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PRINCIPAL’S REPORT…. Welcome to the 2019 school year and a special welcome to all parents and carers who are new to our school. I trust you had a relaxing holiday with your family and that you are ready for the 2019 school year. I hope you will enjoy reading the Chatterbox newsletter which comes out each fortnight (even weeks).

The staff returned to school on Tuesday, 29 January and were involved in some compliance training and Stage Planning. We welcomed Ms Bronwen Skinner as a permanent member of staff following her success, through Merit Selection, in obtaining a permanent classroom teacher position. We also welcomed Miss Mariah Panatos who was here as a final year practicum student in 2018 and welcomed Mrs Karen Russell back following some extended sick leave.

We have formed 19 classes once again this year, although we only have the numbers to form 18. This year again, the decision has been made to change the way the Library operates, to enable smaller classes, with Mr Beattie on class for 3 days per week. We are very grateful that Mr Beattie has, once again, willingly taken this on board for the benefit of all classes in terms of numbers. He will be having a Project Based Learning / STEM Enrichment Day each Thursday and a Library Administration Day each Friday. Teachers will be taking their classes to the Library each week. All students (Yrs 1-6) went in to their classes after lunch this Wednesday (with Kindergarten classes being finalised this week). We have 17 straight classes and 2 multi age (composite) as follows:

Early Stage 1 (Ms Adams -Stage Coordinator) KJ: Mrs Jackson KK: Miss King KR: Mrs Russell KS: Ms Skinner

Stage 1 (Ms Mahony-Stage Coordinator for Term 1, Miss McIntyre Terms 2-4) 1BM: Mr Beattie (Mon-Wed) & Mrs Malaxos (Thurs, Fri)

1MJ: Ms Morris (Mon - Wed) & Mrs Walton (Thurs, Fri)

2JM: Mrs Mahony (Term 1 Mon-Fri) & Terms 2-4 (Wed, Thurs) when Miss McIntyre returns. 2M: Mr Murphy 2T: Mrs Turi

Stage 2 (Ms Ambrose-Stage Coordinator) 3D: Mrs Deering 3N: Mr Newman 3/4AW: Ms Ambrose & Mrs Walker (Wed and Thurs) 4H: Miss Howell 4ST: Mrs Sherring (Mon–Wed) & Miss Thyrd (Thurs, Fri)

Stage 3 (Ms Apostolovski-Stage Coordinator) 5D: Ms Defina 5P: Miss Parkes 5/6R: Mrs Rowland 6D: Mr Dodd 6S: Miss Simpson

Support Staff Mrs Horinek: Learning & Support (Tues - Thurs) Mrs Apostolovski: Learning & Support (Tues, Thurs) Ms Adams: EAL/D Ms Fricot: School Counsellor (Thurs) RFF: Ms Adams (Thurs)

Mrs Apostolovski (Mon) Miss Panatos (Mon, Tues, Thurs)

Miss Thyrd (Mon, Tues) Mrs Waskiw (Thurs)

School Support Staff Mrs Robinson School Admin Manager Miss Archibald Tues, Wed, Fri Mrs Pate Mon, Tues, Wed Mrs Munro Mon, Thurs, Fri Mr Freer General Assistant-Mon, Wed, Fri

With my very best wishes,

Sandra Palmer.

STAGE 3 FIRST AID Students in Years 5 and 6 attended a First Aid workshop on Tuesday under the guidance of Mr Wayne Martin (a retired PDHPE teacher). Mr Martin reported that the students were thoroughly engaged and benefited from the session. An important community service event!

Learning the “recovery position” or resting on a humid day?

Practice makes perfect!

Term 1 Week 2

6/2/2019 CHATTERBOX

Panania Public School 21A Lawler Street, Panania NSW 2213 Phone: 9773 9017 Fax: 9792 3907 Email: panania-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

http://www.panania-p.schools.nsw.gov.au

STOP PRESS!!!

Our Kindergarten students have started BIG school and have settled in really well. A great year of learning and making friends awaits. Their teachers are very excited!

WARAMI SCHOOL GARDEN Thank you to our wonderful Warami School Garden Committee and friends who watered, mulched, weeded and generally tended to the school garden during the holiday break. The garden is looking fantastic and the students are excited about Garden Club commencing in 2019.

A stunning vista!

SPORT Primary Schools Sport Association (PSSA) Selection… PSSA Sport Teams are selected for three seasons of different sports during the course of the year. Students in Years 3-6 are invited to try out. PSSA provides an opportunity for students to play competitively against other schools in the East Hills District. There will be two trials for Season 1 PSSA Sports. They are Friday, 8 February and Wednesday, 13 February. Students are to wear their full sports uniform on these days. As per our Sporting Selection Policy, these are the only two opportunities available for team selection and there will be two teachers supporting the selection of each sport team. Season 1 Sports are:

Netball taken by Miss Parkes and Mrs Deering;

Newcombeball taken by Mrs Rowland and Mr Newman;

Rugby League taken by Mr Dodd; and

Tennis taken by Mrs Apostolovski.

