23 November 2017

Newsletter Articles

Byford Primary News

Please assist us in reducing vandalism at the school by contacting one of the telephone numbers listed below if you notice any suspicious behaviour on the school grounds.

Principal’s Report

Dear Families and Friends

Parent Helper Morning Tea

I would like to extend an invitation to our parents and friends who have helped in any capacity over the year to a ‘Thank You’ morning tea. This will take place on Wednesday 29th November at 9:45am in the Library. We look forward to seeing you there.

End of Year Concert – Tuesday 12th December

The End of Year concert is fast approaching and the students are busy preparing their items. It will be a Fairy Tale theme this year. The concert times are 6:00pm – 8:30pm and will be held at the Serpentine Jarrahdale Recreation Centre, Mead Street Byford.

Some seating is available, but you are advised to bring your own so as not to miss out. We hope to see you there to share in the student’s performances and to celebrate our many award winners.

Our students will be transported by bus to the Rec Centre on Tuesday for a practice on the stage. A gold coin donation towards covering the cost of the bus is greatly appreciated.

Newsletter Features

As previously mentioned, our goal for the beginning of 2018 is to have all parents accessing the newsletter by email or online. We will still produce a small number of hard copies and supply these to our families who do not have online access. If you have not already done so, please provide the Front Office with your current email address.

Kindergarten & Pre Primary Information Session

Parents/Guardians of children who will be attending Kindergarten and Pre Primary in 2018 are invited to attend an information session at Byford Primary School.

• Kindergarten Session is Friday 24th November 2017 at 9:45 - 11:00am (Your child is welcome to attend).
• Pre Primary Session is Wednesday 29th November 2017 at 1:30 - 2:35pm

P&C Meeting

Next meeting is scheduled for Thursday 23rd November at 6:30pm at the Country Club.

School Board Meeting

Our last School Board meeting for this year will be held on Thursday 30th November at 3:15pm in the Library. All welcome.

End of Year Book Prizes

At the End of Year Concert a number of awards are presented to students who have made significant gains in their education. Parents, businesses and organisations are invited to donate a contribution towards the cost of these prizes. All donations are acknowledged. If you are interested in making a donation, please contact the front office. Thank you to those who have already donated a book award to the school.

Sue Heath
Principal

Room 9 Excursion – Grand Cinema Armadale

Students from Room 9 have been reading the novel Wonder by RJ Palacio. On Thursday 30th November, they will be watching the movie version at Grand Cinema in Armadale, to extend their understanding of the themes presented. Payment of $17.50, permission slip and medical forms must be returned by Tuesday 28th November 2017. For full details and a copy of the permission slip, please click here:

Book Lists

Book lists for 2018 were sent home last week, so please check your child’s bag. Spare copies are available from the Front Office or click on the Year Level here:

Geraldton Camp 2017 - The Best Camp Yet!

By: Tiannah S, Kaitlyn V and Zaid B

On Monday morning we got to school, grabbed our booklets, then took photos before we left. Then we waved to our parents. Tears were in their eyes. We were secretly so excited to get away from our parents, our sisters and brothers. Then we began our long 7 hour journey to Geraldton with the bus driver Grumpy Greg. Our first stop was at Cataby where we shared our morning tea with 1 million flies. Mr G rushed us all onto the bus and we drove another 4 hours to reach Dongara Beach for lunch. After that we drove another hour to reach the Geraldton Camp School. We got settled, then did orienteering with Pete, the Manager of the camp. Dinner was spaghetti YUM! After dinner we did cooperation games: 1) paper plate river, 2) paper Olympics, 3) knights and cavaliers (that was just mean) and 4) newspaper shrinking island. After that we went to bed.

