19 February 2018

Newsletter Articles

February PBL Focus

Principal’s Message

Xin Nian Kuai Le (Happy Chinese New Year)!

Well done to SIPPS students who have their artwork on display in the St Ives Village Gallery to celebrate Chinese New Year. Thank you to Mrs Stobo for helping our students develop their delightful depictions of dogs. This year Mrs Stobo will be at SIPPS for two days a week so that all students will enjoy weekly visits to the art room.

Partnerships in Learning

We value and appreciate the essential role that parents/carers take in being partners in their child/ren’s education. To promote and maintain positive partnerships in learning we will be running the following events:

• Meet the Teacher Evening – Tomorrow 20 February
  5:00 – 6:00pm K-2 classrooms
  6:00 – 6:30pm Whole school information in hall
  6:30 – 7:30pm 3- 6 classrooms

Parents and Citizens

Being an active member of the SIPPS Parents and Citizens Association (P&C) is also a great way to contribute to our school in a positive way. I am looking forward to the P&C’s first meeting this Wednesday evening which meets from 7:15pm in the school staffroom.

School Fees – Term 1 Invoices

Government schools provide ‘free instruction’ which refers to the provision of teaching staff, administration and facilities in connection with instruction of the standard curriculum program, including reasonable adjustments for students with disabilities. However, without some ‘user-pays’ options, we would be unable to offer SIPPS students more than the basic school-curriculum.

Each term, the school issues invoices to cover student access to things such as PSSA sport and carnivals, school excursions and incursions, specialised sports, art, music, dance, programs, school magazines and software subscriptions to replace textbooks. At SIPPS, we do aim to keep these additional costs to a minimum so that they are reasonable and affordable to parents at the school.

Term 1 invoices were issued last week. Prompt payment is greatly appreciated and ensures that we can continue to offer SIPPS students an enriched and enhanced curriculum.

Parent/Teacher Interviews - Scheduled from Tuesday 3 April to Tuesday 10 April. Dates and times will be confirmed later in the term. Bookings this year will again be managed online through the schoolzine SZapp.

Kindergarten 2019

We are already receiving enquiries about our Kindergarten 2019 orientation and transition program. Please see the following link for key dates.

Moving into Year 7 in a NSW Government School in 2019

It is time also to start the transition process students from Year 6 to Year 7. This week Year 6 students will take home an information guide and expression of interest form for parents/carers to complete. Please see the following link for more information.

CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY

Once again SIPPS students and staff will be participating in the annual Clean Up Australia Day for schools on Friday 2nd March. Each class will be allocated an area of the school to tidy. Parents are encouraged to provide their child with a pair of gardening gloves for the day (no plastic disposable gloves please). At SIPPS we are always looking for ways to be environmentally responsible and sustainable. At the front of the administrative building we now have two new recycling bins - the blue bin is for paper, and the yellow bin is for glass and plastic. We are also continuing to collect fruit and vegetable scraps from the classrooms to make compost for our eco garden.

Best wishes

Gillian Tegg

Inspiring & Nurturing Successful Lifelong Learners

Positive Behaviour for learning

Good discipline is fundamental to the achievement of Government priorities for the public school system. In line with The Department of Education’s Student Discipline in Government Schools Policy, our school discipline policy has the following components:

• the discipline code or school rules (expectations).
• strategies and practices to promote positive student behaviour, including specific strategies to maintain a climate of respect.
• strategies and practices to recognise and reinforce student achievement.
• strategies and practices to manage inappropriate student behaviour.

Please refer to the code of behaviour expectations for students at NSW Government schools and SIPPS available at the following links.

What is The Big Vegie Crunch?

Did you know that only 5.4% of Australian children eat enough vegetables?

To encourage students to eat more vegetables, our school will be taking part in The Big Vegie Crunch (as part of Vegetable Week) on Thursday 1st March at 10 am.

Schools across NSW will be joining together to break the record for the most students crunching vegetables simultaneously.

What can you do to help?

• Pack a container of vegetables (not fruit) for your child to eat on the day
• Keep serving up the vegetables at home!

Need some ideas?

• carrot, celery, cucumber – cut into sticks or left whole
• capsicum – cut into sticks or wedges
• corn – raw baby corn spears or a cooked corn cob
• broccoli or cauliflower florets - raw or lightly cooked to keep their crunch
• tomatoes – small cherry tomatoes or a large tomato that can be eaten like an apple
• beans or snow peas - raw or lightly cooked to keep their crunch
• mushrooms – sliced or left whole

Please see the following link for more information on The Big Vegie Crunch.

Library

Welcome to all the St Ives Park school community. Our Library is a very friendly and welcoming learning space and resource centre. Students are already reading and borrowing a mountain of books from our Library. Every class has a timetabled lesson in the Library each week and it has been wonderful to see so many eager faces wanting to read and borrow books to take home.

2018 will be an exciting “Year of the Dog” in the Library! We have many events to look forward to including our annual Book Fair, National Simultaneous Storytime, Book Week, author and illustrator visits to name a few.

Virginia Allman
Teacher Librarian
Kambora P.S & St Ives Park P.S

Notes From the office

Bandemonium

Band is starting soon for 2018

We have vacancies available on a number of instruments including saxophone, flute, clarinet, trumpet and trombone.

If you are interested in joining, or need to return your forms please contact us.

Band will be commencing soon so don’t miss out on this exciting new opportunity at school.

Contact sally@bandemonium.com.au or call 0403 542 4942

Parents and Citizens Association

Family Fun Day – Sunday March 4

10 – 12noon
BYO food – No alcohol permitted on school grounds

Tennis Courts

Uniform Shop

From week 5 the Uniform shop will open every second Wednesday beginning Wednesday 28th February at 8.30 am.

Wed 14th March
Wed 28th March
Wed 11th April

Antony Wood and Di Fisk will be running the uniform shop after Matt’s departure.

Any volunteers are always welcome.

Please also return any used uniform in tidy condition to either the uniform shop or the school office.

Helping Hands OOSH & Vacation Care

Hello!

Please allow me to introduce myself, my name is Grace Keegan and I am the new coordinator for the Out of School Hours (OOSH) care here at St Ives Park. I am so excited to be part of a school community with such wonderful core values and appreciation for hard work and the value of play time.

At OOSH we aim to provide students with a home a way from home and parents and care givers with peace of mind knowing that their children are being well cared for.

Our before and after school care sessions and vacation care always include healthy tasty meals and a range of creative, active and relaxing things to do. We practice a circular planning process which means are always learning about the interests of the children who attend OOSH and prepare activities to extend those interests.

These last couple of weeks we have focused on settling in and getting to know each other. I have discovered SIPPS' great love of sensory craft play, cricket, Harry Potter, and making cubby houses.

I welcome any inquires and feedback on our service and wish you all a fantastic flourishing 2018.

Kindly,

Grace Keegan
OOSH Coordinator.
0475838226
stivespark@helpinghandsnetwork.com.au