Narrabri West Public School

Last Friday students received their Semester Two Academic Reports. This Friday many children will receive their Platinum Awards.  On behalf of all the teachers, please congratulate your children on a job well done.

The end of the school year is a special time for all of us, although it is a bit difficult to believe that December has arrived so quickly. It is a time to celebrate with our students for all they have accomplished and to acknowledge our dedicated staff and school community. It is a time to review all of the ways in which we have been successful and a time to begin making plans to build on that success in new ways that will positively shape our future.

Our students have had a strong learning year and none of this could have happened without a committed and enthusiastic school community. Our teachers and staff members are willing to give freely of themselves to provide many opportunities for our students to take on different challenges and enjoy new experiences. We are also grateful to the parents who have supported the school in so many ways.

Congratulations and thank you to the many people who assist us in providing the many additional programs and opportunities that assist our students to reach their potential.

To those of you who are leaving us for new places and adventures, we wish you all the best. Congratulations to our very capable Year 6 students who are moving on to a new stage in their academic career!

On another note, we look forward to having lots of new faces at our school next year. We know everyone will make them feel very welcome.

We have had the speeches for each of the boys and girls who were standing for election to be school leaders in 2023. Students came with well organised speeches including some humour and they managed to keep the audience captivated. There was not a candidate that would not make a terrific captain or prefect and they can be very, very proud of their efforts. Of course, after these speeches were completed, Years 2 to 6 voted for the student leaders of their choice. 

The election results were incredibly close, which is not surprising when you consider the high quality of all candidates. We are very excited to announce that the students who received the highest number of votes from the students of Years 2-6, and therefore our school leaders for 2023 are:

Captains: Lexie Fernance and Fletcher Whan 

Prefects: Bridie Seymour, Isabelle Gale, Frankie Carolan, Max Booby, Charlie Cunningham and Sonny French

The new school leaders were presented with their badges on Presentation Night.

This week we elected our House Leaders for 2023. Congratulations to these students:    

Their first duty will be our Swimming Carnival next year.

English

This Term, Stage 3 have read and studied John Flanagan’s novel, Rangers Apprentice. Throughout the Term we explored a range of persuasive devices to plan, draft and publish a speech to apply for a craft apprenticeship. We heard some excellent persuasive oral presentations where students applied to be blacksmiths, rangers, battle school cadets and many more.

Reading

Stage 3 have been hard at work during our reading groups and guided reading sessions. Students have engaged in a wide variety of activities to improve their comprehension and reading abilities. Our fortnightly focuses have been analysing literary devices, making inferences, connecting ideas within a text and comparing and contrasting texts.

Science

Science this Term has revolved around the exploration of geological changes such as tsunamis, earthquakes and droughts. We applied the scientific process to plan, create and test earthquake proof houses. Stage 3 students worked in groups to design their houses to withstand an earthquake simulator, however some houses were built too well, so extra testing was required to test the durability.

Presentation Night

Throughout the course of this Term Stage 3 along with the other stages have put their dancing shoes on and practiced hard to prepare for the presentation night held in week 9. Stage 3’s performance was to the song ‘Move Your Feet’ By Junior Senior from the DreamWorks movie Trolls. We organised our stage into dancers and singers with Year’s 5 and 6 singing in separate groups. With the hard work of the students and under the tutelage of Mr T and Mrs Smith, the performers were able to put on an awesome performance worthy of being shown at the presentation night.

PDHPE

In PDH lessons this term, Stage 3 students have had the opportunity to learn about community health and nutrition. Students have explored what community health programs are and examples of these programs within our own community, from footy clubs to hospitals. In PE, students were able to practice their tennis skills with the guidance of a professional coach and gain an understanding of the game of tennis. Students have also explored a variety of different sports such as AFL, Gymnastics, Ultimate Frisbee and Cricket.

Mrs Baker, Mr Gilliland, Mr Paull, Mrs Smith and Mr Tester have had an excellent Term and year with Stage 3. We wish all of our Year 6 students the best as they venture off to high school next year and look forward to seeing the smiling faces of the Year 5 students at school in 2023.

