ELC Updates & Reminders - 18.2.25
NOTICE FROM THE HEAD OF PRIMARY
Dear Parents and Carers
With the start of the year behind us and books and readers now coming home, I would like to emphasise the link between reading comprehension, what is understood form reading a text, and its relationship to knowledge about the subject being read. It is not as technical as it sounds!
When we think about helping our children become strong readers, phonics and sounding out words often come to mind first. While these are essential skills that we importantly focus on, reading is about more than just decoding letters and sounds. To really understand what they read, children need a foundation of knowledge about the world around them and it helps enormously if they have a broad general knowledge base to draw upon.
Reading a passage on a topic that children know little about, a scientific article full of unfamiliar terms for example, can be challenging for the students to comprehend. Even if they can sound out every word, making sense of the information will be difficult. Now if they have some understanding of the topic beforehand, it makes much more sense and their level of understanding is much greater.
It is for this reason why reading comprehension improves when we build general knowledge in subjects like science, history, and literacy. When they already know something about a topic, they can understand, connect, and think critically about what they read.
At home and in the holidays, there are many ways in which parents can help build their children's vocabulary and general knowledge.
- Read Aloud Together – Expose them to rich, complex books that introduce new ideas and vocabulary. Explain words and ideas that they don't understand.
- Explore Perth – We live in a great city. There are a number of museums, galleries, walks and areas that the students will find really interesting and provide a learning opportunity.
- Encourage Curiosity – Answer their “why” and “how” questions and explore topics of interest through books and videos.
- Discuss What They Learn – Having conversations about their school lessons or books helps reinforce understanding. We always talk about the school day so guide this discussion to their HASS or Science topic and explore it together.
- Use the Car and Travel Time – this time spent talking to children is invaluable. It is an opportunity to pass on your knowledge and you can be prompted by everything you see out the window or what is happening in your family's life. Children may want an electronic device for the journey but it is much more beneficial to talk about a topic and build general knowledge.
At St Mark's we want our students to be strong readers who can not only sound out words but can make sense of what they read. By helping your child build knowledge about the world, you are giving them the tools they need to grow into confident, thoughtful readers.
Kind regards
Mark Douglas
Head of Primary School
REMINDERS
- Contacting the Early Learning Centre: Email elcreception@stmarks.wa.edu.au or phone 9403 1398.
- If your child will be late, absent or leaving early: Email absentee@stmarks.wa.edu.au or use the App.
- Please include your child’s first name, surname and class in the subject line of emails to the School.
- Any changes to child collection arrangements should be emailed to elcreception@stmarks.wa.edu.au.
If possible, please try and establish a regular routine for collections so that changes are kept to a minimum. - Apply sunscreen to your child before school every day. School hats are required every day.
K-1 CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT FOR 2025 - PARENT RESPONSES DUE PLEASE
Before parents or other family members are invited to assist in the ELC classrooms, we ask that parents respond as soon as possible to the ‘Permission Question’ sent out via Consent2Go last week (11 February) to acknowledge your recognition of the importance of confidentiality. The communication would have been received via email. We ask all parents to respond by 28 February so that teachers can have a complete class list available for whenever parent/family members come in to assist in the classrooms. A response for each child you have in the ELC will be necessary. (For Year 2-5 parents, the Confidentiality Agreement will be included at the back of your child's class Parent Handbook for parents to complete and return.)
2025 PRIMARY SPECIALIST AREA TEACHERS (K-Y5)
Following our K-1 Meet the Teacher Evening which took place last week, please follow the link provided below to access information regarding our 2025 Primary Specialist Area Teachers.
2025 Primary Specialist Area Teachers.pdf
KINDY SCREENING
- KINDY Speech & Occupational Therapy Assessments by External Therapists
31 March to 11 April 2025 (form required before 10 March please - follow link provided below)
We are currently planning for all Kindergarten children to participate in our recommended St Mark's Kindergarten Speech and Occupational Therapist Screening Program later in Term 1 (from 31 March). All the Kindergarten children will be individually assessed by two external therapists: Julia Dekenah, a Speech Therapist, and Vanessa Wheeler, an Occupational Therapist. (Detailed information is provided via the link below.) These assessments will take place in the Early Learning Centre during the school day. On completion of the screening program, reports will be provided to parents by the external therapists.
To allow your child to participate in this screening process, please follow the link provided below and complete the short permission form on Page 2. Remember to include your child’s first name and surname on the form. In order to maintain confidentiality, therapists’ email addresses have been provided in the information sheet so that completed forms can be scanned and emailed directly to them by parents. It would be appreciated if this could be done as soon as possible (by 10 March at the latest). Thank you.
In order to maintain confidentiality, the therapists would like to be able to communicate with parents directly via email. Parents/carers have therefore been asked to provide one preferred email address on the form. However, if there is a necessity for communications from the external therapists to be shared separately with a second parent / carer, a second email address may also be provided.
LINK to information sheet and permission form from external therapists (permission form is on Page 2): Information Sheet and Permission Form
- KINDY Health Assessments by Government Community Health Nurse
An enveloped Government form, including an information sheet, will come home with your child this week
for parents to complete and return to teachers before 10 March please
In addition to the speech and occupational therapy screening mentioned above which is a St Mark’s initiative, a Government-appointed Community Health Nurse will visit St Mark’s to carry out general health checks covering vision, hearing, growth, teeth and mouth and general health and development on all the Kindergarten children. Community Health Nurses deliver school health services in primary schools across Western Australia. They are employed by WA Country Health Services or Child and Adolescent Health Service (in metropolitan Perth). The nurses work with children, families and teachers within each school throughout the year. Most families will have had contact with these health services from birth (through neonatology and child health services).
These health checks will take place in our Early Learning Centre during the school day and are likely to commence early in Term 2. Parent permission is required for these health checks to occur, and parents are therefore asked to complete and return the form provided as soon as possible (before 10 March please) if they would like the health checks to be done. A return envelope has been included for parents to use in order to maintain confidentiality. All returned envelopes will be passed on to the Community Health Nurse. Remember to include your child’s first name and surname on the envelope. Thank you.
TERM 1 EVENTS
- ELC CHAPEL – Wednesdays 1.15pm to 1.45pm in the Chapel
K-Y1 students will attend Chapel Services in the Chapel on most Wednesdays.
- PP & Y1 HOUSE ACTIVITY DAY – Friday 28 March
This activity usually takes place on the last Friday of Terms 1, 2 and 3 but will need to be a few weeks early this term due to swimming lessons.
The Pre-Primary and Year 1 students will need to wear their House shirts on this day. They will participate in various fun activities in their House groups.
- PP-Y4 IN TERM SWIMMING LESSONS – 31 March to 11 April
More information will go out via Consent2Go (C2G) closer to the event date.
Parents will need to respond to the C2G invite – please do so as soon as it is received.
Paper copies of Government consent forms will go home for parents to complete and return closer to the event date.
- KINDY HEALTH CHECKS WITH COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSE – early Term 2
Paper copies of Government forms will go home soon for parents to complete and return as soon as possible.
- KINDY OT AND SPEECH ASSESSMENTS – 31 March to 11 April
More information will be provided closer to the event dates including links to forms which will need to be completed and returned directly to the OT and Speech Therapists as soon as possible.