TERM 1 WEEK 6

BARNIER PUBLIC SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

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Mon 15th Feb @ 7pm

TERM 1, WEEK 7

TERM 1, WEEK 8

TERM 1, WEEK 9

Monday, 12 March

Young Leader’s Day in Sydney

Tuesday, 13 March

Sydney West Swimming Carnival

Quakers Hill High Information Evening

Wednesday, 14 March

Early Stage 1 Assembly @ 1.50pm in the Hall

Thursday, 15 March

PSSA Summer Term 1 payment due

Friday, 16 March

Summer PSSA Round 2

Stage 3 Assembly @ 1.50pm in the Hall

Monday, 19 March

ICAS payment due (Years 3-6 only)

P&C Meeting @ 7.30pm in the Library

Wednesday, 21 March

Games Day Year 6 Fundraiser

Stage 1 Assembly @ 1.50pm in the Hall

Thursday, 22 March

Prosperitas mentoring session @ QHHS

Summer PSSA Round 3

Friday, 23 March

Final Payments for Sports In School and Stage 1 and Stage 2 excursions are due today

Stage 2 Assembly @ 1.50pm in the Hall

Tuesday, 27 March

Quakers Hill Nursing Home Easter Visit

Thursday, 29 March

Easter Celebrations @ 9am in the COLA - Easter hat parade, raffle and announcement of guessing competition

Friday, 30 March

Good Friday (public holiday)

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BARNIER PUBLIC SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

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Mon 15th Feb @ 7pm

PRINCIPAL REPORT

Parent Coffee Morning

Many thanks to all the wonderful parents who attended our coffee

morning on Wednesday 28th February. It was a pleasure to get to

know some of you and to hear our P&C President speak so

positively about the role of the P&C in supporting our school and

students.

Our First Whole School Assembly

I had the very great pleasure of speaking at our very first whole

school assembly on Thursday 1st March. I also was privileged to

be able to present special awards to beautiful students at this

assembly. I love hearing the entire school sing Barnier’s School

Song! I commend all of our year 6 students who led by example

and displayed exemplary behaviour throughout the assembly.

Clean Up Australia Day

Friday 2nd

March was ‘Clean Up Barnier’ day. We now have a

beautifully clean and tidy school. Please speak to your children

about the importance of respecting, caring for and protecting our

environment as litter has been a problem in the playground this

term, we thank you for your support with this matter.

Zone Swimming

On Wednesday 7th March I spent some time at Blacktown

Swimming Centre cheering on our students who were

representing Barnier at the Zone Swimming Carnival. I was so

proud of all our students who displayed great sportsmanship,

beautiful behaviour, excellent effort and tremendous skill. Well

done to all those students and special congratulations to those

who have qualified for Regional!

How to Help Your Child at School

1. Let your child see you making mistakes.

Parents are their child’s first teacher and their lifetime teacher. Part of being a teacher is teaching your child how to deal with making mistakes. We all learn through making mistakes. Learning involves ‘risk taking’ and having a fear of making mistakes can be detrimental to learning. 2. Communication with your child’s teacher

If you have concerns about your child’s learning or wellbeing, please feel comfortable talking to the teacher about it. We strongly encourage open, honest and timely communication to support our students.

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BARNIER PUBLIC SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

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Mon 15th Feb @ 7pm

PRINCIPAL REPORT

3. Check your child’s homework, and then have them explain it to you.

It’s not enough to just get the answers right. To make sure your children aren’t guessing, sometimes ask them to explain what they did and why. This lets you know that the child has completed the task and for the child to actually explain their work helps their learning. 4. All children are unique

Don’t put pressure on children to be just like others. There’s no such thing as the child that’s like every other child. They are all different. They all have strengths and weaknesses, they all have talents and challenges. 5. Speak positively about Maths

Some parents might feel intimidated by the thought of helping children with their maths homework, especially in the upper grades but Maths is here to serve you, not to trip you up. Maths should make life easier, and mastery can start at home with parents showing that they’re not frightened by numbers. One way to make Maths more accessible is to relate it to daily activities. Capitalise on examples where Maths is useful, especially the kinds of calculations adults do daily like measuring ingredients, managing sums of money, working out distances. This way, children see how what they’re learning matters in life.

