THE BULLETIN Kentlyn Public School

Ph: 4628 2455 - Fax: 4628 4365 www.kentlyn-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Term 1 Week 4 Always Our Best

**** All notes sent home and newsletters are now available on our website, Skoolbag and soon on See-Saw ****

UPCOMING DATES

26/2 P&C AGM – 6:00pm in staffroom 26/2 – 28/2 Planetarium Excursion at Ruse PS 26/2 Stage 3 Debating training 28/2 K -6 Assembly 9:15am in the hall

3/3 Year 6 – Transition Links to Learning 6/3 Zone Swimming Carnival 10/3 Regional Swimming Carnival 12/3 K-6 Assembly THURSDAY 9:15am 13/3 GALA Day

Dear Parents/Carers, What a wonderful start to the year we are having! Another great two weeks at lovely Kentlyn PS. Time certainly flies when you are having fun with learning. Our students are settled and engaged in their learning. Our teachers are ensuring that they are adopting a student-centred approach to their instructional activities, which supports each child to achieve his/her learning objectives. Research has demonstrated that engaging students in the

learning process increases their attention and focus, motivates them to practice higher-level critical thinking skills and promotes meaningful learning experiences.

Schools are a partnership and like all good partnerships they work best when communication channels are open and transparent. We encourage your participation in your child’s education and working with us to improve student learning and our school as a whole.

Meet the teacher – Parent information afternoon

Thank you to all the parents that attended our ‘Meet the teacher’ information evening. This is a great opportunity to meet

your child’s teacher and hear about the year ahead 😊😊 Thank you also to all my staff for their support with their presentations, supervising students and

http://www.kentlyn-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/

of course helping with the BBQ. ‘Many hands to make light work’ and we might be a small team of teachers but we are a great team at getting the job done 😊😊 A very big thank you also to Mrs Karen Macey, Mrs Michelle White and Mrs Denise Killeen for once again going above and beyond their job descriptions and organising our BBQ for the evening.

School Leaders looking very smart with their blazers for our first K-6 assembly.

SRC leaders Semester 1

House Captains and Vice Captains 2020

A very successful K-6 Assembly 😊😊 Change of K-6 Assembly Dates due to GALA Days – save the date Please note that on the following dates our K-6 Assemblies will be held on a Thursday rather than the Friday due to GALA Day and Easter Friday. Week 7 – Thursday 12 March 2020 - K-6 Assembly 9:15am in the hall Week 11 – Thursday 9April 2020 – K-6 Assembly 9:15am in the hall

Family Contribution School Fees 2020

The Family Contribution Fee, although voluntary, will make a difference to our school finances. Thank you to all the

parents that have supported us with the ‘family contribution school fees’ for 2020.

All parents who pay their family contribution fee by 13 March 2020 will

go in the draw to win a Woolworths Voucher for $50.00

Our goal is to raise $6,000. Your $45.00 per family can go a long way for our great school to purchase more robotics.

The benefits of teaching robotics in schools include: ● students find it engaging and enjoyable ● students learn 21st-century skills, which are

useful for future employment ● robotics is suitable for students with a

range of abilities ● robotics develops students' critical and

computational thinking skills ● it is an effective way to introduce

programming to students. The total cost of the Family Contribution Fee in 2020 is $45.00. However, if you do wish to contribute more towards this very worthwhile cause, you are more than welcome.

Mrs Mammoliti is one of our School Learning and Support Officers that is working with our K/1E class. She had mentioned to a friend of hers that she is working at lovely Kentlyn Public School.

What proceeded from there was the nicest act of kindness from one of her friends, Verushka. Verushka then got some of her friends to donate some money to purchase some resources for our lovely school. The following people assisted with a monetary donation to purchase these resources:

Ben, Anzia, Mel, Zarreek, Jo, Sue, Jessie, Sintija and Antoinette.

Thank you so much. I know that those toys will come in very handy with our kindergarten class and the Rubiks game will also come in very hand with our Rubik’s interest group that we will be starting very soon.

Swimming Carnival

On Monday 17 February 2020, we had our first combined swimming carnival with Ruse Public School at Macquarie Fields Leisure

Centre. The teachers all reported back on how well our students behaved but also how seamless all the activities were.

A very big thank you to Ruse Public School’s Swimming Carnival Committee as well as all the staff at KPS for your hard

work in organising the carnival. It was an absolutely amazing day with lots of novelty events to keep our non-swimmers engaged but there was also lots of excitement with our competitive swimmers. All students should be congratulated for their behaviour and cheering their friends on.

