Welcome back to Term 2! The weather has certainly changed over the past week or so. It’s nice to have fresh mornings and chilly evenings. Winter is on its way. It is a great opportunity to make sure your child’s school uniform is ready for winter. This is typically a time of the year where we see random jumpers and non-uniform items of clothing creep in. Please keep up the high standard of uniform over winter. It is so nice to look across the playground at lunch or recess, or when I visit classrooms each morning, to see a sea of navy and blue. However, over winter, we often see local sports jumpers worn as school jumpers. It’s funny as when I have a conversation with students about jumper that aren't uniform, I ask if they have ever gone to play sport on the weekend in their school clothes. Inevitably the answer is "NO!". They then usually say “Oh I get it now Ms Holt”. If you won’t wear your school uniform on the sports field, please do not wear your sports uniform (including jumper) to school. Both sport and schools have the same philosophy around uniforms
- It makes us easily recognisable
- It is equitable and levels the playing field – no one is trying to out do each other
- Most importantly, I believe, it makes all students a part of the team.
We have navy jumpers and hoodies available from the front office. We also have a good supply of quality second hand uniforms if you need. The ladies in the office often go through our second hand clothing pool and take out items that are not in good condition – so if we have your child’s size, we will have a good quality second hand clothing item for you.
PLEASE MAKE SURE ALL ITEMS OF CLOTHING ARE LABELLED WITH YOUR CHILD’S NAME. It is impossible to return lost property if there is no name on your child’s jumper or hat. The weather at this time of the year also means that the students are taking jumpers off at lunchtime, once the sun is out, the day has warmed up and they start running around. Try as we might to get students to put jumpers straight back in their bag or around their waist, we are fighting a losing battle (I feel like I am preaching to the choir here though…..I can see you all nodding along) and unsurprisingly the jumpers are dropped on the ground. Again, easy to return if your child’s name is on the inside. Conversely, not so easy if it doesn’t have a name. We have close on 300 students, so you can understand how tricky this can be.
NAPLAN
The ‘National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy’ for students in Years 3 & 5 will be held on Tuesday 10 May and Wednesday 11 May. Could you please make every effort for your child to be at school on these days and at school by 8:50am. We will have make up days later in the following week for any students unable to attend school on Tuesday 10 and/or Wednesday 11. It is important to remember that NAPLAN tests are not pass or fail tests. At the classroom level, it is one of a number of tools used by teacher to measure student progress.
Thank you to the P&C who are providing a free cup of warm hot chocolate for all Year 3 and 5 students on Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 before NAPLAN. The students need to go to the canteen and ask for a cup of hot chocolate. What a way to settle those nervous tummies.
MURAL
With thanks to RT signs and Mr Castle, we have added a permanent plaque next to our beautiful mural, with the story behind the mural engraved on it. The story used to be on a photocopied and laminated piece of paper. This is such an important piece of artwork in our school, and its significance and story needs to be preserved. The mural is on the southern end of the library building. The photos are below for you to see.
P&C TREASURER
Our P&C executive are looking for a treasurer. If you are able to help out we would love to hear from you. Please email the P&C stocktonpublicschoolpc@gmail.com
Our current P&C exec are Hayley Ambler - president; Jake Cosgrove - vice president; Jordan Wallace - secretary. I have attached the minutes from our first P&C meeting with the new executive from last Thursday.
ASSEMBLY
As we have come out of our COVID restrictions, one of the events that we have reflected on as staff is school assemblies. We found in the past, staff spent a lot of time during assembly managing student behaviour. This is not ideal and something we wanted to move away from. We have reflected on the purpose of assembly and what it means to our students, especially if they found it difficult to sit still for the duration of assembly. This year, stages have had stage assemblies. We have discussed the fact that staff feel like stage assemblies are far more personal and they have the time to tell the stories attached to class awards. After a great deal of discussion, we have decided to trial Celebration assemblies. Stage assemblies will still happen weekly or fortnightly. Class awards will be given out by all class teachers and success stories will be shared. In Weeks 5 and 10 we will hold whole school celebration assemblies, where we will acknowledge all students who have received a SEA, WAVE or SHORE award. Whilst SHORE awards will be handed out at stage assemblies, starfish badges as part of the SHORE award will be handed out at Celebration assemblies so that the whole student body can recognise and celebrate these student achievements. Our school leaders will have an opportunity to lead our Celebration assemblies. We recognise that fact that stage assemblies do not sing the school song or national anthem. Celebration assemblies will be a chance for our these to be sung and the importance recognised. We will also have a chance to recognise our sporting representatives for that 5 week period. It will be an evolving space around celebrating, recognising, acknowledging and appreciating the great things that happen at Stockton Public School each and every day. We are going to trial these Celebration assemblies for this term and see how we go.
MOTHER’S DAY BREAKFAST
On Friday 6 May we will be hosting a Mother’s Day breakfast. This is to celebrate the special people in our student’s lives who care love, support and look after them. Please join us for a bacon and egg roll under the COLA from 8am. The choir will be singing. There will be coffee/tea available from the canteen. (Please note it is a WHS requirement that the lids of hot tea/coffee be kept on. Two schools that I know of have had terrible accidents from hot tea/coffee) We look forward to seeing you here on Friday morning!
With thanks to the P&C we will be having a Mother's Day stall on Friday morning. Please send your child to school with money to spend. Each child will be able to purchase something special from the stall.
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY
Sunday is a wonderful day to celebrate the special people in our lives. To all of the people that support and love our students, thank you. Whilst its title is Mother's Day, thank you to all of the people that have an important role in the lives of our students - mums, aunties, grandmas, stepmums, godmother's, neighbours and dads. We hope that you get spoilt and are thanked for the role that you have in our little people's lives. Have a lovely Mother's Day!
Ms Jodie Holt
Principal
