Newsletter
Term 1, Week 4
Principal's Address
The last two weeks we have seen the students return back to the classroom eager and ready to continue their learning journey now that the in-term swimming lessons have concluded. It's been wonderful to see first hand the teachers engaging students in a variety of purposeful and educative lessons, and the students responding to these methods by working hard during class.
One of the highlights has been the amazing artwork which is now on display in the front office, this has been created by our high school students and curated together by the high school teacher Ms Doyle. Our Year 5/6 class has been learning a text for Talk for Writing on a famous West Australian bushranger Moondyne Joe as they learn about the life and times in the convict settlement. The Year 2 and 3/4 classes have been excited this past fortnight finding the ‘hook’ to their Talk for Writing topics, with Mr Hyde's class investigating a mystery letter and Ms Elmer's class seeking troll rocks.
Spelling Mastery is well underway and all students in Year 3 to 10 are given an intense twenty minute lesson every day. I have been involved in these lessons and I can see improvement already.
Our high school students will be assessed over the next four weeks on the Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (OLNA). This will assess student achievement in literacy and numeracy. It is designed to enable students to successfully meet the Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) requirement of demonstrating the minimum standard of literacy and numeracy. The dates for the testing are as follows:
1st March – Writing
15th March – Reading
22nd March – Numeracy
Information regarding OLNA testing was sent out earlier this term. We would like to wish the students sitting these assessments the best of luck.
This year we have been lucky enough to receive funding for the Department of Education Two Way Science School Project. This funding will assist participation in face-to-face workshops, webinars, online showcases and a conference to support the development and implementation of a local Two-Way Science learning program. We'll share more news on this throughout the year so watch this space!
As we look ahead to next week, the student's are getting excited about the return of Humphrey's Dance so we look forward to sharing some more on this in the next newsletter.
Humphreys Dance is back next week!
Todd and his wonderful dancing skills from Humphreys Dance will be back in Leinster Community School next week to provide dance lessons to all students from Kindergarten right through to Year 6. The kids are very excited and so are we to have him here again. Some of you may recall from last year that the parents were invited to come and watch what the children had learnt, and join in, on the Thursday evening however under the Department of Education directive relating to group events this will not be possible this year. The teachers will be sure to send home so photos of your child/ren throughout the week via SeeSaw.
If you haven't made payment for your child/ren to participate please do so prior to Monday 28 February.
The cost of the dance classes will be
- Kindy - $13.60 per student.
- Pre-primary / Year 6 - $34 per student.
Parents can pay this via EFTPOS at the front office or through Bank Transfer. (details below) Please reference student name and DANCE.
Bank : Commonwealth Bank
Account Name : Leinster Community School
Branch Number : 066 040
Account Number : 1990 1770
ABN : 18 922 748 795
Thank you to the P&C and BHP
Thank you to the Leinster Community School P&C Association for raising the funds in 2021 which enabled the school to purchase new blinds to replace the deteriorating ones. We would also like to thank BHP for their ongoing support at Leinster Community School with the installation of the new blinds and flooring that went in over the holidays.
First School Assembly of 2022
The first school assembly will be held on Thursday 10th March at 1.50pm in the Undercover Area. It will be an assembly to present the 2022 school leaders with their badges, and present merit awards for each class and specialist area. To adhere with the current COVID restrictions, only the parents of the Year 5/6 class and merit certificate recipients will be invited to come. If your child is receiving a merit certificate you will be contacted and welcomed to attend this assembly. We appreciate your cooperation and understanding with the changes to our assemblies due to COVID moving forward.
High School Artwork on Display
Over the last few weeks, the students in High School have been curating some wonderful pieces of artwork on canvas which are now proudly on display in the front office. The project entailed students utilising Google Earth to look at Australian landscapes from a birds eye view to find interesting shapes, colour variations and locations. The students then replicated what they saw in pastels on canvas before finalising their artwork in acrylic. Please feel free to pop into the office and take a look at the eclectic display.
