5 July 2019

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Message

What an enjoyable end to the term we have had. The last two weeks have included extra-curricular challenges almost every day. Last week, for example, the Lightning Carnival was an opportunity for our students to demonstrate their skills, sportsmanlike behaviour and resilience. The latter was definitely required as a result of the atrocious weather conditions. Luckily, the bursts of torrential rain and cold wind did not dampen our students’ enthusiasm. They played hard and fair and, considering the size of our school, punched above their weight on many counts. Our soccer team came home with a trophy for first place, whilst AFL scored fourth place. Of course, participating in such events is not all about winning. To this end, our children showed great consideration and grace, regardless of whether they were successful against other schools. As always, it was a pleasure to be amongst them. As you know, this is an event Mrs Thorby usually organises, but in her absence, a couple of hardworking teachers volunteered their time to organise this. Thank you Mrs Chrimes and Mrs Booth for ensuring our students could once again compete. We would also like to thank the Year 3-6 teachers who coached teams and worked in collaboration with our fabulous parent volunteers. Mrs Jasmine Clarke, Jason Wensley and Ryan Syers gave up numerous Fridays to share their skills and knowledge with the students. It is great to work in a school where staff and parents support one another to give our students access to opportunities outside of their classroom work.

We celebrated NAIDOC Week with a visit from Philip Green, self-confessed ‘Wild Man’ and National Geographic photographer, on Monday. With great enthusiasm and passion, he shared his knowledge of traditional technologies used by indigenous peoples and allowed the children to investigate a range of original artefacts to reinforce their learning. The incursion was both interesting and informative, as well as full of humour. It was a great start to a week where the children reflected on Aboriginal culture.

This was followed by the Edu Dance Concert on Tuesday afternoon; the perfect opportunity to view what our students have achieved in dance this term. Unsurprisingly, this was incredibly uplifting; rousing tunes, energetic moves and wonderful costumes. Best of all, the students seemed to really enjoy themselves, showing off some rather tricky moves. Fun and fitness were definitely the order of the day.

Wednesday included a visit from Waste Wise to encourage us to consider the waste we create. As a school, we are taking part in the Green Batch recycling project. You may have spotted the large purple bins in the Undercover Area. These are for recycling plastic and a great start has already been made. Plastic bottles with a number 1 or 2 on the bottom can be added to the bins for recycling. The company creates all sort of new products from the bottles, including clothes. Please bring your bottles and help us cut down on the impact of single use plastic on the environment.

With all this going on, our students are well deserving of a rest over the next fortnight. We hope you all have a happy and safe break together and come back refreshed for another busy term at Mullaloo Heights Primary School.

Caroline Booth
Principal

Dates to remember

Reading Club

Mathletics Gold

Beautiful Weather for Tree Planting at Periwinkle Park

What glorious weather we had for our annual tree planting at Periwinkle Park recently. Students from Room 9 and 5 took the short walk to Periwinkle Park where we were joined by representatives from the City of Joondalup and volunteers from ‘Friends of Periwinkle Park’ Community Group.

Firstly, students learned about the benefits of planting trees in the park and were shown how to plant the seedlings correctly. The City of Joondalup generously provided the seedlings, including a range of local tree species which were planted to rejuvenate some areas of the park and stabilise banks. The students planted around 200 seedlings during the afternoon and Mother Nature played her role and gave the seedlings plenty of water the following weekend to get the new plantings off to a great start. The whole exercise was a great success and the students loved getting their hands dirty.

Many thanks to the Friends of Periwinkle Park and the City of Joondalup for organising the event and we look forward to maintaining this relationship in the future.

Have a look at a few photos of our students working hard.

Edu-Dance Concert

We finally got to see what our students have been getting up to in the Undercover Area every Tuesday for the last few months. The Edu Dance concert displayed perfectly their complicated dance moves, careful coordination and natural rhythm. The costumes were pretty good too – thank you parents. What can we say; the Edu Dance concert was a great finale to the term.

NAIDOC Week

Our students had great fun listening to Wild Man, Philip Green, on Monday. They had plenty of opportunity to investigate the many artefacts from Aboriginal culture he brought to Mullaloo Heights. It was a great start to NAIDOC Week.

Australian Judo Champion – Daniel M

Earlier in June, Daniel M, a Year 6 student at Mullaloo Heights travelled to Queensland to compete in the Australian Judo Championships. This event was held over four days attracting the finest judo athletes from across the country. Daniel battled his way through all his elimination events and won the final to achieve the Gold Medal for his division (9–12 years over 50kg). A fantastic effort, Daniel. We are very proud of your achievements.

Daniel’s older brother and former student at Mullaloo Heights, Owen, also competed in the event and achieved a Bronze Medal in the 12-15 years age group. Congratulations to Owen as well.

