NEWSLETTER

120 Barnier Drive

Quakers Hill, 2763

To subscribe email: barniernewsletter@gmail.com

29th August 2019

Book Week

Special and heartfelt thanks to Ms Gross for her outstanding organisation of Book Week. It was a fantastic week full of fun and focus on the joy of books, stories and reading. Thanks to all the parents who assisted with costumes for our parade. I commend all our students for their beautiful and respectful behaviour during our parade and all Book Week events. Thank you to our staff for participating with such enthusiasm, joy and creativity. Athletics Carnival

Many thanks to Mrs Reedy and Mrs Hayhow for their wonderful organisation of our 3-6 Athletics Carnival at Blacktown Sports Park on Monday 19

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August which was a great success and a really enjoyable day. Our students were highly engaged at all times, extremely well behaved and respectful and they all showed great sportsmanship during

the events. Thanks also to all those who assisted prior to and on the day. Congratulations and best of luck to all students who qualified for Zone, and will proudly represent Barnier at Zone later this term. Wakakirri

A very big congratulations to all staff and students involved in Wakakirri this year. Our students performed beautifully on Monday evening (26

th

August) at the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta. We are incredibly proud of the students and all that they have achieved. Our students, staff and parents have worked extremely hard preparing for this important event. Everyone involved deserves to feel very proud of themselves. Congratulations to all, on a job extremely well done! Kindergarten Enrolments for 2020

We are now accepting Kindergarten enrolments for 2020. If you have received an enrolment pack, please return it to the office as soon as possible so that we can include your child in our student numbers for 2020 and begin preparation for supporting their transition to ‘big school’. If you would like an interview to discuss any concerns regarding your child’s enrolment into Kindergarten, please contact the school office to arrange an interview with me or my Deputy Principal, Sharon Moon. We are very happy to answer any questions or address any concerns you may have. We have a Kindergarten Parent Information Night coming up in Term 4 (October 23

rd at 6pm in the school hall)

which will provide new and not-so-new parents with an abundance of very valuable, updated information. I strongly encourage all 2020 Kindergarten parents to come along.

Principal’s Message

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

Phone: 9837 1600

Fax: 9837 1858

Department of Education Enrolment Policy – Revised

The Department of Education’s Enrolment Policy has been revised to ensure that every student has a place at their local school. The revised policy is designed to support schools to manage all enrolment applications. Each school with a local intake area will have an enrolment cap set by the department from Term 4, 2019. Within the enrolment cap, a number of places (the buffer) must be kept aside for the likely number of students who will need to enrol during the year. For this reason, a school will not take non-local students once this buffer is reached, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Please see the document, ‘Enrolment Policy Information for Parents’ included in this week’s newsletter for more information. Copies of this document can be provided on request, from the front office. Emergency Contacts I ask all parents to ensure that you or the emergency contact listed for your child/children are available to come to the school at short notice and in a timely manner if called. Occasionally we have students who become extremely ill, very suddenly and quickly at school and it is really important that those students receive appropriate treatment in a more suitable environment than our sick bay provides. Our sick bay provides a very short term service for sick students. We are able to care for students until a family member or the emergency contact arrives to take them home. If children are infectious this presents a risk to others, it is important that they are taken home or to a doctor's surgery as soon as possible to prevent infections spreading to others here at school. I thank all parents and carers for your support with this matter. Barnier P&C Our P&C organised a fantastic Father's Day stall for our students on Wednesday 28th

August as well as a Father's Day BBQ breakfast on Thursday 29th

August. We really appreciate the great work of our P&C. They provide wonderful events, opportunities and services for our school community. All profits raised go directly to our school to support our students and their learning. Our next meeting is Monday 2nd September. It would be great to see more parents actively involved in our P&C, 'many hands make light work'! Happy Father's Day to all our great Barnier Dads! I hope you are all thoroughly spoiled on Sunday.

PSSA Congratulations to all our Winter PSSA teams for a fantastic PSSA season. We are proud of you all. Special congratulations to the teams who made the finals and best wishes for tomorrow. Whatever the outcome, we are proud of your efforts, skills and great sportsmanship.

