Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Week 5 Term 2 2017
NEWSLETTER
DATES TO
REMEMBER
TERM 2 2017
JUNE
SCHOOL
CROSS
COUNTRY
Wednesday 7th
BUNNINGS
GARDEN
CREW
Thursday 8th
ADHC
Assessments for
YEAR 12 Friday 9th and
Friday 16th
LAST DAY OF
TERM2
Friday 30th
TERM 3 2017
JULY STUDENTS
RETURN
Tuesday 18TH
Minerva School
Learning for Life
Eton Street SUTHERLAND NSW 2232 Telephone: 9521 3433 Fax: 9545 3316
E-mail: [email protected]
WEBSITE: www.minerva-s.schools.nsw.edu.au
Donations to Minerva School are now tax deductible.
ABORIGINAL DREAMTIME INCURSION On Wednesday we had a visit from the teachers at the
Royal National Park Environmental Education Centre.
They came to present an incursion to the whole school on
Aboriginal Dreamtime. They brought stories, art and
music to life with an interactive experience. All our
students participated and enjoyed producing some
individual Dreamtime art work. Many thanks to Julie and
the EEC.
Week 5 Term 2 2017
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE Dear parents/carers,
Well, here we are already half way through the term and getting ready to rug up for winter
next week. This term has started well, with the first of our KLA Days for the year
welcoming parents to join in with our PE and Health lessons. It was great to have parents in
class and learning new things alongside the students – lessons covered such topics as:
metabolising fats and sugars, making healthy food choices and a practical fitness session
focusing on strength, cardio and a fitness circuit. Afterwards we all enjoyed a game of
parents vs. students’ volleyball. I won’t go so far as to say the umpiring was impartial,
however, the students won by a narrow margin! It was lovely to join the parents for morning
tea and a chat after the game. A big thank you to our wonderful staff for providing these
opportunities for parents and families to participate in the life of our school and to engage
with their children in some fun learning activities. Next term we will have another KLA Day,
which is scheduled for week 3 on Wednesday August 2nd – mark it in your diaries now
so you don’t miss out. The students are thrilled to have their families visit them at school.
We have also held our Parent Coffee and Chat session this term and feedback from parents
has been excellent. The session was presented by United and provided information about
the rollout of NDIS for this region of Sydney. This is an important matter which families
need to understand and engage with sooner rather than later. Advice would suggest that if
your family is not connected with a service provider or with ADHC, then it is best if
you make contact prior to July1st when the NDIS will be rolled out in this area. It is
in your best interest to start gathering information about how this will benefit your family
and what you need to do to get the ball rolling. Some websites where you will find useful
information are: www.ndis.gov.au , www.ndis.nsw.gov.au, www.mychoicematters.org.au
Please also feel free to contact us at the school where we will be happy to answer questions
or provide further information. On May 10th we held a beautiful Mother’s Day Stall at
school and I would like to thank Tonia and Helen for their great shopping and wrapping skills
and Patricia for her coordination on the day. Without the help of these parents our
students would not have been able to shop, choose a gift and most importantly spoil their
Mums and special women on Mother’s Day. As an added bonus, we also raised around $300!
I hope all our Mums enjoyed a special day complete with burnt toast in bed and lots of
cuddles. My darling children bought me a bicycle for Mother’s Day – I had asked for a book
voucher! Of course, as it’s been approximately 40 years since I have ridden a bicycle, I
promptly fell off in spectacular style. Recently, Public Schools received a fact sheet from
the Department of Education titled Safe People Safe Places: previously we would have been
familiar with Stranger Danger education. Some of the useful, proactive messages from the
fact sheet I have included below. These matters are referred to as part of our Personal
Development, Health and PE area but would also be important for parents and families to
discuss.
Make sure your parents or another adult knows where you are at all times. Always walk
straight home or to the required destination. Walk near busier roads or use paths
where there are lots of people.
Know where safe places are – a service station, police station, library or school. If you
are frightened, you should go to one of these places and ask for help.
Don’t talk to people you don’t know and never get into a car with someone you don’t know.
Week 5 Term 2 2017
If someone tries to grab you, yell out, “Go away, I don’t know you!” This lets other
people know you have been approached by someone you don’t know.
