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Newington Public School Learning for Life

Thursday 19 March 2020 Volume 19: Issue 4

49a Newington Boulevarde NEWINGTON NSW 2127 email: newington-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Phone (02) 9748 7933 Fax (02) 9748 3120 web: www.newington-p.schools.nsw.gov.au School Hours: 8.55 am - 3.00pm

Harmony Day

At Newington PS we acknowledge and celebrate Harmony Day each year. The day and the activities classes undertake are much more than just wearing orange. We promote that everybody belongs and that multicul-turalism and cultural understanding is something that is part of everyday life in our school and community. We have 51 identified language backgrounds from 80% of the families within our community. We have many children who can communicate in more that two languages. Harmony Day provides a focus for us as a school to ensure we are delivering these important messages to our students. A fantastic ebook that you may like to read as a family is https://www.harmony.gov.au/Documents/get-involved/Recipes-for-Harmony.pdf

Seven Steps to Writing Success Every year our school aims at upskilling new staff on school programs. Last week Mrs Organ and Miss Dan-iels delivered professional learning for teachers on our ‘Seven Steps’ writing program. Teachers found this very useful and highly engaging.

Newington Public School App

In this current climate there has never been a more important time to re-ceive information and updates from your school.

Newington Public School now has its very own, customised app avail-able in the "App Store" or "Play Store".

Our Newington Public School app is synced to School Enews but packed with many more features. The home screen will allow you to see an over-view (with time based icons) and quickly access alerts, notices, reminders, newsletters, notes and calendar. You can even set your app to receive push alerts. App users can change the language of all messages.

A new and exciting feature is the use of digital forms that you can fill in and sign via the app. Currently you can use these forms for absent notes, change of details, mobile phone permission and extended leave. In time, we will use the app for permission to attend excursions, incursions, carni-vals etc. There are direct links to our school website, the canteen, our Twit-ter feed and online payments.

If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to download the app today. If you have an android you will need to search for “Newington Public School”.

COVID-19

School remains open and normal teaching and learning is occurring, with additional teaching and management of hygiene practices. The information that we are receiving in relation to Covid-19 is changing on a daily basis, as health professionals make determinations about the safest way to manage this pandemic. We continue to re-view our practices on a daily basis to follow the guidelines provided to schools. The Deputy Secretary of the Department of Education has updated schools on the number of actions the depart-ment is taking to best support health and hygiene practices in schools. Key cleaning and hygiene actions in-clude; enhanced cleaning and hygiene practices in all school as of 18 March 2020 and additional provisions of soap and hygiene supplies, such as hand sanitizer. There have been no confirmed Coronavirus cases in our school community. While we acknowledge the many concerns that parents have, we are not in a position to be able to reply to emails where information requested has already been distributed to the community. All information distributed is archived in the Newington Public School app and on the school website for easy access and reference. We continue to follow advice from the DoE and non-attendance is recorded according to NSW DoE School At-tendance Policy https://education.nsw.gov.au/student-wellbeing/attendance-behaviour-and-engagement/school-attendance. The NSW DoE continues to advice that in line with medical advice there is no reason why those who are not excluded from school should not be at school. Parents must provide an explanation for absences to the school within 7 days from the first day of any period of absence. Please do not contact the school and/or your child’s teacher for schoolwork to complete whilst at home if you have chosen to keep your child at home. We are not in a position to accommodate this request. In the event of a prolonged school closure, a plan has been developed to ensure continuity of learning for all Newington Public School students. I would like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding as we manage the complexities which we are currently facing. It seems that everywhere we turn everyone has an opinion about how we should be managing the current situation. I think that we will manage with kindness, compassion and a little understanding.

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From your Principal

Greg Weeks

Acting Principal

Deputy Principal Awards

Congratulations to these students who have earned themselves Deputy Principal awards for their special efforts: • Callum and Zac (1S) for excellent independent writing about King Pig • Aryan (1F) for fabulous writing about Noah Dreary • Roy (4Z) for excellent use of the jump strategy when adding two digit numbers • Zaid and Owen (4D) for working together during maths to play an addition and subtraction game

Assemblies

The following classes were awarded Class of the Week for their display of PBL expectations:

Buruwang: 6D and KM Cumberland: 2F and 5O De Coubertin: 6F and KS

A Message from the NPS Anti-Bullying Team

For the last couple of weeks, 16 Year Six students known as the An-ti-Bullying team, have been working on a project to prevent cyber-bullying. The team is trying to prevent bullying across the school and has been collecting data through a survey. We are aiming to learn how many kids are actually being bullied and then do something about it. In class, everyone has completed the survey and their indi-vidual answers have been read and documented so that the data we get can be used for lessons. These lessons will be just short 10-15 minute lessons where we get all the classes together and host a hands-on lesson for the kids to learn about cyber-bullying and differ-ent resolutions. These lessons will hopefully take place sometime soon.

