14 December 2023
Mrs Gallagher – Principal
Dear families,
As the year draws to a close, it is time to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who has contributed to making the school a success in 2023. A school can be likened to a tapestry where each piece makes up the whole picture and becomes an intricate work of art.
Education Assistants
A big thank you to all our dedicated Education Assistants. They provide the backbone of our school. Their enthusiasm and application to their job is exemplary. Have a great break!
Psychologist
Amanda Anzai works in the school and does psychological measurement, observes children and their behaviour, gives teachers ideas about helping the children in class, and works with parents. We thank her for her enthusiasm and the extreme care and understanding she gives to our students.
Administration Staff
The members of our administration team are staff members that greet you at the door and will do anything to help you with your enquiries about the schooling process. We have had some very special people attending to the efficiency of the Admin office this year and it has excelled to a whole new level. Thank you so much for your hard work and commitment throughout the year.
Cleaners
Thank you to the cleaners who keep the school spotless so when the children enter in the morning, they enter to very clean and organised classrooms. A big thank you to Sarah who leads the team of cleaners who all work hard for our students.
Farewell
It is now time to say farewell to some staff who have worked for years at East Butler Primary School and have decided to move to share their skills at another school.
These teachers are:
Mrs Leah Allen who has worked at the school for many years and has amazing skills at understanding her students and working with them to reach their potential. Thank you Mrs Allen, we will miss your big contribution to the school, and we hope you enjoy your new position for 2024.
Mrs Danielle Barter who has worked at the school for numerous years and also run our Mentally Healthy program and was instrumental in setting up and helping with our breakfast club. Thank you Mrs Barter, you have been a supportive and caring teacher and we will miss you dearly. We hope you enjoy your new position for 2024.
Mrs Lorena Bengough who has worked tirelessly when the school was much bigger on a sustainability program which won many awards. She has had many roles during her time at the school including teaching Physical Education, Science and latterly, she made our Kindy class a place of active learning. Congratulations on your well-earned rest and your upcoming leave.
Miss Natalie Buchanan who has worked on teaching the senior grades and making a difference to the students’ academic achievements. We wish her well in her new appointment and hope she enjoys her position in 2024.
Mr Nicholas Campbell who was with us for a short time but was quickly loved by our students while doing Physical Education. Nic has taken a position in Secondary School where his heart is. We wish you well for the future.
Mrs Grace Terranova will be having a restful holiday for term one in 2024 and plans to return in term two. We will miss her and await her return. She is our behaviour saviour!
Mrs Jodie Marshall's role as our Library Officer will be shared with another school for term one and we will have her at East Butler on a Thursday and Friday. She fashions our library in the most “artistic” way and keeps it running very efficiently. We hope she enjoys her new challenge and thank her for her huge contribution to our library lessons.
To the incredible teaching staff at East Butler, I want to say thank you! You all put the needs of your students at the centre of everything you do and that makes you very successful. I am looking forward to a great year in 2024 with lots of changes and it is because of you all that makes it worthwhile.
A big thank you to our students for another great year. To all our students, rest, eat and have a lot of fun on your holiday and most of all keep you and your family safe.
Lastly, I would like to wish all our families and community members a safe and happy holiday. I hope that you have an enjoyable festive season with family and friends, and we will look forward to seeing you back at East Butler Primary School for another school year in 2024.
Wendy Gallagher-Simeons
Principal
Deputy Principal
Semester 2 Reports
Semester 2 reports for all students (K-6) are now available on Connect. To open your child's report:
- Log into Connect
- Select 'My Children' from the menu bar
- Select the child's name and click on Reports
- Select Semester 2 report and open/download
Note: If you have more than one child at the school, you can switch between them by selecting the icon at the top left-hand corner just below the Connect logo.
Our Community
East Butler Primary School would like to extend a sincere thank you to No Limits, Sacred Heart College, St James Anglican School, Eat Up, Bakers Delight, Mr Iain Lunt, Wider Communities Food Relief and Diane Wearne for supplying food and helping feed our children. We provided almost 9000 breakfasts, snacks, lunches, take home meals throughout the year. It simply couldn't be possible without the fantastic community support. Thank you all.
East Butler would also like to thank Achievers WA for opening the Butler chapter of Saturday tutoring at our school. It is wonderful to have these volunteers help guide our students with life and learning. We look forward to seeing the group grow in numbers and continuing for many years to come.
East Butler would also like to thank Dr Grey Coupland and her team for their tremendous efforts in establishing our Pocket Forest and look forward to the continued success and partnership in 2024.
