From quails and chicks to Migratory birds!

On 11th October, join in with a guided bird walk or enter a bird photography contest… just two ways to celebrate International World Migratory Bird Day.  Both of these activities are organised by Amy Avenant at the Department of Environment and Maritime Affairs (DEMA). Click on the image to find out  more.

This year’s theme is ‘Why Birds Matter?’ Not everyone is aware of the diversity of birds around the world, the amazing migrations some take, and the phenomenal range of behaviours, plumages, and songs they exhibit. International Migratory Bird Day 2014 shares the many ways in which birds matter to the earth, to ecosystems, and of course, to us.

[Read more…]

On Tuesday 7th October @ 6:15pm Ms EvieAnn, a certified Child Life Specialist, will be offering a workshop for parents/teachers and Community members on enhancing life skills, reducing anxiety and stress in children.

Come and find out how you can help empower your child during times of change, with separation anxiety, friendship issues, exam taking and illness.

All parents/teachers/friends welcome.

“With the start of the new school year, routines are taking shape. Youngsters are assembling the complex puzzle in which homework, activities, sports, social life and family time compete for a limited number of hours in the day. Frequently it seems there’s not enough time to do it all, that something’s got to give. What often gives? Our children’s sleep.

The National Sleep Foundation recommends the following amounts of sleep for children and teens:ⁱⁱ

1-3 years old = 12-14 hours of sleep

3-5 years old = 11-13 hours of sleep

5-12 years old = 10-11 hours of sleep

12-18 years old = 8.5-9.25 hours of sleep… [Read more…]

We feel that with all that is going on at Provo Primary, children must have lots to talk about when asked this question, but if your children sometimes give you a blank stare when you ask about their day, here are some tips you might want to try from mommy blogger, Liz Evans. Before Liz was a mom to three, she was a teacher and comes with an expert’s eye on how to get kids to spill.

Her post 25 Ways to Ask Your Kids “How Was School Today?” WITHOUT asking them “How Was School Today? has had more than two million page views.

Let’s us know some of the responses you get from your children.

The children were happy and excited to meet and learn more about our new quail and tilapia and how to to look after them. Matt Slattery, an ex Provo Primary student himself, brought the quail, and built and introduced our aquaponics system to the school. He was happy to answer the children’s varied and interesting questions. We look forward to learning and sharing much more over the upcoming months.

School Hot Lunches start today and are available to all full-day children at a cost of $5.75 per meal (except for pizza which is either $2.25 per cheese slice or $2.50 per pepperoni slice).

If you wish your child to have lunch, please complete the September lunch form below and return it to the office.

School Hot Lunch Order Form Sept 2014

Forms are also available in the office. Please note that payment should be made in ADVANCE.

It has been wonderful to see everyone back at school today and to welcome our new families and teachers into our community.

Everyone seems to be settling in well, and the children appear to be very happy and making new friends. It has been great, as always, to see the children who were at Provo Primary last year helping new children to feel welcome in their new class and school.

We would like to welcome our new teachers, Mr. George, who is our Year 4 teacher, and Mrs. Yorka, who has joined our Spanish teaching team, working mainly in Early Years to Year 1. We are sure you will enjoy getting to know both of these teachers more over the year.

What else is new at Provo Primary this year?

3 Specialist Foreign Language Teachers – With 3 language specialists in the school (Miss Cara, Mrs. Helen and Mrs. Yorka) we will be offering increased foreign language teaching, including 20 hours of Spanish Immersion a week throughout our Early Years programme.

[Read more…]

As the holiday period draws to an end, and your mind starts to focus on the start of a new school year, we hope that you will find our  School Handbook 2014-1015  a helpful resource full of school information about the school.

Further information about the start of the new school year will be emailed out to our families with  this week.

Here is the final school lunch form for this school year

Lunches are available for full-time children.  If you would like your child to have lunch,  download and complete the forms:

Sandwich-order-June-2014

Lunch-order-form-June-2014

Forms are also available in the office. Please note that payment should be made in ADVANCE.

Class newsletters help you to keep in the loop and find out what is happening in your child’s class.

Access important information, discover topics your child will be exploring and see how you can support your child’s learning at home.

Click on the image on the left to download your child’s class newsletter and their topic map.

We are very pleased to announce that Mrs. Bonne is coming down for three weeks at the end of May. Many of you will know Mrs. Bonnie and her husband Joel, who have been coming down and volunteering at Provo Primary School for over 11 years.   Mrs. Bonnie is a much loved and amazing teacher and lives on the beautiful island of Victoria in Western Canada where she currently teaches university student teachers.

Whilst at Provo Primary, Mrs. Bonnie will help out in as many classes as we can schedule her in, with her main focus being on poetry and science teaching.  Many children will remember her squid dissection lessons and the picture on the left demonstrates one of her amazingly fun science lessons that the Year 3s will remember from last year.  Don’t forget to pack Scaredy Squirrel, Mrs Bonnie, a much loved puppet character!

We all love having Mrs. Bonnie and Mr Joel here with us and the children look forward to their visit each year. We really appreciate her giving up her time to be here with us again this year.  We are sad that Mr. Joel wont be here to help out with our swimming programme  and hope that he doesn’t miss Mrs. Bonnie too much!  Don’t worry though, we’ll look after her and we’ll certainly keep her busy!