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Newsletter 13

Principal’s Message

Dear Parents and Carers

Interschool Cross Country

Yesterday our cross country team competed in the interschool cross country carnival at Piney Lakes. Our students have worked extremely hard over a long period to develop their fitness and endurance leading up to this event. Needless to say, their hard work was evident and there were some standout individual performances along with a great overall result for our school. In a close tussle with West Leeming we were edged out into second place by a very narrow margin. Well done to all of our runners and to the individual winners.

Thank you to Mr Burke and Ms Vedel for the many afterhours training sessions they held for our team. Great Job!

Whole School Assembly

Today’s assembly was ‘whole school” and therefore a virtual assembly that was presented to students this morning. This will be on our school website today so parents can view and see the names of certificate recipients.

PEAC Testing of Year 4 Students 2020

There have been delays with the testing process this year due to Covid and the fact that all assessments are sent to ACER in Melbourne for marking.

However, I have been assured that all Year 4 students at Rostrata Primary School will get the opportunity to sit the PEAC test this year. They will not miss out.

When further details are available, I will let all Year 4 parents know. Thank you for your patience.

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Changes on Vahland Avenue from 70kmph to 40kmph

Recently there have been 40kmph speed signs erected on Vahland Avenue adjacent to Orana Primary School that apply during the school drop off and pick times. Please be aware of this as it is important for us all to adjust to the speed limits around schools, especially in this instance when they have been amended from 70kmh down to 40kmph.

New Classroom

We are not planning to restructure classes at this point to move in to the new classroom. Instead, for the remainder of 2020, we aim to use this as an overflow classroom where we can relocate the programs that have been occurring in the staffroom to this new building. This will include; instrumental lessons, and pastoral care programs and numerous meetings that have no quiet dedicated space to occur.

New Shade Structure

We have plans to erect a structure between C cluster and the Science room and a covered walkway at the end of the Science room so that students can get to and from the specialist rooms without getting wet. This was made possible in part by a $10 000 shade grant we recently received from the Education Department a part of a shade program we applied for.

CARE Message

This fortnight our school is focussing on these messages ;

I work to the best of my ability and I set goals and work towards them.

Our students are usually very good at this but this is a good mid-term reminder.

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School Review

Rostrata was scheduled to have a review of our performance in March this year, but when Covid – 19 interrupted things, the Director General put a hold on this process so that schools and teachers could focus on remote delivery of lessons. Now that things have settled down in W.A. or review has now been rescheduled for Tuesday 15 September.

The review team will meet with a wide cross section of staff, the P&C, school board and students to validate the self-assessments we have made in terms of;

Relationships and Partnerships Learning Environment Leadership Use of Resources Teaching Quality and Student Achievement and Progress

Once the review has been completed a report will be shared with the community.

Middle School Choir

Congratulations to the middle school choir who performed several items at the last school assembly and will do so again at the senior assembly next week. With limited opportunities to perform this year, they were exceptional and I am sure have benefited from and enjoyed the opportunity last Thursday.

Staff Appreciation

Last Friday a community group from one of the local churches provided a delicious morning tea for the whole staff in appreciation and recognition of the work we do in our community. Thank you to Chaplain Louise for coordinating this and to our visitors who had some very sincere acknowledgements for our staff and school.

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Principal’s Appreciation Day

Thank you to the whole school community who gave me such a surprise recently by dressing in purple and passing on so many wishes of appreciation. I was humbled and amazed at how well everyone kept it a complete secret from me. Well done!

Complacency and Covid – 19

The recent experience in New Zealand and in NSW illustrate just how easily and quickly the coronavirus can spread through the community and become a very serious situation. Whilst there are no cases of community infection in WA, maintaining healthy and safe practices in our school and community keep us safe now and will be very helpful. Where possible, please assist us by only coming onto the school grounds where this is necessary. Thank you for your understanding and co-operation.

Bill’s Hill Irrigation Design Challenge

Last term the Year Fives and Sixes planted 810 local, native seedlings on Bill’s Hill with the aim of providing habitat for our endemic wildlife.

Usually revegetation plantings have a high death rate of seedlings as irrigation on this scale is too costly and impractical.

We are calling on creative thinkers and innovators in our school to come up with a low-cost, low labour method of keeping our seedlings watered over the hot West Australian summer.

To solve this problem, you may:

create a new invention to water the seedlings source an already available low cost watering method choose a small scale method to water one seedling choose a large scale method to water many plants at once use recycled materials create your own new material or use your creative thinking to arrive at a new idea never considered before!

A good place to start is the Ask, Imagine and Plan part of the design process below.