A tremendous thank you to all our parent volunteers who have supported with reading or resources to our classroom teachers and students. The time you give really helps our students grow. Thank you to all those who attended our school events as well as the P&C for all their fundraising efforts.
Our Year 5 students were also privileged to attend the after school STEM club this term and we are thankful for Evan and his team from SCITECH for enabling this opportunity. All the students really enjoyed this club each Monday.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the staff and students of East Butler a wonderful Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.
Michelle Head
Deputy Principal
Deputy Principal
Fun Day
The 2023 Fun Day was a Fantastic Event. Thank you to the P & C for all your hard work it was an amazing day. We truly appreciate all the help and support from our parents, teachers, and staff. A big thank you to our P & C President Danielle for leading the troops. My favourite moment of the day was my trip down the Slip and Slide. Thanks to Miss Buchanan’s class for giving me the motivation I needed to go for it. We had some good moments at Birds of Prey, Ball sports, Photo booth and Craft zones.
One of the best aspects of the Fun Day was the exceptional level of behaviour and sportsmanship displayed by our students. I was impressed to witness acts of kindness, fellowship, encouragement and fairness that exemplify the values at East Butler Primary School. We need to give our Amazing P & C a big round of applause.
Again, thank you very much to everyone, from East Butler Primary School.
Farewell to Staff
As we bid farewell to some staff members who are leaving for the year and possibly returning in 2025, we acknowledge the heartfelt mark they leave on both students and the school. We express our gratitude to Lorena Bengough, Natalie Buchanan, Lean Allen, and Dani Barter. We thank them for their unwavering commitment to East Butler Primary. Their years of service have not only benefitted our school but the entire educational system. We wish them well with their future endeavours and we look forward to our next meeting.
Michael Williams
Deputy Principal
My New Gallery
Manager Corporate Services
Thank you to all the families that have paid their 2023 Contributions. These funds have supported your child’s education by enabling the school to purchase extra materials, services and resources.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries regarding your contributions.
I wish all our families a joyous and safe Christmas.
Kind regards
Suzanne Goulding
Manager Corporate Services
Dates to Note:
Thursday 14th December – Last Day of Term 4 2023
Wednesday 24th January 2024 – School Office Re-opens
Wednesday 31st January 2024 – First Day of Term 1 2024
School Development Days in 2024
Students will return to school on Wednesday 31st January as there will be 2 school development days at the start of the year and they will be on:
Monday, 29th January 2024
Tuesday, 30th January 2024
Friday, 31st May 2024
Monday, 15th July 2024
Monday 7th October 2024
Special News:
Book Awards
Well done to all our deserved Book Award Winners. You have all excelled this year and should be very proud of yourselves. Your commitment to learning is commendable and we wish you all the very best for your future learning endeavours.
Year 6 Graduation
We would like to wish the Year Six students all the very best on their new adventure next year. It has been wonderful to see their maturity grow and how they have achieved their own personal targets. Thank you to the hard working and dedicated Year Six Teachers who have nurtured them during their final year of primary school.
The Graduation Ceremony was a wonderful morning and we would like to congratulate all of the Graduates and recipients of special awards.
Congratulations to the following students who presented with an Award at the Year 6 Graduation:
Medal of Excellence Award | Sophia |
Leadership Award | Amani |
Citizenship Award | Joshua |
Citizenship Award | Ayla |
English Award | Gia |
Maths Award | Macey |
Science Award | Zayd |
HASS Award | Jasmine |
Technology Award | Luken |
Phys Ed Award | Maronga |
Head Boy & Girl 2024
Congratulations to the recently elected 2024 Head Boy and Head Girl, Kaelan and Veenaya. The positions of Head Boy and Head Girl hold great responsibility throughout the year with a number of public speaking occasions and other events where they will represent the school. As you embark on your leadership roles, we wish you every success and look forward to witnessing the positive impact you will undoubtedly bring to our school. Well done to both students!
We would also like to express our grattitude to the 2023 Head Boy and Head Girl, for their dedication and exceptional service to our school over the past year. We wish you all the best as you emark on your journey into High School.
Kindy and Pre-Primary
What an amazing year we have had in 2023! Can you believe that our Kindy’s have just completed the first year of their learning journey, and what a year it has been. We are all so proud of all our amazing Kindy and Pre-Primary students and would like to wish you all a safe and happy holiday season!
From all the Kindy and Pre-Primary Teachers.
