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Term 3 2018 Newsletter 09

Hello families & friends,

We are fast approaching the end of the term with lots happening as always!

NEW WEBSITE IS LAUNCHED….

Our new website is now official! We are very excited to have a website that is truly representative of who we are and what we do! There are still some minor adjustments and details to work on and some learning for us to do to make sure we can keep it updated and running smoothly.

A big thank you to Joe (our IT guy) for recommending Dave Cruikshank (‘Hello Dave’) who has really taken on board the vision that we gave him and worked with us to create a wonderful site.

Please take a moment to check it out…

www.felixcs.sa.edu.au

NAPLAN

NAPLAN results will be sent home with year 3, 5 and 7 students at the end of this week. Staff will be looking at this data to identify any patterns, areas for improvement and strengths across the whole cohort and for individuals and will speak to each student individually about their progress and their next steps. It is important that students understand and recognise their own data and know that it is only one small measurement of their progress in learning.

Overall our students achieved very well and showed lots of positive progress. We are really proud of all of them for giving it a go and demonstrating a positive mindset, focus and deep thinking throughout the assessment period.

SAPSASA Athletics Day

Well done to all our year 4 to 7 students who took part in the SAPSASA Athletics Day. It was a great day for all and students represented our school well showing positive mindsets and team spirit. Primary students are off to the SAPSASA Soccer Carnival next week at The Avenues College. These events give our students a great

opportunity to work alongside other schools and students and participate in big Statewide events, some finding out they have some hidden skills and talents. Thanks to Clare for organising these opportunities!

STAFF ANNOUNCEMENTS

We are very excited to announce that our 3rd ongoing/permanent teacher position has been won by Laura Batchford. We want to officially welcome Laura to our team on a permanent basis and know everyone will join us in congratulating her. We are very fortunate to now have three permanent teaching staff members.

I would also like to announce that as part of a new department strategy to provide stability in staffing for SSO staff, Kelly Hunter-Wright has also been offered and accepted a permanent position with us from 2019. We are very pleased to be able to have Kelly as a permanent member of our team.

QUIZ NIGHT

Our quiz night is ready to go… we just need a few more people to commit to make it an awesome, fun night. We have lots of prizes (see some of them later in the newsletter). Make sure you get tickets now so you can be a part of it. Tickets can be purchased on try booking—www.trybooking.com/XGGB. We look forward to seeing you all there and having a fun night!

LEARNING EXPO AND MUSIC DEMONSTRATION

Next week is the last week of term already and everyone is preparing for learning expo. We will have a short break in between the Learning Expo and the Instrumental Music demonstration with a special appearance from our Glee Club. We would love for everyone to join together for a shared afternoon tea in the break at the community ‘long table’. Please bring something along to share and stay to see our music performers. Cheers Skye

Please see back page for latest

dates and upcoming events

Saturday 22nd September

QUIZ NIGHT

6.30—10pm

18+ event

Wednesday 26th September

Learning Expo

Music demonstration

Friday 28th September

Last Day term 3

Early Finish 2.10pm

Please see back page for more

dates for the year

REMINDERS

2018 School Times Gates opened at 8.30am

School Starts 8.50am School finishes 3.10pm

Gates & building locked at 3.30pm

PLEASE NOTE: We use the ‘School Star’ App as our

main way of communicating with families.

Please download the app to your phone and ask for support if needed

All newsletters are also available

online (www.felixcs.sa.edu.au )

or in hard copy by request.

Principal: Skye van Heusden 5-11 Briar Rd, FELIXSTOW SA 5070

dl.1228.info@schools.sa.edu.au

Phone: 8365 7183

Fax: 8365 7192

RESPECT RESPONSIBILTY COMPASSION

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Class Corner

At our school we have a focus on the 21st Century skills of Creativity, Collaboration, Communication and Critical Thinking. I wanted to highlight to you some of the ways that we do this through the Juniors' favour-ite learning session of ‘Investigation'. These sessions are so popular with the children because they have control over what they are doing in a playful setting. They can choose from a large variety of activities, re-sources and learning partners. Now you may think they are ‘just playing’, so of course they love it… but there is a lot more behind Investigation than you may realise:

CREATIVITY Children work with different materi-

als and processes to produce new things, such as constructions, dramatic play, artwork, marble runs, animations, Lego construction and cafe menus to name a few. Children are encouraged to keep work-ing on longer term projects to extend their thinking and challenge their skills.

COLLABORATION Children work with each

other in productive ways. They need to agree on what they are doing and ‘follow the rules’ of their play so that it continues. They need to negotiate roles in dramatic play, work together to design and build constructions, share resources, lead and follow in groups.

