14 March 2022

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Message

Sunshine would be lovely for a few days, as I am sure that we have had enough rain for a little while. Thank you to those families who were able to rally to the call last week to collect our students a little early due to the impasse at two of the school gates.

We are now entering the last month of Term 1 and I would like to communicate to our community what a wonderful role you have played in keeping a close and watchful eye on your children and keeping the students and staff as safe as possible from illness.

Student Leaders at SIPPS in 2022

The highlight of my days since cohorting has ceased, is when I have the opportunity to put aside the administrivia of my role and work with our school leaders. Excitingly, we are finally able to have our student leaders step up into their roles in person across the school. Our leaders have provided information for our community in the newsletter today and are very pleased to share their experiences and upcoming events.

National Young Leaders Day

SIPPS school captains, vice captains and prefects tackled the weather challenges last week to participate in the National Young Leaders Day. They were able to listen to four inspiring community and sporting leaders who shared insights into the qualities and experiences which have shaped them to be the leaders they are today.

While our student leaders were all inspired by the day and have written about their experience in the newsletter, their conduct towards a member of the public prompted a lovely email regarding their kindness and respectful behaviour. Congratulations! What a sensational start to their leadership in 2022. Thank you to Mrs Underhill who escorted the students on their weather filled adventure.

SRC – Student Representative Council

It has been just lovely to work closely with the SRC as they plan and promote some of the upcoming events for our SIPPS students and families. They have already been to classes to introduce themselves to all students and organised the teachers to conduct the voting for the class SRC reps for 2022. They will be holding their first SRC meeting in the coming fortnight but have already planned some exciting events for Term 1. Keep an eye out for their information and photo in the newsletter today and further instalments this year.

Sports Captains

Our sports captains led our Year 2- 6 students at the recent swimming carnival, leading cheers and also organising their team members for the final relay race on the day. Our sports captains have started the year beautifully and will start to work on cheers for the cross country and athletics carnivals. Well done and thank you sports captains.

Reading anyone?

Are you reading to your child? Is your child reading to you? Variety in reading is really quite vital for your child to continue on their reading journey. Do both parents read to their children or only one parent? It is vitally important that both parents are seen by your child to ‘read’. As parents you may not realise the underlying messages your child is picking up about reading. Do your children only see one parent read for work or newspapers and the other parent read only novels. Do they only see you read on screens? Could perhaps your child not see you read at all as you only read after they have gone to bed?

K-3 students are learning to read and learning to understand what is happening in a text/story: recognising letter sounds, blending sounds into words, recognising words, phrase clusters of words and use of punctuation to develop their fluency plus comprehend what is happening. Sounds complex? Well, it is indeed a complex life skill. Daily home reading is a vital requirement for all our young readers.

Year 2 – 6 students have often started along their reading journey and it is at this point that parents often think that everything is under control. STOP! Year 2-6 readers still require support and nurturing to continue to develop a wider range of reading skills. Their ability to comprehend more complex, detailed and vocabulary specific texts requires daily reading and practice at home and at school. They need to read a wide variety of texts fiction and non-fiction without becoming stuck in a groove which could include the ‘Treehouse’, ‘Captain Underpants’ or ‘Weirdo’ books, which all have their place, however, will not enhance your children’s reading. Please ask your child questions about what they are reading and expect details or better still, read it with them and discuss the context. Please do not think that as they are a ‘good reader’ they don’t need to keep practicing their reading.

Teachers are focusing on modelled reading in all classrooms from Kindergarten to Year 6. Staff have looked at the strengths and areas for development for their class and grade to identify key skills they need to model for their students to develop in their reading skills. Teachers use the NAPLAN, Check-in and PAT reading assessments to identify NSW English syllabus outcomes and key skills to explicitly teach students to improve their skill development. Please chat to your child’s teacher at the parent teacher interviews to learn more.

Home reading for all students K-6 is a vital activity for students to grow their skills in reading. As we know practice makes perfect. Students can borrow from the school library and there is also the local library at St Ives Shopping Centre. Every child will learn to read and will find their niche reading genre, which is their preferred style of text, whether it is fiction or non-fiction, narrative or information report. The trick is to encourage and support children’s reading at home beyond their niche or preferred genre. Are you up to this challenge?

