Narrabri West Public School

The last few weeks of this term are going to be extremely busy at Narrabri West. But as well as being busy, they are going to be very exciting, with lots of fun activities planned. This term has once again seemed to have just disappeared and it is amazing that we are already talking about end of term activities.

It is also quite obvious that there is a lot happening in our school that we should all be really proud of. Our Kindergarten students are developing impressively, making wonderful progress and maturing quickly. They are committing themselves to their learning and their learning goals, they are working extremely hard and doing the best they possibly can.

Teachers in all classrooms are working very hard to enrich student learning through high expectations and explicit, effective teaching.

All in all, Narrabri West is an exciting place to be at the moment. I hope that you take a moment to reflect on the year so far, appreciate the wonderful opportunities that students have each day and celebrate how hard they have worked to obtain the most out of their schooling.

As always, we have been impressed with the excitement and enthusiasm shown by our students during the special occasions we have had already this term. We look forward to even more exciting opportunities and challenges in the weeks ahead, as we edge closer to Term 4.

Year One have been busy learning lots of interesting things this term. They are a wonderful group of students and we thoroughly enjoy helping them learn. Below is a snippet of some of the fabulous things happening in the classrooms in Stage One.

In English, we are learning to write an imaginary text. We began the unit by comparing and contrasting imaginary and informative texts. We read the story, There’s a Sea in My Bedroom,  by Margaret Wild and identified the language features authors use to engage their audience. Students practised creating sentences using dialogue. They also practised writing descriptively following similar sentence structure to the author. Students then went on to create a storyboard, a hamburger plan and have written their stories. They will now edit their draft copy and publish their own picture book next week. They are enjoying writing like an author and are looking forward to sharing their stories with other students and staff.

In maths, Year Two have been learning to measure volume and capacity using informal units.  The students have measured, recorded, compared, and estimated volumes and capacities. Collaboratively students collected and organised a range of containers to group based on less than one litre, the same as one litre and more than one litre. Year One have also been learning to measure mass, volume and area using informal units. They are now working on making amounts using different coin combinations. The hands on lessons have been very engaging!

This term in Science and Technology sessions, students have been using Lego to explore forces. We have been learning about push and pull forces as well as friction and gravity. Each lesson, students are given an aim to design and develop a product that uses one or more forms of energy and uses forces to create movement in products. All students have been highly engaged. They have thoroughly enjoyed exploring forces with our new Lego kits and using digital technology to communicate, collaborate and share information.

We look forward to continuing to work with the Stage One students as they complete Term Three and move into the final term of Year One and Two.

Cathy Hatton, Manoli Phillips, Mattise Neeves, Emily Ward, Angela Gett and Louise Stewart.

The first few weeks of Term 3 have been filled with valuable learning opportunities and exciting events. We started off the term with our school Athletics Carnival with Stage Two students participating in the running and field events. Many students making it to zone level. Education Week was next, in which Year 3 and Year 4 presented their award-winning items that they had previously performed at the eisteddfod. In between all of these great activities, Stage Two have been delving deep into lots of interesting subjects.

In English, we have been reading the book ‘The Lost Thing’ – written and illustrated by Shaun Tan. The first half of this unit focused on visual literacy (analysing pictures and their meaning). The students used a program called 3D Paint to create their own Lost Thing, using the visual literacy skills they had acquired. This was a great activity and enabled students to enhance their technological skills. The second half of the unit involved writing a literary description based on the students’ lost thing that they had created.

Stage Two are investigating forces in science. We have been engaging in many different experiments to understand concepts such as friction, momentum, gravity, push and pull. During this unit, we have been lucky enough to incorporate some coding and technology through creating and programming lego robots. Narrabri West Public School has provided us with enough Lego We-Do kits for everyone to have a go. We are building and programming a robot that has a trailer so we can explore the level of force needed to pull certain things.

Our geography unit is focused on the concept of sustainability. We have been looking into the reasons why people value their environment. Students have been using google maps to locate Australian sacred sites including Uluru, Ban Ban Springs and Baiame Caves. We have examined the reasons that they have been given the title of a sacred site.

Music has been very interesting and engaging this term. Stage Two have been using the percussion instruments to enhance our understanding of rhythm and beat. We have enjoyed listening to lots of fun music that involves animals and their movements.

During PDH we have explored relationships. We are learning about trust and how to manage bullying if we are in any type of situation in which this arises. The skills and knowledge that the students have acquired throughout this unit are beneficial in developing and maintaining relationships.

Year 4 have their upcoming excursion to Lake Keepit and the students are all very excited!

Stage Two have been extremely busy this term and are to be praised for their efforts in all key learning areas.

Mrs Keys, Miss Stibbard, Miss Dunmall, Miss Oudkerkpool and Miss Swanborough

Education Week 2022 – ‘Creating futures’.

It was great to see so many families join us for Education Week. Students preformed class/stage items, semester 2 SRC representatives were presented with their badges and families enjoyed a picnic lunch together.

Well done Narrabri West, together we raised $356.00 for Jeans for Genes Day.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in our Athletics Carnival, we had a fantastic day and everyone tried their best.

