Modanville Public School

Dear Parents

Students are enjoying the regular dress-up days that have been organised this term. Last Thursday was Dress-up as Your Favourite Sports Person, and the SRC raised $59. They are hoping to put this towards purchasing some sports equipment to use  during recess and lunch playtime.

Our next dress-up day will be for Book Week on Friday 11th September. Students are invited to come dressed as their favourite book character and to bring along the book from where the character comes from. It should be a fun day with lots of interesting dress-ups and sharing of books we enjoy.

This Thursday and Friday (3rd and 4th September), the SRC, assisted by Miss Baker, are holding a Father's Day Stall. Your child can bring their money on the day and go 'shopping' for a gift. Gifts will be for sale and cost between $1 and $5. Students seem to really enjoy having this independence to purchase a gift for someone special to them. Thank you to the SRC and Miss Baker for taking the time to arrange this.

We are very pleased to have been able to hold our school Athletics Carnival. This was done within the guidelines that the Department of Education has asked us to adhere to.  Thank you to Mrs Elliott for taking on the main organisation of this. The carnival was done in class groups and held over each day last week. Today, the ribbons were given out. The results are attached further along in the newsletter. Well done to all students and thank you to all staff who made this important annual event still happen.

Just letting everyone know that Ryan Swift has made contact to advise that he will be remaining at Jiggi Public School in 2021.  Miss Baker has agreed to remain at Modanville Public School. Mrs Elliott has also accepted a contract to continue at Modanville in 2021. Therefore our teaching staff for 2021 will be Alison Elliott, Angela Hardie, Geraldine Kerr, Sally Baker and Kerry Harper. 

Have a great fortnight,

Modanville Public School Staff

All teachers in NSW are accredited. As part of the continuation of accreditation, staff participate in professional learning every year. 

As a Department of Education Public School, we also participate in mandatory training provided from the Department. This training maintains and updates the skills of teachers and non teaching staff in the school. 

Many people are unaware of the training that takes place. 

Training which is required every one to three years, depending on the role and responsibility of the staff member, include:

·         First Aid, CPR.

·         Anaphylaxis

·         Child Protection

·         Code of Conduct

·         Data Breaches

·         Disability Standards for Education

·         Administration of Prescribed medication

Other training that takes place on a regular basis, which some staff attend, include: Director meetings, Infantry meetings, Teaching Principal meetings, Aboriginal Education (Dare to Lead team), Music Aviva, Art workshop, Literacy workshop, See-saw training, Google classroom training, LMBR (the new finance and administration program) and Scout training to name a few that our school staff participate in.

On the Pupil Free Days, Modanville Staff take part in Professional Learning. Over the last few years there has been a number of different training activities that staff have participated in.  These include: 

Mindfulness: In 2018 all staff took part in training around Mindfulness in Education.  Mindfulness in Education leaders Bobbi Allan and Shakti Burke led all Modanville staff in mindfulness training and then followed up by visiting classrooms and supporting teachers to ensure it was being fully implemented in the classroom.  The school regularly has mindfulness moments at our assemblies and staff use these skills with students when they are upset or feeling insecure.

Language, Learning and Literacy in the early years: This is a K-2 teaching and learning technique that supports young learning in the beginning literacy skills.

7 Steps to writing success: In 2019 all teaching staff participated in the 7 steps to writing success.  This training looks at the writing students are completing and uses 7 steps in order to improve the quality and quantity of students writing, ensuring they use well researched writing techniques.  They have a large range of resources that the staff at Modanville Public use when teaching writing.

Quality Teaching Rounds: This training has taken place during 2019 and 2020.  Staff have traveled to Sydney to participate in training with the University of Newcastle.  This training was then supported with University staff visiting the school in 2019 to support teachers.  This training is around classroom practice and making changes to include the 18 aspects of teaching practice which are proven to improve students’ academic progress.  Staff observed each other’s teaching and supported the improvement of all staff.  In 2019 our school's result in this program increased students' learning by over a month (13 months progress in 12 months) compared to schools which did not participate.

Primary Learning- Numeracy- In 2019 and 2020 staff have completed on-line learning modules in numeracy, reviewing classroom practice and their teaching and learning activities.

Visible Learning:-  In 2020 staff have been completing online modules in Visible Learning. This is about teachers supporting students to take a more active role in their learning.  It also covers lots of content around the activities that impact students learning.

Many hours of professional development, especially those carried out online, are undertaken in the teachers own time. 

Staff from time to time also complete university certificates to support and update their skills.  Currently I am undertaking a Certificate in Digital Education to support the ongoing use of technology and teaching techniques. 

After completing Professional Development staff also complete many hours adapting and changing their classroom practices to use these skills and improve students learning.

We hope this gives you a brief understanding of the professional learning the staff at Modanville PS participate in.

Kerry Harper

The P&C are holding the AGM on Wednesday 16th September. The unique challenges we have faced this year has meant it was not possible to hold the AGM at the normal time, which is usually in Term 1 of each year.

Details on how the AGM will work is included in the attached file.

Thank you

Dear Parents/Carers,

In order to manage adults on school grounds due to social distancing requirements, we have come up with the following temporary procedure for parents who wish to purchase uniforms:

1.       Send your uniform request to the school in an envelope, clearly labelled with your child’s name, what you would like to purchase and the size. You will also need to include the money to pay for this.

2.       The office staff will then aim to fill your order in time to send it home with your child in the afternoon (there may be the odd occasion when office staff cannot fit this in to the priorities they have to attend to, in this case they will fill the order hopefully by the following day)

3.       A receipt will be written for the money you have sent in to the school and put with the uniforms.

4.       Please note there will be times when we do not have the size you need and our volunteer parent uniform coordinator will check the supplies and what she needs to order.

School hats: If you do not have a school hat for your child and would like to purchase one for them, please let your child know that the office staff cannot always attend to this purchase first thing in the morning. If you send the request and money in an envelope with your child’s name on it, we will endeavour to get them a hat as soon as we can.

School hats are $10 each             Polo shirts: $20         Blouses:  $35           Dresses: $45        Polar fleece jumpers: $25                Hoodies: $25