Palmerston Post

Hello everyone,

Spring is well and truly here, and there seems to be a real lift in everyone’s spirits, now that we are receiving more sunshine and brighter blue sky days. Our Floriade display at the front of the school is thriving and we are all loving to see the little bulbs emerge through the soil to greet us each day. The hens are laying eggs a little bit more frequently, the gardens and thriving and generally, it is a really lovely time of year isn’t it?

Our two BSO’s Mr Phil and Mr John keep our grounds so beautiful, so clean and well looked after. We ask parents of an afternoon to please not allow your child to run through all the garden beds at the front of our school, we would love to see everyone walk on the paths as they walk out of school chatting about how great their day was. Thanks everyone, we really appreciate your support in respecting our gardens.

Mr Joy has planned for a perfect day to host our first ever Colour Run. We are completely gobsmacked at the enormous financial success that we have seen, through the incredible generosity of this community, we have tripled our target number….at the moment, we believe we have pipped over $30,000!!!

Isn’t this sensational?

With the funds received we will be spending it totally on new technological devices for our students. This will be a very big boost to our community, as we haven’t had the usual funds coming into the school through voluntary contributions and missed income with not hiring out our facilities across each night and on weekends.  With families affected by Covid-19, we cannot thank you enough for this stupendous support --- AND we are going to have such fun too…

Thank you Palmerston community – you are incredible!!

As you might have worked out by now, we cannot have a Twilight Fair nor a Christmas Concert this year --- but…we are trying to be creative and work out how the joy and celebration of an incredible year can still happen, just in a different way.

I approached Mr Shaw to ask if we can create a Christmas Concert CD to sell for our families, for $10, with all of his and Mr Elks’ original songs …that will be one way that the love and fun of singing inside our classrooms, can be recorded and shared with families. We are also looking at having an alternate recording via another method available, in the case that families may not have access to a CD player. Very soon, we will send out an order form for this, and perhaps, payment up front, when we know our numbers, we will order and then get recording! Please watch out for this information coming home soon.

As we move towards the end of term, and in the absence of our usual Learning Journeys, we will be sending home some photos to showcase classrooms, and for you to see the incredible learning that has happened this term. I am immensely proud of the rigorous learning happening in every classroom from preschool upwards.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend in the sun, watching sport, gardening, walking and doing whatever you do to keep well and happy.

Kate Smith

Principal

A while ago I was sitting with a good friend at a café.  We had ordered lunch, flat white coffees were steaming hot on the table and our conversation flowed freely like it always did.  It was a beautiful autumn day.  As we sat opposite each other I noticed she was talking more than usual, quickly and jumping from subject to subject.  She seemed distracted and found it hard to make contact.  Something was…. Off.  The waiter delivered our BLTs and we ate and chatted about life; work, family and dogs of course.  However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was not right.  I couldn’t put my finger on it.  So I said to her, “ Hey.  Is everything alright? Are you ok?”  All of a sudden big tears welled up in her eyes.  She was silent for a long time and I let her be.  She was not ok, and said it was exhausting trying to be brave to put on a happy face for everyone all of time.  She told me she was worried about her son (who was likely to drop out of school), her husband who was worried about the imposing covid-19 restrictions and what it would mean for his business and the possibility of teaching her students remotely.  I sat and I listened.  I held her hand, I nodded sympathetically.  She said she had been on the verge of tears for a few days and felt relief in talking about her problems with someone she trusted.  We talked about actions she could take to feel better.  She started meditating in the morning, talked to her son about his career options and spent time with husband to make a financial plan.  Months on now and her life is still in a bit of turmoil.  Her son did drop out (but gained an apprenticeship), her husband’s business almost came to a standstill (but is picking up again) and she survived the remote learning experience - just.  She still worries a lot but will reach out to me to talk, and if she doesn’t I call her, I text her and I ask those three simple words again, “are you ok?”

