20 March 2017

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Message

Congratulations

We saw double gold at our last assembly when Evie and Julian were awarded their gold medallions. It was great to share in their success in reaching this special milestone. They have inspired other students to follow the school community’s expectations of Respect, Responsibility and Personal Best.

Standing together at SIPPS

Last Friday, SIPPS took part in the National Day of Action against Bullying. Teaching anti-bullying strategies are important and support positive student relationships and wellbeing. Thank you to 5/6H for a selection of poems promoting the message no bullying message. These are published below.

This year we are taking part in the Stars School Challenge and weaving stars as a sign of commitment to help end all forms of bullying and violence. So far our team of weavers include OOSH students and staff, class parents and interested students. Thank you to the parent volunteers who have signed up to help students make stars at lunchtime on Mondays. Our goal is to weave and send 200 stars to be part of the One Million Stars to end Violence installation at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on The Gold Coast.

Harmony day is another event led by our Student Representative Council to celebrate cultural diversity across our school community. Students are invited to come to school tomorrow in orange or a traditional costume to celebrate Harmony Day.

Effective Partnerships

The P&C recently delivered a wonderful Family Fun Day which was enjoyed my many SIPPS students and their families. Special thanks to Claire Hall and Emmy Druce for organising such a great day. Last week’s P&C meeting was well attended. Plans were discussed for future social and fundraising events to help the school continue its delivery of enhanced programs and resources for students. The school would like to acknowledge Kindergarten parent, Kate’s donation of new books for our K-2 home reading collection.

Sporting Success

We were proud of our Zone representatives who performed well at the North Sydney Zone Swimming Carnival. Sophia was a finalist in the 50 metres freestyle.

Congratulations also to Alex (5/6H) who has been chosen to represent Northern Sydney at the State AFL competition that will take place in Parkes next term.

Parent Teacher interviews – Online booking

Please see information about how to book your session at the following link. A note will go home with students this week with information. There will also be a notification sent our via the schoolzine app (SZapp) when this facility is open for bookings.

Swimming Scheme 2017

Once again this year we are calling for parents to complete an expression of interest application if they would like their child to participate in the intensive learn to swim program.

We have extended the application deadline. If you didn’t receive one for your child in grades 2 to 5 then please download from the following link and return to school by Friday 31 March.

Waste Free Warriors Poll

Ruben, Ellen, Jessica and Julian are a team of Year 6 students who are leading environmental initiatives in our school. This enthusiastic team is known as the Waste Free Warriors. They encourage and monitor energy saving, water-wise and waste-reduction practices across our school to benefit the environment. The class who works hardest to achieve positive environmental outcomes is given the chance to look after a special mascot. The Waste Free Warriors present this at each K-6 assembly. They would like to find a name for our new mascot. You will find the voting poll in this newsletter.

Easter Hat Parade

The SIPPS annual Easter Hat Parade is scheduled for Friday 7th April. Again this year students will be creating their special Easter hat as part of our ‘buddy class’ program. Parents can assist their children by providing a range of appropriate decorations that they can deliver to the class teacher. Thank you for this assistance. Please see the following link for more information.

Kindergarten 2018

We are already receiving enquiries about our Kindergarten 2018 orientation and transition program. Please see the following link for key dates. Thank you to members of our P&C who will begin the process of distributing flyers and posters to local pre-schools and long day care facilities.

Best wishes
Gillian Tegg

Inspiring & Nurturing Successful Lifelong

Year 6 Student Leaders

On Friday the 3rd of March, my fellow school leaders and I attended the National Young Leaders Day Conference. It was held in the International Conference Center, Darling Harbour.It was very enjoyable and I'm almost certain all of us, including the other 4 and a half thousand people that attended, loved it.

The speakers included, Barry Conrad, Jade Hameister, Sam Webb and Dr Jordan Nguyen. Their speeches were powerful and very moving. The mixture of meaningful stories and comic relief from the two hosts ,Gemma Knight and Scott Tweedie, was a perfect balance.

The speakers had so many interesting things to say, I wanted to write everything down but found it hard to keep up. The two most important things I learnt were, ‘courage is not being fearless; it is having the bravery to overcome fear’, and that leaders should, ‘be brave not perfect’.

