Curtin Primary School Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been such a positive and smooth start to Term 3 and students are well and truly settled back into their learning. We have some busy weeks ahead, with lots of activities and events happening around the school, including our NAIDOC week gathering, Year 3 excursion, school gymnastics program, netball gala day and Mr Tim performances.

Congratulations to our Kindergarten students, who last Wednesday celebrated 100 days of school! They marked the occasion by visiting the Ladybird Play Centre and had a wonderful time learning through role play. They had the opportunity to roleplay being police officers, hospital staff and café waiters to name a few. Congratulations also to our wonderful Kindergarten teaching team and learning support assistants who have done a magnificent job setting our kindergarten students’ up for a successful start to school life and lifelong learning.  

A reminder to families that we are recognising and celebrating NAIDOC Week at a special gathering this Friday 2nd August at 2pm in the main hall. Students will be sharing their class developed Acknowledgement of Country and have the opportunity to hear guest speaker Duncan Smith, who is a local Indigenous educator. All families are welcome and encouraged to attend.

This week our Positive Behaviours for Learning (PBL) focus continues to be showing respect for others and keeping each other safe by keeping hands and feet to self. This is our expectation in all settings at school and in particular, when students are having difficulty resolving conflicts. All classes will be discussing these expectations throughout the week and learning about how to keep each other safe. Please discuss these expectations at home and ask your child what other ways conflicts at school can be resolved. This term our PBL certificates will be awarded to students on Fridays, during even weeks at morning line assemblies. Parents are welcome to attend.

Thursday 1st August is hats on again as recommended by the Education Directorate and ACT cancer council. The beginning of August is when UV levels begin to rise again in Canberra and the need for sensible sun protection is warranted. Students are reminded to bring a sun smart hat to school each day from Thursday.

Have a great week!

Clare Farr

Thanks to everyone for their patience while we implemented the automated email of your child’s report for Semester 1. The Education Directorate has set up a survey form to gather your feedback and thoughts about the new reporting format and process. The survey is quite short. Please follow the link for the Parent Survey at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSePDJ8sI-B5NiyhO1IWZzCaeQ8Iw3sYxVvpfC9LvJY7zT66Sw/viewform.

If you have further ideas or comments that you would like to share please don’t hesitate to email me.

Leslee Roberts

SAS Reports Co-ordinator

Leslee.Roberts@ed.act.edu.au

Events may be viewed and added to your personal calendar on the Skoolbag app

Notes may be downloaded from links found below

On Friday, 2nd August, members of the Curtin Primary School community are invited to come along to our special gathering to commemorate NAIDOC Week. Whilst this week occurred during the school holidays, we would still like to recognise this important event.

Time - 2-3pm

Venue - The school hall

We will be having a special performance from Wiradjuri Echoes and our whole school ‘Acknowledgement to Country’ will be read for the first time.

We hope to see you there.

This term we will be covering two areas of social emotional development in our Friendly Schools Plus program. While each year group has lessons that are targeting age specific strategies, the skills are around how to develop social awareness and relationship skills

Social Awareness

In this area, students learn how to understand and interpret social situations. It develops skills such as being a good friend, how to make new friends, why it’s important to have friends, what to do when you have unsupportive friendships and how to deal with peer pressure.

Relationship Skills

In this area students learn how to build positive relationship skills. The program gives strategies for how to recognise and safely respond to bullying, how to deal with conflict or negative behaviours and how to include everyone by recognising their unique qualities.

Unsafe driving and parking behaviours increase the potential road safety risk for children around schools. Road safety is a shared responsibility, it is important the road rules are followed near our school to ensure the entire school community feels safe.

Please remember children are more at risk than adults around schools because they are smaller and less visible to drivers. They are also less predictable and less experienced, which makes them more likely to make errors of judgement.

Failing to follow simple road rules like parking on the verge, in no stopping zones, in bus stops, near children’s crossings, on footpaths or across driveways increases the risk to children around schools. Please do the right thing to create a safe environment around our school. 

