Issue #36 19th October, 2020

Term 4 19 & 26 November—Kinder Transition 3 December—Spelling Bee 11 December—Infants Presen-tation 16 December—Yr 6 Graduation

Principals Report

Well we are half way through the last term at school in 2020. It has been a

very busy term with many things trying to get back to normal, or the new

normal. Last week we were able to have our Public Speaking Competition,

Pink day and our Kindergarten Transition day. These days all looked a little

different to the previous years but they were great events.

We are still unable to have parents and non-essential people on site so our

public speakers just had their own stage as the audience and parents were

able to Zoom in to watch their child. We had over 40 speakers and Mr Cox,

our adjudicator, was impressed with the quality of the speakers especially

year 2 students but also at how popular the competition was this year. A

big thanks to Miss Piper and Miss Angel for all their organisation to make

this day such a success.

Thanks to Mrs Barlow and her SRC team for their coordination of the Yass

Public School Pink Day, The high schoolteachers and students supported

the day and we all looked a treat. The students were very excited to be

dressing up and donating money for such a good cause.

On Thursday we saw many of our existing families bring their next child in

for transition day. These children and all of our new families to Yass were

able to try Kindergarten on for size. Parents had to sign COVID forms and

were not able to stay at the school but we had lots of excited children and

no tears even from the parents. This Thursday will see the second week of

transition. We look forward to welcoming them back. This week we will

introduce them to the year 5 students. These older students will become

their buddies for kindergarten in 2021.

Please let me know if you are experiencing difficulties or your

circumstances have changed we want to support your family in any way we

can.

Michelle Fahey

CONTACT DETAILS

Mrs Michelle Fahey, Principal

Yass Public School

Laidlaw St, YASS NSW 2582

Ph: 6226 1017

E: yass-

p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

W: yass-p.school.nsw.edu.au

Yass High Visit

All Stage 3 students have been invited to visit Yass High School tomorrow morning, Tues-

day 17th November 2020. Students will be given the opportunity to look through the new

STEM building and see their Science project on display alongside the work of Yass High stu-

dents. Students will also be given a tour of the school led by senior students and will be

able to do some ‘taster’ lessons in Art, Drama, Agriculture and Science. We are all looking

forward to seeing what high school may be like.

Mrs Stuart

Student Reports

This week students are being assessed in all areas of the curriculum ready for their teachers to include

those results in their report. We are writing reports at the moment and they will be available later in the

term.

Loom-Band Stall

Together Lilly, Millie, Ella, James & Rose decided to do our Loom-Band stall because we wanted to help

animals in the RSPCA Shelter. Together we raised above our highest goal $200.00. We raised a Whopping

$266.00 for the animals at the RSPCA. We have raised enough money to get a dog or cat desexed so they

can be adopted. We also raised enough money so the RSPCA can get medication for animals recovering

from surgery or in need. The spare $16.00 will be donated too, so the RSPCA can get some other things for

the shelter. Thank you for your support for this important cause.

Prac students

We have 2 Prac students doing their placement at our school this term. Miss Katia Manton is on Mrs

Stuart’s class and will finish at the end of this week. Miss Alyssa Thompson is in Mrs Barlow’s class and she

will be here for another 3 weeks. Prac placements are a great way for students to experience an authentic

school setting, get experience on class in a school and also make connections with staff. It is important that

we are supporting universities and students to produce our great teachers of the future.

Principals Awards

Darcy Bell

Darcy tries his best with all learning tasks, he has shown consistent improvement throughout the year.

He is gentle, kind and caring. He is a great friend to those around him. He helps others to feel like they

belong and he always uses his manners.

Harper Forth

Harper has worked hard all term to complete class work on time. She works hard and this has lead to

success. She has a positive attitude towards her learning and is developing more confidence in dealing

with challenges. She is a great role model for other students around our school.

Writers Awards

Amy Beresford

Amy wrote a very creative and entertaining story about wild horses. She edited her work and read it

beautifully. The language she used to paint a picture for the reader was lovely. She should be very

proud of her great effort.

Mekari Wallace

Mekari wrote a very creative and entertaining story about getting a pet unicorn. The illustrations were

also great. He is trying hard to include adjectives in his written work. He should be very proud of his

great effort.

Pink Day

Last Friday Yass Public School teamed up with Yass High School to support Pink Day. Pink Day is a

cancer fundraiser aimed at not only raising funds for prevention programs, support services and vital

research, but also awareness of this widespread disease.

