Meet the Teacher

As we head into Week 5, the teachers and I are looking forward to welcoming parents and carers on Wednesday evening (22/2) for our Meet the Teacher night. The aim of the evening is to help both parents and teachers connect with one another and lay a platform for the year ahead while also providing an opportunity to familiarise yourself with your child’s class. In the communication sent last week, we indicated that the evening would start with a 15-minute information session in the hall at 6:00pm. We have since rethought this and feel that rolling sessions repeated every 15 minutes in the library at 6:00, 6:15, 6:30 and 6:45 might allow parents more flexibility. So please visit your children’s class/es anytime between 6:00-7:00 and join us in the library at one of the times above for a brief info session where I will also introduce our additional support staff. We look forward to seeing you then.

Back to School Vouchers

I think by now most families would be aware of the Premier’s Back to School vouchers initiative. In case you are not, the NSW Government is offering all NSW school students $150 worth of vouchers (3 x $50 vouchers) to help pay for school supplies like school uniforms, shoes, bags, textbooks and stationery. 

Our uniform supplier, The School Locker, confirmed this week that they think it is possible to have our new uniform available for pre-order via their website portal before the vouchers’ expiry date of June 30. If this is the case, parents will be able to pre-order uniforms via their online portal using the Back-to-School vouchers. Please note: if you are uncertain of the best size for your child – pre-ordering may not be a risk you are prepared to take. Once manufactured, families will be able to try on garments to check the size at their University of Newcastle pop-in store and we hope to have samples in the office for fitting as well, but these are NOT likely to be ready before the vouchers expire on June 30. It may be wise to consider using your vouchers for other school-related expenses such as school shoes, bags, umbrellas or raincoats, school excursions (including St3 Canberra) and or other school expenses. The vouchers are unable to be used towards voluntary contributions, credit towards future expenses or hire of equipment like band instruments. 

Home Reading

Last week we kicked off our Home Reading program with students being issued their home reading journals. A parent/carer information letter will be tomorrow for those not familiar with how to make the most out of home reading. Please allow me to use this space to stress how critical it is for their development to be regularly reading at home. I think as parents, and I’ve been guilty of this at times, that as they become more proficient at reading we don’t keep good reading routines in place.

My daughter’s Year 6 teacher emphasised this week that the research shows that if students stop reading out loud at too young an age, they don’t build the fluency, vocabulary and comprehension that they need to be successful in high school and later in life. It’s also not just reading practice, the quality of the books that they read is critical too. If you need advice on reading texts, genres and degree of difficulty, our librarians Mrs Quinn and Miss Titchmarsh are great sounding boards to help support your child’s reading choices.

Students reporting issues at school

Occasionally, students will have difficulty at school during their break times with a friend or peer not treating them respectfully. In most cases these are minor issues that the students resolve themselves. However, instances do arise where they need the support of a teacher or need to disclose that another student has behaved inappropriately. For some students this is easy, but for others it requires a level of confidence to do so and some strategies for how to do it. The class teachers often talk through what to do if something goes wrong. It usually starts with reporting the issue to the teacher, if the teacher is not available they can report to another known/trusted teacher (sometimes this is a teacher that has taught them before) or to the assistant principal for their stage. It is really important that we build confidence and provide students the opportunity to do this successfully, so that as issues arise, we can resolve them in a speedy and efficient manner.

For those of our school families with relatives and friends in either Turkey, Syria or New Zealand – our thoughts and prayers are with you all. I hope that your loved ones are safe and OK.

Might see you at Lynch’s Hub this afternoon for the P&C’s gelato fundraiser.

David Holland

Congratulations to the ‘students of the week’ for Week 4, Term 1:

Just a reminder to all families that it is not appropriate to pack a knife of any kind in your child’s lunchbox. Usually these are packed to assist with cutting up fruit and there is no malice or intent, however the safety of students, staff and visitors to our school is of paramount importance and knives are not appropriate. Please do not pack a knife in your child’s lunchbox and pre-cut any items that would be too big for them to manage otherwise. If your child is a little older and packing their own lunch, please ensure that they are also aware not to pack a knife in their lunchbox. If bringing utensils to school, plastic or wooden forks and spoons are best. We appreciate your cooperation.

Our school will be transitioning to an upgraded School Bytes finance system later this week with a new School Bytes Portal becoming available to families. 

