CREEKSIDE NEWS Term 2, Week 7

June 13, 2019

Canberra Excursion

Yesterday morning, very early, 26 very excited students from years 4, 5 and 6

greeted each other with bleary eyes and bright smiles. The day had finally arrived

and it was off to our nation’s capital they headed. From all accounts, the bus trip

was uneventful and all arrived at their chilly destination without an ounce of bus

sickness from anybody. Ms Bretreger and Miss Bruce assure us that all of our kids

are doing themselves and their school proud and are having a thoroughly enjoyable

time. A reminder that we anticipate that the bus will return between 6pm and

6.30pm on Friday evening. Please ensure that a responsible adult is there to meet

the bus when it arrives.

Waste Reduction at Dora Creek Public School

For those of you unaware, the school bins at our school have been allocated a particular method of waste

disposal; those being Food Waste, Soft Plastic Waste, Recyclable Waste and Return and Earn Waste. Our

students are currently in the process of being educated as to how these operate at school, and also in how you

can support this initiative at home. One of the most important things that you, our families, can do to enhance our

efforts in minimising waste is to firstly decrease the amount of packaged food that comes to school. This is easily

achieved in the following ways:

Remove wrappers from products such as muesli bars, popcorn and cakes/ muffins- or better still, make your

own treats with your kids.

Studies have shown that kids are more likely to eat raw and/ or healthy if they have had input into the

food preparation process. Not only this, you get to spend some quality time with your kids while

educating them at the same time. If you don’t know where to start, there are some great recipes

available on the Healthy Kids Website; many of which are created from products that have little or no

packaging.

Avoidance of packaged food is the best way to reduce waste in schools. Avoiding waste generation also

saves energy, resources and over-manufacturing of commonly used goods. So, before you whack a packet

of chips, or other pre-packaged food into your child’s lunchbox, ask yourself if there is a container around

that it can be emptied into and returned home each day instead; or choose a healthier raw treat in its place,

such as carrot sticks, apple pieces or watermelon.

UPCOMING EVENTS

20/ 06 Mini World Cup

21/ 06 Wheelchair Basketball

25/ 06 P and C Meeting

26/ 06 Last Canteen Day Term 2

28/ 06 NAIDOC/ Sorry Day

05/ 07 Final Day of Term 2

MUFTI Fundraiser

22/ 07 First Day of Term 3 (TBC)

01/ 08 Beanie for Cancer Fundraiser

02/ 08 The Twits- Civic Theatre

05/ 08 Education Week Begins

12/ 08 Zone Athletics

19/ 08 Book Week Parade

26/ 09 Final Day of Term 3 (TBC)

27/ 09 Staff development day (TBC)

Meeting- 7pm, Tuesday 25th June, 2019 in

the School Library.

Canteen

On Wednesday 26th June, the canteen will be

providing students with free samples of our

latest scroll flavours (cheese and vegemite, and/ or

pizza) in order to promote our new,

healthier dough recipe. We also wish to advise that

the price of these scrolls will soon be

reduced due to the change in cost as a result of

using the new recipe.

This day will also be the final day for

canteen in term 2.

As always, the canteen committee wishes to

advise that we are desperately short of canteen

helpers and, later in the year, will be even more so.

Some of our wonderful volunteers who shoulder

most of the burden in keeping our canteen open will

not be available and, without your support, the

canteen WILL close and our students will

unfortunately miss out. If you can help out in any

way, please advise either Kiri in the canteen, or the

school office. We really need your support in making

this happen so that we can continue to provide our

students with this fantastic service.

IMPORTANT: POSSIBLE TERM 3 VARIATION

As you may or may not be all aware, the first day of Terms 1, 2 and 3

are usually Staff Development Days; on which, our students do not attend

school. However, pending confirmation of the availability of some external

training providers and director approval, Dora Creek Public School MAY be

altering these dates JUST for Term 3 of this year. We as a staff are

investigating the possibility of implementing some new ways of teaching

mathematics within the school, and the earliest date available for our

preferred training provider is Friday 27th September, which is the FINAL day

of Term 3. This means, should this go ahead, that students will begin their

September/ October break on this day, rather than attending school. This

therefore, in turn, means that students will begin Term 3 on Monday 22nd

July, rather than Tuesday 23rd July. As you can see, in the “Upcoming

Events” tab, this is yet to be confirmed. More information regarding this

process will follow via the school newsletter, school website, the School

Stream application; and via the P & C Facebook page when these details are

confirmed.

Ms Anna Tod has been doing an absolutely

outstanding job with our students since the end of

Term 1 and throughout Term 2, teaching them dance

in a fun, highly energetic manner. I’m sure that she’s

been going home incredibly exhausted each Friday

but, like us, I’m also sure that she’d be feeling very

positive about her efforts, along with the impact that

she has had on our students thus far. As well as

taking each of our classes for a very vigorous, highly

enjoyable and engaging Dance Fit workout, she has

also been choreographing routines for both our junior

and senior dance groups with Mrs Green and Ms

Bretreger. As a result, and for the very first time, we

are extremely proud to announce that both groups

have successfully auditioned and been accepted into

the Hunter Schools Dance Festival, which will take

place at Wests City on Monday 29th July (Juniors);

and Tuesday 30th July (Years 4-6). Congratulations

and Well Done to all involved!!!

If you wish to attend this event as part of the

audience, tickets will be available for a flat fee of $20

per ticket. All seats will be non-reserved – meaning

“first in get the best seats”. Tickets can only be

purchased from Wests Newcastle from June 24th

onwards. Please be aware that tickets may sell out

prior to the day of the event start and there is no

guarantee that tickets will be available for purchase on

each of the performance nights. To avoid

disappointment, it is strongly suggested that people

wishing to attend the festival contact Wests directly

regarding ticketing information. We look forward to

seeing you all there in support of our fantastic kids.