Harmony Day Harmony Day celebrates Australia’s cultural diversity. In schools we celebrate inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for all Australians, from the traditional owners of the land to those who have come from many countries around the world. The ongoing theme of Harmony Day is ‘everyone belongs’. Harmony Day is a day of cultural respect for all. By participating in Harmony Day activities, we can learn and understand how all Australians equally belong to this nation and enrich it. This year we chose to celebrate Harmony Day on March 18. Students were invited to wear orange as part of our celebration, and took place in a range of activities in class to celebrate Harmony Day, including literacy activities focusing on diversity and perspectives, a range of craft activities and sharing stories from around the world.

Gifted Awareness Week Gifted Awareness Week Australia was founded in 2015 by the Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented (AAEGT) to raise awareness of the identification, support and learning needs of gifted children and to celebrate the dedication of individuals and educational bodies who are making a positive difference in the lives of gifted children and their families. At NPS we are working on full implementation of the new DoE High Potential and Gifted Education policy, with a focus on identifi-cation, differentiation strategies and extension opportunities.

Staff Appreciation

We would like to acknowledge and thank the efforts of the Newington Public School staff over the past few weeks. All staff have been working as a very cohesive team to manage what is proving to be an incredibly complex situation. Their efforts are ensuring our students are able to be engaged in high quality learning experiences.

Emma Gibson (R) and Natalie Lewis (R)

Deputy Principals

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From your Deputy Principals

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Calendar Notices & Reminders

Tuesday 7 April SRE Easter Assembly - cancelled Wednesday 8 April Hot Cross Buns Concert - Jnr Band 7:45am - cancelled Our Spec Choir Rehearsal - postponed Year 6 Easter Raffle Thursday 9 April School Cross Country Carnival - postponed Hot Cross Buns Concert - Jnr Strings 3:10pm - cancelled Last day Term 1 Tuesday 28 April Student return for Term 2 Wednesday 29 April ANZAC Assembly - to be confirmed Friday 1 May Winter PSSA starts Thursday 7 May Mother’s Day Stall Tuesday 12 - Thursday 14 May NAPLAN Tuesday 12 May P&C meeting

Other 2020 dates will be listed on the calendars on our school website.

Year 6 Easter Raffle

Each year as part of being in their final year of pri-mary school, Year 6 students have a celebration. This is held at the end of Term Four and students are able to celebrate and farewell primary school. We need your help to raise money for our farewell and our present to the school. Each term we will be doing different sorts of fundraising. This term we are holding an Easter egg raffle!

Tickets will be on sale from Monday Week 8

and drawn on Wednesday Week 11. Year 6 stu-

dents will be selling the tickets before school, at

recess and at lunch. They will be selling tickets at

a table outside the school hall.

Tickets are 1 for 50c or 3 for $1

A maximum of $10 can be purchased.

Sign up to our Twitter account to receive good news stories about student learning and achieve-ment; quality teaching; 21st century learning; extra curricula activities and special school events.

@newingtonpublic

NSW residents are urged to take simple steps NOW to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19

• Be part of the solution

• Act now on what you can do

• Keep your distance from others as much as possible but stay connected

• Work local, study local, shop local, play local

• Cloud not crowd

Source: NSW Health

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Notices & Reminders

Labelling Everything

Please ensure your child’s name is permanently and clearly labelled on belongings such as school hats, jackets, lunch boxes, drink bottles and school bags.

use a permanent laundry marker to label clothes, hats and shoes, or sew or iron on personalised labels

go through your child’s bag with them each night

check that labels haven’t faded with washing

if something doesn’t come home, ask at the office where your school’s lost property area is.

Kiss and Drop Zones

Thank you to the parents who take great care each day to drive and park safely around the school. Your diligence contributes greatly to the safe arrival and pick-up of our students. In the interest of the continued safety of our children and courtesy to other families, parents are asked not to park in the ‘NO PARKING’ areas at the front of the school. These are areas to drop off and pick up children with a 1-2 minute limit. Drivers are not permitted to leave their vehicles. Please use this area as a ‘Kiss and Drop’ zone. Your help in maintaining safety around our school is greatly appreciated.