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To enter the design challenge you need to provide on one A4 page

1) A labelled diagram of your design solution. 2) A paragraph explaining how your solution will work (e.g. how and where is water sourced)

Designs submitted to Miss Dawson by the 28th of August (you might like to work on this over national science week 17th to 21st of August).

On National Threatened Species Day the 7th of September designs will be displayed around the school.

Three designs will be selected to be prototyped and trialled by their inventors over Terms 3 and 4.

Barry France Principal

CANTEEN NEWS

Keep an eye out in the upcoming weeks for an order form for the special SPORTS DAY SPECIAL meal deal which will be on Friday the 18th of September.

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CARE TOKEN WINNERS

Wanrong – A4 Jeric – A1 Dylan – B8 Jonathan – D2 Emery – D2

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KITCHEN NEWS

Our Lemons were the stars of the kitchen again this week. Years 4 – 6 made delicious lemon cupcakes with the addition of yoghurt for that extra light and fluffy texture. We are making these delicious treats again next week so wait for the recipe in the next newsletter. Try making our lemon curd, it was a delight.

Lemon Curd

Ingredients

6 egg yolks

1 cup sugar

80g butter

1 Tablespoon finely grated lemon rind

2/3 cup lemon juice

Short crust pastry sheets

Method

Collect ingredients

1. Separate eggs placing yolk in metal bowl

2. Juice lemon place 2/3 cup in jug

3. Grate rind place in small dish

4. Measure butter, chop place in small white bowl

5. Add sugar to yolks and beat slightly with electric beater.

6. Place yolk mixture in saucepan.

7. Add lemon rind, juice and butter.

8. Place on LOW heat STIR CONTINUALLY TILL IT THICKENS. Cool. Spoon into pastry cups

Pastry cups

Short crust pastry sheets into squares.

Spray trays with oil, place sheets in and bake till golden Cool and remove from tray. Fill with curd

Vicky Richards Kitchen Specialist

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SCIENCE NEWS

Science News The Sustainability Committee has been doing well keeping the plants alive and healthy on Bill’s Hill. The year fives and sixes did a great job planting the saplings last Term. We need ideas from students for an efficient watering system. There are slightly less than 810 plants across Bills Hill to water. Students in year 4, 5 and 6 can come down to the Science Lab on Thursdays 20th to put their name down to weed and monitor plant growth on Bills Hill. Natalie in C3 has formed a group Lose the Litter! If you are a climate activist or seeing rubbish at your local park or beach makes your blood boil join Natalie on Thursdays in science. We’d love to hear from more Year 5s and 6s would like to be part of the Sustainability Committee. By Shan-Mei

Engineers Club Luke and Mason are looking for motivated independent scientists who have engineering or 3D printing projects they would like to work on at lunchtimes on Fridays. The sign-up sheet is outside the Science Laboratory.

Claire Daweon Science Specialist

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ART NEWS

The Year 5’ have been working very patiently adding the final touches to their Pop art project. These artworks have been inspired by American artist and film director Andy Warhol, who in the 1960s created the famous artworks ’Marilyns’ and ’Campbell’s Soup Cans’. We decided to add our own Aussie twist by painting iconic Australian products. We made sure to study the colour wheel and choose a complimentary colour for the background to make the products pop!

Miss Chloe De Paoli Visual Art Specialist

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CHAPLAIN NEWS

CHILDREN AND SOCIAL MEDIA - PART 2- TikTok

What is TikTok? TikTok is a social network that allows users to create and upload their own videos where they lip-synch to popular songs, sing, dance, or just talk. Users can interact with other users' content.

How does TikTok work? Users sign up with a phone number, email address, or a third-party account (Facebook or Instagram). Once logged in, users can search popular creators, categories (comedy, animals, sports), and hashtags to find videos and use their own phone contacts or social media followers to find friends already on the app. Users may create and post videos themselves OR use the app to follow other people’s content. Did you know: by April this year the TikTok app had been downloaded more than 2 billion times worldwide. Around 1.6 million Australians use the app, including about one in five people born since 2006. That’s an estimated 537,000 young Australians.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, TikTok has had huge numbers of videos with coronavirus-related hashtags such as #quarantine (65 billion views), #happyathome (19.5 billion views) and #safehands (5.4 billion views).

Like all social media apps, TikTok siphons data about its users such as email address, contacts, IP address and geolocation information.

Positive aspects: The TikTok app fills a social need, and offers a sense of belonging. TikTok celebrates diversity, and can provide a place where young people

can join together to support each other. The focus on planning and creating content encourages creative use of

technology. Planning and filming a video together can be a fun parent-child activity.

Negative aspects: Children are engaging in a space where others can contact them. Children may engage in adult concepts that they are not mature enough for. Quantity of content uploaded each day can be distracting and lead to cognitive overload.

