Dear Families,

The joy of books and reading as a skill for life is promoted throughout the school and last week this was further highlighted through our participation in the National Simultaneous Storytime event. Classes across the school were read the story “Give Me Some Space!” by Phillip Bunting.   Whilst our LiL children, Kinder and 1/2’s enjoyed a live stream reading of the book from an astronaut at the Bridgewater Library.

In assembly each we week, we celebrate student participation in our Home Reading program. Rewarding students with an ice-cream for 5 reading sessions.  At the end of the week students in ECE classes and Primary classes go into a draw for a prize. Students who reach 50 and 100 reading sessions receive a book prize.  

Children are also encouraged to take their reading bookmarks/ice-cream cones to Books 4 Breakfast and to take them home for parents to sign. Parents, please be on the lookout for your child’s reading book and ice-cream cone bookmark as we are looking forward to celebrating and rewarding student participation in our Home Reading program. We have made significant progress in the numbers of children at home.  Keep on going with the great reading everyone!

Last week our year 3 and 5 students participated in the NAPLAN Testing program and we would like to congratulate our students for the persistence they demonstrated while completing these tests.

It’s that time of year when teachers are working hard on writing reports. Parent/teacher interviews will be conducted after school between Monday 28 June and Thursday 1 July.  Parents are asked to contact the school to book an appointment time. Parents will receive a copy of their child’s report on Friday 25 June.  Parent teacher interviews provide a wonderful opportunity for you to gain feedback about your child’s progress, share important information about your child with your child’s teacher. We are looking forward to seeing all our wonderful parents at the interviews. 

In our Herdy Way Social Skills program we are focusing on the value of Quality – Quality in our work, play and what we say.   To promote quality in our interactions with others, our play and what we say we have been working on kindness and how we treat one another.  This serves as a good reminder to all in our school community that interactions on school property and premises need to be respectful to ensure a calm environment. Please be mindful that parents/carers are unable to approach or make comments to students on school property. 

As the weather becomes colder we have noticed an increase in hoodies being worn to school along with a number of students coming to school out of uniform or school colours. Please note that hoodies are not part of our uniform and once students have arrived at school students will be asked to put them in their bags.  If students are wearing long sleeve t-shirts under their polo tops, they need to be in school colours. White, navy blue or orange are acceptable colours.

Carolyn Brown, Principal

Congratulations to our Cross Country Team that will represent Herdsmans Cove on Wednesday 9 June at the SPSSA Interschool Cross Country Carnival being held at Bayview Secondary College.  Selected students from Grades 4, 5 and 6 will leave the school and travel via bus to and from the event, departing school at around 10.00 a.m. and returning by 2.00 p.m.  Unfortunately spectators are unable to attend this event.

Our team members are:

Grade 4 team

Kyra, Scarlett, Mekeisha, Indy, Kaidyn, Blake, Ethan, Kaidyn

Grade 5 team

Emma, Maddi, Shakayah, Taleyah, Zavier, Riley, Khynan, Kayden

Grade 6 team

Tarnie, Brooke, Ruby, Ayesha, Blake, Bailey

We wish our team the best of luck.

The swimming program is now in full swing.  3/4P have been leaving early each morning with smiles on their faces, eager to get to the pool.  Here a some quotes from the children about the swimming program so far.

"I like the water" - Annalise

"I got scared but now I can use the pool noodles and boards!" - Kyra

"I love it! You always need to learn to be safe." - Joshua

"I like it because we get to swim around and it's fun" - Toby

On Thursday last week a group of Children's University students walked to Bond Street for a hands on session of activities and food tasting.  Children got to have a go at making pottery on a wheel and some other arts and crafts.  Thank you to Miss Lovell and Miss Burn for taking the group along for an enjoyable afternoon.

Last Wednesday our Kinder and 1/2 classes visited the Bridgewater Library to listen to "Give me some space!", read live by Shannon Walker a NASA astronaut from the International Space Station.

Children made paper rocket ships and loved listening to the story.