Port Augusta West Primary School eNewsletter

Principal's Report

What an amazing turn out in support of our Family Night! Thank you to everyone who came along and enjoyed a gorgeous evening of performing arts, awards and farewells. I was impressed with every performance, and it was evident that each class put in a great deal of planning and effort to ensure that the night was enjoyable. I would like to thank Paul Kalfas and Narelle Davies for taking the lead this year. We appreciate your dedication towards the extra activities outside of the classroom environment. A huge thank you to our wonderful Parent Club who arranged the incredible raffles, auctions and the delicious food and drinks which were available for purchase on the night. This event would certainly not be possible without all these volunteers.

We finish the 2024 school year with some farewells. I would like to thank Setio Shanahan for his two years of service to PAWPS. His dedication and passion to ensure that our students become the best version of themselves is certainly something that stands out in his teaching practice. Mr Shanahan has built many positive relationships with the students, staff and the wider community and we wish him all the very best in the next stage of his teaching career. Di Clark is embarking on a well-deserved retirement. Her contribution to this school and the countless lives she has touched is nothing short of extraordinary. On behalf of the entire school community, thank you for your years of service, your passion and commitment to education. Thank you to Kate George who has worked in the reception class for this semester. This is not a farewell, as we will be sure to see Kate back in a relief teacher capacity in the future. We appreciate your dedication in ensuring that the learning of our reception students remained consistent. We also say farewell to Kyoko Miyamoto who has been our Autism Inclusion teacher for the past 2 years. Kyoko will be sorely missed by the staff and students at PAWPS. Her knowledge, experience and the way in which she supported the teachers and students was incredible and you have truly enriched our student’s’ learning experiences. Thank you and we wish you all the best in your new role at the Special School.

We also say farewell to our year 6 students who are transitioning to High School in 2025. Wednesday night was their moment, where we celebrated a significant milestone in their schooling. It marked the end of one chapter and the beginning of an exciting new adventure. We hope that the students remember the values we’ve nurtured at PAWPS – Respect, Resilience and Relationships. Let these values guide your choices and actions. We are confident that you are prepared for what comes next. Congratulations to you all!

As we move into the 2025 school year, we will see a slight change to our daily timetable. There will be an increase in face-to-face teaching time to ensure that we remain within the required timelines for student learning. Each break has been reduced by 5 minutes, which will bring us in line with the departmental requirements. The first break will occur from 10:50am (eating time), 11-11:15am (play time) and the second break will occur from 1:05pm-1:30pm. This will add an extra 10 minutes of learning time for our students daily. The beginning and the end of the day will remain the same (8:45am and 3:10pm), with Monday remaining an early finish of 2:25pm. See visual below.

A reminder that the uniform order cutoff date is January 8th. We have sample sizes of the polos and the hoodies in the office if you would like to try them on before ordering. The office is open next week, if you would like to try on sizes. The link to the uniform portal is below.

It was great to be able to offer the opportunity for our students to transition into their new classes with their new teachers earlier this week for a lesson. We hope that this eases the level of anxiousness throughout the break and allows the students to prepare for the year ahead.

It is hard to believe that this year has come to an end. As I mentioned in my speech at Family Night – At the end of my first year as principal, I really do feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude and pride to be a part of this incredible school community. I would like to thank all the staff for their passion and dedication as well as their commitment to excellence which they demonstrate daily for our students. Thank you to the parents/carers for making me feel so welcome in my first year as principal; your support has been invaluable. Thanks to the students – I have enjoyed watching you all grow and support each other, striving to make the school the best it can be. I am proud of what we have achieved this year, and we will continue to build on our strengths and embrace new opportunities as they arise. I look forward to many more shared successes, challenges and celebrations. I hope you all have a safe, restful and joyful holiday season. See you all next year, ready to take on the 2025 school year with positivity and enthusiasm.

Sarah Bury

Every Child ~ Every Classroom ~ Every Day

Natlie Keeler, Setio Shanahan, Kyoko Miyamoto, Di Clark

Schoolzine Website

Lesson_Timetable.pdf

Deputy Principal

The prestigious Parliamentary Award which is awarded by Member for Giles Eddie Hughes is a special prize given to 2 students in Year 6 here at Port Augusta West PS who shine in many areas of school life. These students:

Work hard in class and shows positive behaviour every day.
Set a good example for other students to follow.
Joins in lots of school activities, like sports, arts or helping out with school events.
Do well in their schoolwork and always tries their best as well as making others around them better.

It’s a way to celebrate two students who are great role models and all-round stars at our school. This year our awards go to both: Maddison Corbell and Flynn Carn.