All students were encouraged to come dressed in pink and make a gold coin donation to this worthy

cause. The staff were absolutely amazed at the positive response and the creativity from students

(and their families!!). We raised a total of $619.80 (5/6S raised the most with $77) which was passed

on to be added to Yass High’s efforts. Pictured below are our ‘best dressed’ from each class with Yass

High School representatives Tom Bell and Heath Buffington:

KB - Maddie Hoad, KP – Avayah Redmond, KP – Yashvi Khurana, 1/2A – May Shaw, 1/2B – Bella Hof-

man-Haines, 1/2D – Jayce Robinson, 1/2H - Makaylin Daley, 1/2V – Harry Hodge, 3/4B - Ryan Witham,

3/4M - Ashton Cooke-Bosustow, 3/4P - Cooper Wykes, 5/6B – Axle Wilson, 5/6S - Elisha Witham, 5/6P

– Arabella King.

SRC Report

The SRC was extremely happy with the success of Pink Day and would like to thank everyone for their

kind donations. We have even written to our sponsor child Clintone and told him all about it. Our next

focus is coming up with ways to encourage students to recycle their rubbish better.

Our Return and Earn total for the last fortnight was $50.30. Our current available balance is $996.00.

YPS Public Speaking Competition 2020

Last week 45 of our students from Years 2-6 participated in our annual YPS Public Speaking Com-petition. We are proud of all these students who spent time preparing their speech, rehearsing it and then delivering it in front of their stage peers on the competition day. All students spoke pas-sionately about their topic and are congratulated on their performances. They definitely made it challenging for the adjudicators, Mr Cox, Mrs Fahey and Miss Angel, to choose the winners. See the competition results below:

Year 2

Winner: Maddison Crowe

Runners Up: Amy Beresford

Ubaidullah Rubbani

Year 3

Winner: Billie Faulkner

Runner Up: Miley Jones

Year 4

Winner: Lucas Butt

Runners Up: Gabrielle Penfold and Shaun Job

Year 5

Winner: Kate-Marie Storey

Runners Up: Millie Maquire, Caillen Faulkner and Anzac Longley

Year 6

Winner: Lachlan Penfold

Runner Up: Janika Vea

Encouragement Award: Hannah Hare

We thank our host, Emma Barlow, as well as our technology assistants, Seth Faulkner and Seth McCrudden, for helping the competition run smoothly. Special thanks to Mr Cox for generously offering his own time to adjudicate and words of wisdom to our participants.

If you can speak, you can influence. If you can influence, you can change lives.

~Robert Brown

READING IS OUR SUPERPOWER!

Each class has been paired up with a buddy class for weekly buddy reading sessions this term. We have received positive feedback from students, teachers and parents! It is a highlight of each week

for many. See some of the students in KP and 3/4M enjoying their buddy reading below.

K-2 Sport

For the next few weeks, all Infants classes will be participating in some friendly games of cricket to practise their catching, throwing and batting skills. Last week 1/2D and KP showed great participation and had a ball playing together dressed in pink. Shoutouts go to…

Annabelle Neuhaus for bowling

Amelia Crisp for batting

Jayce Robinson for bowling and batting

Jarvis Cross, Jack Dowrick, Dominic Massey and Harry Scroope for fielding

Fruit and Veg Break

KP students have been LOVING their fruit and veggie breaks this term. Each day they have been bringing a healthy treat to snack on and Miss Piper has been bringing a fruit or vegetable for them to try each Fri-day. So far their favourites have been mango and kiwi fruit!

KB Fairytales

In KB over the past few weeks in Kindergarten we have been reading different fairytales. Here is

some of KB’s wonderful artworks to reflect: The Paperbag Princess, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack

and the Beanstalk.

Kindergarten Orientation

On Thursday we held our first of three orientation days for the new 2021 Kindergarten students. Thank

you to our parents for their patience while we went through the new COVID restrictions and filling of forms

especially with the treats of rain. With a lot of excitement and nerves we had a wonderful morning full of

free play, drawing and a story about a dog with spots. It was so cute to see how many came dressed in

their Yass Public School uniforms. We look forward to seeing everyone again this Thursday 9.30-11am, and

the following Thursday 9.30 to 1pm.

KP’s Latest Award Recipients

Although the year is almost over, KP students are showing no sign of slowing down. They have been keeping up with their home reading, sight word practice and displays of positive behaviour, which have earned them more and more awards! Special congratulations goes to KP student, Michael Langdown, who was the first student in our school to receive a Red Band this year for consistently displaying re-spect, responsibility and participation! See KP’s most recent award recipients below.

Fairytale Fun

KP have loved our fairytale focus this term. Each week we have been reading a different fairytale and writing about the characters, settings and events in the story. We have also enjoyed creating artworks about each fairytale and particularly liked making little pig biscuits!

