Belair Public School Newsletter Take Just Pride 34 Carolyn Street, Adamstown Heights NSW 2289 Phone: 4952 1735 Fax: 4956 2450

Email: belair-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Term 1 Week 4 February 20th 2018

Principal’s Message ~ Warwick Beard Greetings Everyone, I look forward to catching up with our P&C members tomorrow evening. I also look forward to welcoming new parents along. The P&C meets in the staffroom just next to the office at 7.00pm on the third Wednesday of each month. Parking around our school, particularly at pick up and drop off times, continues to be a challenge, made worse by the construction happening around the neighbourhood. I urge everyone to follow signage instructions and avoid illegal parking when dropping off and picking up children. There are changes in the laws around school zones which I have included below. Please have a good read of them as local police will be patrolling the area and I don’t want our families to be burdened by fines. Kind regards, Warwick Beard Principal

Voluntary Contributions- Congratulations Belair, we already have $12,300.00, which is an absolute record for this time of year. Our staff will be able to get shopping on some STEAM resources very soon.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

F E B R U A R Y

21st

50 Year Celebration Meeting 6.00pm

21st

P&C Meeting 7.00pm

23rd

Whole School Assembly

26th

Zone Swimming Carnival

26th

Kindergarten start finishing at 2.55pm

26th

Filming Starstruck 1.00-2.00pm

MARCH

14th- 16th

Year 4 Aussie Bush Camp

15th

Selective High Placement Tests

19th-23rd

Parent Teacher Interviews

21st Harmony Day

27th Athletics Carnival K-6

29th

Kindergarten Easter Hat Parade

30th Good Friday

APRIL

2nd Easter Monday

6th Whole School Assembly

12th School Photo Day

13th Last Day of Term One

To help schools keep the school zone safer for all pedestrians and drivers there are seven new traffic offences with new fines.

None of the seven offences attract demerit points when committed elsewhere on the road but now in a school zone they each come with two points.

The changes are:

1. Stopping in intersection - Under the changes if a driver commits this offence in a school zone they will receive a penalty of $439 and 2 demerit points.

2. Stop within 20m of intersection (traffic lights) - Under the changes if a driver commits this offence in a school zone they will receive a penalty of $439 and 2 demerit points.

3. Stop within 10m of intersection (no traffic lights) - Under the changes if a driver commits this offence in a school zone they will receive a penalty of $439 and 2 demerit points.

4. Stop near bicycle crossing lights - Under the changes if a driver commits this offence in a school zone they will receive a penalty of $439 and 2 demerit points.

5. Obstruct access to ramp/path/passageway - Under the changes if a driver commits this offence in a school zone they will receive a penalty of $330 and 2 demerit points.

6. Not parallel park in the direction of travel - Under the changes if a driver commits this offence in a school zone they will receive a $330 fine and 2 demerit points.

7. Parallel park close to dividing line - Under the changes if a driver commits this offence in a school zone they will receive a $330 fine and 2 demerit points.

P&C Meeting- Wednesday 21 February All parents are warmly invited to attend the first P&C meeting of the year which is held in the staffroom at 7.00pm. The P&C is looking forward to seeing some new faces in 2018. Members engage in the P&C in many ways. Some parents like to come along to hear a bit more about what is happening at school whilst others are interested in getting involved in P&C activities such as the uniform shop, school banking, book club and fundraising committee. It is a great opportunity to get to know some of the other lovely parents of Belair students. I hope to see you there. Matthew Morrison, President

50 Year Celebration Meeting- 6.00pm 21/2/18 Parents, friends and ex-students of Belair Public School are invited to a meeting to plan the celebrations which are scheduled for September this year. This celebration will only be as successful as the team we can put together now to get the ball rolling.

S.T.E.A.M (Science, Technology, Engineering and the Arts)

Last week, parents are carers were handed a note at class information sessions about STEAM volunteers in our Belair community. If you have skills and expertise in the area of S.T.E.A.M and can volunteer your time, please return the note to your class teacher by Tuesday 27th February.