Presentation Night was held at the Crossing Theatre last Thursday. We hope students enjoyed the opportunity to acknowledge the achievements and successes of the students of Narrabri West.  Thank you to the teachers for all your hard work and we know you are very proud of them.

Class Awards:

The Narrabri West Public School community would like to thank the committee of the Narrabri Community Education Trust for our distribution of funds for 2022. These funds are a most welcome benefit for our school as they enable us to purchase resources that would otherwise be beyond our funding capabilities. This year the funds will be used to upgrade our outdoor learning areas. The benefits of this project to our school will be appreciated by students both now and long into the future. We would like to thank the committee for their commitment to the school children of Narrabri and we look forward to another year of successful farming in 2023.

We would also like to acknowledge other businesses, organisations and individuals for their kind donations throughout the year. Carla Baxter Real Estate for donating 14 classroom trolleys. These trolleys have been well received and a valuable piece of class equipment. Carla has also kindly covered the Crossing Theatre cost for our Presentation Night. Narrabri West Public School would like to thank Carla for her generosity and ongoing support. We would like to thank Betty and the late Wayne Grove for their generous donation, a new student fridge. Students are encouraged to use the fridge to keep their lunch cold, this is particularly helpfully in the hotter months. Thank you Angela and Jamie Anderson for donating a gorilla trolley to the canteen to assist canteen staff with moving heavy items of stock. Narrabri Lions and Lioness’ clubs, Rotary Club, Narrabri RSL Sub-Branch, Narrabri Shire Council, Cotton Research and Development Corporation, Allen and Regina Stoltenberg and Roy Butler for the continued Presentation Night support.

Earlier this year 4O could choose to write a short story or poem and enter it into the National Treasures student writing competition. Some students from 4O choose to use their lunch times and free time at home to write. Maicee and Mikaela were some of the students chosen to have their poems published in the book. What an amazing achievement! 

The Year 6 farewell was held at the RSL Club Monday December 12th. Thank you Year 6 for your contribution to our school over 7 years, or 8 if you went to our Preschool!

It was wonderful to see so many families coming to celebrate our end of the year Family and Friends Christmas picnic. 

Semester 2 reports are an indication of your child’s achievements during the past two terms and our teachers have been assessing students according to curriculum outcomes which generally allow two years for students to progress through each stage. The report gives you information about their academic, physical and social development at this point in their education. They included:

·         Clear, accurate information about the performance of each child;

·         Information on what the student can do well;

·         Areas still developing; and

·         Information about the student’s social skills and commitment to learning.

Learning is continuous and children learn at different rates.  However all children need encouragement and praise to be confident, happy learners. Some children try very hard and find learning difficult. They deserve your praise and encouragement. Some children find learning easy and often don’t try as hard as they could. Your encouragement here is critical as well. For those students who have no difficulty learning and put a lot of effort into their work, they need continued acknowledgement and praise to keep this level of enthusiasm and commitment. For those students whose effort is minimal, closer home and school partnerships are an important key to improvement.

If you wish to discuss any aspect of these, please arrange a suitable time with your child’s teacher.

… to everyone for your support of the school during 2022. We thank you for giving us the opportunity to work with your children and to enjoy their company.

Our staff would also particularly like to thank all parents who have assisted the school in any way. Your support and assistance is vital. 

With only two days left in our school year, the staff and students are busy finalising learning programs, assessments and tidying classrooms.

Over the past few weeks we have been planning classes and teachers for 2023. These classes will not be finalised until the beginning of 2023 as we will need to place any new enrolments that may arrive at the beginning of the year. Therefore students may not go into their new classes until our final enrolments are known. We aim to place students in their 2023 class on the first day of Term 1. Students will start the first day in their 2022 classes and classrooms.

We are currently working on our Strategic Improvement Plan annual reflections and evaluations for 2022 and planning for our 2023 activities. This working document details the steps our school will take to improve learning outcomes and the achievement and growth of all students.