6. Help your child make connections to literature

To help your child get the most out of books, focus on problem-solving, social skills and life experiences. Take your child to the zoo (life experience). Teach them to ask an adult for help if they lose something (problem-solving) or to hold the door for others (social skills). With skills like these, children will be able to relate their own life experiences to those of book characters, improving their comprehension. If they don’t have these life experiences, when they are asked to make deeper connections to reading material, it’s hard for them. 7. Help your child develop independence

Sometimes it’s faster to do things yourself than wait for your children to complete a task. But having everything done for them means they don’t learn to take care of themselves. Empower your children to think for themselves and be more responsible for themselves.

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BARNIER PUBLIC SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

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Mon 15th Feb @ 7pm

PRINCIPAL REPORT

8. Ask about your child’s day.

Stay involved in your child’s education, beyond helping with homework. Even small things, like asking a child what happened at school, can be the difference between a child who unplugs at the end of the day and one who continues thinking about what they learned. Give them the kind of feedback that acknowledges and respects their feelings so they know you are really hearing them.

Staffing I will be taking a short amount of leave from Tuesday 20

th March

to Friday 13th April. Back in October 2017, I booked an overseas trip to be taken in March/April this year. I was unaware, at the time, I would be appointed as relieving principal at Barnier PS. During my leave, the amazing and wonderful Ms Sharon Moon (our substantive DP) will be relieving as principal. Ms Moon is an absolutely outstanding, extremely competent and experienced leader. She is a trusted and highly respected member of the school community here at Barnier and will do an exemplary job during my leave. At this stage Mr Hawkins remains on leave. I will continue to relieve as principal for as long as he is absent. Warmest regards, Mandy Hollis R/Principal Barnier PS

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BARNIER AWARD RECIPIENTS

Gold Awards

K-2

Harkirat B - 1MG

Neha E - 1MG

Michael B - 1R

Navya M - 1T

Sajid R - 1T

Surya M - 2R

Angad S - 2R

Liam G - 2R

3-6

Simone P - 5R

Montana V - 5T

Alexandra W - 5T

Siddarth C - 5T

Jackson H - 5T

Emily M - 5/6K

Platinum Awards

Thinara S - 5B

Adam M - 5R

Shavinu WG - 5/6K

Katie L - 5/6K

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COFFEE MORNING TEA

Thanks to our lovely P&C for hosting a

successful Coffee Morning Tea! It was

wonderful to see such a great turn out and

particularly to welcome some of our new

families, who were excited to hear about

some of our upcoming events. It’s going to

be another exciting and busy year at

Barnier!

We were also joined by Peta McGavin

from the Commonwealth Bank to discuss

the benefits of school banking.

PINK STUMPS DAY

Thank you to all the members of the

Barnier community who contributed to our

fundraising efforts on Pink Stumps Day.

The day has become an integral part of the

Barnier calendar capped off with a game of

Pink Stumps Cricket played in great spirits

between our Year Six students and our

staff. All proceeds from the day have been

donated to the McGrath Foundation and

will assist in funding additional breast care

nurses in parts or regional Australia.

BLACKTOWN ZONE SWIMMING CARNIVAL

This Wednesday Barnier Public School

was proudly represented at the Blacktown

Zone swimming carnival by a large group

of talented swimmers from years 2-6.

These students should be extremely proud

of their achievements and a large number

of the swimmers involved are now moving

on to the Sydney West Regional Carnival

at The Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic

Center on the 13th of March. A special

thank you to the teachers and family

members that attended the carnival.