Tuesday – our evil dorm teachers woke us up at 5am with an evil grin! Told us to WAKE UP PUT ON BATHERS AND APPLY SUNSCREEN AND DON’T FORGET YOUR TOWEL and WE’RE ABOUT TO LEAVE IN 5 MINUTES HURRY UP!!!!!! We got onto the bus, said hi to Grumpy Greg  and we left for surfing, where some people fell asleep on the bus. We met Roffo who split us up into two groups and told us the safety instructions. Group one’s assignment was to go surfing. Groups two’s assignment was to… OH MY GOSH… to make sandcastles! Then they swapped. We went back, had breakfast, reapplied sunscreen then walked across the road to the beach to go rafting. Only two rafts broke and people had to walk them instead. Then we went back again to reapply more sunscreen, then went back to the beach again to do beach games. One of the games was we had to fill a bucket with water, but here’s the catch, the bucket had holes in it! So we filled the holes with seaweed from the sea and sand from the sandy floor. Once we had finished the beach games we went to the aquatic centre where we went on the BIFF (big inflatable fun) where everyone was trying to be a rebel and jump over the opening without using the rope. When we got back to the camp we all had dinner and played a round of mini golf. Everyone did really well except some people, they got a score of 53 after only 9 holes. After that we played spotlight capture the flag, where the teachers where very mean and didn’t let us win. We were tired by then and fell asleep as soon as we got into bed.

Wednesday – this morning we woke up at 6:15. Well the boys did. The girls woke up at 6:30. We all got changed and went down to the beach for a morning walk. Then, when we got back to the camp we had breakfast and then did some rotation activities. They were the flying fox (Zaid literally leaked a freddo frog all over one harness), we also did low ropes and archery. In-between each of those activities we had morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. We then had an hour of power power nap before dinner and after dinner (we had a BBQ) we did the knights and cavaliers but we were blindfolded and had freezing cold ice water dumped on us! Thanks for that Mr G, Mr Way, Miss Collings and Mrs Liddington. We did spotlight capture the flag again, Tiannah was the first person to win! After that we went to bed.

Thursday – once again evil dorm teachers woke us up, telling us to hurry up, you know the drill when surfing. We had fun playing cricket too. We went back and had breakfast, then went SANDBOARDING! That was fun. There were a few stacks but still fun though. We went to the Wildlife Park, fed a heap of animals, including a camel. Then went off to the foreshore waterpark where we got to run through the water with our ‘leavers’ shirts on and they got very wet and we got very cold. We had dinner, then the Just Raptors people came. We held baby joeys and the baby birds and held a falcon. We had a quiz night, then once again played spotlight capture the flag. Everyone kept on winning because the teachers weren’t even trying. Scares were made. Some were good at scaring others…cough cough, Zaid was terrible.

Friday – we woke up, had breakfast, packed our last minute things, then went back on the bus. Miss Collings told us how she caught a cat…..on her fishing rod. Again we stopped for lunch and left to go for a very, very, very long drive all the way home. Parents gave us hugs that lasted a minute.

And we must say that was the best camp ever!

T20 Blast Regional Finals

Congratulations to our Byford Primary Year 5 & 6 boys who won our local Byford Schools Sporting Association T20 cricket competition to qualify for the Regional Finals which were held in Yokine on Thursday 9th November 2017. It was great to have one Year 4 and some Year 5 students stepping up to fill in whilst our Year 6’s were away on camp.

The Regional Finals day in Yokine was a great competition with our boys giving 110% effort against some exceptional cricketers from other schools. The standard was high and our students were able to hit some high scores with big 6’s and plenty of 4’s. It was great to see the students adjusting their batting techniques to hit the ball forward to score double runs with some big 12 run smashes. A big well done on a successful day! We look forward to this T20 Blast competition continuing in 2018.

If any of our kids enjoy playing cricket, don’t forget to get down to Briggs Park on a Monday afternoon from 5pm to 6pm to join the SJ Blues Cricket Club and their fun programs.

Payment Options for Excursions, Incursions and Voluntary Contributions

Direct Bank Deposit

Pay directly into the Byford Primary School’s bank account. Simply access your internet banking service provider and pay to the following account:

Please enter the name of your child and the purpose of the payment in the description field i.e A Smith Zoo Exc.

Please DO NOT use this account for P&C payments.

EFTPOS

We have recently had an EFTPOS machine installed as an option for you to pay for school fees, excursions and incursions at Byford Primary School. The EFTPOS machine can ONLY be used to pay for Byford Primary School expenses.

