Term 1 – Week 4 – 19th February 2020

Principal’s Message

Welcome to Week 4 of the school term. Classes are starting to establish their daily rhythm of learning

and students and teachers are looking happy and engaged. Learning should be a lifelong practice

as it brings challenge, growth, intellectual curiosity and enrichment. Our teachers have also

participated in extensive learning this term in the subjects of mathematics, writing, debating, spelling

and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and are feeling highly motivated

and looking forward to implementing their new learning in the classroom. Your children will enjoy

the very best of learning experiences. It is always exciting to see little learners in action and I hope

you enjoy Audrey’s story, included in this newsletter, that she too had great pride in creating. Well

done teachers and well done Audrey!

At next Monday’s assembly we will be presenting the Library Monitors badges and the Semester

1 SRC (Student Representative Council) badges. It has been lovely to see an increase in parent

attendance at our Monday afternoon assemblies. Thank you for coming. All gates to the school will

be unlocked at 2.00pm on Mondays to allow easy access to the Performance Centre so please

come along and join us.

A HUGE THANK YOU to all the marvellous parents who were free to come along last Friday

afternoon to help Suzy in her project to rejuvenate and redesign the Blue Gate Garden. Thank you

for all the backbreaking work that was required in shovelling dirt, thank you: Suzy, Anna L (Year 4

parent), Jo (Year 2 & 4 parent), Fiona (Year 3 parent), David (Years 4 & 6 parent), Marnie (Kindy

parent), Carly (Kindy parent), Colleen (Kindy & Year 2 parent), Krista (Year 2 parent), Kim (Year 2

parent), and a special call out to Elliott M for his amazing efforts with the spade and all the children

who helped out on the day. It is already looking terrific and the work that the volunteers put in was

obvious to see when I entered the grounds on Monday morning. I am very appreciative of everyone’s

effort and passion for our beautiful garden, which is now truly on display for all to see and appreciate.

Enjoy the pictures below and look at the process in installing our functional and beautiful new ollas

in the garden.

What are ollas? Well... "Traditionally, ollas are rounded terracotta vessels with a narrow neck. They

are submerged into the soil, with just the neck protruding. Once filled with water, the olla seeps

water into the surrounding soil, directly to the roots, right where it is needed. Obviously, no water is

lost to runoff or evaporation." https://afarmofyourhome.com/how-to-make-two-dollar-ollas/

I

n the last newsletter, I included our Sustainability Philosophy around the concepts of Make, Break,

Take and Cake. This term we are focussing our attention on the concept of Make, which includes

up-cycle, reduce, re-use, recycle and refuse. At Monday’s assembly I discussed this with the

students and gave examples of how we could use this approach in our day-to-day living. We have

provided examples of this concept in action with the operation of our pre-loved clothing pool,very

generously run by Jade Gray last Thursday and Friday. Thank you Jade! Please look for Jade under

the COLA near the canteen on a Thursday and Friday for some great savings. Many pieces of

second-hand uniforms were sold which is wonderful as they are all in good condition and it would

be a great shame for them not to be reused. Please consider donating any pieces of uniform that

your child no longer requires. In addition, please look for any opportunities at home to reinforce this

concept of Make do with what you have, with your child. Thank you.

Our first P & C Meeting for the year will be held tonight at 7.00pm at The Bennett. Please consider

coming along and please find my P & C Principal’s Report attached at the end of this newsletter. It

is also very exciting that our new online canteen ordering system has gone live with the first

student lunches to be delivered this Thursday. I am confident it will be a smooth and efficient system

and I would like to thank Craig Sparks for his many hours of work in setting this up and organising

it for the school. Thank you to James Borg (Mockingbird Café) for coming on board to prepare and

supply the food. And a BIG THANK YOU to Camilla for her assistance in the canteen organisation

and for volunteering to distribute lunches on a Tuesday and thank you to Fiona Crommelin for

coming on board to distribute lunches on a Thursday. We very much depend on our wonderful

volunteers. Thank you everyone. Also, you will be pleased to know that Jane Khalil will be back in

the canteen on a Wednesday offering recess foods to the students. THANK YOU TEAM! We have

a great crew to start the process this year but would dearly love to hear from you if you are in a

position to help at any time. Thank you.

We are very excited that our Aboriginal Girl’s Dance Group and our Didgeridoo Boys Group

have been invited to perform in the opening ceremony of Surfest this year to be held on Saturday

29th February. This is a great honour for our students who are all feeling very proud and excited. If

you are heading to Surfest this year please watch the opening ceremony and cheer our kids on.

Congratulations, boys and girls.

Asbestos Asbestos in schools has been in the news a lot lately so I just want to reassure all parents that Hamilton Public School follows all procedures tightly to maintain a safe environment. I take great pride in ensuring that our school is happy and safe for all and would absolutely communicate to you if that was not the case. It is not unusual to come across asbestos when renovating, as it certainly was a popular building material in its time, however, proper removal of the material prevents risk. I want to share with you that we have located a piece of suspicious material in an old garden bed in an unused section of the school behind B Block. Students do not access this area. As we are very cautious at Hamilton, we have cordoned off the area and asked to have the material tested and then removed if it proves to be positive with asbestos. I will inform you of the results when they come through. A standard departmental Works Notification Form outlining the process formally will be sent through to the school hopefully later today and when it is, I will forward it through to you. At this point, I just wanted to explain the situation to you, so that you wouldn’t be concerned in any way when I forward the Works Notification through to you. Thank you very much indeed. Have a wonderful week everyone! Warmest regards Meredith Lindsay

NAIDOC Shirt Orders

Order forms are being sent home today for anyone interested in ordering the NAIDOC shirt that the

school designed and introduced last year. The shirt, made from a quality breathable mesh, is going

to be available for purchase at the price of $40. These shirts are being custom made by BME

Clothing and Uniforms for ALL students, who are encouraged to wear them during NAIDOC Week,

as well as each sports day if desired. Orders need to be in at the office by Friday 20th March. Final

payment will be requested upon delivery.

