term 4 – week 9 – 7th december 2020 · 2020. 12. 7. · term 4 – week 9 – 7th december 2020...
TRANSCRIPT
Term 4 – Week 9 – 7th December 2020
Dear Parents and Carers Well, here we are at the last newsletter of the year, and what a year it has been. We would like to express our thanks to you, our parent community, for demonstrating so much resilience and patience towards the circumstances we faced together. We strived together to get the best outcomes for our students despite the pandemic and you have stayed by our side the entire time. It is just so very pleasing that as a community, we have come through this relatively unscathed and are able to set a course back to some normal school operations in Term 1, 2021. I will send out communication next year before the students return on Friday 29th January, as to what the school procedures will be moving forward. I can not thank you enough for all your support over this tricky time. The department is issuing Covid-safe summer packs to every child before the year ends. We will send these home when they arrive.
It was so wonderful to see all the happy faces of children hopping on buses over the last 2 weeks. I am very grateful that we could operate excursions and that every child had the opportunity to participate in what proved to be a wide variety of experiences. I hope you enjoy the reports and pictures in this newsletter. Furthermore, take a quick look at the Library report and view all the coding activities the students are learning. In addition, we are renovating the school library (much to the delight of the students) so have a look at our progress photos. School Reports All students will receive their Semester 2 School Report this week. If you have any queries about the report please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher. Class Structures 2021 Next year, our class structure will be different to this year. We have formed classes for 2021 to accommodate for the large number of students going into both Year 1 and Year 5. Therefore, the proposed class structure at this stage will be as follows: Two Kindergarten classes Two Year 1 classes One Year 4 class One Year 1 / 2 class Two Year 5 classes One Year 2 class Two Year 6 classes One Year 3 class One Year 3 / 4 class
Please note that this structure may change depending on the movement of families in and out of the area over the Christmas break. Staffing This year saw the separation of Mr Christopher Swain from the department and from our school. Mr Swain has been on leave for a couple of years to pursue university studies. He has now decided to commit to a new career. A new teacher has been appointed to the school as Mr Swain’s replacement. This position is currently being filled by a highly valuable temporary teacher. Our new teacher’s name is Amy Zander and we are very excited to welcome her to our school next year. We will also have Kerrie Kelly returning to school fulltime after her maternity leave. We will be thrilled to have Ms Kelly return. As a result of these staff changes we are forced to say a sad goodbye to Ms Abby Mander and Mr Alec Hanson as of 2021. We thank them for their hard work and commitment to the school and our students and wish them all the very best moving forward. We have also had staff changes in the office due to the official retirement of Carol Stollznow and Deb Gibson. Both positions were advertised and I would like to congratulate Jessica Llowarch on gaining the School Administration Manager position and Laura Stewart in gaining the School Assistant Officer position. I would like to thank Martine Campbell for all her amazing work in that role. We are pleased to say that Martine will be staying with the school in an alternative role and we are looking forward to welcoming Laura to the community. In Appreciation It’s been a big year. Thank you to the P & C Committee for their ongoing support of the school. We have been greatly restricted this year with our activities but we can thank our members including Craig Sparks, Wendy Blackmore and Seren Langlands for currently running with a few fundraisers this term to help build the coffers. Thank you to all the outgoing and all the incoming executive for volunteering to assist the school. I would also like to thank Myles and Ally West for their regular donation of sausages for all the barbecues that we have held this year. This generosity has resulted in near on $2000 of funds going to the school to provide resources for the school including the funding of Aboriginal Education activities. Thank you Ally also for the school banking this year and Alison Newtown for once again running Book Club for the students. Again, both these activities bring some funds into the school. Our community has benefitted from the running of a second-hand uniform shop this year, thank you Jade Gray. and our students have enjoyed purchasing tasty food from the canteen. Thank you Jane Khalil, Craig Sparks and Camilla Smythe for the smooth operation in a tricky year and a big thank you to James and Tess Borg for coming on board and allowing the canteen to outsource healthy and tasty food in a new online ordering system. Scripture and Ethics would not have run except for the wonderful assistance of our volunteers, Andrew, Merinda, Colleen, Emma, Merran, Phoebe, Marion, Michelle, Gail, Steven and Michael. Mindfulness was once again on offer due to the contributions of Nick Lambropoulos, and Richard de Martin volunteered his time and skills to support our Year 6 boys with the Rock and Water program. Kristy Flores has implemented a weekly She Wins basketball session to build the capacity and confidence of our senior girls. Thank you to Jo and Bron Lin for their continual focus and support for Nature Play and chasing resources for the children. The garden has had a bumper year with thanks to Suzy Bates and I hope you enjoy viewing the photos in this newsletter. There are SO MANY volunteers who contribute to make this school as successful as it is. Please accept my apology if I have not mentioned your name but please know that your efforts, time, contributions and ideas are highly valued. Indeed, we appreciate the wonderful support of every member of our community whether it be responding to surveys, purchasing from the canteen, attending P & C meetings or supporting fundraisers, as it is this successful partnership that makes the school such a great place to be for our children. Thank you for making 2021 as good as it could be and if I don’t see you before the end of the year, I sincerely wish you a very safe, relaxing and happy Christmas break with your families and I look forward to seeing you in what we hope will be a very promising 2021. Warmest regards Meredith Lindsay
Swimming Carnival We are holding our primary school swimming carnival in Week 3 on Monday 8th February 2021, at Mayfield Pool. This carnival is for students who will be 8 years or older in 2021. Notes were sent home last week, and if you didn’t receive one please contact your child’s teacher or collect one from the office. The results from this carnival will be submitted to the primary region for zone representation on the 24th February.