 To ensure continuous improvement, the Strategic Improvement Plan (SIP) reflects where our school is at and how it will further improve learning, teaching and leading.

Our new draft strategic directions are:

1.      School growth and attainment

2.      Responsive teaching and active learning

3.      Leadership for learning

When schools, families and the broader community work together to develop positive connections, students thrive.

We will be providing you with opportunities to comment on our strategic directions and look forward to your input.

We are presently organising our class structure for 2023. One part of this is the allocation of students to each of the new classes. We would like to point out a few facts about the assigning of students to class groups and ultimately, teachers to classes. This process is always a complex issue, which the school takes very seriously and parents usually understand how difficult the issue of assigning students to classes can be.

For those new to the school, it is worthwhile again to outline the school’s procedures for this very important task. Literally dozens of hours of work go into the formation of classes and looking at the students that are placed together to make a class. We ensure that all necessary factors are taken into account during this process and try to take into account the following factors:

·         The number of classes in each stage of learning (ie Early Stage 1, Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3);

·         An equal division of students as possible in each year level into the number of classes;

·         Balance of gender in the class;

·         Spread of students with additional needs;

·         The issue of siblings being in the same class;

·         Mix of independent and dependent workers; and

·         Whether students have had the teacher before.

To ensure that we develop the optimal balance in classes, we also use a range of assessments and information to base our decisions on as well.

As you can see, the allocation of students to class groups is not a simple process where students are thrown together in a haphazard manner. It is a task which we tackle with great thought and consideration.

The development of class groups precedes the actual allocation of the teacher to the class, as often final staffing is only known in the last week of term or at the beginning of the year.

If you are not going to be at Narrabri West in 2023 could you please let us know ASAP as this may impact on our class plans for next year.

We have included with this newsletter the class requirements for each grade next year. This is so you can plan ahead and take advantage of the usual January back to school sales. 

Narrabri West Public School

CLASS REQUIREMENTS FOR 2023

** NO FELT TIP PENS **

Kinder, Stage 1 and Stage 2 – please provide glue sticks in a zip lock bag with the child’s name on the bag.

For Years 3-6 - please provide the necessary items in a clearly labeled pencil case.

Thank you for providing the items listed for your child's class.

PLEASE LABEL ALL ITEMS SENT TO SCHOOL - CLOTHING AS WELL

Our 2023 swimming carnival will be held on Monday February 13th. The carnival will be for students in Years 3-6, however students entering Year 2 (in 2023) who turn 8 in 2023 and compete in Narrabri Swimming Club events may also attend at parent’s request.

Our school takes sun safety seriously and implements a range of strategies to support our school environment so that students are protected from the damaging effects of the sun.

We have a responsibility to provide a safe environment for students and staff and this includes providing adequate protection from the sun.

As we are now in the warmest time of the year, it is important that all students wear their hats when outside. It is also a great idea to pack some sunscreen into your child’s bag so that they can apply this throughout the day.

If students do not bring their hats to school, they will be asked to seek shade and play under the covered areas of the school.

Next year we will again supply all students in the school with a free blue broad brimmed hat. Caps are not permitted and only children wearing school hats will be allowed to play outside. Students representing the school in out of school events must also wear the school hat. We thank every student in the school for their continued support of this policy. 

December                2022

Enrolments for 2023 are progressing very well and thank you to all those people who have already indicated their children will be attending Narrabri West next year.

Please encourage anyone you know who has children commencing school in 2023 to advise the school so that we can accurately commence planning. Students attending local preschools should have received packages promoting our school, highlighting our achievements and inviting them to consider Narrabri West. If your child attends another preschool and you have not received an information pack, please ask them for it, as we have supplied these to all preschools in Narrabri for distribution.

Department of Education preschools are included in the preschool fee waiver program for 2023 as announced by the Minister. Narrabri West Public School will continue to offer preschool free of charge in 2023.