2 November 2020

Newsletter Articles

November PBL Focus

Principal’s Message

Dear Parent and Carers,

Shade Sail Installation

The shade sail over the playground equipment was approved for use on Friday 23rd October. There have already been many compliments and the students appreciate being able to play in the shade on warmer days.

Thank you to the SIPPS P & C and community for their fund raising and drive to install this asset to the lovely play area for our students. Without the work of the P&C the whole play area would not look as fabulous as it does now! Please find below ‘Before’ photos of the area.

World teacher’s Day

Last Friday was World Teacher’s Day. Our staff were treated to a morning tea to thank them for their innovation and hard work throughout 2020. The teachers here at SIPPS are very dedicated and ensure the learners in the school are known, valued and cared for, especially in 2020 with so many changes and the impact on our day to day lives.

Professional Learning @SIPPS

Last week the staff from Terry Hills Public School and St Ives Park Public School met virtually to develop a shared understanding of the process of evaluative practice. This involved staff across the two schools delving deeper into the evaluative practice of the teaching and learning cycle which looks closely at where students are in the curriculum and where they need to progress towards. This assists teachers to plan effective and explicit learning for all students and supports teachers to differentiate the curriculum for students.

The staff reviewed student learning in writing and jointly identified learning goals for the students whose writing samples were shared.

The SIPPS Executive team also met with teachers from a range of schools across the north shore, working with John Hattie for the afternoon. The focus for this session was Effective Feedback. Teachers are moving beyond the ‘well done’s of the past and are more explicit in their responses to students providing students with feedback directly relating to assessment rubrics and success criteria. This enables students to become aware of the learning expectations and achieve more in their lessons when they set learning goals.

Hattie’s research identifies which teaching practices have the greatest effect on student learning. Effective Feedback is one of those teaching practices which can positively impact and grow students achievement. It is therefore identified in both the Department’s School Excellence Framework and the What Works Best document which are the foundations for the new school plan.

Kindergarten 2021 Orientation session tomorrow

We are looking forward to welcoming our 2021 Kindergarten students tomorrow from 9:30am to 10:30am.

Following the current guidelines:

• Only students enrolled at St Ives Park Public School are able to attend.
• Visiting 2021 K are not to mix with currently enrolled students.
• Parents of 2021 Kinders are only to drop off and collect students from the designated locations.
• Parents dropping and collecting are not able to remain on school site beyond 10 minutes.
• Social distancing for all adults is expected.

Selective High School application process 2022

Final reminder for year 5 parents to register online via the Selective High School application.

All Year 5 families were provided with the Intention to apply for Year 7 placement in a selective high school in 2022 information flyer at the end of Term 3. The application website opened on October 6 2020 and closes on 9 November 2020. All applications are online only and parents will need to complete the application. If you intend to apply, please complete the tear off slip and return this to the office before 9 November 2020.

Stay safe and well,
Caroline English

Stay safe and well,
Caroline English
Principal

Inspiring & Nurturing
Successful Lifelong Learners

Book Week

There were plenty of curious creatures, wild minds and a myriad of book characters celebrating Book Week at on Thursday!

It was a different Book Parade this year with no parents or visitors allowed onsite due to Covid guidelines and we really missed you!

But “the show must go on” and it did in spectacular style. The School Leaders ran a great Book Parade that was enjoyed by all the staff and students.

Congratulations to all our colouring competition winners and to everyone who helped make our 2020 Book Week celebration such a fun and successful event.

Virginia Allman
School Librarian

ART

Visual Art in Term 4

Term 4 is once again an exciting time in the art room, this is the term where all students get to experiment with clay and produce a three dimensional piece of work. Students are always very happy and excited to work with clay and I try to do one ceramic project per year. This allows students to continue to develop their skills and experiment with different clay techniques such as making pinch pots, double pinch pots, slabs and coils.

Kindy - Students are using clay to make a Koala, they will be learning how to create a pinch pot and a slab. Using clay can help improve the students fine motor skills and allow them to get creative using a different media. After the clay project students will continue to experiment with a range of different art techniques, this year they have experimented with printing, wax resist, collage, pattern and drawing & painting. Experimenting with a range of techniques allows kindy students to try out several different ways of making artwork, these art techniques will be developed and improved throughout the coming years.

Stage 1 - Students are making a clay tile called 'my little aquarium'. They will be learning how to create a slab and how to make and attach sea themed elements to create their aquarium. These will be painted to complete. Students have experimented with a range of art techniques this year including collage, mixed media, painting and printing. They will finish this year developing their drawing skills.

Stage 2 - Students are making a slab pot and are allowed to chose their theme from three ideas that I gave them, these themes were Monsters, Owl/Bird or African/Tiki. Students can design their own outcome following my directions and demonstrations, these clay outcomes will be painted to complete. Students have experimented with a range of techniques this year including watercolour painting, tonal drawing and printing, we will finish off the year developing their drawing skills.

Stage 3 - Students are making a double pinch pot and are encouraged to turn their clay sphere into a design based on their chosen theme. I gave students different themes to inspire them, these included animals, the human form, sea creatures or monsters. Students ware encouraged to come up with their own idea, to research and get a picture to work from and to try and work out how to create their chosen idea using the techniques I demonstrate. This allows the stage 3 students to take more ownership of their 3D outcome. These students will finish off the year working on their drawing skills.