If you are able to assist on the day (time keeping etc) please let the office know. We do appreciate any help, as it does allow students to be more active. A program will be sent home closer to the day.
Kind Regards
Kellie Smith Carnival Organiser
MAT (Martial Arts Therapy) Program Unfortunately, due to low numbers the MAT program that was advertised recently was unable to run at this time. We do apologise to those who had returned their notes. We will re-advertise this program, early next year. For more information please visit the website at:
www.thematprogram.com
Library Report
Wow! What an amazing term we have had in library lessons. Stage 1 programmed Dash to cross the road safely, they had to tell him to ‘Stop, Look, Listen and Think’ before crossing the road. This required quite a lot of complex coding and Stage 1 classes completed the task really well.
Year 3 discussed recycling in our community and used the Lego Wedo app to build and programme a truck that sorted rubbish according to its size and shape. An extra challenge was for the students to change the design to make the truck drive, this was tricky but there were a number of problem solvers who were able to modify their design and code so the truck could drive along and then dump the rubbish held in the back of the truck.
Year 4 built and programmed amazing models of bees and flowers to demonstrate the process of pollination. The students also designed a garden for the Dash bot to navigate that included plants/flowers the bees are attracted to and things that are harmful to bees. The students had to program Dash to stop, sound an alert and record messages as Dash travelled through the garden.
Stage 3 took Dash on a road trip.
Filling Dash with petrol and driving certain distances using variables that changed the lights on Dash. We also explored Co-spaces, creating virtual exhibitions with animations and code attached to different aspects of the space created.
It has been wonderful to observe the development of skills in coding and robotics this term. All students have had the opportunity to engage in these lessons and lots of learning and fun was had by all.
Our new library
Over the next two weeks, classes will return to the library. The space is coming together nicely and the students are excited to see how it has changed. We have beautiful new shelving, spinners, ottomans and bench seats. The books are being placed back on the shelves ready for the students to read and enjoy.
Returns
Please search through the book shelf, under the bed and in the wardrobe for any books that need to be returned to the school library. Your help with this is greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Melissa Nelmes
Kindergarten Oakvale Farm Excursion
Kindergarten had a fantastic day last Friday at Oakvale Farm. The excitement started early for many of the students, as it was their first time on a big bus! HPS students had a blast going on the tractor ride around the farm, milking a cow, bottle feeding goats and watching a farm and reptile talk. There was even the opportunity to pat a big rabbit, olive python and a cuddly koala.
Kindergarten got to walk around the farm and hand-feed some more animals. There were many hungry goats, llamas, alpacas, miniature horses and our favourite of all, the kangaroos. We finished the day with a walk through the reptile sanctuary and then had a fun play on the giant playground. Kindergarten learnt so many new amazing facts about animals and had the best day ever!
Mr Hanson & Mrs Mullard
What a spectacular day! Some of the highlights included feeding the birds even though one of them was a little bit cheeky, feeding and patting the kangaroos, camels and goats and watching the lion being fed. 1M had such a fun day and I am sure they are already planning their next visit.
Year 3 Excursion to the Awabakal Environmental Education Centre
The excursion to the Awabakal Centre at Dudley on Friday 27th November. It was good and tiring at the same time. We learned about Aboriginal culture. We also got to see what tools they made and used. We saw a goanna climbing a tree and really big ants. We made little houses with sticks and leaves and we also made little coolamons bags with paper. There was a long way to walk and it was so tiring and hot. We learned about different plants and animals in the local environment. It was a fantastic day! By Alana K 3G
Year 3 went on an excursion to
Awabakal Education Centre. Year
made waterproof huts big 3
enough to fit your finger in, and
coolamons which are baskets .
We made paint and did finger
painting before rubbing it off
with sand. We saw beau tiful
si ghts. In my opinion, the sights
were the best. Ne ar the end we
went to the classroom and got to
touch some Awabakal artefacts
including boomerangs, shi elds ,
spear s and shells. By Eamon 3M
Year 4 Camp As expected year 4 had an amazing first school sleepover and a fulfilling trip to nelson bay! Shortly after year 4 students arrived we set up camp in the hall and ate pizza in the lovely afternoon breeze. We settled down in our beds to watch a movie and slowly drifted off to sleep.
After a restless night we got up bright and early to set off to Nelson Bay. We were soon surprised at the intimidating height of Mount Tomaree but not long after we figured that it wasn’t as hard as we thought. The picturesque views at the top made the walk really worth-while and took our breath away. We really enjoyed this but we knew it wasn’t it because shortly after we were greeted by the friendly crew of our pirate dolphin cruise!
Here on this exquisite boat we saw a playful and friendly pod of dolphins that weren't afraid to come Up Close & Personal. Later in the trip we got to experience a cool swim in the boom net. During this thrilling time in the boom net one group was lucky enough to see a pod of dolphins swim by, soon after that we got dry and dressed and headed back on the bus to return to our loving families.
This trip was a blast and something Year 4 will truly never forget.
By Ruby and Mindi
“We got to see some beautiful dolphins and two baby ones swimming on their backs”. Wow! - Marla
“My favourite part was the boom net in the dolphin cruise because it got the adrenaline running!” - Abigail
“If you weren't holding onto the felt like you are being pushed side to side, not to mention it was freezing cold!” - Sasha
“This was an extremely special experience, the first time our school has done anything like this and one we won't forget in a hurry”. - Leon
