Drummoyne Public School

New P&C Executive

I would like to sincerely thank all members of the outgoing P&C executive for their faithful service of the school throughout 2022.

Congratulations to the new P&C executive and committee members for 2023 namely:

Executive

• President - Angela Farrell
• Vice President Canteen - Dee Elalingam
• Vice President Uniform Shop - Emilie Rohmer
• Treasurer - Kendal Mackay
• Secretary - Tim Counter

Sub-Committee Co-ordinators/Leads

• Uniform Shop - Nada El-Khoury
• Canteen - Emilie Rohmer
• Digital Account Management/Social Media - Mark Morgant
• Class Parent - Angela Farrell
• Grants Coordinator - Preston Peachey
• Spring Carnival - Tanya Adams and Belle Paton

Anyone from the school community who would like to get involved in a sub- committee or an event at any time is very welcome to do so.  To let us know, please complete the 'One-Off' volunteer form when attending your child's parent teacher interview next week.

The retaining wall along the fence line bordering the South Street playground and Drummoyne PS is being repaired with the work commencing on Monday 17th April.  The work will take 8-10 weeks.  

With the approval of Council, temporary fencing will be erected on South Street parallel to our school's fence line but will reduce the amount of playground area available to the community including one of the cricket nets. There will not be access to the school through the South Street gate during this time. 

Opportunity Class (OC) placement

Applications are now open for opportunity class (OC) placement in Year 5, 2024. Applications close Monday 15 May 2023. Please go to:

Extension of Contract

Due to disruptions caused by COVID, the Department of Education has announced that all eligible OSHC providers will receive 2 year extensions of their licence agreement.

This means under the new 2 year COVID extension, our current before and after school provider namely, GOWRIE NSW, will be extended for an additional two years, until 14 October 2025.  

I will be taking planned leave for two weeks at the start of next term returning on Monday 8th May.  Dianne Colb will be relieving Principal, Leigh Russ relieving Deputy Principal and Kathy Xenos relieving Assistant Principal for Stage 2.

ANZAC Day falls during the upcoming school holidays. Classes will acknowledge this solemn occasion with lessons prior to the holidays. Additionally, members of our prefect body will represent our school at the Five Dock RSL march, to be held on Sunday 23 April.

The primary classes will then come together on Wednesday 26 April (first day back for students) for a prefect-led 3-6 ANZAC assembly to be held at 9.45am in the hall. 

All members of the community are welcome to attend, and students are invited to wear a red poppy or a sprig of rosemary on their shirts for the school ceremony. 

As part of their inquiry into the significance of ANZAC Day, class 5/6M researched the involvement of animals in war time.  Did you know that Australian War Memorial Organisation (AWAMO) has issued a purple poppy?

In Australia, February 24 is set aside as Purple Poppy Day, as a reminder that animals have and continue to serve and acknowledge those creatures that have died during times of conflict. 

Michelle McCauley

Assistant Principal

This week at Drummoyne, Greek Language students enjoyed making Greek Easter biscuits called Kουλουράκια. (Koulourakia)

Kουλουράκια (Koulourakia) are butter based biscuits and come in certain traditional shapes (including a braid, a figure eight, a 'lifebuoy' circle and an s-shaped 'snake' with two swirls at either end).

Koulourakia are traditionally made at Easter time as they contain several ingredients that are forbidden during Great Lent such as eggs and butter.

If you decide to make some Koulourakia for Easter, they are best enjoyed with morning coffee or afternoon tea. Dunking is encouraged!

Ashley Nouris & Chris Skontos

In the accompanying graphic are the six essential skills that need to be taught for children to learn to read.

Letter-sound knowledge is also known as phonics knowledge. Phonics is concerned with sound-letter relationships in written words and builds upon a foundation of language and phonological awareness. Phonics instruction helps children learn the relationship between letters of the written language and the sounds of the spoken language. Research suggests an explicit, synthetic phonics approach (blending and segmenting phonemes) is the most efficient way to teach phonics.

Reading fluency is focused on developing a reading style that is smooth and expressive. Fluent readers are able to read orally with appropriate speed, accuracy, and proper expression. Fluency is the ability to read as well as we speak and to make sense of the text without having to stop and decode each word.

It is important that a child does not randomly guess or use the pictures to work out unknown words. Focus should be on the letters and sounds, and the process of blending those together to read the word.

Some key features when supporting the reading process:

• Use a tracking finger to hold the position of reading and have your child slide it along as they read.
• If an error is made, ask your child to try decoding the word again. Then re-read the complete sentence will assist with fluency and understanding.
• If your child forgets the sounds when decoding, click on the word to hear the text being read aloud.
• At the end of each page, click the ‘read to me’ button to check accuracy and hear the text being read aloud.
• At the end of the book use the comprehension questions to check for understanding and to discuss the story.
• Celebrate each book and the effort your child has just given!

Beck Cantlay

Assistant Principal Curriculum & Instruction.

Respect awards - Rawson says congratulations to: 

• Will Howard - 3/4S
• Hayden Howard - 5/6C
• Alex McDonald - 5/6O

Responsibility awards - Monty says congratulations to:

• Micha Ichinnorov - 3/4A
• Ruby Baggett-Grenfell - 3/4W
• Indie Pitura - 3/4W
• Theodora Bartolo - 5/6C
• Isabel De Sousa - 5/6C
• Cristian Iliadis - 5/6C
• Hayden Howard - 5/6C
• Indiana Brown - 5/6O

• Will Howard - 3/4S
• Zara De Sousa - 3/4W
• Lucy Fernley - 5/6M

We will be celebrating the end of the term and Easter with an Easter hat parade. Families and friends are warmly welcome to attend.

