In this Issue

Learning Hiragana

Understanding End of Year Reports

Canteen Roster

Excursion/Incursion Update

Acknowledgement of Participation

Certificates

School Of Languages 2016

Principal’s Awards

Ardtornish Children's Centre Update

NECAP Christmas Hamper Appeal

SA VAC Swim

Tea Tree Gully Soccer Club Players

Wanted

Christmas Gift Stall

Kiss and Drop Zone

Zoocation Care

Ardtornish OSHC

Learning Hiragana Continued

Road Crossing Monitors

Tues 1st Dec - Mon 7th Dec Zodee Z, Abby L & Hermione B-H Tues 8th Dec - Fri 11th Dec Ryan M, Cameron E & Ryan O Mon1st Feb 2016 - Tues 9th Feb 2016 Jacob S, Lachlan H & Bradley M

Please arrive by 8.25am

Having Fun - Respect - Confidence - Responsibility - Safe & Secure Environment

Ardtornish Newsletter

Ph: 8264 8099 - Email: dl.1540.info@schools.sa.edu.au - OSHC: Ph 8396 4069

text messages to : 0447 467 152 Download at www.ardtornps.sa.edu.au

Principal: Mark Hansen Deputy Principal: Deb Pryor

Our Vision: To empower students to create positive futures through high quality teaching.

Term 4 Week 7 Friday 27th November 2015 No. 20

アﾂドトーニシュ 小学校

Department of Education and Children’s Services

30th - Governing Council Meeting

2nd - Year 7 Transition Modbury High, Parent Thankyou Morning Tea 3rd - Rm’s 21, 27, 28, 29 Bounce, Years 4-7 Disco 4th - PRC Assembly 10am 8th - Year 7 Graduation 9th - OSHC Advisory Committee 10th - Year 6/7 Waterworld 11th - Coffee Club 9am, Assembly 10am , Last day of Term 4 - 2.15pm Dismissal

November

December

Learning Hiragana (ひらがな)

An essential part of mastering any language is learning to read and write it and learning the hiragana alphabet is integral to studying Japanese .

Japanese has 3 alphabets – hiragana, katakana and kanji. At primary school, the focus is on learning hiragana and introducing kanji. Katakana learning begins in high school.

The Australian Curriculum for Japanese states that students by:

Year 2, are introduced to and begin to write the

46 hiragana symbols.

Year 4, fluently read and write the 46 hiragana.

Year 6, fluently read and write all 107 hiragana.

Year 8 fluently read and write all 107 hiragana

plus read and write katakana.

Recently all Ardtornish students from R-7 participated in hiragana lessons appropriate to their year level.

A number of students in the middle and upper primary years showed diligence and commitment to reach a high level of achievement in their hiragana tests. Their names are on the back page of this newsletter.

Understanding the End of Year Reports

The Australian Curriculum achievement standards form the basis for assessing and reporting on learning. They describe what students should typically be able to do, know and understand at the completion of a subject at each year level. When assessing student learning, teachers must consider the achievement standards in their entirety, and take into account the student’s broad development of understandings and skills, rather than focussing on the achievement of individual elements of the curriculum.

The end-of-year report summarises a student’s achievement across the whole year with a grade from A to E. At an A level students are demonstrating their learning to: a high, deep or outstanding level while at level E students’ are showing a: beginning, initial or limited level of understanding.

The challenge for teachers is to assign one overarching grade level to an achievement standard that consists of a number of very different elements. The challenge for parents is

to understand why a particular grade level was assigned.

Because the final grade level must reflect the student’s overall learning against the complete Achievement Standard some parents might possibly be surprised by the grade their children receive based on their own, more limited personal, assessment of their child’s competency. For example a parent might question why their child, who knows all their timetables and who regularly gets all their ‘sums’ right might still be assigned a D in maths. This scenario can occur because maths encompasses many more elements than just number & although number might be a child’s strength they may be struggling to understand other elements of the maths curriculum such as geometry, measurement, or problem solving.

If your child does receive a grade level lower than you might have expected, you can talk to their teacher to learn more about the year level standard against which they were assessed. The standards can be viewed online at http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/

Reports come home on Wednesday in the last week of term.

