Week 8 Report
Swap it! Lunch Box Ideas Program
Cattai PS has registered as part of the Swap It! Program. This is a government initiative to raise awareness for healthy eating. Parents can engage as little or as much in the program as they would like. Basically notifications will be sent out via School Bytes on a weekly basis for the first term and then at intervals throughout the year. These notifications will provide healthy eating ideas, swap out suggestions and even weekly meal planners. This will be a great initiative as we all know the positive or the negative impact that diet can have on students' energy levels.
NAPLAN
Well done to our Year 3 and Year 5 students who completed the 4 NAPLAN assessments over the past fortnight. This year with NAPLAN happening in Term 1 parents will have access to this data sooner than usual. As always, when the time comes, feel free to reach out to the school if any questions arise when reading through your child's results.
Norwest Community Services
As we close in on Term 2 we are now shortlisting students for therapy sessions with Vanessa from Norwest Community Services. In Term 2 we will be dropping back to one day a week on Wednesdays. If you are interested in seeking this free service for your child please reach out to me and I can answer any questions and provide information about how to come onboard. Alternatively if your child was part of the Term 4 2023 group or the Term 1 2024 group and you would like them to continue please reach out as well. So far we have had massive success with the program and I am pleased that it will be continuing for another term.
Easter Festivities
I want to say a big thank you to all the community members that have been helping put together Easter hats for this year's Easter hat parade. Parents are welcome to join us on Thursday 28th March with the parade starting at 12:30pm. On the topic of Easter, I hope everyone has a lovely Easter long week.
The Resilience Project: Mindfulness
Working on mindfulness gives us opportunities to develop our ability to pay attention to the present moment and our thoughts. Practicing mindfulness daily can help us stay focused on set tasks and reduce stress and anxiety.
Whole Family Activity:
Mindful Walk
- As a family, go on a walk outside in nature. This might be around your local walking track, at your local park or just around your streets.
- While walking, tune into your senses and observe what you can see, hear, and feel or you might choose to focus on one of the senses. eg: Hearing: what are all the noises you can hear on your walk?
- On your way home or when you return home, share what each person saw, heard or felt.
Family Habit Builder
Each night at dinner, ask everyone to take one mouthful of food more mindfully than the rest and think about the flavours they can taste and how it makes them feel. (They can also thank the chef!)
Week 10 Report
Happy Holidays!
Well done to everyone on a massive term. The team has been busy as always. To name a few highlights we have: implemented Fluency Development Lessons in C3, rolled out school wide SoLaR writing units that align with both the Morning Routine and the Fluency Development Lessons, on-boarded 2 new staff members (Mrs Coelho and Mrs Smith) and most importantly we have seen a big increase in students' learning, in particular in writing which was one of our main improvement measures for 2024. Next Term we have a Staff Development Day on the 29th April and all students return on Tuesday 30th April.
Car Park
Just a friendly reminder that parents and community members need to be extra careful when driving in the car park. In particular, in the afternoon or during school events when there are higher amounts of traffic. The part of the car park that is closest to the school gate is clearly marked as one direction. This is to ensure that traffic flow is as predictable as possible to keep everyone safe. Please don't drive in the opposite direction to the arrows. Also we ask that all parents hop out of their car and walk to the gate to collect their children. We want to avoid parents waiting in cars and instructing students to walk through the car park unsupervised as this is unsafe. We understand that everyone lives busy lives and every second counts but when it comes to safety no amount of seconds saved is worth the potential risk of harm to any of our community members.
Data Sheets
This term's data sheets went home yesterday. For our new families that have joined us since the start of the year, the data sheets are a quick pulse check to see how your child is progressing since the start of the year and also if they are meeting their achievement scores. There is always a story behind each of these results so if you want any clarification on these scores feel free to reach out to your classroom teacher or myself for more info.
The Resilience Project: Emotional Literacy
Working on our emotional literacy gives us opportunities to develop our ability to understand and express different emotions. When we improve our emotional literacy, we can work towards recognising our own feelings and our ability to manage them. This allows us to cope with different life situations, such as managing conflict, making friends, coping in difficult situations and being resilient when dealing with change.
Whole Family Activity:
Feelings Charades
- Gather together as a family, this might be around the dinner table, lounge room, or around the fire outside.
- Take turns to act out a feeling or emotion. Use your face and body language to act this out, for example: make an angry face and stamp your feet.
- Other family members need to guess the feeling/emotion.
- After someone has guessed the feeling/emotion, have family members discuss a time they have felt this way before and why. If it was a negative emotion, how did they overcome it?
Family Habit Builder
Around the dinner table, ask everyone to share a feeling they felt during that day. Discuss how they dealt with that feeling and then discuss and share strategies you could use when faced with particular feelings.
