Dates to Remember

Education Week Open Day

On Thursday 9th August Open Day was held. Unfortunately there was an issue with the group attending as organised. Thank you to all of the parents who attended for reorganising their plans at such short notice. Even though it wasn’t the day we had planned for, we hope you enjoyed the sausage sizzle and spending time viewing your children’s work.

We would like to thank the following people for their assistance prior to and or during Open Day:

Angie Pirie, Rebecca Tadrosse, Cheryl Baird, Rachael McKinlay, Robyn Vaha, Vanessa Smith, Sam Craigie, Danielle Boughton, Judy Miller, Liz Peters, Natalie Barnes and Sue Pryor.

Congratulations to the Andrews family for winning the meat raffle! Thank you to everyone who purchased raffle tickets on the day to raise money for the student gardens.

I would like to acknowledge the wonderful staff for always going above and beyond to provide educational opportunities and extra curricular learning experiences for the students at Bilpin.

We would like thank our wonderful community for supporting the school, helping out at school and fundraising projects and for embracing school projects and ultimately our school vision.

The theme for Education Week this week was ’Today’s schools - creating tomorrow’s world’. At Bilpin we are striving to make this vision a reality. Thank you for allowing us to be part of your child’s learning journey.

School Athletics Champions 2018

Congratulations to our School Athletic Champions who have been presented with their champion medallions.

Tex.H. - Juvenile Boy Champion Peppa.M. - Juvenile Girls Champion Bailey.C. - Junior Boy Champion Abby.T. - Junior Girl Champion Joel.B. - 11yr Boy Champion Ariarn.P. - 11yr Girl Champion Ryley.A. - Senior Boy Champion Alana.G. - Senior Girl Champion

Small Schools Athletics Carnival

Congratulations to all of our students for their fantastic efforts at the Small Schools Carnivals in Week 2. Thank you to all of the parents who transported students and helped out with the teams during the 2 days. Our school came 4th overall in the 2 carnivals, an amazing effort! The top 3 schools all had student enrolments over 100 so 4th place is a great achievement!

Congratulations to the following students who competed so successfully at the Small Schools’ Carnival. We had some fantastic results.

Abby.T. - 1st 10yr Girls 100m - 1st Junior Girls 200m - 1st Junior Girls long jump shot put & high jump Leander.M. - 1st 10yr Girls 100m - 2nd Junior Girls 200m - 1st Junior Girls 800m - 3rd Junior Girls long jump

Dion.N. - 1st Junior Boys shot put Luke.T. - 2nd 9yr boys 100m Beau.S. - 3rd Senior Boys 100m Nikola.M. - 2nd Senior Girls long jump Mitchell.R. - 1st Senior Boys high jump Ryley.A. - 2nd Senior Boys high jump - 3rd Senior Boys 200m Junior Girls relay - 1st

We wish our competitors all the very best at the Hawkesbury District Carnival on Wednesday 29th and Friday 31st August.

Parent Assembly

Parent Assembly was held on Monday 13th August. Congratulations to all of the students who received Bronze, Silver

BILPIN PUBLIC SCHOOL NEWSLETTER Excellence in Learning 2517 Bells Line of Road, BILPIN 2758 Telephone: 4567 1154 Fax: 4567 1388 Email: bilpin-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

www.bilpin-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

At Bilpin Public School we are SAFE, RESPECTFUL, LEARNERS

Term 3 Week 4 Tuesday 14th August 2018

TERM 3 2018

Week 4

Mon 13th Aug - Parent Assembly 2.45pm

Sat 18th Aug - Bilpin Bush Run

Week 5

Mon 5th Aug - Koala Incursion for Years 3,4 &5

Mon 5th Aug - Year 6 Transition Day Colo High

Tues 21st Aug - Return Colouring-in Competition

to office

Week 6

Wed 29th Aug - District Athletics Field Events

Fri 31st Aug - District Athletics Track Events

Week 7

Thurs 6th Sep - Book Fair

Sun 9th Sep - Spring Garden Working Bee

Competition

P & C Meeting

Monday 3rd September

The Staff Room 3.40pm

Bilpin Public School P & C Committee are as follows

President Angie Pirie 0414 570 365 Please feel free to contact any of Vice President Michelle Leer 0410 548 210 these representatives if you have Treasurer Cheryl Baird 0414 499 239 any concerns you wish to discuss Secretary Nikki Wheen 4567 1154

We warmly thank all of the Bush Tracker Excursion organisers for such a wonderful experience. We are looking forward to seeing Class 3/4’s artwork in print in the next few months!

Brewongle Environmental Education Centre Koala Incursion

Next Monday, staff from Brewongle will be visiting our school to conduct a koala incursion. Koalas are one of Australia's most famous animals, known around the world. However, koala populations are under increasing pressure and have declined in NSW by around 26% in the last 15-20 years. Without extra help, koala populations will continue to decline and eventually, they will be extinct in the wild.

The Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains region is one of the most important areas for koalas in Australia. It provides a very high diversity of habitats for them, and supports a large number of koalas which live inside the National Parks and reserves as well as on private land from Colo to Kurrajong and Grose Vale. Our role, as a local school in the area, is to learn about koalas and their habitats. Once we’ve researched koalas and assessed their habitat, the students will become a Koala Custodian, with a very important role in protecting our local koalas.

Students in Years 3/4/5 will be split into 2 groups to rotate through various activities: including; Scats & Tracks – students search for evidence of native and feral animals and conduct a habitat assessment of shelter trees. Koala Food – students use iBooks to identify local eucalypt species (food trees and habitat trees) and survey the school site for koala food trees. Students will then evaluate their findings and determine whether or not our school site is a potential habitat for koalas.

Later in the term on Saturday 15th September, there will be a Koala Festival at 10am at Memorial Park Kurrajong. We hope you can make it!

Kindergarten 2019 Transition Program

For parents who are considering enrolling their children in our 2019 Kindergarten class, we are offering some extra opportunities for the children to become familiar with our school environment with some transition to school days. Parents will receive an invitation pack which outlines details of the planned activities, dates and times. These will be made available to our current parents and we will also be visiting the preschool to distribute them later this term. The transition program will begin later this term and continue into early Term 4, culminating in our Kindergarten Orientation Day. All dates for the transition program will be published in the next newsletter.

If you are aware of any neighbours or friends that have school age children but have note yet contacted the school, please encourage them to contact the office for enrolment information. Thanking you.

Spring Garden Competition Working Bee

Once again our school will be entering into the Hawkesbury Council Spring Garden Competition.

We will be holding a Working Bee on Sunday 9th September from 9:30am, in preparation for the judging of the ‘Best School Gardens’.

We would love to see any volunteers who might be able to assist on the day, particularly if you have a keen green thumb! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This year the students will also be planting beans as part of the “Giant Bean Competition” which will be judged at the awards evening on Wednesday 17th October.

and Gold Awards! Our next Parent Assembly will be held in Week 10, the last week for this term.

Bilpin Bush Run

On Saturday 18th August, the Bilpin Bush Run will be taking place. Our P&C will be raising money for the school by running the BBQ. Thank you to the parents and staff who have volunteered their time to work during the day. As we are serving hot food and drinks, we are unable to have children in the serving area as this causes a danger to both the volunteers and the children, as minors are not covered by our insurance.

Thank you to the many families who have made donations of food and drink to be sold. The donations provided for the last 2 years have made a big difference in the overall profit which enables the P & C to subsidise more activities and programs for our students. Your support of this event is much appreciated!

School Painting

The painting of the school has just about concluded. It is very exciting to have a fresh coat of paint to spruce up the appearance of the school buildings!

Defibrillator

On Friday of last week, our new defibrillator was delivered to school. The machine worth over $2400, was generously donated by Hawkesbury Heart Start, as well as the McLaughlin, Barrett, McCloy families and our P & C. It is reassuring that with emergency services not very close at hand that we have our own life saving device on site. The location of the device is still being determined, but for the time being will be located in the administration building. We would like to thank Peter Gooley from Hawkesbury Heart Start for thinking of our school and initiating the donation of the machine. We are very grateful to Peter and the team for coordinating such an important program for schools and businesses in our local area.

Bush Trackers Excursion

In Week 2, Class 3/4 attended an excursion behind Bilpin Hall to map the walking track. We had an amazing team of excursion leaders Dindy and Mel from National Parks and Wildlife Services, Angie from Land Care, Marty from Hawkesbury Council and Peter Collier a local Bilpinite.

After walking to the hall from school, Mel presented an Aboriginal cultural talk, providing the students with examples of different tools that were used by Aboriginal people, sourced directly from the bush. She also taught us about different plants as we walked the track.

Marty from council spoke to the students about different animal species that the council is working to protect. He also invited the students to contribute towards the bush care magazine that is distributed by the council.

Throughout the walk the students stopped to draw various flora and natural features of the bush as well as observe and discuss animal scat and habitats.

The walking track really showcased the wonderful and unique environment that can be found in the Bilpin area. We highly recommend taking the 3km walk and seeing the various environments first hand.

The students learnt a great deal about our local area, local flora and fauna and the practices of the Dharug people, the traditional custodians of the Hawkesbury.

Term 3 Week 4 Tuesday 14th August 2018

The students will be decorating gumboots or work boots to plant succulents in for a garden feature. If you have an old gumboots or work boots at home that you don’t need any more, please send them in!

BOOK FAIR!!

When : Thursday 6th September

Where : The Library

Time : Books on sale from 8.30am

Theme: Out of this World.

Only a few weeks to go!!

There will also be a colouring competition for each class and a guessing competition which will be $1 a guess (maximum 3 guesses).