Week 5 in 5/6B

Last week was a busy week for 5/6B. Miss Thompson, a student teacher in her third year of University,

joined our class for a 4 week practicum. In addition, we were well represented at the Public Speaking

competition, had almost the entire class reach a new PBL level (including 21 red bands and 1 blue

band!), dressed up in pink and got messy with paint. Our painting was for a NAIDOC week activity to

celebrate this year’s “Always was. Always will be.” theme. It involved students creating crayon rubbings

from natural objects, then using these to create a collage of Aboriginal constellations which we stuck to

a painted night sky. Our artwork symbolises the strong connection First Nations peoples have with

nature and pays tribute to their oral stories and early astronomy. Below is an assortment of photos

from our week, including a photo of both 5/6B and 5/6S receiving their red bands.

What’ll Happen to the Wattle?

As you will remember from the last newsletter, a small group of Yass Public students created a video

application to be part of the What’ll Happen to the Wattle? program. Last week we received the very

exciting news that we were successful!

This means that in May 2021 our school will be sent Golden Wattle seeds that have been on the Inter-

national Space Station for six months. We will then be able to grow these seeds and others that have

not been in space and compare them. Our students will be responsible for looking after the plants as

they grow and sharing the data that we collect with the wider scientific community.

The rocket (SpaceX 21) carrying the seeds is scheduled to launch on December 2nd from the Kennedy

Space Centre in Florida. These dates change regularly but, if possible, we hope to give interested stu-

dents the opportunity to watch the launch online. Well done again to all the students involved.

Robyn Phillips

Indigenous Reading Project Book Swap

The Indigenous Reading Project Book Swap event will take place in week seven of this term. A big

thank you to all of the families who have already donated books for this event. You may still donate

books during week six if you wish to do so.

Students will be able to visit the school hall during recess and lunchtimes to buy donated books. Book

prices range from a single silver coin up to a gold coin donation depending upon the book age and con-

dition. All funds raised will go to the Indigenous Reading Project, an organisation that raises funds to

help promote reading in remote Aboriginal communities.

Kind regards,

Ms. Marple

Aboriginal Education Coordinator

NAIDOC WEEK

NAIDOC week occurred during week five at Yass Public School. The dates across Australia for this cele-

bration were changed this year due to COVID. Yass Public School celebrated the event in their classes

and experienced a wide range of cultural activities. A NAIDOC poster colouring in competition will be

judged on Wednesday Week Six with two prizes awarded for each stage. We will notify you of the win-

ners in the next newsletter.

Stage Two classes and a select group of students during Friday sports session took place in a fun event

revolved around Aboriginal sports games. We were very lucky to have Tom Bell and Heath Buffington

from Yass High School come to teach us the game “buroinjin”. This Aboriginal ball games is from South

Queensland and could be loosely described as a unique mix of soccer and netball. Everyone had a fan-

tastic time and experienced learning some new skills.

Kind regards,

Ms. Marple

Aboriginal Education Coordinator

Book Fair

In week 4, Yass Public School held its annual library fundraiser and hosted a Scholastic book fair. I’m

delighted to announce that it was the most successful book fair held at YPS! The funds raised will go

towards the purchasing of updated non-fiction books for our school library and assist with buying

teaching resources for all the classrooms.

Thank you to all YPS students for being patient and respectful through the week, as there were some

wait times to enter the library and we are still waiting for books to arrive to those who needed to reor-

der books. A big thank you to the wider YPS community for embracing and supporting our book fair. It

all couldn’t have been made possible without the phenomenal support and help from the YPS teachers,

were gave up their lunchtimes to come and help out with the book fair madness. Thank you so much!

The number of smiles and enthusiasm from the students was a clear indicator that the book fair and all

book week festivities were a roaring success.

Library News

Book Parade Winner

Happy reading YPS!

Mrs Hopley and Mrs Smith - Librarians

On Friday of week 4, the winner of the book parade was announced. CONGRATULATIONS to KM, who

took out the win with 88 votes! The online vote for this year’s book parade has been astounding, with

more interest received than expected. It’s been a wonderful platform to engage with our broader YPS

community. Thank you to those that voted, shared and participated in the fun of book parade.

KM were welcomed to the library at lunchtime ready for a hot chip party! After lunch KM got to watch

a short movie and play in the library with balloons and books. The perfect ending to fun week. Well

done KM!

This term, School Banking day will be on Wednesdays. Please make

sure your child brings their book to school on this day. It will then be

returned to your child on Thursday.

Please note that during COVID-19, the Dollarmites Tokens will not be

issued. However, the Tokens are being kept up to date in the Banking

system so when a reward is due you will be notified.

Happy banking everyone!

Canteen News

New Menu for Term 4