25 October 2021

Newsletter Articles

October PBL Focus

Think positively. Challenge yourself. Be resilient.

Principal’s Message

Welcome back to SIPPS Everyone!

This week we welcome back our excited Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 students to face to face learning. School is suddenly sounding like it should with excited, exuberant students and far more noise than staff have heard in many months.

Last week we invited back our enthusiastic and keen Kindergarten, Year 1 and 2 students to SIPPS. They were very settled when I visited the classrooms throughout the week.

Term 4 2021 is planned and will be very busy indeed. Our students are back and reconnecting with their peers and teachers. The curriculum focus areas are English and Mathematics, with student assessments planned to provide information for reporting to parents. School reports will be provided to parents on Wednesday 15th December. Our students and staff will spend time rebuilding connections and setting expectations for communication, interaction, group work and refocussing on manners in the school setting based on the established SIPPS values of Respect, Responsibility and Personal Best.

General information and updates

Replenishing school supplies - All parents have been emailed to request a replenishing of essential school supplies for all students. With Covid guidelines in place, it is very important that students are well equipped and ready for their learning. The P&C have created an account with the ‘MyNameLabel’ to assist parents in this process and also for 2022 school supplies.

Selective High School Placement Applications – The Selective High School Online processing has opened. Please complete the online application process if you are interested and return the slip to school as a record. Australian citizens and residents are able to apply.

Opportunity Class Testing – Due to the 2021 Covid situation and Learning From Home during Term 3, the DoE has set the date of November 17th for online student assessment which will be facilitated for the enrolled students. Only those students previously enrolled are able to sit the test.

Attendance Matters and illness

Now that our students can return to school for the remainder of Term 4, it is essential that students are in attendance each and every day at school.

Should your child be unwell with a sniffle or cold then they are not able to attend school until they have returned a negative Covid test which has been uploaded into SchoolZine. Students who are unwell at school with symptoms will be sent home and are able to return once their negative Covid test results have been provided. These requirements have not changed. If your child has an ongoing or chronic medical condition a medical certificate is required from your doctor. Do not hesitate to ask for further advice should you need assistance.

Please be aware that if your child is absent for any reason beyond two days, a medical certificate is required once the third day of absence is reached.

If there is a positive Covid case at SIPPS, advice via NSW Health will be provided to the Education Department and their procedures will be followed in communicating with our community.

SIPPS P&C

Thank you to our SIPPS P&C for their constant support throughout the Learning From Home months. The staff received a delicious surprise this last week in a gift from the P&C on behalf of all SIPPS parents to thank staff for their support of families and students during the Learning From Home time.

The P&C have also set the date for the Annual General Meeting on November 17th at St Ives Bowling Club. We are looking forward to seeing as many parents there as possible and having a lovely evening with the community. Please see P&C information in the newsletter or the SIPPS P&C or School Face Book pages for further information and RSVP options.

Surveys 2021

It is that time of year when we ask our school community to commit 5-10 minutes to inform the DoE of your thoughts regarding the school facilities, communication and student learning in our school setting. Mrs Wright and Mrs Follows are facilitating the survey for our students, parents and staff in 2021. It would to wonderful to hear from our families regarding your thoughts.

Thank you to our families who so strongly participated in the recent return to school survey. It was great to see such a positive response from so many families regarding students returning to school this term. Above 80% of families in every grade from Kindergarten to Year 6 were looking forward to students returning to school. Happy news for families, students and staff!

Kindergarten Orientation 2021

We will postpone the Kindergarten Orientation sessions for our Kindergarten students to the following dates in December:

Thursday 9th December, 9:30 – 10:45 am
Friday 10th December, 9:30 – 10:45 am

Due to the current guidelines and restrictions in place we are unable to have students or parents on site. We feel it is such an important part of the Kindergarten Transition for students to come to school and meet teachers and other students before starting in the 2022 school year. Schools have been advised to move transitions to later in Term 4 so that by December the guidelines in schools may have moved to Level 3 to enable Kindergarten students to participate in on-site transition programs. We will send direct communication to families enrolled for 2022.

Cohorts and Gates

Cohorts at SIPPS are K-2 and 3-6. The student cohorts have separate play spaces and toilets while Level 3+ and Level 3 guidelines are in place.

There are three gates to enter and exit the school. The three gates are open for student arrival and departure times. Please ensure students are on time. Should you arrive at school after the 9:10am bell please arrive at Gate 1 and you will need to call the office on 9144 4085 to gain access to the school site. The gates and fences have been installed to increase student and staff safety. OOSH parents will often find Gate 2 open for entry and exit before and after school. If the gate is secured please call OOSH for access. This gate may be secured at any time to meet student and staff safety requirements. Thank you to our families in advance for your understanding that student and staff safety are vital on a school site.

Teachers will bring their classes to the gates each afternoon and K Rainbow and K/1 Turquoise will walk down to the gate from 3pm to enable some families to disperse prior to other classes exiting.

Delta is different and students are strictly to enter and exit only via their cohort specified gate. Siblings in different cohorts cannot enter together until further notice. Should we be able to change this planning I will inform the community.

• K-2 enter school grounds via Gate 1 at Acron Road gate closest to the Office, hang their bags up and then go to the COLA.
• 3-4 enter school grounds via Gate 3 at Woodbury Road gate and bags away, then to the synthetic grass area for before school.
• 5-6 enter school grounds via Gate 2 at Acron Road gate adjacent to the hall, keep bags with them and will use the green grassed space adjacent to the hall

In the event of wet weather students will be directed to their classrooms by the staff member on their gate.

Please continue to ease congestion and ensure social distancing for adults by dropping children to school via the specified gates. For health and safety, parents are asked to meet their children at a specified spot around the external boundary of the school, depart promptly or remain in their car and ‘kiss and drop’ wherever possible.