September the 10 is R U OK Day.  A day when we stop, even if it is just for a second or two, to ask a friend, a colleague, a family member or someone in the community if they are ok.  Such small, powerful words.  The R U OK website (www.ruok.org.au)  suggests you trust your gut instinct and ask someone if they are ok when you notice;

A person seems

• Confused or irrational
• Moody
• Unable to switch off
• Concerned about the future
• Concerned they’re a burden
• Lonely or lacking self-esteem
• Concerned they’re trapped or in pain

A person is;

• Experiencing mood swings
• Becoming withdrawn
• Changing their online behaviour
• Losing interest in what they used to love
• Unable to concentrate
• Less interested in their appearance and personal hygiene
• Behaving recklessly
• Changing their sleep patterns

A person is experiencing;

• Relationship issues
• Major health issues
• Work pressure or constant stress
• Financial difficulty
• Loss of someone or something they care about

At Palmerston District Primary School this year we acknowledged this very important day by;

• Wearing a splash of yellow
• Using the resources and lesson ideas for RUOK Day that can be accessed, along with videos, on their website.
• Starting a Year 6 initiative as peer helpers on the playground.  Some Year 6 students will be out in the playground daily.  They will be wearing yellow hats and lanyards with a bright yellow tag that says R U OK – please encourage your child to seek them out as an extra support on the playground.

This year www.RUOK.org.au suggests there are things you can do after you ask the question.  After you ask if someone is ok you can listen to their response, encourage action and check in regularly.  Simple actions that can change a life.

 Marijana Pasalic

Perception is relative

When students are in crisis, their personal anxiety can distort the reality of events due to their intense feelings. In this state, they are not good at perspective-taking or seeing things from other points of view.

As teachers, our process is to help students organise their thinking so that a more accurate perception of reality emerges, and insights can be gained which enable the student to understand how they contribute to their crisis and how they make it worse.

 Helen Cox

Dear families, it has been so overwhelmingly wonderful to meet so many students and teachers over the last few weeks!  Palmerston is such a friendly, welcoming school that I feel like I have been working here forever!  I have had the pleasure of working with many different students across all year groups and honestly, I am still learning everyone’s names.

It is so heart-warming walking through the school during break times and having students come up and introducing themselves and welcoming me into the Palmerston community.  You can’t manufacture that, it’s real and it’s genuine.  This is a very inclusive and caring community.  How extraordinarily lucky I feel to be part of this community.

It has come to my attention that there are a handful of students who arrive to school after 9am each morning and/or leave school early each afternoon.  It is departmental policy that school aged children attend school regularly, otherwise their learning can become compromised as every little bit that they miss all adds up and eventually this will have an impact on their overall performance.

In the coming weeks, I will be making contact with families to discuss the reasons why your child may be arriving after 9am or having to leave early from school.

A sound routine will help your child establish good habits which will translate into healthy life skills that will assist them later in life.  Helping them establish a sound routine will teach them valuable skills of punctuality, readiness to learn, creating a growth mind set and learning how to manage obstacles that come their way.

Every moment that a student misses from school will impact on how well they perform down the track.  So please work with us to get your child to school on time and support your child to complete the full day of learning. 

If there are genuine reasons as to why your child needs to attend on a part time basis, then a formal application is required from the Department of Education.  Please be in touch with me to discuss this application process.

Enjoy the warmer, sunnier days ahead as we move into Spring.

For now, be calm, be kind and be well.

Lorelie Choy

Welcome to this fortnight’s Family Reading Corner!

This week’s topic:  Book Choice. It’s important.

When my children were young, I would spend hours in the bookshop. I was a new teacher and already in love with children’s books. By default, my daughters became lovers of books as well and very discerning readers. I learnt early on that no matter how much I tried to impose my preferences on them that ultimately, they knew what they wanted to read and trying to coerce them only lead to reading resistance.  Over the years I’ve had lots of parents and colleagues ask me about good books for their students or children. In general, there is a formula to choosing a good book for your beginning reader (that is a conversation for another time), but a good book is whatever book they want to read (as long it has age appropriate themes). Book choice is an important step in your child becoming independent readers, which is ultimately what we want to happen.

