Loxton Primary School Newsletter

Pyap Street , P0 Box 496, LOXTON SA 5333

Phone: 8584 7408 Fax: 8584 6493

Email: dl.0760.admin@schools.sa.edu.au Web: www.loxtonps.sa.edu.au

Newsletter #3

7/3/2019

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Dates to

Remember

4th - 8th March 2019

Swimming Years 3-5

Monday 11th

March 2019

Adelaide Cup Public

Holiday

Tuesday 12th

March 2019

Student Free Day

Monday 18th

March 2019

Governing Council

Meeting

Tuesday 19th

March 2019

Choir Cluster Practice

LLS

Thursday 21st

March 2019

Year 7 GRIP Leaders

Conference

Yr5 Lake Cullulleraine

Camp

Friday 22nd

March 2019

Yr5 Lake

Cullulleraine Camp

Ride 2 School Day

Monday 25th

March 2019

Student Free Day

26th-29th

March 2019

Parent/Carers/Teacher

Interview Week

Inside this Issue

Principal’s Report

Recycling News

Mrs Whillas

Leader of the Week

Cyber Safety

Community News

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Sally

I cannot believe we are halfway through Term 1. Despite the busyness of Term 1 and the

ongoing heat we have been experiencing, our students have still been working diligently to

complete their learning to the best of their ability. As a staff we also continue to strive to reach

our Site Improvement goals. The two upcoming Student Free Days will be extremely valuable

in this process.

On Tuesday, March 12th, staff will be working in Renmark, with all of the Primary schools in

the Renmark Loxton Partnership, focusing on Visible Learning. When thinking about the best way

to describe our ongoing Visible Learning approach, it was summed up perfectly for me at

Leaders training last week. Our aim is for students to be able to answer the following: What are

you learning today?, Why are you learning this? and How will you know when you have learnt

it? If students can answer these questions, we are letting them in to the secrets of learning and

they will have more success as a learner. These three questions make a great prompt for your

after school conversation with your students. These questions allow the focus to be on student

learning, and not just the activity.

On Monday March 25th, a Student Free Day will enable staff to work on the three goals from our

Site Improvement Plan. Staff will be working in Site Improvement Teams in the morning, with

interviews beginning after 12 o'clock. Interviews will continue after school, over the remainder of

the week. Notices of times and availability will be sent home shortly. We strongly encourage all

parents and carers to participate in the interview process as this will provide you with a snap shot

of your child's first 9 weeks of school. As parents or carers, the interview also gives an opportunity

for you to clarify any questions or queries. We believe this process continues to strengthen the

essential home and school partnership.

As mentioned (and touched on briefly in our last newsletter), we have three goals on our Site

Improvement Plan for 2019. These goals are:

1) Increase student achievement in reading, years R-2

2) Increase student achievement in the Higher Bands in mathematics, for year 3,5,7

3)Increase student achievement in the number strand in maths in years 3 and 5

If you haven't had the opportunity to look at our Site Improvement Plan yet, please follow the link

to view it on our website.

http://www.loxtonps.sa.edu.au/docs/sip2019final.pdf

After the Riverland Swimming SAPSASA held a few weeks ago, we would like to congratulate

Tyler Hucks, Kenzie Grose and Saskia Gibbs, for their selection in the Riverland Swimming

SAPSASA team. The three students will be competing in Adelaide in the State Carnival in a

couple of weeks, and we wish them all the best as they continue to train and prepare for the

event.

Thank you so much to the additional parents who have volunteered to join us on Governing

Council this year. We now have a full contingent and would like to welcome Kim Schiller,

Rachel Ireland, Danni Bradtke and Tina Stasinowsky to our team.

We have been negotiating a new canteen service to support our students and families at LPS. I

am excited to say that we are very close to being able to announce details on this. We should

have information for parents in the next week or two, and a starting date, which I know many

students (and parents) are eager for. We appreciate your understanding and patience while

this has been negotiated. Tomorrow our Student Leaders are going to be

selling Zooper Doopers and Ice-creams. Information has been distributed to students.

Finally, I would like to say thank you to all students and staff who participated in Clean Up

Australia Day, last Friday. Despite the heat and conditions, the students happily supported our

community and willingly cleaned up, both around the town and around school. It certainly

again reinforces in so many ways why Loxton Primary Truly does Rock!

Word art by 6WH

Principal: Sally Wright Deputy Principal: Bernie Lipman Governing Council Chairperson: Donna Felder

STUDENT RECYCLING COMMITTEE

CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY 2019

Although it was a hot one, it was fantastic to see ALL

classes cleaning up our environment. We were able to

find a lot of rubbish in our community which was a

positive and negative experience. We were glad to

see the students sorting out the rubbish on their own

into the appropriate bins. It was a great day had and

we really appreciate each

c l a s s be i ng i nvo lved ,

especially when it is hot!

Great work LPS team!

In 2018, LPS formed their first ever Student Recycling Committee. The students were selected from the year 6

class and helped the Teacher Recycling committee with awesome ideas to improve our schools waste. The

committee spent many recesses and lunches coming up with ideas. They held a competition for our scrap bins label

to be changed and found a donated prize for the winner. They updated an informative movie about how to deal

with waste in our school.

