Melrose Park Public School Newsletter

Thank you to our school community for reading the regular updates regarding COVID-19 and where applicable taking the necessary precautions. These updates will continue to be posted on our Skoolbag App and linked on the school’s website. Please ensure that you have access to this and check it regularly.

As a school we are encouraging students to wash their hands regularly and use good hygiene habits.  Posters are in all rooms and toilets as a visual representation of how to wash hands correctly. I trust that these practices are being modelled at home.

Please understand that as a school we will be notified by the Department of Education and the Department of Health and will follow any instruction when issued. Many people have offered opinions and have made decisions for themselves and their families. At all times we hope that parents remain respectful and aware that children are listening. Some are becoming anxious through misinformation. We care for all students and are discussing the situation on a daily basis to minimise anxiety and debunk rumors.

Please ensure that if your children are unwell, for any reason, that you keep them at home until they are feeling better.

All parents and carers must to report to the office when coming onto the school grounds after 9.00am. Do not go to the classroom. If a someone needs to bring a hat to school or a lunch to school, the correct procedure is to visit the office. 

In the afternoon please wait under the COLA for your child to be dismissed from class. Children will find you at your waiting spot. Please stand away from classrooms, verandahs, walkways and paths. This way students will have a clear line of sight as the move around the school.

As a result of student absences, we have postponed tomorrow’s photo day. Photo day has been rescheduled to early Term 4. We apologise for any inconvenience. 

Please note that as with the School Photos many of the upcoming events will need to be postponed. We thank you for your patience and will keep you updated via Skoolbag.

To continuously improve our practice, teachers work towards the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, from proficient teacher to lead teacher level. Our staff are lifelong learners, constantly engaging in professional development. Staff are highly collaborative in nature, working together alongside their colleagues to develop programs, resources, assessment and intervention.  Last week staff engaged in a twilight session of staff development with a focus on Wellbeing. Modules of learning included an introduction to mindfulness and its benefits personally as an educator, as well as its benefits for students.   Staff will continue twilight sessions of learning in the coming weeks with a focus on implementing the new PDHPE syllabus.

Teachers will also participate in twilight sessions in Term 2 and Term 3. These 3-hour sessions of professional learning will enable teachers to finish the year on the same day as students, Wednesday 16 December.

As children progress through their school years, it is very important that checks are made along the way to see how well they are learning the essential skills of reading, writing and mathematics – skills that will set them upon the path to success as adults.

NAPLAN is a point-in-time assessment that allows parents to see how their child is progressing in literacy and numeracy against the national standard and compared with their peers throughout Australia. At the classroom level, NAPLAN provides additional information to support teachers’ professional judgement about student progress.

In May 2020 the National Assessment Program –Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) will be completed for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. NAPLAN will assess the literacy and numeracy learning of students in all Australian schools.

All students are expected to participate in NAPLAN, and disability adjustments may be made to support individual students. Adjustments and/or withdrawal must be discussed with the principal and approval given for disability adjustments during the assessment period.

All students, in Year 3 and Year 5 will sit a practice test next week on Monday 23 and Tuesday  24 to familiarise themselves with the online assessment style.

Please follow this link to find out more about NAPLAN 2020

https://nap.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/naplan-online-information-brochure-for-parents-and-carers.pdf?sfvrsn=23

Thank you to the many families who were courageous and came to the first family BBQ on Sunday. Unfortunately, showery weather kept many families away from the wonderful sausage sizzle and delicious cakes on offer. Thank you to our fantastic cooks on the barbie and the outstanding organisation of our P&C. The kids had fun on the jumping castle, playing table tennis in the hall and playing soccer on the oval. It was lovely to say hello to some new faces and a welcome back to many of our experienced parents. 

Thank you to Mr Neil Armstrong for volunteering to fill the vacancy of President of the P&C for 2020.  You may know Neil as the man who wears the navy uniform in the playground as he picks up his daughter in the afternoon or maybe you have seen Neil help out on the BBQ at election time. The next meeting of the P&C will be cancelled in the light of having to reduce unnecessary meetings. If there is an issue that you would like to bring to the attention of the P&C please  email the secretary, Chantel Latu at  secretary@mppspc.com

Thank you to the responses that were received regarding a change to the uniform.

The responses can be found at this link             https://melrosepk-p.schools.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/doe/sws/schools/m/melrosepk-p/notes-/term-1-2020/Melrose_Park_Public_School_Uniform_Survey_-_February_2020__-_Results.docx.pdf

In short, there was not a definitive response for change from this survey and further consultation will be needed.  This consultation will be postponed until after the Covid situation resolves.

In the meantime, get your child’s winter uniforms ordered as soon as possible before the end of term.  Thank you to wonderful uniform shop volunteers who are sending out orders to the students in classrooms each Thursday.

Some boys do not get cold and are able to wear the blue short sleeved shirt with their long grey pants as an option during winter.

Some girls also don’t feel the cold. Girls are able to wear a collared short sleeved white shirt or the white polo sport shirt under the blue winter uniform. They can either wear white socks or navy tights under the dress. Girls have the option to wear navy school pants during the winter months.

4L has had a busy start to the term. Here is a snapshot of the learning we have been engaged in:

Reading:

We have started the year routinely reading at least 20 minutes per day of a novel to ourselves, as this practice was highlighted as being highly influential in promoting better academic results (and well as being plain good fun)! We appreciate being to use our Wellbeing Journals to write down these books, which will also help us log our details for the Premiers Reading Challenge. While reading in class ‘Storm Boy’, we have been amazed at the descriptive language of Colin Thiele. We have been moved by the way he has used the power of words to build emotion – evidences by the number of us shedding a tear towards the end of the story.

Writing:

‘Asiatic dragons with fringed, golden wings’, and ‘ferocious dragons with teeth like daggers’, are some of the characters that have been inhabiting our writing books, as 4L have been describing dragons. These dragons are in addition to some smaller creatures such as butterflies being described.

 Maths:

Adding, subtracting, multiplying, and conducting chance experiments are some of the topics we have furthered our learning in. Our daily practice of basic facts, is rewarding us with pleasing progress.

 PDHPE/Buddies:

Reading, maths games and exploring connections, are some of the activities 4L has enjoyed completing with our buddy classes 1/2S and 2O. We have taught each other different skills and learnt more about each other, so that we feel more confident with our buddies as ‘go to’ people in the playground.

 Every fortnight on Wednesday afternoon we look forward to Sports in Schools Australia (SISA) taking us for PDHPE, in addition to our class PDHPE lessons and our school/PSSA sport time. We had a great time at the Swimming Carnival!

 Assembly Drama/History:

Learning about significant world-wide celebrations and commemorations is an important part of the history unit we are studying. Today we performed a dramatic play, called ‘Nian’s Night of Terror’, written by Sue Murray, based on the Chinese legend surrounding the dragon ‘Nian’, who would come to hunt people and livestock following the Lunar New Year.

Science and Technology/Seed Harvest Spoon:

Classification and Life Cycle Studies, as well as considering the interconnectness of life, are some of the topics we have learnt about in Science and Technology. We have also been honing our research skills of finding key words and summarising information. We are realising that this skill is useful across all subject areas