ENewsletter

Principal's Message

We are incredibly fortunate to have some amazing and dedicated teachers working hard to make school a great place to show up for every day. Big shout out to the very popular Mr Hoppy who coordinated a brilliant RESPECT Day - it was a chilly day but parents and carers turned out to join in. Thank you to those parents, carers, grandparents, aunts and uncles that came out into the cold and joined the fun. It was really, really good to see you and we especially want to thank you for the positive feedback. We are seeing our kids become more comfortable with school and wanting to be a part of our extra-curricular activities. Those isolation days are fading away.

Next term we have planned some great things. Firstly, our postponed NAIDOC is on the first day back (Tuesday 19 July). A free excursion to Callaghan College Jesmond Campus to see the student performance of Grease is scheduled for Friday 29 July and a whole school excursion to Murrook is booked in for Friday 16 September at a cost of $10 per student. And of course, Term 3 is Education Week and Book Week, and we hope our families can join us to celebrate these events.

Please enjoy a safe and happy holiday and thank you from the staff of Plattsburg for your amazing support.

Important Dates

Thursday, 30th June 2022

Teacher's Strike - Minimal supervision

Friday, 1st July 2022

NAIDOC Day POSTPONED until Tuesday 19th July

Friday, 1st July 2022

Last Day of Term 2

Monday, 18th July 2022

Staff Development Day - No Students

Tuesday, 19th July 2022

1st day of Term 3 for all students

Tuesday, 19th July 2022

NAIDOC Day Celebrations at Federal Park

BBQ Lunch, All Invited from 10am

Thursday, 28th July 2022

Year 5 Opportunity Class Placement Test

Tuesday and Wednesday, 2nd-3rd August 2022

Callaghan College Wallsend Year 7 Taster Lessons

Wednesday, 3rd August 2022

Book Week Fair and Parade

Monday, 8th August 2022

P&C Meeting

Monday, 22nd August 2022

Kindergarten Student Orientation - 9:30am to 10:30am

Sunday, 28th August 2022

Bunnings Wallsend BBQ - P&C Fundraiser

Monday, 5th September 2022

Kindergarten Student Orientation - 9:30am to 10:30am

Tuesday, 13th September 2022

School Photos

Monday, 19th September 2022

Handball Competition

Wednesday, 19th October 2022

Year 7 Selective High School Applications Open

Friday, 28th October 2022

Day for Daniel - Keeping Kids Safe

Monday, 31st October 2022

Halloween Spectacular

Wednesday, 9th November 2022

Kindergarten Parent/Carer Information Evening

Wednesday. 16th November 2022

Kindy 2023 Picnic 9:30am to 10:15am

Thursday, 24th November 2022

Kindergarten Student Orientation - 9:30am to 10:30am

Thursday, 1st December 2022

Kindergarten Orientation - 9:30am to 10:30am

Tuesday, 29th November 2022

Year 7 CCWC Orientation Day

Thursday, 1st December 2022

Kindergarten Student Orientation - 9:30am to 10:30am

Friday, 9th December 2022

Everyone Belongs Multi Themed Gala Day

K-2 in the Gully, 3-6 at Federal Park

Wednesday, 14th December 2022

Presentation Day

Thursday, 15th 2022

Year 6 Graduation

NAIDOC Celebrations at Callaghan College Wallsend Campus

We are slowly getting back to our close partnership with Callaghan College Wallsend Campus. On Tuesday 28 June we were invited to join the celebration of NAIDOC with CC Wallsend. Our Year 6 Didj players joined Wallsend Campus and Jesmond Campus students on stage. If you look carefully at the pictures included, you might notice some of our ex-students also playing. A small troupe of our Cultural Dancers also presented a dance. Thank you CCWallsend for the invite and well-done Plattsburg!

Plattsy Performing at CCWC

NAIDOC Day Celebration Postponement

Unfortunately we have had to make the very difficult decision to postpone our NAIDOC Day Celebrations this Friday at Federal Park due to the inclement weather. A great deal of preparation has gone into what will be a fantastic celebration on Tuesday 19th July, which is the first day of Term 3.