Features of the School bytes portal include: 

• Being able to view and submit permission notes online
• An option to view the status of all permission notes online
• Being able to make  payments  for multiple siblings in one transaction
• Being able to allocate family credit to pay for an activity or school contributions
• An option to download a copy of a receipt for payments made
• Being able to view a history of all payments made
• Online payments will be  processed in real-time and will be able to be viewed by school staff immediately
  

In preparation for the transition to our simplified finance system for both families and the school, we were required to implement a short payment lockout period where we were unable to accept any online or EFTPOS payments.   

More information regarding the new portal, features and benefits and how to register will be shared in next week's Newsletter.  Term One Statements of Account will be emailed to all families towards the end of the week. 

While the Education Act 1990 states that Government school education is to be free of charge, schools have the ability to raise funds to supplement departmental allocations to enable their educational and sporting programs to be initiated, maintained, or enhanced.

Our school has long requested voluntary contributions from families to enhance the quality of the resources we provide to our students. In 2022, voluntary contributions from families helped us purchase a broad range of classroom resources including pens, pencils, paper, cardboard, scissors, glue etc. We stress that these contributions are, as the name implies, ‘voluntary’. Parents and carers are not obligated to pay the contributions if you are unable to do so. Families of students that are unable to make a voluntary contribution will not be embarrassed, disadvantaged, or discriminated against in any way. However, we do ask all of our families to once again to consider making this contribution if you are able. It will directly benefit the students.

For Lambton Public School in 2023, there is no increase to the contributions requested:

For families with 3 or more children enrolled the maximum Voluntary Contribution requested will be $50.  Payments do not need to be made in full now, they can be made in smaller increments throughout the year if you prefer. If you have any questions about student resources or the voluntary contribution, please contact the office to make an appointment to speak with Mr Holland.

Due to an upgrade to DoE financial systems, you will not see these fees appear on your student statement of account until towards the end of this week  but we wanted to make you aware of the 2023 contributions.  

Zone Swimming

Congratulations  to the following students who have qualified to represent our school at the Zone Swimming Carnival this Friday at the Forum Aquatic Centre, University of Newcastle. 

Last Friday Lambton PS had 5 students attend the Newcastle City Zone Touch Football trials. Well done to Hollie A, Sophie A, Sophia H, Henry M and Tyler J for all of their efforts on the day. Congratulations to Sophia and Tyler who have been selected in the Newcastle City PSSA team. They  will now attend trials hoping for selection in the Hunter Region team. 

Good luck to all of our students. 

Term One 'What's Happening" Newsletters were sent home last week with all students detailing information relating to teaching staff within each stage and details of units of work, classroom routines and 

Please click below to access each Newsletter

Early Stage One - KM & KF

Stage One - 1B, 1S, 2B & 2N

Stage Two - 3A, 3B. 3/4B & 4/5S

Stage Three - 5O, 6C & 6N

This coming week, all students will receive another kit of approximately 5 RAT tests. We will continue to support our families to use rapid antigen tests (RATs) if symptomatic or if you believe you have been exposed to COVID-19. RAT testing may help identify the infection early and is important if you are in contact with people at greater risk of serious illness if exposed to COVID-19. These tests are to be used when your child presents with flu-like symptoms. If they test positive, please notify the school and keep them home until they are no longer displaying symptoms.   

SRE and SEE will start shortly. For Kindergarten and new students to the school, you will be asked to nominate your SRE/SEE preference for your child.  Classes are determined by the number of available volunteers for each SRE/SEE provider. If there are not enough SRE/SEE volunteers, your child will be placed in Non-Scripture until a place becomes available.  Information will be sent via School bytes to all Kindergarten and new families to our school early this week.

If you would like to change your child’s SRE/SEE option, you may do so at any point in the year by simply sending the office an email requesting an update to your preferences.

For more information about Special Religious Education (SRE) and Special Education Ethics (SEE) please visit this link.

Overall wellbeing, academic achievements, better physical and mental health, and increased self-esteem are often cited as benefits of school belonging.  School belonging can also have the potential to prevent negative outcomes such as school dropout, low academic achievement, low self-esteem, behavioural issues, and feelings of anxiety and loneliness. This week's article talks about the role parents and carers play and actions you can take to support your child's sense of belonging at school.  We hope you enjoy this week's article.