Staying Covid Smart

Remaining aware of symptoms and using RAT tests to check for Covid infections will be really important according to the latest advice with the new strain which is becoming dominant in the community. Parents are reminded that symptomatic students are to remain home for 24hrs and can only return after negative RAT or PCR testing. Please be aware that there can be changes to the guidelines in schools.

People who are post Covid will not need to test for 28 days after first date of infection as they often have a false positive using RAT testing.

Although community guidelines change frequently, school guidelines from the Department of Health and Education do not always change in line with the general community. As I am advised of changes, I will continue to keep the community informed via email and via the Newsletter.

Current expectations in schools include:

• Masks are not mandatory for staff, students or visiting parents.
• Parents at SIPPS are welcome on site. Please listen for the 9:05 am bell and leave the grounds before gates are locked each morning.
• All staff and volunteers must be double vaccinated.

P&C

The next meeting will be held in the School Library on Wednesday 16th March from 7:15 pm and I look forward to welcoming our P&C committee back to SIPPS for this occasion.

Dates for your diary Term 1 – it’s getting busy!

21st March – Harmony Day – Please wear cultural dress or orange to celebrate.
25th March – Ride2School Day – Stay healthy, ride, scooter or walk to school.
28th March – Earth Hour at SIPPS.
31st March – Selective High School Test date (rescheduled due to flooding in NSW).
8th April – Festive and Easter Hat Parade 2pm.
9th – 25th April – School Holidays – Book in for Vacation Care if needed through Helping Hands.
26th April – Staff return for Staff Development Day – Mathematics Association of NSW Primary Consultant working with staff on Mathematical strategy development and assessment.
27th April – ALL student K to 6 return to school for day 1 Term 2, 2022.

May: Week 2 SIPPS P&C Mother’s Day Stall and events … very exciting for our Mums!

8th May – Mother’s Day
13th May – National Walk Safely to School Day.
3 – 12 May NAPLAN online 2022 for Years 3 and 5.

Kind regards
Caroline English

Assistant Principal’s Message

Parent Teacher Bookings

Our Parent Teacher Interview Bookings have now opened. If you haven’t already, please book your interview time slot either via the school app or by using the URL below

Bookings close on Thursday 17th March.

Interviews will be held during weeks 9 & 10 in your child’s classroom. If your timeslot is between 9.10am-3.10pm parents will need to enter the school through Gate 1. Parents entering through Gate 1 must ensure they close the gate behind them.

Assembly

Staff and students are very excited about welcoming parents and carers to school assemblies starting in Week 9, Wednesday 23 March. Parents and carers may access the school from 2:20 pm through Gate 2. Please ensure Gate 2 is closed behind you.

Changes to Selective High School Test Date

Due to NSW flooding, the Selective High School Test has been postponed until Thursday, 31 March. Students sitting the test will need to be at school by 8:50am on testing day and gather at the office to be escorted to the examination room.

Kind regards
Mrs Hayllar & Mrs Wright

National Young Leaders Day 2022

On the 8th of March at 7:35am, the Student Leadership team (Daisy, Darren, Ellie, Jo and Kath) and Mrs Underhill met at Gordon station, ready to go into the city.

We caught the first train we could as there were many delays due to the weather. Once we got into the city, we walked to the Convention Centre. We got great seats in the middle of the room.

It was time for the first speaker, Bronte Campbell (Australian Olympic swimming gold medallist). She told us her inspiring story. She taught us to push to our limits but listen to your body. After a day's work she would ask herself three questions; What went well? What didn’t go well? What can I do to fix it? Something we learnt was that the effort was always worth it, no matter if we succeed or don’t reach our goals.

After a snack and a photo with Bronte, we heard from the talented musician and author, Josh Pyke. He shared with us some of his personal experiences that didn’t always go as planned. He told us that even though it didn’t go as planned he still pushed through, that night he inspired others. After many rejections, he finally became an award-winning artist. He taught us that there is a difference between falling short and failing.