STEM Club
STEM club has been operating with the Year 5’s after school on Monday’s most of Term 4 with the support of Evan from Scitech. It has been amazing to see the wonderful, creative and challenging STEM projects they have created. The students learnt about components to assist their creation of a motion sensor activated animatronic. This consisted of a movement to make the lights turn on/off or even change colour, make sounds and some even had animals moving their limbs using motors. The students used laptops and the ‘Scratch’ program to code for the animatronic creation to do these incredible things.
Thank you to Scitech and Evan for bringing the laptops, Hummingbird Kits, snacks and craft supplies to create these projects.
Sustainability at EBPS
Did you know East Butler Primary School is a Waste Wise School. Students in all classes put their fruit scraps into the fruit caddies and the sustainability leaders collect all the scraps and feed them to our worms. We then collect the worm whiz and use it to water the gardens.
Thank you to all the students who remember to put their fruit scraps into the correct bins and not into the landfill bins.
Mayor’s Christmas Appeal
We would like to say a HUGE thank you to all our students and families for the very generous donations we received for the Mayor’s Christmas Appeal. It was a fantastic effort and we managed to fill many bins and were told by the collecting staff that East Butler Primary School is one of the best donating schools in the area!
ACT, Belong, Commit
Mentally Healthy
Act Belong Commit
Act – do something…
Belong – do something with someone…
Commit – do something meaningful…
Connect with nature—whether through parks, natural bush, beaches, pets or farm animals, helps us recover from stress and mental fatigue, helps us relax and puts us in a good frame of mind. Next time you are feeling blue, ‘act green’. Do some gardening, take a walk around the park or head down to the water for some time out. Act Belong Commit
To find activities near you, use:
Tip #13
Listen to your favourite music
Music can motivate you to do things you might not enjoy so much, like washing up or exercising (act), it can connect you with other like-minded people (belong) and it can foster individual creativity (commit). So give it a go and see how your mood improves!
Mindful Breathing Exercises
Please read through the Mindful Breathing Exercises. It does say to assist students at school but it’s also great to help students regulate their breathing and behaviour at home. Next time there’s an issue/problem, help your child/ren with one of the mindful breathing exercises. If that one didn’t work, try one of the other ones!
SunSmart
OFFICE NEWS
Voluntary Contributions
Thank you to those parents who have already paid their voluntary contributions through the booklist and other methods– this certainly helps the school to ensure that resources are made available to the various year groups for this school year. Please remember that you are always welcome to enter into a Payment Plan with the school.
Online Payments to the school
Online payments are our preferred method of payment. If you would like to make an online payment to the school (for contributions, excursions, etc), please use the following bank details:
BSB – 066 058 | Account Number – 10024364 |
Can you please ensure you provide the student’s name and what the payment is for when you make any payments. More information is below regarding paying money to the school.
Daily Absences
SMS Absence Line | 0417 962 399 |
If your child is absent from School, can you please advise your child’s name, room number and reason for absence. This number is accessible 24 hours and we would be grateful if you could please notify us as early as possible of any absence or lateness.
Late for School?
If you have students who arrive late for school please sign them in at the office on the Ipad and ensure they collect a late slip to hand to their teacher. This will update the system and ensure that you do not receive a text message advising that they are absent from school.
Connect
Connect is a fantastic tool for the school to keep in touch with families of East Butler Primary School. If you are not receiving Connect messages please contact the front office and we will be happy to help.
In-term Leave
For any in-term leave, a form is required to be submitted to the school. This form is available for printing below or in hard copy from the front office. If you are taking your child/ren on holiday during school, the absences will be marked as “unauthorised vacation”. This is a Department of Education directive.
Lost Property
The lost property box can be found in the Administration block. The P&C have kindly offered to go through the lost items every week and return any named items to the students’ classrooms. At the end of every term any items still remaining in the box will be donated to charity.
KINDY ENROLMENTS 2024
If you have not yet enrolled your child for Kindy in 2024, or have friends or family in our local area, please come along to East Butler to complete an application form. You will need to bring up-to-date Immunisation records available from MyGov, two forms of proof of address and a Birth Certificate. Your application will then be considered and a full enrolment form given to complete once your child has been accepted. For further enquiries please contact the front office on 9561 7777.
SCHOOL DATES 2024
Term 1 | Wednesday 31st January to Thursday 28th March |
Term 2 | Monday 15th April to Friday 28th June |
Term 3 | Monday 15th July (Students return on 16th) to Friday 20th September |
Term 4 | Monday 7th October (Students return on 8th) to Thursday 12th December |
2024 School Development Days Monday, 29th January 2024 Tuesday 30th January 2024 Friday, 31st May 2024 Monday 15th July 2024 Monday 7 October 2024 | |
MEDICAL PLANS
If your child has a medical condition which requires a medical plan, we would like to refer you to the documents below. Please complete the relevant plan for your child’s medical requirements.