The note is attached to this week’s newsletter.

Deputy Principal’s Message

Congratulations to 3H for being the class of the week at assembly last Friday. It was easy to see why you were chosen as class of the week, your behavior throughout assembly was excellent!

Congratulations to KM who were class of the week at the K-2 assembly this week. Keep up the fantastic work K-2, your assemblies are a joy to attend!

Belair Language of Resilience

The focus for this fortnight is the element of Thinking.

Belair Kiss and Drop zone on Carolyn Street is to provide parents and carers with a safe environment to drop off

and collect their children from school by car. This area provides convenience for drivers and improves children’s safety.

Parents and carers are

able to legally drop off

or pick up their children

within a two-minute

timeframe.

The building works we

currently have in the

school area at the

moment are having an

additional impact on

traffic at the time of the

school bell in the

afternoon.

I have included some

tips from Transport for

NSW regarding the use of Kiss and Drop Zones to ensure that we are using the zone to maximise ease and safety of pick

up for our families. Please avoid leaving large spaces between cars and remain in your car while using the kiss and drop

zone. Kind regards, Kathie Colley

Why do you think that?

Have some thinking

time Let’s look

at this another

I like the way you’re thinking

Great idea

Look on the bright

side

It was great to see everyone at last week’s Kindergarten Information Session. We hope you found the session valuable. Parents/Carers who were unable to attend should have received an information handout later in the week. If you have any questions or queries throughout the year please do not hesitate to speak to your child’s teacher. Thank you to everyone who has shown interest in volunteering in classrooms. Teachers will contact you shortly to confirm times and days. If you would like to volunteer and did not get a chance to sign up at the information session please see your child’s teacher. While all classes endeavour to complete work prepared, at times students may bring home booklets with pages that have not been attempted or are incomplete. Students may choose to complete these pages at home although this is at each family’s discretion. The home reading, literacy groups and sight words program starts Monday 5th March. Students’ home reading folders will include; home readers, student log book, reading strategies bookmark and sight words lists. Home reading and sight words should become part of household routines as students learn to read during Kindergarten. Information will be sent home in the coming weeks about goal sharing interviews that are taking place in week 8 (Monday 19th March – Friday 23rd March). This will be an opportunity for teachers and parents/carers to discuss learning goals and ways of supporting your child throughout the year.

School Environment

This week 2B and 6W will help at lunchtimes to sort our recycling. Children have been getting better at choosing the right bucket for their waste. Please try to encourage zero waste lunches and to discuss alternative packaging as a family. If children do not finish their food we encourage them to place it back into their lunchbox. Please send in all your soft plastics from home and place in any of the red buckets around the school. Just make sure it is clean, dry and bagged. Belair PS has a community garden near the kindergarten classrooms and there is a herb garden near the canteen. They are generally open before and after school for children to pick some produce with their parents. Feel free to wander in and do some watering or weeding. It is also open at lunch times for children to help out. The year 6 environmental leaders have been great at helping the younger children during these times. At the moment in the herb garden we have lots of herbs including basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, shallots and parsley. In the enclosed garden we have spinach, more basil, mint and an eggplant if you’re lucky. We have just planted pak choi, more kale and a capsicum plant. The garden also welcomes parent helpers on a Friday between 1-2pm.