SASS Appreciation Week This week was SASS (School Administration and Support Staff) Appreciation Week. We acknowledged and celebrated the great work our Office Staff, School Learning Support Officers, and General Assistants do at Barnier. Mrs Reid, Mrs Staveley, Ms Johnson, Mrs Iemma, Mrs Noble, Mrs Watts, Ms Akerlaken, Ms Siric, Mr Skeen and Mr Appleby quietly go about being just amazing every day! Our school could not operate without their support, assistance, expertise, skill and dedication. Their contribution to our wonderful school is highly valued, respected and appreciated.

Reading for Parents: Teaching Your Children to be Organised Some children are highly organised while others seem to always have a schoolbag full of dog-eared scraps of paper, overdue library books, outdated school notices, stale remnants of lunch and any number of strange objects. It is no coincidence that these students often under-achieve at school and find it almost impossible to meet deadlines in high school and in the workforce. They need support to help them develop the organisational skills we all need to get through our busy, complex, complicated days. Many children never develop these skills during their school days and struggle in their first years at university or in a job. One of the best things we can do for them is give them ways they can organise their paperwork and homework, get started on tasks in a timely fashion, keep track of books and assignments, concentrate on what needs to be done, plan for deadlines and keep all their school related material in designated spaces. An impossible task? Not with modern technology, colour-coded folders, a desk and shelves at home and a weekly plan for what lies ahead. Some ideas and suggestions …. Make use of mobile-phone and internet programmes to organise a calendar, send reminders, and sound the alarm. Everyone is amenable to using electronic means of organisation and can base their whole life around their organisers. Students are likely to go into jobs where they are expected to use sophisticated message and calendar systems, so why not utilise these systems now. Keep a large, clear family calendar in a visible place like the kitchen and use different coloured pens for each member of the family. Keep a filing shelf with a coloured folder for each child. File all notices, assignments, and important material for that child’s activities. Children can also keep coloured folders for their subjects at school which they update every day. Establish daily routines for mealtimes, screen time, homework, leisure, bed times so your children already have a structure to their day. Spend a set time every day checking on dates and deadlines. Discuss classroom routines with your children’s teacher so you can follow and reinforce them at home. Discuss ways the teacher thinks your child could work at improved organisation skills.

Share your own planning and organisation tips. What applies to work, usually works with school too. Model tidiness, a place for important things like bills and keys, a routine to getting your own tasks done. Show your children ways to make a start on a task, how to break it up into manageable chunks, how to prepare a mind-map to plan each step. Share how in your own life you take big tasks one step at a time. This will help save your child from being daunted by what seems an impossible set of demands and build confidence in their own capacity to get things done. Ask an older student sibling or neighbour to act as a management coach. Write every event, target and assignment in large letters on a calendar in their work area and have a short daily discussion about what can be crossed off, what progress is being made and any looming deadlines.

Have a great fortnight,

Mrs Mandy Hollis

R/Principal

Week 7

2nd September 2019

Sport in Schools K-2

3rd September 2019

Blacktown Zone Athletics Carnival

ICAS - Digital Tech (Years 3-6)

4th September 2019

Kindergarten Assembly @ 2pm

5th September 2019

ICAS - Science (Years 2-6)

6th September 2019

K-2 Athletics Carnival

Stage 3 Assembly @ 2pm

Week 8

9th September 2019

Sport in Schools K-2

BFoPA Performance night @

Wyndham College

10th September 2019

ICAS - Writing (Years 3-6)

11th September 2019

ICAS - English (Years 5-6)

Stage 1 Assembly @ 2pm

12th September 2019

ICAS - Spelling (Years 2-6)

13th September 2019

ICAS - Maths (Years 5-6)

Stage 2 Assembly @ 2pm

P&C Disco

Week 9

16th September 2019

Stage 3 - Broken Bay Camp.

