Plattsburg Public School Newsletter

It is the responsibility of parents and carers to organise before and after school care. It is not acceptable to drop your children at school before supervision commences at 8:30am. Children on the school site before or after supervision ARE NOT SAFE. We understand that many parents may have commitments at work which require them to start early. We start early too.

Recently staff were attending their fortnightly staff meeting at 8am and it was only by chance that a staff member looked out the window and saw a Kindergarten student playing on the road. The student was dropped off with their sibling at 8am. This situation could have easily become a tragedy.

There are OOSH services operating at Wallsend Public School and Maryland Public School. As an alternative, you may be able to make arrangements with friends or neighbours for the supervision of your children before school. Some families in our school who have working parents take turns to take each other’s children to school.

Details of local OOSH services are included in this newsletter.

There has been a significant increase in partial attendance of students. 

Once enrolled, children are required to attend school each day it is open for students. Arriving at school and class on time:

• Ensures that students do not miss out on important learning activities scheduled early in the day.
• Helps students learn the importance of punctuality and routine.
• Give students time to greet their friends before class.
• Reduces classroom disruption
• Lateness is recorded as a partial absence and must be explained by parents.

Here are some suggestions for setting regular routines:

• Have a set time to be out of bed.
• Have a set time to go to bed.
• Have uniform and school bag ready the night before.
• Turn the television on for a set time.
• Provide lots of positive encouragement.
• Book doctor’s appointments, haircuts etc. after school.

Every five weeks, Plattsburg Public School notifies all families if a child’s attendance falls below 85%. We do understand that children may have leave for many reasons e.g. illness.. The school is obliged to bring this leave information to your attention regardless of the reasons for non attendance as part of the NSW Department of Education’s Attendance Policies. The attendance rate includes pre-advised and explained absences for illness during school terms.

• The school’s attendance monitoring system produces a ‘Below 85% Attendance’ list for every five-week period.
• Individual reports sent home are not done so to cause offence. They are provided in good faith as part of our mandatory reporting requirements to you. This is still the case for if the leave has been justified, approved or is unapproved and will include holiday periods taken during school time.
• Below 85% attendance averages out at more than 3 missed days per 4-weeks of school. 

The consequences of non-attendance have been proven to impact upon academic, socio-economic and health outcomes:

• Lower scores and poorer academic outcomes
• Increased likelihood of dropping out of school earlier
• Decreased likelihood of engaging in vocational education
• Poorer long-term mental health and social outcomes
• Increased likelihood of involvement with criminal activity
• Increased likelihood of requiring social assistance 

The colour codes for recording absences are as follows:

Green - present for the whole day

Orange - explained absence.

Yellow - Late arrival, early leave.

Red - unexplained absence.

Parents and carers can help foster positive attendance habits by:

• helping their child learn the importance of punctuality and routine
• ensuring their child arrives on time from the start of the school day, ready to participate in learning
• reducing disruption to learning where possible, by planning any necessary appointments outside of school time
• promptly communicating any absence to the school (within 7 days of the first day of any absence)
• working with the school to encourage and support regular attendance.

Let's get our kids to school on time and reach our attendance target of 95% for the benefit of our students to reach their educational potential.

On Thursday 31 August, National Cabinet agreed to reduce the isolation period for COVID-19 positive cases from 7 days to 5 days, with the following caveats: 

• this would apply only to people with no symptoms at day 5 of their isolation 
• 7 days isolation remains for workers in high-risk settings including aged care, disability care, and those providing care in the home. 

The change will come into effect from Friday 9 September. 

School photos are booked for Tuesday 13th September. Please bring your MSP order envelope on the day with your payment. Students are to wear full school uniform of maroon and gold. If you need new uniforms, please order online at QuickCliQ and the uniforms will be delivered to your child in class or can be collected from the office. 

As mentioned in the previous newsletter, our supplier LW Reid increased their prices and we have no other option that to pass this increase on to our families. From Term 4 our school shirts will increase from $25 to $27 each. Thank you for your support and understanding.

Keeping the school's uniform shop fully stocked costs approximately $30,000. A lot of stock goes unsold as our families choose to purchase shorts, pants and skorts from cheaper retail stores, eg. Best and Less, Big W, Lowes. This is perfectly fine, as long as the items are maroon, it is sensible to source cheaper alternatives to items available at the school's uniform shop.  

