CHATHAM PUBLIC SCHOOL

NEWSLETTER

Find us at: 17-19 Chatham Ave, Taree NSW 2430

Ph: 02 6551 1081 Fax: 02 6551 2012 Email: chatham-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Monday 11 Nov Yr 5/6 School Camp Tuesday 12 Nov Yr 5/6 School Camp Wednesday 13 Nov Yr 5/6 School Camp

Thursday 14 Nov Kinder Orientation Saturday 23 Nov School Spectacular Wednesday 27 Nov Wahroonga School Band Visit Monday 2 Dec Parent Orientation at CHS Wednesday 4 Dec Yr 7 Orientation at CHS Friday 6 Dec Book Fair Wednesday 11 Dec Yr 7 Orientation at THS Thursday 12 Dec School Presentation Wednesday 18 Dec Last Day of Term/Year

ONLY 11 SLEEPS TO GO!! As Stage 3 Camp is rapidly approaching (Week 6), we will be holding a parent/caregiver information meeting on Tuesday 5th November, 2013. The meeting will be held in the Old Hall (VC Room) and will start at 3.30pm and finish at 4pm. This is the perfect opportunity to get all of your camp related questions answered and a run through of the itinerary, what to pack, what not to pack, pick up and drop off times and rules of the camp.

NSW GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS’ INDEX

All government schools in NSW have an index based on

the complexities of their community. A schools’ index

ranges from 0 to 300. Chatham has an index of 173. In

comparison a number of neighbouring schools have

indexes much lower than ours. Some inner city Sydney

schools have an index of 3 or less. The higher the index

the higher the level of funding the school receives. Our

school will receive roughly the same funding as we have

received over the past 5 years. This will allow us to con-

tinue with our established programs.

YEAR 6 SOCIAL DAY Yesterday, all Year 6 students were lucky enough to par-ticipate in a Social Day where they ran, swam, ate McDonalds and watched a movie together. As we have

a number of students going to different high schools next year, this day provided Year 6 students with the opportunity to have some well deserved fun together. Ceara Callaghan said “I had lots of fun with everyone at the pool and having McDonalds”. “It was great to spend time with everyone outside of school”, said Casey Milne. Pictured below are some of the Year 6 students having fun at the pool.

SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION (LMBR)

Our school is one of the 229 schools in NSW who are

using the new finance and admin system (Learning,

Management, Business and Reform). We are very for-

tunate to be involved as from 2014 the remaining

schools will not have the benefit of the extensive pro-

fessional training we have had in the program. The last

major change was in 1988/89 when OASIS was imple-

mented in all government schools. A number of office

staff as well as Mrs Gray and myself have participated

in many training days to date and others are planned.

Term 4 Week 4 Issue 15 Thursday 31 October 2013 STRIVE TO EXCEL

SCHOOL CAPS ONLY $5

Purchase from canteen

(each day until 12.30pm )

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LIVE LIFE WELL

Do an hour of physical activity everyday.

Children need at least 60 minutes of activity each day. Children are not going to have enough physical activity while at school. Families can plan extra activity into their lives to make up the difference.

RITHCIES COMMUNITY CLUB CARD

On Monday 21st October, 2013, our school was pre-

sented with a cheque for over $400. The money has

come about from the use of the Community Benefit

Card. By shopping at Ritchies Supermarkets, 0.5% of

the money you spend will be automatically donated

back to us. Use your free Community Benefit Card eve-

ry time you shop. If you are interested in obtaining a

card, please visit our school office.

Pictured below are our School P&C Representative

Jennie Bryant with Christina (Ritchies Taree Store Man-

ager) presenting the cheque.

PARENTING MESSAGE

A program for separated parents who are in conflict

over children will be held on Thursdays the 14th, 21st

and 28th of November and Thursday 5th December,

2013. It will run from 10am to 1pm at the Family Rela-

tionship Centre, 146 Victoria Street, Taree. The cost is

$25 or $15 (concession). For information and bookings

phone 5525 3200.

VERY HARD VOTE

Pictured (above right) are students from Year 5 who

are the candidates for School Leaders for 2014. They

are Jayden Edmonds, Ben Crossingham, Jakson Collis,

William Sawyer, Alyssa Hay, Jordan Moscatt, Joey

DeStefano, Charli Muir, Rhys McCartney, Cooper Arm-

strong, Even Wagener, Sammy-Jo Gill, Jordan Nowlan,

Ashlee Smith, Cassie Williams, Blake Murray, Reece

Saunders, Stacey Jones, Braithen Smith, Brock Maurer

and Kalani Cross. Absent are Emily Croker and Joshua

McFadden.

MATHS WHIZ

William Sawyer, of Class 4/5A, has recently participated

in the Newcastle Permanent Maths Competition again

this year and has gained fantastic results.

William has now been invited to Newcastle for a special

awards ceremony. He will be heading off to Newcastle

on Wednesday 6th November, 2013.

REDUCE - REUSE - RECYCLE

We are encouraging our students to be more active

when it comes to recycling and reusing certain items.

This includes zip top plastic bags. We are also con-

cerned at the wastage of perfectly good food. Please

encourage your children to eat all of their food or take

leftovers home so you can get an idea of how much

they are eating.

Don’t forget to listen to 2RE for

what has happened and what is

coming up at our school.

