13 March 2025

Principal’s Report

National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) 2025

This week we started NAPLAN 2025.  Most year three and five students will have completed the testing by Tuesday afternoon next week.  Catchup testing will continue until Tuesday 25^th March.  Please ensure year three and five students are well rested and at school each day to get these assessments completed.

Clean up School Day Friday 28^th February

Pre-Primary to Year Five-Six students wore gloves and cleaned up various areas of the school.  I am happy to report the litter level was low and litter bags were not very full. 

Thank you to Miss Carla Sudholz for organising this event.

Second Prefect Assembly – Friday 7^th March

Well done to our Captains and Prefects for their second News assembly.  They did a great job.  Thank you to Miss Casey Bright and Room Six for fantastic news detailing the valuable learning in that room.  Thanks to Ms Toni Lang and Room 16 who showed their awesome Talk for Writing story.  Thanks to Ms Nikki Smith, Pre-Primary and Chloe for the lovely Pre-primary update.

Harmony Day – Friday 21^st March

Friday next week, 21^st March, is Harmony Day.  Students may dress in cultural/national costumes or wear orange on this day.  Families are invited to eat lunch with their children.  The canteen will be open with a more limited menu so those parent volunteers can join their own children. There will be no ice-creams.  We advise you to bring a picnic rug and sit and eat.  We are in the ants’ habitat.   Weather permitting, we will do this at the front of the school.  Parents of Early Childhood children - Kindergarten and Pre-Primary, may eat down in their area or come to the front of the school. 

Children and families can then go and play.  There will be an extended lunch about ten minutes longer than usual. Parents if you bring Kindergarten and/or Pre-Primary children up to the main play areas, please stay close as they are not used to these areas.  Also, the children in those areas are not used to watching out for our little folks.

Gardens and Gardener

Our school gardener decided to quietly retire.  If you have an interest in some relief work gardening in the short term, or applying for the job in the longer term, please contact the office for a chat.  You will need to get Police Clearances and a Working with Children card.

We have a small hard working volunteer gardening and grounds group who come on Thursday Mornings.  Thank you to Annette Patterson, Leigh and Garth Ceasar for their hard work over years.  Most recently they did a big clean up in the Early childhood area and it looks great. If you like to do a little gardening, please feel free to come along and work alongside our volunteer group.

Voting – State and Federal

On Saturday 8^th March the state election was held, and Spearwood Primary was a voting site.  Thank you to the volunteers who ran the sausage sizzle to raise funds to support the students at Spearwood Primary School.  It was a crazy and busy day.  The sausage sizzle ended when they ran out of ballots around 2:45pm.  More ballots and voting happened later.

Thank you to parents of Spearwood Primary students: Dianne Hunter, Harry Chauhan, and Alicia Mather.  Thank you to Community Board Member, Jodie Bridges and ex-student Kayla Hill for helping.  Thanks to community helper, Mia Orsulic.  Thanks to prefect, Brock, for helping out

The Federal Election will be called soon and held in early May.  We hope to be able to hold another sausage sizzle then and that we can have some new and extra volunteers.

Marta Rotondella
Principal

Upcoming Events

Merit Awards

Congratulations to all our students who received a merit certificate at our assembly on 7 March.

Harmony Day

Harmony Week celebrates all the ways in which Australia is a multicultural country, and how different cultures work together to create communities. On Friday 21 March everyone can dress in orange-coloured clothes, as this is the Harmony Day colour, or in their National Dress.

Canteen

Our canteen specials cost $5.50 and includes a juice.

14 March
Cheeseburgers

21 March
Chicken Noodles Stir Fry

Phys Ed News

Softball

The students in years 1-6 have been participating in Softball Clinics with coaches from Softball WA, for the past 4 weeks.  They have been working on their skills of throwing and catching whilst wearing a glove, and hitting a ball from a Tee with the new component of wearing a safety helmet.

The coaches were very impressed with all the student’s behaviour and skill levels.  Everyone had a great time during the sessions

Hats

To protect them from the harmful effects of the sun, it is compulsory for students to wear a hat when participating in any outdoor activities.

There is a very small number available to borrow from the office.

School hats are available from the uniform shop at a cost of $15.00

Mrs R Gartner
P.E. Co-ordinator

Highway Heroes

Welcome to the Highway Hero parent information section of our Newsletter. This information is to inform and update the parent body in our school community about the Highway Hero social and emotional learning resource being taught in our school.

