Blaxland East Public School

Old Bathurst Road, East Blaxland 2774 Phone 4739 1579 Fax 4739 8300 Principal Kerry Bryan Email [email protected] Webpage www.blaxlande-p.schools.nsw.edu.au P&C Email [email protected] School Matters Term 3 Week 2 28 July 2017

Morning Bell 9.00am Afternoon Bell 3.00pm Office Hours 8.30am - 3.15pm

P&C Association meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 7.30pm Next Meeting Wednesday 9 August 2017

In this School Matters:

for Kindergarten 2018  Core Values  2018 Kindergarten Enrolments  Support for Charlie - Thank You  P&C News - School Vegetable Gardens  Athletics Carnival  Principal’s Report  Celebrating Achievement, Effort  Principal’s Schoolwork Awards & Service - ICAS results  Core Value Awards  Important information re mobile phones  Canteen News  Kindy 100th day of school  Travis Edwards—Blue Mountains Gazette  NAIDOC Week celebrations  Book Club  Royce Simmons Shield Finals Day  Glenbrook Athletics Centre  Office News  School Zone Offences  Office Payments & Notes  Gateway Parenting Term 3 Program  Skoolbag App  2016 Fete Sponsors

CORE VALUES Be Respectful Excellence Always Participate Courageously Serve Others

The support for Charlie McGauley, to assist in costs associated with making the NSW team at the end of last term, was amazing. A substantial amount was raised on ‘Blue Day’ and Charlie and his family are so very appreciative.

Because of the generosity of the BEPS community, Charlie's raffle tickets were quickly sold out, so Panthers Rugby League Club have kindly donated some Panthers NRL tickets and shirts to raffle off this week. The students who didn't get their tickets last term will get them this week, giving them a fabulous opportunity to win the Panthers merchandise. A big thank you to Panthers Rugby League Club for their generous donation.

Congratulations to the winners of the ‘extra draw’:

Eve Wood, Jessica Skinner and Mr Blunt. On Thursday, July 20th, we held our annual Athletics Carnival.

I wish to congratulate all students who participated courageously on the day and showed outstanding sportsmanship and support for their peers.

Thank you to all the teachers, parents and Blaxland High students who attended and assisted on the day. Our carnival is impossible to run without this help and it is very, very much appreciated.

In the coming week, place ribbons will be handed out at primary assemblies and district qualifiers will also be announced. The District Carnival will be held at Blacktown International Sports Park on Tuesday 29th August.

Ashlee Thomas Coordinator

2017 ICAS Digital Technologies Results

Results have been received from the University of for Blaxland East students who entered the ICAS (International Competition and Assessment for Schools) Digital Technologies Competition for 2017. Students from Blaxland East achieved outstanding results when they participated this year. Those students whose achievements were outstanding were rewarded with certificates of Merit, Credit and Distinction. These ICAS tests are designed to assess students’ academic abilities in aspects of Digital Technologies. Each year, many BEPS students take the plunge and attempt these tests, putting themselves up against gifted and talented students from all parts of Australia, New Zealand and parts of Asia. For this alone, quite apart from their achievements, they deserve the highest praise.

The highlights of our results this year are as follows:-

Distinction Awards: Lucinda Page (Year 4), Emily Kirkpatrick, Braden Nicholson, Alexander Williams (Year 5)

Credit Awards: Elliott Cairns, Emily Croft, Samuel Fordham, Heidi Page, Hannah Tankard (Year 3), David Babajanyan, Adam Brown, Kiana Foote, Ruby Kennedy, Ian Laurence-Rogers, Jeremy Spikmans (Year 4), Jackson Cooper, Lara Schuetrumpf, Banjo Tucker (Year 5), Tom Cairns, Skye O’Neill (Year 6)

Merit Awards: Aidan Hall, Dylan Korber (Year 3), George Tsaousidis (Year 5)

Congratulations to all these students, and to all who participated.

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2017 ICAS SCIENCE RESULTS

Results have been received from the University of New South Wales for Blaxland East students who entered the ICAS (International Competition and Assessment for Schools) Science Competition for 2017.

