TERM 1, WEEK 8 Wilberforce Public School March 21 2019

NEWSLETTER Macquarie Road, Wilberforce NSW 2756 Phone: 4575 1424 Fax: 4575 1096

Email: wilberforc-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Webpage: www.wilberforc-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Harmony Day

Today is Harmony Day! Harmony Day celebrates the fact that Australians come from all over the world. We have students from many different backgrounds and cultures who all contribute different ideas, religions, languages and customs to our country and our school. The diversity of people who live in Australia make it such an interesting and special place. This year our school celebrated Harmony Day with a special whole school assembly at 11:55am. Students wore their traditional heritage clothing or orange the official colour of Harmony Day. Many classes also celebrated in their own way by cooking foods from around the world, and Kindy had the opportunity to have a Henna tattoo. Our Hall has been decorated with self-portraits in different colours. Many thanks to Mrs Ahmedi for all her hard work organising the event this year.

Kindy Grandparents Day

Once again, a massive ‘Thank You’ to all of our community and family visitors who attended our special Kindy Grandparents' Day celebrations on Tuesday! It was a wonderful day for our students to showcase their learning thus far to their nearest and dearest. Connecting shared experiences across the generations is a lot of fun and provides our students with so many rich experiences and discussions.

• 26 March – Paul Kelly AFL Cup (Stage 3 Selected Students)

• 3 April - School Photos

• 4 April – Western Sydney Debating Coaching Day (Selected students only)

• 5 April - Kindy Conversations & Stage 2 &3 Basketball Gala Day

• 9 April – Kindergarten 2020 Information night

• 12 April – Last day of Term 1

IMPORTANT DATES

Interview by Request and Kindy Interviews

Interview by request notes were sent home earlier this week. Interviews will take place across weeks 10 and 11. These interviews are only if you have concerns about your child’s progress so far this year. Some teachers will request interviews with parents if they wish to seek more information about a particular student.

Kindy interviews will also take place on Friday 5th of April. Mrs Phillips and Mrs van Hensbergen are looking forward to discussing your child’s first year of learning.

All interviews can be booked at www.schoolinterviews.com.au using the code: mkbvn

Election Day BBQ at Wilberforce – This Saturday!

Have you signed up to help at our Election BBQ?

WE NEED MANY HANDS AND SMILES TO SUPPORT THIS EVENT. We have a few gaps where we require help to ensure this stall is a success.

If you can help on the day please go online to www.schoolinterviews.com.au and enter the code eahxv to book your hourly time slot. Bookings will close tomorrow.

We have a big target of $30 000 to help us provide more technology to support our school and also to improve our playground. We need everyone to get behind all these P&C fundraising ventures. Many thanks for all those who have already volunteered their time.

P&C Election of Office Bearers for 2019

Congratulations to our new Office Bearers for 2019. At the Annual General Meeting earlier this month. The following parents were successful in attaining P&C Executive positions in 2019:

President: Fiona Keane

Vice President: Bek Gregory

Vice President: Mel Moxon

Treasurer: Katie Marshall

Secretary: Vanessa Lonsdale

Fundraising Coordinator: Clarissa Greenhalgh

Uniform Shop: Emily Read

The P&C has elected to hire a new paid canteen manager from Term 2 as a trial. If successful this position will continue. Thanks very much to Bek Smith, Carly Vincent and Tracey McCarthy who will continue supporting the canteen while this position is finalised. We continue to welcome all parents and community members to P&C meetings. Meetings are held on the first Monday of each month.

Permission Notes and Payments in Advance

We are streamlining permission notes and payments to make it easier to manage for both office staff and parents. Most notes and numerous reminders are posted on the Skoolbag app and our Facebook page. Currently, we have the following payment methods: payment through the POP (Parent Online Payment) system, accessible through our website or payment at the front office via Cash, Eftpos or Cheque. Parents may make a payment for all items in advance or pay as each excursion/incursion note is sent home. All requests for payments to the school will have the school letterhead on the note. Payments to the P&C for Canteen lunch orders or fundraising events for example special lunch order days or discos are through Flexischools. Request for these payments will not be printed on a school letterhead. The only other regular payment made in association with the school will be for Music tutoring which will be to the music tutor via bank transfer or cash.

In addition to whole school events, each stage also has different excursions and activities throughout the year. The stages are as follows:

Early Stage 1 – Kindergarten Stage 1 – Years 1 and 2 Stage 2 – Years 3 and 4 Stage 3- Years 5 and 6.

Stages continue in High School with Stage 4 being Years 7 and 8 right through to Stage 6 which is Year 11 and 12. Notes will be addressed to all the students in a stage. Achievement levels in NSW are also based around this system, which require students to achieve a level of knowledge and skills over a two-year period.

