13 September 2024

Principal’s Report

Hi Parents, Families and Community,

As I highlighted in my last newsletter, school attendance remains a challenge for some young people and their families. In this edition, I wanted to share some strategies that may support your child to consistently attend school.

What Snug Primary can do

We know it can be difficult some times getting your child to school. We also understand that there are many factors that may be contributing to school refusal, or a reluctance to come. That’s why it is so important that we meet together to discuss everything that might be adding to non-attendance. Sometimes it can be separation anxiety; it may concerns around relationships (peers or adults); it can be a disconnection with learning, or feeling pressures around the classroom environment. We often have challenges around attendance after holidays, or if students have had an extended break;  we also see lower attendance occurring when the school is operating less ordinary events, such as Learn to Swim.  But what is important to understand is that if we know what factor(s) might be contributing to concerns, we can make adjustments to support a student should the need arise. When we work together, we can often alleviate some of the pressures or concerns and reduce non-attendance significantly.

We are happy to work with you and make adjustments when a student arrives at school if they are finding it tricky to come in each day. If you can get your child to the school office, we can explore different ways to transition them in to the school day, if heading straight to class feels a little overwhelming. This might simply involve some quiet sitting, giving them time to regulate; for others music helps; others benefit from being given jobs to do, to ease them in to the day. There are other options too.The key part is we want to work with you, and your child, to develop an approach that meets their needs. Just let us know that there are challenges, and we will do what we can.

How you can help

We know that routines are incredibly important to help create certainty and structure for young people. Get your child up in plenty of time each day so the morning is not rushed, have a clear morning pattern, (shower, dressed, breakfast, make lunch etc). This rhythm really helps reduce stress and anxiety, and sets a common expectation for the day.

It goes without saying, that talk about Snug Primary should be positive, but also acknowledge that school can bring with it challenges. Framing school in a positive way – a place to learn, make friends, socialise, try new things, and that there are people at school to support you should the need arise, is really important. If necessary, we can set up “trusted adults” at school with your child, so if they do need support, they readily and easily know who to connect with.

Sleep is another key factor. Ensuring your child gets to bed at an appropriate time plays a really important role in school readiness. When students are not sleeping, they are obviously tired in the morning, can struggle to concentrate during the day, and this can compound a sense of non-achievement, or lack of success, which in turn can result in school refusal. When students are well rested, they are also ready for learning, and much more likely to experience success at school, which then brings with it its own motivation.

If you would like to know more about your child’s attendance, please contact us – we can let you know how often they have missed school this year, and when we do a deep dive together should there be a need. Together, we can best support your child to be at school, and experience the benefits of consistent opportunities to learn socially, emotionally and intellectually.

Parent-Teacher Meetings – next week

Parent-teacher meetings will be happening in week 9 from Monday 16 September until Friday 20 September. Please go to this link to book a time with your child's teacher:

Trivia Night

As you will have seen on recent Facebook and Seesaw posts, we have our School Association Trivia Night Fundraiser on Friday, October 18.

Firstly, we really want to get as many of you involved as possible, so if you haven’t already done so, put a crew of brainiacs together and prepare to win big!  We have not had many fundraising events this year, so your support at this one is really important to us. And it really is an opportunity to get together as a community. Tickets are available from the office – if you can make a group of 10, the table will cost $150. If you have fewer people, no problem, just let the office know and they will place you in a team – $20 for individual tickets. You can also order food platters through the office ahead of time.

Additionally, we are hoping to have LOADS of prizes available for the Quiz on the night. If you are a business owner, or know someone who might be able to help, we are seeking donations for prizes. If you can donate a prize or contribute in any way, please contact Emma on 0450 925 221. We will be sure to feature your business on the night, in our newsletter, and on our social media pages.

Through the evening, we are hoping to raise as much as we can to purchase shade sails for the top block of the school.

These events are always a lot of work and planning, so if you are also available to help prepare for the event, please also let Emma know.

Kath’s Spot

Over the last fortnight has been enjoying sitting down of an evening and watching some of the Paralympics together, and haven’t they been so inspiring!