Rachael received the highest belt ( a blue one) in Year 7

Last Day of School - Friday 11th Dec 2.15pm Dismissal

CANTEEN ROSTER

Tuesday 8th Michele Smale Wednesday 9th Michele Smale Thursday 10th Nicole Hall Friday 11th Robyn Milde, Megan Edwards

Week 1 - Term 1 2016 Tuesday 2nd Michele Smale

Wednesday 3rd Michele Smale Thursday 4th Nicole Hall Friday 5th Megan Edwards, Josie DeMizio

Excursion/Incursion Update ACTIVITY DATE/S STUDENTS

INVOLVED LAST PAY

DAY

TTG Heritage Museum

2/12/15 Rm 18 30/11/15

Fun Day 8/12/15 Rm19/20 4/12/15

Waterworld 10/12/15 Rm’s 4,6,8,11,18

4/12/15

Whizbang

8/12/15

Rm’s 22& 24

1/12/15

School Disco Years 4-7

We will be holding one last school disco for 2015 on Thursday 3rd December! So why not come in and dance the night away! It will be held in the hall, from 6.30pm - 9.00pm. Tickets can be purchased from the courtyard from Monday next week, $6 per ticket.

For Following Instructions

Ardtornish Children’s Centre Update

Resilient Kids - A series of two free sessions addressing young children’s confidence and self-esteem will be held 7-8:30pm on Wednesday 2 & 9 Dec in the evening at Ardtornish Children’s Centre, and Hope Valley Goodstart Early Learning Centre. There is also a free crèche – Book now.

Vacation Activities at the TTG Library

See the TTG Library Website two weeks before the start of each school holiday period for their extensive range of vacation activities for children and youth. Be aware that more popular activities will book out early.

Turn on, log in and learn

Did you know that TTG Library offers on-site training such as - Get savvy with your iPad: Tues 1 December 10.30am-noon; Try a tablet: Mon 7 December 10.30-11.30am, Setting up Overdrive: Tues 8 December 10.30-11.30am, Introduction to Windows 10: Thurs 10 December 11am-12.30pm and Get more from your iPad: Tues 15 December 10.30am-noon. To find out more contact: Library Ask Desk, telephone: 8397 7333 or email digitalhub@cttg.sa.gov.au .

Free Web Based Training

Public library members across South Australia can now use their library card to access thousands of courses for professional and recreational use through lyndaLibrary, a service of Lynda.com.

The web-based video service offers 24/7 access to an online training resource with more than 3000 courses and 136,000 video tutorials. Subjects include marketing, multimedia, business management, social media and web development. Users at any skill level can watch bite-size tutorials for immediate problem solving, or take comprehensive courses from start to finish.

lyndaLibrary can be accessed at your local library or from anywhere in the state by using a desktop PC or mobile device. For more information on lyndaLibrary visit your local public library or their website.

Cheers, John Buckell Community Development Coordinator 82649828, 0409984495 or email john.buckell@sa.gov.au

Acknowledgement of Participation Certificates for

School of Languages

Ardtornish Primary School acknowledges the commitment of the following students who have studied a language in an ethnic school, out of school hours. Well done to:

Hayley C - Chinese Jelena D - Serbian Lia K - Arabic Minela S - Bosnian

Zac S Teagan P Lia K Lachlan J Karl G Azel P Andrew D Connor W Callum M Sam G Claire D Bailey B

Ayla W Jessica S Rylen H Maddie A Blake W-M Ethan T Tia R Lily C Jake S Skye H Riley C Henry H

Jayde V Hayden N Summer H Tess N Lexia H Alec L Aidan S Helen A Caitlin F Tatijana E Jessica P

NECAP Christmas Hamper Appeal We are asking for donations of unwrapped Christmas gifts and non-perishable goods for the NECAP (North Eastern Community Appeal Project) Christmas Hamper Appeal, which goes to families in need at Christmas time. Any item that you are able to donate would be greatly appreciated. If you could please bring in your item for donation to the front office and place it in the blue basket by Friday 4th December. Thankyou

School of Languages 2016 In 2016 School of Languages will be offering the following languages: Afrikaans, Chinese, French, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Polish and Spanish . Vietnamese will be offered at primary level only for the first time. More languages can be offered from Year 7 onwards, if you would like more information please go to the website www.schooloflanguages.sa.edu.au or contact 8301 4800.

Djuro D - Serbian Marko D - Serbian Sam K - Arabic

VACSWIM is a program to waterproof the confidence in young South Australians, in and around the water. It is

a South Australian Government supported initiative to provide children aged 5 to 13 years with opportunities to develop a range of skills and positive experiences in the areas of water safety, confidence and competence in the water, personal survival activities and basic aquatic emergency procedures. These skills are delivered at over 130 pools, beaches and lakes throughout South Australia by one of three primary program providers – Royal Life Saving Society, Surf Life Saving and YMCA – who engage qualified instructors to teach the children of South Australia. The majority of programs take place from Monday 4th to Tuesday

12th January 2016; they run for 45 minutes a day for 7 days.”

