Term 3 Week 7 - Wednesday, 2nd September 2020

Book Character Parade!

Around about this time most years we would be preparing for our Open Day/Book Fair, one of my favourite community events on the OEPS calendar. While most aspects of the day are not possible under current restrictions, we have made the decision to still go ahead with our Book Character Parade.

This has been a challenging year for students, with many special activities cancelled. For this reason we felt it is still important to look at ways to include special activities for student where possible and involve the community in whatever way we can.

The dress-up day will be on Thursday, 17th September with students invited to come dressed as their favourite book character. I can almost hear the collective groan from our parent body – you thought you were going to get out of this one this year! Think again!

Over the coming week, I will look at some options around how we can host a virtual ‘parade’ to share the event with the community via our online platforms.

NSW DOE Check-in Assessment for Year 3 and 5

Year 3 and Year 5 students will participate in a new Reading and Numeracy check-in assessment in Term 3, 2020.

The Check-in Assessment is a NSW Department of Education online Reading and Numeracy assessment designed to support schools to assess and monitor Year 3/5 student learning following the period of learning from home. The Check-in Assessments will supplement existing school practices to identify how students are progressing in literacy and numeracy and to help teachers tailor their teaching specifically to student needs.

• The assessment will be scheduled for our Year 5 students from 17 August to 4 September 2020.

• The assessment will be scheduled for our Year 3 students from 21 September to 23 October 2020.

Students will be supported to the same extent of their regular classroom assistance during the assessment. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require further information.

Supervision Hours

A reminder that student supervision hours commence at 8:40am until 3:10pm, with only afternoon bus students staying beyond this time until the final bus arrives. It is a parental responsibility to ensure that children arrive at school at the correct time. Students should not arrive at school prior to 8:40am unless on an early bus and there is no other bus available. Staff require this time to prepare & organise materials for the day. Some students have been arriving in excess of 30 minutes prior to this time at which point there is no supervision and limited amount of staff in the area. We ask for your support in ensuring the safety of our students.

Uniforms Now on Quickcliq

All new OEPS logo uniforms are now available to purchase through quickcliq.

Anyone who is already doing canteen orders will see a new tab at the top called uniforms. Any item purchased can either be collected by the parent or handed to the child. We will be completing orders on a Tuesday and/or Thursday. 

Road Safety

On occasion, the school is informed by community members of students moving to and from school in an unsafe way. While we love to see students being active and walking or riding to/from school where it is possible, we need to work together as a community to ensure that our children understand and have the road-sense skills required to make this a safe activity. For this reason, over the next couple of months I will be sharing useful resources via the newsletter to encourage families to have important road safety discussions. The following website also has some very useful information and further links.

https://roadsafety.transport.nsw.gov.au/stayingsafe/children/index.html

Sick Children

We urge parents and carers to keep child/ren at home if they are feeling unwell, particularly if they have a cold, fever, cough, sore throat, any respiratory illness or flu-like symptoms. We are excited to have our child/ren back at school but we also have a priority to ensure our staff and students are kept healthy and safe. Also, if your child/ren arrive at school unwell or fall ill during the day, the office staff will call you to pick the child/ren up as soon as possible. 

The procedures are in place to protect the wellbeing of all members of the school community and remain of critical importance.

Variation of Term 4 Staff Development Day

An important early notice to all parents and carers about a variation of one of our Term 4 Staff Development Days. Due to the opportunity for our teachers to attend a special professional development opportunity also involving three other schools in town, we will be holding a Staff Development Day (pupil free) on Friday, 16th October (first Friday of Week 1 Term 4). Students will not be attending on this day. In place of this day, students will attend one extra day in the final week of Term 4 on Thursday, 17th December. This will be the last day of school for OEPS students this year. Please contact the office if you have any questions.

P&C News

OEPS Quaran-Cook Book

One thing we all learned about lock-down was that everyone seemed to develop a new-found love of cooking. We thought that this would be a great time to capitalise on all of the masterchefs out there and create the OEPS Quran-Cook Book, a wonderful momento of a very interesting year!

The idea is simple – send us your best recipes with collection starting last term. Recipes MUST be handwritten or typed (not a photocopied page out of Jaime Oliver’s latest). Recipes should be emailed to: orangeeastpublicschool-Fund@pandcaffiliate.org.au, handed into the school office or can be entered directly into the Google Form (link below). You can send more than one recipe and we will make every effort to ensure as many as possible are included – however please be aware that in some instances some submissions may not be included (double-ups, too many in one category, etc). We will post regular updates about the number of recipes received in each category, which may help decision making around your submission.

Recipe categories include: Desserts/Cakes, One Pot Wonders, Quick Meals (10 minutes or less), Free Foods (GF, sugar free, allergy free, dairy free, etc), Slow Cooker or Fancy Foods.

Google Form Link - https://forms.gle/HVJ1MXQQUyVWnqmE9

For inclusion in the book, recipes must be sent by the end of September. Recipes should include an ingredients list and cooking method. We are hoping to sell the cook book at approximately $15 – pending final production costs.

Clothing Pool

Please be aware that the Clothing Pool is open every Thursday from 8:40 - 9:10am and again from 2:30 - 3:10pm in the afternoon.

A reminder to please ensure that you observe correct social distancing, including sanitation of hands and cough/sneeze etiquette.

Next Meeting

Meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month during school term starting at 6:30pm. At the moment due to Covid restrictions meetings are being held via Zoom video conference.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 15th September starting at 6:30pm.

Assembly Reminders

Don't Forget Your Merits on Friday

We will continue with our ‘Virtual’ Assembly in Term 3 pending the further lifting of restrictions allowing our regular Friday Assembly to recommence. A reminder that ALL students K-6 can bring in their Blue Merits on a FRIDAY when they have achieved a set of 10. The Blue Merits/Achievement Certificate is to be handed to the class teacher on Friday morning.

The various awards will be sent back home with students either on the Friday or early the following week, depending on any printing or certificates that need to be completed by the office.

OEPS Term 3 Homereading System

As we commence Term 3, we will continue to use caution regarding the exchanging of homereading books. This means that we will continue with our online homereading system. We will review the potential for use of school homereaders pending further restrictions being lifted.

Home Reader Award Students

Pictured below are students who have reached special homereading milestones.

Home Reading Awards

Safe Respectful Learner Awards

Merit Certificates

Principal's Awards

School Business Directory