Dear parent/care givers and community members,

Welcome back to everyone and a warm welcome to our new Scaddan Primary School families. Welcome to our new students Archie, Fletcher, Pippa and Logan. We hope that you enjoy being part of our wonderful school community. Scaddan Primary School is well known for the lovely community feel it has and I am sure that you will enjoy your time with us as we go about our business of teaching your child/ren and doing our best to encourage excellence in education.

Staffing update

Welcome to Mrs Karen Wooldridge who will be teaching Science each Wednesday fortnight at Scaddan Primary School. Mrs Wooldridge is an experienced Science specialist and value adds to our quality teaching and learning programs. The students thoroughly enjoyed their first lesson last week.

Last year we were successful in securing funding for our school Chaplain through the Department of Educations’ 2022 School Chaplaincy Program. Mr Jake will be at Scaddan Primary School every Monday this term. Mr Jake is available to students and parents. If you would like to arrange a time to speak with Mr Jake please contact administration.

2022 Staff

Principal: Mrs Lynley Neill

MCS: Mrs Tracey Berry

Classroom Teachers:

          Miss Samantha Hatton Kindergarten – Year 2

          Mrs Amanda Bouckaert Year 1-3 (Tuesday – Thursday)

          Mr William Paterson Year 3-6

Science Specialist Teacher: Mrs Karen Wooldridge (Wednesday even weeks)

Education Assistants:

          Mrs Paula Guerini – Junior room/ECE

          Ms Kaylene Karafilis – Junior room/Senior room

Cleaner: Ms Maureen Stephenson

Gardener/s: Mr Bevin Bailye and Ms Maureen Stephenson

Student Leaders

2022 Student Forum: Charlie, Caitlyn, Lucas and Hunter

Our student leaders are role modelling the school values and have made a great start with their responsibilities. This term the student leaders will engage in a student leader WebEx with the Town and Mallee student leaders on Thursday 3 March 9am – 10am.

Forms

Please complete and return forms to the office. Forms include student details, medical, photo and Third Party permissions.

Allergy Aware

We are an Allergy Aware School. We have students enrolled with dairy & dairy product allergies, peanuts, cashews, pistachios, green pea and legume, and lentil allergies. All staff members have completed First Aid training including Anaphylaxis Training. All families and staff are required to monitor the food products brought in to school for personal and classroom use and ensure food products brought in for celebrations (birthdays etc.) are clearly labelled with ingredients.

Emergency Drills

Today we practiced our first emergency drill. Using our new Emergency Evac communication system, students participated in a lockdown. Over the next 2 weeks we will practice an evacuation and medical emergency drill.

Attendance

Congratulations to the following students who have achieved 100% attendance so far this term:

Josh, Caitlyn, Lucas, Sarah, Aiden, Jessine, Indi-Lee, Marley, Fletcher, Isabel. Kiana, Aleisha, Ethan, Pippa and Archie.

School Council

Mrs Bouckaert will email out an invitation to community members. The meeting will also be advertised through Seesaw. There are 2 parent representative positions available. Please contact the school office or Mrs Bouckaert if you are interested in becoming part of our School Council. Thank you to Mrs Sanderson for your contribution on the school council for the last 3 years.


Scaddan Primary School P&C

Thank you for providing the catering on our Mallee School Development Day. It was delicious!

A very special thank you to Mrs Vermeersch for your valuable contribution and leadership over the last 2 years as P&C President. You are appeciated.

Congratulations to Mrs Tyrrell on being elected as 2022 President.

Seesaw

At Scaddan Primary School we use the Seesaw App to bring families closer to our classrooms. Seesaw is a platform for student engagement. Teachers can empower students to create, reflect, share, and collaborate. Students “show what they know” using photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs, and links. It’s simple to get student work in one place and share with families, and nothing is shared without teacher approval. Your child will add work to Seesaw to share their learning with you. Teachers and Administration will also send important messages and reminders using Seesaw. When there are new posts or messages, you'll be notified. Seesaw is private. You’ll only see posts created by your child. Learn more about Seesaw's commitment to privacy at web.seesaw.me/privacy

Watch a video about Seesaw by clicking on the video link below. https://youtu.be/pzlrtDR84KY

All parents/carers can sign up to use Seesaw.

Term 1 2022 Covid-19 Update

Please ensure you can access ‘Seesaw’ as this is where any changes and updates are likely to be communicated. Schools have been asked to prepare for remote learning as a precautionary measure. As part of this preparation I will be sending out an online form this week so that we can get an understanding of how this may look in your home.

