Newsletter Term 2 Week 3
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
What a great day it was for our school cross country last Thursday. With weather like it was it would be hard not to have a great day. By all accounts the students enjoyed their time at Willandra and competed well in the cross country. We are now in full training for the district cross country which will be held on Wednesday 27 May.
A big thank you to Mr Hansen for his usual high standard of organisation and also to the staff and parents who helped on the day. Thank you to those parents who came along and supported their child on the day.
The results are listed below:
8/9 years Boys 2000m 8/9 Years Girls 2000m
1st Owen Winter 1st Karli Flint
2nd Harry Bowcher 2nd Jade Flint
3rd Tristan Roberts 3rd Chloe Bruton
10 Years Boys 2000m 10 Years Girls 2000m
1st Callum Lewis 1st Shaye Cruickshank
2nd Haydn Eli 2nd Alyssa Peters
3rd Noah Windley 3rd Alicia Constable
11 Years Boys 3000m 11 Years Girls 3000m
1st Bryce Mason 1st Indiana Van Arkel
2nd Kyle Batalla 2nd Ashleigh Peter
3rd Patrick Hutchison 3rd Charlotte Lee
12/13 Years Boys 3000m 12/13 Years Girls 3000m
1st Blake Wakeling 1st Kaitlin Forwood
2nd Adam Watson 2nd Jazmin Gration
3rd Dylan Treffery 3rd Ruby Hoye
Winning House 1st Wattle
2nd Bluegum
3rd Waratah
4th Banksia
Education Week
Education Week will be celebrated in Week 5of this term, 25 May – 29 May. We are in the planning phase of this important celebration in our school calendar. We will be having an open day on Friday 29 May so keep tis day free. The open day will involve an assembly, class visits and some other whole school activities. We will be producing a program next week and this will be sent home.
We will also be holding a disco for our students on Thursday evening, 28 May. The disco will be held in two sessions with K-2 starting at 4:30pm and finishing at 6:00pm. The Y3 – Y6 session will begin at 6:15pm and conclude at 8:00pm. The cost of the disco will be $5 with each student receiving a drink and a packet of chips.
NAPLAN
Over the next three days the students in Years 3 and 5 will be sitting for the National Assessment Program in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions and Numeracy. These assessments are used to inform our planning for the future. These tests will highlight the school’s strengths and areas that we need to work on. Unfortunately we don’t have a similar to measure to measure social adjustment and good citizenship which are strengths of our school.
Building the Education Revolution
I have been advised that the Department has made submission to the Commonwealth Government’s Building the Education Revolution for four new classrooms to be installed at our school. This submission is currently waiting for final approval. I anticipate that these rooms will be built in phase 2 of the program.
David Hogg
Principal
Newsletter Term 2 Week 2
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Once again this week will be a very busy one. On Thursday the annual cross country will be held at Willandra. This is a K-6 event with all students from the school going to the course. Mr Hansen has done a great job organising the day. Parents should have received a permission note yesterday. The note gives all the details of the day. Please ensure that all permission notes are returned to school by Thursday.
The P&C will be running a sausage sizzle on the day and sausages should be ordered using the tear off slip on the note.
Parents are very welcome to come and support their children on the day.
NAPLAN
The National Assessment Program conducted each year for students in Years 3,5,7 and 9 will be held next week. The Language and Writing aspects of the test will be held on Tuesday morning. Reading will be held on Wednesday morning with the Numeracy component being held on Thursday morning. Students who are away for any of the tests but are present on Friday will be able to catch up on the tests that they missed on Friday.
It is essential that all students in Years 3 and 5 are here for the test unless they have a signed exemption from a parent. Exemptions are for students with special needs that would prevent them from completing the tests. We have already contacted parents of those students who need an exemption.
Please make sure that your child is at school by 8:55am on these mornings as we will begin the testing immediately after the bell.
Mother’s Day Stall
The Mother’s Day stall will be held on Friday. Students will be given the opportunity to purchase a small gift to give mum on Sunday. More details are found in this newsletter.
P&C
The next meeting of the P&C will be held tomorrow evening in the staff room beginning at 7:00pm.
PBS
At the end of last term our PBS, Positive Behaviour for Success, team went to Bateman’s Bay for training. One of the aspects of PBS that we have been developing is the defining of three values for our school. The team has worked hard at this and after considering a number of these have come up with: Respect, Responsibility and Personal Best.
The team meets regularly after school and will be looking a ways that we can teach these values to our students. Students need to know what these values look like, sound like and feel like when they are being modelled. The team is also looking at where some behaviour issues exist in our playground and ways of avoiding these continuing to occur.
The PBS program is a long term commitment by our school. This means that there will be changes to our practice over time. These changes will be made after consultation with all staff and involvement of the P&C.
