SEMESTER ONE 2015

TERM 1

Tues 27 Jan - Thurs 2 Apr

EASTER - Fri 3 Apr - 6 Apr

TERM BREAK

Mon 6 Apr - Fri 10 Apr

TERM 2

Mon 13 Apr - Fri 19 Jun

SEMESTER BREAK

Mon 22 Jun - Fri 17 Jul

SEMESTER TWO 2015

TERM 3

Mon 20 Jul - Friday 25 Sept

TERM BREAK

Mon 28 Sept - Fri 2 Oct

TERM 4

Mon 5 Oct - Thurs 10 Dec

5 March 2015 Issue 2

School hours of student

supervision are 7.30am to 3pm.

Outside these hours children’s

safety is a parental/guardian

responsibility. Children must not be

dropped off at school prior to

7.30am and must either be picked

up before 3pm, walk/cycle home if

old enough, or attend the After

School Hours Care program.

9 Mar - 13 Mar - Book Fair

11 Mar - Council AGM

18 Mar - Council Meeting

26 Mar - Jump Rope for Heart Jump

Off

3 Apr - Good Friday

15 Apr - Council Meeting

24 Apr - ANZAC Assembly

20 May - MusicaViva

20 May - Council Meeting

29 May - Driver Sports Day

17 Jun - Council Meeting

Parents phoning the school in

regards to students absences,

please phone on our student

absence phone line 89359062.

Alternatively you can email the

absence to :

driver.absence@ntschools.net

Please leave your name, your

child’s name and room number,

date and reason for absence.

Driver’s Working Bee a HUGE Success!

On Sunday 1 March, Driver held its first Working Bee for the year. We were thrilled when close to 30 people attended and were ready to get their hands dirty. Our AMAZING Farm Specialist, Sharon, was on hand to support us as we got to work on weeding garden beds, moving woodchips and collecting a trailer load of garden rubbish. Following our hard work we all sat down and enjoyed a lovely sausage and egg snack prepared by Mrs Cameron. It was great to see so many Driver Primary students and their families supporting our Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program. All student attendees will receive a ‘Friend of the Farm’ licence. We would like to say a huge SAKGP to the following people.

Our next working bee will be Sunday 17th May!

A Gentle Reminder—The front

office does not phone through to

classrooms to have children sent to

the office for early collection as this

causes too many disruptions.

Parents must allow enough time to

go through and collect their child

from the classroom if they wish to

collect them early.

Room 5 students

enjoyed working on

the farm.

The Morrison Family: Di, Cassidy, Maya & Riggs The Grace Family: Jane, Dereck, Kallin & Brodie The McFarlane Family: Clinton & Emma The Westacott Family: Tim, Tui & Benjamin The Julian Family: Murray, Jasmine & Emma The Ganley Family: Liz, Joshua & Jonathon The Kerle Family: Marjorie, Jamieson & Slater The Krause Family: Pru & Hanna The Hall Family: Danielle & Mackenzie The Keats Family: Sharon & Mawgan The Edwards Family: Isaac & his sister Mrs Cameron & The Rauraa Family The Hansen Family: Kathryn, Luke, Erik & Jason

FROM THE LEADERSHIP TEAM

Wow – can you believe that it is March already? It will Easter before we know it. Students have been working really hard this term and it is fantastic to see them striving for excellence in their academic pursuits and in their behaviour. Progress reports will be sent home in a few weeks and we invite you to come in to discuss your child’s progress after you receive them. Invitations with times the teacher is available will be sent home soon. We encourage parents to come along with their child to chat to the teacher, as this helps students take ownership of their learning and set goals for improvement.

Over the past couple of weeks our Student Leadership group have been elected. We will formally present their badges at tomorrow’s Assembly. Our 2015 Student Leaders are:

School Captain: Jamie Spencer Kai Snape School Vice Captain: Charli Nomoa Dyvondre Banderson

Chaney Captain: Kallin Grace Ciara Parry Chaney Vice-Captain: Kai Ashton Hayley Downie

Nelson Captain: Juan Gregory Nakita Clancy Nelson Vice-Captain: Lachlan Follett Gemma O’Mahony

Archer Captain: Drew Mayfield Jazmine Scott Archer Vice-Captain: Kelvin Howard Chloe Wright

Johnston Captain: Kai Barclay Jacklin Dacey Johnston Vice-Captain: Carter Hansen Alicia Swart

Student Leadership Council: Joshua Quince, Kiara Thompson, Shaun Stringer, Rylea Swart, Kyle Johnston, Bree Stringer, Jesse Louden , Rhiannon Smart, Lennox Mason, Ashley Hyde, Denzel Tomlins, Toya Norris, Matthew Mahomet and Jade Molina.

Thank you to everyone who was patient last Friday when the huge storm hit right on the bell. There are times in monsoonal weather where students (especially those who usually walk home) will be kept in classrooms until the storm passes. Ensuring the safety of our students is always our top priority. We are proud of how hard our students (and their families) are working to ensure that they come to school every day and come to school on time. Regular attendance is essential for good student outcomes.

It is also important that children arrive at school on time and are only collected early when absolutely unavoidable. Children consistently arriving late are missing important teaching and learning and often find it very difficult to catch up. We have also noticed an increase in the number of students being collected early in the afternoon. Leaving school early means they often miss out on important information/messages or do not get to properly complete tasks. For some classes who have lots of students collected early and for our already very busy office staff, it is a very disruptive way to end the day. Please help us to keep early pick-ups to a minimum. Also please remember that office staff will not ring classrooms, as this increases the interruptions. If your child has an unavoidable appointment, please leave enough time to collect them from the classroom yourself.

