Dudley Public School Newsletter

Welcome Kindergarten 

Last Thursday saw our newest school members join our school family. Kindergarten students have settled in wonderfully and their teachers have reported very positive feedback. Thanks to the P&C for facilitating the ‘Cuppa and Kleenex’ session to support parents and carers on Kindy’s first day. A very warm welcome to our kindergarten students and their families. We are looking toward sharing and help navigate your personal educational journey starting here at Dudley Public School.  

Supervision of Students 

Student safety is of paramount importance in every aspect of school. School systems and processes ensure that student supervision is carefully planned and monitored on a daily basis by all staff. In particular it is our duty of care to students in the playground during break times. Our staff are rostered for playground duty several times throughout the week and enforce the guidelines and rules of the playground to support student safety.  

Our morning supervision of students begins at 8:35am. Families should plan to have students arrive after this time. Students who arrive before this time will sit in the quad and wait for the supervising teacher to attend duty. Alternatively, for longer periods of time, families should engage in the Before and After School Care service. 

At the end of the day, K-2 staff will escort students toward the sandpit/playground area. Students from Years 3-6 will be dismissed from their classrooms by their teachers. Staff are also present around the school at the end to ensure student safety when crossing the road. The office staff are able to contact parents and carers of students who are still at school after 3:10pm on any school day.  

Attendance 2023 Expectations 

Education for your child is important and regular attendance at school is essential for your child to achieve their educational best and increase their career and life options. NSW public schools work in partnership with parents to encourage and support regular attendance of children and young people. When your child attends school every day, learning becomes easier and your child will build and maintain friendships with other children. Research highlights a clear correlation between student attendance and the achievement of quality academic, socio-economic and health outcomes. This research tells us that students with an attendance rate below 90% are educationally at risk. Above 95% is our expected student attendance (this equals 185 days present and above).  

 Parents and carers can support a positive school attendance culture by: 

• Reinforce the importance of attending school everyday with their children 

• Support students arriving on time everyday and being prepared for learning 

• Allowing students to stay home only when genuinely sick 

• Making specialist and medical appointments outside school hours 

• Working in partnership with the school to address any concerns or obstacles to student attendance 

• Planning and taking family holidays in school holiday periods 

 Throughout the year we will share whole school data with the community in our shared goal of improving student attendance for 2023. We thank you in advance for your support and commitment to this target. 

Update of personal details 

If you are aware of any changes to your contact details or areas of concern that affect your child at school can you please email the changes to the front office at dudley-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au . This includes information related to communication contact, medical or health needs and/or family issues (legal or personal). Thanks in advance for acting promptly in this case. 

NAPLAN 2023 

Year 3 and 5 students will be participating in the National Assessment program in Weeks 8 and 9 this term. This year Naplan testing is being conducted earlier to allow time for results to be utilised for teacher planning earlier in the school year to benefit student learning. All students in Years 3 and 5 will participate in online assessments based on numeracy, language conventions (grammar, punctuation and spelling), writing and reading.  

Teachers are currently identifying students in Years 3 and 5 who may benefit from adjustments to the delivery of test in the form of providing extra time and/or scheduling a rest break during the test. Parents of the identified students will be provided with an adjustment form that will need to be signed and returned as soon as possible to allow time for the modifications to be entered into the online test platform being the assessment takes place. Many thanks in advance for your cooperation with this process.   

Before and After School Care 

We are very fortunate to have a facilitated program for families to care for students before and after school hours. The service which runs in our old hall space, under the library operates between 7am-9am and 3pm-6pm. The service is provided by Janet and her wonderful team of educators through Victory OOSH. For more information regarding the service and enrolling then please contact Victory OOSH. 

Dudley Centre: 0429 489 737 (during operating hours) 

Office Phone: 0400 722 582 

Email: oosh@c3victory.org.au 

Website: victoryoosh.org.au 

 Have a wonderful week everyone.  

Kind Regards, 

Chad Tsakissiris 

Principal 

Book Packs have now been invoiced for all students. These packs include online licences and resources required for each child for the year. The NSW Back to School Vouchers are eligible to be used for Book Pack payments at the office. We are currently updating our system to accept these vouchers, we will notify you when you can begin using your vouchers. 

Kindergarten - $100

Stage 1 - $95

Stage 2 - $85

Stage 3 - $90

Voluntary Contribution - $35 per student (families with 3 or more children attending Dudley PS will have their contributions capped at $100). Unfortunately the Back to School Vouchers are unable to to be used for Voluntary Contribution.

Payments can be made upfront or paid off throughout the term by EFTPOS/Cash at the office or using our Parent Online Payment System (POP). 