If your child is taking medication on a permanent basis, please complete the Form 2 Generic Health care plan. Should your child require short-term medication (i.e. antibiotics, Panadol) please come to the office to fill out an “authority to administer form”. All medication is to be kept at the office.
If your child requires a long term plan, this will need to be signed by their doctor prior to bringing it into the school. Once we have the information we will then draw up a plan and circulate this information amongst the staff at East Butler Primary School to ensure that the medical needs of the student are met in accordance with their personal plan and Department of Education Policy.
COMMUNITY NEWS
City of Wanneroo
Triple P Parenting Program
Triple P is the parenting program that helps make raising kids easier. It gives you tips and ideas to help raise happy and confident kids; see more of the behaviors you like and less of the ones you don’t; and have better relationships with your family.
The Triple P – Positive Parenting Program is available to parents and carers of children in Western Australia, thanks to the Department of Education, Child and Adolescent Health Service, WA Country Health Service, and the Department of Communities. Private providers also deliver Triple P.
Free Triple P Seminars are being offered in various locations. Other Triple P programs may be available in selected regions, with more to come in the future. Most providers offer free sessions. Some sessions may be offered in a virtual/video conference format. Please follow the links below to Triple P courses available near you.
Saver Plus is a free online community money skills program funded by ANZ and the Australian Government, and delivered by The Smith Family in WA:
- helping people to hit their savings goals,
- develop life-long savings habits, and
- receive up to $500 in matched savings from ANZ to assist with school expenses.
The Saver Plus community program has helped over 55,000 Australians take the stress out of back to school time. It’s free for eligible people to join.
At Saver Plus, we pair you with a savings coach while you budget and save over the next 10 months. You attend online workshops to learn tips, tricks and information to grow your budgeting and savings skills. Once you reach your agreed savings goal, ANZ matches your savings dollar-for-dollar, up to $500. You can use that money towards education costs such as uniforms, text books, laptops or extra-curricular activities such as sport or music.
You could be eligible to join Saver Plus if you:
- have a Centrelink Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card
- are at least 18 years old
- have some regular income from work (you or your partner) including casual, part-time, full-time or seasonal (we also accept child support and carer’s payment as income)
- have a child at school or attend vocational education yourself.
If you’re eligible, start now and we’ll help take the stress out of next year’s back to school.
To find out more, or to apply, go to www.saverplus.org.au or call 1300 610 355
Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying: what is it and how to get help
Cyberbullying is bullying that is done through the use of technology. For example, using the Internet, a mobile phone or a camera to hurt or embarrass someone is considered cyberbullying.
What does cyberbullying look like?
A cyberbully can be someone you know, or a stranger. They might send mean or hurtful text messages through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, or through sites where people can ask / answer questions.
Cyberbullying can also involve people sending photos and videos of you to others to try and embarrass or hurt you.
People spreading rumours about you via emails or social networking sites or text messages.
People trying to stop you from communicating with others.
People setting up fake profiles pretending to be you, or posting messages or status updates from your accounts.
How you can be safe from bullies online
Do not share private information like passwords, name and address, phone numbers with people you don’t know. This can also include sharing of photos of yourself, your friends and your family
Do not respond to messages when you are angry or hurt. Log out and stop messaging if you feel you are being harassed.
You can block, delete and report anyone who is harassing you online and on your mobile.
Find out how to report bullying and harassment on each of the different social networks that you use.
Keep a record of calls, messages, posts and emails that may be hurtful or harmful to you.
Set up the privacy options on your social networking sites like Facebook in a way you are comfortable with
Get help
Lawstuff provides legal information to children and young people in Australia.
You can also go to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) Cybersmart Program
If you have been bullied or witnessed others been bullied and need help, you can contact Kids Help Line (1800 55 1800), which is a free and confidential, telephone counseling service for 5 to 25 year olds in Australia.
Lifeline (13 11 14) is a free and confidential service staffed by trained telephone counsellors.
The Australian Human Rights Commission (1300 656 419) has a complaint handling service that may investigate complaints of discrimination, harassment and bullying
OSH Club
Achievers Club WA
Installing the Schoolzine App
Our Newsletter is available through the Schoolzine App on your Apple or Android device. This is a great way to keep in touch with everything going on at East Butler Primary School and we encourage you to download the app. The details for downloading are as follows: