The newsletter for our school community

Passfield Park School

53 Guernsey Avenue Phone: 9820 1700 Minto NSW 2566 Fax: 9603 6642

Passfield-s.school@det.nsw.edu.au www.passfield-s.schools.nsw.edu.au

Diary Dates………. June 16 Vaccinations July 1 Last day of Term 2 July 19 First day of Term 3 for students Nov 11 High school formal

Julie’s Jottings……

Reports Written reports detailing progress in Semester 1 will be sent home at the end of the term. I hope that you enjoy reading them. We will again be offering parent-teacher meetings in Weeks 2 and 3, Thursday afternoons, 21st and 28th July. Please take the time to catch up with your child’s teacher to discuss the learning that has occurred over the first half of 2016.

Stepping Stones Positive Parenting Program (PPP) A small but dedicated group of parents have enjoyed the PPP seminars run for the last three weeks. They have discussed new strategies and supported each other with ideas for positive parenting. The PPP program will run again late next term for those of you who missed out!

Parent Volunteers Thank you to our parents who are volunteering – we always have room for more helpers across the

May 20, 2016

school! Please indicate on the slip below when you can help out and we will match you to a grateful group of learners who are not in your child’s class.

Independence Passfield Park School has a pledge that all the stu-dents learn to say and sign “I promise to try my hardest in all I do, To show consideration and respect to others And to strive to achieve my independence.” Independence starts from the first day of school, all the way to Year 12. We ask that all families support the students with easy independence tasks to start with – carrying bags, standing in lines by themselves – the little things at school that begin to build inde-pendence for the future! Thank you.

AASS Parent Support Group Lina from the Autism Advisory and Support Services will be leading our support group at school on Mon-day, 6th June, 10:00am-12:00pm. The support group will be held once a month, on the first Monday of each month. All exceedingly welcome.

ANZAC Day The school marked ANZAC Day on Friday, 5th May, with activities to help our students understand the significance of the remembrance. Thank you to staff and families who made this a memorable occasion for our community. Kind regards Julie

Together we learn, participate and strive every day to achieve our best.

Our charity, Passfield Park Kids Inc., was set up in 2013 to support the therapy needs of our students. If you would like to find out more about this wonderful charity, please call Cheryl (in the office).

I would like to volunteer at Passfield Park School

My name:

My child’s name:

Preferred day/s:

Preferred time/s:

Length of time:

Blue Class On Fridays Blue Group have been exploring the Australian Botanical Gardens at Mount Annan as a part of our community ac-cess program. Everyone has really enjoyed getting out into the fresh air, doing some exploring, running and relay races, ball games, having a picnic lunch and hanging out with friends. Our favourite landmark is the blue tree, a tree that has been painted to remind us of the im-

portance of old, dead trees as homes for na-tive animals; although the playground is a pretty exciting place to visit too; and so is the pond with the ducks; and the sculptures; and the artworks… Actually the gardens are so lovely we have strug-

gled to choose just one place to have our picnic lunch! We would also like to congratulate Keeghan on his fantastic audition. He has been selected to perform as the compere for the upcoming Ultimo School Region Dance Festival. Also Blair who has been successful in his application for a Hospitality course at TAFE. Great work boys, we are very proud of you!

Orange Class Orange Class has had a great start to Term 2. Everyone came back from the holidays refreshed and ready for another term of hard work – and fun, of course! We have been learning a lot about how different kinds of machines work by making toy versions of them. Students enjoyed making little fishing rods (our version of a pulley) and everyone caught lots of fish!

Gymnastics and music therapy have started again and students are working really hard to develop their skills. We were very impressed with how everyone in Orange Class walked across the balance beam by themselves last week! We have also been busy practicing our drumming in

preparation for our assembly item in a few weeks’ time. We will let you know when it’s on so you can come and watch us perform! Orange Class participated in ANZAC Day commemorations early this term. We were very impressed by how respectful the students were when remembering the brave

men and women who have protected Australia in the past and still protect us today. Orange Class enjoyed making their own war medals and wearing them with pride at our ANZAC Day assembly. It was wonderful to see

everyone participating so well. Great job, Orange Class!