Students from Blaxland East achieved outstanding results when they participated this year. Those students whose achievements were outstanding were rewarded with certificates of Merit, Credit and Distinction.

These ICAS tests are designed to test the students’ abilities in areas of Science. These include Observing/Measuring, Interpreting, Predicting/Concluding, Investigating, Reasoning/Problem Solving.

Each year, many BEPS students take the plunge and attempt these tests, putting themselves up against gifted and talented students from all parts of Australia, New Zealand and parts of Asia. For this alone, quite apart from their achievements, they deserve the highest praise.

The highlights of our results this year are as follows:-

Distinction Awards: Aiden Hall (Year 3), Aidan Johnson, Braden Nicholson, Oliver Stephens (Year 5).

Credit Awards: Olivia Adams, Elliott Cairns, Virginia Cole, Samuel Fordham, Paige Grant, Heidi Page, Hannah Tankard (Year 3), David Babajanyan, Adam Brown, Lucinda Page, Jeremy Spikmans (Year 4), Jackson Cooper, Boaz Freeman, Hunter Kelly, Emily Kirkpatrick, Lara Schuetrumpf, Ewan Tamsett, George Tsaousidis, Alexander Williams (Year 5).

Merit Awards: Kiana Foote, Ruby Kennedy (Year 4), Skye O’Neill, Maggie Rogers (Year 6)

Congratulations to all these students, and to all who participated.

R Wallis and D Riedy ICAS Coordinators

If students bring mobile phones to school, they need to be switched off and stored in bags, even at recess and lunch, unless they are being used as a BYOD in the classroom.

Some issues have arisen around mobile phones and photographs among Year 6 students and we are reminding parents and students that they are allowed at school only under strict conditions. Should the issues continue, all mobile phones will need to be handed in at the office each morning and collected each afternoon.

Congratulations to Kindergarten who completed their 100th day of school on Tuesday 25th July.

We celebrated the day by doing lots of fun activities. We even made special treats with 100's and

1000's!

NAIDOC WEEK CELEBRATIONS FRIDAY 21st July 2017

NAIDOC Day was once again a terrific day with all involved participating respectfully and having a fantastic time. Warrimoo PS joined BEPS for this year’s NAIDOC celebrations and enjoyed the entire day.

A great thank you to our special guests, Uncle Greg Simms, a Dharrug Elder, who gave Welcome to Country in both Dharrug and Gundungurra Languages and performed the traditional smoking ceremony and to Aunty Carol, a Gundungurra Elder for her attendance. Many thanks to Mrs Pearson for her support arranging our local Elders to attend, and organizing the chalk drawing. Our guests went above and beyond in talking with students to share with them their perspectives and traditions of our local Aboriginal Nations the Dharrug and Gundungurra people. Many thanks to Mrs Bryan who gave an excellent speech on the meaning of NAIDOC week and the importance of respecting all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nations and contributing her Artifacts to our display.

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Activities included –

Welcome to Country, Smoking Ceremony,

Chalk Drawing, Elders Story Telling and tool

Presentation, Artifact Display, Art

Presentations, Aboriginal Book Reading, Aboriginal Games and damper making and cooking at the camp fire. Many thanks to all the staff who were involved in the huge task of preparing the damper ready for over 600 students to consume and

helping run the activities set out on the day. A huge thank you to Mr Huntley who spent a considerable amount of time collecting fire wood, preparing the five fires and organising over 70 fire sticks for student use. Mr Reilly, Mr Barsley and

Mr Healey also made sure the fires were kept in prime condition for the cooking

of dampers and we appreciate their time on the day also.

Most of all thank you to all the students who participated from both schools for showing the utmost respect for our Elders and showing genuine interest in their knowledge and culture. They appreciated your interaction in learning about their culture. The highlight of the day was the damper for a lot of the students, but for me as an Aboriginal Man was their participation in all the activities and especially how they all played at lunchtime showing the true spirit of the inclusiveness of the Aboriginal Culture. The Marn Grook game at the end of the day was a notable example of how much fun the students had.