'The Rowan Ramsay Award' was awarded to Cathy Beek, who is an active member of the Port Augusta West Primary School Community. Her commitment and coordination of the school crossing has contributed to the safety of our students in the morning and afternoon. Cathy supports the reception class with care and compassion as well as teaching children the values of respect, resilience and relationships. She has been crucial with supporting individual students with speech programs, resulting in some very successful results. Her continued commitment to the Out of School Hours Care is appreciated and she is a collaborative member of the OSHC team. Congratulations Cathy, you well and truly deserve this recognition!

Assistant Principal

Throughout the past two terms, a small group of students had been involved in the Let’s Go Learning Club supported by the Port Augusta City Council. Once a week these students participated in learning activities after school focusing on Mathematics in Term 3 and Literacy in Term 4. I am very proud of this group of students and their dedication towards learning, it was surely one of the highlights of my week when I got the opportunity to teach them. We would like to send a big thank you to the Port Augusta City Council for supporting this initiative this would not have been able to happen with their support.

I am happy to announce that the Let’s Go Learning Club will be continuing in 2025 with a new cohort of students.

Kind Regards,
Paul Kalfas

Assembly Awards

Congratulations to our Term 4 Week 9, Assembly Award recipients, for continually demonstrating great Respect, Resilience and Relationships in our school environment. Students pictured below proudly display their certificates.

Children's University

On the 26th of November, 19 of our students graduated from the Children's University program. We are so proud of their achievements and efforts and hope to see them all involved again next year.

The Children's University is an innovative program that engages children and young people in exciting, out-of-school learning opportunities to increase their chances for educational achievement and rewards them for taking responsibility for their own learning.

We will be engaging with the program again in 2025 and welcome new members. Please see Ms Mount or Mrs Bury early next year if you would like to be involved.

Please enjoy the video below where our students were awarded with their graduating hours.

Health & PE

Subway Posters and Community

I have been proud to have established a community focus on healthy eating choices over the past two years here at Port Augusta West Primary School. They have kindly sponsored many meal awards, that have been handed out in assembly and for sporting achievements here at our school. Last year we had some amazing recognition of the various posters our students have done and being displayed proudly at both the Subway stores in Port Augusta. In 2023, Lisa the store manager was so impressed with the recognition healthy eating plays in our lives unit 1 was given a subway party to recognise their efforts. This recognition to healthy eating and our poster efforts even made it all the way to head office in Adelaide. This year we continued the tradition but further emphasised on valuing of time management, preparing ourselves for the required nutrition needed to fuel our body. The students learnt that despite Subway providing a wider range of healthier eating choices for those wanting to maintain a balanced diet they are needing to understand some of the traps that could also derail your health focus. They include the sugary drinks, cookies, high calorie sauces and dressing, lean protein choices, cheese, portion size and don't forget the fresh salad. This year two classes and the middle primary explored the food pyramid, healthy eating wheel, traffic light foods and diets that help to support training regimes. I am impressed with the artwork displayed by our upper primary who showcased their amazing posters either by hand or the graphic design skills using CANVA platform to produce the new and amazing 2024 Posters. We have been given the permission to showcase our student's posters in the stores again so if your passing by you will see our amazing student's work up on display. If we can discover that life balance, be consistent with what we eat, our energy levels and mindset can change dramatically. Today is never too late to start!

Mr. Shanahan

SAPSASA SPORTS

Our school has participated extremely bold and well in all situations throughout this year across various School Sports. As our year 6's are near their end of their primary schooling we have had many outstanding team and individual efforts this year. We have some amazing young junior and middle primary students waiting for their chance. As a site, our students have engaged in these extra -curricular activities positively with pride and effort. The students continue to grow holistically, develop their physical fitness, personal growth and make our strong school community proud. I wish to thank the efforts of Sarah Bury and Scott Nicholls who have taken teams down to Adelaide to participate in State carnivals - netball and basketball respectively. I was fortunate to be involved with the Golf here in the Northern area with interest in the sport growing especially some of our students recently taking up the sport here on Sunday at Port Augusta.
I wish to further encourage all of our students to pursue their dreams, empower their heroes within themselves, not taking a step back or allowing the villains or problematic behaviours that can hold them back. I feel that the school continues to be in a strong position, seeing future success in the sports the school participate in - Australian Rules, athletics, swimming, soccer, cricket, netball, basketball, tennis and golf. I wish all students to pursue being physically active, persist with a healthy eating lifestyle and be a leader not at school but within our community. Keep working hard, listen in lessons and discover the best version of ourselves. I believe in you all. As I have always said to the students I have taught " I hope to be watching you on television someday."

Mr. Shanahan

Splash Day

The PAWPS community came together for an unforgettable day of laughter, splashes, and sunshine at our annual Splash Day at the local pool! The event brought students, teachers, and staff together to celebrate the end of the term with water-based fun and activities for all ages. To finish the day, we went back to school and were treated with a BBQ and Zooper Doopers. Thanks to everyone who helped and were involved. We can't wait for next year's Splash Day!