3

Issue No. 6

45 Gawthorne Drive,

Millars Well, Karratha 6714

Upcoming Events

5th August – FeNaClNG

Local Public Holiday

8th August – Open Night

4.30-6.00pm

12th August - Earbus

15th August – PP Assembly

22nd

August – Book Week Parade

28th August – MWPS Jumps

& Throws Carnival

30th August – MWPS

Faction Carnival

Principal’s Message

Welcome back to Term 3 – I hope that you and your family had an amazing break and are refreshed.

Staffing Changes this Term Last term in the newsletter, I made you aware of some staffing changes that need to be made due to staff taking leave. The changes are as follows: PP1 - Mrs Emily Ta’ala will be teaching in PP1 on Wednesdays until later this term when she will take her parental leave. We will appoint a new teacher at that time. PP2 - Ms Melanie Butler has returned to school from parental leave and will be teaching in PP2 each Wednesday for the remainder of the year. Kindy - Mrs Belinda Jones will shortly commence her parental leave and will be replaced by Ms Lynn deSouza. Ms deSouza has previously worked in our school and will teach on Mondays. Mrs Cox needs to take leave from the 12th August till the end of Term 3 and we are in the process of appointing a replacement teacher. TA7 - Mrs Caitlin McLaren will commence her parental leave on Friday 16th August. Mrs Jill Gorman has accepted the position as teacher.

Deputy Principal - Ms Breigh Pearson our Deputy will also commence parental leave on Tuesday 6th August. We thank her for the great work and support she has provided in our school. She has provided leadership in Numeracy, focus upon attendance, support for all students including those with special needs, NAIDOC organisation, ANZAC, special events, behaviour and pastoral care. She always has a kind and gentle manner and provides support to students, staff and parents when they need it. She always helps to solve a problem and adds to the positive spirit of our school. We wish her the very best on the exciting times ahead and hope she drops back in from time to time. We have just completed a state wide recruitment and selection process and I’m delighted to say that Mrs Fiona Byrne is the recommended applicant for the position. In a competitive field of applicants Mrs Byrne drew upon her experience, skills and knowledge as a leader and educator. I congratulate her on her appointment and know that she will continue to support and lead at all levels in our school.

this issue Open Source Revolution P.1

IT Management Tips P.2

Non-Profit Solutions P.3

Trends & New Software P.4

IN THIS ISSUE

Principal’s Message P.1

Principal’s Message cont. P.2

Principal’s Message, Cossack P.3

Cossack Excursion P.4

100 Decimal Days P.5-6

100 Days at School in PP P.7-8

National Science Week P.9

NAIDOC P.10-11

P&C News P.12

this issue Open Source Revolution P.1

IT Management Tips P.2

Non-Profit Solutions P.3

Trends & New Software P.4

Community Newsletter

Millars Well Primary School is a collaborative, safe, vibrant school, focusing on values, literacy and numeracy. All students are empowered to realise their full potential as happy, independent, responsible members of our rapidly changing society. In achieving this vision, parents are partners in the education of their children.

millarswellps.wa.edu.au

Minilit and Multilit We would like to welcome Shannon Rolfe and Nolene Holmes who will be supporting students through the Minilit and Multlit programs for the remainder of the year. These programs are important to and we appreciate the work that these staff will be doing in supporting students to make progress in their learning. Athletics on Friday – would you like to assist? Each Friday afternoon our students practise team games, throwing, jumping and running in preparation for the Athletics Carnival on Wednesday 28th August for throws and jumps and Friday 30th August for team games and track events. If you are keen to help on a Friday we would love to see you. Please let you class teacher or Mr Maxwell know.

Cossack Excursion Last week students from TA9, 10, 4 and 6 went to Cossack. I heard that they had a great day looking at Cossack Art and the old buildings. Thank you to staff and parents that helped our students on the day. We are fortunate to be able to access local history and amazing art all in the same place.

TA9 and TA10 at Cossack

• Show your children how to look after books such as turning the pages carefully.