Thank you

Jen Manning

Sentral Parent Portal We are delighted to introduce Sentral for Parents and we are equally delighted that over 150 parents have already signed up! Terrific! This exciting new communication platform will keep you fully informed about everything happening at the school. This free app will mean that you always know in advance about what's going on - without having to rely on your child to bring news home from the school. You'll be able to communicate via messaging to your child's teacher for progress updates, give instant permission for school activities and even inform the school of future absences. As we are phasing out Skoolbag, push notifications will now be sent through the Parent Portal, so please ensure you enable this function when setting up the app. If you need assistance doing this, or need help with the instructions for setting up the Parent Portal with your unique family key, then please don’t hesitate to contact us. Lauren Rose

Stage 3 Debating Workshop

Last Friday, a small group of

students from Stage 3

attended a debating workshop

at The Junction Public School.

The informative workshop was

designed to teach students

the nuts and bolts of how to

debate effectively and the

larger-than-life presenters had

the vast group of students

captivated from start to finish.

Our students worked together

to win one of the challenging

debating games during the

morning and performed

strongly during the afternoon

debating practice.

Clay Farrar

Clean Up Australia Day

Friday 28th February is Clean Up Australia Day. To improve our school environment, students will be involved in picking up rubbish. It would be greatly appreciated if students could bring gloves to wear for this activity. Please don’t go and buy some however, but if you have some around the house then that is

great. To reduce the amount of plastic in the environment, we encourage school lunches to be package free. A good alternative are containers that have different components to store fresh food. Jen Manning

STEM Project

Last week, a number of staff participated in the STEM Teacher Enrichment Academy Primary Schools Program offered through the University of Sydney. This program provides teachers the knowledge, skills, resources and support to make real change in their classroom teaching. It inspires teachers to pursue their interests in mathematics, science and technology, and to pass on that inspiration to their students.

Over the next few weeks, these staff members will be sharing their knowledge and skills from the training with all staff and develop a plan to embed further STEM activities in all classrooms. STEM activities and

projects are in all our integrated units which students complete every term in line with the United Nations Goals for Sustainability. These extra STEM opportunities are sure to engage students and strengthen their skills in this area. Students will begin with simple level 1 STEM activities which incorporate the 4Cs –critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication and then will move in to more complex STEM projects that involve the design thinking process.

We are looking forward to witnessing the excitement and challenge offered to all students and staff whilst engaging in this initiative.

Upcoming Events

Day Date Event

Thursday 20th February SISA Sport

Monday 24th February 2.00pm School Assembly

Tuesday 25th February IEPS Stage 3

Wednesday 26th February IEPS K-2

Thursday 27th February SISA Sport

Friday 28th February Clean Up Australia Day

Monday 2nd March 2.00pm School Assembly

Thursday 5th March SISA Sport

Monday 9th March 2.00pm School Assembly

Thursday 12th March Sport

Monday 23rd March 2.00pm Harmony Day School Assembly

CHANGE OF DATE

Principals Report 19th February 2020

School Organisation

Renovations

• Renovations have taken a bit longer than expected due to weather interruptions but we are just about there

with the installation of the handrails, the major item left to complete. Our school sign should arrive next week,

which will give the school a smart look. The new turf is certainly appreciating the rain and everyone has been

very supportive in moving around the barrier fences when walking through the schools. All feedback on the

renovations have been very positive which is so pleasing to receive.

Parent Portal

• The Parent Portal is up and running with over 150 parents already signed. The Parent Portal offers the same

service as Skoolbag in regards to push notifications but you must have that switched on in the app for you to

receive them. Urgent messages or important information will also be sent out to the community on the

SeeSaw app attached to each roll class.

Meet and Greet

• We had lots of interest in our Meet and Greet information evening so I would like to extend my thanks to the

parents who were able to attend. We averaged about 18 families per class, which was a great turnout. The

new teachers to the school were made to feel especially welcome by all parents so I greatly appreciate this

kindness. What a great community we are!

Curriculum

• Aboriginal Education

Aboriginal Education will again have a high focus in 2020 with the continuation of the Aboriginal Cultural Team

(ACT) led by Jon Morris, Girl’s Aboriginal Dance led by Alexa Elbourne and the Boys Didgeridoo Group led by

Alex Nean (to commence in Term 2). The school’s Aboriginal Education will meet twice a term to continue to

develop activities and in class strategies and the local network of schools will also meet every term to organise

combined cultural events for students.

School Finances

• School fees will be discussed and decided upon at the P & C meeting tonight. Fees will be sent home once they

are approved.

• As we were not successful in gaining funding to employ a School Chaplain this year, we will need to rely on P

& C funds and school funds to cover the cost ($30,000). The School Chaplain is trained in specific program,

which can be targeted to support vulnerable children. She also runs many programs including the boy’s tap

dancing group, crochet club, craft club etc. to improve children’s confidence, skill level, socialisation and

wellbeing. The School Chaplain does not provide any religious instruction at the school.

• In Term 2 we would like to spend money on climbing equipment for the infants playground and construct a

simple shelter for the students to play in (wooden tent etc).