Students to be at school by

6:30am

Sport in Schools K-2

17th September 2019

Stage 3 @ Broken Bay Camp

ICAS - English (Years 2– 4)

18th September 2019

Stage 3 @ Broken Bay Camp

Kindergarten Assembly @ 2pm

19th September 2019

Stage 3 @ Broken Bay Camp

Kindergarten - Community Walk

ICAS Maths (Years 2-4)

20th September 2019

Stage 3 @ Broken Bay Camp.

Returning by 3pm

Week 10

23rd September 2019

Fruit & Veg Week

Sport in Schools K-2

25th September 2019

Reading Club Breakfast @ 8:15am

Stage 1 Assembly @ 2pm

26th September 2019

Whole School Assembly @ 2pm

27th September 2019

Stage 2 Assembly @ 2pm

Last Day of Term 3

Event Reminders

Congratulations to our amazing and talented Year 6 students who participated

in the 2019 Prosperitas Program. Last Thursday night, August 22, was the

final presentation evening at Quakers Hill High School where all students

involved in the program showcased their outstanding projects to the Quakers

Hill Community. The projects were creative, innovative and reflected the hard

work and dedication these students have given to the project this year.

We would like to congratulate Sienna H 5/6K, Amaya D 5/6K, Emily G 5/6K,

Katie L 5/6K, Taylor C 6R, Amitoj K 6H, Sadhula W 5/6K, Akane P 5/6K, and

Andrew G 6T.

We congratulate the amazing success that Barnier has had in its involvement in this outstanding program. Well done to all involved. The Barnier school community is extremely proud of you all!

Prosperitas 2019

Gardening News

On Tuesday, 20th August Barnier Public School was again honoured with a visit by Kylie

from Blacktown Bunnings. The Environmental Group along with Stage One were assisted by Kylie to start planting in our prepared beds. We planted a variety of vegetables such as carrots, cucumber and beans. In order to naturally control pests and encourage growth we also planted some companion plants. To enhance the growth of our vegetables we planted marjoram near our celery and corn and marigold next to our tomatoes. Marigold also deters beetles.

As we planted we named the parts of a plant and discussed their functions. We also learnt what living things need to survive and thrive. One class was very lucky to get the opportunity to plant beetroot seedlings. We were all delighted to learn that they had pur-ple roots!

We look forward to taking care of our seedlings, observing their growth and watching how they change over time.

Another huge thankyou to Kylie and Bunnings Warehouse, Blacktown who donated time, all the seedlings, support poles for the climbing plants and mulch. These not only helped us to begin our garden but they enabled us to learn through a hands on activity. Whilst looking after our garden the Environmental Group will be learning about where our food comes from and how to live sustainably. Our aim is to take care of our environment so we can have a better, brighter future.

Gardening News

Environmental Update

I love a good party, but these plastic scoundrels just have to be uninvited. SO WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT BALLOONS? Balloons are no friend of the environment: they are made from non-biodegradable plastic that breaks up into smaller plastic pieces. So superficially, over time old balloons may appear to be “breaking down”, but what is really happening is that the plastic is being broken up from macro to micro plastics, causing havoc on both a micro and macro level in the environment.

Helium balloons cause their own special type of enviro-hell. When released into the sky they reach high altitudes, only to pop and return down to the earth. The end result is a jellyfish-looking balloon carcass, which is just too tempting for a lot of sea creatures such as birds, fish, turtles, dolphins, dugongs, and even whales, to ingest. As the pH of most animals’ stomachs is not strong enough to break down bal-

Now don’t be fooled into thinking that if you live far from the sea you are exempted! Balloons can travel hundreds of kilometres. Regardless, even land animals often mistake the deflated balloons and plastic balloon pieces as food and ingest it – resulting in the same fate as the sea creatures.

Environmental Update

Even if we don’t release balloons into the sky and just wish to have a spot of colour around the house for a celebration, we need to be mindful of the balloon’s end of life disposal. At the moment, New South Wales has banned the intentional release of 20 balloons or more at any given time. With an aim of becoming Australia’s most sustainable region, the Sunshine Coast local coun-cil has also implemented their own council laws, prohibiting the release of all helium balloons.