• If your children are not showing interest in a particular book, don’t push them.

• Avoid distractions when you are reading with your children – for example, turn off the television.

• Visit your local library and ask about the programs they run for parents and children.

Enjoy your week.

Weston Jackson Principal

Cossack Excursion On Tuesday 23rd July and Wednesday 24th July TA9, 10, 4 and 6 were very lucky to participate in an excursion to the Cossack Art Awards. The students were divided into groups and were given a tour by Paula to look at the various art works, showing the winners from the different categories. The second group was involved in a Water Colour Painting Workshop. Jess showed the students her art pieces and gave the students directions on how to create some sea creature works of art. Groups were able to participate in both sessions. The children enjoyed a relaxing lunch and had time to explore the surrounding buildings which involved a museum quiz. As we were leaving the children were given a lovely pencil and paper art kit from the City of Karratha. It was an enjoyable day for all those involved.

Sue-Ann de Vries Performing Arts

FeNaClNG Festival fever hit the Pilbara last weekend. Over the past weeks Mrs Moore, a staff member and parent has been generously giving her time to arrange and prepare a float for the FeNaClNG parade. Thank you Mrs Moore for the work you do in the school and for generously preparing a float on behalf of the school. The festival is a significant local event Happy Birthday to Staff Chantelle Smith, Ren Dunne, Renae Passmore, Karen Roach, and Jan Anderson have all had birthdays recently. The last two weeks have been like birthday heaven in our staffroom with lots of staff celebrating a special day. It is tradition that another staff member makes a cake for them and it seems like we have rarely had a cake free day. In addition our cleaner Mrs Jan Anderson celebrates a special birthday of significance and we just need to say how much we appreciate her and the team for keeping our school in great shape each day. She does an amazing job and takes extreme pride in the work they do. If you see Jan please wish her a great birthday, I don’t know what we would do without her.

Open Night Our school is having an open night on Thursday 8th August from 4.30pm – 6.00pm. This is an opportunity to visit your child’s class and perhaps see them do an activity or look over their recent work. We hope you can make it. Ms Baxter in PP1 will be on leave but is providing an alternative time for her PP1 parents. She is sending a separate note home for you. From our Dept of Education “ Learning at Home “ READING EVERY DAY IS FUN – AND IMPORTANT Babies and children enjoy being read to and sharing books is a great way to spend time with your children. It also helps to expand their vocabulary and to see that you value reading. What can I do? • Tell stories, say and sing rhymes, poems and songs. • Talk about the words and numbers you see when

you’re out and about. • Read to your children from newspapers, junk mail,

electronic devices and magazines, as well as books. • Read favourite stories over and over • When reading to your children, follow the words with

your finger, point to pictures and talk together about the story.

• Let your children pretend to read. Children pretend to read by making up the story. This is a great start.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjgvYjCoIbiAhXBfX0KHSXeDaAQjRx6

BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpaf.org.au%2Fprograms%2Fwalk-safely-to-school-

day%2F&psig=AOvVaw221nrav8_9aBud0GmRp_vt&ust=1557209742658230

millarswellps.wa.edu.au

TA4 and TA6 had a splendid time at the Cossack Art Awards Excursion. We admired and critiqued some paintings, including Mrs Stott’s and O’Brien Sensei’s amazing work. It was great to see that some artists had used a technique that we had learned about in class called pointillism. Also, we were lucky enough to create some sea life water colour paintings! We enjoyed learning more about the history of Cossack. We walked through the Old Courthouse, the Bakehouse, and the Jail. Interestingly, in the Jail, we saw a framed photograph of Cossack township that dates back to 1897. Furthermore, we counted the number of dwellings that we could see on the photograph and estimated the population. After our trip, we researched the actual number of inhabitants. Did you know there were approximately 500 indigenous people and 1000 others that made up the population? How surprising was that? By Cienna Sanderson, Mahalia Young and Sophia Saunders

