Newsletter

Week 3, Term 4, 2014 www.carroll-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Term 4

Dates to Remember

Week 4, 2014

Wednesday, 29th October, 2014

SAUSAGE SIZZLE

Friday 31st October

Kindergarten and Year 1

Dental Health Clinic,

Gunnedah

Week 5, 2014

Friday 7th November

Responsible Pet Ownership

Program

Week 7, 2014

Thursday 20th November

Pete the Sheep, The Civic,

Gunnedah

Principals message..

Dear Parents, Grandparents & Friends,

A really productive week!

Children are engaged in their learning and working well in all areas. All of this week and

last, I have left school each afternoon very happy with the efforts and accomplishments

of both students and staff. Well done, everyone!!

As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, Term 4 is the time when schools not only start

to plan for the following year, but a time when evaluations in practice, programs and

school management take place for the current year. Yesterday I attended a very

productive Planning Day with other principals of small schools (called The Mooki Group).

Together, we set directions for our future professional learning and development as

leaders of small schools, which will inevitably lead to improved learning outcomes for

our students. am very excited about next year!

As part of the Evaluation process, principals are sending out three generic - type

questions for the school community (students, parents and staff) to answer. These are:

What things do you think the school is doing well?

How can we improve what we do?

If money was no object, what would you like to see in the school? (Consider

classroom programs / resources, playground improvements / equipment,

building upgrades, furniture, vegetable gardens, kitchen upgrades, school bus,

more excursions etc., etc.)

Be as creative as you can be. Don’t just limit yourself to the classroom when answering

the three questions and remember in Question 3, money is no object!!!

The above three questions for students will be on the agenda for next Wednesday at our weekly meeting

of students and staff, which is now called Talk Time - a name voted upon by the students.

Staff will be given these questions next Monday.

Please send evaluations back by Friday of next week as they will be used as a

springboard for ideas of what may or could happen in 2015 and beyond. Thankyou.

Our visit by the Primary Health Care Nurse, Nicole Carlyon occurred on Tuesday

afternoon. If your children are brushing their teeth twice a day (after breakfast and

before they go to bed) then the workshop was successful. Please enjoy our photos of

this afternoon.

Lovely to see Amarnia finally out of the wheelchair and free of crutches. I’m sure she is

enjoying her new-found freedom very much!!

Enjoy a lovely weekend everyone!

Kind regards,

Christine

Mathematics with Years 4 to 6 - Mr. Butz

Sometimes in teaching you think the previous week was a good one, then you

stop, think about this week, and realise that it was even better! Well done

to all students! Our numeracy work showed great application of learning with all students

formatting their working to literacy based questions involving addition and subtraction.

Now we move on and do the same writing process for literacy based questions requiring

multiplication and division.

It may seem weird but Rory now understands how the Ancient Egyptians did multiplication.

They only used the two times table and addition. Only one set of times table facts to

remember, wow, Rory really liked that! It is easy to forget that Mathematics, like all

subjects, has evolved over the course of civilization and, as a consequence, the algorithms

we now teach are to be seen as improvements over those that came before. But, most

importantly, they all give the same answer to the same calculation! Parents have probably

experienced this already when they look at their child’s working for addition or subtraction

with trading … how many times have you found yourself saying or thinking, ”That’s not how

I was taught to do it.” I do not expect Rory to use the

Ancient Egyptian algorithm but in coming to an understanding

of how it works to give the correct answer, he has learnt a

little more about multiplication. It actually is a fantastic

gateway to enter into High School algebra that, once he

understood the algorithm, I was able to demonstrate and

thereby extend his understanding.

Technology

Not surprisingly, students have become hooked on our technology lessons. Everyone is involved and I can see sparks of creativity. This week we did our first video productions and started our first animation project.

Information and communication technology (ICT) is written into every NSW Board of Studies Syllabus and we, at Carroll Public, are very fortunate to have access to good hardware and software. The teaching approach I have adopted is headed by the necessary criteria that students are taught to use ICT responsibly. Yes, they may with permission access games at lunch or recess when they cannot play outside, but during class time ICT is to be used for learning. The second teaching approach is to introduce software and hardware in a context that will foster repeated use by students because, we all know from experience, that this will build competency … any skill is best mastered by repeating it many times! So, students will not

know all about Microsoft Word by the end of the year but they can now open and edit Word files that I send them as email attachments, read them on screen and follow instructions as they read. For example, they can use highlighting to complete a find-a-word or to identify relevant text, and save their work for future reference.

