3 June 2019

Newsletter Articles

June PBL Focus

Positive Behaviour for Learning Focus:

Respect and Responsibility in the Toilets.

We are always respectful of every person’s privacy in the toilets.

Being responsible means that students always wait patiently for a friend and never play or behave in a silly manner in the toilets.

Students are always safe and sensible in the toilets.

Respect

• One person at a time in cubicles
• Give others privacy
• Leave area clean and tidy

Responsibility

• Flush the toilet
• Wash your hands
• Use resources wisely

Personal Best

• Be safe in the bathroom
• Use the bathroom appropriatly

Principal’s Message

External Validation

In Term 3 our school will participate in the 5 yearly process of External Validation. Once during a five-year cycle, schools undergo an external validation of the evidence of their school’s assessment of progress. An independent panel comprising of a two school Principals, consider the school’s evidence using the standards articulated in the School Excellence Framework. The teaching staff and executive team are all currently identifying important programs which will be highlighted to promote the work of the school during the 2018 - 2020 School Plan.

Wonderful opportunities for SIPPS students and their families!

Parent seminar by Collette Smart -

A Mental Health Toolkit for Parents

Thank you to the parents who have indicated that they would like to attend the seminar with Collette Smart who will share with parents many tips, tricks and tools to support you in the complexities of parenting in the 21st century. The teachers will work with Mrs Smart in our Teacher Professional Learning session prior to the parent seminar. Please forward your attendance slip if you have not already done so.

Date: Tuesday 18th June, 2019
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Venue: SIPPS Hall

Last week was a very busy time here and away from St Ives Park Public School!

* ZooSnooze: Last week our Year 3 and Year 4 students have participated in the Zoo Snooz overnight program at Taronga Zoo. A very noisy evening with some rest was a highlight of the biannual event. Students enjoyed viewing the animals but not the cold. According to the students the seals were very noisy however the staff thought the human visitors may have been noisier! A special thank you to Mrs Hayllar, Miss Emerson and Mr Dimmers for giving up their personal time to offer this opportunity to our students.

Stage 1 at the Farm: Years 1 and 2 went to the Farm this week with great excitement and many students were not disappointed as they were able to see the popular chickens and pigs.

Zone Cross Country: SIPPS was well represented at the Zone carnival with 35 students representing our school.

DET Roofing Program

Our school will be receiving a new roof on Blocks D and E over the next three weeks. I have already sent home a note to our families last week.

During this period there will be DET approved contractors on site most days, including weekends. Scaffolding will be delivered and installed starting today. D Block work will include new guttering and painting of the facia boards. Roof tiles are expected to be removed and then replaced by the metal sheeting over the long weekend. E Block work will include tile removal and installation of new sheeting.

Easiest access to Helping Hands OOSH will be along the path adjacent to the school hall. The Lower Playground where the play equipment and synthetic grass is located will be out of bounds for at least 7 to 10 days. Students will play under the COLA and on the oval as advised by the before and after school providers.

External Community Users of school facilities (hall, tennis courts and oval)

Best access for these locations will remain the path adjacent to the hall during the building work. Please ensure that your children are supervised when on the school site.

Please be aware that the three week timeframe is subject to weather conditions. Thank you for your understanding while this important project is underway.

Staffing changes Term 2

As per the information sent home to Early Stage 1 and Stage 2 parents this week, we will welcome Ms Follows to 3 / 4 Blue when Mrs Taylor goes on maternity leave and Ms Mills to Kindergarten Red in week 8 this term.

P&C Change of TIME and DATE for the next meeting

Please see the information from our P&C Executive in this newsletter regarding the change of time and date for the next P&C Meeting.

Date - TUESDAY 18th June, 2019.
Time - 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Best Wishes,
Caroline English
Principal

Cyber Safety

Cyberbullying

A guide to online bullying for parents and carers

Try to resist immediately taking away their device

• Removing your child’s phone or computer could be really unhelpful. Cutting off their online access does not teach them about online safety or help build resilience. It could alienate them from their peers, and it also removes an essential tool for them to communicate and connect with friends.