Thank you to everyone who visited this years art exhibition at St Ives Shopping Village. I hope you enjoyed viewing the wonderful artwork created by our students here at SIPPS.

Yvonne Stone
Art Teacher
St Ives Park Public School

Music

For reasons which I’m sure everyone is aware of, performance opportunities have been rather limited this year. Performance is a very important part of music education, giving students a meaningful goal to work towards and the opportunity to showcase their hard work and confront and conquer “nerves”. I would therefore like to invite any students who would like to do so, to play or sing a short piece for their classmates during music this term.

Kindergarten

This term in music Kindergarten students will continue to focus on being steady beat-keepers, using many different parts of their body to internalise the beat and identifying how many sounds occur on different beats in a song. Students will also listen and move to a variety of different musical genres identifying the mood, tempo and dynamics of the music through their movements. Singing is now permitted in well-ventilated spaces or outdoors, so when the weather is suitable, we will play circle games outside to develop our in-tune singing.

Stage 1

Halloween has given Stage 1 the opportunity to explore the difference between Major and Minor tonality in music as “spooky” music is usually in a minor key. Students have also used words associated with Halloween to create, graphically represent and perform their own 8 beat rhythm patterns. They have certainly been creative! The remainder of the term will be focused on music associated with Summer, Christmas, Chanukah and holidays.

Stage 2

Stage 2 students have also enjoyed the stimulus of Halloween for a composition activity. Students chose from a bank of Halloween related words and phrases to create their rhythms then added pitches from the Pentatonic scale (CDEGA) which they play on tuned percussion instruments. I look forward to hearing them perform their work for one another over the coming weeks. Later in the term we will continue learning ukulele.

Stage 3

The focus for music so far this term has been divided between theory and practice, with students practicing rhythm dictation using standard music notation and analysing the features of music such as its structure, instrumentation, tempo and dynamics. Students have been learning to play Jon Madin’s Marimba March on tuned percussion instruments. Later in the term students will have the opportunity to research a musical artist or genre of their choice and share their learning with their classmates.

Megan Cronin

Learning and Support

Dear parents and care-givers

This week I am taking the opportunity to explain my role as the Learning Support Teacher (LST), the role of the school Learning Support Team, and how to initiate contact if you feel your child requires additional support.

Learning and support teacher

The LST provides direct and timely specialist assistance to students in mainstream classes if they need support because of disability or they have additional learning and support needs.  To receive support the Learning Support Team considers:

• the needs of individual students
• school priorities, and

• evidence-based programs to assist students with additional learning and support needs.

Areas where support is available include social integration, language and communication, literacy, numeracy and behaviour.

LST’s in schools are a response to the Disability Standards for Education 2005, which require all schools to make adjustments to cater for the specific learning needs of students with disabilities.

LST’s work with classroom teachers to support students' specific learning and support needs and work with students in the classroom. Where relevant, they also provide follow-up assessments and sometimes refer students to external support services.

Learning and support team

The LST is part of a larger school learning and support team.  This team works to ensure that the specific needs of students with disability and additional learning and support needs are met.

At SIPPS, the Learning Support Team includes the Principal, the Assistant Principals, the School Counsellor and the Learning Support Teacher.

How to contact SIPPS Learning Support Teacher:

If you wish to have the Learning Support Team consider the learning, social, communication and / or behavioural needs of your child you first make contact with your child’s class teacher.  The class teacher will assess your child in regard to your concerns and take your concerns and their professional judgements to the Assistant Principal.  They will discuss the matter and make a decision for action.  This sometimes includes strategies in the classroom or it may involve forwarding the student’s details to the Learning Support Team to include in the agenda at the next Learning Support Team meeting.  At SIPPS we schedule these meetings every fortnight.

The team may request formal student details to be gathered.  At this point the Learning Support Teacher will ask both the parent(s) and Class Teacher to complete some initial forms which formally documents the parents’ and teacher’s concerns, and past history of the student.  Once this information is received, the LST summarises the findings and presents this to the Learning Support Team.  Together they discuss each specific case and a decision is made on the type and level of support that the school can provide to the student – keeping in mind the individual needs of all students and the school’s priorities.  The type and level of support can differ from term to term according to priorities and most-in-need principles.

If your child is working with the Learning Support Teacher you can request a Teacher Interview in the same way and at the same time as you request other parent - teacher interviews.

Please contact your child’s class teacher if you feel your child needs additional support.

 

Regards,

Adrienne Reid

Learning Support Teacher

Celebrating Student Success

P & C

Canteen Update

The Canteen will be temporarily closed until further notice while we work through a transition plan.

P&C AGM and last meeting for the year
Wed 18 Nov l 7:15pm Online

Please do join in and find out what we are all about, share your ideas and have input in your child's future. Many of our committee are in their final years at our school, so we are looking for new members to join the group for 2021. No commitment necessary, join in any capacity you can.

Uniform Shop

Uniform orders need to be in by the Wednesday evening.

Goods will be handed out to your child just before the end of school on the Thursday afternoon. If you have any questions please call the school office or send an email to the uniform email address below.

School Uniform items can be purchased every week by using the QKr! App.

sippsuniform@gmail.com

Canteen

Please note that there will be no canteen until further notice.

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.