Spring Farm Public School

Presentation Day 

Presentation Day 2019 is commencing at 9:30 on Thursday 12 December. Parents and carers of award recipients have already been sent invitations to attend the ceremony. We ask that you kindly read the below information to ensure the ceremony and morning tea to follow can run smoothly and efficiently.

Due to recent and predicted HAZARDOUS smoke conditions according to the NSW Government Planning, Industry and Environment’s Air Quality Index, the event will follow the Extreme Weather Plan which involves an adjusted format. Please see the information below for details of how the ceremonies will run.

Program

The ceremony will be broken into 3 parts with a small break in between each ceremony to allow for students to exit and enter the hall. The following is guide for how the ceremonies will run:      

Seating

Due to the Work Health and Safety Requirements there will be a limited amount of seating that will be available within the hall. We would like to kindly ask that parents and carers please vacate the seats in the hall if their child will not be receiving an award in the current group of students. There will be the option to seek shelter within the school library during this time and announcements will be made over the speaker system to keep the community informed. This means there will be NO reserved seating and we encourage our community to be flexible and accommodating of all parents and carers, keeping in mind that large groups of family and friends will be difficult to accommodate due to the limited hall space and seating.

We ask that at the conclusion of the ceremony that ALL rubbish is placed in the bins provided, including disposable coffee cups

Morning Tea

At the conclusion of the final ceremony we ask all students and parents to quickly vacate the hall area so this can be set up for the morning tea. This is a great opportunity to have photos with family and friends prior to the morning tea. The library will be open during this time to seek shelter from the smoke. Due to the sheer volume of students receiving awards, TWO guests per student are permitted to attend the morning tea. Each award recipient will receive two morning tea passes and these will be collected upon entry to the morning tea.

Publishing Photos and Social Media

We once again remind parents and carers that not all students within our school have permission to publish and ask our community to be mindful when posting photos to social media. We kindly ask that you only post photos of your own child and avoid posting pictures and videos with large groups of students in them.

Toilets for Parents and Carers

We remind our community that they are to use the toilets in the hall. Due to ongoing maintenance in the boys toilets in the hall, male adults can use the disabled toilet in the hall.

We look forward to celebrating the outstanding achievements of our students in 2019.

On Tuesday 17 December our Carols at the Farm is scheduled. Classes are excitedly preparing their performances. There is a chance that there will be poor or hazardous air quality. In the event that poor or hazardous conditions are predicted, the concert will be cancelled as we do not have adequate room to accommodate a large number of people indoors.

A decision will be made on Monday 16 December 2019 via the SkoolBag app as to whether the event will go ahead.

The health and safety of all students and families is our priority. We appreciate your understanding on this matter. 

Year 6 students are to arrive at Harrington Grove Country club at 6:15pm where they will be met by teachers and escorted into the restaurant. Parents and Carers are welcome to attend the gathering at 8:45pm for speeches, cutting of the cake, last dances and photos. The event will conclude at 9:30pm.

Please be conservative with transport to the venue; due to WHS all students and staff will be taken straight into the venue as they arrive and no one will be out to view any cars.

We have been working on 2020 classes and trying to work on the best solution for next year as the school will be establishing another Multi-Categorical class and receiving another new Demountable Classroom. We have a growing community and for this reason we need to consider establishing classes that will allow for student growth whilst working within our staffing and classroom entitlements set by the Department of Education.  Structuring classes for the New Year is a lengthy, well-planned and considered process that revolves around the needs of our students and how we as a school can best cater for them. The school is waiting for another demountable to be placed and established, there will be a class that will be in the library for several weeks in Term 1 2020.    

Class placement is a complex processes especially in a growing community, with class sizes set by the Department of Education and school structures must take these policies into consideration when forming classes. If student numbers increase we will need to form another class or classes and therefore student movement may happen during the New Year. Therefore, the school is putting a lot of thought and forward planning to limit too many class changes throughout the year. Within Term 4 of this year, the school has enrolled a number of students and we have been able to manage and welcome our new families and students. At this point, teachers have not been allocated any classes as we are waiting for new staff to join us and a number of staffing changes can happen over the summer holidays. Spring Farm Public School teachers are K to 6 trained and will be placed in different class years and stages each year. This is beneficial for their professional development and for the school community to view all of our teachers as having the skills to teach in all years.    

Spring Farm Public School will continue to have stage classes or cross stage classes as they have a number of benefits to students:  teachers are able to focus on individual student’s academic and social needs. They can plan fluid academic movement for all students in their class. Stage classes provide opportunities for students to broaden their friendship bases and be clear role models to others in their class. These type of classes will assist with the new enrolments throughout the year without disrupting existing classes. More information can be accessed on this link: 

http://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/25cb2fe5-c5f4-4ce8-920c-6b4b108bb30a/parents-guide-2015.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID= 

Chat & Privacy

Players age 12 and younger have their posts and chats filtered both for inappropriate content and to prevent personal information from being posted. However, it is parents responsibility to monitor their child's message when it comes issues of mean messages or bullying on social media. Players age 13 and older have the ability to say more words and phrases than younger players. This filtering system covers all areas of communication on Roblox, public and private. Account owners have the ability to limit or disable who can chat with them, both in-app or in-game, who can send them messages, and who can follow them into games or invite them to VIP Servers.

 How can I see what my child is doing on Roblox?

Roblox has several ways to monitor account activity. While logged in, you can view the following histories from their related sections:

• Direct and small group chat (Chat & Party feature found in the lower right corner of the apps). There you can see individual chat histories. This feature is limited to Friends, and Friends of Friends.
• Private message history (Messages)
• Friends and Followers (Friends)
• Virtual item purchase and trade history (My Transactions, browser only)
• Creations such as games, items, sounds, ads...etc (Create, browser only)
• Recently played games (Home, Keep Playing or My Recent)

Additional Security

Additional Information for parents can be found at:

https://corp.roblox.com/parents/

A huge thank you to all parents and families who have taken advantage of The Athlete's Foot School Rewards Program

To date the school has earnt $1,130 since February 2019 – 226 pairs purchased!

Students from our school have recently undertaken, an education tour of the national capital. Students were given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia’s history, culture, heritage and democracy.

The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education. To assist families in meeting the cost of the excursion the Australian Government contributed funding of $20 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program towards those costs. The rebate is paid directly to the school upon completion of the excursion.

This was passed on to families in the form of reduced camp fees.

Spring Farm Public School is an official member of the Positive Behaviour for Learning. Please visit the PBL site to access more information https://pbl.schools.nsw.gov.au/

Keep an eye out on our Facebook Page for our upcoming PBL Focus'.