Shannon Blunt

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This year, Warrimoo Public School came to BEPS for NAIDOC Day. We all did a variety of fun Aboriginal games and activities like cooking damper, Aboriginal chalk drawing, talking with Aunty Carol who told us a very sad story about her childhood and many more things. Year 6 were the first people to do damper. It was a very enjoyable experience and it was really delicious. Afterwards, Year 6 were split into groups and played a variety of games and had a lot of fun. After recess, all of Year 6 joined together to do chalk drawings on the playground. After this, we heard a very upsetting story about Aunty Carol’s school years, when she got bullied by students and her teacher. She was made to sit outside for her whole time at school from Kinder to Year 6. This story made many students realise how lucky we are. The last thing Year 6 did was play a traditional Aboriginal game called Marngrook. It was a game that involved kicking a ball and running, it is believed the game of AFL was inspired by Marn Grook. It was an awesome game and really fun, we look forward to playing it again in our classes. Everyone had an awesome and fun NAIDOC Day.

Written by Ella Terry and Hannah Roessler-Jamieson - Year 6

During art last term, Year 6 BEPS students created an Aboriginal 'Sea of Hands’ artwork. This artwork is now displayed outside the office in the special tree. Take a moment to come and read our thoughts and explanations on our hands.

Please see the BEPS website for more NAIDOC photos.

I was honoured to coach the Year 3/4 Rugby League team and watch them participate courageously at the Royce Simmons and Finals Day at The Kingsway Rugby League field in St Marys on 25 July. The boys made a determined hard-fought effort in all three games and were unfortunate to miss out on the semi-finals.

They played Cambridge Park Public School in their first game of the day and Tavila Gibson-Lelilio led the way with two outstanding tries, earning him Man of the Match. The score ended up a three-all draw against a very skilful side. In their second game, the boys tried their hearts out against a determined Shelley Public School side with Jarred Drake playing a gutsy role at dummy half in the first half making some good metres in the ruck to earn him a Man of the Match in the 3 to 1 loss. The 3rd game saw the boys face off against St Monica’s in a high scoring five-all match that displayed some great skill leading to fantastic tries. Tavila Gibson-Lelilio 2, Kaleb Gibson-Lelilio, Will Haydon and Jesse Shandler all sharing in the spoils. Will’s defensive effort saw him gain a Man of the Match.

Throughout the day the boys remained optimistic and put 100 percent effort into every game. Jacob Davis made some good defensive efforts and played a good half in game two at first receiver. Angus Warburton showed determination in all three games with some good defense and always backed up. Cooper Strathdee, playing an age group up, made some great runs and crucial tackles to be impressive. Zach Alexander was inspirational, playing hard all day and trying his best with an injured ankle. Jarred Drake delivered a heroic effort in all three games. Jesse Shandler didn’t take a backward step all day. Will Haydon showed his potential to be a skillful player in attack and defense coming back from an injury in game two to score a great try in game three. Tavila Gibson-Lelilio led from the front all day with many great runs and tries showing great captain qualities. The Man of the Day Award went to Kaleb Gibson- Lelilio who played an age group up and showed true grit, determination and commitment in all three games.

I thank the boys for all their efforts and look forward to coaching them throughout this year to build on our skills and be a force to be reckoned with next year. Shannon Blunt

Changes to the daily collection of your children

As the school office is at its busiest between 8.30 to 9.30am and 2.30 to 3.00pm, we would like to encourage parents/carers to make plans prior to school in regards to changes in pick-up arrangements. We understand that emergency situations do arise where you need to deviate from your usual collection arrangements and we will assist you as much as we can in relaying this information to your child. It would be more beneficial however if you could send a note with your child for the class teacher so that they are directly aware of any changes and can ensure that your child remembers what they need to do or where they need to go.

Sick Notification

If you know your child is unwell and will not be attending school there is no need to ring the school. Please send an explanation note to the teacher on your child’s return.

Spare Uniforms

We would be grateful if spare clothes that the students are given to change into could be washed and returned in a timely manner. Our supplies are very low as many are not being returned.