Visible Learning - What makes a difference?

We hear so much about class sizes, NAPLAN and money for buildings and resources being poured into school, yet some of the most important things we can do to improve student learning is overlooked. This pie-chart illustrates the influences on student learning. As defined by John Hattie in the Australian Council for Educational Research.

Students account for about 50% of their achievement. It is what students bring to the table that predicts achievement more than any other variable. It is a school’s role to ensure all students access their ability to learn and progress.

Home accounts for 5-10%. The biggest influence comes from expectation and encouragement.

Teachers account for about 30% of the variance. It is what teachers know, do, and care about which is very powerful in this learning equation.

Peer effects- 5-10%. The greatest positive influence of peers on learning can be as co teachers. This can include older siblings assisting with homework.

Principals and schools create a climate of psychological safety to learn, and focus discussion on student learning.

Recycling and Return and Earn

We are increasing our green initiatives across the school and again this year we kindly ask that all children assist us by bringing eligible containers to school with them where they will be collected and processed. Students are also recycling paper bags and foil wrapping at lunchtime in an effort to reduce our impact on the environment with students making a foil snowman who will eventually be recycled.

A list of eligible containers can be found at www.returnandearn.org.au.

We also applied and were successful in gaining a $650 Woolworths grant to increase our composting at the school. We encourage all students to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Tell Them From Me Survey

Tell Them From Me is an online survey system that assists schools to capture the views of students, teachers and parents. This term students in Years 4 to 6 will be completing the survey. Visit the Frequently Asked Questions page to find out more about this survey. A parent survey will be conducted later this year. If you do not want your child to participate, please return the permission note sent home today.

Thank you

• To Mrs Ahmedi for organising Harmony Day. • To Mrs Wilkes for organising the Regional Swimming and supporting Hawkesbury PSSA. • To Mrs Chapple for organising Waste Education and Stage 1 Excursion. • To Mrs Phillips and Mrs van Hensbergen for organising Kindy Grandparents Day and to all the

Grandparents who attend. • To the P&C for organising the School Disco. • To everyone who has volunteered for the Election BBQ.

Graham Wilkins Principal

NEWS, NOTES AND HAPPENINGS

School Photos

Please return your photo envelopes or make your order and payment online by Tuesday 2 April. Photo day is Wednesday 3 April.

Please Note:

FAMILY PHOTOS – If you would like your children to have a family photo, please collect a Family Envelope from the front office. Family photo orders cannot be placed online.

Soundwaves

Week 9

Term 4

Graphemes: Graphemes: Extra Focus Concepts:

f ff ph

Blends: fl, fr, ft

Enough

Tough

Combining syllables, Verb tense (present and past), Adding ed, Adding ing, Suffixes: ful Greek and Latin roots: facio factus, finis, fortis, frango fractus, grapho

Week 10

Term 4

Graphemes: Graphemes: Extra Focus Concepts:

o a

Patterns: oss, ock, ong, ost

honest, sausage, knowledge, yacht

Adding ed, Adding ing, Adding s or es, Compound words: anybody, nobody, somebody, everybody Families, Similes, Greek and Latin roots: bios, astro, geo, audio, chrono, radius, crimen, arkhaiologos, logos

NOTES Home NOTES Due Choir Commitment TOMORROW Friday 22 March Western Sydney Debating Coaching Day (Selected students only) Thursday 28 March Let’s Glow! School Disco Wednesday 27 March Kindy Conversations Wednesday 27 March Term 1 Request for Interviews Wednesday 27 March Peer Support Training Day (Stage 3) Friday 29 March Basketball Gala Day (Stage 2 & 3) Friday 29 March Tell Them From Me Survey (If you do not want your child to participate) Friday 29 March Author Visit - Kate and Jol Temple Wednesday 1 April School Photos Tuesday 2 April Expression of Interest Stage 3 Camp Friday 12 April

STAGE NEWS

Early Stage 1

Stage 1

On Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th March, Stage 1 had the wonderful opportunity of visiting Brewongle Environmental Education Centre in Sackville for our excursion 'The Past in the Present'. The first activity allowed students to sit in a classroom from 1878. The students enjoyed writing with a quill pen. It was a new and unique experience! The most interesting item in the classroom was definitely the cane! Afterwards the students sketched the original row boat that was used by the students to travel across the Hawkesbury River in the 1800s. Stage 1 also played the knuckles game and marbles. Finally the students were immersed in the Aboriginal Dreamtime. They learnt about various Indigenous tools and skills. They thoroughly enjoyed using clay to make the echidna from the story. It was an exciting and fun excursion!