On a similar note, I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that our school
gate does not open before 8:30am in the morning. All staff have meetings and duties to
attend to prior to 8:30am and I have noticed that there are several students waiting at the
gate before this time. I will also be reminding our Assisted Transport Drivers of arrival
time at school. Before 8:30 in the morning, school staff are not supervising children. It is
not advisable for them to be standing in a group at the gate unsupervised. Often it is during
unstructured and unsupervised times like this that students are most at risk of
inappropriate or negative interactions and this can certainly contribute to a difficult start
to the day. Please help us to support all students to have a positive start to the day at
school by keeping them supervised in vehicles until the school gate is opened.
Finally, I would like to let you know that we are starting to gear-up for our major fundraiser
for the year. Bogan Bingo is coming to Minerva!! We have booked the date – Saturday
September 16th at Club on East. SAVE THE DATE. Before then we need lots of help
from everyone. How can you help? We need lots of prizes for our raffle, We need
substantial donations for our silent auction, We need lots and lots of bottles (wine, fancy
olive oils or condiments, perfume etc ) for our Mystery Bottle Stall, We need you all to
generate interest in the event and ticket sales – if just 20 people sold 10 tickets each we
would have a sell out! If you could help in collecting prizes or donations please contact the
school and we can issue you with a school letter detailing what you are collecting for. We
are happy for you to send in donations of prizes and bottles for us to store here at the
school. Shortly I will be sending out posters which advertise the event and it would be
excellent if you could put these up around your local area to raise awareness. The poster will
also outline how to purchase tickets. In exciting news, we already have an amazing donation
for our silent auction – a signed and framed Rabbitohs jumper!! Many thanks to Tonia
Dohmen and her contacts. Any business or community group who donates for our silent
auction or raffle will be thanked on a list of sponsors which will be published in our
newsletter and advertised on the night of the fundraiser. It may seem like a long way off
but September will be here before we know it and we really need to make this a success, so
please get active and be involved. Proceeds from this fundraiser will go towards updating
out school technology – all our Interactive Whiteboards are now out of warranty and will
soon need replacing and at a cost of approximately $7000 each, you can see we will need a
lot of money. Some other dates for your diaries for the rest of this term:
Wednesday June 7th – School Cross Country
Thursday June 8th – Bunnings Garden Crew – Vegetable Garden Plant out
Friday June 9th and June 16th – ADHC Assessment (Year 12s)
Semester One Reports – end of term 2
Let’s enjoy the rest of the term. Keep smiling. Sara Swift
Week 5 Term 2 2017
Learning for Life – a Schools Plus and Minerva School initiative
Dear Parents/carers,
I am pleased to announce that Minerva School has been successful in an application to
Schools Plus for project funding. We have been granted a significant amount of funding
each year for the next four years in order to develop, implement and evaluate a program
of integrated Occupational Therapy support at school for our Minerva students. Last year I
worked extensively with the Principals of both Bates Drive School and Cook School in order
to develop a combined proposal and project idea. Although each of our specialist settings
cater for different student needs, we found that many students across all three settings
experience difficulties with sensory regulation. We are very excited that the Schools Plus
organisation has found our proposal worthy of interest and that the Toyota Foundation has
provided us with such significant funding. We are now able to employ two Occupational
Therapists who will work at Minerva School two days per week in order to address sensory
issues, undertake sensory profiling and develop sensory programs and strategies for
individual students and classes.
As a consortium of three special schools, we will be working closely with the University of
Technology, Sydney (UTS) who will develop a research model to evaluate achievement
milestones along the way and the overall effectiveness of the program on improving student
outcomes in the areas of: self-regulation, participation at school and pro-social behaviour.
This program will also aim to work collaboratively with parents and staff and has a focus on
professional learning and on providing a continuum of support between both school and
family environments.
The Occupational Therapists we have chosen to work with will be familiar to some of you –
Susan Heiler and Rachelle Lewis. Both Susan and Rachelle have extensive experience
working with students with special needs and with their families. Both therapists have
previously worked with Aging Disability and Home Care (ADHC) and now have their own
private practice called Therapy Consultancy Services. Some of the outcomes from this
project will be:
To conduct an environmental analysis of our school in order to inform resourcing
implications
To develop sensory profiling tools and identify other baseline functioning tools
To develop therapy programs for targeted classes
To develop integrated programs with specific observable learning objectives for specific
individuals and classes
To start the project off I will initially target two pilot classes. This will enable: specific
data collection; parent, family and staff take-up time and targeted evaluation. If your child
is in one of the pilot classes, I will be seeking permission for your child to participate in the
project. A separate letter will be sent home shortly. We envisage the project will commence
within the next week or so.