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PROSPERITAS

Congratulations to the following students who

are currently working hard on their Prosperitas

Project for 2018: Victoria 6A, Grace 6A,

Sullivan 5/6K, Caitlyn 5/6K, Evelyn 5/6K,

Samuel 5/6K, Agam 5/6K, Bianca 6B, Sienna

6B.

Students have now been assigned a student

and teacher mentor from Quakers Hill High

School where they will undertake several

mentoring sessions throughout the year to

assist them in reaching their final goal of

completing the program.

We look forward to seeing the progress of

these innovative, creative and exciting

projects!

The Prosperitas sessions held at Quakers Hill

High School are as follows:

Thursday 22nd March- 8.30am-9.30am

Thursday 10th

May - 8.30am-9.30am – Google

Classrooms (remain at school)

Thursday 31st

May- 3.30-5.00pm- Halfway

Presentation Meeting

Thursday 21st June- 8.30am-9.30am

Thursday 2nd

August- 8.30am-9.30am

Thursday 23rd

August – 6.30pm-8.00pm-

Final Presentation Evening

TELL THEM FROM ME SURVEY

This term, our school, like many other public schools in the state, will participate in a Department of Education initiative: the Tell Them From Me student feedback survey. The survey measures factors that are known to affect academic achievement and other student outcomes. The focus of the NSW-wide survey is on student wellbeing, engagement and effective teaching practices. More information about the survey is available at: http://surveys.cese.nsw.gov.au The survey is a great opportunity for our students in Year 4 to 6 to provide us with valuable and quick feedback on what they think about school life, how engaged they are with school and the different ways that teachers interact with them. More than 6,300 schools in Australia and around the world have used Tell Them From Me to survey 5.4 million students. Capturing the voices of our students will help improve how we do things at our school. The survey is confidential. The survey is conducted online and will typically take less than 30 minutes to complete. It will be administered during school hours between 12 March and 13 April. Participating in the survey is entirely voluntary. A consent form for parents/carers about the survey was sent home with students in Years 4 to 6 last Friday. Parents were asked to return these notes to class teachers by today (9 March), however, if you have not done this and still wish for your child not to participate, please email your child’s teacher directly before Monday, 12 March. The FAQs are available in 23 languages at http://surveys.cese.nsw.gov.au/information-for-parents

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BARNIER P&C

Second Hand Uniform Donations

The P&C Second Hand Uniform stall is in need of donations. Please consider donating any

uniforms that do not fit anymore or you do not need, that are in good condition, to the clothing

pool. All money raised will go directly to the P&C, which in turn is used to improve our childrens’

education. Donated uniforms can be left in the yellow P&C bucket located in the office foyer or

they can be dropped off at the P&C room.

School Banking Helpers Needed

Our amazing school banking team is looking for anyone that may be available to help on school

banking days (Tuesday mornings) from 8.45am till approx. 10.45am in the video conferencing

room next to the library. If you are able to help for an hour or for the whole time, please contact

the school banking coordinators on bpsdollarmites@outlook.com .

Easter Raffle and Guessing Competition

The annual Easter Raffle and guessing competition is just around the corner! Notes and raffle

tickets have already been sent home this week. For this event to be a success, we would love

donations of the following items to help make it another amazing raffle:

Easter baskets, Easter gift bags, Easter eggs, Easter soft toys, Easter craft materials etc

All donations can be left in the yellow P&C bucket in the office foyer.

Easter Raffle

Tickets are 50c each, 6 for $2.50 or 12 for $5

Tickets are due back by 22nd

March

Raffle is being drawn at the Easter Hat Parade on 29th March

Guessing Competition

Guesses are being sold in class during Week 8, 19th – 23

rd March

20c per guess up to a maximum of 5 guesses per student = $1

Winner will be announced at the Easter Hat Parade on 29th March

Behind the Scenes Fundraisers

Entertainment books will be available to purchase again this year.

Please keep your eye out for further information and updates as to when these will be available.

Thank you very much for the continued support to our school community!