Pigeon Post

From the Department of Education:

Dear parent or caregiver

The NSW Department of Education is working closely with the NSW Ministry of Health in response to the unfolding international COVID-19 (formerly referred to as Novel Coronavirus) situation.

Further travel restrictions

Effective of 5 March 2020, the Federal Government has issued updated advice on travel restrictions on foreign nationals (excluding permanent residents of Australia) coming to Australia from the Republic of Korea (South Korea).

Current advice from the NSW Government for parents and affected staff is:

• Any student or staff member who has left, or transited through mainland China since 1 February, Iran since 1 March or the Republic of Korea (South Korea) since 5 March, is excluded from child care services, school or work for 14 days from the date they left mainland China, Iran or the Republic of Korea (South Korea).
• Any confirmed case of COVID-19 will be excluded until they are medically cleared to return.
• Close contacts of a confirmed case of COVID-19 will be excluded for 14 days since last contact with the confirmed case.

Students and staff who have returned to Australia and have shown no symptoms during the 14-day self-isolation period are able to return to child care services, school or work.

The NSW Ministry of Health has processes to identify any close contacts of cases confirmed in Australia. Advice about not attending school would be provided to these close contacts by the NSW Ministry of Health.

Consistent with current guidelines, students who are unwell with respiratory illness should remain at home until symptoms resolve. In accordance with the NSW Department of Education’s current practice, if any student becomes unwell, the school will implement infection control guidelines and follow the advice provided by the NSW Ministry of Health as appropriate.

Maintaining good hygiene standards is an important way to reduce the risk of acquiring and spreading respiratory infections. Parents and caregivers are asked to promote good hygiene, including handwashing with soap as handwashing is the single most effective way to reduce the spread of germs that cause respiratory disease.

The NSW Ministry of Health has advice and resources about COVID-19 in English, Chinese and other languages

The NSW Department of Education will continue monitoring the COVID-19 situation and provide parents and caregivers with updated information about the virus.

Telephone Interpreter Service If you need further information please call your school principal. If you need an interpreter to assist you with your enquiry please call the Telephone Interpreter Service on 131 450 and ask for an interpreter in your language. This service will be free of charge to you.

The Selective High School Placement Test will be held on Thursday 12 March, 2020 from 9.00 am to 1.30 pm.

Unless parents have made special arrangements with the High Performing Students Team, to attend an individually allocated test centre, candidates from Balmain Public School have been allocated to Sydney Secondary College Balmain Campus (Terry St, Rozelle NSW 2039) for their test centre.

Please go to https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/selective-high-schools-and-opportunity-classes/year-7 to find:

- Test centre allocations by public school.

- A map of test centre addresses under the heading 'The test'.

- The bulletin (test information for parents and students). The bulletin contains very important information about the test and should be read carefully.

For any further questions, please contact the High Performing Students Team directly.

Harmony Day is on 21 March in Australia. 

We celebrate Harmony Day to promote diversity and acceptance of other cultures.

Harmony Day aims to start a conversation about heritage, culture and community. The event coincides with the United Nations' International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Venue: Balmain Public School

Dress:   Everyone to wear orange or come in your cultural dress

Students and families are invited to come dressed in their cultural dresses and share the diversity we have here at Balmain Public School.

Absences

Student absences can be emailed to the school  on Balmain-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au or Balmainps@gmail.com.  If you are planning on taking holidays during school term, you will need to contact the school to complete an Exemption form, which will be approved by the Principal.

Change of details

Please send change of details (such as: emergency contacts, address, mobile number, family situation) to the office, via email or Skoolbag.

Contacting teachers

If you need to contact your child's teacher, please email the school directly and your email will be forwarded.

Payments

Any payments are to be made through the Skoolbag app or clicking on the 'make a payment' tab on the school website.

If paying by cash or cheque, monies are to be placed into an envelope, clearly marked with student's first and last name, class and what the payment is for.  Please place in the white box outside the Office window. Permissions can also be placed in this box.

Hi,

On Wednesday, we thanked the 2019 P&C Committee - President Justin Dunwoody, Vice President Alma Dayawon and Treasurer Alvin Lau – for all the incredible work they did and then voted on a new Committee for 2020.

We’ve got some big plans for 2020 including the implementation of an exciting and ambitious climate and sustainability strategy and we need to make a decision about the future of our school’s main fundraiser, the Balmain Fun Run. It’s going to be a transformative year and we want to make sure that you are part of it all.

Starting this week, you’ll get regular updates from us about equipment and other investments we’re making, events and initiatives including financial decisions to support the work of our wonderful teachers in educating our children. We’ll also keep you up to date about volunteering opportunities – the success of our school and therefore our children’s experience of their primary school years is significantly improved by more parents getting involved.

I work full time and have 3 children and a dog - I know it’s not easy to put your hand up when there’s so much else going on. I want to find ways to make it easier for more parents to participate such as introducing zoom conferencing opportunities to make it easier for people to take part in our meetings. I’m really excited about what’s in store and look forward to working with you all!

If you have any questions about the P&C, please email us at balmainpspc@gmail.com

See you on the playground!

Shehana Darda-Teixeira

What a day!

Our team demonstrated such high levels of professionalism and sportsmanship at the Zone swimming carnival.

It was so exciting to see each student absolutely thrive in their element. Despite the heavy down pour, we had a fun day, filled with high levels of effort, focus and enthusiasm.

Special congratulations to Ben S, Olivia S, Henry S, Elise G and Mila F, who qualified for the next stage!

Huge THANKS to Ms Ferguson and Mr Carlton for organising and Ms Ally for also assisting on the day!

Congratulations to Sylvie, our Charity Minister, who is setting an absolute example! She's bravely cutting off her ponytail to support the Leukaemia Foundation - Sylvie is also helping her dad, Adam, be brave at the same time, as he's planning on shaving his beard!

We wish Sylvie and Adam the best of luck, as they are supporting a very good cause. If you are able to donate, please click here.

We have had a wonderful start to the year and are now settled into our new classroom! The International Year of Plant Health has seen us explore multiple units of work that are linked to the themes of plant health and sustainability. Our first written piece is a persuasive text that answers the question, “Should we protect our environment?” We have used the PEEL structure and high modality language to shape and build our written pieces. 

In maths, we have been enjoying our weekly investigations that encourage us to apply the skills that we have been explicitly taught into a new context. 

Clean up Australia Day was a great initiative for our school. We had a great time cleaning up our school grounds, making it cleaner for all of us! Thank you for taking the time to read about just some of things that we have been up to in 5/6 F!