Regional Principal’s Conference
I will be away from school on Thursday and Friday of this week as I will be attending the Annual Illawarra South east Regional Principal’s Conference in Wollongong. This is our Regional Director, Graeham Kennedy’s, last official function before retirement. Graeham will be replaced by Maria Gray- Spence as Regional Director.
David Hogg
Principal
Newsletter Week 1 Term 2
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
I hope that everyone enjoyed a great Easter and a restful vacation. This Term will be very busy again with a great variety of activities happening for all students.
Welcome Mrs Lees and Mrs Thomson
I am pleased to announce that Mrs Cassandra Lees was successful in gaining the Assistant Principal’s position left vacant by Mrs Jenkinson’s promotion at the end of 2008. Mrs Lees comes to us from Tullimbar Public School where she was also in the position of Assistant Principal. She brings a great deal of experience to the position.
I am happy to welcome Mrs Thomson back to take 7W for the rest of 2009. Mrs Thomson is replacing Miss Walsh who has left Australia to live in New Zealand. Mrs Thomson is well known to us as she has been a long term temporary teacher at our school.
New Technology
During the term the school will receive its first interactive whiteboard under the government’s roll out program. This will have video conferencing capability that will allow us to be in contact with other places any where in the world that have similar equipment. There will be a number of staff trained in how to use this most effectively in teaching and learning.
Throughout the remainder of the year we will be progressively installing more interactive whiteboards into classrooms. The introduction of this technology will enhance the learning of all students.
ANZAC March
The school was well represented at the Bomaderry ANZAC March on Saturday. It is great to have student and parent support in participating in such an important community event. Thank you to all the students who represented our school on Saturday. Thank you to the parents of the students for supporting the school in participating in this event. A big thank you to Mrs Dilley, Mrs George and Mrs Lewis for marching with our students.
David Hogg
Principal
NEWSLETTER WEEK 11
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Tomorrow we will be holding our ANZAC Ceremony. We are holding t now because ANZAC Day falls in the school holidays and we feel it is very important to observe this very important day in our history. We will begin the ceremony at 10:30 in the school hall.
We are fortunate to have representatives of the RSL and HMAS Albatross coming to the ceremony. These guests will make small presentations on the significance of this day in our culture. Two of our leaders will lay a wreath.
We are asking for students to bring flowers to school, as has been the tradition at our school, so that we can make an appropriate floral tribute at the school flag pole. Flowers can be brought in and given to teachers as soon as students arrive at school.
Community Observance of ANZAC Day
The community will observe ANZAC Day on Saturday 25 April. The school, as in the past, will participate in this ceremony. The ceremony will begin with a march from Bomaderry RSL beginning at 9:00am. There is a note attached to this newsletter giving details of the arrangements for the day. If your child is able to participate in the important event please complete the tear off slip and return it to school by Thursday.
PBS Training
Miss Graham, Mrs Dilley, Mrs Fletcher and Mr Lloyd were in Batemans Bay for two day last week attending the Positive Behaviour for Success training program. We are implementing this very successful program in our school over the next three years. The school has established a PBS team that meets regularly to discuss action and implementation of the program in our school. The team has a coach, a teacher from another school, who ensures that we stay focussed on the program as it relates to our school.
Adam Watson Successful Again
Last Friday Adam Watson attended the Shoalhaven District Hockey Trials at Bernie Regan Oval. Once again Adam displayed his great skills and was selected in the district team to attend the regional trails next term. Well done Adam.
Easter Hat Parade
On Thursday we will celebrate Easter with an Easter Hat Parade. The parade will begin at 12:00pm will all classes assembling in the school hall. The students will parade their hats marching around the hall class by class. At the conclusion of the hat display the Easter raffle will be drawn. We are hoping to have about twenty prizes, like last year, to give to the lucky winners. This is a fun event and parents are most welcome to come and be part of this enjoyable part of the Easter celebrations.
Signing Students Out
Often after events such as the Easter Hat Parade parents like to take their children home for the afternoon. This is permissible but parents must sign their child out at the office as a record of this happening. Parents are not permitted to sign out children that are not theirs unless they have written permission of the parent of the child that they wish to sign out.
Miss Walsh
Thursday will be Miss Walsh’s last day teaching at our school for sometime. She is moving to New Zealand and won’t be back in Australia for sometime. We will all miss her around the school especially 7W who have been very lucky to have such a great teacher this term.
I would like to thank Miss Walsh for all her hard work at our school in 2008 and this year and wish her all the best in New Zealand.
Autumn Vacation
On Thursday the school will begin the Autumn Vacation. The vacation will last slightly more that two weeks. Students return to school on Wednesday 29 April.
I would like wish all families a happy Easter and a safe and restful vacation.
David Hogg
Principal
Newsletter Term 1 Week 9
For the full Newsletter click here.