General Information

·         Acknowledge and show you value their book choice, it’s better than no choice at all

·         If your child has difficulty choosing a book, provide a reduced number to choose from, say 4 or 5

·         If your child chooses the same book repeatedly, that’s ok, there is something they are getting from that book that’s important. Don’t be concerned if the book is too short, too easy or has too many pictures.  After they’ve read ‘Where’s the Green Sheep?’ for the fiftieth time, simply say, “that was great let’s try one of these ones now”

·         Remember reading isn’t just about reading novels. Reading can take on many different forms i.e. magazines, graphic novels, newspapers, comics etc.  Although some of these may not appear too high brow, they are a perfectly acceptable choice of reading material and will help in your child’s journey toward being a confident and independent reader.

·         If the book is a little difficult use the reading strategies below.

Here are the links to the reading strategies you can use to access any book with your child.

Echo Reading

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxFLeIZQzV0

Shared Reading

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUuwWzckKrs

Paired Reading

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j80MHkyIIFs

Don’t forget to share your feedback, stories and even pictures!

Happy reading!

Nicole Taylor

Nicole.taylor@ed.act.edu.au

Kindy Readers

We were very pleased this week to provide the Kindy POD with 400 new readers. These were purchased using funds from the Scholastic Book Fair and will support our students as their reading skills develop. There are lots of lovely new titles in both fiction and non-fiction.

Children’s Book Council of Australia Book Week 19-23 October (Week 2 Term 4)

Its nearly time to start thinking about your Book Week Costume for this year. Our Grand Book Week Parade will be Friday Week 2.

There will be lots of fun book focussed events in Week 1 & 2 around the books short listed for awards this year.  This year’s theme is “Curious Creatures, Wild Minds”

Kristina Collins

Executive Teacher/Japanese Teacher/Teacher Librarian

The P & C will be commencing the ‘Vested Vollies’ program from Monday 14th September.

There will be between 2 & 3 volunteers wearing a teal vest from 8:35am-9:05am for school drop offs and then from 2:40pm-3:15pm for pick-ups. We believe this will be an effective way to help the flow of traffic and help to reduce the bank up of cars onto Kosciusko Avenue. It also gives an option to families with younger children who normally park up and walk their children to the gates, to drop them off knowing that an adult is there to help and the make child feel safe and confident.

To keep everyone safe; students, drivers, staff and our volunteers; the P & C will ensure all the ‘Vested Vollies’ are properly trained.

The ‘ Vested Vollies’ will;

• Make eye contact with the driver as they stop in the PICK UP Zone.
• Request the driver wind the passenger window down.
• Ask if your children are comfortable with the help.
• Ask if you are OK for them to open the passenger doors of your car.

They WILL NOT be directing traffic or going to the drivers side of the car .

Please be patient and kind.

We would love for lots parents and carers to be involved, you  can choose do it once, or once a week/fortnight/month. Any help is greatly appreciated. It’s a great way for Dad’s and Mum’s to be involved.

 You can sign up here https://volunteersignup.org/LQ3JE or email the P & C President at palmpandc@hotmail.com if you have any questions.

Helen Ritchie

P & C President

Hello Parents and Carers,

It has been such a shame I have not been able to say hello to you at morning lines or check in with you at school pick up. It is very peculiar for all of us missing out on the morning or afternoon chats with other parents and families, but let’s remember that it is all worth it to keep our school open and our community safe.

It has been a tough year for everyone and having to cancel the student’s school discos and lunch order days have been hard decisions to make. The P&C have been using this time to work away in the background and develop some great initiatives and ways to fund-raise and support our school despite the COVID-19 restrictions.

I have a little update on all the happenings of the P&C for you.