Each year, I make a plea for parents/carers to please support us as we use our professional judgement to select teams. There are limited spaces and many students wanting to be involved. As I have mentioned on many occasions, the rules of logic will mean that many more students will not make a particular team, than make it. As hard as it may sound…that is life. Team selection will be a joint teacher decision. We have an excellent School Sport Program for students who do not go to PSSA. Please note also that students do not have to be competent tennis players to try out for Tennis. We do not play against other schools for this sport. It is purely an extra option for our students to develop skills in another sport. Mrs Sandra Palmer, (for all teachers involved in team selection).

SKOOLBAG 2019

Skoolbag is a free app for smartphones which enables parents to keep up to date with events at school. Excursion information, sports information, the newsletter & reminders are some of the communications sent via Skoolbag. More information and how to join Skoolbag is displayed in the ad below.

Please note: For previous users of Skoolbag, you will

need to update your ‘Year Group’ (Push Group) to the current school Grade. Simply:

Log on to Skoolbag

Select ‘More’

Select ‘My Subscription Groups’

Using the toggle button, turn off the previous Year group and turn on this year’s group/s.

There is also a PSSA Group for parents whose children are selected into a PSSA team. This will be updated each Friday during the PSSA season with venues, times and wet weather information.

A few “gentle” reminders as the year starts: Our School Canteen is closed each Tuesday;

Parents must provide an explanation for student absences within 7 days from the first day of any period of absence;

Family holidays during the school term should be avoided if possible. Days off for this purpose are recorded as absences in our system, on school reports and also disrupt schooling;

Parents must NOT approach a student at school if they feel that there has been some “wrong” done to their child. The class teacher, Stage Coordinator or Principal manage all behaviour incidents. We are dealing with children who are “little people” and there is an imbalance of power when an adult approaches in a negative way. Your support in this matter is really appreciated;

The teacher’s car park is NOT to be used as a thoroughfare by students, parents/carers or community members at any time for safety reasons;

Medication (apart from that stipulated in a Health

Care Plan developed by parents and the school)

cannot be administered by any school staff member;

Students are able to ride bicycles or foot scooters to

and from school if there is a “Rider’s Agreement” and

parent signed permission note in place.

This is for Years 3-6 only;

Liquid paper is NOT to be used at all; and

If students bring mobile phones to school they must be handed in at the School Office before school and collected at the end of the day.

COMMUNICATION Accompanying this newsletter is the Term 1 Community Calendar (which is also on our website.) This calendar, as well as the Diary Dates in the Chatterbox each fortnight and regular school and P&C Facebook posts, is a good way of sharing upcoming events to aid in your planning.

LEARNER QUALITY FOCUS/VALUE

Be Persistent/Co-operation Term 1, Weeks 3 & 4

Please support us at home by having discussions with your child/children about what Being Persistent and ‘Co-operation’ means at home, at school and in the community.

RULE OF THE FORTNIGHT

The rule we are focusing on for Term 1, Weeks 3 & 4 is:

Be Safe

You can support us at home by having discussions with your child/children about “Being Safe” and what this rule means in different settings.

DIARY DATES

TERM 1, 2019

Thursday, 7 February

AFL Clinic (K-2) Friday, 8 February

PSSA Trial 1 for Season 1 PSSA Tuesday, 12 February

Swimming Carnival – Birrong Pool

AFL Clinic after school Wednesday, 13 February

PSSA Trial 2 for Season 1 PSSA Thursday, 14 February

Year 6 Leader’s Induction at Morning Assembly Tuesday, 19 February

Meet the Teacher (Years 3-6)

AFL Clinic after school Wednesday, 20 February

Scripture commences

Meet the Teacher (Years 1-2) Friday, 22 February

SRC Induction at Morning Assembly

Kindy Welcome BBQ Monday, 25 February

Meet the Teacher (Kinder) Tuesday, 26 February

AFL Clinic after school Tuesday, 26 March

School Photo Day

We are grateful to you for

sharing the joy of Christmas with those in need

2018 was an exciting year for Anglicare. Over the last year much of Anglicare’s work has grown considerably and in line with our aim to ‘Grow in Purpose’. Our aim is also reflected in our Toys ‘n’ Tucker community partnership program. This program continues to grow in reach and impact because of the generosity of our partners such as you. The overwhelming response to Toys ‘n’ Tucker this year saw over 300 churches, youth groups, schools and businesses come together to donate over 50 tonnes of food and toys, that were sorted and packed by over 500 volunteers and distributed via 138 distribution sites, to assist over 6,500 families, throughout Sydney and the Illawarra, who would have otherwise gone without.

As you can see, because of your generosity, thousands of families had a special Christmas, kids woke up to gifts and enjoyed a special festive meal.

Your continued support is vital; together we can continue to offer hope and support to families and kids in need. On behalf of the families that received support this Christmas, I’d like to thank you for sharing the Joy of Christmas. Please pass on this message of thanks to the children, staff and their families and assure them that their generosity helped make a real difference to families in need at Christmas.

We sincerely thank our advertisers for their support of our school. The Department of Education and Panania Public School do not necessarily endorse these companies or their services and products.