Welcome back to school for 2024. We have had a great start to the year, with students settling into class with ease and enthusiasm. It has been wonderful seeing parents and carers in classes and around the school, communicating with class teachers and making connections with other families. We look forward to working with all families over the year to support you and your child/ren, ensuring they are provided with care and a quality education to achieve their personal best.
Class meetings for parents will be held in Weeks 3 and 4. Your child’s teacher will let you know what day and time this meeting will be. These meetings are an opportunity to meet your child’s teacher, learn about the class routines, learning programs and how you can communicate with your child’s teacher. We look forward to seeing you at these meetings.
The Term Planner was put on Connect on Tuesday 30 January. This includes all important dates for this Term.
The Year 4 – 6 House Swimming Carnival will be held on Tuesday 13 February. Notes will be sent home on Monday to students and those who qualify will attend this event. Trials won’t be going ahead, so please ignore this on the planner.
This year we welcome five new teachers to our school. Mrs Elizabeth Allen (Kindy), Miss Kellee Bagnall (Pre-primary), Mrs Sarah Muntz (Year 2), Mrs Mel Whitfort (Year 4/5), and Mr Jason Nunn (Year 5). We also welcome back Mr Tom Powell who is teaching Indonesian and some junior primary Health, Mrs Tammie Belfield who is teaching Room 21 on Wednesdays and Mrs Caitlin Wyatt who is teaching Room 32 on Wednesdays. We are looking forward to these people being part of our Yakamia School Community.
At Yakamia PS we have a school Chaplain, Glenn Richardson, who supports our students, staff and parents in the area of wellbeing and engagement. Glenn is at our school on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays each week. Glenn runs a number of programs to support student wellbeing and works in collaboration with teaching and administration staff to ensure our students wellbeing needs are met. Students working with the school chaplain is voluntary and if you do not wish for your child to work with the school chaplain please let us know in writing so we can meet your request.
As the new school year commences, staff across the school have a focus on our PBS Behaviour Expectations of RESPECT YPS – Yourself, People, School. We have updated our PBS expectations to align with the current needs of our students and school. A copy of this can be found in the newsletter.
All teachers explicitly teach the expected behaviours on our matrix to students so they understand what is expected of them. Students who are demonstrating these behaviours are rewarded with ‘turtle tickets’ and as a whole school, we collect the turtle tickets to work towards a whole school reward for positive behaviour being demonstrated. Our first mini target is 3000 turtle tickets.
Reading Breakfast Club will commence Monday 12 February, Week 3, in the Art Room Block 3. Our Reading Breakfast Club is a great opportunity for students to read to an adult in the morning and enjoy a healthy and delicious breakfast. It commences at 8.00am to 8.30am Monday to Thursday each week.
We are needing volunteers to help support this program by either listening to reading or helping with the preparation of breakfast. If you are able to help, even if it is only one day a week or fortnight, we would love to hear from you. Please contact the front office if you are able to assist.
Thank you to all families who paid their school Contributions in 2023, it was very much appreciated!
Each year we ask for parents to pay school Contributions to support their child’s education. The contributions for each child are:
Pre Primary to Year 6 – $60
Kindergarten – $50
This payment helps provide additional resources for our students so we are able to provide, books, paper, Science and Art supplies. Contributions can be paid at the office with eftpos, Centrepay or you can create a payment plan organised with the school Manager of Corporate Services, Mrs Robin Smith.
Payments can be made by cash, eftpos or direct deposit into our account: Acc Name: Yakamia Primary School; BSB: 016-510, A/C: 340823089.
Thank you for your support in making these payments.
A reminder that in Term 1 students must wear a green bucket or broad brimmed hat during outside play time. Please ensure your child has a hat, or they will have to stay in the shade. Hats are available for purchase from the uniform shop for $15.
Our first assembly this year will be hosted by The Year 5/6 students from Room 11 on Friday 9 February. All families are welcome and we look forward to seeing you at this event.
Kind regards
Gemma Larham