To pay online please go to the Dudley Public School Website

https://dudley-p.schools.nsw.gov.au/

Select make a payment

Follow the prompts and fill out the mandatory fields

Parents ands carers are welcome to attend our Parent Information Evening on Thursday 16 February in the School Hall. These sessions will be conducted by the school executive team together with teaching staff. Information presented will include processes and systems of attendance, communication, organisation, curriculum, parent involvement and other aspects of school for 2023. Each session will run for 30 minutes and will begin promptly at the times listed below:

• Early Stage 1 (Kindergarten) - 5:00pm
• Stage 1 (Years 1 & 2) - 5:30pm
• Stage 2 (Years 3 & 4) - 6:00pm
• Stage 3 (Years 5 & 6) - 6:30pm

Please note that these sessions are for general information sharing, not for reporting or questioning about individual students. Our Parent-Teacher Interviews in Week 5 for Years 1-6 will be an opportunity for parents and carers to have this personalised conversation with their child’s teacher (see information in this newsletter).

Parent are reminded that all significant school events and relevant information for Term 1 is available on the Sentral Parent Portal using the ‘Calendar’ button/tab. In our efforts to improve effective communications with families the school will endeavour to provide up to date information regularly throughout the year to assist parents in knowing what’s happening around our school and the related opportunities to be involved in your child’s education at Dudley Public School. If you require assistance to access the Sentral Parent Portal then please contact the office staff on 49447203 or email the school with your details at dudley-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

We are already busy here in Dudley school library finding new books to read, exploring all the activities available at lunchtime and engaging with lessons during our weekly library sessions.

Please don't forget to bring a library bag for borrowing to keep our books safe and dry in our school bags. 

Book Club brochures are being sent home this week.

All orders must be completed online via LOOP, we can not process cash orders here at school. All orders earn rewards for our school. Please ensure orders are finalised by 20/2/23.

Please see PSSA link below for 2023 calendar and Swimming, athletics and cross coutnry carnival information.

https://eastlakemacquarie.primarysport.com.au/

If you have any sporting questions please feel free to contact Mrs Sullivan via dudley-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Individual trials are only for stage 3 students, with no exceptions.

Each year the P&C coordinates parents to be class reps as a way of helping to streamline communications between teachers and parents. Class reps then set up a group chat, messenger group or email group to share info from the teachers etc.

If you would like to be a class parent rep, please either comment on the Parent Forum Facebook post or contact Ruth Bath on 0409 741 974. 

Garbage Guardians

Welcome to our Garbage Guardians for 2023!

These wonderful students have volunteered to help promote sustainability within Dudley Public School and support students to select the most appropriate bin for their garbage.

Their first task will be helping Kindergarten to learn how our bin system works in order to recycle as much as possible. Remember though, the aim is to reduce our waste and then recycle what we can. Please try to pack nude food in lunch boxes using re-usable containers. 

Eco-Sense Garden News

We were very nervous about how our unsupervised garden would survive the school holidays but we have been pleasantly surprised. Many of the plants are thriving but unfortunately so are many of the weeds. This will be our first priority in Gardening Group this year.

We meet at lunchtime every Wednesday and everyone is welcome. Our main jobs are weeding, mulching and planting but this year, we are hoping to learn more about cultivating, growing from seed and water-saving ideas.

Mrs Mullins and Mrs Adams

It's been a very busy return to school at the uniform shop with many parents and caregivers utilising the "Return to School Vouchers".

As a consequence, stock is running low with many items on backorder. Your patience in this regard is appreciated.

If you have an item on backorder, be assured you'll be notified as soon as it arrives at the school.

Hoodies - there's basically no hoodie stock on hand at the moment but.....the annual "Hoodie Pre-Order" will commence in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for this.

Chair bags now come in one colour only - black.

This is to reduce the amount of stock on hand and simplify the ordering process.

For enquiries and orders - our email address is: dudley.uniformshop@gmail.com

If paying by bank transfer:

Dudley Public School P&C Uniform Shop

BSB: 032513 Account: 338441

Ref: Child’s name and class

Our school is situated in a wonderful location, however our school is bounded by two very busy roads that are everyone’s responsibility to keep safe. A friendly reminder that when travelling on Ocean St and Boundary St during the periods before and after school that you need to follow the road rules of Lake Macquarie Council. Our ‘Kiss and Ride’ area is an asset and we all need to follow the rules to ensure every student is safe in this zone. You can stop in a kiss and ride area for two minutes only to pick up passengers and you must stay within three metres of the vehicle. Please be mindful of our neighbours by not parking in their access way or driveway.  

 Thankyou for taking care around the school to ensure our students are safe when arriving and departing school.