Congratulations to

Khloie Wolf - 50m freestyle and 50m backstroke

Jaylea Bown-Dalley - 50m freestyle and 50m backstroke

Bridget Saunders - 50m backstroke

Jack Jones - 50m breaststroke

Holly Cheney - 50m breaststroke

who will be representing our school at the Zone Swimming Carnival which will be held on Friday 6 March 2020 at Bradbury Pool. Please note that there is a possibility that this date might be changed to Thursday 5 March 2020. We will keep you updated.

Personalised Learning and Support Plans. Some of our students have been identified as requiring modification or differentiation programs to build on their learning. This will mean that some students will need adjustments to the content learnt, the process of learning and the pace that it is presented to them. As a result, some students may require remediation and consistent revision while others may require extension and challenge. Over the next few weeks some parents will be contacted to review their child’s learning plan. This process will ensure that all our students are being catered for to achieve their learning potential.

How to help your child with reading at home.

You may have already heard of Pause, Prompt Praise or the 3Ps as it is sometimes called. These three catchy words, Pause, Prompt Praise describe a simple technique that, used well, will support your child to practise his/her reading and to develop more reading confidence.

The principle of Pausing – then Prompting – and then Praising is very useful to remember and apply anytime your child is reading aloud to you.

Teachers and trained tutors often use a more structured version of this principle but the following tips can help you to try out it when reading with your child at home.

The 3Ps technique is best used when your child is reading and ‘gets stuck’ on words that they can’t read or are new to them.

When your child encounters words that are difficult for them to read, the 3Ps technique will allow him/her the opportunity to have another go, self-correct, or if needed, find out (be told) what the problem word is. Two important things to remember from the outset when using the 3Ps:

• The goal of reading is to understand (make sense) of what is read, so always keep this in mind when you are prompting and praising your child.

• Try to ensure that you are relaxed, interested and supportive, which in turn, will help your child feel OK when they make mistakes or just can’t work out a word and need to be told what it is.

At home this technique will work best when your child is reading a text that is well matched to their reading level, that is, where your child can easily read most of the words in the text and only falters on occasional words. Before reading, make sure that you are both comfortable and can clearly see the text your child is reading.

Pause, Once your child starts reading aloud carefully follow the text as they read. If (or when) your child comes to a word they don’t know try not to jump in straight away and supply the correct word. Wait and give your child time to work out the word. In the first instance ‘pausing’ creates an opportunity for your child to try and self-correct or work out the word for him/herself.

Prompt… If your child successfully supplies the word they have stumbled over it’s a good idea to suggest that he/she goes back to the beginning of the sentence and re-reads the whole sentence again (to recap meaning) before reading on.

If your child has not independently worked out the problem word, at this point you may intervene and prompt them with some quick, low-key suggestions about what they could do.

Say things like:

– Try reading on for a sentence or two, miss out the difficult word and see if that helps you to work it out what it is.

– Look at the sound the word begins with, use that clue and think about what might make sense here. Look at the pictures and see if they give you a clue to what the word might be.

– Go back to the beginning of the sentence, re-read it and have another go at working it out.

If prompts like these are not working, this is the point at which you simply tell your child the correct word. After a short time ‘prompting’ say:

– Would you like me to help you? or How about I tell you the word?

You may even briefly explain the meaning of the word but then quickly prompt your child to continue reading. Try not to spend too much time prompting as your child will find it difficult to maintain the overall meaning of what they are reading.

Praise This is the easiest part of the process for any parent because it’s something that comes naturally. Praise your child’s reading efforts and successes whenever you think it is appropriate during the reading process. As well as praising their effort it is often good to tell them why. For example you might say:

– Well done, I thought it was brilliant the way that you went back, re-read the sentence from the beginning and worked out that word you were having trouble with.

– That was great reading tonight, I know I had to tell you a few words but you also worked out some pretty tricky ones for yourself. Well done.

School Banking 2020 Please remember to bring your bank books in every Friday

Photographing and taking video of our students. Most of you would be aware that it is DoE and a school requirement that we

get parental permission for students to be

photographed, videotaped and be put on our website. (These notes are available on our website.) We have a number of students who cannot be photographed or be videotaped at any time. Some are for legal reasons. With all school events I ask that you please only photograph/video your child, to the best of your ability. I understand that this is very hard to monitor however, with your support I know that we can maintain these students’ privacy. Breakfast Club At Kentlyn Public School, we value the importance of a healthy and nutritious breakfast.

We would like to acknowledge and thank Kellogg’s’ for their very kind donation of

cereal once again this year. Research indicates that children who have eaten breakfast can concentrate better and have a longer attention span, helping them to learn and study better. They can also perform better physically after eating breakfast as there is more energy available to their muscles. Breakfast can improve behaviour and mood, as children have better concentration and aren’t tired or hungry.

Our School Leaders and Stage 3 helpers will once again be running this program for this year. This is a fantastic initiative that will support all

our students, Monday – Friday. Cereal will be made available to all our students from 8:30am – 8:50am.

