Assessment and Rating
Education and care services are assessed and rated by Early Childhood Education Directorate. The purpose of the assessment and rating process is to determine whether and at what rating level services meet the National Quality Standard and the requirements of the National Regulations. This process happens about every 3 years. This week our preschool was visited by an authorised officer for the purpose of assessment and rating. We have a new team in our preschool this year Mrs Kristyn Drewe, Mrs Christine Hayes and Miss Zoe Lantry. The team is well supported by Mr Dene Whitfield and our P-2 officer Mrs Fiona Miller. Congratulations to the whole team for the work they have put into the preschool this year, especially in preparation for assessment and rating. I am extremely proud of the work the staff do in educating and caring for our youngest school members. I look forward to sharing the results with you in a few weeks when we receive our report.
Kindergarten and Preschool 2021
We are taking enrolments for preschool and kindergarten 2021. To enable us to correctly estimate enrolments and staff the school appropriately for 2021, any parents enrolling new children P-6 need to complete enrolment forms which can be downloaded from our website. Please let any neighbours and friends in the local area know that we are enrolling now. Please be reminded that if you live out of zone I am unable to confirm an enrolment even for siblings at this point in time. This is dependent on current and new enrolments across the school K-6. Please see school website for current enrolment procedures.
Please contact the school office if you have any questions or concerns.
We will be holding our Kindergarten Parents' Information session virtually on Monday 31 August at 5:30pm. We will be using Zoom to meet with all parents who have enrolled their child/ren at Stockton Public School. We will be in touch with parents who have already enrolled in the coming days with the details for this event. If you haven’t or know someone who hasn’t as yet enrolled for 2021 please do so as soon as possible. This information session will give parents an overview and insight to Stockton Public School and our kindergarten programs.
Education Week
The key messages from the Department of Education for Education Week 2020 “Learning Together” were:
Schools are the cornerstone of communities
Parents and carers are our partners in learning. Schools and families benefit from strong, respectful relationships where responsibility for student learning is shared.
Change and resilience
Our teachers and students are lifelong learners, collaborating in a positive learning environment to achieve their best. Learning together makes us strong and creates resilient communities.
Connect better and learn together
Our school staff are dedicated professionals who know, value and care for all students. Technology enables learning together anywhere, any time.
Thank you to the parents who zoomed into classrooms and taught a new skill to the students. Thank you for your patience – we had a few technical difficulties but this has allowed us to trouble shoot and problem solve our technology. “Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful.” Zig Ziglar The students were thrilled to have new teachers at different points of the day. All stages were also involved in collaborative problem-solving tasks. A great week to celebrate Education Week.
P&C
I am pleased to announce that Angie Ward is our new P&C president. Thank you to P&C members who adapted to online voting. Our next P&C meeting will be Wednesday 26 August at 5:30pm via Zoom. Please send an email to the school email address stockton-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au if you would like the link for the meeting. I will be sending the link out the day before (Tuesday 25 August) I look forward to working with Angie and the P&C exec in supporting our students and school.
PBL
PBL is off to a flying start this term with staff giving our tokens to students exhibiting our values “Safe, Engaged and United”. Our pipeline is filling fast which is exciting news. The whole school is working towards an end of term reward. The PBL committee has been discussing the fact that the pipeline is filling faster than we expected and we may need to consider a midterm reward – which is fabulous news and proves our students are following school rules. The behaviour here at Stockton Public School really is of a high level and we are looking forward to celebrating that.
Another point discussed at our PBL meeting was consequences for not following school rules. While the outcome is for all students to contribute and participate in our rewards, we must consider a minority group of students who are repeatedly making poor behaviour choices and not displaying school values of “safe, united and engaged”. After the discussion the outcome is that any student who has been suspended during the term, or is on a warning of suspension or is having consistent difficulties in following school rules, the principal will decide during the week of the reward whether the student in question is able to attend the reward. Parents will have been involved in discussions with classroom teachers and assistant principals during the term, at the time of the incidents. However, the final decision will be principal’s discretion and will be communicated to parents. There will be alternate arrangements in school for these students. The goal is for all students to attend.
COVID19 RESTRICTIONS
Just a gentle reminder that our restrictions and guidelines remain the same
- We are not having whole school assemblies – the guidelines only allow assemblies to go for 15 minutes and sometimes it can take the whole school that long to be settled. Instead, teachers are celebrating and handing out our new PBL awards in class. Photos of the award recipients will go on Seesaw, in our fortnightly newsletter and also on our PBL tab on the school website.
- We are limiting adults on site to essential visitors. Essential visitors sign a Department of Education waiver as they enter the school. This will help if we ever need to do contact tracing.
- If you need to buy uniforms please phone the office. They are able to take your payment over the phone and then give the uniforms to your child to bring home.
- Parent meetings with a class teacher can be held over Zoom (virtual meeting) or at the school gate.
- Students are leaving via gates according to the child’s surname. I appreciate that this has been difficult for some families but the plan is in place so that we can exit 300 students from the site safely.
- Hand sanitiser, hand washing and cleaning of high touch points is still in place.
- Any child or staff member that shows any sign of sickness is sent home immediately.
Thank you for your patience and understanding in the changes that we have made.
Kind regards
Ms Jodie Holt
Principal