Permission Notes

Could you please ensure you write your child’s first name, last name and class when you complete permission notes. It is time-consuming for office staff to have to work out which child a note belongs to if only a first name and no class has been written on the note. We have several children in the school with the same first name, as well as families with the same surname.

A reminder too that when returning permission notes for excursions, camps, and any school activities for which a permission note is sent home, please note that a separate permission note is required for each child. This is a departmental legal requirement.

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Lost Property There are a number of plastic containers, lunchboxes and drink bottles plus items of clothing in lost property at the moment with no name on them.

Could you please ensure all such items are clearly labelled with your child’s name so

they can be returned to them. If they are not collected soon they will be disposed of.

This year BEPS will be organising parent/teacher interviews using the online ‘School Interviews’ system. Interviews will be taking place in Week 5. A note will be coming home with booking information on Friday 4 August. Bookings will open Week 4, 9am Monday 7 August and close at 3pm on Friday 11 August. Interviews are strictly 10 minutes and spaces are limited.

PLEASE NOTE we are unable to accept payments past the cut-off date on the note. Please carefully note date for payment and return of permission notes. If notes and payment are not returned in time, your child will be excluded from the activity.

If paying by cash, please send correct money as the school does not hold a cash float.

Alternatively you may pay via EFTPOS in person at the front office, or pay online via the school website, under the ‘Make a Payment’ link on the home page.

Statement of Account The most recent Statement of Account will be coming home on Friday 28 July. If you note any discrepancies on your statement, could you please note the date that the Statement was printed (26

July).

Band and Dance fees

There is a large number of outstanding fees for Band and Dance. It would be appreciated if payment for these could be made at the BEGINNING of each term.

Our School has our own free Skoolbag iPhone and Android App to help us communicate more effectively with our Parent/Student community.

We are asking Parents/Students to install our Skoolbag School App. To install it, just search for our school name Blaxland East Public School in either the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

For Windows users search for Skoolbag in the Windows Store and install the app and then find your school. Please note it must be a Windows 8.1 or 10 device.

You can find step by step instructions here.

If you would like more information about Skoolbag, click here.

Skoollbag can also be accessed via Blaxland East Public School’s website— go to the homepage and click on the ‘Skoolbag’ heading on the right side at the top.

You can then view the Skoolbag plugin and access and print any relevant notes and information just as you can from the app.

If you have or know of a student that will be enrolling in Kindergarten at BEPS in 2018 please call into the school office to complete the enrolment process.

The Transition days for 2018 Kindergarten students are as follows:

Friday 15 September, 2017 9:15 -10:45am Friday 20 October, 2017 9:15 -10.45am Friday 3 November, 2017 9:15 -10:45am

Friday 17 November, 2017 9:15 -12.00pm

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Phew! Welcome back to Term 3 and what a busy first week we had.

On Wednesday this week we farewelled one of our wonderful teachers who has been at BEPS for 22 years – Mrs Debrah Barsley, with a ‘High Tea’. Mrs Barsley has taught in a variety of roles at our school over the years, but has spent the last few as our Librarian. No matter what job she is given, Mrs Barsley does everything to the highest standard. She is always on top of new technology and teaching syllabus and the students always learn from her. I know that I will miss her, as will all the staff at BEPS, but I would like to thank her for her wonderful dedication to teaching and the students at BEPS, her support of myself and the other staff at the school and her friendship over the years and to wish her all the best in her retirement. Thanks Mrs Barsley. Thanks also to Mrs Wallis who did a wonderful job organising the Morning Tea and inviting many friends and colleagues along.

Last week our Athletics Carnival was held on Thursday at Glenbrook and what a fantastic day everyone had. Everyone participated courageously and did their very best in all the events. Well done. Thanks to all the staff and parent helpers who made the carnival run so smoothly and an especially big thank you to Ashlee Thomas who organised the carnival. Thanks Ashlee!

