5 March 2018

Newsletter Articles

March PBL Focus

Principal’s Message

SIPPS Learning Community

Thank you to those parents/carers who attended our recent 2018 Parent Information Evening. We trust that it was a positive and informative experience. Thank you also to the members of the SIPPS P&C, Helping Hands OOSH and Primary Ethics volunteers for their presentations.

As mentioned at recent parent meetings, The Strategic Plan 2018-2022 sets out the department’s blueprint for the next five years and this will be reflected in our new school planning cycle. All school programs and procedures operate within the context of our overall school plan that is formulated in response to school-wide evaluation against the DoE School Excellence Framework, careful analysis of student learning outcomes and stakeholder feedback. Our three strategic directions are:

Tell Them From Me Survey

I am delighted that this term, our school, like many other public schools in the state, will participate in a Department of Education initiative: the Tell Them From Me student feedback survey. The survey 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.

More information about the survey is available at:

The survey is a great opportunity for our students to provide us 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. More than 6,300 schools in Australia and around the world have used Tell Them From Me to survey 5.4 million students. Capturing the voices of our students will help improve how we do things at our school.

I want to assure you that the survey is confidential. The survey is conducted online and will typically take less than 30 minutes to complete. It will be administered during school hours between 12 March and 13 April. Participating in the survey is entirely voluntary.

A consent form and FAQs for parents/carers about the survey is being sent home with students. If you do not want your child or children to participate, please return the form to school by Friday 9 March. Copies of the form and FAQs are available from:

The consent form and FAQs are available in 23 languages. Please consent form

The Got It! Program is coming to SIPPS in 2018!

Getting On Track In Time (Got It!) is an early intervention program being introduced to public primary schools across NSW. It focuses on equipping schools and parents with the skills to support children showing some difficulty with behaviour, social skills, or emotion regulation. Got It! aims to identify potential difficulties early in a child’s development and “catch” them while they are small and more easily addressed.

The Got It! team engages with participating schools for 6 months, with two streams of intervention: a Universal stream and a Targeted Early Intervention component.

Universal Training Program - Professional development will be offered to all teachers within participating schools focussing on better management of emotional and behavioural difficulties in the classroom and playground. Additionally, information will be offered to all interested parents across K-6 through information seminars conducted at school, and provided in school newsletters.

Early Intervention Program - Teachers and parents will complete screening questionnaires for all children in K-2 in order to identify students who may benefit from the Got It! small group program. Children selected will be invited to attend a weekly group with one of their parents/carers, or referred to other services if appropriate.

The program is delivered by a multidisciplinary team of mental health clinicians from NSW Health in partnership with NSW Education. This means that the Got It! team works together with education staff, children, and parents to intervene early and help children to develop in a happy and successful way.

The Northern Sydney Got It! team has been in action for 12 months and has worked in 7 schools including St Ives, Brookvale, Allambie Heights, North Ryde, West Pymble, Lane Cove West, and Manly West Public Schools. The team is currently setting up in your school, St Ives Park Public School, as well as Thornleigh West, North Sydney Demonstration, Terrey Hills, St Ives North, and Newport Public Schools for 2018.

The Got It! program is modelled from the Schools: Early Action program in Victoria, and has been introduced with great success in other health districts in NSW. Got It! has now rolled out across all NSW Health Districts.

If you are interested in more information about the Got It! program in your school, please speak to our Learning and Support Teacher, Adrienne Reid. Further information about the program will also be provided in future newsletters.

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.

This month in addition to focussing on the school’s expectation of Respect, we will promote the anti-bullying message further next Friday 16th March by recognising and being part of the National Day of Action against Bullying.

In particular, we will focus on cyber-citizenship so that students, teachers and parents learn about and practise acceptable use of internet and online communication and what to do in response to bullying related incidents online. We have already had a visit from our Local Area Command Police Youth Liaison Officer to address Stage 3 students and parents about cyber-safety.

More information, guidance and support can be found on the following websites. We also strongly recommend parents of students from all stage groups attend the upcoming ThinkUKnow presentation

ThinkUKnow presentation

Our school will be hosting a ThinkUKnow presentation on Wednesday 14 March and all parents, carers and teachers are encouraged to attend.