Highway Hero lessons are well underway from K-6 as we implement modules 2, “Connecting for Friendships” (Playground resilience and friendships) in Years 1-3.

Years 4-6 are implementing “Sticking up for Me” (Beating bullying and taming teasing)

Our Kindy and Pre-Primary children are working on learning about the highway and introducing the language of the program, (Bumps, hazards, tools and heroes.) The Little Highway Hero program has a beautiful set of puppets to help teach and model different scenarios to the children.

Connecting for friendships outcomes teach us that friends and friendships aren’t perfect relationships at times.

We want children to understand that friendships represent a group of behaviours and to be able to differentiate between friendly and unfriendly behaviours. We are teaching a skills set known as SPICE as a Highway Hero tool through role play. The SPICE acronym stands for Smile, Praise, Invite, Chat, Enjoy.

Beating Bullying and Taming Teasing outcomes in Years 4-6 are informing the students about their self-talk. Being a Highway Hero is to use “Supa Thinkin” which is positive and not “Stinkin Thinkin” which is negative, unhelpful and can be habitual and lead children to giving up easily.

Please see the parent information sheets attached that give examples of the types of discussions your children will be involved in, and the role play and real-life situations they will be practicing to help them acquire these important life long skills in the area of social and emotional wellbeing.

Please stay tuned for further updates in the Highway Hero corner of the newsletter for more updates and tips that are not only useful for our children but also us as adults.

Mrs Lisa Miller

Room 16

Room 16 have been learning about factors which strengthen our personal identity. This has included activities recognising and celebrating our strengths and individual differences, as well as shared values. We all have a part to play in getting along and we choose to treat ourselves, others and our school with respect. Just in time for Harmony Day on the 21st of March which celebrates culture diversity and respect, our class has created a display in the Senior Block. 

Village OSHC

Uniform Shop

Please note that we are currently out of stock of the sport faction shirts.

Scholastic Bookclub

Hi my name is Renee and I run the Scholastic Book Club at spearwood primary school. 

Twice a term your child will bring home a Book Club catalogue with books available for purchase. You can place an order online via the Loop app or by cash by filling out the order form on the back of the catalogue and placing the order form and money into the P&C box that can be found in the office. 

Purchasing books via Scholastic Book Club is a great way to support the school library as every purchase accumulates rewards points which the library can use to purchase books and equipment. 

If you need any help navigating ordering, please feel free to reach out to me. 

Fremantle College

Fremantle College offer a free after-school extension program for students who are academically gifted or talented.  Students currently in Year 5 who are interested in applying for the Gifted and Talented Selective Academic Program or Academic Excellence Academy at Fremantle College for Year 7, 2027 are encouraged to apply for this program.

Applications for our Emerging Scholars program for Term 2 and Term 3 close on 28 March 2025.  

Emerging Scholars – Applications are open!

Calling all future GATE or Academic Extension students.   Fremantle College’s Emerging Scholars is a free after-school program which offers hands-on extension opportunities for students in Year 5.  Applications for Emerging Scholars can be made using the below link:

https://fremantlecollege.wa.edu.au/emerging-scholars/

Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity.

APPLICATIONS CLOSE FRIDAY 28 MARCH 2025 

Community News

Cockburn Libraries

Kids programs

Storytime, Pram Jam, STEAM and more!

Kids programs Archives - Cockburn Libraries

Learn Everyday English

Is English your second language?  Improve and practise your speaking skills in a fun, informal way
Learn Everyday English - Cockburn Libraries

Fremantle Cockburn Hockey Club

After School Introduction to Hockey

A free 4 week program aimed at capturing students directly after the school day and a great opportunity for classmates to stick together and try a new sport. Come to one or attend all 4.

Every Tuesday from 18th March to 8th April. 3.30pm to 4.30pm.

Expressions of interest via the link : https://www.freohockey.com/events/285790

Come and Try Hockey Sessions

Join us at Fremantle Cockburn Hockey Club and give hockey a try at our open turf sessions for new junior players ages 5-17!

• Thu 27 Mar 2025 : 4:30pm - 5:30pm
• Thu 10 Apr 2025 : 4:30pm - 5:30pm

Registrations are essential by Parents and can be done via the event page :