Workbooks and Reports Your child would have brought home their workbooks this week for you to have a look at their standards of work and their level of competence with ordinary class work as well as with their selected assessment pieces. Reports will be sent home next Monday. This is always a good opportunity to sit with your child and discuss the work they are producing on a daily basis and talk in depth about their approach to learning which has been presented in their report. Please contact your child’s teacher for further information.

NAIDOC Week The National NAIDOC 2017 theme is Our Languages Matter which aims to emphasise and celebrate the unique and essential role that Indigenous languages play in cultural identity, linking people to their land and water and in the transmission of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, spirituality and rites, through story and song. Next week our students will be involved with a number of activities to celebrate NAIDOC week, culminating with C3s assembly on Friday morning. All parents, carers and community members are invited to attend.

School Board Last night your School Board discussed the 1-1 iPad program for our 2018 Year 3 students, the 2016 Annual Report, P&C financial contributions, St John Ambulance First Responder system using the defibrillator in our medical room and the 2018 personal requirements provider. Minutes are available from our website.

Speak Up Awards During this term students in Years 4 - 6 were given the opportunity to prepare and share a 4 minute talk on their favourite topic Everyone was thoroughly engaged and entertained by the 14 finalists who all spoke with such passion and confidence on a variety of really interesting topics. A big thank you to Mrs Wallace and the Student Councillors for coordinating this event.

Staffing As you have no doubt heard from your children, Mrs Cotton has decided to retire from teaching at the end of this term to pursue other interests. Having been a foundation member of this school since 2005, Mrs Cotton has given 12 years of wonderful service to our school community and really established a high quality music program for all our students and staff by motivating and inspiring students to believe in their musical abilities. Thank you for your magnificent service to the Excelsior community and best wishes from all of us for your wonderful retirement.

We wish everyone a very safe and happy holiday and we’ll see you all again on Monday 17 July. Kind regards Barry Liddelow Principal

22 June 2017

EXCELSIOR PRIMARY SCHOOL

IMPORTANT DATES

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

K-PP Obstacle-a-thon Thurs 22 & Fri 23 June

NAIDOC Celebrations Monday 26-28 June

Swimming lessons Tuesday 18 July– 28 July

Girls Football Friday 23 June 1.30pm

End of Term 2 Friday 30 June

Students return for Term 3 Monday 17 July

Independent Public School

63 Shreeve Road Canning Vale W.A. 6155 Tel: 9455 5811 Email: excelsior.ps.reception@education.wa.edu.au www.excelsiorps.wa.edu.au

ABSENTEE SMS: 0438 936 827

Reminder

Swimming lessons c

ommence

Tuesday 18 July

Please forward pa

yment to

the office be

fore 30 June

Term Two finishes Friday 30 June

Term 3 starts

Monday 17 July

NEWSLETTER

2018 KINDERGARTEN & PRE PRIMARY APPLICATIONS Excelsior Primary School is now accepting applications for Kindy 2018. Any queries please see the front office. Applications close Friday 21 July 2017. While Kindergarten in Western Australia is not compulsory, most children attend because parents understand that it helps give their children the best start to school. Children can start Kindergarten when turning four years if your child’s birthday falls between 01/07/13 – 30/06/14. Kindergarten is the beginning of children's journey through school where they learn important early numeracy, literacy and social skills.

MERIT AWARDS

E3 ASSEMBLY

Page 2 EXCELSIOR PRIMARY SCHOOL

A1 Jayden Mackenzie

A2 Ethan Rivah

A3 Rithi Kian

A4 Kate Henrik

B1 Abe Penny

B2 Harry Anna

B3 Celine Zachary

B4 Nathanael Andrew

B5 Joshua Janet

B6 Kayla Tamara

C1 Campbell Olivia

C3 Moses Cassandra

C4 Laila Caleb

C6 Valerie Taj

E2 Lexi Ethan

E3 Jaxon Ben

SPORT B3

MUSIC Giordana

GOLDEN BROOM

B3

ART A2

THE FATHERING PROJECT

What a great turnout to the first Fathering Project event at Excelsior PS that was held on 14 June 2017. Martin from the Fathering Project gave a great introduction of how it works and what it sets out to achieve. The next event is being booked for August and more information will be released in Term 3. Dad’s, Step-Dads and Granddads of current Excelsior students are all invited, including your kids. Hope to see you at the next event. Derek Veenvliet

Coordinator

I had to memorise the lines to the poem ‘There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly’. I got to use the microphone with Tanya.- Kallay

I made a keynote animation to tell the story in pictures. I animated the pictures to move on their own.-Giordi

I stood in the middle of the audience and had the line, “perhaps she’ll die.”- Cameron

We played the drums, which kept the performers in time.- Ayman and Oliver

I was on the marimba playing a bass part.-Adam

I played suspense music.-Tristan

RECESS & LUNCH TIME FUN!

Page 3

FROM THE MUSIC ROOM The School Choir consisting of 58 students from Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 participated in the Children Sing Festival

which was held in the Octagon Theatre at the University of WA on Thursday 15 June.

