The Link

Welcome to our Week 8 newsletter.

We've had a busy week and are heading into NAPLAN which begins on Wednesday 15 March. Please find further information below outlining our parent/teacher interviews, NAPLAN, our Zone swimming carnival and why attendance matters.

The Holy month of Ramadan is commencing on the 23 March. It is an important holiday for Muslims. During Ramadan people fast, or refrain from eating and drinking during daylight hours. I take this opportunity to wish our Muslim families, Ramadan Mubarak.

Thank you for taking the time to read about what’s happening at Rydalmere Public School. For day to day updates and reminders download our Skoolbag App for your phone or tablet device. 

We held our Parent Teacher interviews over the last two weeks using School Interviews. Our teachers greatly value the opportunity to understand more about your child and work together to make plans for a successful year. Thank you to all of the parents and carers who were able to come up to the school to speak with their child’s teacher  throughout these weeks. Thank you also to our teachers for their time in conducting and preparing for these informative interviews.

NAPLAN is a point in time assessment of literacy and numeracy skills. Each year students in Years 3 and 5 participate in tests for writing, reading, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. This year NAPLAN will begin on Wednesday 15 March to Monday 27 March. NAPLAN tests are just one part of our school learning assessment program and questions are primarily based on knowledge, understanding and skills gained from the prior year of schooling. Excessive preparation for NAPLAN is not required nor recommended. We ask that your child has a good night sleep, eats breakfast and comes to school ready to try their best.

We celebrate and recognise the outstanding things that students accomplish, both inside and outside of the building. Recently we sent Mitchell, Razvan, Jed, Aadhya, Aliyah, Olivia, William, Jude, Izabella, Daniel, Sophie, Noah, and Harry to represent the school at the Zone Swimming Carnival. Congratulations to all of the students who represented Rydalmere Public School! They showed great effort, commitment and a positive attitude on the day. 

A special shout out to Olivia from 5 Poppy, who made it to the Regional Swimming Carnival. Unfortunately she won't be able to attend the event. However, for a small school to have a student reach a regional event is a huge accomplishment. Well done Olivia!

Last Friday we held our second whole school assembly of the year. The assembly was run by our prefects, Mitchell and Jed who did a great job and ensured we ran smoothly. Kindergarten showed us how well they are adapting to their new routines and sat beautifully throughout the assembly.

March 13-15: Primary Dental Program

March 15-27: NAPLAN test window

March 20: Harmony Day - Multicultural Feast

March 23: Harmony Week Arabic Drumming Workshop

March 23: Ramadan begins

March 24: National Ride to School Day

April 6: Last Day of Term 1

April 26: Students return to school

For more events, please see our 2023 school calendar available for viewing on the Skoolbag App. This calendar is regularly updated as events are confirmed.

From next Monday 20 March the canteen will be open on the following days Monday, Wednesday and Fridays.

Please download the QKR app and follow the instructions to place an order for your child.

Thank you.

 1.       Download the QKR app

 2.       Click on Rydalmere Public School

 3.       Set up a profile for your child.

 4.       Make sure your child’s class is correct, as this is where their lunch will be sent to.

 5.       You will see only Canteen is set up. It will say lunch menu, but this includes recess and lunch orders. Once you click on lunch menu it will take you to the days of the week only the days in grey are the days you can order from.

 6.       CLICK ON THE DAY YOU WANT TO ORDER FOR DOUBLE CHECK IT IS THE RIGHT DAY.

 7.        You will notice there are TWO menus for Monday one is Recess the other is Lunch.

 8.       Items that available for recess are for recess only – items available for lunch are for lunch only – Please do not order anything from the lunch menu for recess, your order will not be processed.

9.       You will notice you can order drinks for recess and lunch.  Click on the Item e.g.: Apple Slinky for recess, add to cart.

 If you wish to order a drink for lunch press the lunch menu at the top underneath your child’s profile name and click on an item, you wish to order.

10.   Once your order is complete click on checkout and submit payment.

11.   You will receive a note to say you have paid Rydalmere P&C association you can go back and view the receipt.

 12.   IF your child is away, you can cancel the order. Click on the day you ordered then click on the red dash and follow the prompts. Once you have cancelled your order you will receive a credit note to use another day.

13.   If you have a child in kindergarten and have made an order, please send a note in their lunch box so the teacher can remind your child that they have a recess or lunch order.

 If you forget your child’s lunch order or have ordered on another day you will receive an Invoice to pay this amount into the P&C account.

Thank you

Rydalmere P&C

Saturday 26 March 2023 - Election Day

P & C will be holding a cake stall on this day and need your help.

We are asking families to donate homemade cakes, biscuits, slices, etc. to be sold on the day.

We ask that you label your items with the ingredients that you have used.

Items can be dropped off to office on Friday the 24th or handed to P & C volunteers on Saturday morning @ 8:30am.

Thank you. 

Notes have been sent home regarding donations for the Easter Raffle.

This year we are again holding our Easter Raffle and so we asking each family to donate at least one Easter Egg or something to do with Easter by Monday 20th March. These will be made up into Easter Basket prizes. 

Raffle tickets will be available to buy online.

PLEASE send an email to Rydalmerepublicschool@pandcaffiliate.org.au stating the following: Number of tickets bought. Name and the contact number that needs to be written on the tickets.  Receipt number of deposit. P&C bank details:

R.P.S Parents association - BSB: 062167 Acc: 10133599.  

The tickets are 50cents each. They will be available to purchase after Friday 24th March to Monday 3rd April.

NO TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABE AFTER THIS DATE.

 The raffle will be drawn at the Easter Hat Parade at school on Thursday 6th April.  

There will be lots of prizes to win, so good luck.

On Tuesday 7th of March we celebrated International Women’s Day.

We had a few guests speakers to help celebrat this very important day.

Ms.Claire William and Ms. Shabnam Tavakol from Department of Community and Justice and who were here to speak about anti discriminatory practices and how to raise the issue when feeling discriminated. We also spoke about gender and racial discrimination.

Ms. Candice Graham from Fitted for Work provided a very informative session about the services that are available for our families with in the community, which included support for woman who are looking to enter thhe work force. 

I would like to thank Goods360 and Sharon from La Mafia Cucina, Italian resturant for their donations of pizza's and goodie bags on the day.

Thank you to all the participants who took part on this day, everyone had a wonderful time celebrating.

SDN Children services have organised a Speech Pathologist to visit us on 29th of March. If you have any concern about your child’s speech and  your child is 5 years old  or younger, please register with Seetha to gain your free initial assessment and expert advice. Please note that places are limited, so hurry. 

Hub Weekly programs at a glance: 

For those who I haven’t yet met, I am Seetha, Community Hub Liaison Officer here at Rydalmere Public School.

My workdays are Mondays to Wednesdays and Fridays.

Our Community Hub serves as a gateway to connect families with each other, with the school and with local community services. It provides a  place to meet other parents, connect and grow friendships. It holds weekly or one-off activities that allow people from all backgrounds to participate.

Everyone is welcome at the hub.  

Just drop in for a coffee and chat or join activities.

I am looking forward to meeting you.

Feel free to contact me at 0448331588 or seetha.srinivasan@det.nsw.edu.au to know more about the hub and how you can get involved.