Health and Hygiene – arrangements to reduce direct contact, enhance personal hygiene practices and strengthen cleaning regimes will continue. Each person has a responsibility to protect themselves and others. This is achieved through the ongoing promotion of the following good hygiene principles and practices:

• staff, students and parents/carers must stay home when sick
• adults maintain physical distance from other adults, where practicable
• visible messaging regarding handwashing and cough-sneeze hygiene and staying home if sick are displayed around the school
• covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, using a flexed elbow or tissue
• disposing of tissues appropriately
• washing hands regularly for 20 seconds with soap and water or an alcohol-based sanitiser
• avoiding unnecessary physical contact and physical greetings (e.g. handshakes, hugs etc.).
• all classrooms have hand sanitiser and students are reminded to sanitise when entering or leaving rooms

Ventilation – all classrooms have been audited for ventilation. The key action in the Department’s ventilation strategy is ‘using fresh air’. Classroom windows are opened half an hour before students start and left open for an hour at the end of each day.

Visitors on school site – must comply with the health and hygiene conditions as outlined above. In addition:

• signage regarding expectations and restrictions for all visitors are displayed on school site
• parents and carers not permitted in classrooms. Drop off and pick up to be done at the end of the verandah or outside classroom door
• there is a mandatory requirement that all public education facilities confirm and record nonemployees (such as contractors) compliance of COVID-19 vaccination in a Vaccination Status Record
• all visitors are required to sign-in
• a contact register is to be maintained for all visitors
• all visitors entering the school site are required to wear a mask in line with the public health requirements in place at the time

WA Plan for plastics

Our Student Forum will be monitoring our single use plastics. They will also be composting disposable items during Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden sessions each week.

Please avoid single-use plastics in line with Premier's Circular 2021/13 and Western Australia's Plan for Plastics. Stage 1 regulations to ban single-use plastic or disposable items began on 1 January 2022 and will be enforced from 1 July 2022. The ban includes: 

• plates 
• bowls
• cutlery
• drink stirrers
• drinking straws 
• cups  
• thick plastic bags
• expanded polystyrene (EPS) takeaway food containers 
• helium balloon releases.

Disposable items

If you cannot avoid disposable items, minimise their use. Make sure the items you buy are non-plastic and compostable. There are 2 composting options available:

industrial compostable (AS 4736:2006) means the item is sent to a facility to process via green-waste bin onsite

home compostable (AS 5810:2010) means the item is managed onsite with a school worm farm or compost bin.

Disposable items include:

• sugarcane, pine or bamboo plates or bowls
• uncoated paper plates
• cardboard trays and clamshells
• wooden cutlery

Kind regards,

Lynley Neill

PRINCIPAL

Athletics Training

This year we were successful in obtaining a Sporting Club Connect grant for $5000. This term we have employed the services of an athletics coach. Mrs Baines, Esperance Little Athletics Coach has run 2 after school sessions this term and will run 2 more on 21 and 28 February. The students are training hard in preparation for the Faction Athletics Carnival and Interschool Athletics Carnival to be held this term. We will access other after school sporting clubs over the year.

2022 Scaddan Primary School P&C
This week we held our first P&C meeting of the year. Congratulations to the following office bearers:

President: Ros Tyrrell
Vice President: Amanda Bouckaert
Secretary: Emily Aarts
Treasurer: Amanda Biggers
East Bus Rep: Bec Florisson
West Bus Rep: Mykala Vermeersch
WACSSO Rep: Emily Aarts
Uniform Rep: Shianne Lea


A special thank you goes to the outgoing P&C president Tara Vermeersch, you are truly an amazing individual who contributed in many areas to Scaddan Primary School and P&C events. Your support and contribution is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

School Photos 1 March 2022

This year Fotomakers will be taking our school photos in the afternoon. Please pack your child's formal white shirt in their bag. Photo forms went home this week with your child. Spare envelopes are availbale in the office. Please return envelopes on day of school photos.


On Entry Testing

Miss Hatton will be testing her Pre Primary - Year 2 students on Monday 21 February. A letter has been sent home to students. The testing provides information about the skills and understandings that your child demonstrates at the commencement of the school year. Miss Hatton uses this information to plan and deliver targeted programs, reflective of each child's needs and capabilities. On Entry assesses the literacy and numeracy skills and understadnings considered critical to early and ongoing educational development. A website for parents containing additional information is available at: Information to parents

Year 1-3 Assembly

Mrs Bouckaert and her Year 1-3 students will be running the first assembly on Thursday 24 February in the undercover area at 9am. All parents and visitors will be required to sign in and follow our school COVID protocols. 

As a school, we are required to work towards improving the attendance of our students.

There are a so many important reasons why your child needs to attend school regularly.  By regularly, we mean above 90% of the time (no more than five absent days per term). The Esperance Region is working hard to ensure that our students attend school.  If as a school, we can aspire to reach 92 - 93%, then we will be really helping our students to reach their full potential.






Of course there are always exceptions to this when children need to take time off school for perfectly acceptable reasons.


What should I do if my child is away from school?

• Please let the school know at the earliest convenience, either by phone or email.
• If your child is going to be away for more than three days, please let the school know by phone or email.
• Send a note with your child to explain why your child was away.