Drummoyne Public School

Last year Canada Bay Council approved the construction of a child care centre on the site of the current water tower.Preliminary works are taking place by Avcon Projects P/L with construction due to start in around 6 months. The child care centre will incorporate the water tower and include underground parking.

SEESAW

Thank you for agreeing to the use of communication with you via Seesaw which has commenced for child's class this week.  Our school's Seesaw (and Google classroom) guidelines can be found at the button below.

Sports House Names

Last year the school executive and staff, student representative council (SRC) , P&C and our Reconciliation Action Plan committee discussed and supported moving to more contemporary sports house names than the current names of Cook, Macarthur, Phillip and Farrer.  We plan to select names that will help the school community connect with the local history and traditional owners of the land.  Students have nominated house names that will be considered this term in readiness for our next school sports carnival.

Student Voice 

This week Kindergarten students let me know what they like about 'big school'. Jarah said “I like learning! I like doing art and I like playing with playdough. It’s fun doing Valentine’s Day card for my parents.”

Maya said, “I like playing with Ashleigh and I like playing in the Forest. I like playing with the dice.”

Quinn said, "I like playing chasing and I like playing on the equipment outside. I like doing ‘craftings’. I like drawing and spell Mum and drawing flowers.” Life is good in Kindergarten! 

Thank you to every kindy parent who attended the parent information evening this week. If you were unable to attend, please see the slide presentation attached below.

School / Home Communication

Informed communication between the school and parents and carers is such an important component in the partnership of educating our children. In addition to the Parent Information Sessions, our school has a number of ways to ensure parents/carers receive information about their child’s education and the school happenings.

These include the following:

• School Newsletter is published on Fridays each week via your preferred email address.
• School Alerts are sent to your mobile phone via Skoolbag.
• School Website found at 
  https://drummoyne-p.schools.nsw.gov.au/
• Seasaw and google classroom are great ways to communicate with families about what your child is doing in class. This has begun this week.
• Parent Teacher Interviews (end of term 1)

School Community Charter

The NSW Government and Department of Education has provided all public school communities with the School Community Charter. The Charter outlines the expectations and responsibilities of parents, carers, educators and school staff to ensure our school learning environments are collaborative, supportive and cohesive. The Charter highlights respectful communication and that unacceptable behaviour towards school staff or by staff such as rudeness is not tolerated. A copy of the Charter is attached below.

Articles by Parenting Educators

In the newsletter this year, we will include articles by parenting educators like Dr Michelle Garnett, Dr Justin Coulson, Lucy Snowball and Michael Grose. The articles are designed to support families in raising happy and resilient children and be a catalyst for parenting conversations.

Please let us know if you find the articles of value and any topics you would like covered.

Scripture and Ethics Classes

Our Scripture and Ethics Classes will commence next week on Friday 24th February. Our classes include: Ethics, Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Protestant and Non Scripture. 

We would like to thank all of our volunteer teachers who will present the lessons this year.

School Swimming Carnival

On Thursday we enjoyed a wonderful annual swimming carnival at Drummoyne Swim Centre. Our swimming carnival has always been a celebration of students, staff and parents and the Drummoyne community coming together to enjoy the efforts and achievements of our young swimmers.

Special thanks to the Stage 3 teachers, particularly Leah Pegler and Amanda Champion, who organised the carnival for us and to our parent volunteers namely: Emma Sutherland, Alex Barisic, Brendhan Barry, Claire Mitchell and Gillian Worden.

Ms Hill and class 5/6H made colourful tissue paper collages and took fun and creative photographs to create a 'Meet Class 5/6H' display for the parent information evening.

There are several students at our school who have a severe allergy to certain foods (peanut products such as Peanut Butter and Nutella, nuts, sesame seeds, coconut, eggs, milk, shellfish and some fruits and grains) that could induce an anaphylactic reaction.

Whilst we are not asking you to exclude particular foods, we would like your support in encouraging your child not to share their food items with other students. Teachers will also emphasise with the children not to share their lunch or recess at school to avoid possible accidents as a result of your child’s kindness.

 Mr Dill says congratulations to:

• Evie Ryan - 3/4A - Respect Badge
• Olive Bockos - 5/6H - Respect Badge
• Isabella El-Rahim - 3/4W - Responsibility Badge

Final orders for the current issue of Book Club need to be placed by tonight - Friday 17 February. 

Please place all orders through: scholastic.com.au/LOOP - as we no longer accept cash payments for Book Club orders.

