Respect, Responsibility, Personal Best Branxton Public School Newsletter to Parents

BRANXTON PUBLIC SCHOOL

Find us at: 12 King St, Branxton NSW 2335 Email: branxton-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Phone: (02) 4938 1214 Fax: (02) 4938 1905 Website: www.branxton-p.schools.nsw.gov.au

Week 2 Term 3 Wednesday 31st july, 2019

Dates to Remember

2.8.19 Kinder Hunter Valley Zoo Excursion

2.8.19 Zone Athletics Carnival

5.8.19 P&C Meeting - 6pm

8.8.19 Education Week Assembly & Picnic

19.8.19 Pupil Free Day T3 (Staff Develop) This is not the first day of Term, it is Week 5

27.8.19 Kindergarten 2020 Parent Info Session—7PM

4-6.9.19 Stage 2 Great Aussie Bush Camp

PRINCIPAL’S NEWS Welcome back to school I hope you had a restful and enjoyable time with your family. It’s hard to believe we are actually over halfway through the year. Staff have already began discussing end of year school events and activities. Next week we celebrate Education Week. I read this quote and I feel it perfectly reflects the great school and community we have here at Branxton. “Education is a shared commitment between dedicated teachers, motivated students and enthusiastic parents with high expectations.” Bob Beauprez Recently we sent the student’s Semester One school reports home. They were delayed and I know staff sincerely appreciated your understanding in this matter. If you have any concerns please contact your child’s teacher and make a time for a chat, we will be only too happy to oblige.

I look forward to seeing you at our planned activities next Thursday. Don’t forget your picnic rug!

Mrs Maier

STAFF DEVELOPMENT DAY

As you are aware the staff here are constantly updating their skills to support the student’s individual learning journey and improve the overall student educational outcomes. In term 3 this year we have a wonderful opportunity to engage in a Professional Development with Dylan Williams an international expert on formative assessment. To enable this to take place we will be changing the pupil free day from 22nd July (Week 1 Term 3) until the 19th August (Week 5 Term 3). This has been approved by the Department. We will continue to remind you of this as the date approaches. If you have any concerns with this change could you please contact me as soon as possible.

Students do not come to school Monday 19th August.

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EARLY STAGE 1 (KINDERGARTEN) NEWS We are straight back into the fun and routines of learning together in Term 3. This term Kindergarten are learning about the Living World, including the needs of living things and how we use living things in our daily lives. We will be exploring informative texts and their features. In Geography we are learning about places that are special to us and how we should take care of them. We will begin our Gross Motor program this week on Wednesday afternoon. We continue to work with Mrs Dennis on Fridays in the library to learn about Digital Technologies. We are also participating in music on Fridays with Mrs Tuyl. Term 3 looks to be another busy term! Friday is our excursion to Hunter Valley Zoo. Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to join us for the day. Parents are reminded that they will need to make their own way to the zoo (carpooling is recommended) and pay their entry fee at the gate. Fingers crossed for kind weather! Last week we held our Public Speaking competition. Well done to Meg, Corinne, Isabelle, Michael, James, Nora, Xavier and Cohen for preparing speeches on so many interesting topics. Congratulations to Corinne and James who were selected to represent our school at the Zone competition next week. Good luck! Next week is Education Week and parents and carers are invited to visit our classrooms from 10:10 until 11:10am. A picnic lunch will follow. In the classroom you will see your child completing some of their regular activities. You may also be able to look at their books and the artwork around the room.

Mrs Quilty Early Stage 1 Supervisor

Public Speaking finalists Amelia M and Lucy F will represent Stage 1 at the Zone Finals of the Public Speaking competition to be held at Greta Public School in the coming weeks. Well done and good luck! Book Week Parade Don’t forget to get your costumes ready for our Book Week parade in Week 5. The theme this year is Reading is My Super Power! Please watch for more information in class homework sheets, Seesaw, Facebook and future newsletters. Wool In Science, Stage 1 is currently looking at how animals and plants provide food and fibre for us. Would anyone have any access to wool fleeces at all? We would love to show the children how

our jumpers, coats and other forms of clothing are derived from the sheep’s back. If you have anything to offer please contact Mrs Noble, or one of the Stage 1 teachers. It would be greatly appreciated. (Many years ago, we had a community member visit our school to show

the students how they spun sheep and alpaca fleece into yarn-extremely interesting!)

Hunter Schools’ Dance Festival.

Our Junior Dance Group strutted their stuff, on stage on Monday night at Panthers, Newcastle. In front of a capacity crowd, after months of practising and rehearsals, our ensemble of 23 dancers delightfully entertained the audience dancing to the song of “You’ve Got A Friend In Me”. They looked sensational and extremely

STAGE 1 NEWS Stage 1 Excursion Our Stage 1 excursion has been planned for Monday, 9

th September. We are heading to

Murrook Centre at Williamtown to learn about our Indigenous culture. Cost for the excursion is $35. Please be aware there is a cut-off date for payment. Permission notes went out last week.

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STAGE 3 NEWS This term our Stage 3 students have started to learn about government in preparation for the Canberra excursion in Term 4. Students have received their information about this term’s speeches, with the first speech being a book review. Judging by the quality I saw in one class today, I expect these speeches to be impressive because the draft writing certainly was! Congratulations to Alana and Jorja who were selected to represent Stage 3 in the Public Speaking Competition later this term. Plans are also underway to determine who will have the opportunity to represent our school in the Premier’s Spelling Bee. This term our students will engage in Child Protection lessons as part of the PDHPE syllabus. The focus of these lessons is:

Types of relationships

Personal rights

Coercion

Body parts

Emotional abuse

Risk situations

No Go Tell

Networking Community support

If you wish to clarify more about the content please contact the classroom teacher or myself. Don’t forget about the Interrelate Parent Evening being held at school tonight. This is a valuable opportunity which is only held every two- three years.