Looking forward to seeing everyone there and some fabulous costumes!

Just a reminder that the 2018 Premier’s Reading Challenge finishes on 31st August so don’t forget to keep reading and bring in your reading folder before this date so that all books can be entered.

Father’s Day

An order form will be coming home soon with information for our students to choose Father’s Day presents. The money raised is part of our Year 6 fundraising.

Year 5/6 Bathurst Dubbo Excursion

On Monday students received an information sheet, itinerary, clothing requirements, prescribed medication form and permission/payment information for the Bathurst Dubbo Excursion in Week 9. The final cost of the excursion has been confirmed at $250 per student and part payments can be made to assist families. The final payment must be received before Friday 14th September. Please return the completed blue information sheet ASAP. The prescribed medication form can be handed in on the morning of the excursion if required. Mrs M Mackie PRINCIPAL

CLASS NEWS

Year K/1/2 News - Mrs E McCloy

It was wonderful having our families and friends visit our classroom on Thursday. K/1/2 are very proud of the work they have been doing and enjoy the opportunity to show the ones they love.

Library for K/1/2 is now on a Tuesday. We have a few books outstanding at the moment so if you have any at home bring them in so you can borrow some new ones.

This week we are looking at 2D shapes including symmetry and subtraction in maths. In literacy we are looking at informational writing forms and this week we are studying the lifecycle of a turtle and looking at the environment in which they live and how we can ensure their survival for the future.

Ms Wheen will be teaching K/1/2 on Fridays and will be taking the class for library on Tuesdays.

Year 3/4 Class News - Mrs M Mackie

This is the second week of homework that students have to work on their speech ‘If I could change one thing I would change …’. The speech is due on Monday 20th August.

If you are having any confusion with the layout of homework, please contact me at school for an explanation.

Term 3 Week 4 Tuesday 14th August 2018

During the week the students will be exploring the school play-ground for evidence of animals, both native and domestic, to identi-fy prints and scat. The students will be completing this as a pre-visit task for the Koala Incursion next week. If you get koalas, wombat, wallabies or any other native animals on your property, can you please encourage your child to make drawings and/or take photos of the animals, their habitat and their scat? This information will help us plot data for the koala data base that is being collected in the area. It would be great if our students could attend Koala Festival on Saturday 15th September as a follow-up to the incursion. This is not compulsory, purely interest based! Enjoy your week!

Year 5/6 News - Mr A Hynds Thank you to all the parents were able to come along and enjoy our Open Day activities last week. We hope you enjoyed looking at everyone’s class work. The next 3 week reading rotation will commence next week with all my students completing a wide range of activities to develop comprehension skills and enhance their reading experiences at an appropriate reading ability level. We welcome any parents who would like to assist in listening to groups read on a Monday through to Wednesday at 10.45am. In Science we will be commencing a new unit about how structural features and other adaptions of living things help them to survive in their environment. We will be investigating food webs within our school ecosystem and introduce the importance of biosecurity for a safe and health environment. Year 6 students enrolled at Colo High for next year will be attending a transition day with me next Monday to experience some of the routines and activities. We hope they will have a worthwhile and enjoyable day.

K/1/2 Emily

5/6 Ryley, Joel, Sasha, Abby, Dion

5/6 Alana

5/6 Lachlan

If you are able to volunteer for Thursday 27th September, please contact Rebecca Tadrosse on 0415 312 995

Term 3 Week 4 Tuesday 14th August 2018

P & C NEWS

Canteen News We would like to thank those parents and also a community member for volunteering for Canteen this term. Our roster is looking better and we thank those parents who have offered to do Canteen duty on Mondays. We appreciate your assistance. We will have 3 Mondays that we do not have a volunteer and the Canteen will be closed unless we have parents to run the Canteen on those dates.

TERM 3 CANTEEN ROSTER

Thursday 16th Aug - Liz Peters Monday 20th Aug - Vanessa Smith & Rebecca Tadrosse Thursday 23rd Aug - Jennifer Andrews Monday 27th Aug - Shaynee McRae Thursday 30th Aug - Cathy Vecchio-Ruggeri Monday 3rd Sept - Shaynee McRae Thursday 6th Sept - Cathy Vecchio-Ruggeri Monday 10th Sep - CLOSED Thursday 13th Sept - Cathy Vecchio-Ruggeri Monday 17th Sept - CLOSED Thursday 20th Sept - Liz Peters Monday 24th Sept - CLOSED Thursday 27th Sept - Cheryl Baird & Rachael McKinlay

Canteen hours are 9.30am to 2.30pm (approximately)

Congratulations to our Class PBL Award Recipients

Term 3 Week 2 & 3

CLASS K / 1 / 2

Khloe and Sophia

CLASS 3 / 4

Oskar and Annika

CLASS 5 / 6

Lachlan and Joel.B.