At the last School Council meeting for 2014, the Council voted unanimously not to offer the Early Childhood Swimming Program for Driver students in 2015. We realise there are different opinions amongst both parents and teaching staff regarding the program and want our community to know that we didn't make this decision lightly. The decision not to continue this program was made for the following reasons:

- We can no longer get the 2 weeks at the end of Term 3 booking at the Goldfish Bowl that we have always had. If we have to conduct the program in the middle of a term, it could potentially effect teaching and learning for the weeks after the program has finished, due to how tired the students get, rather than them using the holiday week to recharge as they used to do (especially the Transition students).

- We see first-hand how much the swimming program overtakes our core business of teaching and learning. This is 2 weeks where very little learning is taking place (especially toward the end of the 2 weeks when the kids are really tired).

- If parents choose not to send their children then they are at school with the other non-attenders, without their regular teacher or lessons in place. They are mixed with students from other classes without structured lessons (a necessity to ensure the right number of staff are in attendance for those leaving the school).

- The program at the pool is not really differentiated, due to the large number of students in each group, which means those students who have regular swimming lessons are not provided with a challenge, they are expected to participate in what the majority of their group needs. The swimming program also does not provide much feedback for parents or students regarding their ability or progress, it is a one size fits all approach.

- Communication with parents is always an issue each year. The program is advertised all year, via letters and the newsletter, yet we receive many parent complaints that are vented to our Admin Team who have not been part of the decision making process.

- The cost of bus hire has increased over the last few years, so parents are paying almost as much for bus travel as they are for lessons, even though the venue is so close.

- Those who have been involved in the program for many years, truly believe that a 2 week block of 8 lessons once a year, doesn't really provide our kids with the skills to be water safe (we see this in the number of our upper students who cannot manage themselves safely in the water at upper primary carnivals, even though they’ve been part of the EC swimming program for years).

- The NT Government offers free water safety lessons to parents and we should be pro- active in encouraging parents to take up this offer, rather than taking up valuable teaching and learning time with these lessons.

- Those choosing to use their sports vouchers in 2014 were seriously disadvantaged, with a big portion of the voucher going towards very cheap poor quality goggles and/or a cheap kickboard (what students received certainly didn’t reflect the dollar value left after lessons) and they still had to pay for bus travel.

- From 2015 the sports vouchers provided by the NT Government are not allowed to be used for school sports such as swimming. This was a special allowance made for the 1st year of this voucher scheme. The vouchers are designed to encourage students to participate in regular sports such as weekly swimming lessons.

Scott Sutherland

James Hamnett

Ryan Hackshaw

Marquie Cabahug

Scott Sutherland

Join us at the Book Fair

Monday 9 March—Friday 13 March

7:30 am~7:55 am

12:40pm~1 pm

2:30 pm~3 pm Daily

BRING YOUR POPPERS AND CANS FROM HOME TO SUPPORT OUR SCHOOL FARM

POPPER

Once a month the class popper buckets will be checked. Each student in the class that has the

most poppers will receive a frozen popper to eat on the way home.

All money raised through ‘cash for containers’

supports our Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program

Driver is Catching the Reading Bug!

On Thursday 19 February we held our very first Reading Bug Club. Ms Daniella (our speech pathologist) read a rhyming book and students were able to access Reading Eggs. We were very pleased to see over thirty students (and some parents) make use of this opportunity.

Following the Reading Bug Club, some parents joined Mrs Hall and Ms Daniella for a session about ‘Hints and Tips’ when reading with your child. It was great to chat about the different ways in which parents can support their children with reading.

Save the following dates for your opportunity to join our teachers for some reading related workshops in the library straight after our Reading Bug Club.

Coming Soon – Parent Workshops

Thursday 12 March: 8 – 8.30am

Jolly Phonics with our Transition Teacher, Kate Strudwick and Daniella

Thursday 26 March: 8 – 8.30am

‘Kid-friendly’ Reading Strategies with our Year One and Two Teacher, Michelle Nomoa and Daniella

Driver Primary School Council Inc

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Wednesday 11 March 2015 at 7:00pm in the Community Room, Teaching and Learning Centre.

All parents and interested persons are invited to attend and celebrate our 2014 achievements, childcare will be

provided.

Families and Schools Together

Driver 2015

Come along with your whole family to the FAST Program!

It’s a great night of fun with other families and the FAST Team!

FAST is a great place for relationships to be strengthened in a fun environment with your children, with other families and with the school.

The FAST Program runs every Wednesday evening 5pm - 8pm from 15 April - 3 June in the Community Room at Driver Primary School. Places are limited so get in early. If you are interested in doing FAST with your family please enquire at the front office. Ask for Darlene: 89 359000

FAMILY YARNS Coming to Driver Primary School SOON !

Pathways to Learning

Learn about developmental checks for your child and the connection between physical activity and reading and writing. Guest speaker - Community Health Nurse.

Pathways to Reading

Using tips and strategies.

Pathways to Independence

Creating independence and positive behaviours

Please RSVP to the front office or Darlene Devery

NEWSLETTER VIA EMAIL ONLY

At the last School Council Meeting, it

was decided that from Term 2 the

newsletter would be available via

email only. It will now be necessary

to supply the school an email

address to ensure delivery of the

fortnightly newsletter, so please do

that before the end of term if you

haven’t already.

CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE

www.driverprimary.nt.edu.au

EASTER RAFFLE

As part of Driver’s 2015 Fundraising Efforts we will be holding an

EASTER RAFFLE. To support us with this, we ask that all

families donate Easter Eggs, chocolates, goods or services that

can be placed in baskets as prizes. All donations,

big or small, can be handed in to classroom

teachers or be brought straight the Front Office

MONEY WORM

Our Money Worm was a great success raising

$1161.25.

Room 12 won the pizza with a grand total of

$120.90 raised.