No Hat – Play in the Shade A kind reminder to everyone that we are following and monitoring, more than ever our, “No Hat – Play in the Shade” policy. Please ensure that your child has their school hat with them every

day. Students will be asked to play in the shade or undercover if they are not wearing a hat.

ANAPHYLAXIS As we have students enrolled at our great school that have been diagnosed as being at risk of having an ANAPHYLACTIC reaction to certain foods we seek your assistance and ask that you do not send the following things to school with your children:

● Peanut butter sandwiches ● Nutella sandwiches ● Bars or biscuits that contain nuts

Thank you for your support.

The smiles you give comes back to you! Androula Kavallaris Principal

Assistant Principal Report

It was lovely to meet more of you at a very successful ‘Meet the Teacher’ night at KPS. Teachers valued the opportunity to explain the systems and procedures

that operate in their classrooms as well as explain the Key Learning Areas being covered this term. Teachers appreciate the opportunity to meet the parents and carers of the wonderful students that they teach. We thank you for your attendance. Please remember, if you have any questions, queries or concerns to please follow the code of inquiry. Swimming Carnival I had the pleasure of attending the Kentlyn/Ruse combined swimming carnival and was very proud of our students’ behaviour. They displayed our school values and represented Kentlyn PS with pride. It also gave our students the opportunity to compete in larger races which they thoroughly enjoyed. I am happy to report that Kentlyn won the teacher race thanks to Mr Rendell! Debating On Wednesday 26 February I will be taking our Debating Team to Robert Townson PS for a debating workshop. Students will be learning about all the things they need to know for primary school debating including rebuttal, arguments, definitions and speakers’ roles, as well as a few games and activities. They will also

have a chance to deliver a short debating speech and get some feedback. Safer Internet Day The ‘Keeping Safe in the Game’ session was great success for our K-4 students. They learnt about online safety and interacted with some questions. Alarmingly, a large portion of students did confirm they had been approached online for private information. A number of students also admitted to being their devices when they were supposed to be sleeping! We are glad this opportunity provided students with the skills and strategies for ‘keeping safe in the game’. Kindergarten Kindergarten have now fully (and successfully) transitioned to the playground. They still have lots of equipment on hand to play with, which the ‘bigger kids’ have also been enjoying!

Emily Morrow Assistant Principal

P&C AGM Our P&C Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday 26 February 2020 at 6:00pm in our staffroom. This is a great way to meet

other great parents in our community and support our school at the same time. We would love to see you there 😊😊 Canteen Volunteers We are still in desperate need of parents/helpers to volunteer a few hours to help out in our school canteen. If you think you may be able to spare some time, please contact the office ASAP. Purchasing School Uniforms Remember that if you need to purchase any aspect of our school uniform please come and see the lovely ladies in the office and they will assist you with your request.

AWARD WINNERS

Principal Awards Cruz Sassine

Art Award Jawad Hijazi

Writing Award

Tom Farmer

PBL Awards Oliver Person

Savannah Hocking Harlow Clark Holly Cheney

Community Announcements

Dear Parents and Carers, Barnardos Australia is a leading, non-government organisation which provides foster care for children. At present our agency urgently needs short term foster carers, due to an increase in the numbers of referrals for children needing care in the South West Sydney region. To meet this demand, we are seeking to recruit people from the local community to become temporary foster carers for preschool and primary school aged children, for between six months to two years at a time. As such, we have approached Kentlyn Public School, who have kindly agreed to display some of our promotional materials at our office. If you think you might have room in your heart and home for a foster child, please feel free to take a brochure and contact a member of our team for a chat about foster care. Alternatively, Barnardos currently have a space each Tuesday [10am-2pm] at Campbelltown Arts Centre where a team member will be available for a face to face discussion. We look forward to speaking to you soon! The Barnardos Temporary Foster Care Recruitment Team

About Active Kids The NSW Government is helping kids get active with the Active Kids program. The Active Kids program provides two $100 vouchers for parents, guardians and carers of school-enrolled children to use towards sport and active recreation costs each year. Voucher 1 is valid January to December and Voucher 2 is valid July to December. The vouchers may be used with a registered activity provider for registration, participation and membership costs for sport, fitness and active recreation activities. To use a voucher, find a registered activity provider and present your voucher when you sign up. The Active Kids program is one of more than 70 NSW Government rebates and savings that help with your cost of living. More details on: https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/campaign/active-kids

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/find-active-kids-providerhttps://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/find-active-kids-providerhttps://www.service.nsw.gov.au/campaign/cost-livinghttps://www.service.nsw.gov.au/campaign/cost-livinghttps://www.service.nsw.gov.au/campaign/active-kidshttps://www.service.nsw.gov.au/campaign/active-kids

Meet the teacher – Parent information afternoon