Tighes Hill

Public School

33 Elizabeth Street, Tighes Hill, 2297

Phone: 4969 3720

4969 3703 Fax: 4961 2334

Email address: tigheshill-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Website: www.tigheshill-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Newsletter No. 17 31st

October 2012

Principals Newsletter Wednesday 31st October, Week 4 Term 4

Wow what a fantastic fete! Congratulations and a huge thank you to our fete committee, Sarah, Naomi, Andrew, Maria and Justin, P&C members, school community and school staff for their wonderful effort, hard work and amazing organisation in delivering such a memorable event! I am sure we would not have been able to fit another body in our school on Friday and I am certain that everyone had a wonderful time. Well done!

Congratulations Zax Devenny and Gilbert Harabakunzi! Both boys achieved impressive results at State Athletics Carnival 2 weeks ago. We will be seeing more of these boys especially in future Olympic Games I am sure. Additional congratulations to Zax who was successful in gaining an offer for Merewether High School.

Congratulations to Oliver Gerard, Eva Morris, Amy Phillips, Noah Ellis, Liam Badier and Dayna Garside for been successful in gaining a place (or reserve) in our OC class for 2013, we are all very proud of you as we are of all the children who sat for the test. OC orientation program is scheduled for Week 6 with an evening parent meeting planned.

Congratulations to all our children and their parents, school uniforms look great. I make no apologies for insisting that all children wear blue school hats throughout this term and during next year as they are the most affordable sun safe hats available. We will continue to encourage all children to wear wide brimmed hats so that all areas around the face are protected. Caps do not offer sufficient protection to the face and little to no protection to ears and neck. If you have difficulty purchasing a school hat please let me know and we can come to some arrangement. Remember that children not wearing school hats will not be able to play at recess and lunch, in keeping with the sun safe policy. Sun screen is also necessary for all children and should be applied before they come to school.

Bandana Day: What a fantastic effort Bandana Day was. So many of our children supported this vital fundraiser and the lovely array of colourful bandanas look great and I know will now become a great weekend accessory for all our children. Thank you SRC, Mrs Dickson and Mr Selwood !

Dates to Remember

Wednesday 7th Nov SRC School Disco

Monday 12th Nov P&C Annual General Meeting ~6.00pm

Tuesday 13th Nov Kindergarten Orientation ~ session 1

Tuesday 13th Nov Supply Stream Uniforms visiting ~ 1pm

Tuesday 13th Nov Opportunity Class Orientation Evening

Thursday 15th Nov School Captains 2013 ~ Speeches

Tuesday 20th Nov Kindergarten Orientation ~ session 2

Tuesday 27th Nov Kindergarten Orientation ~ session 3

Our school newsletter comes out fortnightly on Wednesdays, and is given to the eldest member of the family. This edition includes:

Principal‟s Report

Got It Flyer

Fete Thank You

School Band Report

Swimming School: Swimming school began on Monday and will continue for the remainder of this week and all of next week. The weather will warm up and I know that the children are enjoying acquiring vital water safety skills. Again hats and sun-screen is a must as the walk to and from the pool is in full sun for most of the way.

Kindergarten Orientation: All Children enrolled to commence Kindergarten in 2013 will have received their invitation for “Kindy Orientation” on Tuesday 13th of November. We are looking forward to meeting all our new parents and sharing information about our school. The program begins at 9.30. Thank you Mr Selwood, Mrs Crump, our Kindergarten teachers and the many parents assisting with the information session and preparing lunch. Two additional sessions are also scheduled for the children on the following Tuesdays.

Kindy Club: Yesterday was the final Kindy Club and Graduation Day. Mrs Behsman and Mrs Crump have done an awesome job with this program and I can see all the children are more than ready to commence school in 2013. They are a delightful group who will no doubt begin school in a very positive way. Thank you to all their parents for participating in our program.

SRC Disco: The disco for Kinder–Year 2 (4.00pm-5-00pm) and Years 3-6 (5.30pm-7.00pm) is planned for Wednesday the 7th of November. Tickets are $5 per child, this covers the cost of a drink, snack and prizes during the evening. Tickets are on sale each day at the silver seats. Unfortunately children who have lost more than one star on the Star Card program will not be able to attend.

