PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE Dear students, families and friends, P&C executives, Lauren (+ Brax) and Lesley (+ Hunter, Makaylah, Jazmin,

Chanyce & Savannah), CWA members, Kaye, Margaret, Margie, Donna, Susan,

Christina and I had a terrific day on Saturday manning our stall at the state

election. Over 300 voters and their families, including Noah, Kade and Zoe,

popped by and enjoyed having a chat and the opportunity to buy freshly baked

goods, jams and pickles, books and delicious Peats Ridge honey- we sold over

$400 worth. Laura, Lexie and Bailey’s great gran, 98 year-old Alice, bought four

jars! Many old school families loved

catching up too and signed the hall

kitchen petition, along with

pioneering families, the Woods,

Kemps and Slades. I met a lovely new

family and gave them a tour of the

school as daughter, Katya, plans to

join P2 next year.

We Appreciate our P&C!

The P&C’s lamington sales totalled $120 and we’re already planning

for the Federal Election in May (Sat 18th looking likely). At the meeting

last Tuesday, we acknowledged the great work of our members with

a ‘P&C Appreciation Day’ afternoon tea and welcomed new member, Rebekah.

We also discussed uniform, attendance, the quote for the sandstone front entry

and requesting Boral to resurface our driveways, paths and carpark. I contacted

Busways over the Opal card tapping on / off issue and they have promised to

rectify the problem.

Student Parliament and Representative Council Lunch Meeting

At our inaugural lunch time

meeting for 2019 last

Wednesday, student leaders

earned their special lunch of

chicken tenders and chips, a

popper and choc wafers. PM

Makayla did a great job keeping

students on track with the

agenda and Treasurer Hayley

took minutes. They decided to

PEATS RIDGE PUBLIC SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

1231 Peats Ridge Road Peats Ridge 2250 25th March, 2019 Ph: 4373 1149 Fax: 4373 1076 Week 9 Term 1 Email: peatsridge-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au www.peatsridge-p.schools.nsw.gov.au

DIARY DATES

TERM 1 Every Monday: Newsletter Every Monday: Scripture

Every Friday: Sport

29th March ASSEMBLY - 2.15pm

Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking

2nd April Mrs Varley’s Last Day Girl’s Club Farewell

4th April Big Vegie Crunch

Start Smart Financial Literacy Workshops

8/9th April Parent-Teacher Interviews

12th April Easter Hat Parade & Hunt

P & C Raffle

30th April ANZAC Service

3rd May Small Schools’ Cross Country

PBL VALUE OF THE WEEK

Excellence - Excellent bookwork

limit each meeting to ten items so that there’s still time to play and may need to schedule two meetings per

term if the student body keeps suggesting lots of points for discussion. The following actions will be taken:

Build a cubby house / fort- Ms Austin to consult with staff and GA Mark and get quotes

Buy new chapter books for P2- clean out P2 shelves, replace with a rotating selection of Library books, buy new

books with Book Fair profits

Do Sport every Tue and Fri- Sport will remain on Fridays but staff will introduce a new weekly PE program based

on ‘Fundamental Movement Skills’

Do more Art- we already fulfil the NESA requirement for Creative Arts of 6-10% of a school week

Have more cooking lessons- currently 2x/term but we’re looking into more as our garden develops

Get nets for soccer goals- Mr Randall said they’re expensive and deteriorate quickly but we’ll look into them for

Woolies ‘Earn and Learn’ rewards

Paint the classrooms- not really needed yet but planned as cyclical maintenance after finishing painting the

office this year and Library next year

Plant more fruit trees- staff already have this on their agenda

Get a class pet for P2- convince Mr Randall!

Laminated ‘Meeting Agenda’ sheets are now on display in both classrooms and

students have been invited to add suggestions on post-it notes whenever they come up with a great idea.

Harmony Day – A Feast for the Senses!

Last Thursday, the school was decorated in orange banners, balloons, streamers and flags to celebrate Harmony

Day. Students looked great in their orange mufti and Elijah, Rachel and Lydia wore colourful ‘capulana’ outfits

from Mozambique and Tara looked beautiful in her pretty, pink ‘yukata’ from Japan. School leaders gave

everyone a ribbon pin, stickers and a book mark and welcomed special guest Liz, her husband Greg and CWA

members Kaye, Margaret and Margie. Liz was originally from a small island off Bouganville and brought a carload

of artefacts to show everyone- bilum bags, woven baskets, a model canoe, traditional clothing, jewellery and

shell money. Margie also brought in boxes full of amazing carved wooden masks, bowls and sculptures and

dance wear. Brax brought in a folder full of his family history in PNG and Tara’s dad is in a PNG youtube clip

from when he visited the country on a rugby tour.

As a treat for lunch, we pretended to have a traditional ‘mumu’ (roasting pig and vegetables with hot coals in a

ground oven for hours), featuring roast pork (from Coles!), four different kinds of roasted sweet potato, fresh

coconut, mango, banana, passionfruit and pawpaw.

