17 February 2020

Newsletter Articles

February PBL Focus

Principal’s Message

General Information

Week 4 and students are in their classes and developing their class routines. Teachers are looking forward to sharing with parents some of those routines and expectations at the parent Information session tomorrow evening. Our first assembly, where we welcome our community is the Student Induction assembly to be held on Wednesday 19th February at 2:30 pm. Teachers to start the year are actively teaching the whole school expectations in PBL: Positive Behaviour for Learning. Each school area has specific positive expectations associated with behaviour and interaction in that location. These are actively taught to students. In 2020 students will formally commence their learning through the Smiling Mind program. More information will be provided soon and a parent session will be held. As mentioned in last week’s The Patter please see your child’s class teacher or the Assistant Principal should you need support for your child’s learning and development.

Swimming Carnival – today!

Our swimming carnival was held today at the Ku-ring-gai Fitness and Aquatic Centre. An enormous thank you goes to Miss Emerson for co-ordinating and organising such a seamless event. Students participated with enthusiasm and what’s a little rain when you are swimming. House captains played an important role and encouraged many loud and enthusiastic cheers throughout the carnival. Thank you to our parents who volunteered and tracked times today. Your assistance was greatly appreciated. Thank you also to Mr Dimmers and Mrs Follows, for your safe starts for each race and the all important recording of times for races.

Overall a lovely event. Well done to our students for sensible and safe behaviour while at the carnival today.

Parent Information Evening

As indicated in the previous newsletter, the Parent Information Evening is on the 18th February, 2020. The school curriculum has undergone a large revision in the last 8 years. Each year teachers work hard to deliver the NSW Educational Standards Authority (NESA) curriculum.

At SIPPS we have revisited our scope and sequence documents in 2019 to ensure all our students are provided with opportunities to learn the required core curriculum. To promote parent understanding of SIPPS policy, practices, curriculum learning and student opportunities, our annual Parent Information Evening is to be held tomorrow evening Tuesday, 18th February, 2020.

Meet the Teacher Evening – Tomorrow 18th February

5:00 – 5:45 pm K-2 classrooms
5:45 – 6:15 pm Parent and Teacher informal tea and coffee chat. Light refreshments will be available.
6:15 – 7:00 pm 3- 6 classrooms

We look forward to seeing as many parents as possible at the information evening. We do understand that parents also have a range of commitments and may not be able to attend. For those parents who are not in attendance, a brochure will be forwarded via students.

Parent/Teacher Interviews – Parents will be able to schedule interviews between Monday 30th March and Wednesday 8th April. Dates and times will be confirmed later in the term. Bookings this year will again be managed online. Detailed information to follow.

SIPPS School Librarian

Mrs Allman is on leave each Thursday until March 19th in Term 1. During this time, Mrs Strong will be teaching the classes scheduled for library. Mrs Allman and Mrs Strong have been in contact to discuss the planning during this time frame.

Early Years Literacy Skills

Current DET endorsed research advocates for all young students to learn to read through explicit teaching of phonics as one strategy in building the foundational skills in reading and writing. In 2020 we will implement a phonics program K – 2 to support and nurture student understanding of phonemes and graphemes which are foundation skills. This week I have visited each of the K and 1/2 classes to teach the students a phonics lesson. I will be working closely with our dedicated K-2 teachers who are currently assessing student learning in this area. Don’t forget to ask your children which phonemes they have been learning.

Attendance at School

Regular attendance at school is essential to assist students to maximise their potential. Schools, in partnership with parents, are responsible for promoting the regular attendance of students. Data is used to inform and identify students who may need extra support in reengagement. Regular attendance at school assists students to achieve quality life outcomes and helps them to develop confidence in positively shaping their own futures.

Attendance and interaction in the school setting is of real importance. When students are absent teachers cannot simply send some work home for them. Consider the following absence scenarios …

Now consider times when children are late to school. Think about 10 mins late a day? Surely that won’t affect your child’s learning overall?

SIPPS Strategic Directions

All NSW public schools have strategic directions which form part of the School Plan. In our final year of the current school plan, staff and students are working to develop skills and strategies to enhance the areas identified in the plan. In Terms 3 and 4 2020, our school we will consult with our community and then will begin planning for the next set of strategic directions.

