Holbrook Public School

Welcome back to all our students, staff, and families. I hope you had a chance to reset over the holidays in preparation for a busy Term 4 and the end of the year.

Last term, we had our Whole School Performance, ‘A Night at the Movies’, the first since 2019, and it didn’t disappoint. I was extremely impressed with the production and how well the students and staff worked together to create such a great show. We are so proud of all the students, and it was clearly a memorable experience for them, their teachers, and their families. It was great to see so many families, friends, and community members in the audience, but even more impressive seeing the smiles on our students' faces when they saw you watching them on the big stage. Well done to Mrs Biar, Mrs Henderson, and the staff for putting on a great show.

Next week, we have our Year 5/6 students travelling to Canberra, and in Week 6, our Year 3/4 students will be travelling to Melbourne on overnight school excursions. Many of our students are embarking on their first school camp due to the cancellation over the past few years. School camp is one of the highlights of childhood – sharing a room, embracing new and challenging activities, sharing responsibilities with friends, and getting to know the teachers outside of the classroom. If you have any questions or concerns about the upcoming overnight excursions, please contact the organiser, Miss Lavis – Year 5/6 and Miss Morgan, Year 3/4.

NAPLAN

Individual student NAPLAN results were sent home to families at the end of the last term. Please contact your child's class teacher if you want to discuss your child’s results. NAPLAN for students in Years 3 and 5 in 2023 will be held in Term 1 2023 (15-17 March)

Professional Learning

I will be travelling to Sydney later this week to attend the Growing Great Leaders Conference for newly appointed principals. The course focuses on developing new principals' professional skills and capabilities, supporting them to work effectively in their schools alongside their colleagues and communities, to improve teaching and learning outcomes. I look forward to making professional connections and working with the staff and the P&C to improve our everyday practice at Holbrook Public School.

Sport

Mr Leitch and the K/O Cricket team will be back in action next week as they continue in the State competition playing Lake Albert at Holbrook Public School next Monday, 17 October. Fingers crossed, our cricket pitch and oval will be playable next week!

Good luck to Ollie Cardile and Alice Hearn, who will travel to Sydney next week to represent Riverina at the State Athletics carnival.

The Scots School Equestrian Interschool Challenge was postponed during the holidays due to continuous wet weather and in the interest of horse and rider safety. Sybil Triggs, Abby Pincott, Geordie Geddes, Jonty and Issy Ingle will get another chance to represent Holbrook Public School in December.

2023 Leadership Nominations

All Year 5 students will meet with Miss Lavis and me to discuss the format for our upcoming School Leaders nominations. Year 5 students will be able to self-nominate and present a School Captain speech in Term 4, Week 7. All students and staff will vote after the speeches, and the new school leaders will be announced at our Presentation Day in Week 9 – Thursday, 8 December. Good luck to all our Year 5 participants.

Tell Them From Me Parent Survey

Thank you to all parents who completed the anonymous Tell Them From Me Parent Survey to help our school capture parent voices and provide reliable evidence for our school to use to identify strengths and areas of improvement. This year for those parents who provided proof of completing the survey, we provide 4 x $30 Athlete's Foot Gift Vouchers.

Our winners are:

Brigette Yensch

Kurt Wawszkowicz

Damien Lindsay

Tania Saunders

Regards

Louise Purss-Semple
Principal 

Parents can now access the school calendar, student reports, attendance and more using the SENTRAL Parent Portal app. SkoolBag will eventually be phased out, so download the SENTRAL app now.

Cooper Mohr was the Year 5/6 Runner up in the Write Around the Murray competition. Cooper's was 1 of 700 poems entered in the competition, and what a fantastic achievement to be awarded runner-up in the competition.

On Saturday, 17 September 2022, the Holbrook Football Club First and Second Grade football sides qualified for the Hume League Grand Final against the Osborne Tigers. The First-Grade match was exciting for many members of our school community as Mr Leitch featured for the victorious Holbrook side, who claimed a famous victory! Mr Leitch wanted to express his gratitude to the school community, with many members of our school playing in junior football and netball teams and continuously showing up week in, and week out to support all teams. Here are some photos from Grand Final day and on the last day of Term 3, where Mr Leitch was fortunate enough to get hold of the premiership cup and bring it to school for a bit of show and tell! 

We are trying to source some more resources to support our structured play activities for our Kindergarten transition.  If you have any unwanted jigsaw puzzles (complete), picture books, Lego/Duplo or board games that you would like to see being reused at the school, please bring them in.

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