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Keeping Parents and Carers Informed
Over the last two years we have been exploring different ways to keep you informed about student learning across the school and in classrooms. The aim is to make you more aware and involved in your child’s learning journey and assist discussions and support of learning at home. Some of the most recent initiatives include:
- Weekly class dojo posts from class teachers, sharing key focuses in Literacy, Numeracy, HASS and Science.
- Mrs Ross Talks Literacy posts on Facebook, Dojo and the newsletter are focussed on whole school literacy approaches. This week Mrs Ross explores word sorts with the ‘maker e’.
- Mr J’s Maths Problem of the Week. These aim to encourage parents to work collaboratively with their child to solve the problems in addition to gaining an understanding of the thinking that students are involved in at school.
- The Burnie Counts Facebook Page was launched last week. It is a joint initiative with Burnie High, Cooee Primary, Burnie Primary and Natone Primary. The page will provide games and activities to do with your child, plus videos and strategies on how to help students at home with Maths. The Big Ideas in Number will be the key focus.
We hope that you are finding these regular insights useful and are helping you to connect with your child about their learning at home.
Uniform
As the Principal of Somerset Primary, I feel very proud walking around our school seeing students looking smart in our school uniform. However, during the cooler months we seem to notice a growing number of students wearing hoodies or bright coloured jumpers and bottoms.
Wearing school uniform is important as it builds a sense of inclusion and belonging – we are all here together as part of a learning community. It also instils a sense of pride and willingness to demonstrate respect for our values and rules.
We would very much appreciate your support in ensuring that your children are in school uniform. We have attached our uniform policy to this newsletter for your reference.
If you require assistance with uniforms, please contact our school office to discuss some options.
Grade 6 Newsletter Editors – 5/6 Sports Expo
On the 9th August 2022, the Grade 5/6’s went to a sport of their choice (Football, Netball, Tennis, King of the court (Volleyball) and Basketball. It was very fun and entertaining.
Netball: There were two Somerset teams and they played at the Burnie Netball Court. Each team played 5 games each. They played Burnie, Penguin, Romaine, Havenview and Yolla teams. They won more than half of their games! They played very well as individuals and as a team.
Football: There was one Somerset team and they played at the Burnie High School Ovals. They won most of their games and they played Boat Harbour, Table Cape, Cooee, Havenview, Burnie, Yolla and Penguin. The team worked very hard at running and kicking the ball.
Tennis: There were 3 Somerset Primary teams and they played at the Burnie Tennis Court. They played Montello, Penguin and Burnie and won most of their games and had heaps of fun.
King of the court (Volleyball): There were 2 Somerset teams and they played at the Upper Burnie Sports Centre. They played Yolla, Table Cape, Boat Harbour, Penguin, Havenview and Romaine. They won a few of their games but were very tired afterwards.
Basketball: There were 2 Somerset teams and they played at the Somerset Basketball Centre. They played 2 Romaine teams, Burnie, 2 Penguin teams, and Cooee and they only lost one game which is amazing!
When they got back, they were very hungry and tired, but they had heaps of fun. The Grade 5/6’s continued to play gaga ball afterwards.
Reported by Jaxon, Anni, Bailey and Mason
Move Well Eat Well
PCYC Final Session
6A
The grade sixes were up to their third and final session of the PCYC course. Everyone was looking forward to the cargo net time trial challenge.
There were two teams in 6A that started at opposite ends of the course. Everyone knew what the course was like, however we only had 35 minutes to complete the course this time. Geoff Taylor was the course instructor and he told us to remember four important values of being in a team. Communication, Teamwork, Cooperation, and Leadership. Both the teams in 6A completed the course in a good time.
When the teams had completed the course, both the classes individually competed in the cargo net time trial challenge. Both classes had two attempts at the challenge but neither of the classes got a quick enough time to be able to be in the running to win the cargo net time trial challenge trophy. And then Geoff gave us another chance! Both classes combined as one big group to try and get a quick enough time to try and win the trophy. We got a time of 42 seconds and found out that that we had the fastest time so far this year!
