Messages from Mrs Inglis
Hello everyone,
I hope everyone is well. It is sad and confronting watching and reading stories about the floods that is impacting our state and the country. If you have family that are being impacted by them, our thoughts are with you and let us know if there is any way we can support you or them. Last week our staff took preventative measures to ensure that the weather we were going to experience would not cause damage to our school – clearing gutters and drains, moving equipment. We were very lucky that we did not have any flooding at our school.
If any of our families have headed up or are going to go and help, we thank you for your service to these communities.
Regional Athletics
Our Athletics team headed off on Wednesday to Casey Fields. Everyone did an amazing job at performing at this level. Competition at this stage is fierce and there is the potential that you are competing against future Commonwealth and Olympic Games competitors. We are so proud of our students to deal with their emotions of anxiety and nerves to ‘have a go’. At this level, you need to celebrate your personal bests and I hope our students have a feeling of accomplishment. We all think you are awesome (and very fast!).
One team was successful in making it through to the State Competition. Our grade 4 boys are off for the relay event. We wish William, Lane, Jax and Jai all the best at the State Competition.
Movie Night
On Friday 11th November, our Parents and Friends Committee have organised a movie night at our school. Families are able to buy tickets and sit on our oval to watch ‘Minions – The Rise of Gru’. Tickets are now on sale through the QKR app.
On the night, there will be a sausage sizzle, popcorn, lollies, drinks and glow sticks available for purchase so bring along your EFT card or cash. You can also bring along your own food and drinks but remember that this is an alcohol-free event.
Please note, that parents are responsible for the supervision of their own children. As it is held at school, your child may feel very comfortable in the playground, but this is a different situation and you need to be vigilant with your supervision – especially as it will become dark.
School Concert – please note change of date
We have changed the date. It will now be on Wednesday 14th December.
- Junior (Prep, grade 1 and grade 2) 12:30 – 1:30pm
- Senior (Grade 3, grade 4, grade 5 and grade 6) 2:00 – 3:00pm
The concert is held in the shed and parents and families are invited to attend. More information about the event will be sent out closer to the date.
Writing
This week I saw student writing mentioned in the media and I thought I would write to help you support your child with their writing development. Like any skill, we improve by practising.
As you would be aware, the English language is very complex. We have so many different ways of making sounds – single letters, multiple letters joined together. We have words that sound the same but are written differently (there, their, they’re). We have words that you cannot sound out – you need to remember. We have rules to support spelling but then there are exceptions. And so many more complexities and that is just spelling. We then need grammar, punctuation, paragraphing and more. The English language is very challenging and the best way to get better is with practice – so let’s get writing.
As a parent, where do you begin? With any learning, you want it to come from the learner. You want them to want to do the task and have the drive to improve their practice. Here are two ideas that could help your child to practise their skills in writing:
- Motivation
- Ideas
To support your child with their motivation, you need the writing piece to have a purpose. Therefore, to support your child to practise their writing, why not encourage them to write by getting them to write a persuasive piece. A persuasive piece is a piece of writing that argues an opinion. They could try to convince you of a toy they wish to purchase, getting more time on their device, going to a friend’s house, what to have for dinner, etc.
Another idea is writing a recount. This is to recall an event or experience they have had. They could write their recount to be sent to a grandparent or family member, friend, teacher or Mrs Inglis. They could write about a day at school, a movie they had watched, a book they had read, cooking dinner, riding their bike, etc.
They could also write a procedure. They could write the steps it takes to complete a task. They could write about tasks such as making a sandwich, building a lego design, drawing a picture, directions to a treasure, etc. You could then follow their steps and see if it works.
Also, for motivation, it is always nice to have a lovely book and stationery to be part of our writing supplies. These make great birthday or Christmas presents.
The second way you could support your child with their writing is by going out and experiencing things. One of the challenges our students face is having ideas, concepts and knowledge of things to write about. Students who have had experiences of going to parks, visiting zoos, catching up with friends and families, cooking, making things, etc. can come up with ideas quicker and more easily. Our teachers will provide ‘seeds’ (writing prompts) for our students but they then need to make connections and build on their own experiences and ideas.
We recently had a psychologist come out to speak to our staff, and one of the strategies to support children’s mental health and wellbeing was to go out and do things. Therefore, you could be achieving two outcomes with the one experience – helping your child’s literacy learning and their mental wellbeing.
I wonder if any of you are taking advantage of the upcoming long weekend – Melbourne Cup. I am sure there will be many possible experiences to be had that could potentially be written about.
I will make a commitment that if any of your children choose to write to me, I promise to write to them back as I value the craft of writing and as a form of communication.
At school, we are supporting your child’s development of writing by helping them explore an idea to write about, modelling best practice and giving them lots of time to practise. Teachers will work with your child to help them re-read their work and talk about what they have achieved with their writing and their next learning. We teach the students what ‘good authors’ writing looks like and how we can make our writing engaging for the reader.
Happy writing!
Classes for 2023
I can’t believe that we are talking about 2023 already!
Our planning can only be done when we have accurate enrolment numbers, and therefore we appreciate early notification of people enrolling or exiting for 2023.
Often parents worry about how their children will cope in a new classroom with a new teacher and with new friends. From experience, we have found that our children are far more resilient than you think and actually revel in the opportunity presented in experiencing new things. Our teachers benefit from being moved around the school too.
Should you have requests for 2023 they must be put in writing and submitted to the Office by November 11. Any requests based on sound educational reasons will be considered but this does not necessarily mean that they will, or can be accommodated. Our teaching staff always take into consideration friendship groups, social/emotional implications and educational reasons when placing students in classes. Requests for individual teachers or requests based on gender will not be considered.
In the near future the children will be asked to list a group of approximately five friends. It may prove useful for parents to discuss this with their children.
Only this year’s requests are considered therefore any requests need to be put in writing each year.
World Teachers’ Day
On Friday 28th October (Curriculum Day), it is World Teachers’ Day. At Beaconsfield Primary School we are so grateful to have such dedicated teachers who come to school every day to make a difference to your child. The commitment they make to ensure they are meeting the learning and wellbeing needs of every child is amazing. I love working with each and everyone of them and I will make sure that I show my appreciation to them next week.
As a family, you might like to take a moment to show your appreciation and your child to show theirs. It is always nice to take a moment to show gratitude.
I hope you have a nice weekend planned and the forecast rain does not impact your plans. My thoughts are with our fellow Victorians this weekend.