Date: Thursday 6th April 

Time: 2.20pm - 3.10pm

Venue: North playground

Primary students are asked to bring a hat they have made at home. Students in K-2 will be making their hats at school. More information about hat making at school will be sent home by classroom teachers via Seesaw. To prevent waste and plastic ending up in the streets that surround the school, all students are strongly encouraged to decorate a hat they already own using recycled materials.

Please note students will be dismissed from their classroom at 3.20pm following normal routines.

Gaby Walsh

Assistant Principal

Students who need a School Opal card or travel pass for 2023, can now apply.

A new application will need to be submitted if they are applying for the first time, or if they are requesting an additional travel entitlement as a result of a new shared parental responsibility situation (e.g. joint custody). Students who change address, school, campus location, have repeated a year or received an expiry notification from Transport for NSW for their school travel entitlement should renew or update their details before the end of term 4. This will ensure that schools can endorse applications, and entitlements remain valid for the start of the 2023 school year.

Students in the Opal network applying for an Opal card for the first time will receive their Student Opal card at their nominated postal address. Cards will be mailed out from January 2023.

For further details please see the attachment below.

The permission notes listed below have been sent home recently and should be completed and signed by parents as soon as possible.

• School Contributions  for all students - $120 due date 31 March 
• Interrelate Course for Year 6 students  - $40 due date 3 April
• Moving into the Teens Course for Year 5 students -  $40 due date 3 April
• Kaleidoscope Science incursion for Kindergarten students - $10 due date 3 April

While it adds to the sense of community when our pets are brought to school at pick-up times, under the Companion Animals Act 1998 (NSW), Section 14 and in the interests of safety and hygiene, dogs are not allowed on school grounds. 

Thank you for your understanding.

At school we have a cupboard with spare underwear and socks for children who have a toileting accident or fall in a puddle etc.

We are looking to refill our supplies. If you have any good quality socks or undies that your child has grown out of (usually only small sizes needed for infants), please drop them in at the school office.

Please ensure your child’s name is permanently and clearly labelled on belongings such as school hats, jackets, lunch boxes, drink bottles and school bags.

Please use a permanent laundry marker to label clothes, hats and shoes, or sew or iron on personalised labels, go through your child’s bag with them regularly and check that labels haven’t faded with washing.

Thank you to everyone who volunteered on Saturday for the P&C election day BBQ giving up their time to help out and with the logistics. Thank you also to those who baked some goodies for the cake stall.

Sincere thanks to all of our volunteers namely: Justin Asciak, Todd Shipp, Gayle Sloan, Tania Adams, Belle Paton, Emilie Rohmer, Angus McDonald, Dee Elalingam, Rika Hamment, Kerrie Hudson, Tess , Megan, Angela Farrell, Mark Morgant, Kendal Mackay, Phillipa Mackay, Emma Auzins, Neal Cook, Michael Hodges, Chris Booth, Uta, Isabelle & Tim Counter.

The uniform shop will be open this term for face to face sales on Monday afternoons from 3pm - 3.30pm.

Please remind students to be responsible for their belongings and return their hats, lunchboxes and jumpers to their bags after the lunch and recess breaks.

The P&C will be holding a second hand uniform sale on:

Friday 28th April from 8.15am - 9.15am under the COLA

Good quality, clean donations are welcome on the morning.

If you would like to help at the sale please contact your class parent. 

Our new hybrid unisex school hats are back in stock!

We are phasing out both the old style round girls hat as well as the Legionnaire hat and once stock has been exhausted only the Hybrid Unisex hat will be available.

Please order school uniforms online. The P&C will process orders and the school office staff will distribute them.

 Please use our school Registration ID: 2572963 to create an account if you don’t already have one for canteen orders.

Thank you to our volunteers this week namely: Sophie W, Sophie Y, Dina and Gabi. And also to our student helpers namely: Keira, Ethan. Deniz and Eve.

Recess remains closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. 

The end of term sausage sizzle will be held on Thursday 6th April. Please note, there will be no pasta available on this day.

• Sausage Sizzle 1: $5.90 juice ( flavours subject to availability ) or water , tom/bbq/mustard sauce included. OPTION: quelch stick $0.70.
• Sausage sizzle 2: $6.90 chill j drink  or  Oak flavoured milk( flavours subject to availability ), tom/bbq/mustard sauce included. OPTION: quelch stick $0.70 

Orders are now open and close at 4pm on Monday 3rd April.

The canteen committee, and Eugenie and Catherine wish everyone a safe and happy holiday. Happy Easter to all!

Volunteers needed next week:

MON 3rd -  9:30am - 10:30am........2     10:30am - 12 midday.......2 

APRIL 6th - 9:30am - 10:30am........2     10:30am - 12 midday.......2 (End of Term1 Sausage Sizzle)

To volunteer:

To volunteer, please log in to your school24 account.

• Click onto 'Volunteer' and follow the prompts.

Your help is most appreciated!

Canteen, P&C Committee

To book Gowrie NSW - enrolment forms can be found on the Gowrie website:

https://www.gowriensw.com.au/out-of-hours-care/drummoyne-and-stmarks

Contact Rekkha for more information on 0436 616 744.

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