TERM 2, WEEK 8 Bilpin Public School Tuesday 16 t h June 2020

NEWSLETTER 2517 Bells Line of Road, Bilpin NSW 2758 Phone: 4567 1154 Fax: 4567 1388 Email: bilpin-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Webpage: www.bilpin-p.schools.nsw.gov.au

** All newsletter attachments / notes will also be available for printing from the school webpage **

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

IMPORTANT DATES

We are nearly at the end of Term 2!

I would like to thank the students for their continuous efforts at school, both in and out of the classroom. Everyone is very settled and keen to learn.

The students have been very creative at playtime. Little flower and rock shops have sprouted up and leaves are now the new Bilpin P.S currency!

Bushfire visit Tim McCallum Executive Director, Regional North Tomorrow we will be welcoming Tim McCallum the Executive Director for the Regional North area to our school. He will be speaking with our leaders and having a tour of the school to discuss the impacts of the bushfires on our students and community. We look forward to being able to show him around our school and talk about all the wonderful things our students are doing!

Health Guidelines Update

All school activities and operations will be in line with Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) and NSW Health guidelines as applicable. School students do not need to follow strict adult physical distancing guidelines,

but should still follow good hygiene practices like:

• Regularly washing hands.

• Avoiding sharing drinks or food.

• Water bottles need to be brought from home as bubblers will remain closed until further notice.

• Coughing or sneezing into your elbow, or a tissue which should be discarded immediately.

School Attendance and Illness The following Departmental guidelines are still in place during COVID-19:

• If your child is unwell, do not send them to school.

• If they are unwell at school you or your nominated emergency contact will need to collect them immediately.

• Please make sure your contact details are up to date.

• Children should not return to school until they are fully recovered. If a student is absent without a medical reason for more than three days, this will be recorded as an unauthorised absence and followed up by the school. Please contact the school via note, message or phone to inform us of any absences.

School Drop Off and Pick Up In line with social distancing measures regarding parents and school visitors, we will continue with the current drop off and pick up routine which is:

June

Friday 19th – Book club due

Friday 19th – Dance2bfit catch-

up sessions

Friday 26th – Dance2bfit catch-

up session

Friday 26th – Online

applications CLOSE for OC

Placement 2021

• Students being dropped off at school via private transport must be dropped to school between 9 – 9:25am. Students can be walked to the gate and the teacher on duty will keep an eye out for arrivals.

• Pick-up at the end of the day will take place between 3:15 – 3:35pm with K/1/2 being collected first. Please queue on the school side of the road, beginning at the wooden gate.

Early departure and late arrivals: Parents can enter individually for this purpose. Parents will need to sign their child/children in and or out via the iPad in the office. You will be shown how to do this. This system replaces the green forms. Your child will be sent to the office to meet you for early departures. Parents are not to drop or collect their child/children to/from classrooms.

Notes for Pick Up:

• Please do not overtake cars but wait until you are called forward by a teacher.

• Please ensure you abide by road signs e.g. no right turn into School Lane from the western end. Please continue past the school and turn at the park, shops or enter from the eastern end and turn at the loop opposite Pinecrest and the gazebo as shown in photographs posted to Class Dojo last week.

• If the queue is really long, please wait in your car on the other side of the road until the queue reduces, before joining it. For student safety, we don’t want them crossing in front of cars.

Reporting and Assessment You will receive your child’s semester 1 report before the end of August (Week 6, Term 3). This will be a simplified version of the report you normally receive. We will notify you by the end of the term information regarding parent/teacher interviews.

School Activities Teachers will continue to follow the same school curriculum with the exception of some activities that can’t go ahead for now.

What Students Can Do:

• Use the school library.

• Engage in non-contact sporting activities.

Activities that can take place from Monday 15 June 2020

• Incursions/external providers can provide activities that support delivery of curriculum (e.g. music tutors, Dance2bfit programs, Healthy Harold).

• Inter-school activities (Small Schools’ and multicultural public speaking).

• School photos

Activities that can take place from beginning of Term 3

• All school sport and activities including competitions aligned with current health advice. Due to the timeframe of this notification, some sporting events may not take place due to impact of organisation that would normally be undertaken in Term 2.

• Inter-school student events and competitions (choirs, sport, debating, public speaking, performing arts, Selective Sports High School trials etc).

• SRE/SEE lessons.

• P&C meetings – with a strong preference for online where possible.

• Parent/teacher meetings – where these need to take place – strong preference for online where possible unless involving serious matters that require face to face discussion.

Activities that are cancelled, delayed or not permitted

Certain large arts and sports events are cancelled or delayed because they require feeder activities and have long-lead time organisational arrangements.

School Cleaning and Hygiene Supplies

Our school has received additional cleaning in line with the AHPPC guidelines and advice from NSW Health. Targeted areas include high-touch areas and other hard surfaces, door handles, light switches, handrails and movement areas. There will also be additional cleaning of toilets and bubblers and topping up of supplies like soap. Our school has received extra supplies of soap, hand sanitiser, toilet paper, paper towels, disinfectant wipes and personal protective equipment.