Captains 2013: Year 5 children began participating in a leadership program in preparation for the upcoming 2013 Captains and Vice-Captain Elections in Week 6. During the leadership program Year 5 children will be able to nominate/ be nominated for the first round candidates. They will then as a group, vote for the final 6 students. These 6 children can then begin to campaign and prepare their speeches that will be delivered before parents and the whole school on Thursday 15 th. Kindergarten to Year 5 will then vote for the boy and girl Captain while the other 4 children will become Vice-Captains. This process enables all Year 5 children to identify leadership skills and attributes, that they each possess and gives them confidence and ownership of the process of electing captains.

P&C: Please remember that our AGM will be held next Monday Week 6, 12th of November at 6.00pm. This meeting will elect the P&C Executive for 2013 and look at school direction for the next 3 years. Come along and contribute, participate and lighten the load. Our children will benefit from your involvement.

Selective High School Test 2013: All current Year 5 children who wish to sit for the selective HS exam early next year will need to complete online application by the 16th of November. Hard copies are available from school if you do not have access to internet. Please make sure you meet the deadlines as it is difficult to apply after the due dates. Practice test questions are available through the selective schools web site and I encourage children wishing to sit the test to access these.

OC Orientation: The dates have been set for all the students who have been successful in gaining an offer or are on the reserve list for our 2013 Year 5 OC class. Orientation evening is set for Tuesday 13th of November and class visits are organised for Friday 23rd November and Wednesday 5th December. Letters will be sent out this week. We are looking forward to meeting all our successful students and families.

Woolworths Shopper Dockets: Thank you to all the parents, extended family and community members who added to our 90,000 points tally as we were able to purchase classroom equipment to the value of $14,000! What a fantastic effort. Thank you Mrs Armstrong for promoting this program and encouraging everyone to participate.

PSP Writing Competition: In Term 3, Hunter and Central Coast Priority Schools including our Stage 2 and 3 students participated in a writing competition. Two of our students achieved wonderful results and were awarded Highly Commended for their effort. At Monday‟s Assembly Louis Rodger and Nick Wyburn received their certificates from Ms Hayley McDonald PSP Consultant. Well done everyone as all writing was of high standard.

ASSEMBLY AWARDS Week 2 and 3

KD Grayson Hall, Christopher Farthing, Matterlynn Roberts, Jules Puxty, Deegan Howard, Emerson Weine

KR Destiny Direen, Abbey Green, Tedmund Polglase, Sahra Garside, Angelo Iosif, Jack Riters 1E Haydn Wakefield, Logan Hutchinson, Elke Taylor, Lola Michalopoulos-Donohue, Brock Howard,

Dakota Kelly 1L Shayla Tonkovic, Matthew Stephenson, Elees McCarroll-Murray, Mala Blackley, Maria Kamanda,

Corey Rutherford 1R2 Kiera Woods, Mattison Roberts, Justin O‟Brien, Neave Bailey, Angus Hilditch, Hunter McGregor 2G3 Lilli Cheetham, Brianna Michie, Ryan Yarnold, Shannon Badier, Indigo Langford, Djala Perry,

Malacai Murphy 3A4 Nelson Gardner, Kieran Insley, Jessica McCulloch, Lucas Collins, Dayna Garside, Kingsley Kiina, 4J5 Alec Ross, Raiden Bates, Timothy McQuillan 5M6 Lara Bailey, Ella Doughty, Matthew Barker, Ruby Cooper, Mabel Rodger, Ellie Rodger 5H6 Alan Parmenter, Zephyr Tarran, Cooper Cheetham, Chris Falley, Samantha Young

Congratulations Everyone! Fantastic Effort!

Anna McMinn Principal

Breakfast Club ~ Our wonderful Wednesday volunteer is away for 4 weeks from next week. Is anyone able to assist for the 4 Wednesdays? Also a reminder of this great value breakfast ~ 50 cents for cereal, toast, fruit and a morning chat. Thanks Mary Crump (Community Liaison Officer)

Uniform Ordering

The uniform company Supply Stream will be visiting the school in conjunction with our Kindergarten Orientation on Tuesday 13th November. All our families are welcome to place uniform orders on the day or collect orders previously ordered on-line. www.supplystream.com.au Or alternatively an order form can be collected from the office. They will be here at the school from 1.00pm.