BUT WHAT ABOUT BIODEGRADABLE BALLOONS? Even these natural latex balloons that claim to be “safe for the environment” don’t come without risk. Many of these balloons still contain a lot of harmful chemicals and still require many years to biode-grade. That’s a lot of time for the discarded jellyfish-looking balloon to exist in the environment! It goes without saying that in those years, the balloon can cause damage. ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY ALTERNATIVES TO BALLOONS If you were thinking of releasing balloons at your next event, but are now an informed eco warrior, we have a list of alternatives for you! A better alternative to releasing tens or even hundreds of balloons would be to plant a tree, blowing bubbles, floating flowers in a stream, flying kites or even releasing vir-tual balloons. Even if you want to throw a party and have a spot of colour, there are so many other ways to decorate without the use of balloons. It just requires a little creativity! You can use tissue paper pom poms, brightly coloured bunting or paper lanterns. WHERE TO GET MORE INFORMATION If you would like to get involved with the removal and prevention of marine debris, you should definitely check out the good work of Tangaroa Blue. They are an Australian not-for-profit organisation making waves in cleaning up our coastlines, but also work with industries and government bodies to create large scale environmental change. Another great resource is Balloons Blow which contains loads of information on how balloons impact the environment and how you can help. They also have other eco blogs to help you with your eco-friendly lifestyle journey.

I GUESS IT COMES DOWN TO THE SAYING; “WHEN WE KNOW BETTER, WE DO BETTER.”

Written by Anna Pardini

To read more from Anna Pardini visit her blog at One Happy Leaf https://www.onehappyleaf.com/blogs/style

education.nsw.gov.au

Within the enrolment cap, a number of enrolment places (the buffer) must be kept aside for the likely number of local students who will need to enrol during the year. For this reason, a school will not take non-local students once they reach their buffer, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

100-point residential address checkParents planning to enrol their child at a school that is near or at their buffer or cap will be asked to complete the 100-point residential address check to confirm they live within the school’s designated intake area. This means you will need to provide documents to verify your child’s current address. So that schools only seek information relevant to your child’s enrolment, a list of approved documents for the residential address check is available from the school or the department’s website at https://education.nsw.gov.au/policy-library/policies/enrolment-of-students-in-nsw-government-schools.

Selection criteria for non-local enrolmentSibling enrolments are now clearly prioritised (where possible) and selection criteria for non-local enrolment will not include student ability, performance or achievement.

The Enrolment of Students in NSW Government Schools policy is in place to assist schools to meet their obligations under the Education Act 1990 - to ensure that every student has a place at their local school. The policy also communicates to staff and the community a transparent enrolment process.

Why was the enrolment policy revised?Across the state, many communities are changing. Some are growing at rates never seen before. Some schools that used to be able to accept out-of-area enrolments, no longer have the room to do so.The revised policy is designed to support schools to manage all enrolment applications, encourage greater consistency in decision-making and make sure the enrolment choices are clear for parents.

What are the changes?The enrolment capThe enrolment cap is the number of students that can be enrolled at a school based on the school’s permanent accommodation. The enrolment cap tells us whether the school may or may not have the capacity to accept non-local enrolments. It is not a target or limit on the number of local enrolments a school can take.Each school with a local intake area will have a cap set by the department from Term 4 2019.

Enrolment policy

NSW Department of Education

Information for parents

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education.nsw.gov.au

ContactFor general enquiries contact: 1300 679 332 or email: DoEinfo@det.nsw.edu.auFor enrolment enquiries, speak to your local school. Find school contact details at: https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/going-to-a-public-school/finding-a-public-school

I already have a child enrolled as an out-of-area student in a NSW Government school. Can I enrol my other children at that school too?This will depend on the capacity of the school:· If the school is not near its buffer, then siblings should

be able to be enrolled at the school. In fact, siblings of students currently enrolled will be prioritised, where possible, over other non-local enrolment applications.

· If the school is nearing its buffer, then the school will form a non-local enrolment panel. The panel considers non-local enrolment applications when the number of non-local applications received exceeds the number of places available below the buffer. Again, in this instance, siblings of students currently enrolled will be prioritised, where possible, over other non-local enrolment applications.