Safety tips: Use privacy settings, and the ‘TikTok for younger users’ for children under 13 (https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-au/tiktok-for-

younger-users). Ensure the content uploaded doesn’t have negative implications. Remember that TikTok does collect data from your activity.

Food for thought: The eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, in a recent blog article used the term ‘co-mingled’ to describe social media sites like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. As parents, we are careful about monitoring the interaction of our children with unknown adults in real life settings, like the park, shopping centre or swimming pool. Some cyberspace interactions can have devastating consequences, so perhaps we can be more vigilant in monitoring these. https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-us/blog/limiting-your-childs-exposure-social-media-sometimes-hardest-smartest-move) https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/parents-ultimate-guide-to-tiktok https://theconversation.com/tiktok-can-be-good-for-your-kids-if-you-follow-a-few-tips-to-stay-safe-144002 https://www.digitalthumbprint.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/OPTUSDTP_ParentGuide_TikTok-04.pdf https://thecybersafetylady.com.au/2019/02/is-tiktok-safe-for-kids/

Louise Lathbury – Chaplain

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SPORT NEWS

SCISA INTERSCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY CARNIVAL

Congratulations to our Rostrata team who competed at the SCISA Interschool Cross Country carnival at Piney Lakes yesterday. We were blessed with a beautiful day which made for the perfect running conditions. Our team did an amazing job and as a result Rostrata finished… SECOND! Congratulations to our medallists and well done to our fantastic Rostrata team.

ATHLETICS CARNIVAL DATES

Faction Athletics Carnival – Jumps, Throws and 800m finals – Wednesday 16th September Faction Athletics Carnival – Track and Tabloid events – Friday 18th September Junior (PP-Year 2) Carnival – Thursday 22nd October

RUNNING CLUB

We’re back! Running Club will be held on Wednesday and Friday mornings starting Friday in Week 5. Students are to meet on the oval by the logs at 8am and are to bring their Running Club ID card with them. If the ID card has been lost or damaged, tell the adult coordinator or the faction captains at Running Club and a new one will be issued to you for the next Running Club session. Parents are encouraged to drop their children off at the gates. Younger siblings (Year 2 and below) may watch sitting from the logs.

SPORTS CHALLENGE – SKEE BALL

Is wet weather keeping you shut indoors? Here is a game to snap you out of your winter boredom – Living Room Skee Ball! We’re bringing the arcade to your living room with this game and all you need is some sturdy cardboard to make a ramp, a few boxes or baskets and a ball. Check out the Living Room Skee Ball video on YouTube for a demonstration on how to play.

SPORTS QUIZ

What is the world record time for the 100m sprint for both men and women? What are the names of the record holders? Answers to last week’s quiz:

Australian Football League, National Basketball League (USA), National Football League (USA), Australian Netball League, Professional Golfers Association, National Rugby League, National Basketball Association, National Association for Stock Cars Auto Racing (USA), Ultimate Fighting Championships, Federation Internationale de Football Association

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Well done to all of Rostrata’s competitors.

YEAR 3 Nicholas – 3rd

Ivan – 4th Bhaargavan – 9th

Lucas – 11th Jackson – 17th

Chloe – 8th Louise – 11th Rachel – 14th Emma – 17th Tilly – 18th

YEAR 4 Kye O – 2rd

Jie – 6th Patrick – 15th Riley – 16th

Hayden – 20th

Elise – 1st Mia – 2nd

Kirsten – 4th

Sophia – 6th

Amity – 8th YEAR 5

Karin – 1st Rebekah – 3th

Molly – 7th

Allara – 9th Valentina – 19th

Sean – 2nd Dylan – 5th Seina – 7th Dhruv – 8th Malik – 9th

YEAR 6 Jessica – 5th

Shan-Mei – 6th

Joy – 7th Amy – 9th

Alexis – 10th

Declan – 4th Eric – 5th

Jake – 10th

Dylan – 15th Matthew – 19th

Overall results West Leeming 497

Rostrata 486 Willetton 407 Burrendah 286

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Linda Vedel, Brendan Burke, Susie Leach

PE Specialists

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ROSTRATA P & C NEWS

Rostrata Dads About 50 Rostrata dads and kids visited the Bull Creek Aviation Heritage Museum last Saturday. The museum has an impressive amount to see and it was great to see everyone at our first event since the camp out in March.

If you’d like to keep informed about the Rostrata Dads group and its future dads/dads and kids events, email us at dads@rostratapandc.org.au and we’ll add you to the list.

This week's tip from the Fathering Project: tips to prevent cyber bullying and how to recognise the signs.

P &C Website

To keep up to date on all P&C related events and information, please check out our website: www.rostratapandc.org.au Tristan Cameron P&C President

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