Lismore South Public School Newsletter

The P&C will be holding a BBQ on Saturday, 25th March at Lismore South Public School for the State Election. We are looking for volunteers to help on the day to ensure it is a successful fundraiser. If you can spare at least 60 minutes we ask that you enter your details on the online form. We need helpers to cook, serve and collect money. Any help given on the day will be greatly appreciated.   Fill out form by clicking here.

Our Year 3 and 5 students will continue sitting their NAPLAN assessments over the next week.  The NAPLAN Online assessment window finishes on Monday 27 March 2023. Like 2022, the assessments will be online except for Year 3 Writing which is still a paper assessment.Students will be assessed in Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language and Numeracy.

The online format is an adaptive program, designed to assess a wider range of student abilities and to measure student achievement more precisely. Whilst these tests give us some ‘point in time’ information about student strengths and areas of development, they are simply just one form of assessment used in conjunction with a range of other school based assessment across areas of learning.

The Easter Hat Parade will be held on Monday 3rd April at 10.30am. Students will make a hat at school to showcase in the parade. All K-6 students will have the opportunity to create their own hat and parade their creation if they wish. The students are asked to bring their hat-making items in a bag with their name clearly marked ready for hat making lessons, which will commence in Week 10. 

All K-6 students are asked to bring to school the extra materials they will need to make and decorate their hat. This could include a recycled hat to use as a base and some decorative items or recycled items to glue to the hat. At school we have a supply of cardboard, tissue paper and crepe paper for students to be creative with. Please reach out to your child's class teacher if you have any further questions.

Harmony Day is celebrated on Tuesday 21 March, which is the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. At LSPS, we are participating in Harmony Day activities in all classes. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. 

The Flood Anniversary was remembered with a special plant given to our families from our old school gardens. We hope the plants will continue to grow and thrive. It will continue to be a long road to recovery, however we can get through this together.

Our Preschool and Kinder class also enjoyed hearing about the return of our native bees. The bee hive was rescued the night before the flood and moved to higher grounds. The bee hive was moved to one of the highest houses in South Lismore. It was beautiful to see our children so excited to hear about the adventures of the native bees and learn how amazing bees are at adapting to a new environment. 

Breakfast club has been very popular this term.  Don't forget breakfast club operates every morning from 8.30am. One of the best habits our children can adopt is to start their day with a nutritious breakfast. What we choose to put in our bodies directly affects how we look, feel and function. Brain function is one of the most important, and what we feed our brain drastically affects our mood and productivity levels for our school day.

The beginning and end of the school day are busy times outside of schools. We remind all parents to be mindful of our school neighbours when parking around our school. Please do not turn around in their driveways or park on the nature strip. We have been asked to pass on a request that parents and carers avoid the one way street of Phyllis Street. The best parking space for parents is Kyogle Street. Arrive early and please park responsibly even if it means you have to walk further to the school gate. Thank you for working with us to keep everybody safe.

If you have any issues or concerns regarding another student’s behaviour at school, please do not directly approach the child or contact the family. Student behaviour at school will be carefully managed by executive staff in accordance with our Student Welfare and Discipline Policy. It is important that all children are respected, safe and supported while at school. Thank you to parents for your ongoing cooperation in regard to this matter.

Students in Year 5, 6 and 7, have welcomed back Greg Inglis and The Goanna Academy program to our school.  Greg delivered two modules which has addressed self-esteem and wellbeing.  The NRL sport star shared stories and practical ideas about how to build your self-esteem.  The Goanna Academy program has been carefully designed to help end the stigma surrounding mental health and improve social capacity to identify, talk about and manage mental health for all Australians.

Our preschoolers have been enjoying exploring and engaging with their new environment through relationships and play. We have been playing lots of fun games as part of our whole group time and children are getting to know one another and strengthening their skills in interacting with others with care, empathy and respect.

We read 'Guess how much I love you' by Sam McBratney, a delightful story that attempts to measure the love between Big and Little Nut Brown Hare. We then made clay love hearts and decorated them with natural resources.

Children have been very curious in the living creatures found in our outdoor environment and have enjoyed investigating cicadas. We have also found much excitement in experimenting with chalk and water, constructing with blocks, building train tracks, creating car ramps, and dinosaurs.

We love outdoor messy play at preschool and in this warm weather our children are still enjoying water play on a daily basis. We only have a very small supply of spare clothes at preschool so we would really appreciate it if families could please pack spare sun safe clothing every day for your child if they need to change during the day. Please make sure these clothes are clearly labeled with your child's name.

If your child does borrow some preschool clothes, please wash them and return them as soon as possible. 

Thank you for your help. 

This year our school is embarking on an exciting new journey into Walker Learning teaching programs and practices. This has a strong focus on loose parts play and is best resourced through a combination of natural resources and reusing recyclable materials in the classroom. We need you help to gather these items so that we have a plentiful supply for your children to play, create and explore with. 

All items that are brought to preschool need to be clean and ready to use. Some of the items we are interested in collecting are bottle lids, yoghurt lids, cardboard tubes from inside paper towel/ alfoil etc (Please NO toilet rolls for hygiene reasons). Small cardboard boxes (muslie bars, crackers etc.), buttons, ribbons, PVC pipe cut offs,  seed pods. The list really is endless. 

We have set up a bin in our front foyer for you to place your loose parts materials into. If you need any guidance of an items suitability please speak with our staff before placing the item in the bin. 

We look forward to engaging our children in creative sustainable practices with you.