6 March 2017

Newsletter Articles

PBL Focus for March

Principal’s Message

Gold Award

Congratulations to Phoebe for being the first Gold award winner of 2017. She ably demonstrates positive behaviour for learning through consistent practice and achievement of our school’s expectations: Respect, Responsibility and Personal Best.

SIPPS Learning Community

There was a wonderful turn out to our recent 2017 Parent Information Evening. We trust that it was a positive and informative experience. Thank you to the members of the P&C who made a presentation and Helping Hands OOSH for providing a free child minding service on the night.

IOn the future

Preparing Humans for the 2nd Machine Age is the subject of the upcoming IOn the Future event. Parents from St Ives Park Public School are welcome to attend subject to registration. Please see the following flyer for details.

Thanks IGA

SIPPS recently received a $353.87 donation as part of IGA Community Chest program. We thank IGA for this gift which will be put to good use to support student wellbeing at SIPPS. Our student Representative Council is deciding on the items it will purchase.

Student Invoices

Invoice statements with student fees for Term 1 are ready to be issued this week. The school appreciates prompt payment of student fees. Please see additional information in the ‘Notes From Office’ section of this newsletter.

Clean Up Australia Day

Our school is looking neat and tidy thanks to the efforts of our students who participated in our Clean Up Australia event last Friday.

Swimming Carnival

Once again this year Galston Aquatic Centre was the location for our school swimming carnival. The event was well supported by students, staff and parents. It was good to see excellent participation from our students who participated enthusiastically in the swimming races not only to achieve their personal best but to gain points for their house. Ribbons will be presented this week’s K-6 assembly.

National Day of Action against Bullying

At SIPPS we have a zero tolerance towards bullying behaviour. Our school behaviour code and student wellbeing practices such as Positive Behaviour for Learning reinforce the understanding that bullying and violence is never OK. This year our anti-bullying strategies also include explicit teaching on maintaining respectful online relationships. Also this year in Terms 2 and 3, students will be undertaking an anti-bullying learning module called ‘Stronger Together’ as part of the Peer Support Program.

This month in addition to focussing on the school’s expectation of Respect, we will promote the anti-bullying message further next Friday 17th March by recognising and being part of the National Day of Action against Bullying. More information can be found on the following website.

Tell Them From Me Survey

The Tell Them From Me (TTFM) survey is a great opportunity for our students to provide our school with valuable and quick feedback on what they think about school life, how engaged they are with school and the different ways that teachers interact with them. Schools in Australia and around the world have used the Tell Them From Me survey to help improve how they do things at school.

Once again this year we will ask students from Years 4, 5 & 6 to complete Tell Them From Me student feedback survey. The survey aims to help improve student learning outcomes and measures factors that are known to affect academic achievement and other student outcomes. The focus of the NSW-wide survey is on student wellbeing, engagement and effective teaching practices.

The survey is confidential and school staff will not be able to identify individual students from their responses. The survey is conducted online and will typically take less than 30 minutes to complete. It will be administered during school hours between 13 March and 7 April. Participating in the survey is entirely voluntary.

A consent form and a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) for parents/carers about the survey was sent home with students today. If you do not want your child or children to participate, please return the completed consent form to school by Friday 10 March. The FAQs and copies of the consent form, including translated consent forms, are available from the website above.

NAPLAN

NAPLAN tests are held in May each year for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Parents or carers of students who sit for the NAPLAN tests will receive a written report of their child's achievement in August.

The dates are:

• Tuesday 9 May – Language Conventions & Writing
• Wednesday 10 May – Reading
• Thursday 11 May – Numeracy

Formal Reporting Timeline

Formal reporting of student achievement will take place in the following timeframe at SIPPS in 2016:

• Term 1 – Parent/Teacher interviews – Tuesday 28th March – Tuesday 4th April. This year we will have an online process for booking interview timeslots.
• Term 2 – Written Reports – Sent home on Tuesday 27th June
• Term 3 NAPLAN (Years 3 & 5) – Written reports issued in September.
• Term 4 Written reports - Sent home on Friday 8th December

2017 Student Representative Council (SRC)

Congratulations to the newly elected student representative councillors. They are:

Year 6 executive SRC leaders- Scott, Darcy and Meshma
1/2E – Jiyu
2FT – Eva & Harry
3/4S – Max & Evie
3/4F – Zoe & Emilia
5/6H – Linus & Amy
5/6 S – Katherine & Jay

This year Miss Emerson and Mrs Field will be coordinating the SRC. They have held their first meeting and are planning the school’s celebration of Harmony Day

Holiday leave

Approval for extended travel leave is approved for students who need to travel with their families for exceptional circumstances. If you are seeking approval for your child to take extended travel leave please contact the school office for an application form. Unfortunately travel leave will not be approved for the purpose of holidays taken during school terms.

