ARDTORNISH NEWSLETTER
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Ardtornish Newsletter

Term 1 Week 5 - 1st March 2019
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No 3.

In this issue

In this Issue
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  • Class Libraries – Improving Student Reading
  • Excursion/Incursion Update
  • Canteen Roster
  • Star of the Yard Winners
  • Help needed for Sports day pop up canteen and BBQ
  • SRC Executives
  • Pancake Day 2019
  • Absences & Exemptions
  • Foster Care
  • Pedal Prix Cake Stall
  • Volunteer RAN Training Sessions
  • Sports Day
  • STEM – Science, Technology, Maths
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Diary Dates
 
March
1st – SAPSASA Carnival
5th- Pancake Day
8th- Sports Day
11th – PUBLIC HOLIDAY
12th- 14th – 9/10 Aquatic Camp
18th – GC Meeting 7pm
20th – Athletics Carnival
22nd – Assembly 10am
 
April
3rd – Touch Footy Carnival
12th – Assembly 10am, LAST DAY
           Term 1

Road Crossing
Monitors

Wed 6th Mar – Tue 12th Mar
Sophie M, Lia K, Kiara T
 
Wed 13th Mar – Tue 19th Mar
Hayden N, Elliot W-B, Cobey D
 
Wed 20th Mar – Tue 26th Mar
Amber C, Tierra T, Lilly W
 
Please arrive by 8.25am




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Class Libraries: Improving Student Reading

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Frequent independent reading supports a student’s learning across the curriculum. The more children read the more they learn. So, at Ardtornish we are committed to making access to books as easy as possible. When all classes make their weekly visit to the library each student borrows on average of 5 to 10 books and last year 42,040 books were loaned out.
 
At Ardtornish we set high expectations for students as readers and students from F-7 are encouraged to read at least 40 books a year. Last year 75 % of our year 2/3 to 7 students read 40 books or more (sometimes in the 100’s), 85% read 30 plus books and 95% 20 plus books. The Read Write Inc program, run in the junior primary, is highly effective and supports many students to become independent readers by year 1.
 
Just knowing how to read is not enough, we want students to be passionate, independent readers for life. Research shows that students who read more, are better at every subject and are more likely to achieve higher educational qualifications later in life.
 
How much a child reads is linked to four main factors:
  1. Access to books – how easy is it for them to browse and select books
  2. Choice of reading material – being able to make personal choices about what to read
  3. The enthusiastic promotion of books – hearing a teacher talk about great titles on a daily basis and getting reading recommendations
  4. Having opportunities to discuss books every day – students sharing their reading experiences with others
 
To address these four key factors effectively we have committed, over the next few years, to establishing class libraries in every classroom.
 
In 2019 we are establishing independent classroom libraries in 9 rooms. These are specific, age appropriate libraries that operate entirely independently from our main school library and their presence will ensure that students are constantly surrounded by books and have instant access to fiction and non-fiction texts.
 
The selection of books in class libraries will grow over the years as students actively participate in selecting more titles for the collection and teachers encourage reading and to make the use of the collection an integral part of the classroom.
 
Classroom libraries will not replace the school library, which contains a wider range of titles, but they will encourage children to more easily borrow, read and share popular books. Students that have access to classroom libraries become more confident readers and actually borrow more from their school library as well.
The classroom libraries are an exciting addition to our school literacy program and will help to continue to build on Ardtornish Primary School’s successful reading outcomes.
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Canteen ROSTER

Tuesday 5th                   Michele S
​Wednesday 6th              Mary-Anne R
Thursday 7th                  Simon S, Emma S
Friday 8th                       SPORTS DAY - Emma, Lara, Josie, Megan
 
Tuesday 12th                  Michele S                             
Wednesday 13th            Mary-Anne R
Thursday 14th                Megan K, Emma S
Friday 15th                     Kellie F, Stacey C, Emma S
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Help needed for Sports Day Pop up Canteen and BBQ
We are looking for some help from parent/grandparent volunteers who could help cook or serve the BBQ on sports day. Friday 8th March. If you could spare half an hour or even 1 hour that would be greatly appreciated.
Complete a form at the front office. For more information or any questions please email Mary-Anne [email protected].
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​Sports Day booklet will be available on Skoolbag, Google + and from
the front office on Monday next week. 
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STEM (Science, Technology or Maths)
 
 
Over the last 14 months, Liz Gehling and I have attended many STEM conferences and training sessions.  Liz and I are part of the 500 Stem Educators in Primary Schools (STEM 500) which is an element of the Department for Education STEM Strategy which aims to have at least 500 primary teachers with a STEM specialization in South Australian government school by 2020. 
Two teachers from every site have attended Professional Development over the year.  The program has built upon teacher’s knowledge and confidence in designing learning in the STEM disciplines of Science, Technology or Mathematics, and through this, increase student participation and develop positive attitudes towards these learning areas.
 
Liz and I were given the Technology discipline as our focus.  Following our attendance at the workshops and Professional Learning Communities meeting, we committed to site-based / PLC activities such as collaborative work, trialing learning and assessment design strategies.   Through reflection, we will share experiences and tasks and analyse student work for evidence of learning.  Last week, all STEM 500 teachers met and we worked in mixed discipline groups to design a unit of work incorporating Science, Maths and Technology.  I will be trailing this unit of work with students in Room 31, as will the other teachers in our Partnership group.  We meet later this term to discuss our findings and refine or rewrite the unit of work. 
 
STEM looks different across every class at every school. Here are some examples of what students learning STEM (Technologies) could be engaged in: 
  • coding
 
  • designing and building prototypes like windmills, solar cars and water sampling technologies
  • agri-science and agricultural engineering
  • robotics
  • growing our own food and then using it to make a meal
  • working with local industries and communities to solve local environmental issues
  • developing technical and engineering skills to troubleshoot the source of a problem, repair a machine or debug an operating system.
 
I look forward to sharing more information as we get it.
Val Crozier

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