The DET strategic plan for 2018 - 2022 expresses the system goals as follows:

1. All children make a strong start in life and learning and make a successful transition to school.
2. Every student is known, valued and cared for in our schools.
3. Every student, every teacher, every leader and every school improves every year.
4. Every student is engaged and challenged to continue to learn.
5. All young people have a strong foundation in literacy and numeracy; deep content knowledge; and confidence in their ability to learn, adapt and be responsible citizens.
6. All young people finish school well prepared for higher education, training and work.
7. Education is a great place to work and our workforce is of the highest calibre.
8. Our school infrastructure meets the needs of a growing population and enables future-focused learning and teaching.
9. Community confidence in public education is high.
10. Our education system reduces the impact of disadvantage.

In 2020 at SIPPS staff are addressing the school’s strategic directions and have already started our professional learning program for the year. As a staff we wil be supporting student learning and achievement by developing our professional knowledge in the following areas:

• maintaining high expectations and challenge for students’ learning
• explicit teaching in Literacy and Numeracy
• implementation of learning intentions and success criteria to guide students learning, self-assessment and goal setting strategies
• collaborative practice as professional educators
• assessment to inform planning for student learning
• student engagement and wellbeing

You may access the 2018 – 2020 School Plan here:

DET Strategic Plan 2018 – 2022 can be viewed here:

SRE and Ethics 2020

Special Religious Education and Ethics classes have commenced for 2020 at SIPPS. Students have been allocated to their classes according to the formal documentation held at the school provided by parents.

The options for students at this school include:

• Anglican
• Catholic
• Jewish
• Ethics
• non-scripture.

Ethics classes are conducted by trained volunteers who have undertaken the training provided by Primary Ethics. Ethics classes are capped at 20 students per stage. Once classes are filled, students are placed on a waiting list and filled when a vacancy arises. There are currently vacancies in the Stage 1, 2 and 3 Ethics classes. There is no Kindergarten Ethics class.

The school website provides information on these options to support parent/carer choice. A parent/carer may at any time inform the school in writing that they wish to change their child’s SRE placement.

Further information regarding SRE and Ethics may be accessed via this link.

Kind regards,
Caroline English

School Clean Up 2020

Schools Clean Up Day

Once again SIPPS students and staff will be participating in the annual Schools Clean Up Day on Friday 28th February. It is a wonderful way to inspire our students to learn about the impact of rubbish on their local environment and understand how they can care for their planet. 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). These can be bought in prior to the day and kept in classrooms. More information about this important initiative can be found at the link below:

Celebrating Student Success

Callum G and Finn W participated in the Little Athletics Regional Championships held on the weekend.

Finn won the Under 8s 70m, 100m, Long Jump, and came third in 200m.

Callum won the Under 9s 70m, 100m, and came fourth in 200m. Callum will now compete at the Little Athletics State Championships in March (Under 9s are the youngest group to go through to State).

Congratulations to Callum and Finn on their outstanding results.

Inspiring & Nurturing
Successful Lifelong Learners

Music

Music classes are well underway for the year with students across all stages involved in singing, moving, playing instruments, listening and learning about musical concepts.

In Kindergarten we are focusing on keeping a steady beat with different parts of our bodies and exploring different ways of using our voices. Stage 1 students are learning about how rhythm and beat work together in music and beginning to recognise rhythmic symbols. Students in Stages 2 and 3 are developing their music literacy skills in relation to rhythm and pitch and their understanding of concepts such as structure, tone colour and dynamics.

Did you know?

"When we sing or create music, we use all the parts of the brain: left, right, front, and back. All these parts collaborate. That is very unique! Music is complex; that is, it uses so many aspects of a person's being." Hanne Deneire, composer.

Recorder Ensemble

The recorder ensemble rehearses on Tuesdays at lunchtime and is working towards performing alongside musicians from across NSW at the Festival of Instrumental music presented by the Department of Education’s Arts Unit. There are still some places available for Stage 2 and 3 students who might be interested in joining. Although there is a participation fee, the overall cost of involvement is kept to a minimum as recorder tuition is provided at no extra cost.

ART

Our new kindergarten students will visit the art room once a week to learn about mixing colours, and developing their drawing and cutting skills. They will have fun getting creative with paint and collage.