COMMUNICATION There is a focus on oral lan-

guage skills that are needed for positive collabora-tion, planning and reflecting. Children are en-couraged to sort out any problems with their play through talking together and finding a shared way forward. Children are actively lis-tening to each other’s ideas and building on them.

CRITICAL THINKING ‘Focus children’ are

required to plan their play in front of the group and reflect on their learning at the end of each session. They respond to questions posed by the group about what they have done and think about what they could do next time to improve the outcome of their activity. The Juniors are working with these skills in ‘the forest’ area too, as they are making the ‘chocolate river’, building shelters and playing imaginative games amongst the trees. We have had some love-ly times there lately, taking our lunch for a picnic and working together with common goals. To have a slice of natural play space at school is a wonder-ful advantage that relaxes our bodies and minds. Tuula :)

From the Juniors ...

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With the sunshine finally back with us, we have had some lovely days to visit the forest for some exploration and play! Here are some of our primary group constructing, creating and experimenting together.

‘Bio-Poems’ by the Primarys...

Khang

Happy, quiet and fun-loving

Son of Trang and Din and brother of Mia

Lover of video games, making stuff and flying

Who feels happy when having fun

Good when sleeping and ok when learning

Who gives presents, prizes and laughter

Who fears the dark, nightmares and dead ani-mals

Who would like a present, lego and video games

Who comes from Ho Chi Min City Vietnam and lives in Adelaide Australia

Nyugen

Emerald

Hufflepuff, dancer, music

Daughter of Michelle and Rob, sister of James

Lover of dancing, festivals , ocean.

Who feels bad for the homeless, is passionate for a clea plan-et, feels good at the beach

Who needs friends, water, needs less of an eager to win.

Who gives laughter, hugs, bad jokes

Who fears loneliness, not being able to see one of my parents

Being blind and Mondays at school.

Who would like holidays, music and friends

Who comes from Adelaide Australia

Who lives in Adelaide Australia

Blake

Archer

Nerd, funny, fun and learning

Son of Andrew and Eve

Brother to Oren

Lover of learning, fun, family and friends

Feels happy when he is with friends and family

And feels passionate about a better world

Who needs support, love and enjoyment

Who gives support, love and enjoyment

Who fears loss of friends, and family and fears being unhealthy

Who would like a better clean world, a long happy life and the best for all

Qho comes from South Australia, Australia

Who lives in South Australia, Australia

Forbes

Mia

Sister, Guinea pigs, singing

Daughter of Mel and Michael, sister of Clara

Who feels calm, nervous excited

Who fears fire, volcanoes, kisses

Who gives hugs, funny faces, things to Clara

Who would like a guinea Pig, money and a

microphone

Who comes from Australia

Luppino

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Welcome… We would like to extend a warm wel-come to our new students & their fami-lies that have joined us this term. We thank you for choosing to join us and look forward to getting to know you all as new members of the FCS communi-ty!

Children's University Graduation 2018 We will be attending our Graduation on 13th November 2018 which is week 5 of Term 4.

The time is running out for our members to get all of their paperwork and passports to Di so that she can collate them and let head office know what levels everyone will be graduating on.

Invitations to the graduation will be handed to the members in week 9 after Di has seen everyone's passport to make sure that they have enough hours to graduate. Please make sure that all passports are handed in as soon as possible. The RSVP for invitations is on the invitation and no replies can be accepted after this date. Maximum of 2 guests per invitation.

The final day for submission of any additional hours (after I have seen your passport in week 9) will be 9.00am Monday 15th October 2018.

We are very excited as we have a large number of our members who will be graduating either for the first time or at the next level.

After the graduation this year there will be a sausage sizzle provided by the Adelaide University (for free) for the members and their guests, details are included in the invitation.

Please remember that Children's Uni-versity is about the children choosing what they want to learn and to try out and they also need to be respon-sible for filling in all of the neces-sary paperwork if they want to claim the hours of learning.

If you have any questions please contact Di at the school.

Congratulations!! A huge CONGRATULATIONS to

Abby who won a third

place ribbon for her quilting at the Royal Adelaide Show!

It takes much patience and persistence to complete such a large quilt. Abby said she has received some feedback from the process and knows what she will improve on next time!

Well done Abby!

Congratulations also to Mia L who a couple of weeks ago

auditioned for the Wizard Of Oz musical at The Entertainment Centre. It included singing 'We're off to see the Wizard', acting and dancing to the song. Mia said she was nervous at the audition but eventually felt better. Later that night, she felt really excited when she received an email telling me her she got in! Great work fighting those nerves Mia! We look forward to seeing you in action!

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We hope to see everyone there to enjoy the fun!

BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW @ www.trybooking.com/XGGB

LAST CHANCE TO BUY TICKETS!!!

Have you got your Quiz Night Tickets yet?