We were also lucky enough to take a photo with Jade Hameister, a girl who at 6 climbed Mount Kosciuszko. By twelve she had conquered the Mount Everest base camp. Her speech was extremely inspirational. Another thing that really inspired us was that a young girl had the initiative to create a charity devoted to helping the homeless in which she made ‘Little Care Packs’ filled with basic cleansing products.

I hope that future school leaders are given the opportunity to attend this great day. Not only did I have an amazing time with my friends, I learnt so much.

This conference was truly inspiring.

By Aiden, Ella, Patrick Sarah, Milan & Scott

Kindergarten Learners

Student Report - The Family Fun Day

‘At the family fun day, I went in the wheelbarrow race and did the scavenger hunt. My best part was when my brother Fin guessed how many lollies there were in the lolly jar and when he threw the lollies and we dashed to get them! Oh, I nearly forgot the tug-of-war; children versus dads, mums versus dads, girls versus boys. The dads won against the mums. The children won against the dads and the girls won against the boys.’

By Eva (2FT)

Student Wellbeing

This is what 2FT did for last Friday’s National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence.

2FT enjoyed watching and discussing a few of 'The Allen Adventure' videos. They learnt the importance of sharing and reading others' emotions and how to best assist new children who come to our school. The class also discussed what bullying is and typed sentences on the laptops about what makes a good friend. Here are some examples

'Good friends never give up on you.' by Elizabeth
'Good friends speak nicely and politely.' by Isabella
'Good friends are caring, kind and thoughtful.' by Eva
'Good friends support and encourage you.' by Max W.

5/6S Poems about Anti Bullying

5/6S have been learning about figurative language and they worked in pairs and created poems about the anti-bullying. They used rhythm, repetition as well as assonance in their poems.

People will always try to bring you down,
Don't give into it,
What they say is wrong,
Don't listen to them,
You are beautiful just the way you are,
If you are a bystander,
Do something about it,
Stand up to the bully,
Even if you're scared,
Don't fear.
Be strong.
By Katherine, Yasmiin and Charlotte

Stop! Stop!
Bully, you aren’t nice,
Your heart is as cold as ice,
Don’t treat people like mice.
Go and apologise!
You can be mean to others, and then they will be mean to you,
Your bullying is so cruel.
It inspires bullying too
And bullying isn’t cool.
That is why you should stop,
Because bullying is not on top!
By Aidan

Bully Day No Way!

Every day I come to school,
You always break The Golden Rule.
The Golden Rule is to be kind,
So next time please use your mind!
Let's do a little role play,
And show you how to be respectful every day.
You are the mean cat,
We are the innocent mice,
So next time at least try to be nice.
Dear Bully,
I hope I taught you how to be fair,
So next time you know how to care and share.
By Meshma and Shivani

Bully bully go away
Bully bully no way!
Bully I don't want your punches.
Bully stop stealing my lunches.
Bully you’re big headed,
Bully your company is dreaded.
Bully just leave me alone,
Bully you make me groan!
Bully stop acting like you’re cool.
Bully stop using me as a tool!
By Claire and Sarah

Bully bully go away,
Don't come again another day.
Why don't you go and kick a ball?
Instead of making people call upon the teacher every time.
Being in trouble is like sucking a sour lime,
So bully bully please just stop!
There's no need to always be on top,
When you break the rules and disobey,
You should know that's not okay!
By Darcy and Rachael

Bully, bully go away,
Don’t bully me every day.
I'm going to tell your mummy
She won't be impressed
She'll send you to the press.
They'll make a mess
Of your school life
Be a better person
Don't lurk on other people.
By Louie and Rhett

It's no bullying day,
And we're here to say,
We dislike bullies,
In a major way.
So sit back down,
And take a seat,
We'll take off your crown,
And you'll be beat.
That's all we have to say,
So bullies go away!
By Milan and Declan

Bullies, bullies,
You are the worst.
With no respect,
And no nice words.
Bullies, bullies,
No one likes you.
With no real friends
And no real work.
Be a better person
And you will have a better life.
By Jay and Michael

Creative Arts News

Visual Arts

Stage 3 students have started working on a three stage body of work, by making observation drawings of seedpods (5/6 H) and seashells (5/6 S).....what an impressive start they've made! Some of the artists we'll be studying are Australians Margaret Preston and May Gibbs and also German naturalist/artist Ernst Haeckel.