Student Awards

KA

Stella D, Annaka R, Thomas W

2C Blake B, Eleanor P 5K

Mya A, Bronson B, Toby R

KM

Hayley A, Odin B, Samuel E

2L Claudia J, Ceejay P

5/6F

Ryder A-S, Cameron T

KZ

Jake H, Lachlan K, Isobel N

3H

Ysabel S, Angus A

6P

Georgia J, Kaylan V

1B

Lori B, Flynn R

3M

Ava B, Luke C

6W

Archie K, Evelyn S

1T Oliver C, Brock S

3/4J

Benjamin C, Isabella W

Junior Dance Chloe M

1S

Harrison B, Jayden K

4B

Ashton O, Callan P

Senior Dance

Allia W

1/2M

Alex J, Teagan W

4R

Atticus B, Emma C

Environment

Award Emily M, Andrew M

2B

Eliza K-M, Alice R

5G

Madison A, Michael R

Canteen Roster and News ~ Canteen Supervisor Sonja 0438 684 401 HOT DOG DAY! We had a fabulous response to our first Hot Dog day for the year. A very big thank you goes to all our volunteers who made the day possible. Discontinued Items! Please be aware that Meat-lover’s and Hawaiian Pizzas and Party Sausage Rolls are all discontinued items so they are no longer available to order.

21 Feb 18 Wednesday

Robyn S

22 Feb 18 Thursday

Amy O

23 Feb 18

Friday Megan M, Rebecca R,

Mel W

26 Feb 18 Monday

27 Feb 18 Tuesday Sally A

Belair Public School Telephone: (02) 4952 1735 Fax: (02) 4956 2450 Email: belair-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Address: 34 Carolyn Street Adamstown Heights, 2289

At Belair Public School we value collaboration with parents, carers, industries and the wider community to enhance student learning.

If you have skills and expertise in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) and can volunteer your time, we would appreciate your details below.

Alternatively please indicate if you have contacts and connections with the University of Newcastle and industries in the area of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.)

Name:

Phone number:

Email address:

Area of expertise:

Connections to University and industry:

Please return this information to your class teacher by Tuesday 27th February 2018.

P&C News P&C email: belairpandc@hotmail.com

Once again, Belair will be organising book club orders with Scholastic. There has been a delay with receiving the catalogues for the first issue for this year. However, the catalogue can be accessed online at: http://www.scholastic.com.au/schools/bookclub/catalogue.asp - Click on “download current issue” on the right hand side.

Parents can complete LOOP orders using the item numbers in the catalogue. The paper catalogues will be sent home as soon as they are received from Scholastic. ORDERS ARE TUESDAY 20th February. The issue will be closed-off in LOOP after this date. Cash orders will also not be able to be processed if not received by this date. The preferred method for Book Club orders is using LOOP. Scholastic will still accept cash as children enjoying spending their own pocket money on books. However, it is requested that parents use LOOP and that cash payments are minimal. Scholastic has incentives and rewards for using LOOP, several parents received a free book with their orders last year. What is LOOP? LOOP is Scholastic Book Club’s “Linked Online Ordering & Payment” platform. This system allows parents to place and pay for their order without the need to return the paper form to school. You can still choose to complete and form (and return it to school), and pay using credit card or cash for the rest of this year. However, the more people that utilise LOOP the more efficient it is for everyone! With LOOP you can pay using credit card and you can use any Scholastic vouchers. LOOP includes a gift option so you can still request that your order is left at the office to be collected. You can access LOOP either at www.scholastic.com.au/LOOP or via the app (download from the App Store or Google play). If you have any problems using LOOP, Scholastic are more than happy to help out parents directly – call them on 1800 021 233. Belair Book Club Co-ordinator – Catherine Whittaker, 0414 945 817.

The following link you take you to the Service NSW site to apply or find out further information: https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-active-kids-voucher

Are you thinking about becoming a foster carer?

Hunter Child and Family District

Unit

Carer Development team

Ph: 40882001

http://childstory.net.au/

http://www.fosteringnsw.com.au/

We are looking for motivated people to open their hearts and homes to children and young people requiring short-term assistance. Foster carers may be individuals, couples or families who are able to provide care on weekends, for a few days in an emergency, or for a few weeks until a more permanent home is available. All carers receive training, ongoing support and financial assistance. Our Community is in need of passionate caring people especially if you are willing to care for children who are; older than 7, part of a sibling group, have a disability or health needs and or from an Aboriginal or culturally di-verse background.

It is said, “It takes a community to raise a child”.

Your Community needs you!

Across the Hunter we are recruiting for carers of all ages and backgrounds to meet the needs of our resilient,

courageous children and young people up to the age of 18!