Week 6

Monday-Friday Breakfast Club from 8.30am Wednesday 4 March Scripture begins

Friday 6 March PSSA – Round 3 Friday 6 March Gymnastics selected classes

Week 7

Monday-Friday Breakfast Club from 8.30am Monday 9 March Mothers Group 9-11am Friday 13 March PSSA – Round 4

Friday 13 March Gymnastics selected classes

Week 8 – Chick R Us

Monday-Friday Breakfast Club from 8.30am Monday 16 March Mothers Group 9-11am Thursday 19 March Harmony Day

Thursday 19 March P&C Lunch Order Day Thursday 19 March Bullying No Way Day Friday 20 March PSSA – Round 5 Friday 20 March Gymnastics selected classes

Week 9 – Chick R Us

Monday-Friday Breakfast Club from 8.30am Monday 23 March Mothers Group 9-11am Friday 27 March PSSA – Round 6 Friday 27 March Gymnastics selected classes

Dear Parents and Caregivers, This week’s Principal Award recipients are:

• Aniyah R - KYellow • Maryam A - KYellow • Aya Z - 1Blue • Mariam H - 2Red • Sofia B - 2Red • Malek A - 2Red • Jood M - 2Red • Katherine - 2Red • Issam K - 2Red

This week’s Certificate of Excellence recipient is:

• James T - 6Blue Congratulations. These awards will be presented at the K-6 Assembly to be held on Thursday 5 March. Parents are welcome to attend. We are now at the mid point of term and our school routines are well underway. We have had many extra-curricular programs begin with dance, choir and drama groups being formed as well as PSSA sport. We also held our swimming carnival and the successful children competed in the District Swimming Carnival. There’s a lot to be part of at Bankstown North Public School. Our Kindergarten students are settling into their classes with their teachers. It is wonderful to enter the rooms and see them engaged in learning. Parents, we know it is a special time in their lives as they progress to “Big School” and we ask that you support our teachers by standing back as the children line up and progress towards their classes. This is an important part of their learning, to be able to move from the comfort of home and their family members, into the safety of the school classroom with their peers and their teacher. If you wish to speak to their teacher, please make an appointment through the office. Change to Morning Routine From the week beginning Monday 9 March (Week 7), students will only need to line up under the COLA in the morning on Mondays. All other days, students are to proceed straight to their classroom when the 9.00am

Issue 3 Term 1 – Week 6 Wednesday 4 March 2020

Are you reading with your child every night?

If not, why not??

It’s important!

Please contact your child’s class teacher if you need assistance with

reading strategies.

Bankstown North Public School

Innovation, Opportunity, Excellence, Success 322 Hume Highway Bankstown NSW 2200 T: 9709 5506 F: 9790 0945 E: bankstownn-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au W: http://www.bankstownn-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

morning bell rings. All students who arrive to school after this time are to go to the office for a late note. Crunch and Sip Due to the change in bell times, Crunch and Sip will now be held in the middle session between lunch and recess. Please send along a piece of healthy fruit or cut up vegetables (eg: carrot or celery sticks) and water. It is meant to be an easy process for the children to eat and not cause disruption to learning time. Mosquitoes Mosquitoes have been a problem in all classrooms lately. To try and eradicate this problem, we have organised for the school to be sprayed this weekend. Harmony Day Our school will celebrate Harmony Day on Thursday 19 March 2020. Harmony Day began in 1999, coinciding with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and each year, it is marked by people coming together and participating in local activities. The continuing message of Harmony Day is "Everyone Belongs". It is traditionally celebrated on March 21 every year with schools across Australia organising events that celebrate the cohesive and inclusive nature of Australians. It is intended to show cohesion and inclusion in Australia and promote tolerant and culturally diverse society. It is about community participation, inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. It’s a day where activities and celebrations help students to understand how Australians of different backgrounds live together. It provides a great opportunity for all students to learn that not only do they share common ground with other cultures, but also that our differences make Australia a special place to live. Orange is the colour chosen to represent Harmony Day. Australians are encouraged to wear orange clothing and/or the distinctive orange ribbon to show their support for cultural diversity and inclusive Australia. Harmony Day celebrations will begin at 10.15am with in- class activities, followed by a lunch that our P&C is organising. Parents are invited to have lunch with students as well as stay on for our special assembly. Please note the Canteen will be closed but snacks are being sold by P&C. Students are invited to wear orange clothing or a costume representing their culture. Due to the number of students with known food allergies enrolled at the school, please do not share food with other students. Your cooperation with this important safety matter is appreciated.

