Hammondville Public School Newsletter

Issue 3 - Term 1, Week 6 - Thursday 2 March 2023

A Message from the Principal

Welcome to Week 6 everybody!

Meet the Teacher BBQ

I cannot thank everyone enough for their engagement at our Meet the Teacher BBQ last week. Even with the weather giving us a run for our money, we had about 700 people attend (incl students past and present) to meet our team, visit their child’s classroom and speak with staff and community in such a relaxed environment. The feedback we have received is really reassuring as we continue to have community partnerships as a focus of our Strategic Improvement Plan. You will notice that we are working hard in this space and will have many events coming up this term and throughout the year. Your feedback is essential to this. We deeply value your reflections on events, including what went really well and what we could reconsider for next time.

P&C AGM

Before the Annual General Meeting takes place in March, I’d like to thank the outgoing executive from 2022 for their dedication, support and partnership. There was so much achieved last year for the benefit of our school and students and all with thanks to our dedicated P&C team.

Over the coming weeks you will start to see the emergence of another of their wonderful projects, our mural. This mural has been in the planning stages for quite some time due to covid, but we have now locked in our artist and started preparations for its completion in mid-March. The mural will be painted on the external wall of K/1 Green’s classroom, providing a bright and cheerful welcome to our school as you enter the pedestrian gates on Walder Rd. The mural will be reflective of the beautiful flora and fauna that we have at Hammondville PS. It would be wonderful to build on this in the future by continuing the mural along the pathway and up towards the canteen.

Our P&C Annual General Meeting will be held in our school library from 7pm on Monday 6 March. This meeting will include nominating and electing our 2023 P&C executive as well as expressing interest in our fundraising committees and grant applications. If you are interested in getting involved and learning more, please come along to our meeting. Everyone is most welcome. We would love to see you there.

Communication with our School

The best education happens when parents and schools work together. We deeply value the relationships we have with our families and so will always aim to communicate with you honestly, respectfully and in a timely manner.

At various times throughout the year, you may have a need to contact our school to ask for information regarding your child.

Schools are incredibly busy places and it is our intention to work with you to provide the information that you need. Please remember that while our staff are in class or dealing with other matters, they may not be available to answer your questions immediately.

If you contact our school, we aim to get back to you to listen to your concerns and questions by the close of business the following day. Should your concern or question require further investigation, we will get back to you to discuss the matter by the end of the following week.

There are many ways that we as a school community provide information to parents and carers. To keep up to date with school information please ensure you regularly check the following avenues.

·         Skoolbag: Our school app that provides important school updates on all school programs and changes to routine, upcoming events, school newsletters and absences notifications functions. All formal notifications are sent through this digital platform.

·         Official Facebook page: The social media platform that celebrates the learning journey at our school. We believe that learning is more than curriculum and this platform provides a way to share the fabulous things happening in our school each and every day.

·         Class Dojo: Class based platform which allows teachers to share students learning with parents in their class. Parents/carers are also able to message the teacher through this platform.

Please note that teachers are only expected to have notifications turned on in working hours of 8am-4pm Mon-Fri. Anything beyond this is the personal decision of the teacher. To ensure our team maintain their duty of care, teachers are unable to answer messages while they are teaching or supervising students. If you have an urgent message, please contact our school office and we will gladly assist you.

School Diary

Monday 6 March 
  • P&C Meeting
Thursday 9 March
  • 3-6 Assembly 2pm
Friday 10 March
  • PULSE Alive Rehersal
  • PULSE Alive Performance 
Tuesday 14 March
  • Regional Swimming Carnival
Wednesday 15 March
  • NAPLAN Writing Years 3 & 5
  • K-2 Assembly 2pm
Thursday 16 March
  • NAPLAN Reading Years 3 & 5
Monday 20 March 
  • School Photo Day
Tuesday 21 March
  • NAPLAN Conventions of Language Years 3 & 5
Wednesday 22 March
  • NAPLAN Numeracy Years 3 & 5

School Captain Introduction

Welcome back to our new school year at Hammondville Public School. My name is Jake and I am a proud school captain for 2023.

I wanted to be a student leader at our school because I knew that I could take on this important role and help my peers, teachers and school in any way.

Our school is a special place to be because it has many amazing teachers and very helpful and kind students. We also have outstanding SLSOs!

I feel that I can contribute to our school by giving my peers a voice and fixing/solving problems that appear at our school.

This year I am really looking forward to leading our amazing school because we have so many respectful and caring students and there is some change we can make.

2023 Carnivals

Regional Swimming - Tuesday 14 March 2023

State Swimming - Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 April 2023

School Cross Country (3-6) - Tuesday 4 April 2023

Zone Cross Country - Tuesday 23 May 2023

Regional Cross Country - Thursday 15 June 2023

State Cross Country - Friday 21 July 2023

School Athletics - Monday 24 July 2023 

Zone Athletics - Thursday 17 August 2023

Regional Athletics - Wednesday 13 September 2023

State Athletics - Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 October 2023

School Swimming Carnival

Congratulations to the students who were named as age champions of our school swimming carnival. 

