Respect, Responsibility, Personal Best Branxton Public School Newsletter to Parents

BRANXTON PUBLIC SCHOOL

Find us at: 12 King St, Branxton NSW 2335 Email: branxton-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Phone: (02) 4938 1214 Fax: (02) 4938 1905 Website: www.branxton-p.schools.nsw.gov.au

Week 3 Term 4 WEDNESDAY 7TH NOVEMBER, 2018

Dates to Remember

9.11.18 1st Kinder 2019 Orientation

16.11.18 2nd Kinder 2019 Orientation

16.11.18 PBL Assembly

21.11.18 Pocket Rockit - Parents (Online Safety)

22.11.18 Pocket Rockit - Students

23.11.18 3rd Kinder 2019 Orientation

29.11.18 Intensive Swimming Starts Yr 2

3.12.18 RTHS Parent Info Yr 7 2019

4.12.18 RTHS Orientation Day Yr 7 2019

7.12.18 Year 6 Fun Day Out

11.12.18 2018 Presentation Day

12.12.18 Year 6 Dinner

13.12.18 Sports Presentation

14.12.18 PBL Assembly - Water Fun Day

17.12.18 Reports Go Home

18.12.18 Party Day

19.12.18 Year 6 Service Awards

19.12.18 Last Day of Term 4 2018

PRINCIPALS’S NEWS It is certainly wonderful to be back at school preparing for the busy term ahead. I really enjoyed my experience attending a school in Surrey, Vancouver with Mr Samra. Canada is such a beautiful country and it reinforced the fact children are the same all over the world. The school was very different to ours at Branxton. The school was housed in one large building with lots of corridors. Central heating was a must due to the extremely cold weather they experience. However, I noticed that none of the classrooms had the Smartboards and technology that we have here. The students were lovely and had LOTS of questions about Australia. Most believe that we are a nation with many dangerous creatures. I had to reassure them we very seldom hear of someone being bitten by a snake or spider. In contrast, I was warned of bears and cougars whilst in the National Park! They simply could not understand how we survive without Halloween and all the “candy”! I also saw my very first racoon, and tasted pumpkin pie whilst attending a Thanksgiving family dinner. One of the highlights was working with an indigenous teacher in a sharing circle. I have included a beautiful story from their culture about two wolves please take time to read and discuss with your family.

Respect, Responsibility, Personal Best Branxton Public School

On another note I am concerned with the number of students arriving very early. The school provides active supervision from 8.40 in the morning. Staff are usually here before that but are busy attending staff meetings or preparing work for the day. If students arrive before this time they are to sit quietly on the seat near the canteen with their bag. Looking forward to a productive and exciting final

term.

Regards Mrs Maier

NAPLAN Meeting Thank you to the parents who came along to our information sessions on our school’s performance in NAPLAN. Our school is showing good positive growth, with our results in Numeracy reflecting the hard work of our staff in their TENS Training, work with I Can statements and rich tasks with Marcus from CHOOSE Maths. We are particularly proud of the value added

results for students from Year 3 to Year 5 which

have been identified as excelling!

PBL

Our PBL focus is on keeping calm and resolving conflict so everybody wins. There are times when people can become annoyed and how we deal with it makes a difference. Everyone needs to know a keep calm strategy which will work for them. The choice made, determines the consequences. We have looked at some scenarios and decided on an appropriate choice for the situation which could help to resolve the conflict. Congratulations to: Will from Early Stage 1 who had his name drawn out both weeks. Chelsea and Riley from Stage 1 Osha and Kenisha from Stage 2 and

Cade and Elijah from Stage 3 who were our ticket

draw winners over the last 2 weeks.

OPAL CARDS

2019 APPLICATIONS ARE NOW

OPEN

Don’t throw out this year’s School Opal card because eligible cards will be automatically updated for the new school year. However, you will need to update your application if you have a current School Opal card and:

Are progressing from Year 2 to year 3 Are progressing from Year 6 to Year 7 Your circumstances change, e.g. change of school, home address or school year outside of the usual progression.

