Newsletter of the Leura Public School Community

Volume 8, Issue 17 Term 4, 2020 Week 2

Coming Events

Week 3 27/10 Book Character Parade

27/10 After School Cricket program

29/10 Kindergarten 2021 Parent Orientation Zoom

29/10 Fizzics Science Incursion

30/10 Fizzics Science Inursion

30/10 World Teachers Day Time to put the finishing touches on your children’s Book Character Parade costumes. Week 4 Children may wear their costumes to school 3/11 After School Cricket program

if they are easy to move around in 5/11 Kindergarten 2021 Transition and weather appropriate. 6/11 Principal’s Assembly Otherwise they can change into them during the lunch break. Week 5 – NAIDOC WEEK Enclosed shoes must be worn. 10/11 After School Cricket program

11/11 Great Book Swap

11/11 P&C Annual General Meeting Online Zoom

12/11 Kindergarten 2021 Transition

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From the Principal…

Welcome back to Term 4! I have had a great start and I am hoping your kids have too!

The ‘Old School Bell’ Project is complete! What an incredible way to return to school this term. The old bell, which is golden and shiny, looks spectacular hanging from the gorgeous timber structure which houses the old school bell arches. What brings me joy, is that this project was completely invested with love. All stakeholders, regardless of their role, demonstrated a deep love for Leura Public School, and this love cannot be bought or replicated by any other community! That is why I firmly believe that Leura Public School is the best!

THANK YOU to the talented team of community members, parents, and staff from Leura Public School, who have played a significant role, big or small, in getting this special project undergoing, implemented and completed. We appreciate the time, money and energy you have put forward to make this project successful.

I do want to say a special mention to a few people and I hope I do not offend or miss anyone. Coming into Leura Public School halfway in the year throughout a pandemic has not been easy. Firstly, thank you to our very own staff, Mrs. Elizabeth Colton and Mr. Peter Van Gemert for playing significant roles during this project. I understand that Mrs. Colton, our school librarian and school historian, trusted the committee with the idea for the bell. Mr. Van Gemert has been his usual enthusiastic, helpful, and passionate self. He has liaised and assisted at all times during this project.

Thank you to the P&C and to Kate Fagan for liaising with me to inform me about the project and to get me connected to the talented Ms. Niki Martignago who was the artist behind the creative design of the structure and the hanging of the bell. Ms. Niki Martignago has demonstrated her deep connection to our community and her close working relationship with the P&C and the school staff on this project. I don’t believe this project would have been this successful if it was not for the close teamwork amongst all stakeholders.

Finally, I honestly have never encountered a P&C as excellent as Leura Public School. I have not been in a school where the P&C operate with such a high standard. They are connected deeply to the students, school, culture and community. There is a multifaceted approach to their involvement within our school and I believe the ‘Old School Bell’ project highlights this interconnected approach.

Well done to everyone involved! I know we have a special surprise lined up for our Year 6 students at the end of the year!

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Premier’s Debating Competition For those who are beginning to know me, I value excellence in Public Education. I am a huge believer of ensuring our students are always the focus of all our decision making. Therefore, I get very excited when our students are able to shine and gain the spotlight for their learning and achievements.

Mrs. Aldred has been an enthusiastic and dedicated coach for our school debating teams. She has been intensely working hard behind the scenes to bring out the best in our students. Mrs. Aldred is explicit in her teaching and uses guided teaching techniques to help her students gain new learning. I know firsthand, I have seen this while working in her classroom, 1/2 Agapanthus!

Last week, our school debating team beat Berry Public School! I am so proud of our students and tremendously excited to see their next debate against the Northern Beaches school, Balgowlah Public School. The debate will be held on November 4th 2020.

World Teachers’ Day – Friday October 30th 2020 This year our students, community and teachers have had to endure recurring challenges to teaching and learning. Challenges to changes made to school operations, new classroom learning and impacts to our additional activities and programs. Despite the unpredictable circumstances of 2020, our teachers have ensured that our students have continued to receive a high-quality education. They have been integral in role modelling and promoting resilience and fun in the classroom regardless of external influences beyond their control.

Our teachers are committed and hardworking. They are passionate and enthusiastic about their students and their role within the school. I want to thank each of our teachers and wish them a fantastic week and I hope that on Friday they have a special day.

