DIARY DATES PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

Dear Parents, Carers and Community, Tue 15 Jun Tocal Excursion SMS ABSENCE NOTIFICATION Wed 16 Jun Netball Gala Day Regular attendance at school is essential if students are to maximise their potential. Schools, in partnership with parents, are responsible for promoting the Thu 17 Jun StarStruck Rehearsal regular attendance of students. While parents are legally responsible for the regular attendance of their children, school staff, as a part of their duty of care, Fri 18 Jun StarStruck Performance - 7pm monitor part or whole day absences. SMS notification will be commencing later this term to notify parents ofa StarStruck Performance - Sat 19 Jun 1.30pm student’s absence from school. These SMS notifications will be sent to parent/ guardians’ mobile phones at 10am on the day a student has an unexplained attendance. If you have notified the school regarding the absence thena Mon 21 Jun NAIDOC Week notification will not be sent. Only unexplained absences will receive these messages. Please ensure your contact details are up to date. Thu 24 Jun Reports Home COVID-19 UPDATE A reminder for all schools and families that it is important that we continue to Last Day for Term 2 Fri 25 Jun follow the COVID-19 guidelines. In particular we wish to highlight the following: • Students should not attend school if unwell, even with mild symptoms of Staff Development Day Mon 12 Jul COVID-19. • Any person with any COVID-19 symptoms should be sent home and should Tue 13 Jul Students Return for Term 3 not return until they have received a negative test result and are symptom -free. • In circumstances where children have other medical reasons for recurrent symptoms, a letter from their GP is sufficient to negate the requirement for a negative test. • Anyone who is unwell with COVID-19 symptoms is strongly encouraged to get tested and self-isolate until a negative result is received. • All visitors to a school site must be well and symptom free, comply with sign-in arrangements, and the 1.5m physical distancing requirements. • Visitors must also check in using the Service NSW QR code.

NAIDOC WEEK In Week 10 Blacksmiths Public School students will be participating in meaningful and engaging activities to celebrate NAIDOC Week. Our students will be immersed in Aboriginal culture through experiences such as: • Stone Artefact Education • Traditional Dance exploration • Creative Art opportunities • Dreamtime stories told by community members

Stay tuned for more information. We are very excited to celebrate NAIDOC week at Blacksmiths Public School.

TERM 2 Week 8 - Thursday 10 June 2021 ATHLETICS CARNIVAL Last Wednesday we ran a very successful school Athletics Carnival. After an early morning hassle with buses delaying the start, the carnival ran seamlessly and was enjoyed by students, staff and the community. Special thank you to our wonderful volunteers who assisted with carnival events, canteen and BBQ. Your assistance is greatly appreciated and the day wouldn’t be the same without your involvement. You are amazing parents. Binda and Biwong’s team spirit and sportsmanship were on fine display with students encouraging each other and competing with great enthusiasm. Students should be very proud of their participation and efforts!

REGIONAL CROSS COUNTRY Regional Cross Country was held on Friday 28 May and some of our students represented the East Lakes Zone at Hunter Region Cross Country. Congratulations to our amazing runners Mitch and Tom as they qualified for state cross country. Awesome effort boys!

SKOOLBAG UPDATE

A message from SkoolBag: We understand the importance of making sure that you’re always kept informed about what’s happening at your child’s school. We’ve been significantly improving our technology behind the scenes, and you’ll notice a number of visible improvements to the SkoolBag app over the coming months. We encourage you to keep your SkoolBag app updated to the latest version in the Apple or Google app stores to take advantage of these updates. We’ll remind you within the app when there’s a new version available. Resolved: Periodic logout issue As part of the upgrades, we made a change to our security policy which reduced the amount of time your user account remained signed in to the app, resulting in you having to re-log in more often than before. After considering the feedback received, we understand this may be a frustrating experience. We’ve critically reviewed this security policy and have tweaked it to better balance the concern of your data protection against the necessity to quickly and easily access information about your child and your school. Please note: You may still be required to log in one more time to activate the new update. Please contactus here if you have ANY login issues. Our support team is ready to help you. We sincerely apologise if your experience has been frustrating and we hope this small change makes a big difference for you. We welcome your feedback and are continually looking for ways to improve your experience with us and delight you every time you use our app.

Sincerely, Dan Taylor - Product Manager at SkoolBag

REPORTS Reports will be published and sent home to parents in week 10, Thursday 24 June. The option for parent teacher interviews will be communicated early next term. It is not unusual to hear from parents who read their child’s report and seek clarification of grade descriptions. We report student progress against the NSW syllabus standards using the common grade scale. In particular, it is worth clarifying that a grade of ‘C’ or ‘Sound’ means that a student has achieved a grade appropriate level of competence in the processes and skills in a subject area relative to the point in time of reporting. ROOF UPGRADE We have been working with DoE Assets department to upgrade the roof on the Administration building. Work began last Friday, and will be completed in the coming days.

STARSTRUCK 2021 Our StarStruck group have been busy learning their dances, which they are looking forward to performing at two shows next week. Tickets can be purchased directly through TICKETEK. Due to COVID, there are two casts for Star Struck this year, so please be careful to purchase tickets to the shows that our dancers will be performing in. Performances involving Blacksmiths PS students are as follows:

Evening - Friday 18 June 7.00-9.00pm

Matinee - Saturday 19 June 1.30pm-3.30pm

We would love to see some of our BPS families there for support.

ENROL NOW FOR 2022 It’s that exciting time of year where we are accepting 2022 Kindergarten enrolments! If you know of any families, new or currently in the area, looking to enrol their child for next year, please pass on beautiful Blacksmiths Public School’s details. To our amazing community, feel free to share this poster to help spread the exciting news with our future little learners. Online enrolments for In-Zone Applications can be made at: https:// education.nsw.gov.au/parents-and-carers/online-enrolment-for-nsw- public-schools Enrolment forms are also available from the school office. AUSTRALIAN EARLY DEVELOPMENT CENSUS (AEDC) Our Kindergarten students have taken part in the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC). This involves our Kindergarten teachers surveying the students on various areas of development. We will receive school results later this year. This information is valuable to assist us in supporting our students the best we can.

PUBLIC SPEAKING Students are currently engaged in class public speaking competitions. Winners of each stage final will represent our school at the Zone finals and Galgabba finals next term.

ENTERTAINMENT BOOK FUNDRAISING

Digital memberships are now available for purchase. They are valid for 12 months from the date of activation and are also available to purchase as a gift for someone special. The new memberships provide a great opportunity for us to raise funds as 20% from each membership goes towards our school fundraising. Please follow the link and support our school by purchasing the Entertainment Book. https://l.facebook.com/l.php

ONLINE PAYMENTS A friendly reminder that online payments, via the school website, can only be made for school activities, excursions and fees. The P&C have a separate online account that can be used to pay for uniforms and other P&C events. The P&C details are:

Bank Details: Commonwealth Bank BSB: 062 801 A/C No: 0090 1297

Mr McIlvenie - Principal