Details are available at https://www.opal.com.au/en/about-opal/opal-for-school-students/

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EARLY STAGE 1 (KINDERGARTEN) NEWS

One year ago we were just starting to get to know one another through our Kinder Orientation program….. and now we’re doing it all again for our 2019 Kinders. While the Kinder teachers are meeting the pre-schoolers, Kinder students will spend time with their Year 6 buddies and the Stage 3 teachers. This will happen for the next three Fridays in the middle session. I know Mr Foster can’t wait – he loves Kindergarten! With summer being just around the corner, please remember to pack a water bottle and a hat for your child every day. We are missing many of our spare hats in Kindergarten so please, please check any hats at home. Kindergarten are learning how to do more formal handwriting in our new handwriting books this term. It is a slow process but we are seeing steady improvements in letter formations, which will be very handy for Year 1 (which is not too far away).

Tennis has been fun

with students getting the

hang of hitting the ball

gently to each other.

Plenty of skills being

developed and lots of

giggling!

Mrs Quilty

STAGE 1 NEWS Performers! Congratulations to our Stage 1 students who

entertained our Kinder students, and family and

friends, on Friday at our K-2 Assembly. The

students sang “Tadpole Blues” after studying

living things in Term 3. We are looking forward

to Kinder returning the favour in Week 6 at the

assembly.

Math and Picture Books Reading to your child is both a wonderful way to spend time together and also an effective way to engage your child in conversation. Students of all ages love stories and love to talk about stories. “Literature provides students with opportunities to make connections with their own lives, provides a context to think and practise mathematics, and enriches students’ view of the world of mathematics.” A Guide to Effective Instruction in Mathematics, Kindergarten to Grade 6. Listed below are a few titles to begin the conversation about mathematics at home. These picture books are connected to several math strands. Caps for Sale, by Esphyr Slobodkina

(Number Sense and Patterning) The Doorbell Rang, by Pat Hutchins

(Number Sense) Count to 10 with a Mouse, by Margaret

Wise Brown (Number Sense) Is a Blue Whale the

Biggest Thing There IS? by Robert Wells (Number Sense and Measurement)

Actual Size, by Steve

Jenkins ( Measurement)

One Grain of Rice, by

Demi (Number Sense

and Multiplication and Division)

Grandfather Tang’s Story, by Ann

Tompert (Geometry)

Stone Soup, by Heather Forest (Data

Management and Probability)

Mrs Noble

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STAGE 2 NEWS Reports have started and the teachers are making sure that they accurately portray your child's efforts this Semester. They will be coming home in Week 10.

We have a Remembrance Day service this Friday at 11 o'clock remembering 100 years since the end of WW2.

Carols by Torchlight will be held on Thursday 6th December. Come along and enjoy the evening.

Presentation Day is on Tuesday 11th December followed by the Sports Presentation on Thursday 13th December. With Party day being on Tuesday 18th December and the last day of term for the children is Wednesday 19th December. Mr Johanson

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT Congratulations to Grace from Stage 2 who competed at the State Finals of the Premier’s Spelling Bee today. She got through to the 4th round and was knocked out on the word ‘brioche’. The photo shows her receiving her certificate from NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian. Well done, Grace! We are so proud of

you!

STAFF TRAINING Mrs Qulity & Mr Johanson - Science

& Technology K-6 Syllabus

Mrs Ballenden & Ms Magann - Writing Course

Mrs Quilty, Mrs Murray & Mrs Nimmo - Best

Start Kindergarten Assessment Course

STAGE 3 NEWS Congratulations to our Stage 3 students who attended the Bathurst excursion. We are proud to say our students were complemented on their manners and overall good behaviour. Thank you to our staff who attended this excursion. There is a lot of work involved in preparing these learning opportunities for our students and being on the job for 3 days running. We appreciate your willingness to do this. On Monday, the Year 5 students received information about the 2019 Leadership Process. The nomination forms are due back to Mrs Maier by 9.10am on Monday. Details about the process were included on the note. Next Tuesday, Marcus from Choose Maths is visiting our school. He will be conducting a survey about Maths with students in 5/6B, F and T. A note for these 3 classes will come home today. The note contains some more information and parents can opt out for their child. Please return the notes by Tuesday. Highschool orientations are in full swing. Thank you for keeping our staff informed of your child’s plans for 2019. On Friday, the Year 5 students will begin their training to be a kindergarten buddy in 2019. They will have their first session with our new kindergarten students but will not have their specific buddy determined yet. There are lots of things happening with the end

of year, so please keep up to date through the

notes, See Saw and Facebook.