Leura Rocks! This fortnight our students will listen to two songs by Neil Diamond. I mentioned Neil Diamond as a song writer for some of the Monkees songs for last term. This week we will listen to ‘Sweet Caroline’ (first recorded in 1969) and next week we will listen to ‘Crunchy Granola Suite’ (first recorded in 1971). Both songs are off the double live album ‘Hot August Night’. The album was recorded at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in August of 1972 and was released in December of 1972. Although Neil Diamond was already established as a song writer (from the early 1960s where he was part of the “Brill Building” cohort of pop song writers) and pop performer (Diamond’s first chart reaching recording was Solitary Man from 1966), it wasn’t until the success of the Hot August Night album that Diamond was considered a star of worldwide renown. The album was especially popular outside of the US. In Australia, it spent 29 weeks at #1 on the album charts and was still in the top 50 charting albums until late 1976. The album sold in excess of 100 million copies across the world and established Neil Diamond as a performing icon.

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COVID-19 Our current procedures regarding locking gates at 9:15am will continue this term. We are still not allowed to have parents, volunteers and visitors on school grounds. Anyone who has been given permission to come on site, must fill out a COVID-19 acknowledgement form and comply with necessary covid safe practices.

There has been some clarification provided to us by the Department of Education regarding our traditional end of year events. We are monitoring the advice regularly and will keep our community informed as we are updated.

Kindergarten Orientation 2021 will go ahead however, parents and visitors are not permitted on school grounds. The Year 6 Farewell is also going ahead with a range of restrictions on the night relating to visitors on school grounds, food handling and dancing. We want our students to have a memorable evening and one that will bring some cheer to a crazy year. I know, as a parent who has a daughter in Year 6 this year, how hard it has been on our students and understand the impact that Covid has had on our kids. I would like to thank our parents who have been liaising with our school during this time and Mr. Atkinson for his leadership. The behind the scenes work is incredible and I feel at ease knowing there is an exceptional team of people working hard to make this night spectacular! I would also like to let the community know that I look forward to attending my first Leura Public School Year 6 Farewell and Graduation Evening. However, I will be late because Winmalee Public School have advised that the Year 6 Farewell is on the same night.

Health and Safety After the recent holidays, we noticed that we had a significant number of students return with broken limbs. I want to take this opportunity to let parents and caregivers know that if a student, staff member or volunteer has hurt or injured themselves in a significant manner and requires a cast, boot or specialised care, then as a school we are required to implement a WHS risk management plan to reduce the risk of aggravating the injury any further. We thank you in advance for assisting us in this process. Last week we had a slithery visitor in our school grounds. This caused a lockdown and required us to contact local snake catchers to come on school grounds. During the warmer weather, we will be sweeping the school grounds to ensure our playground is safe. We will be taking extra precautions to ensure that our students are safe and providing lessons to our students so that they know what to do if they see a snake. Our school will be having a Bushfire Evacuation Drill in the next couple of weeks. We will keep you posted on Skoolbag of a date for this event.

Staffing This week we welcome back Mrs. Field who was on leave. We also welcomed back our School Learning and Support Officer, Mrs. Rebecca Pike. Ms. Mc Mahon is still on unplanned leave and Ms. Eves is doing a wonderful job on 3/4M. We have a new day cleaner – Mr. Andreas Antalis. He will be assisting us by completing the enhanced day cleaning as a result of COVID-19. In the next few weeks, we will be hosting two panels. The first panel is to permanently fill the School Administration Manager position that Mrs. Lyn Vidler vacated early this year. The second position is to fill our temporary teaching positions for 2021. I would like to thank our P&C for their support in helping us implement these important recruitment processes.

School Photos 2020 Our school has proofed our recent school photos and we are hoping they will arrive soon. I want to thank Miss. Di Kipp in the office. She has been an absolute dynamite getting this process completed.

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Tell Them from Me Survey – Parents and Situational Analysis for School Planning I want to thank our parents and community members for participating in the Tell Them from Me Survey 2020. Your feedback is appreciated and valuable in ensuring we are meeting the needs of students. We are a student focused school and we want to know how we are going with our service delivery! Our Situation Analysis for the new Strategic Improvement Plan is nearly complete. We are just evaluating and analysing our internal and external data sources. A s soon as we are complete in that process, I will provide our parents and caregivers with some key points which we will be working on for school improvement. We want to ensure we are the best school in the Blue Mountains!

Presentation Day 2020 On Wednesday 9th December 2020 (Wednesday, Week 9), our school will be hosting its Annual Presentation Day Assembly to recognise student achievement. It will be no surprise that we will be altering the format for this event to ensure we are Covid safe. Over the coming weeks, we will keep you posted on the event so that you are able to share in the success of your child being recognised by our school community.

Creative Arts Showcase 2020 This year, our students will showcase their achievements in Performing and Creative Arts online! We will be utilising the school website to launch our videos and work. This will be accessible during Week 8. I know that our teachers are working hard to ensure our Creative and Performing Arts is celebrated within our community. We value our music and visual arts program and recognise the importance that this curriculum area has in engaging our students and providing them an opportunity to be expressive and appreciative of all art forms.