Next up was Anthony ‘Harries’ Carroll from the TV show Bondi Rescue. As a young kid he was diagnosed with Dyslexia. Once he had finished school he became a lifeguard as a side job. On his first day as a lifeguard, he saved someone’s life with a dramatic rescue. Later in his career he became a full-time lifeguard. He and his mates had an idea for the TV show and they took it to multiple television channels which rejected the idea but later it was to become a Logie winning TV show that is loved around the world. He taught us to do what we love and that there are no obstacles when we set our minds to something.

After a quick break and more photos, we listened to our last speaker, Lachie Smart.

He flew solo around the world at a young age and later became the youngest pilot to fly around the world solo. He shared with us some life-threatening situations that he had lived through. He taught us that you need to be yourself and that you should always focus on your OWN rules to achieve success, and to remember that you can turn falling short into success and that’s all that matters.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day. We were inspired to listen to the speakers’ stories and we gained so much knowledge as the young leaders of our school. We had a very wet and long train trip back to Gordon. We had such an inspirational day and are so grateful for the opportunity we had to attend.

Kindy Highlights

Kindergarten have had a great start to the school year. We have settled into school routine quickly, showing eagerness to learn and participate in our fun activities.

We have been learning lots of sounds, sharing ideas during number talks, talking about family in History, monitoring our crazy weather and engaging in many more fun activities.

We enjoy getting active at gymnastics with Lorin and during sport with Mrs Stone. We love singing along with Pevan and Sarah and running the red carpet is our favourite active break!

We are continuing to get to know each other, building on our kindy friendships. We were extremely excited to have our buddies join us in the classroom this week to help with our 'Belinda' writing activity. We are also excited to be able to play with them in the playground.

Mrs Follows
K Rainbow class teacher

Stage 1 Highlights

Stage 1 students have settled into their 2022 classes and quickly learnt new routines. In the classroom, students are enjoying English activities, number talks and being challenged by rich mathematical tasks. Stage 1 are learning about changes over time in History and investigating changes in the day/night sky in Science. Gymnastics with Got Game has been so much fun. It was fantastic to see students showing their jumps and turns on the mini trampolines and enjoy being active during a wet weather day.

Students are well into the routine of homework, completing spelling, reading and Mathletics and remembering to return homework books each Thursday.

Stage 1 have loved exploring how everyday objects have changed over time. Now would be a great time to look at old family photos or discuss with children how objects, like cars, aeroplanes and telephones have changed.

Mrs Field & Mrs Wright
Stage 1 teachers

SRC News

This year the SRC Leaders are Jess, Neil, Nina & Olivia. Jess as chairperson, Neil as vice-chairperson, Nina as secretary and Olivia as treasurer, plus our eight representatives from each 2-6 class. If you are wondering what the SRC does, the Student Representative Council helps to organise fundraisers and fun activities for the school. SRC members also listen to our SIPPS students, their ideas and help solve problems.

Our aim is to do at least one fundraiser per term. Our first activity will be Harmony Day, so why don’t you check out the details and let your children know if they haven’t already heard!

Exciting News! Harmony Day is just around the corner
Dress up in your cultural clothing!
But if you don’t have any cultural clothing with you, all is well, just wear Orange!
Don’t forget to bring a gold coin.
Please remember it’s on March 21st, a Monday!

Thank you

Jess, Neil, Nina & Olivia
SRC Team

Healthy Choices

Ride, scooter or walk to school on 25 March.

On Friday the 25th of March it’s Ride To School Day. On this day, if it’s possible, we would like all children to ride their bike to school, but if for some reason you can’t, you can ride a scooter or walk.

Whatever you or your children decide to do, we would love it if they could bring a gold coin with them and give it to their teacher at the start of the day. The gold coins we are collecting are to raise money to improve our bike racks at school.

Thank you
SRC Team

Library

The NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge has begun for 2022.