Parent Communication
As an administration team we are currently endeavouring to streamline communication between parents and the school. In order to value teaching time during school hours, we ask that all parent contact occurs either in person, through the school phone or via the school email at Leinster.CS@education.wa.edu.au.
Administration staff will be able to respond to emails or forward it on to the relevant teacher. Seesaw and School Stream will continue to be used to share announcements and photos.
We thank you for your patience and cooperation during this transition.
School Board update
Our School Board works with the community to achieve the best outcomes for all our students. It plays an important role in good school governance so that resources are used efficiently, and community expectations and the school's priorities reflect the needs of our students. Last Wednesday we met for the first time this year. All board members were in attendance. Marc Trenfield, the board chair, conducted the meeting and welcomed all returning and new members to this meeting and new school year. The returning members of the school board are Marc Trenfield (Chair), Colleen Sokra'a, Danielle McLaughlin- Anderson, Teleah McGrath, Nicole Lane and Lucy Visser. Ashleigh Shelton joined us as a community representative from Goldfields and as the new principal I joined the 2022 School Board. The board would like to take this opportunity to thank Jason Sander for his years of support and hard work on the board.
2022 P&C Committee Members Announced
Recently, we have had a very productive P&C meeting. Our new committee members are:
President - Teleah McGrath
Vice President - Lucy Visser
Treasurer - Nicole Lane
Secretary - Katrina Smith
Uniform Coordinators - Jodi O'Connor and Margaret Pearce
I would like to thank all committee members for offering to volunteer their time to assist us with community events, fundraising, grant applications and special projects. These initiatives will enhance the school life and education for all our students. We value the past contributions of this team of people, and I look forward to working with everyone to plan exciting future projects. All parents are welcome to join us at the next meeting or any meeting throughout the year.
An update from the P&C
The P&C has been impacted by the state wide delivery shortages coming into WA. We are hoping the uniforms will arrive any day now and once the shelves have been restocked we'll update everyone via the Leinster Community School P&C Association Facebook page (and the school newsletter) so please like and follow the P&C on Facebook if you're not already doing so. Click the image below for pricing.
Lunch orders are now online!
Leinster Community School is pleased to advise that school lunch orders can now be placed through the MyPreOrder app on your smart phone device. The lunch order service is provided externally by the Tavern and we’re appreciative of being able to offer all families with a contactless way to order student lunches moving forward.
This is app is free to download, there is no minimum spend amount and there are no credit card surcharge fees applied to your order when utilising this service.
Step one: Download the MyPreOrder app on your mobile device.
Step two: Search for Leinster Community School to commence the lunch order process through the app and follow the steps.
Step three: Finalise your order no later than 10am for same day orders, or place your order in advance.
By becoming a member of MyPreOrder at checkout this will enable one-way communication between the Tavern and the User, and also provides you with the option to save your credit card details for next time. (MyPreOrder uses a PCI compliant payment gateway to securely store and process credit/debit cards.) These options are not available to you if you register as a guest.
Paper based lunch orders have now ceased so please ensure you are lodging all lunch orders through the app moving forward.
Upcoming Events in Term 1
Under the current Department of Education directive, several planned activities and events are currently on hold so our planned events for Term 1 is looking a little light until such time as it is safe to reschedule activities.
February
28 Feb - 04 Mar - Humphreys Dancing (K-Y6)
March
07 March - Public Holiday
10 March - Leaders Assembly
16 March - Board Meeting
18 March - School Swimming Carnival
23 March - Student Photos
25 March - Interschool Swimming Carnival (Y3-Y12)
April
01 April - Ride to School Day (PP-Y12)
07 April - Year 5/6 Anzac Assembly
Leinster Community School
Email: leinster.CS@education.wa.edu.au
Website: http://leinstercs.wa.edu.au/
Location: 1 Gledden Drive, Leinster WA, Australia
Phone: 08 9055 9600