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Thank you to those parents who have responded to my request for safe parking and dropping off of students before and after school each day. With all of the traffic congestion at the front of the school it is important that we take as much care as possible to ensure that our students and children remain safe.
Contact Details
It is important that the school has accurate current contact details for all students. There are times hen the school needs to contact parents and this is very difficult when the phone numbers held by the school are not connected or have changed. This also applies to current residential address. If you have moved or changed your address since your child was enrolled or your telephone number has changed could you please contact the school as a matter of urgency and have this information corrected.
Rugby League Success
The school continues to perform well on the sporting field. Last week our stage 3 boys competed in the Rod Wishart Shield at Lyrebird Park. We played games against Greenwell Point twice and Nowra Public School winning all three games. Well done.
Our stage 2 boys played in the Rod McGregor Shield also at Lyrebird Park. We played games against Nowra, Culburra, Falls Creek and Greenwell Point Public Schools. We were successful in winning all three of these games. This was another fine effort from the boys.
Shoalhaven District Representation
Congratulations to Brian Williams who has been selected to represent the Shoalhaven District at the Southern Illawarra Zone trials. These trials will be held on Tuesday 31 March
Autumn Vacation
Parents are reminded that schools are having Monday 27 as a holiday as part of the autumn vacation. School will resume for students on Wednesday 29 March. As there is not a public holiday for ANZAC Day this year this situation has become confusing. Please make a note of this situation.
Multi-Catagorical Class
This class began operating yesterday. At this stage the class has 5 students with more to be transitioned across this week. I am sure that this will make a positive addition to our school.
David Hogg
Principal
Newsletter Week 8
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Dear Parents and caregivers,
I spoke last year of the proposed addition of a special education class to our school. This class will start full operation next Monday. Ms Leanne Dubbelde has been appointed as the teacher for 2009 and Mrs Renee Pudney will be the full time student learning support officer. The classroom is located behind the rooms 3 and four. It will be fully fenced as a safety precaution.
The class is a multi-catagorical grouping which means that all the students who are enrolled have a similar disability. Often these students will have another disability as well. At this stage there will be approximately nine students in the class. The class will gradually be integrated into our school routines and at the same time take advantage of the resources and environment of Havenlee
There have been a number of these type of classes established in our region this year. Other school to gain one of these classes are Nowra High School and Albion Park Public School. There are other such classes at Warilla and Tullimbar Public Schools.
The establishment of this class will add to our school culture of inclusiveness and teach our students first hand appreciation of those students who have a disability.
More AFL Success
Last Friday our stage 2 students were involved in an Australian Football Gala Day in Nowra. The team was mixed team of boys and girls. During the day they played three games, against Nowra East, Illaroo Road and St Michaels Catholic School, winning all of them. This is a fantastic effort and certainly reinforces the words of our school song “ Go maroon and blue”.
After two such great performances, from our stage 2 and 3 students, North Nowra Public School can be very proud of their achievements.
Absences from School
Parents are reminded that all absences from school require a note of explanation. If a note is not received then the absence is marked as unexplained. After three of these absences we are required to follow p with parents. If our follow up does not resolved the situation then the Home School Liaison Officer will become involved. Please send a note to school explaining their absence on their return to school after being absent.
My Absence This Week
I will be away from school from this afternoon until Monday. Tomorrow I will be in Batemans Bay convening the South Coast Area Primary Cricket trials. On Thursday and Friday I will be at Head Office in Sydney attending a meeting of principals with the senior executive of the Department of Education. In my absence Miss Graham will be the relieving principal.
David Hogg
Principal.
Newsletter Week 7
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Dear Parents and Caregivers,
It was pleasing to have so many parents at the Annual General Meeting of the P&C last Wednesday evening. The committee for 2009 was elected and is as follows:
President: Kim Webb Wagg
Vice President: Steve Johnson
Secretary: Michael Dilley
Treasurer: Tracey Mudditt
Minute Secretary: Samantha George
Canteen Convenor: Tina Smart
Fundraising Coordinator: Sharlene Dilley
Thank you to the committee for accepting nomination for the committee this year. Am confident that the P&C will have another successful year like 2008.
At the general meeting that followed the AGM parents raised a number of issues with me. The first of these relates to excursions at school. Every excursion that we participate in future will have a permission note signed by me. The note will include all details of the excursion on the top half of the page. There will be a tear off section on the bottom half of the page that parents will sign giving permission for their child to participate.
Another concern of parents was that medical forms accompany all excursions. This unfortunately is the department’s policy and ensures that we have up to date information in relation to all participant’s health.
Whooping Cough
Parents may be aware that the region is experiencing a whooping cough pandemic. I am advising parents that a student from the school has contracted this disease. If your child has not been immunised you need to seek the advice of your doctor. This may mean withdrawing your child from school for a short period.