Keeping the stock levels required for every item is no longer financially viable and after discussion with the P&C Association, Principal and neighbouring schools we have made the decision to no longer stock non-logo uniform items such as shorts, tracksuit pants and skorts. The school uniform shop will keep supplies of school shirts, hats and jackets. 

There are still discontinued items available to purchase for $5 via www.quickcliq.com.au 

Our Student Administration Manager, Ms Stacey has been successful in securing a permanent position at Gillieston Public School commencing in Term 4. Ms Stacey came to Plattsburg Public School last year in the middle of a lockdown. With "learning" and "working" from home; managing an office and its staff without being face-to-face was challenging; however, Ms Stacey excelled and soon established herself as a vital member of our team. Ms Stacey's knowledge and professionalism will be sorely missed by all the staff at Plattsburg Public School and whilst we are sad to see her go, we wish her every success in her new position. 

This week at Plattsburg, two of our Year 6 students - Rosette Simba and Agook Manyang - created and presented an informative lecture and discussion on Racism with Ms Bax. The presentation was underpinned by our school values of respect, independence, connecting and empathy, and taught students about what racism can look and sound like (including subtle signs), and how we can work together to stand up and put a stop to it in our school community. Agook and Rosette should be incredibly proud of being role models for our future generation and making a difference in their local community.

Issue 6 for Scholastic Book Club is out now and should be coming home with your child this week, if it hasn't already.

Please note that there was a mistake with the order due date, Issue 6 orders are due in by the 8TH SEPTEMBER. My apologies for the mistake.

Thank you,

Christina Grew

Scholastic Book Club Co-ordinator

It was brought to our attention that our families are trying to find QuickCliQ in the App Store or Google Play Store. QuickCliQ is a website that works seamlessly across all platforms. QuickCliq is our school's preferred way of ordering canteen meals and uniforms. The program takes care of not only our orders, it automatically does our banking, stocktaking, provides detailed reports on profit and loss and saves our canteen staff time and money. Thank you for supporting online ordering.

To use QuickCliQ on your smartphone, open www.quickcliq.com.au in your the app you use to browse the Internet, ie. Chrome or Safari etc. Save the website to your Home Screen so it's always easy to find on your phone.

View the instructional video on our school's website which includes detailed instructions on how to register and order through QuickCliQ

QuickCliQ have just released monthly ordering. This means you only have to place your meal order twice per term or 8 times per year! Orders can be cancelled by 10am if your child is absent that day. After that time, simply call the school or send the canteen a message through our Facebook page and we will cancel the order for you.

From the QuickCliQ website:

• We understand that ordering every week can be a hassle. Now you can order up to a month in advance, helping you to save time, and budget for the month ahead.
• Going cashless means payments are just a click away. No more hunting around for the right change.
• QuickCliq is designed with mobile access in mind. Simply login to add credit and order. All from the convenience of your smartphone or tablet.

If you need further support registering and using QuickCliQ, their local support staff are available by phone Monday to Friday, 7.30am – 6.00pm on 1300 11 66 37  or  support@quickcliq.com.au.

Extending the School Day

the Department of Education wants to hear from parents and carers

MOTIV8SPORTS has kindly offered the students pf Plattsburg Public School 50% off their MOTIV8SPORTS 2-Day Mega Camp. The cost of the 2 day camp is $90 - $105, however MOTIV8 Sports have generously 50% off passes exclusively to Plattsburg PS students. The camp is run in the school holidays on the 28th and 29th September from 8:30 am to 3:00pm each day. Please visit https://motiv8sports.com.au/m8_event/2022-09-28-bishop-tyrrell-anglican-college-2-day-mega-camp/ for more information about this camp and the fantastic opportunity for our students to attend for 50% off. Use the exclusive code BOL50 to claim your discount when registering.

Get out and enjoy time with your family with our Newy with Kids summer eBook. Due to popular demand, we’ve put together 15 different itineraries for a family day out in the Newcastle, Lake Macquarie & Hunter region featuring fun kid-friendly activities.

Don’t waste your time searching for places to go and things to do with your kids. We’ve put together the ultimate summer guide.

We’ve written this specifically for spring and summer so you can go out and enjoy activities suited to the warmer weather. It’s both for locals and visitors who want to get out and enjoy the region. Download and start planning. In the ebook, you get 15 days of pre-planned fun so you can just take the family out and start making memories. Download the book here