Week 5 Term 2 2017
Happy Birthday to the following students for the
month of May,
Martin, Luke and
Preston
Please note: This project is not associated with nor will it detract from any part of your
NDIS package and it will not conflict with any current OT arrangements your child has
within the school. Please call me at the school if you require additional information.
Very rarely do small special schools receive such generous and extensive funding and I am
sure you will also be excited about the project and the anticipated improved outcomes for
our students.
Regards,
Sara Swift PRINCIPAL
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
To the following students for
the months of May and June—
Martin, Preston, Luke, David,
Joshua C and Peter.
Week 5 Term 2 2017
EUCALYPTUS CLASS Joel, William, Charlton and Sam enjoying time in the Sensory Garden
and in Literacy Circle Time.
Week 5 Term 2 2017
Grevillea Class Have been working on the season Autumn and deciduous trees.
Week 5 Term 2 2017
Week 5 Term 2 2017
Week 5 Term 2 2017
Great news! Telstra Kids grant
We are delighted to announce our success in applying for a $1,200 grant from Telstra.
Our Telstra Kids grant will be go towards our Minerva Living Garden. Work on this garden
space commenced in March 2017, and when complete will feature an organic vegetable
patch, compost bins and a chicken coop.
Huge thanks to Mark Agius and Christian DiDonato from Telstra for supporting our
application.
We are very excited to share in the million dollars the Telstra Foundation provides each
year to help kids across Australia to learn and play.
Positive Behaviour Learning
Here is the teaching schedule for the SRC Good Choice of the Week for the remainder
of Term 2.
WK 4 Keep personal space (Safety)
WK 5 Follow staff instructions (Caring and Learning)
WK 6 Be in the right place at the right time (Safety)
WK 7 Use kind words (Caring)
WK 8 Let others learn (Learning)
WK 9 Keep hands & feet to yourself (Safety)
WK 10 Use the computers appropriately (Learning)
As usual, our class teachers award tokens throughout the week when they see our
students being successful in the Good Choice for that week. The class with the most
tokens earns the Wii for choice and free time the following week!
Safety Learning Caring
Week 5 Term 2 2017
BOTTLEBRUSH CLASS A week in the life of class bottlebrush
The boys value the responsibility of shopping
for groceries for home
Studying the importance of
water in science
Enjoying each-others company playing wii games
in the afternoon and celebrating birthdays with
fabulous friends.
Week 5 Term 2 2017
WATTLE CLASS Class Wattle are participating in baseball coaching every Tuesday mornings. The
class also had a great time playing volley ball against the parents and teachers
during our school open day.
Week 5 Term 2 2017
WARATAH CLASS Class Waratah have been kept very busy over the first few weeks of term.
We have started our ‘Pizza Sub’ business which has been very successful so
far. With thanks to the staff and students who have been placing orders and
supporting the new addition to our existing Minerva Menu.
We have also been participating in the weekly baseball clinics. Improving our
throwing, fielding and running skills. Everyone has been giving it a go, which
is great!
Week 5 Term 2 2017
CLASS PROTEA Food Technology
Every week class Protea are busy making food items for their Food
Technology program. We focus on using safe practices when around cooking
appliances and using fine motor skills to prepare food
Week 5 Term 2 2017
Class Banksia Getting physical in their PDHPE lessons with Miss Margot. The boys have been
working hard on their cardio work. Situps, pushups, air punching, running on
the spot,
Look at them go!
Week 5 Term 2 2017
The Minerva Mind Matters team are continuing to implement and monitor the
2017 plan with set targets including:
The term 2 Coffee and Chat was well attended with 6 parents attending.
The parents stayed longer than the initial time indicated due to a high level
of interest.
Staff are completing relevant Mind Matters professional training modules
as part of Minerva’s journey to give us a coherent, structured approach to
building on our students’ strengths.
The Mind Matters Team is giving consideration to the upcoming Terms 3 &
4 Coffee and Chat Sessions to maximise parent attendance and interest.
The Updated Minerva School website, is nearing completion, it will be good
to see it in operation with Mind Matters Information included.
The Parent Information Area is still available to visit, if you haven’t had
the chance to see it, please feel welcome to pop in or meet up with other
parents.
This is the ‘meet and greet’ space for parents within the school: a small
room set up last year, with a library of resources on a wide range of topics
relating to mental health, parenting courses, support agencies, NDIS,
respite services and more. At this stage access to this resource is on
Fridays from 1.30 to 2.30pm.
Web Sites of Interest:
www.pcycnsw.org/sutherland
www.suelarkey.com (international author Autism Spectrum Teacher)