The purpose of this event was for the students to have the opportunity to perform for others and to listen to

performances by other school choirs.

The Festival is not a competition but was adjudicated which means that the choir received a written report on

their performance which provides constructive feedback.

Our choir received a mark of Excellent for Tone Quality Excellent for Intonation Good/Excellent for Interpretation Excellent for Stage Presentation Some comments on the report were:

Well done on your long legato phrases in this song. I really liked your gentle, supported choral sound. It was great to hear the story so clearly. This song was also sung with rhythmic accuracy and excellent tempo. Mrs Cotton

EXCELSIOR PRIMARY SCHOOL

Our students have been very busy during their break times. The girls rehearsing their dance routines, our budding young artists drawing and colouring. Some playing strategy games and others helping with our new garden pots!

NATIONALLY CONSISTENT COLLECTION OF DATA OF SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH DISABILITY

The Australian Government wants to plan better for the needs of students with disability which include Medical, Social and Emotional and Physical conditions and/or learning difficulties across Australia. To do this the government needs to collect information about the number of children who have disability, what programs are currently being provided for them and what this will mean for resourcing in the future.

The first step for Excelsior Primary School will be to provide information about the number of children in our school with learning needs and the programs and resources we use to support them. The information is confidential and no child’s name will be provided to the Commonwealth.

We think that it is important for everyone to contribute to this project so it helps the government and the Department of Education to better provide for all students in Western Australia.

If you would like to learn more about Nationally Consistent Collection of Data of School Students with Disability you can visit this website: www.deewr.gov.au/students-disability or ring the helpline on 0477 741 598.

We will include information about some children from ESP, in the project. If you do not want us to include information, please inform the front office by Monday 24 July. If you do not contact the school, you are authorising us to include your child/children’s information in the data collection. Please be assured we will continue to support your child in our programs, even if we don't use their information in the project.

Page 4 EXCELSIOR PRIMARY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

P&C 5c FUNDRAISER

The P&C would like to say a big THANK YOU to parents, staff and students who participated in our 5c fundraiser. We raised $534.50 for our school. The winning class was A2 and they raised $80.40, well done!

Excelsior Playgroup

A Playgroup for children aged 0-4 and their

families.

Where: Excelsior Primary School (E1)

When: Every Thursday during school term

9.30 - 11am.

Costs: $2.00

Please bring a hat & a piece of fruit to be shared.

At Playgroup:

• You can have fun playing with your child

• Your child can become familiar with the school environment ready for

future years.

The Lunch Box Canteen News Open Thursday and Friday

Online Canteen If you are not already using the Online Canteen ordering system, you are encouraged to register. It is easy to use, convenient and features advanced ordering which means you don’t need to fill out a bag or scramble for money on those busy mornings. The website is www.ouronlinecanteen.com.au and orders need to be in by 9:00am Pop Up Special Available Thursday and Friday until the end of term is our latest special – a Cheeseburger Pizza. It’s got beef burger, tomato, cheese, pickles and special sauce, all on a pizza base. So wrong it must be right!

Forest Lakes Discovery Club I

We are now taking enrolments for Term 3.

This is an educational development program for children aged 2 to 4 years. This program runs for 2 hours.

Forest Lakes 3s Plus Kindy is now taking enrolments for 2018 classes.

This is a program for children who are aged 2 1/2 to 3 years. It is 5 hours long in which we develop independence and school readiness through a fun learning environment.

For more information please call 9493 3122, email info@familycentre.com.au or find us on Facebook.

CHAPLAINS NEWS

The Year 6 Girls are currently attending a 6-8 week mentoring program called KidsFirst. This program has been created to work with children on a variety of different issues, focusing on emotional wellbeing and positive self-esteem. During the program we work closely with our Year 6 female cohort, focusing mainly on building positive friendships. KidsFirst co-ordinator Miss Webb and I are exploring and working on the relevant themes relating to the group’s needs. This is a safe and supportive environment that is intended to equip the students with the emotional maturity and confidence to work through problems that they might face in primary school but also as they move into secondary school. Wednesday at lunch time we had a talented group of Year 3s and Year 5s perform a short play called “It Wasn’t My Fault”. They were practising for weeks and did really well with their performance. It really is easy to shift the blame to someone else when you don’t want to accept the blame yourself. As a school we are encouraging all students to be honest and to recognise and admit when they have done something wrong. Mrs Pereira School Chaplain

ATTENDANCE AT EXCELSIOR

We aim to achieve 92% at the end of the year. As at Week 8, Term 2, the overall school attendance was 95.0%.

Congratulations parents, carers and students in Year 5. You have the highest attendance at 96.4%.

Everyone in Kindergarten and Pre-primary is encouraged to attend EVERY DAY and we may be able to set a new record! So far this year 745 half day absences have been for “extra “holidays” and there are 98 half day absences unexplained.

The message from the Education Department is that: It’s NOT okay to be away or late for school, unless you are sick.