Kimberley, Sonia, Jeanette, Nicole and Sarah

Danielle and Narelle Check out our school website

www.passfield-s.schools.nsw.edu.au

Red Fruit is one of the most important parts of a child’s diet due to it’s low fat content and calories and supply of key nutrients. Fruit provides nutrients which children need to grow and helps to protect from certain illnesses. The students of Red Class are certainly enjoying their fruit and water breaks. Fruit break is an exciting time for the students as we explore the many textures and tastes of a variety of fruits. Some students like all fruit. Others initially manage to taste or touch certain fruit then succeed in trying them. Most students have now found many fruits they actually like.

Purple Students from Purple Class English group enjoyed their recent trip to Beverley Park School to meet with their high school pen pals. Each student received a personal invitation to the party from their pen pal and were very pleased to have the opportunity to visit their new friends. Our high school hosts prepared the party food themselves. Everyone was a little quiet to start with but were soon enjoying chips, cupcakes, mini hot dogs and pizzas. It was fantastic to see our students interacting with their Beverley Park School friends. Tia and Emily enjoyed drawing, Molly and Raya took turns

with the other high schoolers to choose songs on the interactive whiteboard while Aimee and Molly danced along with some new friends. Jayden and Blair laughed and enjoyed the company of the other high school students. The staff involved in the program are very pleased with the positive interaction between the students and

feel that Tia’s drawing sums up the success of the program so far. Our classes are looking forward to

meeting again later in the term. Purple Class English students are now working on writing thank you messages to their pen pals.

Di, Sarah, Julie B and Ashleigh

Pink Welcome back to Term 2. Each Wednesday this term, we are going bowling to Campbelltown City Bowling and are excited to be going with White Class.

We have had lots of fun with creative arts this term. We have made fish, oceans and poppies and participated in music both in the classroom and at music therapy. Students love to play and make music. Pink Class participated in this year’s ANZAC

Day commemorations; we made poppies and medals as well as learnt about ANZAC on the interactive whiteboard. It was great to see every

class’s contribution to the ANZAC Day mural. It looks really good and we hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did. Pink Class has continued to learn about nutrition with students

exploring the different food groups. They have started to identify the food groups within their own lunch boxes. Many students wish that chips and lollies were healthy for us to eat.

Sarah and Michele

Cheryl and Jenny

Green Class Green Class has been enjoying Science and work experience lessons. We are looking at chemical reactions in Science and have been combining different substances, observing and then recording what we saw! The glitter volcanos were a huge hit! During work experience, students especially enjoy can crushing, watering the garden and collecting recycling from different areas of the school. Green Class enjoyed making an air force officer for our school ANZAC day celebration so much that we made an army officer as well! We also made sun catchers, slouch hats, medals and poppies.

Yellow Class Welcome to Term 2. The students have embraced the new term and are enjoying the activities. The boys participate in music and are fully immersed in singing and playing the various instruments. Going to gym, the students are growing in confidence with their ability to perform on the apparatus. Practising money skills at Sarah Redfern PS canteen results in the boys enjoying their

purchases. Science proves to be a popular subject with the students conducting various experiments. Currently we are experimenting with water being a liquid, a solid and a gas. Left are the various stages of our experiments with the students explaining the experiment. Amanda, Rob and Sharon Alison, Lucinda, Brad and Terry

Silver Class Silver Class has had lots of fun in the playground and some students are beginning to share with each other and play together. We celebrated two birthdays this month. Chelsea turned seven and Justice was six. The students are enjoying sport each Thursday and they have improved in their movement and ball skills, following directions and listening to the teacher. Most of the class attended ANZAC Day and joined in the ceremony. All students contributed to an art activity which is now displayed in taxi bay.

Belinda, Kris, Shirley and Caitlin

White Class White Class has started bowling with our buddy class, Pink Class, this term. White Class enjoy spending time with the infants students and showing them what good leaders we can be. As well as having fun and practicing our bowling skills! White Class students are learning about workers in the community this term and love to role play and learn about the different helpers we have in our local community. Well done White Class!

Samantha and Kris

Congratulations to our students of the week