Teaching Your Children Not To Retaliate An important reminder to all our parents and caregivers to NOT teach your children to retaliate verbally or physically when confronted by a situation at school. When this occurs, the situation has the possibility to escalate. It has been bought to my attention that some of our children are taught to ‘stand up’ for themselves by retaliating with violence. If your child is in a situation, whereby they are verbally teased, tormented, pushed, shoved, kicked and/or punched by another student, they are not to reciprocate with the same act of violence. Instead, children need to be taught to deal with the matter appropriately by:

Telling the classroom teacher Telling the teacher on playground duty, or Coming to see the Principal

By doing so, I can assure you that the matter will be thoroughly investigated and dealt with. Under no circumstances is your child permitted to react to any situation using VIOLENCE. Once this occurs, your child will be dealt with in the same manner as the child/children who committed the violent offence in the first instance. This could result in a ‘Formal Caution’ and/or ‘Suspension’ from school. Our school will be celebrating the ‘National Day Against Bullying and Violence’ next Thursday 19 March 2020. This day is about making our children fully aware that our society does not tolerate acts of bullying or violence of any kind. It is also about recognising the need to teach our children that verbal or physical aggression is not appropriate.

We expect all of our students to abide by our school expectations and there is also playground and classroom signage to remind them. Your cooperation with this important wellbeing matter is appreciated. Teacher Appointments If you have any concerns regarding your child, please do not hesitate to contact the teacher by making an appointment through the office to see her/him. All messages to students should go through the office. Speaking with the teacher in the morning, as the class is moving into the classroom, is not an appropriate time. The teacher’s responsibility is the welfare of all students and if they are distracted speaking with a parent, students cannot be properly supervised.

Our school expectations are:

• We Make Good Choices • We Are Safe • We Are Learners

Hume Highway Safety It has been bought to my attention that parents are not guiding their children safely across the busy Hume Highway in the afternoons. A child ran across the road last week and was nearly hit by a car. Parents are not following road safety rules, crossing after lights have turned red and encouraging their children to do the same. Some children are also running ahead whilst their parents chat to each other and amble across whilst ignoring their children. This is a major concern. Please do the following:

P&C AGM Thank you to those parents and caregivers who attended our P&C AGM last Friday. I am pleased to announce that the following parents and caregivers were elected to fill the 2020 committee positions.

President: Ms Lisa Lofthouse

Treasurer: Ms Hiba Baayoun Secretary: Mrs Aydah Alameddine Playgroup Leader: Mrs Chirihane Haddara On behalf of all our school community, I would also like to thank our 2019 P&C hard-working committee members. The P&C would like to thank everyone who has donated food for the Breakfast Club – it has helped immensely and has allowed them to continue serving a healthy and filling breakfast to our students. Donations are continuously needed, so please put an extra packet into your basket next time you shop.

NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge 2020 An invitation to register for the 2020 NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC) was sent home this week. The challenge opened this week and closes on Friday 28 August (Term 3, Week 6).