ThinkUKnow Australia is a cyber safety education program that educates parents, carers and teachers of how people are using technology, the challenges they may face online, and how to help them overcome these in a safe and ethical way.

ThinkUKnow Australia is a partnership between the Australian Federal Police, Microsoft Australia, Datacom and the Commonwealth Bank. The program is delivered in collaboration with policing partners New South Wales Police Force, Northern Territory Police, Queensland Police, South Australia Police, Tasmania Police, Western Australia Police, as well as Neighbourhood Watch Australasia.

The presentation will be delivered by a local law enforcement member and an industry volunteer. The presentation covers issues relating to children and young peoples’ privacy and security online, their relationships with other users and their online reputation. It provides insight into the devices young people are using, as well as the popular websites, apps and social networking sites they’re accessing.

This is a fantastic opportunity for you to learn more about young people and the online environment, and how you can help them to be safe and responsible users of technology.

For more information, you can visit the website below or contact the school on 9144 4085

Entry to Year 7 in 2019

The Selective high School Placement Test is held in NSW test centres on 15 March 2018. Advice about where students are to go to sit the test was emailed to applicants on the evening of 1 March 2018. Best wishes to those students from SIPPS who will be sitting the test next week.

Class Parent Forum

Thank you to Sony Robson who is the P&C class parent coordinator for 2018. I am looking forward to meeting the 2018 P&C Class Parent representatives this Thursday 8 March at 2:30pm in the staffroom.

PLAYING SAFE – Fixed Playground Equipment

In accordance with the Department of Education’s ‘Playing Safe’ –revised standards and guidelines, we have identified aspects of our fixed-play equipment that is unsafe for it to be used by students.

We will undertake consultation with our school community and the department’s asset management team to determine future playground needs and plan accordingly. Thank you to those parents who have volunteered to form a P&C playground committee to assist the consultation and planning process.

Road Safety

If your child needs to cross Acron road they must go via the school pedestrian crossing. Children have been hit by cars when responding to parents who have called them across the road. Please park your car, come to school and walk with your child across the road via the school pedestrian crossing rather than taking the risk.

Compulsory school attendance – Every Day and Every Minute Counts

Parents of children from Kindergarten to Year 12 must ensure their children attend school every day. On occasion, your child may need to be absent from school. Justified reasons for student absences may include:

• being sick or having an infectious disease
• having an unavoidable medical appointment
• being required to attend a recognised religious holiday
• exceptional or urgent family circumstances e.g. attending a funeral

Parents must provide an explanation for absences to the school within 7 days from the first day of any period of absence. Where an explanation has not been received within the 7-day timeframe, the school will record the absence as unjustified on the student’s record.

The school will undertake all reasonable measures to contact parents within two school days of an absence being unexplained, if contact has not already been made. An absence is unexplained if parents have failed to provide an explanation to the school within 7 days.

Best Wishes
Gillian Tegg

Celebrating Student Success

Swimming Carnival

Last month’s swimming carnival at West Pymble was a great success. Thank you to Miss Emerson and Mr Dimmers for coordinating the event and to teachers and parent volunteers for officiating on the day. The SIPPS swimming carnival was well supported by students, staff and spectators. It was good to see students trying their personal best to participate fully in races. Ribbons will be presented this week’s K-6 assembly.

Last Friday’s Zone Carnival was held at Homebush Aquatic Centre. Congratulations to all members of our zone team who represented our school with great enthusiasm. Well done to Sophia and Mathilde who achieved 3rd and 4th place in the senior girls’ breast-stroke final.

Inspiring & Nurturing Successful Lifelong Learners

Big Vegie Crunch

Well done to our students who crunched their way to help break the Big Vegie Crunch record. Official numbers are still pending but SIPPS did its part and enjoyed the benefits of eating healthy snacks last week as you can see...