School Cleaning Casual Positions Available

To help keep schools safe during COVID-19, we now have extra cleaning in place during the day. Our cleaning contractors are seeking to recruit casual cleaners to support the enhanced and day-clean at our local schools.

If you or someone you know may be interested in this work, please contact our contractor Broadspectrum via email to karleeanne.davis@skoutsolutions.com for further information.

School Grounds

Non-essential adults are still not permitted on school grounds. There should be no visitors to the school site. This means we cannot have reading group or parent helper volunteers.

Religious Education

Catholic and Combined Scripture lessons will not resume face-to-face until restrictions to school visitors change. Students in the Catholic Scripture class have received a note with information regarding online classes that can be undertaken at home.

Responding to COVID-19 Cases

There is a clear plan in place for schools to respond to any suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 in our schools. We are working closely with NSW Health and will communicate with parents if a situation was to arise.

Wellbeing Support

We are very lucky to have Ms Sheila Zaman our School Psychologist who will be available for support during these difficult times. Ms Zaman is available on Wednesdays during odd weeks for face-to-face counselling. If you feel that your children are experiencing difficulty processing their feelings or if you feel they need extra support transitioning back to school, please contact the school so that arrangements can be made.

Canteen

Unfortunately, our canteen will remain closed for the rest of Term 2. We will be looking to re-open in Term 3. This will be determined by the finalisation of renovations and health guidelines.

P & C

P & C Meetings will be postponed until further notice.

School Banking

School Banking has been temporarily paused since 23 March 2020. We’ll advise when the program will recommence. In the meantime, Start Smart Parent Resources, have been created to assist parents and carers in improving their children’s money management skills. These free, short videos and worksheets, can be accessed from home and are designed to give students the confidence and skills to make smart decisions about money.

Scholastic Book Club

The school does not accept orders and payments by cash/cheques from parents wishing to order Scholastic Book Club. Orders need to be placed online with Scholastic Book Club via what is known as “The Loop”. The link to this is as follows:

https://mybookclubs.scholastic.com.au/Parent/ClubManagement.aspx

Scholastic Book Club is due Friday 19th June.

Many thanks to Ms Leer for continuing in this voluntary role.

Opportunity Class Placement Changes to the opportunity class placement process for 2020 Year 4 students. The 2021 Year 5 opportunity class placement process was put on hold in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 situation. We now have a revised and simplified timeline for the OC placement process to ensure that students and families can have certainty about their placement as soon as possible. The changes include:

• Applications are now open and close on 26 June 2020. Late applications cannot be accepted.

• A new test date - Wednesday 16 September 2020.

To ensure fair and consistent assessment of students across New South Wales, students will be offered places based only on their test results this year – there will be no school assessment scores. There will also be no opportunity for appeals given the tight timeframes. For further detailed information I encourage you to visit (https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/selective-high-schools-and-opportunity-classes/year-5OC Placement 2021

Primary School Literacy Award

Congratulations to Cleo and Leigha for receiving the Rotary Literacy Award. Thank you to the Rotary Club of Kurrajong/North Richmond Inc for your generous voucher. Well done girls, you make us proud!

School Donation We would like to express our appreciation to the Institute for Musculoskeletal Health at the University of Sydney for their generous donation to the school of $800 to support us for bushfire recovery. Thank you for being so kind and thoughtful! We look forward to speaking with the children about how the money will be used.

School Garden The students have been enjoying helping spruce up the school gardens. Our last scarecrows were looking a little weathered! Please see picture collage at the end of the newsletter.

Happy Birthday

We hope the following students have a great birthday this month! Kye (12 years old), Ryan (10 years old), Sophie (6 years old), Sophia (8 years old).

Mrs Melanie Mackie

Principal

AWARDS

Bronze

K/1/2 - Connor, Darcy, Isabelle, Kian, Lincoln, Sophie S, Sophie Y, Thomas, Alby,

Ben, Kai, Wolf, Zack, Cassie, Charlotte, Chloe, Ivie, Khloe, Layla, Sophia, Charli.

3/4 – Indy, Axle, Emily, Peppa, Hugh, Zak.

5/6 - Tara, Kye, Leigha, Abigail.

COMMUNITY NEWS

Macquarie Towns Arts Society’s

School Holiday Art & Craft Workshop Program

July Holidays, 2020

All workshops 10am - 12 noon

Mon 6th July - Draw Fantasy Creatures

Tues 7th July - Decorate Treasure Boxes

Wed 8th July - Make Jewellery

Thur 9th July - Make Colourful clay Critters

Fri 10th July - Paint a Landscape

Mon 13th July - Make Your Own Slime

Tues 14th July - Draw Dinosaurs

Wed 15th July - Draw Cartoons

Thur 16th July - Make Your Own Dragon

Fri 17th July - Make Pottery

Cost: $15 per 2hr workshop; everything supplied.

Numbers limited to 6 per workshop

Safe distancing and Covid Hygiene rules apply

Venue: Richmond Art Supplies,

Shop 1, 328 Windsor St, Richmond

Bookings Essential: phone Deidre 0412 979731

MTAS After School Art Classes for Term 3, 2020, also Now Enrolling.

For more information go to www.mtas.com.au