Junior boys - Finlay Keegan

Junior girls - Breanna Bell

11 years boys - Riley Death

11 years girls - Ruby Caddy

12 years boys - Archie Blades

12 years girls - Elleanor Burrows

Champions

Australian Mountain Biking Interschools

All the best to Jaidyn Page and Charlie Ashton who will be representing our school in the Australian Mountain Biking Interschools between 6-10 March. This is a great opportunity for the boys to represent our school competing against the best mountain bikers in Australia. Ride hard boys!

School Cross Country Carnival

The 3-6 school cross country carnival is to be held at school on Tuesday 4 April. The following are the race times and distances for the different age groups:

8/9 years boys - 10:00 am (1500m)

8/9 years girls - 10:15 am (1500m)

10 years boys - 10:30 am (1500m)

10 years girls - 10:45 am (1500m)

11 years boys - 11:00 am (2250m)

11 years girls - 11:15 am (2250m)

12 years boys - 11:30 am (2250m)

12 years girls - 11:32 am (2250m)

Students, start training!

Sydney South-West AFL Championships

Well done to Chapman Carroll, Lincoln Heslop and John Penney who were selected in the Liverpool zone AFL team that competed at the Sydney South-West AFL Championships on Tuesday. Congratulations boys on your selection. 

P&C News

P&C Updates

Thank you to everyone who came down to grab a coffee with us yesterday, it was great to be able to share with you all the exciting plans we have for 2023 and welcome some of our new families. More importantly was great to be able to thank all of the parents, grandparents and carers who  volunteer their time to help us fundraise and celebrate our kids, teachers and staff every year.

EFTPOS for Uniforms

The P&C and Canteen Staff are pleased to announce that we now accept EFTPOS (card) payments for uniforms only at the canteen. We are very excited for this much anticipated move to new technology and appreciate your patience and understanding as we continue to refine our processes.  We ask that if you haven’t yet signed up to My School Connect, please do so as the program asks us to assign the sale to a child in the database.

 ***Please be aware that each sale via EFTPOS will incur a small surcharge.***

As always uniform orders can be placed at any time on My School Connect and will be delivered to your child within 2 business days.

https://myschoolconnect.com.au/

Back to School Vouchers

Unfortunately due to circumstances out of our control the P&C has been unable to sign up to accept the Back to School vouchers for uniforms at this time. Our best advice for now is to use your vouchers towards fees at the office. We thank you all for your patience as we continue to work on this.

Term 1 Calendar

6 March – AGM and General Meeting

25 March – Election Day BBQ and Cake stall

6 April – Monstar Mania Colour Explosion

AGM

The P&C would like to invite you to our Annual General Meeting on Monday March 6 at 7pm. This will be an in person only meeting held in the library.

At the AGM you will have the opportunity to become a financial member of the P&C for $1. This will allow you to nominate and vote for the committee for 2023, as well as vote on issues at general meetings throughout the following year.

A brief summary of the position descriptions will be posted on the Hammondville PS P&C Facebook page or can be emailed by contacting hammopandc@gmail.com

Immediately following the AGM we will hold our March General Meeting.

Second Hand Uniform Shop

Thank you for all the donations of second hand uniforms since the start of the year. Keep them coming!

We are in need of a volunteer to open the second hand uniform shop on Wednesday mornings 8:30-9am for the remainder of Term 1. If you would like more information or are ready to help out please email hammopandc@gmail.com or message the Hammondville PS P&C Facebook page.

Canteen News

If you haven’t already done so download the app at https://myschoolconnect.com.au/mobile-app, as this is the preferred way to order lunches and uniforms. Lunch orders will still be accepted across the counter – cash must accompany the order..

THINGS TO NOTE

Cut off time for ordering lunches each day is 9am. You can order in advance on line but if your child ends up being absent you must cancel the order on line before 9am or contact the canteen. If we prepare the lunch we are unable to refund. This also applies if you take your child home early. Please check your order, especially the date before hitting the process button. You will receive a confirmation email when the order has processed.

Some food items can only be purchased across the counter at recess and lunch. Ice blocks and frozen yoghurt are only available at lunchtime.

We do not have the ability to heat any food in the microwave that you send in from home.

COUNTER SALES CASH ONLY:- MON-THU at recess and lunch

                                   FRI at lunchtime only

UNIFORMS

Uniforms can be ordered at any time on the My School Connect app. Orders will be sent home with your child within 1 day of ordering.

CANTEEN OPENING HOURS are 8.30am to 2-30pm MONDAY TO FRIDAY.

The Canteen can be contact directly on 0488 757 101 for all enquiries.

P&C FACEBOOK

Hammondville PS P&C:  https://www.facebook.com/hammondvillepandc/

or look up “Hammondville PS P&C”

We Are a White Ribbon School