Telephone Interpreter Service

If you need an interpreter to assist you to contact your principal or child’s teacher, please call the Tele-phone Interpreter Service on telephone number 13 1450 and ask for an interpreter in your language. The interpreter will call the principal and will stay on the line to assist you with your conversation. You will not be charged for this service.

Student Banking

cancelled

Safety Reminder - Scooters and Bikes

Students who ride their bikes or scooters to school are reminded about these rules: • Once at the school gate, please walk your bike or scooter to the parking area. • Please stand your bike and where possible, neatly store your scooter. Keep stairs and walkways clear. • Students riding bikes MUST wear a HELMET. • Students riding scooters are advised to wear a helmet.

NO PARKING

You may not stop for longer than 2 minutes and only to drop off or pick up passengers or goods (i.e. you must re-main within 3 metres of

your vehicle.)

Uniform Shop

Tuesday 2:30 - 3:30pm

Thursday 9:00 - 10:00am

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Positive Behaviour for Learning

Congratulations to these recipients of Bronze Awards for Week 7 and 8 Term 1

Felix De Paula Hayun Kwon Aiden Lau Ellie Weeks Edith Hong Mikayla Lees

Term1 Week 9 Non-Classroom Setting Behaviour

Everyone is RESPECTFUL

OVAL

• Take turns

• Use appropriate language

• Be a fair sport

• Include others

Term 1 Week 10 Non-Classroom Setting Behaviour

Everyone is A LEARNER

Everyone is SAFE

ADMINISTRATION BLOCK

• Know office hours

• Know why you are here

• Always walk

• Take a partner

1. Wash your hands regularly and thoroughly. 2. Sneeze into your elbow or a tissue, disposing of the tissue straight away and then washing your hands. 3. Stay home if you are unwell

Spotlight

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SPOTLIGHT ON LITERACY

AND NUMERACY

Mathletics

1F Literacy Groups

All students from Kindergarten to Year 6 take part in Mathlet-ics. Mathletics is a captivating online learning space provid-

ing students with all the tools they need to be successful learners, both in the classroom and beyond. Mathletics sup-ports and caters to each teacher’s unique blend of student-

driven learning and teacher-led instruction.

Students at Newington Public School are able to access Mathletics from

home, as part of their weekly mathe-matics homework, as well as in class

to support their learning each term.

All classes K-6 have earnt a total of 577 certificates, completed 14 324 set activities and spent 1 469 hours logged in to Mathletics! 3W have accumulated over 100 000 curriculum points and earnt 44 certifi-cates and 2O, 2F, 2A and 4Z have each earnt over 70 000 curriculum points! 1CG are leading the charge in Live Mathletics, accumulating over 21 000 Live Mathletics points and earning 10 certificates. Patrick (2D), Hayun (1CG) and Chance (4Z) have together accumulated over 100 000 points from set activities and live Mathletics activities, making them the highest point scorers at NPS.

Our data tells us that 94% of Mathletics tasks and activities are completed outside of school hours and that 6% of all activity is occurring in class. Well done 2O! Over 95% of students have completed Mathletics tasks this year. Currently Lucas, Keilah, Teja and Ablaj have attempted the most activities. A special mention to Teja and Sienna who both have over 1 000 Live Mathletics points. Congratulations to 4D who have collectively spent over 27 hours working their way through Curriculum tasks and Live Mathletics challenges. A special mention to the follow stu-dents who have worked hard to consistently complete tasks every week: Jonah, Emika, Eren, Chloe R, Zaid, Irene, Hana, Chloe B, Finn, Stella, Nicholas, Dominic, Ronan and Dallas.

Zone Swimming Carnival

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Individual Highlights

Kylie Zhang is the 11 year girls age champion

Students who qualified for Regional Carnival

Nicholas Kasnur

Daniel Trnka

Dean Rompies

Kylie Zhang

Rachael Ryu

James Lee

Susie Han

Jason Han

Erin Kim

Sebastian Natalegawa

Anna Cocks

Team Highlights

The Senior girls 4×50 metres freestyle relay team broke the record which has been held since 2004.

Newington Public School for the 2nd year in a row are the Zone Swimming Champions.

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Parenting Insight

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Parenting Insight webinars and videos

P&C

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TBC

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