100 Decimal Days Rotations in Senior Block On Monday 29th July, the senior classes (TA4, 6, 7, and 8) celebrated 100 Decimal Days by participating in decimal activity rotations. Throughout the senior block we all applied our thinking heads to complete the tasks we were given in each classroom. During the activities, we were challenged to think about fractional parts of a whole structure and matching decimal fractions with common/proper fractions and percentages. An activity I really enjoyed was the pattern building with Mrs Stott where we all had to build a pattern with a limited amount of shapes and colours. I especially loved this activity because we all had to demonstrate team work and it was exciting to convert the fractional/decimal amounts of each colour in the pattern.

By Ellah Chudziak

Last week, Pre-Primary students celebrated their 100th day of school. We have counted each day of school as part of a whole school approach to learning place value and working with numbers. Students celebrated by dressing up and participating in activities that involved counting and representing 100. We ended the day with a much deserved class party. Lots of fun was had by everyone.

National Science Week Families are invited to come celebrate National Science Week by attending Karratha Senior High School's Science Fair. It will be held on Thursday 15

th August from 4.30 - 7.30 pm. There are lots of interactive

activities for you to engage in. We will have some work on display from TA 11, 13, 7 and 8.

This is a free community event. The main entrance into the fair will be at the front of Karratha Senior High School. There will be a sausage sizzle for $2 and the Cocolicious Van will be available to purchase food.

It is an exciting evening and we hope to see you all there! Mrs Kylee Saunders

During the last week of Term Two, Millars Well PS celebrated NAIDOC. It was a wonderful event with many community groups, parents, staff and students helping to make it a huge success. This year’s theme was “Voice, Treaty, Truth”. The theme aimed to celebrate and highlight the importance of the Indigenous voice of this country. These, words, the first spoken on this continent are over 65,000 years old. These precious languages have passed down lore, culture and knowledge for over millennia. They include words connecting us to country, an understanding of country and of a people who are the oldest continuing culture on the planet.

Many of the activities the students participated in aimed to focus on this important message. The school would like to acknowledge and thank the following groups that visited our school:

Roebourne Girls Academy- The girls worked with students to develop their basketball and team building skills. The girls did a great job of explaining the drills to the students and we all had a lot of fun.

Conrad Aubrey- Representing Ngurrangga Tours, Conrad led an informative and interesting excursion to Hearsons Cove, educating students on the native flora and fauna, bush tucker and rock art at this beautiful site. The highlight was the impressive Welcome To Country he performed for students in Language. Conrad also held fascinating information sessions at school explaining how to look after the land, animals and environment around Karratha.

Parents and Students- Thank you for the time and assistance put into our NAIDOC celebrations. The support on the two days of activities has been invaluable!

The school would also like to acknowledge and say a very special thank you to the City of Karratha for this very generous contribution of $2,597.32 towards our NAIDOC celebrations. Their generous donation goes toward buying resources for the students to become more culturally aware and learn about Aboriginal and TI culture. We would also like to acknowledge the generous donation and contribution made by Fortescue Bus Service toward our Hearson’s Cove Excursion. Thank-you kindly, you helped us travel in comfort and style!

Millars Well P&C Raffle Closing soon!

Tickets available from the canteen and the front office.

The Quick Cliq competition starts again on Monday 5th August!

Simply order your recess or lunch at www.QuickCliq.com.au to go into the draw to win $10 credit.

There is currently an application for a Traffic Warden should any parent/friend be interested in the position. In addition to the present pay rate of $23.75 per hour Traffic Wardens also receive a Laundry Allowance of up to $1.31 per fortnight and uniform is issued free of charge. Training time is also paid (conditions apply). The only out of pocket expenses will be for a Health Check which WA Police Force reimburse up to $70 and obtaining a Working with Children Card as an employee with the present cost of $85.00 with this cost being reimbursed in full. If the applicant is already in possession of a card then there is no need to obtain another card as we will note our interest with the applicable Department. Should you have any queries, please contact (08) 6274 – 8731.