Mrs Ballenden

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P&C NEWS Thank you to everyone who participated in our Mango Fundraiser. We raised nearly $600 to put towards pavement art in our concrete areas. Orders will be arriving at the end of November but we will let you know once we receive a confirmation date. This term we will also be selling BeanCycled Mushroom kits for $25 each. All of the students have been involved in their classes with growing their own kits and now is your chance to grow some at home. Orders are made via Flexischools and are due in by Friday 16th November with delivery expected the first week of December.

The Central Hunter Business Expo was held on Saturday 27th October 9am-3pm at Miller Park. Thank you to all of our lovely families who came to say hello and purchase raffle tickets for our book prize and made a guess for of how many pens, pencils and textas were in the box. It was also a wonderful opportunity to let the wider community know what our P&C does for the school.

A big thank you to Mrs Ballenden for the two NAPLAN parent feedback sessions held over the last 2 weeks. There was a good turn-out of parents and family members for both sessions and lots of interesting discussion was had about how well our school is performing. Well done to Years 3 and 5 students on your results as well.

Just a reminder of our upcoming working bee this coming Sunday, 11th November. This working bee will be held 8am-11am and focus on sprucing up the outdoor veggie gardens and planting and mulching the new trees and shrubs purchased with the Landcare grant. All family members are welcome but please ensure children are supervised. We will be providing a BBQ brunch as a thank you.

We will also be holding a working bee on Friday 23rd

November to cover our new take home readers with

contact. Meet in the library at 11:35am, bring your own

scissors and we’ll supply a few nibbles. These books

are for our infants’ students and were purchased with

money kindly donated by Yancoal’s MTW mine.

Branxton P&C has partnered with Active Community Insurance to raise funds for new IT & Laptops for the students in 2019. When you purchase an insurance policy through ACI, our school receives funds on every policy you purchase, every year for the life time of the policy. Our partnership could raise thousands of $$$

every year for Branxton Public to buy new equipment and facilities for your children … it only takes 5-10 minutes to complete 3 easy steps. Branxton P&C can earn funds through the insurance that you already pay for! ACI insures Home & Contents, Landlords, Motor, Business, Farm & Travel and can be contacted on activecommunityinsurance or email Julie.hooper@activecommunityinsurance.com.au.

The school uniform shop will be selling sunglasses at the beginning of Term 4. Orders will be made via Flexischools and the sunglasses will be bottle green with the school name on them. We will wait for enough orders before purchasing them so they will arrive in time for summer. Sunglasses will come in 4 sizes: small, medium, large and extra large and all cost $15 a pair.

Carols by Torchlight will be held on Thursday 6th December in the school grounds. We will need some volunteers on the night to help run the stalls. Anyone who is able to help please email the P&C or message us via our Facebook page so we can coordinate a volunteer roster. Requests will also be going out soon on Seesaw. Also keep a look out for raffle tickets and requests for donations for our Christmas hampers to be won on the night. They will be coming home with your child soon.

Finally, we will also be having our annual Bunnings BBQ fundraiser at Maitland Bunnings on Saturday 8th December. We will post more information about how you can assist in the next newsletter.

Key dates coming up: Final P&C Meeting for 2018 and social get

together – all welcome 6:00pm Monday 10th December at the Royal Federal Hotel.

Spring working bee – Sunday 11th November 8am-11am.

Covering readers working bee – Friday 23rd November 11:35am in the school library.

Carols by Torchlight – Thursday 6th December.

Bunnings BBQ – Saturday 8th December.

To get in touch or keep up to date with the P&C like our Facebook page, read the school newsletter, talk to P&C members, email the address below, help at an event or come along to the next meeting. Thank you for your support Branxton Public School families. Melissa, P&C Secretary branxtonpublicschool@pandcaffiliate.org.au www.facebook.com/BranxtonPublicPandC

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Canteen Roster

Week 5 Term 4 commencing 12th November, 2018 Week 6 Term 4 commencing 19th November, 2018

Monday Janelle O’N Sharyn Monday Janelle O’N Julie

Tuesday Mel C Jade N Tuesday Julie Sharyn

Wednesday Julie Sharyn Wednesday Megan Sharyn

Thursday Heidi Julie Thursday Heidi Maggie

Friday Terneal Cass Friday Jaime Sharyn