Congratulations to Oxley who were our winning house.

5yrs - Olivia Willis, Layten Tonkin

6yrs - Maizee Clayton, Archie Gordon

7yrs - Sofia Kneller, Linken Kelly

8yrs - Violet Russ, Bailey Oakley

9yrs - Hailee Orman, Connor Wallace

10yrs - Maicee Astill, Blair Lennox

11yrs - Hadleigh Astill, Fletcher Whan

12yrs - Kiara Vlahopoulos, Lennon Simmonds

Well done everyone!

Girls soccer game vs Ben Venue. 23rd August, 2022

The 2022 Girls soccer finals campaign has come to an end but wow, didn’t the westie girls put up a fight! In freezing and wet conditions NWPS were the first to score thanks to a quality build up through the midfield players and eventual goal by Jamaya Murphy. Ben Venue then realised that they were in for a very competitive game and increased their intensity to score just before half time. Following half time the Westies continued to dominate the one on one tackles and get first to the ball to maintain the majority of possession. A fantastic whole team effort starting in the back line with an Emily Simpson wide side line pass, to Maicee Astill and then cross into Latoya Murphy and through ball, found Kiara running onto a ball, evading her opponent and earning a penalty shot one on one with the keeper. Kiara was successful in scoring and the score became 2-1. A very hard fought struggle ensued over the next 10 mins with many hard hits and high flying balls on a very slippery surface. Ben Venue made a break after a slip in the midfield and were able to score to equal the goals 2-2. The rain came down and the physical nature of the tackles increased. The Westies were definitely “in it to win it”. Unfortunately in the last 5 minutes of the game a cracking shot from one of Ben Venue’s north west players screamed into the top right hand corner of the net, securing the win for them. Mrs Smith said “The girls put together all the training at lunch times and showed amazing determination. They were very unlucky not to make it through to the final…..I’m so proud of them all!!!”

On the 10th August, Mr Tester took the Stage 2 and Stage 3 rugby league teams to Gunnedah to compete in the United Coal Miners Cup. The West Tiger’s community engagement team were there on the day and held clinics for each age group and spoke to students about the importance of eating healthy and being active. Tiger’s played Tommy Talua also came to surprise students, present the shield and sign autographs.

Our Stage 2 team played some excellent games and demonstrated great sportsmanship throughout the gala day. Stage 3 were determined to defend their title and were successful in bringing back the shield to the West again. The day was full of student’s demonstrating outstanding rugby league skills, sportsmanship and determination and Mr Tester would like to thank all the parents and carers who transported students to Gunnedah and helped out on the day.

Late week Lennon Simmonds travelled to Griffith to compete in the NSWPSSA Boys Football Championships. Lennon has 3 full days ahead of him. Play hard and enjoy the experience Lennon.

Our athletics team performed very well at the Narrabri Zone PSSA Athletics Carnival held at Wee Waa last Friday winning the aggregret trophy. A large number of our athletes have now won selection in the Narrabri Zone PSSA team to compete at the North West Area PSSA Athletics Championships to be held in Tamworth Regional Athletics Centre on Friday 2nd September.

Last Thursday our School Captains, Charlie Butler and Amelia Lennox, attended a combined Memorial Service for Victory in the Pacific & Vietnam Veteran’s Day, at the Narrabri RSL. They  joined the captains/leaders from other Narrabri schools for this important ceremony.

Enrolments for 2023 are progressing very well and thank you to all those people who have already indicated their children will be attending Narrabri West next year.

Please encourage anyone you know who has children commencing school in 2023 to advise the school so that we can accurately commence planning. Students attending local preschools should have received packages promoting our school, highlighting our achievements and inviting them to consider Narrabri West. If your child attends another preschool and you have not received an information pack, please ask them for it, as we have supplied these to all preschools in Narrabri for distribution.

We realise it is often difficult to decide whether or not to send your children to school. However, if they are obviously unwell in the morning it would be wise to keep them at home. If you send them to school sick, it will take longer for them to get over it, it could become worse and in the process they may pass it on to someone else as well. Please give this some close consideration.

We have soap available in all our toilets for the children to use and encourage good personal hygiene at all times.

https://education.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/advice-for-families

Thank you to everyone who sends in Skoolbag notifications or emails informing us of your child/ren’s absences as they occur. 

If your child is sick for 3 consecutive days, you are required to provide the school with a medical certificate. 

Parents/carers are required by law to provide an explanation to the school to say why their child was absent from school. A note of explanation should contain:

1.     Date that the note was written

2.     Child’s name

3.     Days/dates the child was absent from school

4.     The reason the child was absent

5.     The signature of the child’s parent/carer

Or complete the online absence note on our Skoolbag app.

If you notify the school of an absence on one day, we cannot assume the same reason for being absent on consecutive days.

If more than one child from the same family has been absent, a separate note for each child should be written.

A note should be brought to school or a Skoolbag notification update, on the first day the student returns to school after an absence. If not, we are required to investigate all unexplained absences (where a child has been absent and no explanation has been received) within two days.

Notifying the school of absences through the Skoolbag app, by phone, email or note are all acceptable.