Narrabri West Public School

It is week 4 already in a term which is always exciting and busy. It’s also the term when before you know it you realise you are coming into December. It is also the last term for our Year Six students who are naturally excited and a little anxious about moving to the next phase of their lives.

Our teachers have commenced preparing Semester 2 reports and are working hard to provide you with an authentic snapshot of your child’s learning. These reports are the culmination of class work and assessment tasks from Term 3 and Term 4. As you can imagine, it is a process which requires thorough knowledge of student strengths, areas for improvement and also of their interests.

It is hard to believe how fast the year has gone. It feels like such a short time ago that we were welcoming Kindergarten to their first day of school. They have launched into their learning and are well on their way to being independent readers. Now they are in their final term getting ready for Year 1. Our Pre Schoolers are also preparing themselves for their exciting step into Kindergarten, whilst Year 6 is transitioning into Year 7. These are important times in all of their lives.

This term will be just as busy as our previous three terms at Narrabri West. Term 4 is a very important time for our students as it is a term in which they will consolidate much of the learning which has occurred in the year so far. It is a term where they will really need to be focused on completing the year to their full potential. Achievements across all aspects of school life. Innovation, excellence and success are very much embedded into each and every one of our classrooms and we work hard to ensure that this is a continuing and evolving process

For our teachers it will be the term they will be endeavouring to ensure that the full curriculum has been delivered to their classes and that areas which require further strengthening are given the priority and the time they require. With the time ticking away until the end of year reports, it is vital that we maintain our focus on learning.

Term 4 is also the time for planning for the new school year, to ensure that everything is in place for a successful start. So it’s busy times with budgets, staffing and all those tasks that keep Narrabri West such an interesting place to be.

At the end of Term 3 nearly 300 students were presented with their Gold Badge in recognition of their outstanding behaviour and attitude at all times this year. This clearly demonstrates the high quality of the students attending Narrabri West and their willingness to apply themselves to their work and behaviour. Such qualities enhance the learning opportunities and challenges available to everyone as it allows teachers to concentrate on teaching students.

 We all look forward to these days as they are an opportunity to celebrate excellent behaviour and attitude. Our next badge presentations will be the big one – the Platinum Awards on Monday 13th December. This will be one of the highlights of the school year.

Students were excited to once again participate in footy colours day. We supported this worthy cause by coming to school dressed in our favourite footy team’s colours. All proceeds went towards the Bone Marrow Donor Institute's efforts in fighting cancer and saving lives, raising $270.00

 

Wow, hasn’t this year flown by!

Red Group children have been busy learning about walkie talkies and creating their own using craft materials. The children have been using these outside to communicate while exploring the garden, riding the bikes and climbing the equipment.

Red Group children have also enjoyed ‘working’ in the office at Preschool. We have created an office area where children can write, take calls, type, and interact with others. The children have been busy!

Blue Group have been expressing their ideas through creative arts. They have been using paint to express and create a story. Blue Group have also painted self portraits after we carefully looked at our facial features before creating our masterpiece.

Blue Group have also been looking at numbers and completing a sequence. Some children have engaged with the train puzzle, matching the number to the picture which represents that number. They are also enjoying the number puzzles and challenging each other in games.

Preschool children are enjoying participating in Ready Set Kinder every Wednesday in the Kindergarten rooms. The children are becoming very excited for big school!

Miss Abbey O’Brien & Mrs Linda Watson

What a busy start to Term 4 we have had!

In English, we have been focusing on informative texts. We learn about the different features such as the contents page, index page, diagrams and glossary. Students have enjoyed learning all about dogs and have begun writing their own informative text about dogs.

In Maths, we have revised our numbers and focused on recognising, counting, representing and ordering numbers up to 30. Students have also been learning to identify the number before and after a given numeral and count and order numerals backwards.

In Science, we learn all about the weather and the different symbols to represent this.

In Health, we are learning about all of the different things that make us unique. 

In Creative Arts, we have been exploring different artists, such as Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet. We have imitated their artworks Starry Night and Water Lilies.

In Geography, we have been learning about maps and locating places.

Our students are very excited to start our intensive swimming program for the next few weeks! Soon we will begin practising our item for presentation day.

We are looking forward to a wonderful last term of Kindergarten!

Miss Snowdon and Mrs Wade.

