Term 1 / Week 5

Miranda Public School

Kookaburra Gazette

CALENDAR

3 March - Zone

Swimming Carnival

24 March - School Photo

Day

1 April - Combined

Scripture Assembly

Principal’s Message

Congratulations to all of our students who participated in our

School Swimming Carnival on Tuesday 25th. It was wonderful to see

so many parents, grandparents and friends come along to cheer

on our students.

Thank you to all of our teaching staff and SLSO’s who helped out on

the day and a special Thanks to Mr. Beazley and Mrs Atu for

coordinating the event.

Students who are eligible to participate in the Cronulla Zone

Swimming Carnival as representatives of Miranda P.S will be notified

this week.

The Cronulla Zone Carnival will be held on Tuesday 3rd March at

Caringbah Aquatic Centre.

Meet the Teacher and Cyber Safety Talk Feedback

Thank you to all of our parents for the wonderful feedback that we

have received regarding the Cyber safety talks that were held prior

to our Meet the Teacher sessions during week 4. I have passed on

to Constable Deb Wilson, Schools Liaison for Sutherland Police, all

the positive feedback from our parents. Constable Wilson was

extremely happy with the interest shown by our parents relative to

the meeting held at Miranda P.S.

I have included some of the information discussed as an

attachment to this newsletter and more detailed information is on

the website. Go to www.thinkuknow.org.au

Harmony Day: Food Festival

Our annual Harmony Day food festival will be held on Wednesday

the 18th of March from 4:00-6:30pm. As always we are encouraging

families to bring along a favourite food item to share. We are also

interested to hear from anyone that would like to perform at our

Harmony Day afternoon.

Please contact Mrs Shields or Ms Chaplin if you are interested in

showcasing a musical or dance item, representative of a particular

cultural group or nationality.

Healthy School Hygiene Practices

There have been a number of students presenting in sick bay with stomach pains, vomiting and

gastro bugs over the past couple of weeks. If your child does indicate that they are not well, we

would encourage you to keep them at home until they are fit to return to school. The DET has set

the following guidelines, to encourage good hygiene and healthy practices in schools.

1. Practicing good hygiene and engaging in healthy practices is essential all the time, not just in

periods of increased risk.

2. Adopting good hygiene practices will help to reduce your risk of acquiring and spreading

respiratory infections, including viral infections such as influenza.

3. The Health and Safety Directorate has comprehensive infection control procedures that

provide a range of practical strategies for schools and workplaces to prevent transmission of

infectious diseases.

4. Frequent and effective personal hygiene among staff, students and visitors is an effective way

to minimize the spread of infection. Hand hygiene and cough etiquette are two ways to limit

the spread of respiratory infections.

Cough etiquette is as simple as two steps:

• Cover your cough - When coughing or sneezing, use a tissue to cover your nose and mouth

making sure you dispose of the tissue afterwards. If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze

into your elbow.

• Wash your hands - After coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose, wash your hands with soap

and water. Use alcohol-based hand cleansers if you do not have access to soap and water

Hand washing is the single most effective way to reduce the spread of germs that cause

respiratory disease. If you are sick stay at home, see your GP and avoid close contact with other

people to prevent them from also becoming sick.

School Signage: LEADERSHIP BEGINS HERE

We are very excited to have our new signage completed on our 3-6 building. Our Leadership

Begins Here signage is clearly visible from the Kiora Road gate and supports our focus of being a

Leader in Me School.

By the end of 2020 Miranda Public School is striving to be the first primary school in NSW to achieve

‘Light House’ school status within the Leader in Me Program.

Stage 3 Meeting and Port Hacking High School Talks

The Stage 3 parent meeting that was held on Tuesday 25th February was very well attended.

Thank you to Mrs Cainduff and Mrs Wilkins for their discussion on Stage 3 camp and our Year 6

parent committee. I hope that I was able to clarify the EOI process for ‘Moving into Year 7 in a

NSW Government School in 2021’. A reminder that those forms will be sent home with Year 6

students on Wednesday 11th March.