On Friday, we all wore red, black and yellow as a mark of respect and had an amazing day of activities to celebrate and learn about Aboriginal culture. Students had a wonderful time again with all the activities they participated in. It was especially timely that the Welcome to Country was given in both Dharrug and Gundungurra languages by Uncle Greg Simms as the theme this year for NAIDOC week was ‘Our Languages Matter’. Uncle Greg and Aunty Carol Cooper both told stories of their childhood to senior students and Uncle Greg also had some artifacts on display and gave a few souvenir boomerangs away to students. A huge thank you goes to Mrs Janene Pearson and Mr Shannon Blunt who worked very hard to make sure our day went smoothly and was fun for all.

Also on Friday, four of our students represented Western at the State Cross Country Carnival. They all did their very best and came home very tired. Well done and congratulations Isla Puri, Deanna Drake, Virginia Cole and Will Haydon. You all deserve a big pat on the back.

Looking ahead we have Education Week next week, with our Open Day, Assembly, Science Fair and Art Show on Wednesday 2 August, 2017. Please come along and join us for a wonderful day celebrating Public Education.

In Week 4 we have a school camp to Canberra for Year 6 and an excursion for Years 1 and 2. We hope you enjoy your time away and come back with lots of stories to tell.

Finally, the following week, we are planning to have interviews again for parents and teachers, so watch out for the details coming home soon.

Thanks to everyone for their ongoing hard work so far this term – it promises to be another busy one.

Cheers

Kerry

K - 2 Term 2 Week 10 Joel Bunting KP Amelia Duncan 1H Charlotte Plummer 2M

Term 3 Week 1 Eloise Scott KC Luke Halir 1H Leevi Flynn 2M

Term 3 Week 2 Alfie Prowse KC Frankie Cleary 1H Madeleine Nott 2B

$5.00 AUGUST MEAL DEAL

How to order at school or online Lunch orders must be placed in class baskets before 9.00am each morning. Lunches are delivered to the classrooms at the beginning of lunchtime.

Students in Kindergarten and Year 1 may order recess through class baskets and buy snacks and drinks over the counter at lunchtime.

You can also order online via Our Online Canteen - information can be found here.

An updated pricelist can be found here on the school’s website, or on the Skoolbag App.

*****PRICE INCREASE FROM TERM 3 2017****

 Yummy Drummies will increase in price from $1 to $1.20

Travis Edwards stars in Australian Ninja Warrior

Travis Edwards’ (ex-BEPS student, Year 6 2003) experience on the reality TV show Australian Ninja Warrior has left him hungry for more.

He was one of a diverse range of competitors who lined up for their shot at taking the Ninja crown on the highly challenging Ninja Island obstacle course, built on Cockatoo Island in Sydney.

The Mountains-raised Ninja competitor attended Blaxland High School, but now lives in Penrith. The show debuted on Sunday, attracting 1.6 million viewers, and Edwards features in the fourth episode to air on July 16.

While he was tight-lipped about how far through the series he progresses, Edwards said he was already in training to try his luck at a potential second series. He hopes his knowledge of some of the obstacles will be an advantage to progression in a second series.

“Some [obstacles] are trickier than others. Others aren’t hard at all,” he said.

Filmed late last year, the 25-year-old gymnastics coach said he did no training for the first series whatsoever. “I didn’t even go into the gym. Absolutely nothing. The less I do the better I become.” Although he did admit “my strength and fitness have always been pretty good.” It was a really good experience and I’m keen to go for it again.- Travis Edwards

As the obstacles get more challenging, they take progressively longer to complete.Edwards was taking on obstacles three to five minutes in duration, and said he found the forearm endurance a real challenge.“My forearm endurance got me. I got a bit crampy. I found that the toughest and my cardio was not that good,” he said. “One of the best parts of the experience was how well everyone got along with each other. There was a similar headspace and mindset, no-one was cocky. They were there for themselves and pushing everybody.”

A gymnastics coach for 10 years, Edwards first took up gymnastics at age three, but a knee injury at 15 after qualifying for a national squad, stopped him in his tracks. He says coaching is a safer option for him these days and he can “live it through the gymnasts.”

“After seeing the American [Ninja Warrior] shows I thought this was perfect for my body type. I’ve been waiting for it to come to Australia,” Edwards said. “It was a really good experience and I’m keen to go for it again.”

Blue Mountains Gazette