ENewsletter

Principal's report

Things are again starting to feel normal! This week we have had around 95% attendance each day. It’s been a real joy to greet children as them come into the school and to watch their growing confidence as they return to their classes and reconnect with friends. The children appear happy and settled and teachers are delighted to be back doing what they enjoy most.

The hand washing and sanitising continues to be an integral part of the day’s routine and the additional cleaning from the department’s contractor is doing a wonderful job of maintaining a hygienic environment throughout the day. Thank you Jenny!

Thank you parents and carers for adhering to the direction to remain outside the school gates. All of these measures have been implemented to keep our students safe and healthy and it is working!

We have had very few children or staff absent due to illness recently.

The next challenge for teaching staff will be delivering semester one student reports to parents. While a substantial amount of face-to-face explicit teaching time has been lost, we are grateful for the support of parents and carers in delivering stage appropriate content to maintain continuity of learning.

In the coming weeks teachers will be assessing student progress in numeracy and literacy. These are the only key learning areas that will be reported on this semester. There will be no A to E grading but comments about individual performance, areas of concern and areas for future development will be included in the report.

Term 2 update

2021 to 2023 Year 6 jumper - due to supply issues and increased costs there has been a need to change the Year 6 jumper. The students in Years 3 to 6 were surveyed about their preferred Year 6 jumper. The successful style will be available in the office soon to view prior to ordering for 2021. They will be about $50.

2021 enrolments - please contact the office with information on any siblings or neighbours' children coming to our school in 2021. It is unknown what the transition program will look like at this stage. Enrolment forms are going online and will be made available as we receive them.

Canberra refunds - the school is seeking 100% refunds on the cancelled Canberra excursion. More information will be sent home soon about this.

Semester one student reports - these will be going home in the last week of the term.

COVID-19 restrictions - the department has a number of restrictions in place that we ask all students and parents to adhere to. We will not commence our canteen yet. It is anticipated that the library will operate next term.

Phonics screening trial - the Year 1 students will be screened by Mrs Gale for their phonics. Our school is a part of trial for a new department wide project.

Staff update - as a part of the department's COVID-19 stimulus, we have been lucky to have Mrs Kylie Windsor with us each week for 2 days per week in term 2. We hope to see her around in term 3.

Captain's report

For the past two weeks we have been getting back in to our normal routine. Everyone has returned back to school from home learning and are keen. There are still health rules in place to keep us safe at school like cleaning all equipment after use and washing hands when coming in and out of classrooms.

We welcome our new part time teacher, Mrs Windsor. She teaches here on Thursday and Fridays in all our wonderful classrooms. We have started a new kindness challenge. Each week we set a challenge to everyone in the school to complete. We both have Nutsys to hand out to any children we see completing these challenges. This week’s kindness challenge is to remember to say "Please" and "Thank you". We will be listening.

Remember to hand in all your Nutsys to receive a pennant at the end of the year.

Have a great week!

By Ava and Eilish

Year 6

Sports report

This term we have needed to change plans with sport. We have had re-arranged the term to no longer having any sporting carnivals or gala days due to the COVID-19 virus.

We have also changed the way we play with equipment for recess and lunch and change the way we have sport on Fridays.

We have had some different places where the kids could play with certain equipment on different days. We have placed hula-hoops and skipping ropes in the COLA and have had music playing on the speakers. We are looking for song requests, so come and see us in the cola.

By James and Molly

Year 6

Library report

Thank you to the students of Meadow Flat Public School that have brought their library books back to school. If you have not returned them, make sure to bring them in when you find them. We have not been going to the library but we hope to be back there next term. If you can not find your books please tell Mrs Marshall and she will look in to it for you.

By Jordyn and Tayah

Year 5

Farm report

This term, the chooks have been living at Mr Wood’s, Mrs Marshall’s and Pete’s houses while the new chook pen is being built.

The chooks living at Pete’s house have improved with their health and are very happy with their new home. We hope when our chooks come back we will be getting plenty of fresh eggs to sell in the office for $5.00 a carton.

We are hoping to be able to send our chooks to the Royal Sydney Easter Show in the year 2021. Due to the pandemic we weren’t able to send our chooks to the show this year.

We are also hoping to get our garden up and running now we are all back at school.

By Brae and Ellie

Year 5

Technology report

At the start of this term Mr Wood purchased 18 new Apple iPads for us to use. They are full of educational games for Kinder to Year six. This year we have 33 iPads in the school so this means that each class will get 11 iPads to use each day.

We have three trolleys that all the iPads and laptops go into to get charged and then locked away for the night.

By Katie and Matilda

Year 6

Today where are going to explain Mathletics and Microsoft Teams.

Mathletics is paid by the school so that students can play for free. Mathletics is a maths learning website where your teacher sets work for you to complete. Once you complete your set tasks you can play online and play against people in your class, your school, online around the world or against computers.

You can choose what level you do and after you complete that level you can go up to the next on and play against your friends on a harder level. Mathletics is a trusted app and will help you learn your maths.

Teams is supplied by the school for you to keep in contact with your teachers from home. Your teachers can set work on teams for you to do when you are working from home. As you complete your set work you can take pictures and send your work to your teacher and let your teacher mark it.

By Toby and Kane

Year 6

Wollemi class - click to watch

As a thank you to their parents for helping them while learning at home during the COVID-19 period, the students in Wollemi created this video to thank their parents.

Enjoy!

Wollemi - Thanks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA02neuqyOY

Reconciliation week

At school we have been learning about Reconciliation Week.

For Reconciliation Week we have learned about famous Indigenous people and how they represent our nation.

So far, we have learnt about two Indigenous people. They are Patty Mills and Cathy Freeman. We have also done some paintings and drawings.

by Lachy D and Marlin

Year 4

By Katie

By Felix

By Ellie

By Molly

Learning from home

For 6 weeks most kids have been learning from home. It has been very different from learning at school. Our mums and dads were helping us as much as they could.

We could still communicate with Miss Black through Microsoft Teams. We were doing Zoom meeting with some of the class or some just in your year group.

I think we all agree that it was good because we could have hot lunches and I guess, not getting sick. But we all missed our friends and don’t worry Miss Black, we missed you too!

by Lucy and Jada

Year 4

Platypus class

Students in K/1 are very happy to be back at school full time. Here are some photos of their experiences and work samples from whilst they were learning from home.

Thank you to all the parents for your hard work during this time.

By Blair, Year 1

On the weekend I got a nintendo switch and came came over for dinner because we had dinner for Mother’s day and we played the Nintendo Switch and we had marsh mellows.

On the Nintendo Switch we got two games - one was Minecraft and the other was Super Mario Bothers and we went shopping.

Ellie doing her maths.

Writing by Ellie, Kindergarten.

Harrison doing his spelling

Hunta, with his bunny who inspired his writing.

By Hunta

By Jake, Kindergarten

Jake with his mobile.

By Liam, Year 1

Oliver, Kindergarten with some of his work.

Writing and illustration,by Sienna

Sienna working on her maths

Picture and labels by Sophie, Kindergarten

Belinda with her craft

Violet with her Easter colouring.

Lyndall with her mobile.

Writing by Emery, Kindergarten

Bilby class

National Reconciliation Week is held annually from 27 May to 3 June. It is a time to celebrate and build on the respectful relationships shared by Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islanders and other Australians.

As part of our Reconciliation Week celebrations, Bilby class examined a variety of indigenous art works and created our own dot paintings.