Burton Primary School Newsletter

In term 2, we will begin to focus on the value of Respect. To support its effective implementation, we would like to request that you begin having conversations with your children regarding this value and what it looks like. This collaboration will aid student’s greater understanding of respect and what it means.  

Starting in 2023, term 1 has now become the term NAPLAN is conducted. During weeks 7 and 8, our year 3 and 5 students completed assessments in reading, writing, language conventions and numeracy. They participated with great persistence and I’m sure their results will reflect this. I acknowledge the stress and anxiety this can cause students and families, so greatly appreciate the collaborative nature in which you ensured your children were prepared and ready to participate.  

During my tenure as Principal of Burton Primary School, I am invested in gaining an insight into each stakeholder’s perspective of the school. During term 1, I met with all staff members, and would like to end the term with providing our families with an opportunity to share theirs. This is different to Parent Perspective survey shared by the Department. It is a lot shorter and more specific to the information I am seeking. Again, I have provided a QR code to the survey below. If you could spare another 5 minutes to complete the survey below, it would be greatly appreciated. 

Parent perspectives

Finally, can I continue to encourage families to follow the Resolving Issues Respectfully factsheet. This was sent out this term. We have had a number of incidents on-site that have resulted with students, staff and families feeling unsafe. I would like to draw your attention to the section titled ‘Useful tips’. These are also outlined below: 

• Remaining calm and respectful when talking with staff will ensure your point of view and concerns are heard. It’s never OK to shout, abuse or insult people, or make threats. 

• Keep an open mind and be aware that there may be different views and perspectives about a situation. 

• We can only follow up on issues that we’re aware of. It’s not helpful to air grievances to other parents or on social media. Instead, report your concern to staff directly so we can work with you to resolve it. 

• If you’re concerned about another child’s or parent’s behaviour, report it to staff. It’s not appropriate to approach children or their families to raise issues with them. 

This document follows the Department’s advice and highlights our commitment to developing positive relationships with our community and giving our best support your child’s learning and wellbeing. 

Thanks, 

Kaylem Short 

Principal 

April is Autism Awareness Month.

Students celebrated the day by joining in and reading books to celebrate differences, a mindfulness colouring lunchtime activity and classroom activities to acknowledge everyone’s glimmers. 

We are learning that mathematics is everywhere! That mathematics is magical, beautiful, and helpful in daily life. It guides us, informs us, and helps us make sense of the world around us.

In this newsletter article, we celebrate our learning in Room 21 and the achievements we have made throughout term 1.

Throughout the school day we count, sort, inquire into how we can measure time and weather and record numbers in many ways. Each day we sing songs to learn about the months of the year and days of the week. We observe and notice the weather and how it stays the same and changes, throughout the week. We are learning to count collections of objects to thirty and how we can sort objects by similar features. We record numbers in different ways such as in five frames, ten frames, as numerals and even Roman Numerals (Lucas led an inquiry into recording numerals in this way). The children in our class find numbers fascinating and magical, prompting us to engage with them in many ways throughout the school day.

We are learning that patterns are everywhere and are challenging ourselves to be able to complete a repeating pattern with the goal of being able to create our own patterns in the future. We will find patterns in nature and discover the beauty of patterns created by animals in the natural environment.

Mathematics is fun, active, musical, visual, and fascinating! We dance to songs using patterns in our movements, count syllables in words, count the letters of the alphabet, find numerals around the school, notice shapes in the playground, identify ‘how many’ objects there are in a collection, work hard on our numeral formation and learn new words for our vocabulary to describe the weather and name the day of the week.

We keep our educators learning too by sharing our personal knowledge in interest areas, asking creative questions, and by having an insatiable ‘thirst for knowledge’ around number which has our educators scrambling for new and interesting ways to share numbers in different ways.

We are a class of ‘mathemagicians,’ capable of seeing the magic in mathematics everywhere!

Room 21 challenge you to find the beauty in mathematics all around you. From driving your car, cooking in the kitchen, playing, and watching sport to playing in the playground. We set you the fun challenge of finding mathematics all around you and celebrating its wonderment and awe like we do in Room 21.

Be a ‘mathemagician’ today!

To acknowledge Harmony Day on March 21st, Rooms 22 and 23 listened to a story called ‘The Sandwich Swap’ written by Kelly DiPucchip and illustrated by Tricia Tusa.

The two main characters are best friends who have an argument over sandwiches. One has a peanut butter jelly sandwich and the other has a hummus wrap. They originally think each other’s lunch was ‘icky’ because it looked and smelt different to their own.

The two girls end up trying each other’s food and find that they liked it even though they originally thought the food was ‘weird’ and ‘different’. The story highlights the value of diversity and celebrating differences between diverse cultures and people.

Afterwards, we discussed, compared and looked at photos of stereotypical school lunches from diverse countries around the world. We then made our own plates of our favourite foods which reflect the diversity of our own classroom’s ethnicity.

Enjoy our scrumptious artworks, there’s a display in the library!