At SIPPS, all students in K-2 complete the PRC Reading Challenge as part of their literacy program. This means all students complete this reading challenge at school and receive their certificate of participation in Term 4.

Students in Stage 2 and 3 complete the PRC independently. To complete the PRC, students need to read 20 books by August 19th this year. Fifteen books must come from the extensive booklists on the PRC Booklists and 5 books are the student’s free choice. The students log books read onto their online reading record.

To access the PRC website students must use their DET username and password. They can logon through the student portal and select the PRC icon to go directly to the website.

Books can be sourced and read from anywhere: our library, local library, bookshops, friends and family, own bookshelves…

Students are given help and assistance at school to access the website, put a book onto their reading record and given hints and tips for navigating the website and are encouraged to complete the PRC.

It is important that students remember the title of the books they read over the year in case these books are on the PRC Booklists. The best way to do this is record books read onto a list of some sort. I am always happy to add books for students if I am given a list or asked about a particular book.

Happy Reading for 2022.

Mrs Allman
PRC Coordinator

Issue 2 of Scholastic Book Club has been handed out to your child via their classroom teacher.

If you would like to order any books from this Issue, please place your order online by Monday 21st March at the latest.

If you are unsure with placing an order, please visit the website or ring Scholastic 1800 021 233

Mrs Allman
Book Club Coordinator

Sport

Congratulations to the Zone Swimming Carnival Team who competed at Sydney Olympic Park on 3 March.

Well done team!

Band

Notes from the school office

Term Fees and Whole School Contribution

The Term 1 fees and Whole School contribution was emailed to parents and carers last week. Please check your email and let the office know if this has not been received. Only 1 parent/carer from each family will receive the email. A detailed explanation of the fees is attached to the statement.

Your assistance in paying the fees by week 10 would be greatly appreciated. If you would like to pay the fees with a payment plan or if you have any concerns regarding the statement, please contact the office. Any financial conversations will be treated in a confidential manner.

Rhonda Fazzolari
School Administrative Manager

Canteen

Parents working in the canteen are required to have a voluntary WWCC obtained through Service NSW. A copy is to be provided to the P&C for verification prior to working. There is no charge to get this, and it can be used if you are involved in your child's extra-curricular activity as a coach or volunteer.

P & C

Communication Channels

Class parents and Class WhatsApp groups have all now been set up. If you haven't joined for your child's class, please use the links below from your phone. Class parents for the year are as follows, but if you would like to volunteer to be a second contact this would be much appreciated by all.

There is also a whole school Facebook message group called The Pencil Squad, a Dad’s social WhatsApp group and a Tennis WhatsApp group (for after school lessons with Mark Geffan). If you would like to be included in one of these groups, please email stivesparkpc@gmail.com with your details.

Uniform Shop – Raincoat Flash Sale

So much rain! We have an oversupply of size 4 raincoats, so have dropped the price to a bargain $15. This is a very generous sized 4 – more like a size 6 - great for Kindy and Yr 1s. Order on Qkr!

Uniform shop orders are made via Qkr! and are packed every second Friday (odd weeks only) and delivered to your child’s classroom. Please ensure your child’s class details are correct for 2022. We stock all new uniform items, and a selection of 2nd hand items. Email sippsuniform@gmail.com if you need to change any sizing (items must be unworn with tags).

Tennis Courts

They are now open for group lessons with Mark Geffan after school. We are working on a plan to reopen for private hire.

Voluntary Contribution

Thank you in advance for your voluntary contribution to the P&C - which is itemised on the school invoice. We have been busy investing in improved facilities and resources for our kids, so we need to rebuild our funds so we can set a new list of priorities to support.

Next P&C Meeting

Wed 16 March, 2022. 7:15pm. In the school library.

Community

St Ives AFL

Ever dreamed of playing on the SCG or MCG, kicking a ball 50m or winning a flag?
Come and play AFL for St Ives AFL.
We need girls and boys U10s - U12s
Contact Malinda Gardner 0468 827 823 or malnathisy@hotmail.com for training details.

Bricks 4 Kidz will be running workshops in Pymble and Turramurra during the school holidays.