ENewsletter

From the Leadership Team

COVID-19 Update

In line with broader community trends, we have observed an increase in COVID-19 cases at Reynella Primary School over the past two weeks. While we are not currently experiencing an 'outbreak', it is crucial that we all continue to practice good hygiene to keep our community safe. This includes regular hand washing, using hand sanitizer, and sneezing into your elbow.

Most importantly, if your child is feeling unwell, please do not send them to school. Should your child test positive for COVID-19, it is vital that you report this to the front office immediately. Your child should remain at home until their symptoms have disappeared and they have tested negative on a rapid antigen test (RAT). Your cooperation is important in helping us maintain a healthy school environment.

Embracing Intellectual Stretch

At Reynella Primary School, we are deeply committed to fostering an environment where students are encouraged to stretch their intellectual boundaries. We believe that stepping out of their comfort zones is essential for their growth and development. In our classrooms, we place an emphasis on activities and learning opportunities that challenge our students to think critically, solve complex problems and explore new areas of knowledge. This will be increasingly evident over the next few months as we work towards our STEM Showcase at the end of term 3.

We encourage you to support your children in embracing these challenges, as this mindset will not only enhance their academic skills but also build resilience and a love for lifelong learning.

Thank you for your continued support and cooperation. The Reynella Primary School community is extremely strong and as a partnership, we will continue to enable a safe and stimulating environment for all of our students.

Do you have a child starting Reception in 2025?

As you may be aware, the Department for Education has recently updated the Reception enrolment process, with two intakes each year: one at the beginning of the year (intake 1) and one in the middle of the year (intake 2). To streamline planning and communication, 2025 registration of interest forms for both intakes need to be submitted to the school by the end of this term. This allows schools to send out formal offers of enrolment from week 2 of term 3 for intake 1 and from week 4 of term 1 for intake 2. If you or someone you know has a child starting reception in 2025, please collect a registration of interest form from the front office. For any questions, feel free to contact the school.

Chris Tippett

Acting Principal

Student News

School News

Being a parent is rewarding, but it also comes with its challenges. Today, our children's online presence and activity, coupled with their participation in numerous social media platforms, offer them fantastic opportunities for learning, play, and staying connected with friends. However, this digital landscape also exposes them to potential abuse and exploitation.

Reynella Primary School will be hosting a ThinkUKnow presentation on Tuesday 4 June at 6pm and all parents of students in Years 4-6, carers and teachers are encouraged to attend.

The presentation will be delivered by a members of SAPOL, is pro-technology and addresses topics including self-generated child abuse material, online grooming, sexual extortion, and importantly encourages help seeking behaviour.

This is a fantastic opportunity for you to learn more about young people and the online environment, and how you can help them to be safe and responsible users of technology.

Keeping our young people safe on line is of such high importance to us that we will be offering a creche and provide a light pizza dinner for the children of parents attending the presentation.

Registration has been sent via Audiri. The cut off date is tomorrow, Friday 31 May

For more information, you can visit www.thinkuknow.org.au or contact Fiona Brown.

Kind regards, Fiona

Term 3 Intake 2024

REPORTiT by Impromation

REPORTiT is our digital platform for school reports. At the end of Term 2, families will be able to access their child’s mid-year report through the Impromation online portal. The website is simple and intuitive and step-by-step instructions will be sent in advance. We are also happy to provide a paper copy of your child’s report on request. Thank you for continuing to embrace this digital transition and remember, we are here to help!

MultiLit Programs

At Reynella Primary School, we have a commitment to ensuring that all students excel in their literacy skills. As part of that commitment, we offer the MultiLit Intervention Programs to support children who are struggling in this area.

What is involved in the MultiLit Reading Intervention Program?

Students in the MultiLit Program participate in 4 x 45 minute sessions, working in a small group of up to five children with an SSO (Mrs Desi Gonis and Mrs Louise Quinn) each week. In these sessions, students receive explicit instruction to support their phonological awareness and language development.

We feel very privileged to offer the MultiLit Program at Reynella PS as it is an evidence based program that also increases student confidence with their reading skills. All children who have been offered a spot in the program for term 2 would have received a letter in the past fortnight.

If you would like further information about this program or have any other questions or queries, please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s teacher or Anthony Parina.

Wellbeing

Hello Reynella families,

Our Grow Your Mind program is really taking off in classrooms. Hearing students identify that their guard dog has taken control when there are angry and being able to share strategies to regulate their emotions is really powerful.

Today I would like to introduce you to ‘Shark and Dolphin’ thinking.

All day long we have thousands of thoughts. What am I going to eat for breakfast, can I get away with skipping this piece of work, what does Taylor Swift eat for breakfast, etc.?

We also have thoughts about ourselves. Some of these thoughts can be helpful (dolphin thinking) and some can be unhelpful (shark thinking). Shark thoughts are the ones in your head that might sound like this: "I am hopeless at...I am terrible at...I am so dumb...I am not smart enough"

It's important to state that it's not about denying being sad, mad, upset, hurt, lonely, or frustrated. It's healthy to feel a range of emotions. Instead, noticing your thoughts and challenging the unhelpful ones is a way to help you achieve your goals, make good friends, avoid unnecessary conflict, and prevent you from getting stuck in a negative mindset.

