Hello and welcome to the families of the students in our 5/6 learning community. We have already had a fabulous start to the new school year and we are looking forward to a year where personal and academic potential is reached, inquiring minds are nurtured and many happy friendships continue to be forged.

This note is to outline a few housekeeping items and hopefully clarify some of your questions.

Teachers

In the Year 5/6 area your son or daughter is very lucky to have not one but seven teachers –

5/6 Red- Gerard McCarthy (Team Leader) and Emma Rayson (Wednesdays)

5/6 Yellow-Ronald Dando (Team Leader) and Vaughn McCarthy (Tuesdays)

5/6 Blue- Bridget O’Dwyer

5/6 Purple- Kylie Scandolera

5/6 Green- Stephanie Nitschke

Specialist Days

Specialist Day / Teacher Planning Day – Every second Thursday (Odd weeks)

Children wear sports uniform – each Tuesday and Thursday

Parent / Teacher /Student 3 way-interviews

These are held every second Wednesday. To make an appointment go to the following website: and book an appointment. If you would like to see more than one teacher you can arrange for more than one teacher to sit in on the three-way interview.

Punctuality/Absences

Please be at school by 8.45am, giving your child plenty of time to unpack their bag and be ready for the start of the school day. There is no supervision before 8:30am. If your child is absent please phone the office or write a note.

Hot Dogs and Sushi orders

This year, hot dogs and sushi may be ordered on alternating Wednesdays.

5/6 Learning Community Blog

The 5/6 area has a blog, which is regularly updated, and a great way for you to see the wonderful and exciting things that are going on in our area. You are able to subscribe to our blog and we highly suggest you do this. This year each student will also have their own blog, where they will post their discoveries, wonderings, and reflections and showcase their learning experiences. The students would love to hear your thoughts and read your comments, so please visit these blogs regularly and maybe even save the blogs in your favourites. When leaving comments please never use your surname, a great way for us to be ‘cybersafe.’

Under the ‘Parent information’ page you will also find regular updates and extra copies of any notes sent home, just incase they have been misplaced somewhere between school and home.

Tissues

It would be greatly appreciated if each child could bring along a box of tissues for the 5/6 area this term.

Belongings

Your child will be provided with a satchel that will hold all of their belongings, allowing them to move from area to area easily. It is expected that your child has a pencil case with coloured pencils/crayons/textas, etc. Please make sure all items, including clothing are labelled.

Uniform

Please make sure your son/daughter is wearing the correct FULL school uniform at all times. If circumstances prevent them from being in full school uniform please write a note or email their teacher. Sports uniform is to be worn on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Homework

It is expected that students read each night. Each child has their own personal blog and it is expected that they maintain this. They are expected to post what they have achievedand reflect on their learning during the week. Children also have a google drive where teachers and students are able to communicate their learning. An optional homework task is using study ladder that your child has been given access to use.

Sustainable School

Our school is a sustainable school, so please try to avoid wrappers or throw away containers in your child’s lunch. We take pride in producing as little amount of rubbish as we possibly can.

Newsletter

Newsletters are sent out fortnightly via email. So we suggest you make sure you have emailed the address or update the address you wish to use to Tess on

Contemporary Learning

During the year we will be drawing on the expertise of lots of different people. If you are (an expert) in a particular field could you let us know and we might have a conversation with you and some of the children either in person or via Skype. We look forward to showing you our 5/6 area in action at the Parent Information Night on Tuesday 17th of February.

Allergies

St Therese is a “nut aware” school so we ask that lunches and snacks do not contain nuts. We also have students who are allergic to beans, lentils, tree nuts and eggs.

Head Lice

Please check your child’s hair regularly and refer to the attached information. Parents will be contacted immediately if head lice are apparent.

Bring your own device (BYOD Year 5/6 2015)

This year St Therese is expanding its current ipad Program to allow for a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy for students in years 5/6 and will implement this again in 2015. This program allows students to use ipads, mini ipads or other tablet devices that they have purchased and are wholly responsible for. We have worked with our IT management provider, Centorrino, to ensure that all students can assess their device through our school network and security system.

We will continue to provide school – owned laptops and ipads for all students to use and no student will be disadvantaged if they do not have their own devise.

A careful consideration for Year 6 students is that most secondary schools will require students to purchase or lease a completely new device in Year 7.

  • Students may provide their own personal ipad,mini ipador other tablet device and this will be linked to the school network by the end of term 1, 2015
  • We will continue to offer the availability of school-owned netbook/ laptops and ipads in all classes
  • Students own the device and are fully responsible for lost, stolen or damage to their device
  • A detailed BYOD policy will be presented to all families that intend to take this offer up

Any questions please direct to Ronald.

To support this program we have two important Cyber safety sessions in the next few weeks. Srg Robbie Noggler will speak to the students about being cyber safe on Friday the 13th of February.There is also a parent information evening on Thursday the 26th of February presented by Georgina Manningcalled 'Finding the Balance '. We strongly encourage one parent from each family to attend this evening,more information is found in this weeks news letter.

Thankyou for your support, if you have any other questions please feel free to ask.

Ronald Dando (Team Leader) Gerard McCarthy (Team Leader)

Stephanie Nitschke Kylie Scandolera

Bridget O’Dwyer

Some Important Dates

  • Tuesday 17th February- Parent Information Night
  • Thursday 26thFebruary 'Finding the Balance' cyber awareness parent info night @7 pm
  • Wednesday 11th March- Prep and Year 6 Buddy Picnic
  • 20th April – 22nd April (Monday – Wednesday) Year 6 Melbourne camp
  • 14thJune (Sunday) Year 6 Confirmation Presentation Mass @ St Therese- 8:45 am
  • 26th July (Sunday) Confirmation @ St Therese- 2:00 pm
  • 13thSeptember (Sunday) Year 5/6 level mass @ St Therese- 8:45 am
  • 30thNovember- 2nd December – YMCA Year 5 camp
  • Surf Awareness Days- To be advised
  • 14th December- Year 6 Graduation Night