A special thank you to Mrs Blacker and Mrs Edwards, from Port Hacking High School, for their

presentation on the night.

A reminder to parents that the Port Hacking High School open night is next Wednesday 4th March

at 5.45pm.

A big Thank You to the wonderful volunteers of our School

Clothing Pool.

At last night’s P & C meeting, Heather Mitchell and Faye Ellicott,

the wonderful ladies who run our school clothing pool, made a

very generous donation of $2500 to our school. The money will be

used towards the purchase of new IPads and readers. The school

staff and students are very appreciative, of not only your very

generous donation, but the endless volunteer hours that you put in each year running our

school clothing pool.

Breakfast Club Donations

Fantastic news from our Breakfast Club volunteers, who have informed us that since our change of

morning routine to the K-2 site, there are many more students making use of our morning breakfast

club.

Our breakfast club is able to run due to donations from our school community. Our volunteers have

kindly asked, that if anyone feels like donating towards the Breakfast Club, the following items are

now in short supply: -

long-life milk; sugar free apple juice; honey; dried sultanas

Narelle Chaplin

Relieving Principal

Literacy Demonstration Lessons

I have enjoyed the last couple of weeks, visiting classrooms and promoting a love of literacy. It has

been such a pleasure teaching our students skills and strategies of good readers and good writers.

Lessons I have been demonstrating K-6, are based around a quality picture book, exploring

different types of comprehension questions, visual literacy and learning about interesting language

choices when writing. Seeing students’ faces light up when they have grasped a concept or feel

confident to have a go and participate in discussions around literature, has been wonderful and

exciting to witness.

When you have a moment, I encourage you to engage in conversation with your child/ren about

Mrs Wilkins’ lessons. Ask your child/ren about the picture book we have been reading in class, what

good readers or writers do, what they have learnt so far or something they have found interesting.

Charleen Wilkins

Instructional Leader / Assistant Principal

PRINCIPALS

AWARDS

Harlen 1/2G

Kirby 4/5B

PRC Student Site

The PRC student site is available again this year! Students can search for books to read,

add books to their reading logs, and track their progress throughout the challenge. The web-

site is currently being updated and will be available for students when the challenge opens

on March 2. You can find the site at https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/studentExperience.html#/ and there is

a useful help video available to demonstrate how the site works.

Mrs Leavold will guide Primary students interested in completeing the 2020 Premier's Reading Challenge - registrations start

next week for Yr 3-6 students. All K-2 student will participate at school - challenge books will be read during library visits.

CLASS LIBRARY DAYS

Please bring your library bag to school and borrow weekly.

• TUESDAY – KJ, K/1S, 2/3R, 4/5B

• THURSDAY – K/6C, 1/2W, 3/4A, 5/6C, 5/6M

• FRIDAY – 1/2G, 3/4W, K/6K, K/6S

LIBRARY BAGS $4

BREAKFAST CLUB - K-2 COLA

CEREAL, MILK, JUICE and FRUIT for all students - free!

OPEN : Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 8:40 - 9am

Miranda Public School Awards

As part of our Leader in Me initiative we have revamped our award system slightly to align with

our 7 Habits. Over a fortnight period we will focus on one Habit—where students will have the

opportunity to receive a Kookaburra that is linked specifically to that Habit.

As student collect their Kookaburras, they will be able to

attach them to an Award log (pictured) within their

Leadership Notebooks at school.

Once they receive 5 Kookaburras, students are eligi-

ble

for a Merit Award.

Similarly, as students achieve Merit awards they will

be

able to attach them into the Award Log (pictured)

to collate (and keep safe), the awards.

Students are required to collect 10 Merit Awards in total to be eligible to achieve a Principal's

Award.

We hope this makes sense, and will assist students in keeping track of awards and provide an

opportunity to build responsibility and desire to achieve these awards.

If you have any questions, please talk to your classroom teacher.