Pendle Pages

Dear Parents/Carers,

Term 2 has flown, with lots of great learning and achievements for all of our students. Your child will have received their Semester 1 report last week, please do not hesitate to book an appointment with the class teacher if you wish to discuss their learning. Students and teachers have been sharing learning this semester with the See Saw app. If you haven’t downloaded the app contact your child’s teacher for a QR code to log onto their class pages. The app allows classes to share a range of work or photos with parents. Year 2 recently shared their speech presentations with parents and Stage 2 and 3 shared photos of their excursion.

Our teacher librarian position has recently been advertised and Ms Andrena Sadler was the successful applicant. Ms Sadler will be commencing duty on day one next term. We look forward to welcoming her to our staff. Thank you to Mrs El Mouhager who has been the temporary teacher librarian this year. Mrs El Mouhager has done a wonderful job in making the library enticing and enjoyable for students.

KR, KS and the OOSH rooms are being painted during the school holidays. There are also a number of works planned for preschool over the second half of the year. The works include new playground equipment and soft fall, bathroom retiling, installation of a second gate at the entry and a step along the sandpit for safer entry to the sandpit. We are also planning to do some brightening up of the entry area inside the gate. Our building works are also on track, a roof is now visible and we are waiting for the walls to appear. Staff are busy planning for collaborative learning which will be possible in the new spaces.

Mrs Russell, Mrs Constantinides and Ms Kanafani our our Stage 2 teachers. It is the first year they have all worked together on the same stage and they are an amazing team.

Mrs Russell is currently rehearsing  with the dance group for Celebrating the Arts. She is also our environmental champion, leading both the composting group and worm farm. Mrs Russell also supports students to assist with technology in the school, with the XO champion student group.

Mrs Constantinides leads our SRC team at the school, They have travelled to the International Convention Centre at the beginning of the year to attend the young leaders conference. She also heads up our Aboriginal Committee and provides staff with professional development around the 8 Aboriginal ways of learning.  

Ms Kanafani has been working with teachers and co-teaching across the school to explore digital technology. This has included the students coding small robots, called beebots, to move through a course that the students have designed. She has also trialled virtual reality stemshare technology, which has resulted in rich literature based lessons. Students have shown great excitement and creative thinking skills with this new technology.  

Cali KS and Olivia 4K competed in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu State Cup on 30th June at Sydney University. Both girls have trained for 3 days per week for 2.5 years. This is both girls very first competition and what an impression they made.

Cali won a silver medal and Olivia won a gold medal.

Congratulations girls, you're inspiring!

Peer Support has been running successfully each Thursday afternoon, during Term 2. 

Take a look at some of the interactions our students had.

Last year several students from our school were involved in the

“Cumberland Council Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan, February 2019- February 2021”

Students attended a workshop at Hilltop Road Public School where they had the opportunity to share their ideas on how we can achieve reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in our community. The action plan has since been completed and you may view it on the following link below:

https://www.cumberland.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-04/cumberland-council-reconciliation-action-plan-rap-2019-2021.pdf

As you would already know, our new building is being built and we are planning to move into those new spaces in 2020.

This week, our teachers met with the school learning environments and change coordinator to discuss what success will look like in our new buildings. We discussed student learning, teacher collaboration, curriculum, community, technology, learning spaces and change. We all agreed that we want our learning spaces to be innovative learning environments that respond to the needs of the students and build critical, creative, collaborative and resilient citizens.

The article below 'Building Blocks' is based on research from the OECD titled 'The Nature of Learning'. Many of these building blocks have been a focus at Pendle Hill for many years now, such as, formative assessment and inquiry based approaches.