Stay calm and open — don’t panic

• You want your child to feel confident that you’re not immediately going to get upset, angry or anxious if they tell you about the situation. You want them to know they can talk to you and feel heard.
• The best way to do this is make sure you have an open dialogue from the beginning. Talk to them without being judgemental or angry, and make them feel like they can come to you with anything, without fear of being punished.

Listen, think and pause

• Gauge the scale of the problem. Does it exist in a peer group or is it more widespread? Is it a few remarks here and there? Or is it more serious? Empathise with your child and let them know that you understand how they feel.
• How badly is it affecting your child personally? If the bullying itself is not very intense, but your child seems quite seriously affected, this could be a symptom of something larger. In this case you may need to seek help, from a school counsellor, a helpline, or an external professional.
• Try not to respond until you have had time to work out the best course of action. Reassure your child you are working on it and will come together again very soon to talk through some options. Let them know you are there if they feel like they need to talk in the meantime.

Act to protect your child if necessary

• If your child is being threatened, or if they indicate a wish to harm themselves, you should get professional help. Call Triple Zero (000) immediately, if their physical safety is at risk.

Empower your child

• Wherever possible, try to build your child’s confidence and help them make wise decisions for themselves, rather than telling them what to do.
• If you feel they may be struggling to open up to you, connect them with other trusted adults or with professional support.

Source: eSafety Commissioner

Celebrating Student Success

Congratulations to the following students who received wristbands

Personal Best

Elizabeth B
Finn R
Daniel R
Seava

Respect

Joel S

Responsibility

Victoria R
Charlotte X
Maya M

SIPPS Tennis Team

What a fabulous night we had on May 25!

The SIPPS tennis team, consisting of 4 doubles teams (Dan, Nienke, Maribeth, Bruce, Luca, Hamish, Lachie and Andrew), took to the courts and competed at the 2019 ETDTA North West Primary Schools Challenge in Pennant Hills.

At 5:30pm and after a short blackout, each team went on the court and played 6 challenging games against other schools such as Epping Public School and Beecroft, amongst many others.

We had two teams place in their divisions. One came first in their division - Lachie and Andrew and one came 2nd in their division -Dan and Nienke. All the teams stepped up to the challenge. The student’s forehands, backhands, volleys and serves were outstanding. Congratulations to the whole team for a successful first competition of 2019. We are so proud of you.

Inspiring & Nurturing
Successful Lifelong Learners

National Simultaneous Storytime

On Wednesday 22nd of May at 11am, K-2 participated in National Simultaneous Storytime. National Simultaneous Storytime is when people all around Australia read exactly the same book at exactly the same time!! This year's story was "Alpacas with Maracas" by Matt Cosgrove. The story is about two friends, Macca and Al who love spending time together and decide to enter a talent contest - they come last but they have a great time, regardless! Mrs Allman had been reading the book to all the students during library sessions. Kindergarten also got to make their own maracas, and their very own Macca and Al.

Kind Regards,
Katie Meyers

Stage 1 Excursion to Rouse Hill House and Farm

Students are studying the history unit ‘The Past In The Present”. Students had the opportunity to experience what life would have been like for children living on the farm 120 years ago and to partake in fun activities and games. As chores would have been part of daily life for children living on the farm in the late 1800’s, students have the chance to experience some of these for themselves.

Stage 2 Overnight excursion to the ZOO

Don’t take away ZoosnooZ by Felix

It is obvious that ZoosnooZ is a great excursion because there are lots of interesting things to do like visiting the rainforest classroom, seal show, bird show and we got to touch lots of different animals. We saw a possum, tortoise and some monkeys.

Firstly, visiting the rainforest classroom was really cool we saw monkeys doing major parkour on the vines and branches. We learned lots of things like that if the animals looked at red light they actually wouldn’t see it.

Secondly, it is a great experience to sleep in a tent because you learn how to set up your sleeping bag and it’s really fun to sleep with your friends. Before the sleep we went to see tiger cubs they were very interesting and you wouldn’t be able to see them anywhere else.

Finally, we got to touch and learn about the shingle back lizard and the diamond python. The shingle back lizard’s tail looks like its head and the diamond python doesn’t use venom.