We will hold another student recycling committee with students interested from 5/6N this year. Soon Miss Noack

will ask who is interested and the student recycling committee will form in term 2 for the rest of the year.

2019

This year we are being more diligent with our waste, as we

are trying our best to make sure it gets sorted into the correct

bins.

The bins we now have are:

recycling (cardboard, paper)

general waste

cans/bottles

compost scrap bins

battery bin (household batteries)

soft plastics bin (see attached note)

We are informing classes about what needs to go in these bins,

to ensure we are doing the right thing for the environment,

and not throwing everything away to landfill.

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TRUTH, HONESTY AND OUR PERCEPTION OF REALITY Reality and truth are interesting ideas. If you and I both witnessed a car accident and then had to give a

statement to the police there are likely to be variations. Maybe you thought the car was speeding and I

thought they were at an appropriate speed. Perhaps I thought the car was black and you thought it was

dark blue. Perhaps you thought the driver looked sleepy and I thought they were squinting for the sun. You

can see how our descriptions and their details could change the story that the police get. This can happen so

easily and there doesn't need to be any sort of malice or deception involved, it is just our perception. Iris

Murdoch said “We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality”.

We can also see different perspectives played out in other scenarios. Perhaps a disagreement with another

person - are you right? are they right? or are you both a little bit right? Or an altercation between students -

Did Johnny grab the ball first or was it Suzie? Did that person intend to be hurtful with their words or was it just

that I was feeling a little sensitive today and took it in a way that wasn't their intention?

How we react to situations can also be a matter of perspective. When I speak to my children about how their

day has been sometimes I will get the answer "It was the worst day ever!" When I probe a little about what

actually happened it was often one small event which was not as they would have liked, and was in truth

surrounded by a myriad of positive events. Their perception has perhaps blown things out of proportion.

The way that our brain interprets the events around us is quite fascinating and I am sure that much study has

been done in this area. When observing how people react I have noticed that we often filter things through

what our mindset is at the time. If we are feeling negative about ourselves and our abilities we might see a

simple comment by our boss or co-worker as a serious rebuke. We might see our friend declining a social

invitation as a snub, when it might genuinely be because they are already booked up. Alternatively, if we

have a positive mindset we might be able to shrug off a comment that wasn’t important or look at a situation

with levelled realism.

Thomas Jefferson says that “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom”. And William Shakespeare said

that “No legacy is so rich as honesty”. So how can we be more honest and have a clearer perception of

what is happening around us? I think that we need to be aware of how we feel about ourselves and our

current attitudes to life. We also need to be very honest with ourselves. If we are internally willing to admit that

we are at fault or we are not always in the ‘right’, we are going to see more of reality and be more truthful.

James E Faust said that “Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth

loving”. May you be Blessed as you seek truth and reality for your life.

Rebecca Whillas

Pastoral Care Worker

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STUDENT LEADER OF THE WEEK

MISSED A NEWSLETTER! visit our website

www.loxtonps.sa.edu.au

Absence text only

0447158038

www.loxtonps.sa.edu.au/calendar.htm

LOST PROPERTY

Don’t forget to name your

property, our bin is already

filling up.

KEEP UPDATED WITH LOXTON PRIMARY SCHOOL

NEWS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

TERM 1 2019

Week Date Event Where

8 20th

March District Athletics LHS

8 22 March Ride 2 School Day

Starting @

Loxton

Scout Hall

9 29th SAPSASA Swimming Adelaide

10 5th April LPS Sports Day LPS Oval

11 8-12th SAPSASA Softball Adelaide

Term 1 2019 Week HOST PRESENTING

7 4/5H 1WT

9 6WH 2K

11 3/4GH 7JC

ASSEMBLY CALENDAR

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Name: Kenzie

Role: Deputy School

Leader

Favourite Colour? Pastels

Favourite Food? Spaghetti

Bolognaise

Favourite Sports team? Port Power

What are your hobbies? Netball, Basketball,

swimming and Singing

What do you love about

Loxton Primary school? What I love about Loxton

Primary School is the friendships and how we all

belong. The friendships I make here can last a lifetime.

Why did you want to be a School Leader? I wanted to be

a school leader because I wanted to make a

difference. I want to be a good role model and

someone people look up to.

What are you most looking forward to? I’m most looking

forward to going to leadership conferences and

meetings.

What do you hope to achieve a s a School Leader? I hope to

make the school a happier and more fun place to be.

Advice of the week for the students of LPS? Winners never

quit and quitters never win!

SPORTS CLAENDAR

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COMMUNITY NEWS

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The 2019 season starts on the 14th April.

Training for all juniors begin on Wednesday the 27th March at

4pm. If coaches wish to start earlier this will be posted on

Facebook.

Please keep an eye on the Loxton United Facebook page for

any updates, feel free to message us through the page.

All information regarding registrations will be posted on here.

Soccer caters for all children, with teams for the U6’s, U8’s,

U10’s, U12’s, U14’s, U16’s and seniors.

We look forward to seeing everyone at trainings.