From The Principal – Fortnightly updates
State Government Funding
The State Government has released two waves of funding to assist schools with upgrades and assist with maintenance projects. It is very early days yet and we are still trying to get our heads around the details. At this stage it looks like we will get around $475K with projects focussing on toilet block upgrades and carpark improvements. This is a great initiative and will help keep the school looking modern and fresh. As we get more clarity we will keep everyone updated!
Holiday Break
Thank you to everyone for a fantastic term. I hope that you have a relaxing break and we will see you back for a big Term 4!
Open Night
It was great to see so many families brave the cold night air and come along for Open Night this year. The classes looked great with lots of work to be proud of.
LEAC (Leeming Extension and Academic Challenge)
Today the senior LEAC group had the privilege of spending the morning with Dr Andy Kirker – The Games man. Dr Kirker designs challenging, and educational games that make the students think about real world issues.
School Board Open Meeting
It was great to have 3 extra people take the opportunity to come and see the school board in action. It is an important vehicle for guiding the school and the board is working hard on a number of projects, including the new Business Plan.
Thanking You
Clive
Positive Behaviours – Term 4
Week 1: I have a go and do my best at everything
Week 2: I respond quickly to signals and instructions
WA MASSED CHOIR FESTIVAL
I was bursting with pride on Wednesday the 18th of September as the Music Teacher to watch the Leeming Primary School Choir performing on stage at the Perth Concert Hall.
The students were excellent ambassadors for our school and I am sure they made their parents very proud.
The school choir is a voluntary choir made up of students in Years 4, 5 and 6 who have a love of singing. These students made a commitment to attend rehearsals every Friday morning at 8.15 am. Quite the commitment on some of those cold and wet winter mornings.
The repertoire chosen was quite challenging and the students worked hard at home to memorise the words, learn their parts and of course the chorolography! To see 450 students en masse singing and performing chorolography (actions) was a sight to behold.
The choir attended three sectional rehearsals and had to learn to work with guest conductors.
So many parents have commented on what a fabulous evening it was. The singing, the atmosphere the outstanding behaviour of our students made my job enjoyable and easy.
I am so proud of every one of the members of the Leeming Primary Choir for working so hard in preparation for the concert.
So many of the students have already been asking if our school will be performing at the WA Massed Choir next year and I am confident that we will.
Bush Tucker Incursion
“Does anyone know what bush tucker is?” Erin, the educator from SERCUL, started the session by asking the children a question. Many replied with enthusiasm with answers ranging from plants, native plants, plants used by the Aboriginals etc. Erin explained further: Bush tucker is any food native to Australia.
Erin started the day at 8.30am, first by setting up in the wet area of Cluster 2, with posters, whiteboard and all sorts of native plants. From 9 am onwards, students from Room 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 and ECE 1 took in turns to ‘immerse’ themselves in the bush tucker experience. We learnt that plants contributed significantly to the diet of the Australian Aboriginals and they lived off the land long before the First Settlement arrived in Australia. Today, some of our bush tucker plants are in high demand as foods internationally.
Salt Bush, Sword Sedge, Bull Banksia, Marri, the Zamia Palm and the Harsh Hakea were the types of native plants students would look at and experience during the incursion. Students had a taste of the leaves from the salt bush plant. Most of them agreed that it tasted salty and bitter. Lastly, we also learnt about the six seasons in the Nyoongar calendar, namely Birak, Bunuru, Djeran, Makuru, Djilba and Kambarang and how the Nyoongar people use this calendar as an important guide to understand what nature is doing at different times of the year, as well as to show respect for the land in relation to the plant and animal life cycles and how to preserve their land and animals.
We thank SERCUL for providing us with such an educational and fun learning experience.
First Aid Course
As part of the PEAC program, our students were very fortunate to be involved in a first aid basics session covering Danger and Response. First aid is the immediate treatment and care given to someone suffering from and injury or illness. Students were led to identify the different types of emergency situations such as injury, illness, sudden health incidents and hazards.
Working with a partner, individual students role-played an emergency situation. First, they checked for response from the injured/sicked person by asking:
“Can you hear me?” and “Can you open your eyes?”. Then, they gently squeezed the person’s shoulders and asked further, “ Can you squeeze my hand?” They were guided in making an emergency call on “000” and how to provide the relevant information, e.g. which emergency, name, address, phone number, state and suburb, in order to get help as soon as possible.
Thank you to Mr Emby for organising it and the First Aid instructor from St John Ambulance for teaching us.
A Uden