Reported by Miller & Hosea
6B
Our last session was on the 30th of June, and it was the most difficult of them all. Our teamwork improved very much from the first session, because people could listen better to the leaders of the group. Each week two team captains were chosen. The two captains would listen to others’ ideas and decide how we made it through the course. The course consisted of 6 obstacles. They were, boats where we had to get across without the river without touching the water, cargo net we had to go under and through, tyre swing to the other side, boxes and planks, ladder and planks and tyre ladder. We made it through the whole course within 22 minutes and 38 seconds and the other team got 21 minutes.
Next, we had to do a cargo net challenge. The first time we did it on our own just as a class, but we didn’t make it through in time to qualify for the finals but then both classes combined and made the finals! We had a whopping time of 42 seconds! 13 seconds more than the last group.
If we are to beat all the other teams from other schools in cargo net challenge, then we win a trophy.
Reported by Mia & Freya
Daily PE
On Thursdays, the grade 6’s are organising Daily PE in different areas for each grade. Each grade 6 group of 3 or 4 people, were assigned to a class from grade 1 to grade 5 and have one area for 2 sessions. They each have 15-20 minutes after lunch time to do their activity.
A week or two ago we were given a folder with a 2-week schedule of games to do inside (in case it is bad weather) or outside. We have an area roster which changes every 2 weeks.
Jaxon, Anni, Halle and Toby’s group had the area 2 playground and played splat, infection and chasings which filled in the 15-20 minutes. We had the grade 4/5 class, and they were very energetic.
Reported by Jaxon, Halle and Anni.
What is that ‘e’ doing at the end of some words?
It may never have crossed your mind, but when we see a single ‘e’ that we don’t hear at the end of words, there could be a number of reasons for it being there. A really common reason, which our early readers learn lots about, is to tell us that the preceding vowel is pronounced as a long sound. Think ‘late’, ‘slope’ or ‘bite’. At the moment, our grade 2 classes are investigating other reasons for the marker ‘e’ being there. So far, they’ve come up with the following:
- No complete English word ends in ‘v’, so we find an ‘e’ at the end of those words. Examples are: ‘give’, ‘love’ and ‘leave’.
- The marker ‘e’ tells us how to pronounce the ‘g’, as in ‘orange’ or ‘change’. This is different to the harder /g/ sound in ‘egg’ and ‘hug’.
- The marker ‘e’ tells us how to pronounce the ‘c’, as in ‘dance’, ‘fence’ and ‘notice’. It represents a /s/ sound as in ‘snake’.
Sometimes marker ‘e’ does more than one thing. For example, in ‘cage’ it is there to tell us the /a/ is making a long vowel sound, as well as how to pronounce the ‘g’. The marker ‘e’ at the end of a word can be there for other reasons, some of which our grade 2 word detectives will uncover as the year goes on.
Some students were interviewed and asked, ‘What have you been learning?’
Grade 1
“We have been learning about adding tens and counting back.
We have been writing stories about a creepy sheep.
We have been learning rainbow sounds – there’s two different sounds that go together and you can put them in the same colour or a different colour.”
Grade 2
We have started to do automatic response.
We have been going onto the computers to learn about different countries. That’s our new inquiry. There’s all different continents and seas around them. We used to be all connected, but they all moved because of earthquakes.
We have been doing Rocket Writing. Its writing whatever we want. We get to share our writing. We also wrote fairy tales.
In spelling we have groups and words that we have to investigate. We see how many vowels and consonants there are in it.”
The Student Assistance Scheme (STAS) is available for families who hold a Centrelink Health Care Card, Low Income Health Care Card, Pensioner Concession Card or Veterans Affairs Pension Card to assist with school levies.
Applications close on September 7th for 2022. If you would like to apply, follow the link below or call into the office to collect a form.