Mrs Ballenden Stage 3 Supervisor

STAGE 2 NEWS Week Two and so much has happened and so much to look forward to.

The Stage Two excursion to Great Aussie Bush Camp is coming up in Week 7. Money needs to come in to finalise all outstanding accounts.

The children have been taking part in Public Speaking and the two representatives for Stage Two are Lucy O from the Barramundi Room and Claire M from the Willy Wagtail Room. Congratulations to both girls good luck in the Regional Finals.

Reports should be home by now. Thank you for your patience with this. There was a lot of stress and sadness to go through and we thank you for your understanding. If you have any queries about reports make an appointment with your child's teacher. We have our Education Week celebrations next Thursday and Book Week coming up in Week 5. Please watch the newsletter, seesaw and Facebook for further details as we get closer. This Friday we have 40 children going to the Maitland Zone Athletics Carnival. All the best to these children and do your best. Our Geography unit for this term is 'Features of Australia' looking at cities and towns, the beach and the bush and our climate population and a variety of other important aspects of our great, big wonderful country. Mr Johanson Stage 2 Supervisor

cute in their onesie costumes. Well done and congratulations to them all! Thank you to Miss Elsley for her talent, time and commitment in choreographing and training the group, not to mention her skill in costume design!

Mrs Noble

Stage 1 Supervisor

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PBL Each term we start our PBL lessons by reviewing the reward system, consistency guide and evacuation procedures. This enables students to develop their understanding of these systems within our school. Our Keep Calm strategies are a tool which we have for all students. This poster is used in each classroom and students are encouraged to try one or more of these strategies if they are upset. We encourage students to stop and think in order to avoid a situation escalating. Feel free to use these at home.

Ticket Draw Winners

ES1 - Tom (Responsibility) & James (Personal Best)

Stage 1 –Amelia (Respect) & Zoe (Respect)

Stage 2 - Amelia (Personal Best) & Cooper (Personal Best)

Stage 3 - Jasper (Personal Best) & Ashton (Personal Best)

STAFF TRAINING Our Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 classes have been actively involved in the Department of Education's Targeting Early Numeracy (TEN) program during their maths lessons. The teaching strategies included small group instruction, frequent short numeracy sessions and targeted activities, with regular monitoring of student progress. This was originally designed an early intervention program to address problems with early numeracy difficulties. Due to its success, it was extended to all children in the classes to assist in extending them in their ability level. Students focus on identifying numbers, counting, skip counting forwards and backwards and addition and subtraction mental strategies. The program motivates and encourages children to engage in mathematics by beginning all lessons with a short and explicit game that aims to develop a specific skill. Today, four of our Stage 1 teachers undertook TEN professional learning with Mrs Noble. This professional learning will be an ongoing commitment for all involved and provide positive outcomes for our students.

SURVEY ON REPORTS Semester 1 Reports went home early this week. Teachers spend a great deal of time preparing these to ensure that parents get a complete picture of their child at school. As partners in your child’s education, we value your feedback. Please click on the link following to complete a very short survey on reports. It is helpful if you could complete the survey for each of your children. https://forms.gle/ujdmfpWwsdNH2Sra9 Thank you

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P&C NEWS

Welcome to Term 3 and the second half of the school year. Our main event this Term will be the Father’s Day Stall at the end of August. We will need some helpers to assist on Tuesday 27

th

August with packaging and wrapping (in the old library), as well as some people to assist with running the stall on Wednesday 28

th August.

Please get in contact with Claire if you are able to help with either date. Thank you to every family who purchased an Entertainment Book or digital subscription. We had a fantastic response and have raised approximately $800 for the school! This is more than triple the number of sales from last year. A special thank you to Kelly, Lysa and Penny in the office for assisting us with managing the books and returns – we couldn’t have done this new approach without you all. Closer to Book Week we will also be asking for some parent helpers to help Mrs Melnik in the library with running the book fair. This will be during school hours so it is a perfect opportunity for people to help out who can’t attend our regular P&C meetings. Our first meeting for the term is next Monday 5

th August in the school library at

6:00pm. Everyone is welcome to attend and put forward your ideas about how to help our wonderful school. As we are a part of such a wonderful community we would also like to support the local Branxton Preschool in their bid to receive government funding to build a health and parenting hub for the entire community to utilise. Click on this link to vote for your favourite projects in the Cessnock LGA and if you are supporting another great local idea you can prioritise up to 3 projects with your vote. https://mycommunityproject.service.nsw.gov.au/projects Key dates coming up: Next P&C Meeting – Monday 5

th August

6:00pm in the school library. Father’s Day stall – Wednesday 28

th August

(Father’s Day Sunday 1st August).

To get in touch or keep up to date with the P&C like our Facebook page, read the school newsletter, talk to P&C members, email the address below, help at an event or come along to the next meeting. Thank you for your support Branxton Public School families. Melissa, P&C Secretary branxtonpublicschool@pandcaffiliate.org.au www.facebook.com/BranxtonPublicPandC

EDUCATION WEEK We would like to invite you to our Education Week Celebration on Thursday 8th August. We will start the activities with an assembly at 10:00am. Parents and visitors then have the opportunity to visit classrooms to participate in some student directed, thought provoking learning. Following this at 11:10am we will all enjoy a picnic lunch together which will conclude at 11:55am. You may bring a picnic lunch to share with your family or place a special lunch order from the school canteen. A note went home this week with the ordering options. You can place your order through Flexi-Schools or at the canteen by 6th August. We hope you can make it to help us celebrate the inspiring voices of the students of Branxton Public School.

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