In conclusion we must not take away ZoosnooZ and these are some reasons why.

Why Zoosnooz is a good excursion! - by Katherine

I strongly believe Zoosnooz is an excellent excursion. These are some of my reasons.

It’s a fun experience! We get to see animals that you cannot just see anywhere like tigers, elephants, seals and monkeys. When we were there we saw the rain forest room. In there were Tamarind monkeys and different pigeons. It was very interesting seeing how the monkeys and pigeons behaved.

Secondly I liked getting to pat different animals that you would not get to pat on the street, like possums, lizards and snakes.

Now I am going to talk about bedtime. During the night my tent heard lots of different animal sounds. Seals, elephants, monkeys and birds. We would not get to hear these sounds anywhere but the zoo.

As you can see Zoosnooz is a really good excursion.

Notes from the Office

Statement of Account

Thank you to all the families that have already paid Term 2 Statement of Account. It has been so good to hear the positive feedback from parents as to how much easier it is to pay the fees from the link on the email. You may have noticed that I missed adding the PSSA levy. My apologies for this. I will send another statement email run on Wednesday. If you have already paid the fees you will only receive an email if your child/children do Winter PSSA. If you are experiencing any difficulties with the email link please let me know.

School Photos

School Photos/mugs/keyrings were been handed out to the students today.

Please note that there are extra photos available to order online. These include the 50Th Anniversary Whole school photograph, Year Six Leadership Team, School Leaders, Year 6 whole class and the Year 6 Fun.

To view/order the above photos please logon to the link below and use the access code 19S2003PC39S

The preferred payment method is for the orders to be completed and paid for online.

All orders must be received by the 24 June 2019

New School furniture

As a Westpac business customer we were sent an email last term about recycling office furniture. This program ensures good quality office furniture that is no longer required does not end up in land fill but given a new home. We were fortunate to get an allocation and our new furniture arrived last week. This includes the beautiful red welcome couch in the office foyer, ergonomic chairs for all of our teachers, portable whiteboards and various cabinets.

Road Work

There is to be road work Mona Vale Road and Douglas Street between Tuesday 11 June and Friday 30 August. Please see the document below for information.

Woolworths Earn and Learn Stickers

Thank you to the students who help with the Earn and Learn Sticker sheets during lunch time!

And Thank you to everyone providing the stickers for our school. Please keep collecting and drop them in to the office or into our box at Woolworths St Ives. Additional sheets can be collected from the office.

STEWART HOUSE CLOTHING APPEAL

The Stewart house clothing appeal in on again!! Any clothing for children you have to donate are very much appreciated by Stewart House. Collection bags have been sent home with the students. Please drop clothing donations at the school office.

Stewart House will collect the bags on Tuesday June 25th.

Parents and Citizens Association

Mental Health Seminar

Tues 18 June
6:30 - 8pm in the Hall
Please RSVP to the school office for this very worthwhile event.

Next P&C Meeting

Tues 18 June (not Wednesday this month).
8-9pm
This month we will hold the P&C meeting straight after the Mental Health Seminar to save coming back 2 nights in a row.

We'd love to see some new faces along, so please take this opportunity to stay on after the seminar and find out what the P&C is all about.

50th Jubilee - Facebook Group

Join here to help make this 50th jubilee year one to remember and keep on top of the events throughout the year:

50th Jubilee – Kids Disco

Fri 6 Sep - Save the date

50th Jubilee – Adults Event

Sat 7 Sep - Save the date

Keep up to date

To keep up to date with P&C social events, please make sure you have subscribed to receive P&C emails from our website at

If you have any queries or would like to get involved with the P&C, you can email us at: stivesparkpc@gmail.com

Uniform Shop

sippsuniform@gmail.com

Community Notices

Gordon Girls Rugby Sevens is Back

Train Hard, Make Friends, Score Tries, Play Rugby

Training Wednesdays 530-730pm

Games Saturday Afternoons from 3pm

Kicks off 22nd June 2019

For more information:

girlsrugby@gordonjuniorrugby.com.au