Assistant Principals’ News

SEQTA – for Parents
Educational research shows that parental involvement and encouragement plays a significant role in a student’s success in school.

For parents to be actively involved they need up to date information on their child’s schooling. SEQTA Engage provides this information with one click of a mouse! SEQTA Engage is a web portal, allowing parents and students to log on to the Infant Jesus School’s Learning Management System (SEQTA), at any time and on any device. 

How to reset a forgotten password:

1. Go to the Infant Jesus School Website homepage – http://www.infantjesus.wa.edu.au and choose the SEQTA Engage tab at the bottom left hand corner.
2. From the SEQTA Engage login page, click the Forgot your password?
3. Enter in your email address. If SEQTA has an account associated with this email address, it will send you further information to assist in accessing your account.
4. Then click reset my password.
5. If your username and email address are correct and if SEQTA can find an account with those details, you will receive an email directly from SEQTA with further instructions.
6. Please go to your email to retrieve instructions on how to reset your password.

Follow the link in the email to reset your password. The link is only active for ONE HOUR

If you need any further assistance with this, please contact the school for further information.

Activities for the holidays
Reading
This term all children and families have participated in i-Read ‘The Principals Reading Challenge’. This has been developed to inspire all children to love books and reading and be highly motivated readers and successful literacy learners. It continues to provide exciting opportunities for all children to be further engaged in reading enabling them to set individual goals and to monitor their own progress.

During the holidays the i-Read Program can be maintained through:

• Providing time to read – sometimes the days during the holidays can be busy! But if families have a love of reading this time will be part of every day. As a family you may choose to have a set time during each day to read, which can include being read to or silently reading.
• Modelling a love of reading as parents. Children copy their parents – if they see parents excited about reading and enjoying reading every day they will develop a love of reading.
• Providing a variety of books for children to read. The books can include picture books, fiction and non-fiction books, chapter books and books related to particular interests: eg. if children are interested in reptiles provide some books about reptiles; if they are interested in Lego provide some books about Lego. There are a large variety of books at the local library and if a book you are looking for isn’t there just ask!
• Having access to books around the house by leaving them in different rooms. This means that children, and adults, can pick up a book at any time and read!!
• Read aloud – all children enjoy being read to – even older children who might be reading chapter books. During reading aloud the information from the book is shared and we can also share our feelings and opinions about what we have just listened to.
• Ensuring that children can always choose a book themselves. Parents can model how to pick a book by reading the back cover or the ‘blurb’ to find more information and allowing children to make their own decision. 
• Children may have favourite books that they enjoy reading and re-reading for a variety of reasons. It could be that the story of the message of the story relates to something that is familiar to them, they may love the characters and what they can do or they may love the information. By continuing to read a variety of books we are encouraging children to expand their list of ‘favourite’ books.

Mathematics Holiday Learning
Everyone is ready for a break from school when the winter holidays roll around, especially teachers!! It’s such a special time of year for families and friends, but it can also be a time of setbacks for some students. A great way parents can help students not “forget” everything they have learned and create a seamless return to school is to keep the routines going without feeling the pressure to get homework done and to be on a schedule. Below are some helpful hints for keeping mathematics alive over the school holiday break in fun and easy ways.

Create Surveys: Children can create holiday surveys to collect data from family members at dinners and parties. Questions can range from holiday traditions to favourite things to do! Once kids have collected the data, they can create graphs (bar graph, pictograph, line plot) either on paper or online to display the results.

Travel: Many families travel over the holidays. Invite your children to become a part of the travel plans by using MapQuest or other resources to map out the best route to grandma’s. They can estimate the time it would take and develop a schedule for the family according to holiday activities.

Holiday Toys: Children can research top holiday gifts from the years their parents or other relatives were kids. For example, find out the number one toy from 1975, how much it cost, and find the difference or price increase over the decades. This is a great way to incorporate many different curricula into one activity. Kids can make a report or poster to show their findings!

Weather: Everyone loves getting outside during the holidays! How many times in the past 10, 20, or 50 years has it been wet during the entire July holidays? Children can collect weather data on temperature, precipitation, and/or snowfall (Has it ever snowed in Perth?) levels over the years.

Math Facts: We definitely want to keep children’s math facts fluent even over holiday breaks. So play mental math-counting games in the car, math war at restaurants, or have a math family game night so the efficiency and accuracy doesn’t slow down.

Some other suggestions of fun activities that will keep children thinking mathematically while having fun and learning new skills can be found on the following website. https://www.transum.org/Software/Fun_Maths/Holiday.asp

NAIDOC Week Celebrations
NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life. The week is a great opportunity to participate in a range of activities and to support your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

VOICE. TREATY. TRUTH.
We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future. 

The Indigenous voice of this country is over 65,000 plus years old. 

They are the first words spoken on this continent. Languages that passed down lore, culture and knowledge for over millennia. They are precious to our nation.

It’s that Indigenous voice that include know-how, practices, skills and innovations – found in a wide variety of contexts, such as agricultural, scientific, technical, ecological and medicinal fields, as well as biodiversity-related knowledge.  They are words connecting us to country, an understanding of country and of a people who are the oldest continuing culture on the planet.

For more information and events please go to the NAIDOC Week Website: https://www.naidoc.org.au/get-involved/naidoc-week-events

School Photos
Our School Photos will be taken on: Monday 5th of August 2019, Tuesday 6 August 2019.

All children in Years One to Six are required to wear their Full School Winter Uniform, including the school jumper.

Class Photos/Portraits:

• Every Student will have their photo taken, whether they are purchasing photos or not.
• The school has chosen to use the online ordering system. Your child will be given an online ordering instruction slip and a unique student shootkey. Log onto www.msp.com.au and follow the prompts to place your order.
• If you lose your shootkey the school reception will have a copy to quote back to you.
• The expiry date for online ordering is the 12.08.2019. Any orders received after this date will incur a $30.00 archive fee. You can email your order request through to reorders.perth@msp.com.au or call our office on 08 9240 8000.

Family Photos:

• Envelopes can be obtained from our School Administration.
• Please ensure that your family envelope and payment are handed to the photographers on photo day.
• If you do not have the correct money we will provide any change needed when photos are delivered to school.
• Family photos cannot be ordered online.

Special/Sports Group Photos:

• If your child is in a Special/Sports photo you will receive a link and password to the online gallery after photo day. You can then view and order if required. Photos will be delivered with the school’s bulk order.

Please Note: Class Groups, Individuals and Family Photos are not available to view online.