Parent Information

Triple P Seminar Series - Kindy to Year 5

Single Parenting - By Professor Matt Sanders

Single parents often say they feel it’s more difficult to discipline a child without a partner’s support. But it’s very important to approach discipline in exactly the same way as if you were parenting with someone else.

It’s vital to have a game plan and be consistent. That means setting house rules that don’t fluctuate.

It may surprise some people to know that children like boundaries. Kids very easily become comfortable with the familiarity of a routine at bedtime, at mealtimes or when it’s time to get out of the house in the morning. Positive and predictable routines mean discipline will become much easier. Life won’t have to be full of big battles over little issues!

Another worry many single parents express is the lack of a significant male or female influence in the household. Mothers may feel this more keenly when they’re raising a son alone, as many fathers do when they’re raising a daughter.

It’s always important to encourage your child to have role models and mentors. Role models can show children how to behave, and what is the appropriate thing to do.

So, single parents may want to look for opportunities for their children to get to know and have other men or women in their life. It could be a grandparent, an aunt or uncle, a trusted family friend or a sports coach. Having someone who will serve a mentoring role throughout the child’s life can be a great example to – and support for – the child.

Please express your interest in attending a whole day Seminar Series in Term 3 Week 2- Thursday 1st August 2019 9am-2:30pm, in the Science/Art room – Morning tea and lunch provided. Contact Mullaloo Heights PS on (08)6206 2100

Professor Matt Sanders is founder of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program®. For more information, go to this link:

Triple P Seminar Series – ‘Teen” Year 5-6

Positively Parenting Teenagers - By Professor Matt Sanders

As a parent, you want to do the best for your child, but how do you know what’s right? What do you do when your teenager constantly answers back or starts staying out late? How do you prepare your Senior for Schoolies Week? What if your child is being bullied?

This year in the Mullaloo Heights PS newsletter, I will share some of Triple P’s proven tips for the best ways to handle common teenage problems. From battling disobedience to encouraging homework routines, I’ll cover those everyday issues to help you work out some strategies to suit your family.

I’ll highlight common “parent traps” and hopefully make the very important job of raising kids as enjoyable and rewarding as possible.

But remember, parenting is sometimes hard work and it may take time to tackle more difficult problems. The good news is that help is always at hand.

Professor Matt Sanders is founder of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program®. For more information, go to this link:

Mullaloo Heights PS is offering parenting support with Triple P, one of the world’s most highly-regarding parenting programs. This FREE SEMINAR is targeted for TEEN Year 5 and 6 parents and will be held at Mullaloo Heights PS on Wednesday 18th September 2019 (Week 9/Term 3) starting at 9am and will conclude at 2:30pm, in the Science/Art room. Morning Tea and Lunch will be provided

If you wish to attend, drop into the front office, or call, to register your place. School contact number is (08)6206 2100. This event will be conducted by our local School Psychologist, Priscilla Grainger and Lauren Twomey, School Psychologist, Early Childhood Branch. Please RSVP by Monday 2nd September 2019 to book your place.

Parent Reminders

Enrolments for 2020

We are now accepting Enrolments for the 2020 school year.

NB: We are now accepting students on a waiting list for Kindergarten

Who needs to enrol?

You need to apply to enrol your children in public school for 2020 if they are:

• starting Kindergarten – 4 years old by 30 June 2020
• starting Pre-primary, the first year of compulsory school – 5 years old by 30 June 2020
• changing schools.

Applications for enrolment in a public school for 2020 close on Friday, 26 July 2019.

Enrolment documents for Mullaloo Heights PS are available to download from the school website at the website below or alternatively they can be collected from the school office.

Chaplain’s Corner

Dear Parents,

Over the last few weeks the year 3’s and 4’s from room 9 and 10 have taken part in the BUZ Friends Program and have almost completed it! The students have gained skills and knowledge on how to manage feelings, build their self-esteem, make and keep friends, cooperate with others and how to resolve conflicts. I hope the students will be able to put these skills to use both at school and at home.

This term I also ran a peer mediators program with some of the year 6 students. A number of students have been selected as peer mediators for our school and will have the important role of assisting students at recess and lunchtimes who may need help resolving conflicts or any other issues. They learnt about empathy, active listening and they did role plays using the peer mediation process to resolve conflicts. The peer mediators are so excited to start their role.

The year 5’s are enjoying Girls and Boys Club and love doing dodgeball competitions and craft activities at lunchtime.

Please see the article below: Managing screen time (strategies for children 3-11 years) from the Raising Children Network.

Key points in the article include:

• Screen time management strategies include rules, routines, transitions and choices.
• Rules help you set limits and manage your child’s expectations about screen time.
• Routines can make screen time work for your family and help you minimise conflict
• Planned transitions make it easier for your child to finish screen time.
• Choices make it more likely your child will cooperate with your family’s screen time rules.

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