Today on the 27.6.19 we went to rehearse recorder. It was really fun. I'm definitely going to do recorder next year. By Olivia 4K

On the 27th June 2019 the recorder group went to the Salvation Army Hall for a rehearsal and improved on it. We practised with many different schools. The songs we played were Simple Gifts, Bluz for Suz and Three Brothers.  By Yuvraj  5/6S

On Thursday 27th June 2019 we went on a bus to the Salvation Army Congress hall at the city. When we got their we met a lady called Susan Sukkar our conductor. We played and rehearsed our 3 songs: Three Brothers, Simple Gifts and Bluz for Suz, playing along side more recorder groups. It was a really long day, playing recorder and having fun.     -Marielle Toledo  5/6V

On 27/6/19 we were playing our recorders with 500 other people. We went to the Salvation Army hall by bus with Widemere P.S. and Greystanes P.S. We had so much fun laughing and playing recorder. We also explored around Hyde Park. All in all, I could call this the best day of my life.

By Anvika 4K

Year 4 will be lifting off next  and we can't wait!

We have had such a great response from Year 2 parents and students. You can read more about what Year 2 students had to say about Lift Off! in the article below.

 Our favourite part of Lift Off was....

My favourite game was Birdie in the Nest.

The skipping Challenge was my favourite.

The pizza was the best part.

I liked the talking stick because we got to talk about our Mum.

The skipping rope challenge with my Mum was the best part.

I liked eating pizza with my friends.

Making a card for my Mum was special.

I liked it when my Dad told me kind things about me, like making him laugh all the time.

The skipping rope challenge was fun because even the parents had to do it.

Eating pizza was great because it’s my favourite food.

I loved eating dinner at school!

Doing the scavenger hunt with my Dad was cool.

2M and 5/6V

have all celebrated with a class reward, after they filled up their

POSS BOXES

Each class has a box to collect their Penny Possum tickets for following our school expectations: Helpful, Safe, Respectful Learners. when the box is filled with tickets the class choose a reward that they suggested earlier in the term. 

Many classes are close to achieving their reward, so keep on going Pendle Hill!

Keep on filling those boxes up Pendle Hill! 

Breakfast Club was launched two weeks ago and it has been a huge success! Over 120 students have enjoyed breakfast, which we know is essential in starting the day at school.

Thank you to the parents who have volunteered their time on Thursday mornings to assist with setting up, serving and cleaning up Breakfast Club. Thank you also to the teachers for assisting in the mornings and Mrs Concha for organising Breakfast Club together with Karabi Community and Development Services Inc. 

Breakfast Club will serve breakfast between 8.30am and 8.45am THURSDAY mornings, in the school hall. 

Any parents that are able to help on Thursday mornings between - 8.20-9.10am are most welcome. Please see Mrs Concha or the front office.

Thank you to all of our families that contributed stickers to the Earn and Learn promotion from Woolworths. We have collected hundreds of stickers, We are currently in the process of completing theclaim and then we will be able to order some supplies for the school. 

Without the support of the community, this wouldn't be as successful. Thank you.

It is important for students to be on time and at school every day, every possible day. Being at school is vital for your child's understanding of concepts and learning new skills. Have you ever thought about what happens if your child is often late, or absent, without an adequate reason? 

Remember, the school needs to be notified of any absences. You can do this by:

Sending a message through Skoolbag - this is the best way to contact the school 

Writing a note

Speaking to your child's teacher

Calling the school

We have been advised that Transport for NSW will soon announce changes to the Hillsbus network for implementation from late July. The changes may impact how students travel, and we encourage students and parents to check Transportnsw.info for details on these changes before school returns. Hillsbus will issue updated school travel advice sheets as soon as possible.

Reduce your child’s skin cancer risk

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in Australia. Two out of three Aussie kids at school today will be diagnosed with skin cancer later in life – some of them with deadly melanomas. At least 95% of all skin cancers are caused by ultraviolet radiation (UVR) from the sun. Unprotected exposure of your child’s skin to UVR significantly increases their risk of developing skin cancer later in life. When you protect your skin, you reduce your risk. Remember to Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek and Slide!

To learn when the UV radiation is going to be high enough to damage unprotected skin in your local area, download and check the SunSmart App.

If you are interested in school banking, we collect bank books each Thursday morning at the school office.

Please contact the Commonwealth Bank for any enquiries about opening a Youthsaver account. There is a link below for further information.

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