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. Our 2018 Waste Free Warriors have been appointed and they are doing a great job promoting our new recycling initiatives. At SIPPS we are now reducing even more waste by recycling glass bottles and jars, aluminium and steel cans, plastic bottles and containers. We are also successfully composting food scraps. Congratulations to all those who are on-board with our ‘War of Waste’

2018 Student Representative Council (SRC)

Congratulations to the newly elected student representative councillors. They are:
Year 6 executive SRC leaders- Aidan, Yasmiin & Emma

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

SIPPS Learning & Support Teacher

A big hello to the St. Ives Park Primary School community. I am taking this opportunity to introduce myself to you. My name is Adrienne Reid and I am working as the Learning and Support Teacher at St. Ives Park Primary School for Semester 1.

There is one area where I would love your support … Reading.

At a school level, I am hoping to establish a school wide morning reading program. If you can spare an hour or so of a morning or mornings, I would love to hear from you. The children will be reading books at their individual level so we would only expect one or two mistakes on any reading page. I will provide training on how you can support them as readers so that you feel confident in this role.

If you can participate you will need to complete a Working With Children check, which is free for volunteers. This will take about a month to be finalised so the school reading program will not be able to start until near the end of term.

Please complete your details below and return to school if you can help. All help will be greatly appreciated.

Warm regards to all,

Adrienne Reid
Learning Support Teacher

Library

Carnival Fairs

Save The Date!

On Thursday 29th March, SIPPS Library will be hosting a Book Fair.

The Book Fair provides an opportunity for families to visit the Fair and to purchase books and other items for their own children from the wide range on display.

The SIPPS Library benefits with a book and cash commission being earned, based on total sales made on the day.

We are trialing a new company in 2018: Carnival Fairs. It offers all the services that our previous Book Fair has provided including Eftpos and credit card facilities and ordering extra copies of books that students wish to buy.

Keep an eye out for more information closer to the date.

Parents and Citizens Association

Tennis Courts

Canteen

CANTEEN TO RE-OPEN!

THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY VOLUNTEERED!

The P&C have two parents willing to manage the canteen this year. The canteen will open on Mondays for recess and lunch.
In order to proceed we will still need more parent volunteers each Monday to work in the canteen from 10am until 2pm.
Once we have enough volunteers to fill the roster we will send further information about the canteen being up and running!
If you can volunteer please email sippscanteen@gmail.com

Uniform Shop

2018 Dates

Term 1

Antony Wood and Di Fisk will be running the uniform shop after Matt’s departure. The Uniform shop will open every second Wednesday from

8.30 am

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

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

A warm hello from the team at OOSH!

We are enjoying settling into our new routines and trying exciting new activities.

In the last couple of weeks a real stand out day was the afternoon we made dumplings. The children actively participated in each step from kneading the dough, to mixing the filling, rolling out the dough and shaping the dumplings. Here the children displayed their ability to take turns, listen and practice safe handling of food. The children expressed a wonderful sense of pride when their parents arrived and they were able to share delicious hot dumplings with them!

Recently we have also enjoyed weekly visits from the dynamic Emily from "Got Game." Emily visits every Tuesday with new games and activities to get us moving, refine our athletic abilities and boost our teamwork.

In the last fortnight we have also welcomed Jennifer Hayden to our permanent staff. Known as Jen to the children she brings with her a wealth of experience and energy. We are so happy to have her here at St Ives Park.

Finally we are pleased to announce that the Vacation Care program has been published. Check out our range of exciting theme days, excursions and incursions! We look forward to having a great holiday.

Grace Keegan
stivespark@helpinghandsnetwork.com.au
0475838226

Kind Regards,

Grace Keegan

Coordinator
Helping Hands St Ives Park

Community Notices

Piano

Small Group piano lesson at St Ives Park PS
( Not Keyboard )

Use our special Piano Book
Learn Piano easy and fast

Wednesday 1:00-1:45 at School arts Room

Piano teacher By
Mrs. Terume Vikas
Provide digital Piano for each student

Cost $24 for 45 min ,
Pay by Term, from start to end of the term.

Contact

On line je-music@live.com.au + Mobile
SMS to 0424- 614- 591+ school & child name

welcome take Flyer at school
office left side