The Primary Health Care Nurse, Nicole Carlyon visited on Tuesday. Remember -

“You don't have to brush all your teeth, just the ones you want to keep” anon

THE CARROLL CHICKS by Zak Fry

Just outside our classroom, we have some very special visitors. There is a mother bird and her chicks. Robyn was going to move the nest, because sometimes the mother bird was buzzing past our heads and also, well how do I say this politely - pooing everywhere.

Robyn noticed that there were eggs in the nest and she wouldn't move it. Over the past few weeks we have heard these noisy little chicks and now that they are getting heaps bigger, we can see their heads popping up and over the side of the nest when they are getting a feed.

I know that one day they will leave the nest (and our school), so in the meantime we are going to just enjoy listening to them and watching them grow.

CARROLL CASH COWS UPDATE…..

Very late last week, Trudy received a call from Bunnings at

Tamworth, offering the cash cows the chance to host the

sausage sizzle on the Sunday (as they had had a

cancellation). Trudy of course jumped at the chance, then

stressed at what she had agreed to. As the whole thing was at

such short notice, and with so much to do, most parents were unaware of what was

happening - we apologise for not letting you all know sooner! With countless phone calls

to organise supplies, some begging to get Robyn to help, the shopping list was made and

done and off they all went into the sunrise.

Many thanks to Mornington Butchers who very kindly opened their shop for Trudy at

6.30am on Sunday morning so she could pick up the meat! Nice snags too!

A massive thank you to the following people who at very short notice gave up their time

and energy to make the day a huge success: Robyn (head chef) , Jeremy, Rory, Courtney,

Zak, Mark, Trudy, Christine (who knew she could handle 4 sausage sizzles , 5 drinks and

still smile all at once), Graham (the chief bean counter!) - they all did such a great job

cooking & serving the customers. An especially big thank you to Michelle Horvat, who

popped in to lend a hand and ended up taking all the kids (except Jeremy) over to

Kidzone, which was by far a more child friendly place to be! It left the adults to work their

butts off and make a nice little profit of $740.

Well done to everyone involved! There are no coming events at this time! Should

Bunnings ring again though, we will endeavour to give you all notice and maybe we can

have some more volunteers!

There was some snags and drinks leftover, so there will be a

sausage sizzle lunch at the school next week!

From TRASH to TREASURE….

The past 2 markets have been very slow in sales, but I am happy to say the children

working the markets have not lost their enthusiasm! At the moment we are making

Christmas decorations and Christmas trees to sell. Hopefully the November markets

will prove to be a winner!

The kids are all excited that we are making a recycled art item to enter into the

Gunnedah Shire Council Recycling competition in November. At the moment the plan

is to make a paper Mache model of the famous Carroll horse Kibah Tic Toc. We are

planning on having him standing in a field (made from milk/plastic bottle tops) and

then surrounded by Cotton from the Gin. We really need more bottle tops if you can

help out please? Plastic ones are preferred (off milk, orange juice, water bottles and

small soda bottles). We also need the ring pulls off soda cans so we can make a rein

and holster. Your help in recycling these will be really great! Thanks, Trudy

CARROLL PUBLIC SCHOOL

SAUSAGE SIZZLE

WEDNESDAY LUNCHTIME -

29TH OCTOBER

$3.00 PER PERSON

Includes: SAUSAGE SIZZLE,

CAN OF DRINK OR WATER

(PEPSI NEXT - SUGAR FREE)

EXTRA SAUSAGE & BREAD $1.50

__________________________________

LUNCH ORDER

NAME: ___________________________________

QUANTITY: ___________EXTRAS?________

DRINK: PEPSI NEXT WATER

PLEASE RETURN AND PAY BY MONDAY 27/10/14

WORKING TOWARDS A BETTER SCHOOL What things do you think the school is doing well?

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How can we improve what we do?

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If money was no object, what would you like

to see in the school?

(Consider classroom programs, resources, playground improvements,

equipment, building upgrades, furniture, vegetable gardens, kitchen up-

grades, school bus, more excursions etc.)

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