During the October long weekend, the Narrabri West School Friends held a back to the West School reunion. Sixty five Westies attended the reunion, which included a BBQ at the school and a tour of the Beehive where old photos and banners are on display. We would like to thank the organising committee for their donation of $540 to the Narrabri West Public School’s P & C. The funds will be put towards upgrading the Beehive.

Congratulations to Emily Simpson who competed at Macquarie Fields in the last week of Term 3 for the North West Softball team. North West won 4 games to end up coming 9th in the State. Emily enjoyed competing and making new friends. Well done Emily!

Westy Les Knox visited Narrabri West last Friday he presented the school with a plaque and a picture of the 1988 Aboriginal Cricket Team. Mr Knox spoke to the assembly about his experiences being on the tour. Thank you for your visit and gift.

Enrolments for 2023 are progressing very well and thank you to all those people who have already indicated their children will be attending Narrabri West next year.

Please encourage anyone you know who has children commencing school in 2023 to advise the school so that we can accurately commence planning. Students attending local preschools should have received packages promoting our school, highlighting our achievements and inviting them to consider Narrabri West. If your child attends another preschool and you have not received an information pack, please ask them for it, as we have supplied these to all preschools in Narrabri for distribution.

Our school will also be participating in the Partners in Learning parent survey, another part of the Tell Them From Me suite of surveys (student, teacher and parent surveys) on student engagement. The survey asks parents questions about different factors that are known to impact on student wellbeing and engagement.

Running this survey will help our school understand parents’ perspectives on their child’s experience at school. These include: communication between parents and staff, activities and practices at home and parent views on the school's support of learning and behaviour. This valuable feedback will help our school make practical improvements. 

The survey is conducted entirely online and will typically take 15 minutes or less to complete and is completely confidential. The parent survey will be open until Friday 4th November 2022. Participating in the survey is entirely voluntary, however, your responses are very much appreciated. 

 http://nsw.tellthemfromme.com/nwps23         

Entry to Year 7 in 2023. The reserve list is active until the 4th of May 2023. Parents will be contacted if a place becomes available. You can follow the progress of the reserve lists. In mid-January 2023, Authority to attend letters are sent to parents of students placed in 2024.

Parents apply through the High Performing Students Team website.

https://shsoc.education.nsw.gov.au/ 

On Wednesday the 12th October we held the first of four full day sessions for children entering Kindergarten next year. A full day at school can make children very tired, although this is true, in past everyone has a great time and enjoys themselves. Attending these days certainly makes starting school next year a smooth transition and will ensure that the children can get straight into the important business of learning as soon as they arrive in 2023.

‘Ready, Set, Kinder!’ has started with an excited group of 2023 Kindergarten students participating each Wednesday. Our teachers are always impressed with student attitude, skills and behaviour and there is no doubt that they will preparing well for Kindergarten. The skills being developed in these sessions will allow them to settle quickly into school and ensure that their introduction to school life is an easy and happy one (for parents too!).

Week 4, November 2 will see the conclusion of the program. We still have plenty of room at Narrabri West! What a great start these new ‘Westies’ will have to their school life!

We encourage all of our parents with friends who have children entering Kindergarten in 2023 and who are as yet undecided about their choice of school, to tell them about the wonderful learning opportunities available at Narrabri West. Encourage them to visit and have a look and talk to staff members. We have unsurpassed facilities, resources, educational programs and by far the best school spirit that you could wish for.

Each year in Term 4 the students elect their school leaders for the following year. We elect two captains and up to six prefects. Our student leader elections this year will be held on Thursday 1st December and the elected student’s badges will be presented on our presentation day.

Our 2022 Presentation Night is expected to be held on Thursday 8th December. We look forward to celebrating the achievements and successes of the Narrabri West students in 2022. 

Those families with outstanding school contributions (and compulsory Pre School fees) received an invoice at the start of the term. We hope you take the opportunity to forward this payment to the school as soon as possible.

Our school contributions are only:

·       $30 for the 1st child

·       $25 for the 2nd child; and

·       $20 for every other child in the family.

At Narrabri West we use these contributions solely for the purpose of purchasing items that will directly benefit your children. This year ALL school fees are being used to purchase laptop computers. Please assist your child’s education by forwarding payment as soon as possible. 

The Department of Education have informed us that there will be changes to 2023 Staff Development Days.