Dolphin thoughts are realistically optimistic thoughts, they are helpful. It’s important for our children to understand that thoughts are not facts. If they get stuck on an unhelpful and harmful thought about themselves or a situation, they can challenge it.

What does this look like across year levels? Our students have an embedded understanding of how Growth Mindset affects how we learn. Shark and dolphin thinking is parallel to this but helps students reframe unhelpful thoughts in order to move forward and flourish.

In our Reception-2 classes, students begin to understand that shark thoughts are unhelpful and that we all have shark thoughts sometimes, but we can challenge these thoughts. They learn to recognise and describe strategies people can use to feel comfortable, resilient and safe in situations

In Years 3-4, students learn to reframe unhelpful thoughts, that thoughts are not facts and they can challenge unhelpful thoughts. These students focus on resilience and how to use strategies to make them feel comfortable and safe.

Our Year 5-6, students are continuing to develop their skills in reframing unhelpful thoughts. They investigate information, community resources and strategies to demonstrate resilience and seek help for themselves and others.

Cheers, Fiona

Canteen News

Can you help?

Volunteers Needed

Our canteen staff would love to speak to any parents or grandparents who would like to consider volunteering.

Jillian (Canteen Manager) and her team are happy to answer any questions you might have and discuss options for days and times you are available to volunteer.

We are very flexible with times: if you can only volunteer for 1 day a fortnight or month, that would be a big help to assist our staff to prepare food for our hungry students.

Fundraising

Can you volunteer this year?

We need help at many times of the day and night and are very flexible with times:

during school, after school, in the evening
1/2 hour, an hour, a few hours, a whole day.

There is no obligation to help when we ask for help on the Fundraising Helpers List, if you can't help, just reply with 'I'm unavailable this time'.

Need more information:

email dl.0379.finance@schools.sa.edu.au
text 0416 905 323
phone 08 8381 1493
chat to our Front Office staff

Finance News

School Card 2024

If you're a low-income family with children attending a government schools, you can get financial help with school fees, materials and services charges, through the School Card scheme.

If you believe you are eligible, please apply now and DO NOT pay any of your fees until you receive a result from School Card.

Applications for 2024 are now open. Click on this link for more information School Card 2024

If you are experiencing financial hardship, please do not hesitate to contact us. We can help with instalment plans, delayed payments, financial assistance, School Card applications and more.

You can talk to Kay or Debbie in Finance, Carly or Karina in the Front Office, your child's class teacher or one of our Leadership Team.

If it's for an event, please make sure your contact us before the last day to pay, so your child doesn't miss out.

After School Sport

Basketball News

Co-ordinator: Mark Bennier: 0419 867 389 / mark.bennier@gmail.com

All 2024 registered players should have completed two Audiri eForms forms and paid their fees in full or set up an Instalment Plan.

- BASKETBALL PLAYER/PARENT contract 2024

- BASKETBALL REGISTRATION Form 2024

Are you in the Audiri Basketball Group?

How to join the group: open Audiri app / Resources / Groups / Sport - Basketball

Soccer News

Co-ordinator: Courtney Moule: 0423 476 528 I cmoule@outlook.com

All 2024 registered players should have completed two Audiri eForms forms and paid their fees in full or set up an Instalment Plan.

- SOCCER PLAYER/PARENT contract 2024

- SOCCER REGISTRATION Form 2024

Are you in the Audiri Soccer Group?

How to join the group: open Audiri app / Resources / Groups / Sport - Soccer.

Raising money for Soccer & open to ALL students

The Disco's are raising money for new Soccer goals, which we must purchase to be NDJSA and FFA compliant. All Reynella PS students are invited to attend.

Library Open: Parents are invited to wait in the Library during the disco's, but it will be an adults only area.

Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, cold drinks plus snacks will be available for purchase.

The disco is a school fundraising event, school staff and leadership will provide supervision.

Communication

Absences from School

If your child will not be attending school for any reason please send a text through at your earliest convenience to the school text number 0416 905 323 so we can record your child’s absence. This is now back up and running.

If your child is marked as 'unexplained absence' on the Class Roll, you will receive a text asking you to provide an explanation of their absence.

Please let the front office know even if you have notified your child's teacher as this is required to be entered by our front office staff.

If you are planning an extended absence of 5 days or more for your child, you will need to apply for an exemption. Please see our Front Office staff for more information. We appreciate your support in keeping our students safe!

School Communication

All school communication to parents is via Audiri, SeeSaw or text.

Audiri: To ensure you don't miss important communication relevant to your children, it is essential you have joined ALL groups relevant to your children on Audiri and have your phone notifications turned on (see Fact Sheets below) Example if your child is in year 1, join the classroom number group along with the year 1 group.

SeeSaw: this is how teachers communicate with parents. If you haven't set up your SeeSaw account, please speak to your child's class teacher.

SMS: to ensure you don't miss out on texts, please ensure you notify our Front Office if your mobile number changes. Both parents can be on our SMS data base, please let us know if you'd like to be added.