There are different requirements depending on the year of the student. It’s an excellent way to encourage students to read widely for leisure and to help them improve their literacy skills. We hope all students at Bankstown North Public School will participate in the challenge this year. For further information please see our teacher librarian, Miss Leon. Bullying Program The National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence is a positive day of action for Australian teachers, students and school communities to take a stand together and say ‘Bullying. No Way!’ The National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence is on Friday 20 March. Due to PSSA and the K-2 Gymnastics program, Bankstown North will be recognising this most important of days on Thursday 19 March. On the day, children will receive a presentation from their Stage Leaders in regards to what bullying is, how to respond appropriately to bullying and how we can assist those who are being bullied. Kiss And Drop Thank you to those parents and caregivers for complying with the Kiss and Drop Zone procedures. However, please be considerate of others by making sure you DO NOT ARRIVE AT SCHOOL BEFORE 3.00pm! Arriving early, only adds to the congestion on the Hume Highway as traffic builds up turning from the Hume highway into Beresford Road. Please do not push in as this is very unfair and only causes angst amongst other drivers. Police regularly patrol our school zone so please do the right thing. Please avoid multiple lines which blocks the school driveway, which whilst this is illegal, also blocks it for disabled access and visitors to the school. The fine for double parking currently stands at $268 and 4 demerit points. Parent Information Afternoon Thank you to those parents and caregivers who gave up their time to attend our parent information afternoon last Wednesday. Unfortunately, there were a number of parents and caregivers who did not attend. It is important that you attend these meetings as it is an opportunity for you to meet your child’s class teacher and contribute to your child’s educational program. For those parents and caregivers who were unable to attend and require an appointment with your child’s class teacher, please inform the class teacher, or contact our school office. To all our parents and caregivers, please remember that an interpreter service is always available to assist you in

• Always check that the traffic has stopped before you start to cross.

• Please hold your child’s hand – particularly younger children

• Please stay off your mobile phone so that you can supervise your children and teach them correct safety procedures by example.

• Always cross between the studs or over the zebra markings.

• Do not cross at the side of the crossing or on the zigzag lines, as it can be dangerous

• You must not loiter on zebra, pelican, toucan or puffin crossings.

a variety of languages. To access this service please advise our school office in advance so that an interpreter can be arranged. Children Arriving Late Children who are late, particularly now there won’t be a morning assembly Tuesday-Friday, will need to attend the office WITH THEIR PARENT to get a late note and provide a satisfactory explanation. Consistently late students will have their attendance issues reviewed. Exemption From School Parents and caregivers are reminded it is a Department of Education requirement that you must complete an exemption from school application and discuss the nature of the intended leave with the school principal prior to making travel arrangements. Exemption forms are available through our school office. Students on leave from school will be marked as absent for the period of leave and this will be recorded on their school reports and pupil record cards. It is therefore important that parents and caregivers who choose to take annual leave outside of the school holiday periods are aware that it is detrimental to your child’s education, and prolonged continuous absences may be seen as educational neglect by the DoE Child Wellbeing Unit. Continued leave may result in an interview with parents. It is expected that ALL school aged children be at school every day that the school is open. Your cooperation with this matter is appreciated. Health Care Plans Please ensure that, if your child has a medical condition, our school office staff is made aware. There are many students, particularly Kindergartens, with known medical conditions eg: asthma, anaphylaxis and allergies, who have not provided a Health Care Plan for their child. It is a DoE mandatory requirement that Health Care Plans are in place for any child with a known medical condition. The information required by the school is obtainable from your child’s doctor. The doctor will need to complete a section of the Health Care Plan indicating what health care procedures our staff would need to follow in the event of an emergency. Your cooperation with this matter is your priority. Easter Egg Raffle Bankstown North Public School P&C are holding an Easter Egg Raffle to raise monies for the school. Raffle tickets were sent home this week and additional copies are available ast the office.The raffle will be drawn at our Easter Hat Parade on Thursday 9 April 2020. All donations will be packaged and wrapped as prizes.

If you are able to assist our P&C with the raffle (ie: making up baskets) please contact Lisa Lofthouse on 0408 200 787. Our students enjoy this day immensely so PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY to this fantastic fundraiser. Many thanks for your support! Coronavirus The Department is endeavouring to keep parents informed with all up-to-date information regarding the Coronavirus. Please find below the most current advice:

• Any student, who has been in or transited through mainland China or has returned from Iran from 1 March 2020, is excluded from school or childcare services for a period of 14 days after leaving China or Iran. These students are also required to self-isolate from the community for a period of 14 days, as the COVID-19 incubation period can be as long as two weeks.

• Only those students who have been in or transited

through China or have returned from Iran from 1 March 2020 are effected. Those travelling from other countries which may have confirmed cases of COVID-19 are able to remain at school but should monitor for symptoms. If symptoms develop they should self-isolate immediately and seek medical assessment from their local health practitioner

• The current advice does include those who only

passed through airports in mainland China. Any student who has returned to Australia after 1 February 2020 and has transited through China is excluded from school and required to self-isolate from the community for 14 days after they departed mainland China. If they remain well they can stop the self-isolation and attend school and work after the 14 days has passed.