This term years 1 to 6 will focus on developing their drawing skills while being inspired by the local Australian artist Ken Done.

Stage 1 will be looking at his style of drawing and paintings with a focus on his flower prints. Stage 2 will produce Sydney postcards and stage 3 will produce work influenced by the artist's fireworks and Sydney at night artwork. Check out this term's artist at the link below or visit his art gallery in The Rocks, Sydney.

Breaking News

In exciting news we have been invited to take part in the 'International School Penguin Painting Project 2020', we will hopefully be joining hundreds of Australian and international schools who are already involved. Some students will have the chance to paint 50 MDF penguins which will go on display during the biennial Australian Antarctic Festival in Hobart in July, further information about who will be involved will follow at a later date. This is an exciting opportunity to get our student's work displayed in an exhibition, as well as giving students the opportunity to learn more about arctic wildlife and the threatened extinction of several species of penguin.

For further information please visit the link below

Learning and Support Information

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome back to everyone. Today I am outlining the role of a Learning and Support Teacher (LaST) in our schools, and how the process of accessing Learning Support works at St Ives Park Public School.

The Role:

The Learning and Support Teacher provides direct and timely specialist assistance to students in regular classes who have disability and / or additional learning and support needs. The LaST also supports teachers to cater for the wide range of ability groups in a classroom. When providing assistance, the LaST takes into account:

• the needs of individual students
• school priorities, and
• evidence-based programs to assist students with additional learning and support needs.

Accessing Learning Support:

The Learning and Support Team meets fortnightly when the school psychologist is on site.

In the first instance, either the teacher or parent will initiate a discussion about concerns with a child’s progress, either academically or behaviourally with the class teacher.

The class teacher will then discuss these concerns with the relevant Assistant Principal with the goal of establishing some strategies to apply in the classroom to improve learning or behaviour.

After classroom intervention is trialled, a decision will be made as to whether an application is to be made to the Learning and Support Team. Parents may be asked to complete a referral form. The class teacher will also need to complete a referral form.

The Learning Support Teacher will add the child to the Team meeting agenda after the forms have been received.

The Learning Support Team then considers the available data to identify a response to the application. An application to the Learning and Support Team may result in:

• a student’s learning being monitored by the class teacher for follow up,
• referral to external services, eg. hearing or vision checks,
• support to the classroom teacher regarding in-class support program,
• inclusion in an intensive support program
• support through an SLSO

These are examples and are not an exhaustive list of outcomes.

Classroom teachers and the Learning and Support Teacher work closely together and in conjunction with parents and the school executive team to support student learning.

Band

Band is starting soon for 2020

There are still places available in the Training Band for 2020 on most instruments. If you need to return your enrolment forms, please do so as soon as possible. If you’re interested in joining the band, please contact Bandemonium. Creative Kids Vouchers can be used with the program.

Band will be commencing soon so don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity!

Email: band@bandemonium.com.au Phone: 0490 338 860

Notes from the Office

Please make sure all school uniforms, lunch boxes – lids and containers, bags, drink bottles are labelled with your child/children’s name.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Communication

The school’s newsletter (The Patter) is the main form of communication to parents. Please read it regularly. It will be emailed to each family every alternate Monday. You will also be able to access it on the school website.

Please also download the Schoolzine mobile app. Click the link for instructions:

Parents and Citizens Association

First P&C Meeting for 2020

7:15pm, Wed 26 Feb in the staff room

We welcome members new and old. Please come along to meet more of the school community and input into the school.

Camp Out

Sat 7th - Sun 8th March on the school oval

Back by popular demand! Save the date. More details to follow.

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 the link below.

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

Tennis Court Hire

Book in the link below:

Contact if problems:

Stewart Duncan

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 the link below.

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

Our Uniform Shop is run by parent volunteers and is located in the School Hall.

Opening times are every second Wednesday in odd numbered weeks (i.e. 1, 3, 5 etc.) from 8.30am-9.30am. Further details about the school uniform are available from the school’s website.

sippsuniform@gmail.com

Helping Hands OOSH & Vacation Care

Helping Hands Network are the company who provide before and after school care at St Ives Park Public School.

All information about Before and After school care can be located on their website. Please click on the link below.

Community Notices