• 2 Staff Development Days at the beginning of Term 1
• 1 Staff Development Day at the beginning of Terms 2 and 3
• 1 Staff  Development Day at the end of Term 4

PLEASE NOTE: School starting dates for 2023 are as follows.

Friday 3rd February: School Development Day (no students)

Monday 6th February: School Development Day (no students)

Tuesday 7th February : Years 1-6 return

Wednesday 8th February: Kindergarten start 

Thursday 9th February: Pre School Blue Group start 

Monday 13th February: Pre School Red Group start 

We look forward to your cooperation and assistance in our continued efforts in Term 4 to ensure that Narrabri West provides the highest possible quality education for all children. We hope to see you at all of our many school events this term.

2023 is not that far way in terms of weeks at school, so already we are working on planning and organisation for next year. One of the things we need to know is the number of students we can expect to have returning to our school next year.

Parents are asked to help in a number of ways. Firstly, if you know that you will be moving or enrolling in another school next year, it would assist us if you could advise the school as soon as possible.

Similarly, if you plan to have an extended holiday and will be returning to school later than 7th February, it is very important for you to write advising of your return date, as we are not allowed to include students in our numbers for 2023 unless we have written notification from parents indicating that they will be returning and when this will be.

A note will be sent home soon that can be used to provide this information to us.

Thank you to everyone who sends in Skoolbag notifications or emails informing us of your child/ren’s absences as they occur. 

If your child is sick for 3 consecutive days, you are required to provide the school with a medical certificate. 

If your child is absent due to Covid19 testing, you are required to produce a Negative result certificate upon return to school.

Parents/carers are required by law to provide an explanation to the school to say why their child was absent from school. A note of explanation should contain:

1.     Date that the note was written

2.     Child’s name

3.     Days/dates the child was absent from school

4.     The reason the child was absent

5.     The signature of the child’s parent/carer

Or complete the online absence note on our Skoolbag app.

If you notify the school of an absence on one day, we cannot assume the same reason for being absent on consecutive days.

If more than one child from the same family has been absent, a separate note for each child should be written.

A note should be brought to school or a Skoolbag notification update, on the first day the student returns to school after an absence. If not, we are required to investigate all unexplained absences (where a child has been absent and no explanation has been received) within two days.

Notifying the school of absences through the Skoolbag app, by phone, email or note are all acceptable and appreciate.

KC	Archer Gillaan, Chad Paull, Charlie Tribe, Olivia Willis, Liana Day & William Creighton
KS	Georgie Derham, Toby Easey, Chase Dixon, Nyah McConnell, Bradley Chapman & Reuben Dalton-Hawkes
1P	Alira Lucas, Madison Bron, Jamarl Mason, Hadley Thurston, Thomas Seccombe & Simon Lee
1W	Angus Booby, Lawson Whan, Kaity Nixon, Ashtyn Todd, Piper Kelly & Hazel Davis
2N	Axel Day, Rory Orman, Darcy Derham, Evie Miller, Savannah Cook & Molly McDonald
2W	Mackenzie Woods, Ella Keeffe, Issac Oakes, Sofia Kneller, Jed Eather & Violet Russ
3D	Travis Pratt, Zeb Carolan, Hailee Orman, Mia McConnell, Charlotte Murphy & Phoebe Willis
3S	Kevin Foley, Djkhaii Korach, Chloe Foley, Caitlyn Irwin, Elisha McInnes & Sophie Hagar
4O	Linkin Korach, Lacey Thorne, Ryan Warnock, Maicee Astill, Eli O'Connell & Ivy Towner
4S	Cameron Parker, Riley New, Oliviah Tonkin, Phoenix Fox, Grace McClymont & Indo Clayton
5C	Isabelle Gale, Max Booby, Ali Watson, Alexa Woods, Armani Todd & Fletcher Whan
5P	Cael Browning, Addison Woods, Lawson Oakley, Sasha Willia, Alexa Gordon & Lily Tibbett
6S	Lennon Simmonds, Layne Hollis, Jordin Tribe, Sienna Christian, Teagan Spittles & Jake George
6T	Cody Harris, Shaun Hagar, Sophie Stoltenberg, William McClymont, Gwen Ridley & Hadleigh Astill

Citizenship Awards & Stars of the Week
Archie Gordon	Kenwood Burgmann	Jason Ross	Georgiana Weightman
Frankie Carolan	Hunter Gilmore	Zara Dalton	Max Booby