PDPS School Community Cookbook

As a way of banding our community together as well as a contact-free way to raise funds, the P & C have been collecting recipes to produce a school Cookbook. We have received 48 recipes so far and, would you believe it, no two are for the same dish! There are recipes from so many cultures and there is definitely something for everybody! We have one more call out for recipes to be emailed to palmpandc@hotmail.com before 2nd October. Please consider sending through your recipe, not matter the format, so we can make the cookbook bigger and better! The cookbook will go to print and be ready for sale in term 4, just in time for Christmas! If anyone has any publishing experience, please contact us. We would dearly love some help, and there is a free cookbook in it for super-editor!

Muffin & Milk Morning Tea

On the last day of term 3, Friday 25th September, we will be running a pre-ordered morning tea with a muffin and a flavoured milk for $5. This is a great way for us to raise some much-needed funds for the school as well as providing a treat for the students as a reward for their resilience over the last 6 months. AND this time Preschoolers will be able to order! We will run a special Muffin & Milk day on Tuesday the 22nd September for the Mon/Tues groups.

P & C Facebook Group

There is now a PRIVATE Facebook group for our school’s P & C called ‘Palmerston District Primary School P & C’. We will use it as a way of keeping you updated on fundraising events, P & C initiatives and will post information and forms on there. We would love as many families as possible to join as it will make it so much easier to communicate to you all. There will also be………a lost property section!!

Lost Property

The lost property situation at the school has become extreme!

With parents not able to come into school grounds due to COVID-19, the pile has grown to be ENORMOUS!

I have worked through the pile and sorted all the labelled items and returned them, class by class, to the students. I have a nice little stash of about 200 items, all the unlabelled, at home which I am working my way through. The plan is to load photographs onto the P&C Facebook page and have parents/carers message or comment to stake a claim to the item. We can then organise to get the item to the correct student.

P & C Meeting

A reminder that our P & C Meeting is next Monday evening, the 14th September, at 7pm via Zoom. Please email me at palmpandc@hotmail.com if you would like to log in and find out about the goings on of the P & C and school from the committee and Mrs Smith. I will happily send you the link. It is a great way to try out the meetings if you are a bit shy as you can turn off your camera and listen in!

Stay safe everyone and I will hopefully, in some way, see you all soon.

Helen Ritchie

P & C President.

Purchase your Entertainment Book now and 20% of your membership purchase goes directly to our school!

- Memberships also last for 12 months from the date of purchase

- no more book versions, just downloadable to your phone (5 devices per membership)

Congratulations to the following students who received a PRIDE Award at assembly.

PARTICIPATION – becoming involved, “having a go” and cooperating with others

Nabeel - 3JL     Ruby - 3NS     Abdul - 4RE     Tyrone - 4RE     Blake - 5AD     Harvey - 5VS     Cindy - 6DE     Stephanie - 3DT      James - 3NS 

RESPECT -  having respect for self, others and their property

Naeva - 3JL     Niansh - 3JL

INTEGRITY – being honest, fair, responsible and loyal

Thomas - 3DT     Isabel - 3MB     Maria - 6CT     Jayda - 6CT

DETERMINATION - being persistent and resilient

Felix - 3MB     Olivia - 3MB     Louie - 3NS     Kimia - 4MC     Yuraj - 5CW     Charlotte - 5VS     Kayla - 4MG     Sanuth - 4MG     Claire - 4MG    Lucy - 4RE     Yuchen - 3MB

EMPATHY - understanding and supporting others regardless of our differences

Saad - 4MC     Dristi - 5AD     Ethan - 5CW     Natalie - 6DE     Ainslie - 3DT

11th September                                   Colour Run

25th September                                   End of term 3

12th October                                        Beginning of term 4

Last month DCO ran a cold winter themed photo competition for Canberra families to capture what best describes a typical winter day for them.

Out of many entries Cooper Wolfe from 3JL won! Congratulations Cooper, Cassie and Damien!

Well done to everyone that entered. 

Kristle Cross

Defence Transition Mentor