· If the school is at capacity they will not accept non-local enrolment applications unless there are exceptional circumstances.

I have already accepted an offer for my child to attend a school in 2020 that is not my local school. What happens now? The enrolment will proceed. Non-local enrolments accepted before Term 4 2019 for students starting in 2020 should not be affected.

What is the criteria for enrolment in a school that is not my local school? Schools that are able to accept non-local enrolment applications establish a non-local enrolment selection panel, if demand exceeds the number of places below the school’s buffer. Schools are required to make the selection criteria available to the school community.

My circumstances are challenging and I think this school is best for my child. We live outside the school’s intake area. What should I do?We understand that not everyone’s circumstances are the same, and that there are instances where exceptional circumstances will need to be considered. Your circumstances should be discussed with the principal of your local school who can assist you to negotiate an out-of-area enrolment if there are exceptional and compelling circumstances.

What has not changed?Schools will continue to enrol students who live in their local intake area, regardless of the school’s cap status. There are no changes to enrolment rights of siblings of non-local students. In schools with available places, each enrolment application is considered on its merits, including if siblings currently attend the school. If the school is below capacity, out-of-area applications for siblings of current students will be given enrolment priority.Schools will continue to provide families with support and advice during the enrolment process, including assessment of exceptional and compelling circumstances particularly for vulnerable students and their families.Schools will also continue to apply the policy fairly and consistently using transparent and accountable processes when making decisions around enrolment applications. Parents have a right to appeal to determine whether the stated processes have been applied in a procedurally fair manner.

But what do the changes mean for me?What if my child is already enrolled but we do not live in that school’s intake area?Your child will remain enrolled at the school as the revised policy does not affect students already enrolled in NSW Government schools.

We were in area when my child was enrolled in the school. The department has since changed the school’s boundary and our residence is now out of area. I have other children and I want them all to go to the same school. What are my options?At times it is necessary for the department to make adjustments to a school’s local enrolment intake area. This could mean a family with a child/children already enrolled is then outside the local intake area. When this happens, the family will still be able to enrol siblings together at the school, regardless of whether the school is over the buffer or cap.

Dear Families,

Happy Father’s Day to the Dads, Uncles and Grandfathers and any other significant males in our lives. This Sunday we have a chance to celebrate our gratitude and love for them.

Thank you to the team of volunteers who have worked on the Father’s Day Stall and BBQ Breakfast. Our volunteers gave the children an opportunity to purchase a gift or two at the stall on Wednesday and to enjoy a lovely BBQ breakfast on Thursday morning.

A big shout out to Jessica Gisborne-Coleman who was the busy bee selecting stock and managing the team of volunteers to man the stall. Thank you for your amazing work.

Kylie Gleeson has been busy organising the Father’s Day BBQ and organising our team of volunteers so that everyone could enjoy a special BBQ breakfast with dad and any other significant male. We hope you enjoyed the breakfast and wearing your footy team jersey. We will have pics in our next issue.

For the Let it Glow update, we are seeking your help on the actual day to run the Let it Glow Disco. THANK YOU to our dedicated volunteers who have already made themselves available to help for these events.

If you would like to volunteer some time, please send us your availability through to our Facebook page or email us at: Barnierpublicschool-pres@pandcaffiliate.org.au

Barnier P&C

Barnier P&C

Every Tuesday a dedicated team of volunteers is being led by Chrissy Kellett to count all the students banking. If you have some free time on Tuesday mornings, please come and assist Chrissy and the team count the student banking.

If there are any banking questions please email bpsdollarmites@outlook.com au

https://www.facebook.com/barnierpandc/

email us : barnierpublicschool-pres@pandcaffiliate.org.au

Key dates to remember:

P&C Meeting – Monday 2nd

September at 7:30 at the library

Let it Glow School Disco - Friday 13th

September

NEXT P&C Meeting

Don’t forget if you would like a say in the types of events we should run or where the funds should be spent, please come along to our P&C meetings. It costs $1 to join and you will be able to vote and receive the agenda and minutes. The next meeting is on Monday 2

nd September at 7:30pm in the library.