Thank you to those families/ students who have started to supply me with used, clear plastic containers. These will house a large and colourful collection of paints and dyes.

If any families use Jalna Yoghurt, please save the LARGE size containers. These make very stable brush washing containers.

Drawings below are by the following SIPPS artists:

Ella, Jessica D, Vaidehi, Leo C, Raphael, Linus

Mrs Stobo

Library

Scholastic Book Fair

When: Friday 7th April (last day of Term 1)
Time: 8.30am - 3.30pm
Location: Library

To coincide with our SIPPS Grandfriends’ day and Easter Hat Parade, a Scholastic Book Fair will be held in the Library.

The Book Fair is an opportunity for students and their families to visit the Library, view the resources that are available for purchase and buy books and other items from the display for themselves.

Students will be given the opportunity to view the Book Fair before the selling day (7/4/17). If we run out of particular book titles on the day, the book can be ordered in for you.

Payment on the day is with cash, card or cheque made out to Ashton Scholastic Book Fairs.

The Library benefits from all purchases made on the day as we are given a percentage (in cash/books) of the total sales. Such fundraisers are vital for providing much needed resources for the students to read and borrow.

We really appreciate your support with our Book Fair and look forward to seeing you on the day.

Virginia Allman
Teacher- Librarian

Premier’s Reading Challenge

The NSW Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC) is an initiative of the NSW State government. It aims to encourage in students a love of reading for leisure and pleasure and to enable them to experience quality literature. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student - to read, to read more and to read more widely.

The 2017 PRC officially commences on 6/3/17 and concludes on 25/8/17 for students.

As part of our SIPPS literacy program, all students in K-2 complete the PRC at school. The required 30 books from the extensive K-2 official reading list are read and discussed by the class teacher and Teacher-Librarian with the students. Students have their reading records entered and validated online at school. Parent involvement is therefore not required.

Students in Years 3-6 complete the PRC independently. They must complete their own online Student Reading Record by 25/08/17 to successfully complete the Challenge of reading 20 books from an extensive reading list. Books can be sourced from anywhere, not just our school library.

Students will need to logon to the PRC website with their school username and school password to be able to enter the books they have read.

I am more than happy to assist students and answer their questions about the PRC on the days I am at SIPPS which are: Thursday and Friday.

Virginia Allman
Teacher Librarian and PRC Coordinator

Notes From the office

Stage 3 Camp: Notes have been sent home to all students in Grades 5 and 6. Please complete and return permission note along with completed payment slip, medical consent form, and Parent consent/activity form by Wednesday 29 March.

Term 1 Invoices: Please continue to send in your payments. We have had a very good response to the online payment option and once parents become familiar with the process we think they will find it quick, convenient and safe. All payments are due by 27th March.

General Permission to Publish Notes: We are required to have this permission reviewed annually. This is a final request for these forms to be signed and returned to each class teacher. If a signed note is not returned we will rely on existing enrolment data.

Parents and Citizens Association

Sunday 12th March was SIPPS Family Fun Day. A wonderful turnout of over 100 members of our school community gathered to make new friends and compete in numerous games all in the name of fun. Perfect weather meant numerous teams competed in the Scavenger Hunt across the school from the Bush Classroom to the COLA. After cooling down with ice creams, there were countless egg and spoon races along with sack and wheel barrow races. The most popular game by far was the tug of war. Dads Vs Kids was a tough call but thankfully to children managed to pull the dads over the line. The morning ended with a Guess the Number of Sweets competition and some very happy kids. A huge thank you to everyone who attended and also to Mrs Tegg for helping organise and oversee the event.

Tennis Courts

Uniform Shop

The uniform shop will be open fortnightly – the next date being 29 March 2017. Please note that the school will switch to winter uniform from the beginning of Term 2, although summer uniform is still permitted if the weather remains warm.