From table tennis, to track, to bike, to the water and in the water, and to team sports, all the athletes are such experts in their field.  They have all worked so hard to accomplish so much, often overcoming intense pain, or adversity, injury or unique struggles to make it there to the Paris stage.

It was a clear reminder for me, of the habit our students have been learning about this week, to accept each other for who we are.  Indeed we are all different, and we all have different unique abilities and skill sets.  We want to build each other up and encourage each other to accept our differences.  Gee the world would be very boring if we were all the same hey!

I clearly remember someone talking to me about our son Tom, who had some addition physical needs and he also went here to Snug Primary.  She had commented to me, that despite me thinking that maybe Tom was learning from her child or others, she had felt that her child had learnt far more from our Tom from his ability to work through adversity and struggles, challenges that came his way and his way of thinking about life in general.  I believe we all learn from each other, and we need each other to strive in life, I guess that’s why the new series “Alone” is so successful.  It’s like a social experiment about living by yourself, with no interaction with others- imagine how hard that would be!  And I don’t think that’s how life was intended to be.

Class in Focus – 1-2C Garlick

Mrs Garlick’s Year 1/2C class recently enjoyed lots of activities relating to the Olympic Games. We spoke in French as we did our register each day.  We learnt some interesting things about Paris, and also shared some activities with the children from the other 1/2 classes. Each student made a passport which was ‘stamped’ as each activity was completed.

Some activities we enjoyed about the Olympic Games included:

• completing a medal tally daily to record the medals won by Australia
• drawing and labelling pictograms for a variety of sports
• discussions about how athletes are able to attend the Olympic Games and how this connects to our own growth mindset as we try to excel in any area
• making puzzles depicting the mascot for the Paris games, seeing the Phryges take form on our pages
• creating the Olympic flag and finding out what they represent

We had a visit from Benson’s auntie, who was part of the Olympic torch relay during the Sydney Olympics in 2000.  We heard information about the torch relay. We were able to hold the torch she carried on her leg of the relay and dress in her uniform. We are grateful for our school community, who step up, offering their help in so many ways.

Some activities we enjoyed about France included:

• building models of the Eiffel Tower with spaghetti and plasticine
• singing a French song in a ‘round’ titled Frere Jacques
• Sketching Paris landmarks…the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower

Our special activities culminated in a very special class lunch. The children followed a map to set their tables for our French restaurant, decorating them with French flags. We ate brie and camembert, cornichons with pate and ham, baguettes with salad. Our dessert consisted of delicious crepes with strawberries and ice cream and palmiers. The piece de resistance was a magnificent croquembouche! We are very fortunate to have had Jak’s dad, a chef, donating his time to make this event one that will be remembered fondly for a long time to come. 

We would like to thank our wonderful parents and grandparents in 1/2C who worked together, donating food, preparing food and helping to serve and clean up. We are so grateful to you all for all you did to make our event such a success. We are so very fortunate to learn in such a wonderful community.

1-2C Garlick

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Keeping Snug healthy!

We have had a few head lice and conjunctivitis cases across our school in recent weeks. This is normal for a school of 370 children, however we can all do our part to avoid spreading these highly contagious conditions. Please see below for some information:

Head Lice

Conjunctivitis

Little Sprouts - Movers and Explorers

Term 3

Term 4

Kitchen-Garden News

Garden

Volunteers always welcome, classes start at 2.00pm.

REGISTRATION TO WORK WITH VULNERABLE PEOPLE (RWVP)

A reminder that volunteers will need a Registration to Work with Vulnerable People (RWVP). Details are here if you need to apply:

Outside School Hours Care

School Holiday Program Out Now!

2024 Information and Enrolment (Including Re-Enrolment)

Coming Events 2024

For more information please see our school calendar by clicking the link below: 

Community Notices

School Satisfaction Survey

Generations Connect Fun Day

Term 4 Junior Cricket in Kingston

Holiday Programs at The Cricket Hub