019

Newsletter Articles

Principals Message

It is hard to believe Term 1 is nearly over. I am pleased with the outcomes from both the Junior and Senior classes. Mr Sean and Mr Barry have both dedicated themselves providing targeted work, meeting the individual needs of our diverse student population. Mr Barry with his spelling analysis and writing skills has provided the senior students with a variety of opportunities to excel. I have seen their writing when they come into my office to share their work – congratulations to all senior room students.

Mr Sean with his technology background introduced the children in his care to a variety of innovative classes focussing on letter sounds; word building and alphabet work activities, as well as rhyming which is a critical literacy skill for junior students.

With Miss Jess and Julie Ryan in his class to support his work, Mr Sean has developed a unique junior class timetable with a mix of book work, hands on activities and play based learning. These activities have extended the children in a very supportive learning environment. Many thanks to Mr Sean.

It is pleasing to have parents and carers from the community come to school and share their children’s experiences. I have encouraged this and said to parents ‘ask what their child is doing and wait for a full explanation’. I believe this is important to build and maintain a strong community school relationship.

We had a successful visit from Food Sensations and the children loved their involvement in selecting the correct food from the five food groups. But this was not all; they were involved in cooking their selections and produced some yummy food to eat.

Food Sensation School Visit

Our behaviour program has evolved over time. With our school commitment to encouragement, positive reinforcement and a balanced approach to students who lose focus has paid dividends. I can see we have happier students who want to learn, and try hard to do the right thing.

Regards

Ted Cousens
Principal, Pia Wadjarri RCS

Healthy Eating

Community Cooking:

This term has seen some delicious and nutritious meals prepared by community members in our Tuesday afternoon sessions.

Claudine, Dwanna and Shanara enjoyed making ‘Creamy Pasta’ and ‘Tuna Bake with Sun-dried Tomatoes’ last week.

We look forward to having more community members participate next week when we make ‘Egg Bake’ and ‘Pumpkin Hot Pot’ – yummo!

With Mr Sean

Every Monday and Wednesday we have an after school Minecraft Club at school for an hour. To be allowed to go you have to be working hard in class and have good behaviour. So far most kids have been able to go most days. If they miss out on one day they don’t have to wait long to improve their behaviour and come again.

We are using a tutorial world in Minecraft where we go through a specially designed map that has a few challenges along the way. A shape building challenge is a big part of the map and after that students get to explore, build, and create. It has been a lot of fun.

Social Media

Pia Wadjarri RCS now has a Facebook Page where we will upload happenings within the school community – give us a like on our Pia Wadjarri RCS page!

What’s Up? With Nurse Paula

Trachoma is an infection of the eye, it can cause sore and sticky eyes, it can easily be treated, and we can all help prevent it. If not treated it can make us go blind when we are older. Trachoma germs can quickly spread from one person’s eyes to another person’s eyes.

Sometimes we do not know we have trachoma, so it is important to have our eyes checked out often.

How we can get the germ that makes our eyes sick?

Dirty faces and rubbing our eyes
Not washing our hands and faces often
Dirty hands touching other people’s faces
Sharing towels, bedding, pillows and face clothes
Coughing and sneezing around other people
Flies that seek out our eyes pass on germs

Trachoma Goanna Milpa and Nurse Paula say

Always keep our hands and faces clean
Wipe our snotty noses with tissues and put them in the bin
Cough and sneeze into our arm or tissue to prevent spreading germs
Keep any muck and flies away from our eyes
Try not to share towels and face clothes
Keep away from and get rid of our rubbish properly
Tell an adult if you have sore or sticky eyes and see the doctor or nurse
Have our eye check often

Stay well and have clean faces and strong eyes

Coming Events - 2019

Telephone Help Lines

Kids helpline	1800 551 800
Dads in Distress	1300 853 437
Suicide Emergency Service	1800 198 313
Cannabis information and helpline	1800 304 050
Family Drug Support	1300 368 186
Bush Crisis Line	1800 805 391
Men’s domestic violence helpline	1800 007 339
Women’s domestic violence helpline	1800 007 339
GRAMS	9956 6666
Parenting line	1800 654 432
Mental illness helpline	1800 187 362
Kids seeing violence helpline	1300 720 747

Absentee Note

__________________________ Was absent from school Student’s name
Day/s absent
Reason:
Sick
Slept in/Tired
Missed the ride to community
No Food
No clothes
Funeral/Cultural reason
Teasing at school
Visited another community
Other reason
Parent signature:	Date:
Students must come to school everyday