SRC School Disco Date: Wednesday 7th November Where: Upper hall

Times: Kindergarten - Year 2 ~ 4.00pm - 5.00pm

Year 3 - Year 6 ~ 5.30pm - 7.00pm

Cost: $5 per student (includes a drink and a packet of chips)

Money is to be paid prior to the disco. SRC will collect and record payments before school

and at recess near the silver seats. Please see Mrs Dickson for any enquiries

.

Email Addresses Required We are still requesting parent email addresses as the newsletter will also be sent out this way each week with our aim to reduce paper copies by early next year. If you haven‟t as yet given us these details please let the front office know. Preferably please email the school - the email address is tigheshill-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au with the subject line „newsletter‟ and your name, child/ren name/s and classes. It would be great if in the long term we could have most newsletters on email and only paper copies by request.

We no longer receive bread from Brumby‟s of a Tuesday.

We would like to thank them for their donations over the last 7 years. A very big thank you also, to all those people who picked up the bread

over the past years.

The Tighes Hill Public School band is growing in strength with recent performances and new members!

Bandfest (16/10/12)

Our school band recently competed at the well established Bandfest, held at Lake Macquarie Performing Arts Centre. With seven other schools we were entered in the Preliminary section for emerging bands. The band received a commendation and trophy for the performance which was proudly presented to the school at assembly last week. Well done band!

School Fete (26/10/12)

The Tighes Hill School band was very proud to perform at the fantastic school fete last week. It can be admitted that there were some nerves beforehand due to the size and distinguished nature of the audience. However all band members were outstanding and acquitted themselves with distinction. Well done showcasing all your hard work from this year.

New Members:

Warm welcome to our newest band members Ruby Taylor and Eva Morris - it's great to have our numbers increasing!

Thank You:

A big thank you to the school band conductors Mr Haug and Mr Britt for their continued honing of the students' skills and making time to practice with and conduct at events.

Also thank you to Mr Phillips for helping with transport of students to Bandfest. Parent help is always appreciated to ensure students can participate in all events.

School Band Members:

Eva Morris, Amy Phillips, Liam Badier, Zachary Donoghoe, Amber Michie, Nick Wyburn, Tyler Wakefield-Burman and Ruby Taylor.

Band co-ordinator Chris Gillett

An exciting new program for Pre-Kinders, Kinder and Year 1

Getting On Track In Time (GOT-IT!)

Tighes Hill Public School has taken the opportunity to participate in an exciting new

program for children in the current Kindergarten and Year 1 classes and next year’s

Kindergarten children.

Getting On Track In Time (GOT-IT!) is an early intervention program run by local health

professionals from the Local Hunter New England Health District in collaboration with

Department of Education and Communities and your school.

GOT-IT! aims to teach children emotional resilience and further the development of their

social skills to help them better manage their behaviours at school and at home, assisting

them to learn to their full potential and maximise their life opportunities.

Children who are emotionally and socially skilled relate better to other children, teachers and parents. They are more competent in dealing with stress and school work” (Aber, Jones, & Cohen 2000)

The program will be fun and supportive for students and will also offer practical help for

parents/carers and teachers.

Parents/Carers of the children in Kindergarten and Year 1 this year have already received

a questionnaire to complete. Parents of those children who will be enrolling in Kindergarten

in 2013 at Tighes Hill Public School will have an opportunity to complete their questionnaire

during the Kinder Orientation at the school on Tuesday morning 13th November. This

questionnaire will assist the health professionals in identifying which part of the program

will best benefit their child in Term 1 2013. All children in Kinder, Year 1 and Year 2 in

Term 1, 2013 will be offered whole-classroom activities initiated by the GOT IT! Team and

delivered by their class teacher.

If you have children in the current Kinder and Year 1 classes this year

and would like to know more about the program a GOT-IT! Health Worker

will be available to talk to at morning drop off time from

8:45am on Tuesday 13th November

\

Mindfulness-Based

Stress Reduction (8-week course, 2.5 hr/wk & Day of Mindfulness 7hrs)

Newcastle, 2013 Day & Evening Courses

A method for enhancing resilience for physical and emotional health and well being. Sustained practice of mindfulness can have a profoundly healing and transformative effect on one‟s life. Experience an increased sense of connectedness, peace and an ability to relax. Learn to cope with short/long term stress & consciously respond with clarity and focus.

