The Facta

Virtual Open Day Video on its Way!

Although our Open Day this year did not encompass the vibe and excitement of our usual Open Day proceedings, it certainly captured the spirit of Education Week and a celebration of public education. Our teachers are currently collating the highlights of this day and it will be issued to our community shortly...........stay tuned!

Assistant Principal (Special Education) Position

As we now have three Inclusive Classes, this entitles the school to an additional Assistant Principal (Special Education). A panel has been formed and the position is currently being advertised. Once this recruitment process has been finalised, I will be at liberty to share with our community the final outcome and, hopefully, the successful candidate.

Annual Tree Assessment

Every year, as part of our mandatory tree assessment, a qualified tree arborist is employed to assess every tree on the school premises. This tree assessment was recently completed, and as a result, a tree lopper will be engaged to address the recommendations made by the arborist. We anticipate to have this work completed soon. 

Safety Around our School

Thank you to our entire school community for your continued understanding and patience during our altered drop-off and pick-up times. I thank the many parents and carers who are choosing to either walk to school, or park a fare distance away and then walk to pick up their children. These options are, by far, the safest options during drop-off and pick-up times. They minimise vehicle congestion on surrounding streets and, therefore, they minimise the risk of accidents. Please consider these options when planning to pick-up or drop-off your children. Changes such as these can make all the difference to our surrounding streets, for both the school and our neighbours. The safety of our community is everyone’s responsibility.

Welcome back to our Scripture and Primary Ethics Volunteers

Last Thursday, our Scripture and Ethics classes recommenced, after receiving the go-ahead from the Department of Education. Thank you to our many volunteers for their patience over the past few months and thank you for your flexibility in dealing with the many class and timetable changes.

A new NSW School Curriculum

In this edition of The Facta, you will find a fact sheet for parents and carers, giving a brief overview of the new NSW school curriculum. The new curriculum will have a particular focus on English and Mathematics and is intended to be implemented in all schools by 2024. We are in the very early stages of training and planning. More information will be presented by the Department to schools and their community in the coming months.

Virtual K-6 Assembly

Last Monday, we had the opportunity to come together as a whole school for our very first virtual assembly. The Captains and Vice-captains did a marvellous job hosting their first assembly. Congratulations to all the students who received a Principal’s Award or Principal’s Pennant. The virtual assemblies will be held every fortnight on Monday afternoons.

Ms A. Vountoulas 

Principal

Concord Public School

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 available to support schools to assess and monitor Year 3 & Year 5 student learning following the period of learning from home.

The Check-in assessments can supplement existing school practices to identify how students are performing in literacy and numeracy and to help teachers tailor their teaching more 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 with disability may receive the same level of support during the assessment that they would normally receive in the classroom.

Mrs M Coco & Mrs J Soteriou                                                

Assistant Principals

Notification for Parents and Carers

From 2015, all Government and non-Government schools across Australia are required to participate annually in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD).

All Australian schools will collect data on their students who are receiving adjustments to meet additional learning and support needs in accordance with their obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and Disability Standards for Education 2005. This data will be provided to the education needs of students with disability.

The data provided to the Australian Government by the NSW Department of Education is provided in such a way that it cannot be used to identify any individual student or school. 

General information about the national data collection can be found on the Australian Government Department of Education website at http://education.gov.au/fact-sheets-nationally-consistent-data-school-students-disability.

Privacy Protection

The NSW Department of Education follows the requirements of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002. Schools will collect, record, store and use data about individual students in line with these requirements. Data security and protection is a priority and students' personal details will be kept confidential. 

Under Clause 52 of the Commonwealth Australian Education Regulation 2013, data collected by the NSW Department of Education for the NCCD must be provided to the Australian Government Department of Education. This includes the number of students at each level of education, the number in each catergory of disability and the number at each level of adjustment. The information is provided to the Commonwealth as a series of number sets that cannot be used to identify any individual student or school.

The Australian Government Department of Education and Training follows the requirements of the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 when handling any data provided by NSW Department of Education in connection with the national data collection. A privacy notice has been developed by the Australian Government to provide students, parents and carers with important privacy information in relation to the data collection. This notice is available on the department's website at http://education.gov.au/notices.

It has recently been confirmed that both the WSPSSA Zone Athletics Carnival and Winter PSSA competitions scheduled to take place in Term 3 have been cancelled.

While there are no regional, state or national pathways for athletics, Concord PS staff are exploring options for athletics events that comply with current guidelines outlined by the Department of Education to minimise COVID-19 risks.

Applications are now being accepted for Kindergarten 2021. If your child turns 5 before July 31, 2021 they are eligible to start school next year. Telephone the school on 9744 8427 to make an appointment with Mrs Coco. 

Entering onto the School Grounds During School Hours

Please ensure that you come into the office, if you need to give something to your child, or if they have forgotten to bring something to school. The office staff are more than happy to pass the item on.

If you need to see your child or pass on a message to them, the office staff can help with that too. We encourage parents to allow us to pass on messages during break times, so that your child's learning is not interrupted. All visitors must sign-in at the office and wear a visitor's sticker. This is to ensure the wellbeing and safety of all.

Payment 

When making a payment online you can only pay up to 3 DAYS before the due date of the payment. This is due to online transactions taking 48 hours to process. 

Other payment methods such as cash or cheque can also be sent to the front office and placed in the blue box labelled “School Post”.

Please note that we do not accept online payment for uniform or canteen orders. Please see the uniform or canteen order  form for payment details.

Permission Notes 

If you have more than one child we need to have a note for each child, not all on one note please.

Change of Contact/Address details  

Please inform the office immediately if you have changed your contact or address details, so we can contact you in case of an emergency. 

Bicycle and Scooter Guidelines

If you give permission for your child to ride a bicycle or scooter to and/or from school, and store it on the school grounds, please carefully read and sign the ‘Bicycle and Scooter Guidelines’ document (obtained from the Front Office). These signed forms are to be returned to the office. Once we have received the signed documentation, the school will record that your child has permission from you to ride to school. Please see Mrs Vermiglio or the office for details.