AWARDS

ASSESSMENTS AND SPEECHES FOR STAGE 2 Stage 2 has been working hard this fortnight. They have been putting in a lot of effort preparing for and com-pleting their end of year assessments. In Week 3, all stu-dents completed their speeches on a range of topics. Finalists from each class will be decided this week and they will be announced at the next stage assembly.

SCHOOL SPECTACULAR On Saturday, 23rd November, 2013, children from our

school will be performing in the local school spectacular

at the Manning Entertainment Centre. George Houvar-

das – Carbo , from Packed to the Rafters, will be master

of ceremonies – he is a big supporter of the ACMF pro-

gram and Don Spencer, the founder of this program will

be attending.

Classes who have been involved in the ACMF music pro-

gram have been invited to participate. A note went

home on Monday asking if your child is able to attend.

Please return this ASAP so we can organise the perfor-

mance. A note will go home later to those children who

are attending, with more details.

All proceeds from this event will go towards supporting

the local ACMF program in which our school participates.

This has involved the purchase of a large number of in-

struments and a qualified music teacher one day a week,

with no cost to us.

Tickets for this event are available from Movies, Games

and More in Victoria Street or the Greater Taree City

website.

OUR GREAT SWIMMERS Recently, 45 students participated in the Intensive Swimming Scheme. It was held at Taree Aquatic Cen-tre with teachers Mrs Grieve and Mr McCleary as-sisting the students. All students showed much im-provement in their skills and confidence in the water, receiving a certificate at a recent assembly. Pictured below are Alex Williams, Chloe Hayes, Harrison Jobson and Amali Hayes.

LITERACY FOR YEARS 2-5 Over the last two terms, Chatham Public School has been implementing a literacy program which has fo-cused on Years 2-5. Throughout this program, the teachers have complet-ed numerous reviews and the results have shown im-pressive improvement. All of the staff involved in this program have enjoyed working and spending time with these students. Pictured below are the teachers and aides who con-duct the program and are busy preparing for their next session. From right Mrs Danielle McLane, Miss Talissa Eason, Mrs Tania Doran and Miss Emily Schneider.

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Silver 28.10.13

Ben Williams-Payne Jayden Edmonds

Crystal Ingham Kasey Muir

Danneyah Glass Lauren Allen

Fletcher Jobson Reece Saunders

Hailea Heard Stuart Kreidl

Hollee Denton Suchanan Sriwongwan

Jake Cook Taren Purnell

Jaleke Bungie Zach Wells

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CANTEEN ROSTER

Friday 1 Nov L.Saunders Monday 4 Nov T.Barnett Tuesday 5 Nov S.Steadman Wednesday 6 Nov L.Saunders Thursday 7 Nov N.Elliott Friday 8 Nov S.Steadman Monday 11 Nov L.Saunders Tuesday 12 Nov M.Masters Wednesday 13 Nov K.Crossingham Thursday 14 Nov J.Sowter Friday 15 Nov L.Saunders

OUR NEXT P&C MEETING

MONDAY 25th November, 2013 7pm in the VC ROOM Kristy Hay - P&C President

COMMUNITY CALENDAR Rotary Manning Valley Schools Spectacular. Sat

23/11 at Manning Entertainment Centre. 2-5pm

& 7-10pm. Special Guests Don Spencer, John

Waters & George Houvardas. Tickets $30 adults.

Available online or at Video Ezy, Taree.

Raising Children Network

(www.raisingchildren.net.au) visit the website

for tips on parenting from newborns to teens,

covering all relevant topics.

Taree Literary Institute - Taree’s Oldest Lending

Library. No Membership fees. 129 Victoria St,

Taree. Mon-Fri 9.30am to 4pm. Sat 9am to

11am. Ph 6552 4361.

McHappy Day - Saturday 9th November, 2013.

11am to 2pm at Taree Store. Lots of great activi-

ties including face painting, jumping castles and

mystery balloon pop.

BREAKFAST CLUB Thanks to Andy’s Cake Kitchen

for their donation of bread to

our Breakfast Club that is now

supplied each day of the week.

Students will have the chance to win a fantastic gift

basket, donated by Chatham Newsagency, which is

displayed in our School Office. Further details will be

in our next newsletter.

LUNCHTIME SPORT

Stage 3 have been running competitions during the

breaks. The first competition was handball with the

champions being Mr Callow (Principal) and James (GA)

for the boys and Kalani Cross and Jade Fowles for the

girls. The next competition will be mixed indoor hock-

ey.

SUMDOG CONTESTS

Last term, we entered one of the National Maths Con-

tests run by Sumdog. During the contest, 5,757 stu-

dents across Australia answered a grand total of

1,594,223 questions.

234 students from Chatham Public School answered

5860 questions correctly between them.

We have entered a new contest which starts at 8am

on Friday 1st November and ends 8pm the following

Thursday. Good Luck everyone.

Sumdog games are aimed at students aged 6 to 13

years and adapts its questions to each student’s abil-

ity, so every student has a good chance of winning.

They can participate at home as well as school and

provides targeted practice of maths skills. Good Luck

everyone.

CAPITAL WORKS We had the garden area at the end of the old hall cemented

last week, this area has always been a nothing sort of area.

We will now utilise it for seating and playing.

A new door was put in the wall of the photocopier room,

this will reduce pedestrian traffic in the admin foyer and

allow students who receive medication and first aid treat-

ment to have direct access to Mrs Muir.

NAPLAN All parents in Years 3 and 5 should have received their

child’s NAPLAN results now. If you want to discuss any as-

pect of their results please contact their class teacher or Mr

Callow.