All ONLINE sausage sizzle orders will be refunded back to your Quickcliq account. and a normal canteen menu will be available this Friday. Paper orders will be held until the new date. We are share in your disappointment but look forward to having this very important event with clear skies and a dry park.

Respect Day 2022

Thank you to the whole school community for participating in Respect Day. Respect is on of our school values and it was awesome to see this on display today. The sea of yellow was excellent as well! We look forward to Respect Day in 2023.

Over 300 photos were taken on the day and are available to view on our school's website.

Respect Day Gallery

1/2B Supporting Beanies for Brain Cancer Day

Junk Sculpture Competition

Solar Car Challenge

An account of the Solar Car Challenge written by Payton Bauer & Amelia Robertson

The year six solar car challenge for 2022 spanned for five weeks with 2 hour long sessions each week from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. There were five schools present at the challenge. The five schools included were Minmi, Wallsend, Mayfield, Glendore and of course our own school, Plattsburg Public. Plattsburg’s chosen students were Hartley Osland, Harrison Kiley, Payton Bauer and Amelia Robertson.

Over the course of the 5 weeks, we created a solar car to be raced on the final week of the challenge. We also made a presentation to be shown on the final week of the event.

During the build, we were given a selection of gears to put on our rear axle. We chose the two biggest gears because we thought they would give us good acceleration and speed, but on the day of the race something terrible occurred… Harrison didn’t solder the cords correctly so the car refused to move without a little head-start (a push).

The children who made the car had a few theories on why it didn’t go as fast as they predicted. One of the theories was from Amelia Robertson, and her theory was “I don’t think it ran as fast because the ground was well worn and there were many small potholes in the ground, making the racetrack a little less smooth.”

The first week was mostly spent by filling in a safety form and watching Mr. Westley (the teacher) cut some corflute for the base of our cars. Afterwards they hot glued a small corflute plate to the front of the car. After that Mr Westley explained what we would be doing over the next four weeks and some of the safety requirements to go into the workshop.

In week two, they attached the four wheels and two gears, one to the rear right axle and the other one to the motor. As well as attaching the wheels, Payton and Amelia started on the presentation, (leaving Harrison and Hartley to finish the rest of the car) creating the first two slides (the title page and the first slide).

In the third week, the group of four was divided into two groups, with two people doing the presentation (Payton and Amelia) and the other two doing the solar car (Harrison and Hartley). Harrison and Hartley attached the solar panel and the battery pack, whilst Payton and Amelia created the next 3 slides.

In the fourth week the finishing touches were made, the slides were finished and the solar car was tested but then disaster struck… our laptop ran out of juice and we had no idea if it had been autosaved or not. But when we loaded back into the new laptop everything was luckily still there and they could do the biggest sigh ever.

On the final week, the presentations were presented (Plattsy’s got the most laughs by far) and the moment of truth, had four weeks of work paid off? Was the solar car going to win? Were they going to be victorious? The simple answer waaaaaasssssssssss… NO. The car was malfunctioning, they couldn’t figure out why, it took a solid twenty minutes to realise what had left the car so faulty, a very poor soldering job on the wire that connected the solar panel to the switch. Plattsburg had lost every single race.

We now have some quotes from the four children who entered the competition and helped in creating it over the five weeks.

“I’d recommend it to all year fives going into year six next year.” - Harrison Kiley - 2022

“It was interesting to build a solar car and see all of its interesting components” - Hartley Osland - 2022

“Even though I didn’t do much of the solar car it was still interesting to do the powerpoint presentation and learn about the solar cars of the past.” - Payton Bauer - 2022

“It was so much fun to meet so many new people I could get to know even better in year seven and learn some of what year seven learns in the TAS faculty.” - Amelia Robertson - 20222

Made by Payton Bauer & Amelia Robertson

5/6S STEM

Last week, 5/6S explored the wonders of science and technology through a VR kit from STEM T4L. The students enjoyed investigating the neurons inside the brain, flying through space, exploring foreign lands, and completing challenges in an augmented reality classroom. A few student volunteers then utilised their knowledge to teach 5/6T how to use the new technology so that all Stage 3 students could enjoy the exciting experience.