Stage 2

Stage 2 have been Learning to ‘parse’ a sentence. This means to identify the type of word, e.g. noun verb, in each sentence. Most of our students are now averaging above 50%, and while this may sound easy, it is a lot harder than it looks. Feel free to ask any of our Stage 2 students to parse a sentence. Students have also been learning to include WOW words (adjectives) in their work. In the last few weeks students will be asked to bring it all together to construct a story.

Stage 3

Outstanding work has been produced by some of our Year 5 and 6 students. Cooper, William and Amelia completed some outstanding timelines of the History to Federation. Tyler H was the recipient of this week’s Outstanding Learner Award for his excellent persuasive text, which he continually edited to ensure it was of a high standard. An extract is outlined below.

Here I am on a mountain, like a castle, but as green as algae. I can hear the birds chirping happily, I can see an army of trees over the horizon, and I see a lush, green landscape as far as I can see. I feel the wind blowing on my whole body, like a giant fan. I feel the warmth of the summer sun. I smell wet grass from the rain days earlier, and the sheer beauty of animals near and far. I can taste the biscuits in my mouth as crispy as dried leaves but as tasty as anything. I feel my hunger deep inside my stomach, like empty monster that wants food.

The next time I come to see the beauty of this land, there was an army of bulldozers and an army of trees, being beaten in the fight. All I can smell is smoke from bulldozers and chainsaws. I see the beautiful animals in cages, set for the zoo. I feel lost. I lose my temper. I scream and show and fight for this now devastated landscape.

Tyler 5/6T

WEEKLY ASSEMBLY Whole school Assembly every Friday 12:15pm.

Date Class Teachers

22 March 5/6C Mrs Chia

29 March 1D Mrs Domars

5 April 3/4B Miss Dossaer

12 April 5/6R Mr Ranger

WEEKLY AWARDS

Bronze Lachlan H 3/4R, Lachlan N 1/2W, Lily M 2A, Taylah F 2A, Preston C 3/4R, Chelsea K 3/4H x 2, Joel K 2C, Indigo K 2A x 2, Willow S 3/4R x 2, Gwen D 2C, Nathan S 2C, Jessica S 3/4H, Ryan A 3/4H, James O 3/4H, Shaun O 5/6T, Logan W 3/4H x 2, Harrison G 5/6C x 2, Ella W 3/4B

Silver Lily M 2A, Chelsea K 3/4H, Willow S 3/4R, Gwen D 2C, Ryan A 3/4H, James O 3/4H, Logan W 3/4H

Gold Chelsea K 3/4H, Ryan A 3/4H, James O 3/4H

SPORT

Regional Swimming Carnival

Jasmine S and Jake H, Archer V, Anthoney P and Noah B from our Junior Boys relay were successful in reaching the Sydney West Regional carnival held at Homebush last week. Despite not making the final, it was a very impressive effort to represent our school amongst over 260 primary schools from Western Sydney.

A basketball Gala Day note has been sent home today to all Stage 2 and 3 students. Selection for this Gala Day will be on a first return basis. We encourage all students regardless of ability to give these sporting opportunities a go!

UNIFORM OPEN EVERY 2ND Monday FROM 3PM

Orders can be placed online through our online store at www.wilberforcepandc.com.au

The shop will be opened next on: 1 April If you have any spare shopping bags to donate to the uniform shop for packing orders it would be much appreciated.

CANTEEN

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED for Wednesday 3 April. If there is no one to volunteer, the Canteen will have to close on this day. Please contact the Canteen Volunteer Facebook page if you can help out.

As mentioned in the newsletter last week we are changing our rosters over to an online system, where we will require all volunteers to enter themselves on the days they would like to do. We have uploaded Term 2 roster and would love you all to jump on and start filling it in, we also have a few spots that still need filling for term one if anyone can help out. Just follow the link below and you will be asked to set up an account for yourself with phone number and email address. Once this is done it is as simple as placing yourself on the days you can volunteer. We would love to see new volunteers so please encourage friends and family to come along, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us and we will sort out straight away.

Carly - 0401955107

https://signup.zone/hyPkE9pBoL2CQKr67

Monday Wednesday Friday 25 March 27 March 29 March

Kerrie Allen Sandra Binks

Natalie Ferguson Tracey McCarthy Melanie Moxon

Janine Groom Emily Read

Mel Issa Monday Wednesday Friday 1 April 3 April 5 April

Rebecca Stephen Emily Read

VOLUNTEER NEEDED VOLUNTEER NEEDED VOLUNTEER NEEDED

Joanne Cox Melanie Reberger

VOLUNTEER NEEDED