• There is NO “cash out” option on the machine, and
• We are unable to take any payments for the P & C

Cash or Cheque

Payments by cash or cheque can be made at the Front Office for Voluntary Contributions. If you are paying for an Excursion or Incursion, please take your payment to your child’s teacher so it can be processed through their money book.

Merit Certificates

Congratulations to all students who received Merit Awards. Well done and keep up the good work!

Aussie of the Month

Each month two students are chosen as our ‘Aussie of the Month’ and are presented with a badge, certificate and reward at our assembly. It is awarded to an outstanding citizen in our school community.

Don’t Forget Your Hat

Please remember to bring your hat to school each day, especially now that summer is fast approaching. It is important to protect ourselves from the sun. Your hat must be wide brim or bucket style.

Students who do not have a hat will not be able to participate in sport / fitness or any outside activity and will be restricted to the undercover area. So please remember - No Hat, No Play!

Chaplain Chatter

Hi everyone

I can't believe that it is Week 7. Saturday the 11th November was 'Remembrance Day' the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Boy, am I grateful for the sacrifice given by those brave soldiers way back then and the result is the freedom and prosperity we now enjoy. Things could be vastly different. Food for thought.

On another note the 'Ramp and Roller" competition will be brought forward to Week 8, Thursday 30th of November. Sorry for any inconvenience but I'm having knee surgery on the 7th of December and will be out of action for a bit.

I will end with a question. Have you hugged your kid/s today and listened to what they say?

Be safe.

Joe Grida
School Chaplain

P&C Association & Year 6 Fundraising News

School Concert Raffle Donations

The P&C is requesting donations of non-perishable food and other items suitable to be used for raffle prizes at the End of Year School Concert. If you are able to help out with any donations please drop them in the basket provided in your child’s classroom. Please no food items that will expire before Christmas. We are looking forward to some great prizes this year. Thank you for your support.

A special thanks to Radio Rentals for donating this awesome Keyboard to be raffled at our End of Year concert. We would like to thank Sara Munday for organising such a wonderful prize. Tickets will be on sale at the concert for $2.00 each, separate to the usual raffle. Good Luck!

Pictured from left to right. Hayley (P&C), Ava T (Student), Sue Heath (Principal), and Kristy (P&C).

Book Club

Issue 8 Book Club catalogues are due by Tuesday 28th November. You can place your order online or hand your order and money to the Front Office. Please ensure your child’s name is clearly marked on the order.

P&C Meeting

The next P&C meeting is scheduled for Thursday 23rd November starting at 6:30pm at the Country Club.

School Board Meeting

Our last School Board meeting for this year will be held on Thursday 30th November at 3:15pm in the Library. All welcome.

School Banking

School Banking is held every Wednesday morning before school in the Library.

Uniform Shop

Have you thought about your child’s uniform requirements for next year? Now is a good time to visit the Uniform Shop and place an order ready for school in 2018. The Uniform Shop is open every Wednesday morning from 8:30 am – 9:00 am. Payment can be made by cash or cheque only. If you are unable to visit the Uniform Shop on a Wednesday, order forms (with payment) can be left at the Front Office. Please ensure there is a name and contact number provided.

Additional Opening Times:

• Friday 24th November 2017 between 8:30am – 11:00am.
• Monday 29th January 2018 between 10:00am – 1:00pm

Eftpos facilities will be available on these days

Icy Pole Fundraising

Icy poles will be on sale every Wednesday at lunchtime from the Wet Area near Rooms 9 & 10. It’s a great way to cool down during the summer months and they only cost 50c.

Donations of icy poles can be made to the school to help support this fundraiser.

Community News

Community Barbeques Are Coming

The Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale, Mundijong Police and Neighbourhood Watch are hosting their famous community barbeques. Get to know the people in your neighbourhood and enjoy a free sausage sizzle and soft drink. Starts 4pm – 6:30pm

Byford Basketball Association

Byford Basketball Association is now taking registrations for their 2018 season. The season runs from February to June and games are played on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Check out our flyer for more information.