Parents are reminded to use the pedestrian crossing to safely to cross Acron Road when with your child. This will instill life-long safe crossing habits for your child.

Kind regards,
Caroline English
Principal, St Ives Park Public School

Assistant Principal’s Message

Selective High School Placement 2023

Online applications are now open for parents who wish to apply for a selective high school placement for their child in 2023. The online application window is open until 17th November 2021. All applications need to be received before this date.

If you are intending to apply, please also ensure you notify the school by completing the ‘Intention to Apply’ note sent home in week 3. This is due to be returned to the school by Friday 5th November.

For further information regarding selective high schools and the application process, please visit the link below:

Check-in Assessments Year 3-6

Throughout week 5, Years 3, 4, 5 & 6 students will participate in a reading and numeracy Check-in assessment. Check-In is a NSW Department of Education online reading and numeracy assessment available to support schools to assess and monitor student learning. The assessments identify how students are performing and provide teachers with data that enables them to tailor their teaching more specifically to student needs.

Students are asked to bring headphones or earbuds that plug into a computer to enable them to hear audio during the assessment. Earbuds used for mobile phones or other portable devices may be suitable for use during the assessment. The type of computer connection needed is a jack or USB.

Mrs Hayllar
Instructional Leader / K-2 Assistant Principal

Library

Issue 7 brochures have been distributed to students via their class teacher. All orders for Issue 7 need to be entered online via the Scholastic LOOP facility by Monday 15/11/21.

Virginia Allman
Book Club Coordinator

General Information for families

Cyber safe families

The following resources are available to support families and their children in being responsible online users:

• Cyber safe families  – an overview of cyber safety
• Technology and wellbeing  – useful tips and tools
• Digital citizenship External link  – a collection of articles and resources to maximise students’ use of technology.

Notes from the school office

If you are looking for some healthy lunch box ideas take a look at these links from the Cancer Council:

Healthy Lunch Box website

Interactive Lunch Box Builder

Kindergarten 2022

Now is the time to let the office know if you have a child starting Kindergarten 2022.

We will print off a pre-filled enrolment form for you to complete and lodge. Information regarding Kindergarten 2022 will be shared with the community in the coming weeks.

If you know of anyone in our school catchment area who would like to enrol at St Ives Park Public School, please advise them that they are able to enrol online. Just visit the school’s website and look under the heading Enrolment.

All school tours are on hold during lockdown restrictions.

Student Travel – Term 4 2021

Applications for student travel in 2022 opened on Tuesday 12 October 2021.

Students who need a School Opal card or travel pass for 2022 can apply now. A new application will need to be submitted if they are applying for a school travel pass for the first time, or if they are requesting an additional travel entitlement as a result of a new shared parental responsibility situation (e.g. joint custody).

Students who change address, school, campus location, or who have repeated a year or received an expiry notification from Transport for NSW for their school travel entitlement should renew or update their details before the end of term 4. This will ensure that schools can endorse applications and current entitlements are updated and remain valid. School Opal card holders will have the changes applied to their existing card.

Schoolzine app – Please download the schoolzine app. The school uses this app for school alerts, payment of fees, viewing of school newsletters and absentee notes.

Qkr! app – Please download the Qkr ! app – this app is used by the P & C for the ordering and payment of school uniform items and for Canteen ordering and payment of items.

Canteen

Canteen will be closed until further notice.

Uniform Shop

P & C

Name Labels Offer

Do you need name labels for the return to school and inevitable lost property hunt? SIPPS families can now get 5% off at My Name Label and 15% goes towards our school as fundraising. Order name tags and labels online and take advantage of this saving.

Use this unique code SIPPS0515 at checkout to receive 5% off your order.

Final P&C Meeting for 2021 and AGM:

Wed 17 November from 6.30pm
St Ives Bowling Club, 100 Killeaton St.

We are excited to be able to get back together face-to-face, and over a few drinks and snacks to end the year.

We really look forward to welcoming some new faces into the P&C, especially from K-2 classes, as many of the existing committee are Year 5-6 and soon to be leaving the school.

Come along to meet us and find out what we are about. But we also have roles that need filling for next year. We cannot continue with at least the quorum Exec Committee roles. Please contact us if you’d like to know more about any of these roles ahead of the AGM. stivesparkpc@gmail.com

Exec Committee:

President (currently vacant and vital to fill)
Vice Presidents x 2
Treasurer
Secretary (currently vacant and vital to fill)

Other roles:

Uniform Shop Co-ordinator (currently vacant and vital to fill)
Canteen Co-ordinator
Communications Co-ordinator
Class Parent Co-ordinator
Grants Officer
Band Co-ordinator
Tennis Court Co-ordinator
Fundraising Co-ordinator
Or another role based on your personal passion point and skillset!

Uniform Shop – Urgent Volunteer Request

We are urgently in need of a volunteer to take over the uniform shop for 2022, or we’ll have to outsource this service which would be a huge inconvenience to parents and loss of revenue for the P&C. You can make this role your own, but it basically entails:

• Process online orders each fortnight and leave packed items at the school office for distribution
• Open onsite shop once a fortnight, once restrictions ease, and if convenient for you
• Keep an eye on uniform stock levels and place orders with suppliers
• Liaise with parents and school office about order enquiries
• Sort through donated uniforms to ensure they are in saleable condition
• Coordinate volunteers

In summary, you’ll process and deliver orders and handle a little admin each fortnight.

We have a clear handover arranged and there are experienced volunteers on hand to work with you.

It is a really rewarding role that our previous Co-ordinators have got a lot of satisfaction from.

Plus, you will receive discounts on your own uniform purchases.

Canteen and Tennis Courts

Currently closed until further notice due to Covid.

Community