May Ptolemy Principal

Statement of Account Each term families receive a Statement of Account for money owed for various activities etc. This Statement is a gentle reminder to families but does not necessarily indicate the balance is overdue. This letter is to simply assist families to plan and budget for upcoming activities that your child will have the opportunity to participate in.

Student Mobile Phones and Communication Devices, including smart watches.

The policy regarding students with communication devices and mobile phones is that students are expected to bring their phone or device to the office in the morning when they arrive at school. Students will sign their device in the register. Students need to remember to come to the office in the afternoon to collect their device and sign it out before heading home. We ask families to please assist us by also reminding your child of this procedure.

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POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR FOR LEARNING – Term 4 VALUE OF THE WEEK

Week 3: Assemblies A Responsible student enters & leaves the hall quietly, sits without talking & walks sensibly to the stage. A Respectful student listens to presenters without interrupting & sings & responds with pride. A Resilient student sits sensibly for the duration.

Week 4: Bridge/Bus A Responsible student walks to the lining up area & remains on the footpath. A Respectful student waits quietly for the duty teacher. A Resilient student reports problems to staff.

We have adapted our Kindergarten Transition program this year to comply with Covid and Department of Education guidelines and will be holding our orientation evening online. We will be holding a Zoom on Thursday 29th October at 3.30pm for our new and prospective Kindergarten families. We would love to see as many families as possible to say hello and introduce you to our school for 2021. Zoom Details are as follows: Topic: Kindergarten 2021 - Orientation Time: October 29th 2020 - 3:30pm To join the Online Orientation – Zoom Meeting please contact the school office and we can provide you with the relevant details.

This year the Voluntary School Contribution charged to school families is $50. These funds will be used to contribute to the cost of purchasing literacy resources for Year 3-6 classes.

Total so far for 2020: $2744

THANK YOU!

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Dear parents and carers, During Term 3 and 4, some students in 3-6 have been involved in Code Club where they are learning computer science. We have made games and animations including the Chrome Dinosaur Game, a Balloon Shooter. and senior code club are currently making a Mario style platformer. Students from senior code club are developing a webpage where students work that they submitted can be viewed here: https://bit.ly/37yrWFy You will need a keyboard for the games, and some will require that you have the sound turned down!

Mr Angel

Stage 3 – The Great Race Design Challenge

LEARNING in 3/4Magnolia

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Our next meeting on Wednesday, 11 November will be the The dates for our remaining P&C Annual General Meeting (AGM). Term 4 meetings are listed All P&C Executive positions will be vacated and we would love to see below. All meetings will be held some new people join the team. New people means fresh ideas and via Zoom (details will be re-energises the P&C, which is really important for the school. provided closer to the meeting Roles include President, Vice-President (x2), Treasurer, Secretary, date). We’d love to see you at Publicity Officer and Fundraising Co-ordinator. Positions also exist for any of our meetings! Assistant Treasurer, Uniform Shop Manager, Social Media Coordinator and the Canteen Committee. If you're interested in any Wednesday, 11 Nov of these positions, please contact the current President via email at AGM [email protected]. 6:00pm – 7:00PM Position descriptions are available on our website: http://leurapandc.weebly.com/pc-position-descriptions.html Tuesday, 1 Dec If you’re not interested in a position on the P&C, you are still more General Meeting than welcome to join in on the meeting. We’d love to meet you! 6:30pm – 8:00pm

The new Term 4 Canteen Summer Menu is out now. We have brought back some summer

favourites such as Sushi and burgers, and added other We are looking for volunteers to teach Ethics in order that we can ensure favourite hot meals such as Fried that ethics classes are available for all families who have requested them. Rice and Pasta. We also have Ethics teachers receive full training by Primary Ethics. Training consists of a some new snacks for Recess, such two day workshop and short online modules. Lesson materials are provided. as Anzac Bikkies and Pikelets. Suitable volunteers have an interest in children’s education and Sadly, due to supply issues, we development of critical thinking skills and must be available at 2.00pm have had to say goodbye to the Thursday each week to teach a half hour class. A small amount of weekly ever popular Sipaah Straws. From preparation (such as printing and reading through lesson materials) is also Week 2, students will have the required. option to flavour their milk with If you, or someone you know, wants the opportunity to make a valuable Nesquik (Chocolate or Strawberry) contribution to our school, please visit: or Milo. www.primaryethics.com.au/volunteer/ethics-teacher/ Pick up your copy of the Term 4 or contact Petra Braat: [email protected] menu from the office or from Skoolbag.

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