These requirements will remain in place until formal advice from the Australian Federal Government is provided to schools that the arrangement is to cease. Whole School Assembly Our next whole school formal assembly is this Thursday 5 March 2020 commencing at 2.00pm. Your attendance at our assemblies is always welcome!

Jon Godwin Principal Please look out for the following notes sent home this week

• Premier’s Reading Challenge • Harmony Day Lunch Order • Chicks R Us Incursion • Coronavirus Update • Harmony Day – Cultural Experience

Notes to Parents

SRC Members Well done to the following students who have been selected to represent the students of Bankstown North Public School on this year’s Student Representative Council. These students will be officially inducted into the SRC at the whole school assembly this week.

1/2 Green Ateeb K Ye’ Min H 2 Blue Osman R Amar E 2 Red Mariam H Malek A 3 Red Ammaar I Zahra U 3 Yellow Maryam Z Zain M 4 Blue Amy A Khaled A 4/5 Green Mariam H Thuy V 5 Red Aliza K Muneeb A 5/6 Yellow Noah E Davina L 6 Blue Khaled A Isabelle A

Mrs Kerrie Hatfield, Mrs Vanessa Oros and Mrs Marie Abou Lokme are the teachers responsible for organising our SRC this year. Please see them if you require additional information. Selective High School Test For those children in Year 6 who will attend high school in 2021 and have registered to sit the Selective High School Test, this will take place on Thursday 12 March. You should have already received a letter to your home address confirming all the details. Parents should drop students off at the test centre by 9.00am and return promptly at 1.30pm to pick them up. Do not arrive before 8:30am as there is no supervision available. Parents must collect students at 1.30pm.

Bankstown North Public School would like to invite parents to celebrate Harmony Day on

Thursday 19 March Celebrations will begin at 10.15am with in-class activities and will be followed by

a lunch (& snacks) that our P&C is organising. Parents are invited to have lunch with students. Please make sure

lunch forms and money are returned by the due date. Canteen will not be open

on the day.

There will be a special assembly after lunch where classes will be showcasing

special items. All parents and carers are welcome to stay for the assembly.

If you have a special skill or would like to demonstrate something from your culture

in front of a class on the day, please return your forms as soon as possible.

Students can come to school wearing orange or traditional costume from their

country.

Please note, scripture classes will be cancelled for the day.

Our different cultures make Bankstown North Public School

a great learning environment creating greater respect for cultural and

religious diversity.

Harmony Day is a celebration of our cultural diversity – a day of cultural

respect for everyone who calls Australia home.

The message of Harmony Day is ‘everyone belongs’.

The day aims to appreciate different cultures through different arts to foster

the sense of belonging.

Hope you can join us

Harmony Day Committee

Harmonmy Day Parent Invite

SCHOOL RULES

1. Be Responsible 2. Be Considerate 3. Be Honest

clean up australia day 2020

On Friday 28 February, Bankstown North Public School participated in Clean Up Australia Day! Students rolled up their sleeves and put on their gloves to care for our school. We picked up a lot of rubbish and our country

is thankful! The Clean Up Day was a huge success.

It was a great way to help our students learn about the impact of rubbish in our local environment. Our

students are passionate about the environment and are always looking for ways to improve the school

grounds. Thank you, teachers and students!

Look how clean

our school looks!

Parent Volunteers If would like to share your culture with our classes, like a cooking demonstration, storytelling, a language lesson, teaching a

dance or a song or another idea, please fill in the form or contact

Mrs Ricciuti

$5.00 Special Chicken, lettuce, mayo

with juice or water OR

Cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo with juice

or water Please return P&C

order form to office by Friday 13 March

P&C Harmony Day Lunch Order

We are excited to announce that the next Parent Workshop will be held on

Wednesday 18 March 3.15 - 4.15pm

In this workshop, we will introduce the 7 Superpowers for Learning

• Open minded • Flexible • Risk Taker • Resourceful • Ubiquitous • Learner & Reflective • Patient and Persistent

and how you can use the 7 Dispositions at home.