Stage 2 Formula Dash

The Stage 2 Formula Dash season wrapped up last Friday afternoon in what can only be described as an action-packed final round.Following the penultimate round where team MEP Besties held the lead, a series of crashes saw major changes to the championship standings.

During the practice round race marshals were kept busy handing out 'Sportsmanship Bonuses' as teams were working together in harmony at this point of the season. A special mention to team Lightening Gang for top scoring the sportsmanship tally with 170 bonus points!

9 teams were able to fully complete the final circuit which included a required performance in pit lane. Team Sparkles were the eventual winners and our trackside reporter was able to catch up with the winning team.

Coming into the final round sitting 4th, team Sparkle reported they were' feeling pretty confident' once they saw the track. When asked how they felt once they saw the track Ava replied, "I liked it." Jayden answered "I thought it was pretty good." and Essa, who was away that day, said he wished he was back at school.

Team Sparkles said that Jayden 'took the lead' with the required coding this round and when asked about their Dash's pit lane performance of a 'toot-toot- sound' he replied, "I thought it would make it spicier and be funny."Describing their pre-race emotions the team said they were most scared before their race but felt confident they had a large enough lead after their race that was completed without error.

A final word from each team member for future racers:

Ava- "Just keep going when you're getting nervous and practice a million times."

Essa- "Work hard for Dash."

Jayden- "Just don't be nervous and just have fun."

Children's University

On Thursday 23rd July, 16 students from years 3-6 visited the University of Newcastle Callaghan Campus with Miss Sarah as part of the Children's University program. Throughout the day, students, parents and carers participated in a variety of activities presented by experts across various areas of the university. We got creative in the Construction Management building and the students beat the carers in making the strongest structures. Next, we headed to the library and became curators for the day - discovering 'ancient' technology such as VHS tapes! After a leisurely lunch, we participated in a nature scavenger hunt with ecological sciences, followed by an opportunity to become pharmacists for the afternoon in a real pharmacy lab. The students reported having a fabulous time and many are excited to visit again in future.

Children's University Gallery - Click each image to scroll through

Canteen News

Thank you for supporting your school canteen this Term. Students have enjoyed a variety of meals for lunch with our Pasta Bolognaise a clear favourite. Parents/Carers have supported our online ordering system through Quickcliq which streamlines ordering, banking and stock taking for the canteen.

The canteen has met a few challenges this Term with milk supply issues and wholesale price increase...$10 lettuce! Term 3 will see a small amount of menu items increase in price. To keep our canteen open 5 days per week, these increases are unavoidable and we will continue to source supplies at the cheapest price possible to minimally impact our families.

NAIDOC Day celebrations have been postponed until the first day of Term 3, Tuesday 19th July and families are reminded to order the special Sausage Sizzle Meal Deal for themselves and their child to enjoy at Federal Park.

Regional Football Team

Congratulations to Navid Karimi and Lachlan Blayden on making the reserves list for the Regional Football Team. Both boys represented PPS at Zone Football Trials on Tuesday 14th June.

State Cross Country

Congratulations to Navid for making the reserves list for State Cross Country!

MOTIV8 SPORTS

A note was sent home last week for MOTIV8SPORTS 2-Day Olympic Camp. The cost of the 2 day camp is $100, however MOTIV8 Sports have generously offered 50 free camp passes exclusively to Plattsburg PS students. The camp is run in the school holidays on the 11th and 12th July from 8:30 am to 3:00pm each day. Please visit https://motiv8sports.com.au/ for more information of this camp and fantastic opportunity for our students to attend for free.

Disease detectives wanted!

FluTracking is a crowd-sourced surveillance system involving the completion of a weekly web-based survey, and we are looking for disease detectives to help us out! Taking less than 30 seconds to complete each week, we would like to invite students and families to participate in this innovative program that can quickly identify the onset of flu and COVID-19, and their impact and severity in the community.

With younger children being at an increased risk of severe complications from influenza, we believe this an important program for young families to participate in.

If you would like to participate, please visit the following link:

https://www.flutracking.net/join/AE/inv87