I loved listening to the students’ highlights of the day:

Lydia- I never had fresh coconut before and it was DELICIOUS!

Hudson- I liked the big, wood canoe.

Bronte- I liked the baby in the basket.

Calloway- I liked the roast pork and coconut.

Hastings- I loved the feast and trying new foods like roast pork and pawpaw.

Ali- I liked the baby basket and little doll.

Brax- My favourite bit was showing everyone about my family in Papua New Guinea. Papa Joe drilled for gold

and when I was born he came to Australia and gave me a piece of gold worth $1000.

Hunter- I learned how to count to 5 in pidgin and the money was cool.

Noah- I want to know what happens when a bad storm comes. Their huts are made out of sago palms and

leaves…

Jasper- I liked finding out all about Papua New Guinea. It was really interesting. The roast pork was delicious!

Kade- I loved wearing the grass skirt and it doesn’t matter in Papua New Guinea if you can see your butt crack

at the back!

Rachel- Lydia and I wore special red ‘capulana’ ( 2m long cotton fabric, printed with geometric African patterns

and contrasting colors) skirts from Mozambique. I didn’t like the pawpaw much.

AJ- I loved finding out about school, what they wear and cook. I tried fresh coconut before but this time it was

much sweeter.

Ollie- I liked eating all the passionfruit but didn’t like the sweet potato much.

Isabella- I liked the weavings and bags made from vines. I got dressed up in a brightly-coloured ‘meri’ blouse and

skirt. I never knew there were so many provinces and languages.

Zoe- It was fun when we got to see Kade dressed up in the grass skirt. I loved the seasoning on the pork.

Beau- I got to try on the men’s ‘laplap’ with a red, yellow and black shirt and special boar’s tusk necklace. It was

huge and really cool!

Elijah- I loved wearing my ‘capulana’ shirt that mum made and told the class about the terrible cyclone in

Mozambique.

Briony- I learned that their money is sized depending on the value and all about Liz’s island and about boyfriends

having to pay a ‘bride price’. Papua New Guineans speak 835 different languages!

Savannah- I loved trying new things like the fresh coconut and pawpaw.

Hayley- I liked singing the traditional song in pidgin and looking at Liz and Margie’s amazing stuff.

Makayla- I gave one of my f irst thank-you speeches and gave Liz and her husband two jars of Peats Ridge honey.

Poor Noah broke out in a rash later, finding out the hard way that he and pawpaw don’t get along.

Stikeez Swap Day

The fruit and vegie fun continued on Friday with ‘Stikeez Swap Day’ during Breaks 1 and 2.

Nearly everyone was able to complete their collections and many students who started with

only a few, ended up with all 24 due to the generosity of others- so heartwarming to see.

Sadly, no-one had to share the $100 winnings of a Golden Billy Banana with me!

Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking Competition

Six students in Stage 2 and six in Stage 3 have shown interest in representing

Peats at the regional ‘Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking Competition’

so we’re holding a school final this Friday during assembly, as each school can

only enter two contestants in each division. Assembly will need to start at

2.15pm to allow for the speeches. All welcome!

The school will cover the entry fee of $20/student and transport them to the regional final, which will be held

in the last four weeks of Term 2.

For 24 years now, this competition has been encouraging primary school students to explore ideas of

multiculturalism in Australia, as well as improving their confidence and public speaking skills. Last year, more

than 2000 students across NSW participated! Please visit the website to view last year’s amazing state finalists: https://www.artsunit.nsw.edu.au/speaking-competitions/public-speaking/multicultural-perspectives-public-speaking-competition-0 Contestants must deliver a prepared speech from a list of multicultural topics and an impromptu speech on a

general theme. The adjudicators will make their decision based on the matter, manner and method the

contestants employ in presenting their speeches. Speakers are encouraged to use palm cards and must present

without the use of a mic or lectern. No props or aids are allowed. All contestants will receive a certificate. Good

luck everyone!

ANZAC Services

Included in this newsletter is information regarding Mangrove Mountain

Memorial Club’s ANZAC service on Sunday, 14th April at 2pm. I’m interested in

organising student representation from our small schools. Please see me if you

are planning to attend. We’ll hold our school commemoration during the first

week of next term.

Also included are details on the The Springs ‘Willy Wonka’ evening, NAPLAN

Online information for Year 3 and 5 students and Scoliosis information for Year 5 and 6 girls.

Unfortunately, the Central Coast Council’s Book Mobile broke down for the fourth time

last week and may be out of action for a while. I’ll let you know as soon as it’s back in

action.

And now to end on a very happy note- Mr Randall texted me over the weekend to say

he’s now the proud Pop to beautiful grand-daughter Violet Mary Randall.

Congratulations!

Ms Austin - Principal (rel)

Great writing Bronte!