Day ~ Thursday ~ 10am –12:30pm ~ February 14th – April 4th, 2013

Evening ~ Monday ~ 6pm – 8:30pm ~ February 11th – April 8th, 2013

Full Day of Mindfulness 9am - 4pm Sunday – March 24th, 2013

www.openground.com.au for venue details & more information about MBSR

Participants will be invited to explore the following practices:

Experiencing body & mind through yoga and meditation

Informal & formal mindfulness practices

Lying down body scan, mindful eating & walking meditation

Mindful communication & inquiry related to home practice

Exploration of patterns of thinking, feeling & action

Full-day retreat (between Week 6 & 7) please provide own lunch.

Price: $455 & $370 Concession 4 Practice CD’s & Mindfulness Training Course Book included

Please wear loose, comfortable clothing and bring along a yoga mat. Bookings essential, please phone Lisa, enrolment and payment by 8th of February 2013

View www.lisapollard.com for an extensive bio on Lisa’s qualifications & training

lpollard2000@hotmail.com www.lisapollard.com ph. 0403 186146

Thank You

Marketown Shopping Centre, Newcastle West.

Growers Best very kindly supply our school with a box of fruit each week for ‘Fruit Break’.

Next time you visit, thank them on behalf of Tighes Hill Public School.

Girls Only

Girls Quick Kicks Northern NSW Football in collaboration with

Newcastle Football and Macquarie Football

are running Quick Kicks at two locations near

you. National Park, Cooks Hill and CB Complex,

Parklea Avenue, Croudace Bay.

Girls Quick Kicks incorporates a revised

format of ‘the game’, in line with Small Sided

Football, with a fun and non-competitive

environment; with no points, no finals and no

pressure! And it's exclusively for girls in

Years 3 to 9! (Ages 8-15)

Jen Willmott

Game Development Co-ordination Officer

Northern NSW Football 4/41 Griffiths Road

Lambton NSW 2299 PH : 02 4964 0713 FAX:: 02 4964 8921

www.northernnswfootball.com.au www.facebook.com/nnswf

CITY GAPS GRANDPARENTS AS PARENTS

A support group for grandparent carers in the Newcastle city and suburban areas, working in conjunction with

Samaritans Foundation.

Meets weekly during school terms on Mondays ~ 11.00am-12.30pm St. Andrews Anglican Hall

Church St. Mayfield

This is an opportunity to socialise with other carers, share experiences and

discuss difficulties in an informal and friendly atmosphere.

All Grandcarers Welcome

For more information and general inquiries contact Karen -0429914553

or Rosemary -49 633 616 E.rjallen@exemail.com.au

Canteen Roster

Thurs 1st Nov Celia Morgan Carol Baj-rai

Fri 2nd Nov Tracy Phillips Mike Phillips

Mon 5th Nov Jo Hutchinson Brent Withey

Tues 6th Nov Kylie Insley

Kylie Meiforth

Wed 7th Nov Dee Crooks Kate Ross

Thurs 8th Nov Lucy Ellis

Nicole Lingard

Fri 9th Nov Emma Fensom

Mon 12th Nov Kylie Meiforth

Tues 13th Nov Kylie Insley

Wed 14th Nov Dee Crooks

Julie Claridge

Thurs 15th Nov Celia Morgan Carol Baj-rai

Fri 16th Nov Leah Harvey

Volunteer Needed

Guitar Lessons Just a reminder that group guitar lessons are being offered at Tighes Hill Public School.

Lessons are conducted on Monday afternoons and are $13.00 for a one hour lesson

over an 8 week term.

The lessons are taught in an informal and fun environment and are ideally suited to beginners.

Piano Hire at good rates is also available for students interested in studying music.

Enquiries: Paul Chaplin

paulchaplin@mac.com Mob. 0447 305 000

Canteen Volunteers Always Needed!

Again we find our volunteers list dwindling, as some people have to leave due to work and other life commitments. We value and appreciate every hour that you can offer. If you are able to help even just one day in Term 4, please contact Kylie Meiforth on 0466895041

Tighes Hill Public School

Carols Night !

Come and join us for Carols and Christmas celebrations on Thursday 29th November

Class performances Bring the family, deck chairs and nibbles