Held in the Library 2 x $50 vouchers to be won Child minding available

Parent Workshop

Bankstown District Swimming Carnival

The sun shone and the water glistened as a squad of 14 of our students competed at the District Swimming Carnival held at Birrong Leisure Centre on Monday 2 March. Congratulations to Jake Sweid who came first in the 11 years boys 50m freestyle final, and Rihanna Sweid who also came first in the 8 years old girls 50m freestyle final. They will now be competing at Sydney South West School Sport Assocation Swimming Championships. Thank you to all the students for their efforts and fantastic behaviour on the day; and thanks for the support from

parents who came to cheer the squad as they competed.

Miss Olga Vojvodic and Mrs Susan Mooney

Congratulations Jake &

Rihanna

High School Open Days Birrong Girls High School Thursday

5 March 10.30am-12.30pm Cooper Road, BIrrong

Sir Joseph Banks High School Wednesday 11 March From 6.00pm Turvey St, Revesby

Bass High School Thursday 12 March 5.30-7.00pm Arundle Rd, Bass Hill

When the Expression of Interest forms for high school 2021 are

handed out, the Department of

Education allows only a VERY short time for

it to be returned.

That means you should start exploring possible high schools now. We also suggest

that Year 5 students attends these open

days

Congratulations to our

P&C for taking the initiative and asking Bunnings for a

donation of a BBQ.

They were successful and will be receiving a Jumbuck

Delta BBQ and cover.

Valued at $159!

This year Bankstown North Public School will be introducing lunchtime clubs. Lunchtime clubs offer students the opportunity to engage and participate in activities that they enjoy and are passionate about, socialise with groups of multi-age students, ‘take a break’ from the playground or try something new. There may be limited numbers in each club depending on resources and space, however if they can’t make it one day they can always go back next week. Children do not need to sign up but simply come along on any one day! We are going to be introducing one additional club a week. This week (week 6) we had chess club, and board games in the Library. It has been a massive success. Some other clubs that we will be starting in the next few weeks include:

Chess Club Chess club at the moment is involving more than just chess. It is likely this will turn into a board game club instead but many students are very excited to learn how to play.

Environmental Club Enviromental Club will be our ‘Green Team’; they will undergo some gardening projects, recycling and composting. Mr Danny and Mrs Oros have some big ideas for this club this year!

Fun Fit Kidz Bootcamp All students at BNPS work hard to meet the minimum 150 minutes of physical activity required each week. The Fun Fit Kidz Bootcamp is a great way to get a sweat up and get in some extra exercise during lunch.

STEM Club STEM Club will definitely have kids thinking. They will have to work together to come up with solutions and be critical and creative with their designs. They will also have to be flexible and reflective to make this a success.

Art Club For the students who LOVE art! Art Cllub will be a great way to show off your creativity! If students believe they are talented artist or if they just want to draw, colour in or even paint! This is the club for you.

Choir For all the singers in our school. The school choir will be meeting regularly to practice their songs. If you love to sing, I know the choir would love to have you.

Dance If you love to dance, well one of our dance troupes is the place for you! With infants, junior and senior dance troupes practicing each week, it is a great way to show the school and wider community your moves.

Lunchtime Clubs

On 2 March, our leadership team and a few other students were lucky enough to attend National Young Leaders Day 2020. The students learnt about the core values of what makes

a leader. They were also taught how to bring their ideas to life and make their dreams possible and how to remain positive no matter what. The students listened to four motivational speakers that are really famous! The speakers were: Erin Molan, Rove

McManus, Bianca Chatfield and John Coutis. Thanks to Dj Raf we had an awesome time participating and dancing, especially when he made the teachers get up and dance! Below

are some of the highlights from the children on the day. For me, the highlight was the humorous

speech by the author and comedian Rove McManus. The lesson I learnt that day

was to find a way to be positive even if you were feeling down. Romano, 6B

The highlight of the day for me, was when John Coutis gave his inspirational speech. His speech was about not giving up and

being grateful for what you have and to not let bullying ever stop you from achieving

your goals. I also loved the dancing! Hiba, 6B

I enjoyed Erin Molan’s speech. She taught me that no matter how much you fail, you can

still reach your goals. Amara, 6B

I particulary enjoyed Bianca Chatfield’s speech especially when she told us to shut down the

negative voice that is in your head, and make the positive voice louder.