We are only a week away from our quiz night

so get yourself a baby-sitter and grab a group

of friends for an evening of fun!

18+ event

BYO Food & Drinks

$10/person

Bring your loose gold coins to join in some fun

games in between!

Tickets can be purchased online:

www.trybooking.com/XGGB

If you are have any questions or are having

trouble buying online please speak with Tali

THERE ARE SOME AMAZING PRIZES! DON’T

MISS OUT!

GET YOUR QUIZ NIGHT TICKETS NOW!!!

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Mindfulness at FCS

Throughout this term our wonderful SSO Kelly has been teaching our Juniors class about mindful-ness, which means paying attention to the present moment. Kelly leads a mindfulness calming activ-ity after lunch time in order to calm our students and “bring them down” from their sometimes en-ergetic lunch breaks. It’s been wonderful to watch their mindfulness practice develop over the term from wriggly bodies on the carpet to very focused, still, calm and reflective children. Kelly has also recently started up a small Primary Mindfulness Group that meets once a week to develop their mindfulness practice. Kelly uses a variety of activities such as formal sitting meditation practices and informal activities that use the senses to anchor the attention: such as mindful walking, listening to music, or conversation.

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a whole body-mind state of aware-ness that involves ‘tuning in’ to the present mo-ment, with openness and curiosity, instead of ‘tuning out’ from experience. It is about focusing attention on the present, rather than thinking about the past or worrying about the future- which is often our brain’s default mode.

The benefits of mindfulness with children includes:

an increase in the connectivity in the frontal lobe of the brain, which is linked to improved attention, memory processing and decision making abilities.

tuning in to internal and external experiences with curiosity resulting in increased self-awareness, social awareness, and self-confidence.

an increase in children’s ability to self-regulate their emotions, especially difficult emotions

such as fear and anger, through breathing and other grounding techniques.

an increase in empathy or the ability to understand what another person is thinking or feeling,

which improves children’s awareness of others and helps them to build positive relationships.

building resilience by giving children skills to help them to cope better with stress, as well as en-gage more fully with themselves and the world.

If you would like to encourage your child to practice mindfulness at home, the following apps are recom-mended for children:

Smiling Minds: https://www.smilingmind.com.au/smiling-mind-app/

Headspace Meditation for kids: https://www.headspace.com/meditation/kids

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TRAFFIC REGISTER: If you notice unsafe driving behaviours near our school please take a couple of minutes to mes-sage us through School Star. This is a free message system through the app for families. Click 'message' at the bottom of the School Star page and send through information as follows:

Please start any message related to traffic with ‘TRAFFIC’ and record as much of the following

information as possible: Date:

Time:

Issue/Concern:

Description of car (include rego number If possi-

ble):

Alternatively this information can be sent to the school

email.

For any enquiries,

or for bookings,

Felixstow OSHC can be contacted direct on the following

number:

Mobile 0456 471 388

FCS After School Sport!

Volleyball is now on Thursdays—

practice 30 minutes before the game

with Mel at the ARC.

Soccer is on Thursdays after school

3.15—4.00pm with Morris & Michael.

If you are interested in giving some time to

coach and/or manage a team sport please

contact Dani Grieg (Cooper’s Mum) as our

after school sport’s coordinator or Clare

Stacey (our fab PE teacher).

Juniors Soccer

in PE with Clare

(and Nikki!)

P.E. Fun… Juniors Basketball with Clare

SAPSASA Athletics

Day at Santos

Stadium

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8.30am 8.50am

In the FCS kitchen

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Important Dates Term Three

Wed 19/9 Positive Parenting Program (FREE)

Thurs 20/9 Last Golf session for primary group at Lochiel Golf Course

Sat 22/9 QUIZ NIGHT Wed 26/9 Learning Expo, shared afternoon tea & Instrumental Music & Glee Club

demonstration

Thurs 27/9 Primary students attending SAPSASA Soccer Carnival

Fri 28/9 Last day of term—Early Finish 2.10pm

Term Four

Mon 15/10 First Day term 4

24/10 Community Projects Committee meeting (9-10am)

1/11 Governing Council

13/11 Children’s University Graduation

22/11 Community Projects Committee meeting (9-10am)

26/11 Pupil Free Day

29/11 Governing Council

3/12 – 7/12 Swimming Week Rec – Year 5

5/12 Year 6/7 Aquatics

11/12 Swimming Carnival

13/12 Whole school picnic in the park

14/12 Last day of term – Leavers speeches

Updated: Sept 2018

For the fridge

HAVE YOU BOUGHT YOUR

QUIZ NIGHT TICKETS YET?

We hope to see everyone there to enjoy the fun!

Any questions please see Tali (Niko & Sai’s mum and our Governing Council Chair)

BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW @

www.trybooking.com/XGGB