Dudley Public School Newsletter

Our Year 3 and 5 students are preparing for the NAPLAN tests which will take place in weeks 8-9 (Wednesday 15 March - Monday 27 March) this term.  

Students are not expected to study for NAPLAN. You can support your child by reassuring them that NAPLAN is a part of their school program and reminding them to simply do their best. Some familiarisation and explanation of NAPLAN is useful to help students understand and be comfortable with the format of the tests. Teachers will ensure students are familiar with the types of questions in the tests and will provide appropriate support and guidance. 

ACARA does not recommend excessive preparation for NAPLAN or the use of services by coaching providers. 

See the types of questions and tools available in the online NAPLAN assessments at nap.edu.au/onlineassessment/public-demonstration-site.  

More information regarding the NAPLAN test can be found here

https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/for-parents-carers

Congratulations to everyone on a fantastic start to the year in regard to attendance. We have had a reduction to late arrivals and early departures from this time last year. Many thanks to parents and carers for supporting the school to ensure students are at school on time and ready to learn.  

So far this year we have had: 

• 194 students with 100% attendance rate. 

• 241 students with 90% or higher attendance (including the 194 who have 100%) 

 Kindergarten and Year 5 lead the school with the highest average attendance rates (98%) with Year 2 and Year 6 recording the lowest average group attendance (95%). Every year group is currently tracking above 95% on average and are well above the NSW state target of 90%.

Keep up the great work everyone. Every school day counts toward quality educational and developmental outcomes for our students.    

Have a wonderful week everyone, 

Kind regards, 

Chad Tsakissiris 

Principal 

Congratulations to our first Assembly Award recipients for the academic year! These students were recognised for their achievements relating to our six learning dispositions of self-motivation, perseverance, creativity, curiosity, collaboration, and reflection. Keep up the great work DPS!

Mrs Bell our APC&I (Assistant Principal Curriculum and Instruction) has been working closely with the teachers in Stage 1 on supporting their work on mathematical reasoning through Number Talks. Feel free to ask your child to explain what a ‘Number Talk’ is and get them to show you the hand signals they use to demonstrate their thinking. Such a great way to get ALL students involved in becoming superhero mathematicians! Mrs Bell will continue to support all classes throughout the school on including Number Talks daily in their teaching practice.

Our Year 6 leaders were acknowledged at our Leadership Induction Assembly last Friday. 

Our Year 6 have very important roles to play in keeping our school running efficiently week-to-week. We are lucky enough to have very responsible and dedicated senior students to fill the following roles:

• School Captains
• Vice Captains
• House Captains
• Vice House Captains
• Office Assistants
• Bell Monitors
• Environmental Officers
• Technology Assistants
• Library Monitors 
• Assembly Monitors

Thank you Year 6 and we hope you enjoy the opportunity to give service to our school. 

At Friday's assembly we saw our Semester 1 SRC students presented with their badges. Students in the SRC are voted for by their class mates. We have two representatives per class for Semester 1, and two for Semester 2. The SRC itself is led by our very capable school captains.

SRC stands for Student Representative Council. The SRC act as ambassadors for our school and represent the views of our students. They meet weekly to discuss ideas, issues and concerns from the students in their class and organise special activities for the students to fundraise for different charities in Newcastle, local areas and also overseas. 

We value student voice at Dudley!

On Friday 10 March  students are to wear pink, purple and blue for a special out of uniform day and bring a gold coin donation.

SRC will be selling Quelch Ice Sticks for $1.

From Thursday 2 March to Friday 10 March SRC will be holding a 'Guess the lollies in a Jar' competition near the front office each morning.

Charlie Carr, a past Dudley Public School student was a beautiful, courageous girl who sadly lost her battle to cancer in 2015.

Her family created this amazing charity which supports families fighting childhood cancer.

Pink, purple and blue were Charlie's favourite colours.

Please See the link below for further information.

www.charliesr4k.com

Dudley Public School respectfully acknowledges the Awabakal as the traditional custodians of the land on which we work, play and live. We also pay respect to Elders both past and present and emerging.

Always was and always will be Aboriginal land.