End of Term

This one has gone by particularly quickly, but once again we reach the end of a busy term. It was a term with quite of lot ‘extra’, but very worthwhile things occurring outside the classroom. We hope to finish on a high on Friday with the P&C Colour Run. At the time of writing, the office has only received approximately 100 returned permission notes (for 343 students). For students to participate in the activity, we absolutely will require your consent. This can be done by using the eForm available via the Skoolbag app.

I acknowledge that there have been a lot of school expenses and events to keep up with this term, but please complete the consent form asap if you haven’t already.

St Johns OOSH

This week, I was informed that St Johns OOSH will no longer be able to service the students of Lambton PS with before and after school care. Their decision was based on the limited number of our school families currently utilising the service.

It is a little sad to say goodbye as they have diligently cared for our students for many years. Allow me to acknowledge the wonderful work of Heather Martindale and the team that worked alongside her for many years. Heather is an outstanding educator who has built sincere and deep relationships with many of our students and their families. We thank the St Johns team for such excellent care and wish them all the best with the ongoing operational of the OOSH at St Johns.

Uniform Update

This coming Wednesday, the uniform review committee will be meeting to review the EOI submissions received from uniform suppliers to determine which one offers the best value, range and customer service for our needs. Once we have determined who the preferred uniform supplier is, we will be able to sign a supply agreement with them and enter into discussions about the uniform items required and begin work on design concepts for the new uniform.

I admit it has taken much longer to reach this point then I had hoped, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. We are moving towards our end of goal and the most exciting part is not too far away.

Phones

Once again, I have to apologise to our community for the disruption to the school phone lines last week. We have had ongoing issues for the past 3 years and each time, the issue has been difficult to isolate and repair. Dealing with the bureaucracy that comes with the Internet and phone providers has been both time-consuming and frustrating. At present we can receive calls on one line but cannot phone out. As we work to resolve this issue, please be advised that you may receive calls from school with No Caller Id showing. These are likely to be from the office staff or our teachers, calling from school from their own personal devices with the caller id turned off. Please pick them up if you can.

Congratulations – HyoEun and Lachlan

Last week, we were notified that two of our students did very well in recent external school competitions:

1.       Earlier this year, our Stage 3 students participated in the Newcastle Permanent Building Society Mathematics competition. HyoEun Yang from 6CS performed very well and as a result, will receive a very prestigious ‘District Award’ with an attached monetary prize at a special presentation early next term. HyoEun achieved a ‘High Distinction’ (top 1.5%) and placed 10th overall out of 8,000 Year 6 entrants. Simply put – WOW! Congratulations HyoEun.

2.       After quite a few weeks of waiting to receive results from the Zone Public Speaking Finals, we learned that Lachlan Leys from KH received a ‘Highly Commended’ award for the presentation of his speech on Australian Ninja Warrior. Even better was that the first two speakers at the zone finals in his Early Stage 1 category experienced stage fright and didn’t want to speak, so Lachie volunteered to go first, putting the other speakers more at ease! Congratulations and well-done Lachie.

We are super proud of both of them and delighted with their achievements.

 NAPLAN

Over the last few weeks, I have shared some graphs showing the school’s 2022 NAPLAN results. Last week, it was just the Year 3 trend data. The final set I will share with you is the Year 5 trend data for the five areas of assessment as compared with the state average and the average for statistically similar schools. In each graph below, the green line represents the school’s results.

I wish all of our students, parents and teachers a restful and enjoyable Term 3 school holiday break. Staff and students return for Term 4 on Monday 10 October.

Stay safe!

David Holland

Congratulations to our students of the week for Week 8, Term 3

Congratulations to our students of the week for Week 9, Term 3

Parents, please be advised that following Prime Minister Albanese’s announcement last week that there will be a one-off public holiday for a National Day of Mourning for Queen Elizabeth II - our school will be non-operational on Thursday 22 September. This means that the school is closed, without teachers on-site and no classes. Students will need to stay at home. 

Thanks to the initiative of the SRC, we were able to raise $295.30 from Friday’s Green-themed Out of Uniform Day. These funds will be donated to the Hunter Wetlands to assist with their conservation work. 

This is a reminder that final payment for the Stage 3 Bathurst excursion is due this Friday 23 September. Any student for whom final payment has not been made by this date will be unable to attend the excursion. 

Students will be unable to participate unless full payment has been made or arrangements have been made. We would not like any students intending on going to miss out.  

Parents and carers are invited to participate in our 2022 TTFM parent survey.

Participation in the survey takes around 15 minutes, is anonymous and helps us identify trends within our school and better inform school priorities.

Click here to access the survey 

There are no usernames or passwords needed

What's cooking in 2J

During our writing unit this term, 2J have been learning how to write a procedure and looking at the different features of a procedure. We have really enjoyed learning about different foods around the world through videos and listening activities. A part of writing unit involved choosing a country, researching that country and picking one recipe from that country, We are currently working really hard on creating our very own 2J Cookbook to share with our friends and families.

Keep your eyes peeled, as this cookbook will be coming home soon.....

Thank you to all of our amazing community who have supported our fundraisers this term.Nathan and Melissa Marshall from Marshall and Daughters have enabled the P&C to raise $500 this term which is fantastic.

Term 3 Disco  - a whopping 262 tickets sold! This has been our biggest disco in many years, we hope the kids enjoyed themselves!!

Colour Run Reminder:  Event will run Friday, September 23rd.Get your tickets in now to be part of the fabulous prize draw. Ticket Portal closes on My School Connect tomorrow night at 11:30 pm. 50 awesome prizes up for grabs !!

We cannot wait for the colour run- it should be a day to remember for all of LPS.

Nominations are now open for student singers interested in applying for a vocal role in Star Struck 2023.

Vocal roles include: featured vocalists, backing vocalists, and the core choir.

Round 1 is a live audition to be held at Belmont Public School on Friday 4 November and Saturday 5 November. 

Students interesting in applying to audition can receive an information pack from the school office. 

• COVID-smart measures to continue throughout Term 3

From Week 5, Monday 15 August, the following COVID-smart measures will remain in place in our schools:

• Students and staff must stay at home if unwell and not return to school until symptom-free.
  
• If a student or staff member is symptomatic, they should take a rapid antigen test (RAT) and isolate until they receive a negative test result
• Masks continue to be strongly encouraged for all staff, students and school visitors, particularly when indoors and when physical distancing is not possible. Masks continue to be mandatory for all staff working with students at greater risk of severe illness if they were to get COVID-19.
• Household or close contacts who are symptom-free can attend mainstream schools if they receive a negative RAT result every day for 5 school days and wear a mask (staff and high school students) while on site.
• Vaccinations are no longer required for staff except for those working in SSPs. We continue to recommend all staff and eligible students and their families to keep up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccinations, including getting a booster shot.
• Visitors, regardless of their vaccination status, are able to come to school sites but may be required to wear a mask if in close proximity to students at greater risk of severe illness if they were to get COVID-19.
• Natural ventilation and personal hygiene should continue to be encouraged.
• Events, gatherings and overnight excursions are able to go ahead and we encourage schools to consider the risks associated and make COVID-smart decisions based on the current situation with COVID-19 and other illnesses in their communities.
• Additional circuit breaker measures continue to be implemented at schools working with the Health, Safety and Staff Wellbeing case management team, when needed.

Refer to COVID-smart measures for further details.