Inspiring & Nurturing Successful Lifelong Learners

Robotics at SIPPS

The students at St Ives Park have begun the robotics program. Thanks to P&C funding, the school was able to purchase a range of robotics equipment vital for the development of our SIPPS engineering and coding programs.

Robotics are a great way to engage students in 21Century fluencies. By using robots to develop their programming skills, students are able to breakdown difficult coding concepts into meaningful and engaging steps in their learning.

Through robotics lessons at SIPPS, the students have begun to understand what robots can and can't do in the world around us. They have begun to use their programming skills to collaboratively solve problems whilst learning the importance of specific instruction when coding

Robotics 1/2E

Robotics lesson with Mrs Hayller

1/2E loved learning about our new robots!

“We had a navigator, a handler and a driver when playing with Dash” – Hamish
“You can do lots of things with Dash!” – Sophie
“Dash can help you learn about programming” – Brandon
“Three people were in each group and we took turns driving Dash” – Lachie

Swimming Carnival

On the 20th of February everyone headed off to the Swimming Carnival to swim for their house. There are three houses everyone goes to: Grevillea, Waratah and the best house Banksia (that I’m house captain of). Everyone cheered for their friends or cheered for the people in their house .It was lots of fun for everybody. A lot of people participated in events such as butterfly, breaststroke, backstroke and freestyle. It came to a time where we all had to sing our chants. The house captains got out in front of everybody and started screaming as loud as we could to the house chants. Banksia won, for the best chants and was given points for their house team. It came to a relay race to decide who has the fastest team, sadly Banksia came in second but I was still very proud of Banksia for doing their personal best.

By Will
Capitan Banksia House

Creative Arts News

A note from the music room

Music classes are in full swing, with students across the school singing, Kindy to year 2 playing percussion, Stage 2 revamping their recorder skills and Stage 3 creating their own short compositions and preparing for their upcoming excursion to see the Brigidine College production of Xanadu.

SIPPS has successfully auditioned to take part in two concerts at the Opera House later this year. The Festival of Instrumental Music will provide the recorder ensemble with a wonderful performance opportunity whilst the Stage 3 choir will be involved in the equally fabulous Arts Alive concert. Further details will be provided to students involved in these programs in the coming weeks.

Mrs Cronin

Visual Arts

Welcome to Mrs Stobo who has commenced the specialist visual arts program at SIPPS.

Notes from Office

Year 6 – Year 7 Moving to High School

An Information Guide and Expression of Interest booklet is being sent home to all Year 6 students this week. Parents, please read this booklet and complete the Expression of Interest section (pages 9-11) sign, and return to the school office by Friday 17 March. All students (with the exception of International Students) must return this form. Students who are planning to attend a private school – please complete Section E. Parents of International students need to contact their education agent if planning to continue Australian education at High School. Please contact the office if you have any questions.

Student Invoices

Term 1 accounts are being sent home this week along with a covering information letter. Please arrange for payment of this account by 27th March. If you would like to pay by instalment please contact the office to make arrangements. International Students will not be getting an invoice as funds are sourced elsewhere.

Grade 5/6 – The Great Aussie Bush Camp: Term 2: 1st – 3rd May

This excursion for Grade 5/6 is fast approaching! Final arrangements are being made and an Excursion Note and Information Pack will be sent home this week. All permission notes and payments are required to be sent in before the end of term.

Applications are open until Thursday 16 March 2017 for the St Ives High School Gifted & Talented Class 2018. Please see further information on flyer.

Parents and Citizens Association

Tennis Courts

Uniform Shop

The uniform shop will be open fortnightly – the next date being March 15 2017. sippsuniform@gmail.com

Helping Hands OOSH

What a great start we’ve had to 2017! Lots of new families and lots of siblings have joined us at OOSH this year.

Helping Hands OOSH is open every morning before school from 7am – 9am and every afternoon from 3.10-6.30pm. If your child attends band, tennis, dance or PSSA training they can attend OOSH and we will send them to their activity at the planned time. Parents just need to complete an activity permission form for the activity so we know where they’ll be going.

If you haven’t used Helping Hands before and would like to enrol on the off chance that you have an emergency and need last minute care, please pop in and see me to collect the paperwork to enrol. There is no cost to enrol, if your child is enrolled and you need a hand in an emergency you only need to call to book in.

If you have any questions at all please don’t hesitate to contact us: 0475 868 226 or stivespark@helpinghandsnetwork.com.au.

Virginia
OOSH Coordinator