Vardys Voice

We are pleased and excited to inform you that in the coming weeks we will be producing a new eNewsletter with Schoolzine. The move to this new format will enable us to communicate with the school community across multiple channels. It will promote and enhance our engagement with parents, students and the wider community. We believe you’ll find the eNewsletter highly engaging, as it will provide us with a more efficient and effective means of connecting with you. The new format will allow the inclusion of video, photo galleries, online bookings, mobile app, feedback forms, calendars and so much more. The newsletter also has a sponsorship section which provides a great opportunity for local businesses to engage with our parent community. If you would like to be a part of this, please contact Schoolzine. Phone Jude 07 5414 2363 jude.dawson@schoolzine.com.au

As mentioned previously, the school and the P & C have been exploring ways to make the cost of educating our children more predictable so that parents and carers can plan their family budget.

To further assist families in budgeting for school based costs, every student will soon receive an invoice which will include annual school resource fees, annual voluntary contributions and school based activities. The school fees will be itemised making it easier for families to understand their fees and make payments over a period of time.

We are hoping that this new format will help families navigate their expenses.

Many thanks to the parents who have emailed me with feedback in regards to the possible changes to the school prayer and school pledge. Many of the emails focused on the importance of having a pledge or prayer that reflected the values of the community. 

To facilitate a discussion and to consult more with the community about the possible changes, there will be a series of informal parent workshops, culminating in a parent forum and ultimately a parent vote.

On the afternoons of 27th May and 30th May there will be two informal workshops in the Yarning Circle at the front of the school at 2:45 pm.

Each workshop will only last for 15 minutes, but will provide the community with an opportunity to offer opinions on what directions we should head in with regards to the school prayer and pledge.

On the morning of 5th June we will hold a parent forum in the after school care building at 9:15 am. At the forum we will pull together all the ideas and generate a few options that can then go to a community vote. 

Irrespective of the outcome of this consultation, this is a great opportunity to be talking with the community about what values are important to the school and the community at large.

I look forward to hearing the contributions offered by a valued community.

It is that time of year when parents who are enrolling a child into Kindergarten for 2020 need to come to the front office and start the enrolment process.  The school can then start making preparations for individual students as well as the 2020 cohort.

I am looking forward to meeting our new Kindergarten students and their families.

Congratulations are extended to our Zone Cross-Country team who came second in the annual competition.

Each and every child in the team contributed to the overall success by ensuring that they tried for the whole race and in turn achieved the best position possible. Their perseverance led to a total score that was extraordinary for a school of our size.

Our success was also due to the hard work of Mrs Bernays and the sport committee who have been training our students for the past few weeks. The result reflected the importance of persistent effort. Our new mascot, Tilly the Turtle, would be so proud!

We would like to invite parents and caregivers to attend a Gifted and Talented Parent Information Session to learn about giftedness and talent, identification procedures and the strategies being used to support gifted students at school. 

Tuesday 28 May 2019, 9am-11am in the school library.

If you would like to attend the Gifted and Talented Parent Information Session please complete the registration form using the following link:

Congratulations is extended to Anna in Year 6, who has been selected to represent NSW in rhythmic gymnastics. This is a huge achievement in the gymnastics world! Great job Anna!

At Vardys Road we teach spelling through explicit phonics & vocabulary lessons and through integration into reading and writing. Earlier this term we held a workshop for parents to lean more about phonics. This sheet (linked below) is a summary of the main topics covered at the workshop. If you have any questions please talk to your child’s teacher or Mrs Barber or Mrs Davis.

Read the P & C news - linked below

• Trivia night information
• Uniform Shop specials
• Thank you to all our sponsors
• End of term sausage sizzle - 4th July
  

As the new Sydney Metro Norwest will open on 26th May 2019, there will be some changes to the Hillsbus public routes.

• Route M60 will be renumbered to 600. The services remain unchanged.
• Route M61 will be renumbered to 610X. The services remain unchanged.
• Route 604 will operate through Hills Showground Station.
• New Route 617 operates between Adelphi St, Rouse Hill, Beaumont Hills and Kellyville Station.
• Route 619 will operate through Hills Showground Station.
• Route 626 will not operate to James Henty Dr and Jenner Rd, and it will be extended to Kellyville Station via Cherrybrook Station and Castle Hill.
• Route 633 will operate via Victoria Rd and Castle Hill Rd to Cherrybrook Station and Castle Hill Station. It will no longer operate via Thompsons Corner or Coonara Ave and Highs Rd.
• Route 635 will operate via Coonara Ave to Cherrybrook Station and Anglican Retirement Village to Castle Hill. It will no longer operate via Ellerslie Dr.
• Route 714 will commence and terminate at Norwest Station.
• Route T60 will operate through Norwest Station via Barina Downs Rd and Reston Grange. 

For more details about the coming changes, please visit www.transportnsw.info