Road Safety
This was also raised by the P&C as an issue. We are concerned that one of our students will be critically injured leaving the school at the end of the day. Despite my requests that parents not enter the designated bus area at the front of the school this is still happening. We have instances of parents parking on the footpath on both sides of Judith Drive. This is not providing a safe environment for students to enter or leave school.
Please ensure that you are leading the right example when it comes to picking up your child from school.
Paul Kelly Cup Success
Last week I advised that the school’s stage 3 students were playing in the Paul Kelly Cup competition in Nowra. I am very pleased to report that our team has qualified for the next series to be held in Batemans Bay later this month. Well done to all of our participants on the day.
Fence Nearing Completion
I expect that the new fence around the school will be completed by the end of this week. When this happens we will be reviewing procedures for entry and exit from the school during school hours and at dismissal times. In all likelihood the fence will be gates in Page Ave and Nellor Place will be locked during the day. This will mean that all student’s bags outside classrooms will be safe. We had a number of incidents last year where student’s bags were stolen while they were in class. Rooms 3 and 4 were easy targets for this.
Parents will be advised of any new procedures before they are actually implemented.
David Hogg
Principal
Newsletter Week 6
For complete Weekly Bulletin, click here
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
It was great to see so many families at the P&C bar be que on Sunday. All the children were really enjoying the face painting the balloons and games being played. The sausage sizzle was very well received.
A big thank you to our members f the P&C for organising and working hard on the day to make it a great success.
Sporting Success
Last Thursday our school swimming team competed in the Shoalhaven District PSSA at the Bomaderry. All of our representatives gave of their best and represented our school with pride. Jordan Collins was our best swimmer and she has been selected in the Shoalhaven District Team to compete at the South Coast Area swimming Carnival on Thursday. I am sure that Jordan will again represent our school and our district with pride. I look forward to hearing of her success.
On Friday Paddy Hutchison and Adam Watson represented our school at the District Australian Football Trials. It is fantastic to report that both of these boys were selected in the district team and will now trial for the South Coast Area Team later in March. Congratulations to these two boys.
Today some of our Stage 3 students are competing in the Paul Kelly Cup at Nowra. This is an Australian Football Carnival. The winners of this carnival will go on to play winners of other districts until a regional champion is determined.
P&C AGM
The annual General Meeting of the Parents and Citizens Association will be held tomorrow evening. The meeting will be held in the staff room beginning at 7:00pm.
I know that many people avoid annual meetings as they feel that they will be roped into taking a position. I hope that this is not the case at our school. The simple fact however, is that if we don’t have enough people to fill the positions and a committee is not formed then the P&C will cease to operate. If this happens then many of the great activities organised by our P&C will not happen. Such things as the Mother’s Stall won’t occur.
Most significantly would be that our school canteen would not be open as the canteen committee is a sub committee of the canteen. Please if you are able make the time available to come to the meeting and participate in your child’s education.
Parking and Safety Problems
A fortnight ago I outlined the fines that apply to parking and driving offences around schools. If you have not read this I suggest that you do. Yesterday at the end of the day a number of parents parked on the bus stop area causing a great deal of congestion and a safety problem. The area that is used for buses is clearly marked with a notice that says “No Parking Bus Loading Area”. I ask that parents please observe this sign at all times.
David Hogg
Principal
Newsletter Term 1 Week 3
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Thank fully the dispute between the NSW Teachers Federation and the Department of Education and Training has been resoled. This should mean that there will not be any further disruption the teaching and learning program in our school. The resolution has some new features that includes pupil free days at the en of the school year. I have not received all the details of the resolution at this stage but when I do I will keep you informed through this newsletter.
Classes for 2009
Yesterday we formed ten classes for this year. We were fortunate to reach the required number for ten classes. At this stage I am waiting for confirmation from the department that our tenth class is approved. I don’t expect any problems with this. Mrs Schroder is teaching this class at present.
In forming the classes the staff has taken a great deal of care to cater for the needs of your child within the context of the stage. We have placed students where we feel they will achieve the best learning outcomes.
Swimming Carnival
The annual swimming carnival will take place on Thursday at the Nowra Pool. Mr Hansen has been working hard to ensure that we have a successful ad enjoyable day. There has been one significant change to our program for this year with all free swimming not being permitted.
This change in practice has come about in light of the coroners findings where a student drowned in a public pool in Sydney whilst participating in a school organised activity. In response to this ruling we will be organising more novelty activities that can be directly supervised.
The carnival will finish earlier than usual and we expect that all students will return to school by 1:30pm.
Please come along and support your child on what should be a great day.
Road Safety Around Schools
I have included a flyer relating to penalties that can be imposed on drivers that disobey road rules relating to school zones. The penalties are quite severe.
Business Card
I have attached my business card to this newsletter. If you have any concerns related to your child at school please contact me at your earliest convenience so that the concern can be resolved as quickly as possible.
David Hogg
Principal