Jewel, 6B

I loved what Erin Molan said and that was to never give up and do what you love and not

make the negativity come to you. Suzanne, 6B

I also enjoyed Erin Molan’s speech where she said never give up on your dreams,

always work towards it even if you reach it and you don’t like it, stay at it!

Nariman, 6 B

Young Leaders Day 2020

Debating Workshop Eight Year 6 students were chosen to represent our school at a Debating workshop at Strathfield North Public School on Tuesday 25 February 2020. We assembled in the hall ready for ACTION and lots of learning. Before we started debating we got introduced to three adjudicators called Tony, Alex and Hugh and they told us that in a couple of minutes we were going to get a lot of rules crammed into our heads. Then we literally got more than a billion rules and ways to debate, unloaded into our heads. We still don’t know how we can remember everything, but we took notes and did some fun games and activities to help us learn.

The first thing we learnt was the THREE Ms- MANNER, MATTER and METHOD. The funny thing that happened was that, a student from every school had to come up and act as a person and argue with the rest of the other ‘famous people’. The scenario was that there are celebrities in a plane that is slowly crashing. Unfortunately, there is only one parachute. Each student had to act like a celebrity and describe why they should get the parachute and not die, and why the previous celebrity should not get the parachute. Jewel was selected from our team to go up and persuade us that Donald Trump should get the parachute. We all worked as a team to help give Jewel as many ideas as possible.

To complete our day, the Bankstown North Public School debating team did a small debate on the topic, “Should we have school uniforms?” We had a lot of fun learning how to debate. The AFFIRMATIVE team began by sharing their first argument. Then it was time for the NEGATIVE team to begin the process of REBUTTING. We continued back and forth until all of us had our turn. After each speaker the adjudicator gave us FEEDBACK about positive points and things to learn for next time. We look forward to sharing what we have learnt, with the rest of Stage 3 and to work towards helping each other, for our first competitive debate.

6 Blue Class Chatter

In our class, Mrs Oros has kindly brought in two pet female mice for our class to share. We take turns looking after them for the weekend and accept responsibility for keeping them safe and well looked after. One of our mice is cream and white with red eyes. She’s currently pregnant, which means she should be giving birth very soon. We’re wondering how many babies she will have? Although she is pregnant, she enjoys exercising regularly on her mouse wheel. The other mouse is black and white, much smaller and has dark eyes. She’s quite calm and easy to hold.

They have a good sense of smell and live in a nice plastic tank, with a cubby house, exercise wheel and feeders.

Did you know that: • mice have very sensitive ears? • female mice can become pregnant when they are only six weeks old? • pregnant mice can have to twelve younglings called pups? • when baby mice are born, they are pink and have no fur? • when they’re boon they look like pink jellybeans? • it takes 20 days for a pregnant mouse to give birth?

These cute little mice were the best decision for our first class pets. They’re small, friendly and very easy to look after. If you’re interested in having pet mice, have a talk to Mrs Oros. If you’re a responsible person, love pets and have permission from your parents to buy a mouse house and all of the necessary equipment, including feeders, climbing equipment and house, we will happily allow you to ADOPT TWO mice for FREE, when our baby mice are ready to leave their mum. Our mice can become smelly, even though we keep

the cage clean. We’re experimenting with some organic material to help keep their cage much cleaner and less smellier. Unfortunately once our pregnant mouse makes a nest for her babies, it will make it very tricky to keep their cage clean.

Having two pet mice, is so much fun, as they’re very playful, cute and a little bit cheeky at times. We love our mice so, so so much because they tickle a lot. It’s a great opportunity for our class and we have the greatest teacher. Thank you Mrs Oros, we can’t wait to be grandparents!

Congratulations Suzanne for being the first student to be allowed to take our mice home for the weekend!

Romano, Teya, Amara, Abdul, Jewel, Isabelle, Lojain, Tala, Zayneb, Marie, Suzanne, Layla, Khaled, Mohammad