Tea Tree Gully City Soccer Club Players wanted Registrations are now open for the 2016 soccer season. Player of all ages and abilities are welcome to join a team. Age groups range from U/5 to U/18 Anyone who is interested in playing please contact Rach Robbins on rachrobb@bigpond.net.au

South Australian sporting and recreation bodies have come

together to provide a coordinated program of Come ’n Try sessions for 5 to 16 year olds. Children can try a series of different sports in and around the centre of Adelaide in the first week of the summer school holidays from Monday 14th to Friday 18th December 2015. This is a great initiative to get kids to try a new sport and to keep active in the school holidays. You can try a large range of sports; AFL, BMX, Cricket, Cycling, Golf, Hip Hop Dance, Judo, Korfball, Life games, Netball, Rowing, Soccer, Taekwondo, Tennis, and Touch Football. If you would like more information you can visit http://www.comentry.com.au/ ” If you require any more information please contact me on 8362 2150.

Christmas Gift Stall

On Tuesday 1st December we will be having a Christmas Gift Stall in the hall for all students to purchase gifts for their families and friends or anyone they wish to buy a present for. Students will be allocated a timeslot to visit. Gifts will range in price from $1.00 - $10.00. Could parents please supply a plastic bag for their child’s purchase.

Ardtornish OSHC

Before School Care: 7.00am - 8.35am, $11.00 including breakfast food served until 8.00am After school care 3.15pm - 6.15pm $17.50 Early finish last day of term - 2.15pm - 6.15pm $23.00 Pupil Free Days - 7.30am - 6.00pm $52.00, inclusive of excursions or visitor costs, tea and special themed activities. Vacation Care - 7.30am—6.00pm $52.00 Inclusive of excursions or visit costs, afternoon tea and special themed activities.

Vacation Care - Monday 14th December 2015 - Friday 29th January 2016 Week 1 - Semaphore Waterslide Complex, Frozen Fever, Big Vac Out, Kris Kringle, All you can eat buffet. Week 2 - Water Wars, Hotel Transylvania 2 Week 3 - Pizza Hut all you can eat The ultimate Pyjama Party, Day at the beach, The great out doors Week 4 - Disney Day, Fudge it, Chill Out day, Mystery Excursion, Piñata, Week 5 - Out of this world, Paragon Swim centre Splash into summer, Tadpole, of school games, Week 6 - Ice Cream Disco, Picnic, Minions, Bounce. If you are interested in booking in for OSHC please collect a booklet from the front office or from OSHC, or you can ring OSHC on 8396 4069

Kiss and Drop Zone Just a reminder to parents and caregivers that the kiss and drop zone is only to be used for a quick

drop off of children, please do not park in this zone for long periods of time. Thankyou

Continued from page one…

Following students have a high level of achievement in their hiragana tests: Room 4 Hannah M Annika W

Room 6 Emily H Joson Z

Room 8 Azel P Rachel S Room 9 Eva H Celeste N-B Brooke P Ryan S In order to help students learn to read and write hiragana, a number of age-appropriate learning strategies are employed. In the early years (Reception – year 2), students sing the hiragana alphabet song while pointing to the letters, they enjoy tactile experiences such as making hiragana from play-dough to become familiar with the shapes of the symbols and they also enjoy starboard activities such as selecting the correct hiragana when they hear its sound. The students also learn that hiragana, like English letters, have a stroke order and direction and practise these both in tactile experiences and with pencil and paper. In the middle years (3 – 5), students learn mnemonics (memory aids) to help them begin to become fluent in hiragana. These mnemonics are from the resource ‘Hiragana in 48 minutes’. The mnemonics help students to memorise both the look and sound of each symbol. Students practise the reading and writing each hiragana for homework and begin tests every fortnight in term 3. For every 5 letters that they master, students are awarded a coloured ‘belt’ to tie to their folder as a symbol of their achievement. There are 10 belts – white, yellow, orange, green, purple, brown, pink, blue, red, black. In the upper years (6/7), students consolidate their fluency in the 46 hiragana and also progress to the 25 ‘voiced’ symbols (aqua & grey belt) and the 36 ‘blended’ symbols (silver & gold belt). They practise the mnemonics and symbol stroke order for homework and have tests every fortnight to demonstrate their learning. Students aim to be able to fluently read and write all hiragana by the end of year 7. This is a solid foundation for continuing Japanese language learning, such as at our local Modbury High School.

Room 10 Jake B Aman B Hermione B-H Lily C Ava K Scarlett M Navi R-B Diyah S William S

Room 11 Helen A Sapphire H Cheyenne L Hayley W

Room 24 Jessica G

Room 22 Lily G Liam H Dylan J William S Ethan T

Room 18 Holly B Fraser C Connor C Skye D-F Georgia F Cooper F-K Lexia H Mia H Brandon K Bradley M Tyler O Cody P Jayden P Lina T Mitchell T