Unfortunately, due to personal circumstances, Ali will need to finish the role of School Banking Coordinator. In order for the program to continue, another volunteer is needed.

There are no special skills needed.

Once a week, you simply:

·         pick up the school banking books from the canteen,

·         process the deposits at school,

·         return the bank books to the canteen

·         drop the deposits bag at any Commonwealth Bank Quick Bag shoot.

The banking is done on the school computers, and can be done during the school day, or at drop-off or pick-up.

If you think you could help fill this role, please email Ali on alicebourke@yahoo.com.au.

The lovely lost property ladies have done an amazing job sorting.  There is currently a large amount of unnamed items in lost property.

Please check if you have any missing items as soon as possible.  All unnamed items left in lost property will be thoughtfully disposed of at the end of week 3, Friday 9 August.

Any named items have been left in white bins outside each year's classrooms. Could you please ask your child to check.

This week Eliza C (6MM) and Jemima C (1FO) proudly represented Curtin Primary School at the ACT – Southern NSW Interschools Snowsports Championships at Perisher Resort. Eliza competed in the Ski Giant Slalom and Ski-cross, and Jemima in the Snowboard Giant Slalom and Boardercross. Both girls performed very well, had all clean runs, and loads of fun in the fresh snow and sunshine. Students who are interested in competing at next year’s champs should keep an out in the newsletter around June next year for information on how to get involved.

On Friday, 9 August (Week 3), we will be hosting Hughes Primary School's Year 6 band for a combined rehearsal.

Everyone is welcome to join us for a concert at 12pm in Patterson Hall.

P&C Meeting: Wednesday 7th August, refreshments from 6.15pm, meeting start from 6.30pm, Curtin Primary School Staff Room

The Curtin P&C meets each term in Weeks 3 and 9. Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday 7th August from 6.30pm. This meeting we will be joined by teachers, Katie Simone and Rachel Tibballs, who will give an overview of Be You, the mentally healthy schools program and the results of the well-being survey.

All parents and carers are welcome to attend, so please come along to learn more about this important initiative and other events that the P&C are planning for Term 3.

The uniform shop is located opposite the canteen and is open from 8.30am until 9.30am each Wednesday. 

Due to the drought, we have been advised that there is a shortage of gluten free chicken tenders.

Also, the McCain's pizza shortage is still current.

Thank you, Lizzy.

The canteen is open from 8.45am until 1.45pm. If you have any canteen queries, Lizzy can be contacted on 6142 2581 during these hours.

Woden Valley Youth Choir is an exciting and dynamic not-for-profit community choir for young people, with a strong emphasis on Music Education. We don’t just sing – we become musicians. WVYC will have vacancies in all of its choirs for children entering year 3 next year through to young adults aged up to 25.  Rehearsals are held at Charles Weston School in Coombs on Tuesday evenings but the choir is open to people from all over the Canberra/Queanbeyan area.

AUDITIONS

Auditions for choristers wishing to commence in September 2019 will be held on Saturday 10 August. For more information about the choir and the audition process and to download an application form go to wvyc.org.au

ROTARY CLUB OF HALL INDIGENOUS SCHOLARSHIP

WVYC welcomes enquiries from indigenous young people for the Rotary Club of Hall Indigenous Scholarship. Applicants should contact the administrator on info.wvyc@gmail.com to request the guidelines for applying for a scholarship.

CENTAURI VOICES

We are keen to grow our choir for young men aged 13 to 18 with changing or changed voices and are happy for interested young men to try out the choir before they commit to joining rather than auditioning.  If you are interested in sitting in on a few rehearsals please email us or phone 1300 599 655.

WVYC 50TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

If you’d like to see the choir in action, come to the Woden Valley Youth Choir 50th Anniversary Concert on 24 August in Llewellyn Hall.  Tickets available through Ticketek.