Joseph Neufeld

Teacher Librarian

 Can you believe 'Clean Up Australia Day' is happening next month? We're determined to make 2023 our biggest and best Clean Up Australia Day ever, so we're asking all students for their help on Friday 3 March. On this day we will be cleaning up our immediate environment - our lovely Drummoyne Public School. 

Can you imagine the impact we could have, if all of us came together and took practical action to improve the environment? What a difference we could make to not just our school environment but to all of Australia's flora and fauna. 

More information is to come - so watch this space.

Michelle O'Dowd

Assistant Principal

Stage 2 Choir

Stage 2 singers are welcome to join me at 8.30am next Wednesday to kick off the 2023 singing season. If you are unsure, come and have a go!

I will meet you in the North Playground (sitting on the benches) to take you up to my room. Looking forward to seeing you! 

Amanda Champion

Classroom Teacher

Students in Year 1 and 2 are welcome to join the Stage 1 Choir, commencing next Thursday, 23rd February at 8:50am.

Please come to the KB classroom for songs and fun times with Mrs Buchanan and Mrs O'Reilly-Gomes!

See you there.

Jessica Buchanan

Classroom Teacher

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a point in time assessment of literacy and numeracy skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. Each year students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in tests for writing, reading, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy.

From 2023, NAPLAN is moving to Term 1 and will take place from Wednesday 15 March to Monday 27 March 2023. The reason for this change is so that results can be returned to schools earlier in the year which will support teachers to understand the learning needs of their students and plan accordingly.

NAPLAN tests are just one part of our school learning assessment program and questions are primarily based on knowledge, understanding and skills gained from the prior year of schooling.

In preparation for NAPLAN 2023, our school will undertake activities to help students to become familiar with the format and functionality of the online tests. These activities are not an assessment of student ability and will not be marked.

Students and parents can access the public demonstration site to familiarise themselves with NAPLAN and the types of questions and tools available. Excessive preparation for NAPLAN is not required nor recommended.

NAPLAN 2023 Information for parents and carers is attached. If you have any further questions about NAPLAN, please contact your child’s teacher. 

Resources include:

·        Public demonstration site

·        NESA NAPLAN website

·        NAP parent/carer support page

·        Watch a video that explains tailored testing

The Art Gallery of New South Wales invites budding artists between the ages of 5 and 18 to submit a portrait for the Young Archie competition.

The portrait must be of a person who is special to you – someone who is known to you and who knows you and plays a significant role in your life.

Any students interested in entering The Young Archie competition are invited to meet Ms Richmond in the Art room on Mondays at lunchtime. Please come with an image of someone you admire. Entries are due to the Art Gallery of NSW by 5 March 23 and students will need to work during their own time to complete their portraits. 

For more information please see: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/art/prizes/young-archie/

Belinda Richmond

Art / STEAM Teacher

Enrichment applications for SSC Balmain Campus Year 7 2024 close on 31 March 2023.

All the information about the application process is on their website at :https://balmain-h.schools.nsw.gov.au/enrol_with_us/enrichment-enrolment.html

Students who need a School Opal card or travel pass for 2023, can now apply.

A new application will need to be submitted if they are applying for the first time, or if they are requesting an additional travel entitlement as a result of a new shared parental responsibility situation (e.g. joint custody). Students who change address, school, campus location, have repeated a year or received an expiry notification from Transport for NSW for their school travel entitlement should renew or update their details before the end of term 4. This will ensure that schools can endorse applications, and entitlements remain valid for the start of the 2023 school year.

Students in the Opal network applying for an Opal card for the first time will receive their Student Opal card at their nominated postal address. Cards will be mailed out from January 2023.

For further details please see the attachment below.

Please contact the school office if your child has lost their prescription glasses.

Some have been in the office since last year - two have cases but both are unlabeled.

Please ensure your child’s name is permanently and clearly labelled on belongings such as school hats, jackets, lunch boxes, drink bottles and school bags.

Please use a permanent laundry marker to label clothes, hats and shoes, or sew or iron on personalised labels, go through your child’s bag with them regularly and check that labels haven’t faded with washing.

For new students who require medication to be administered at school, all instructions and medications need to be handed in to the office.

To support this process and ensure the dosage is correct and medicine is stored securely, please complete the “Request for administration of prescribed medication to a student” form and hand in at the office with the medicine.  The form is available from the school office and can also be found on our school website.

No student should keep medication in their bags. Thank you for supporting the health and safety of all students.

For returning students, any changes to medication should also be directed to the office.

The February P&C Meeting will be held next Tuesday, 21 February from 7.30pm.

The March P&C Meeting and AGM will be held on Tuesday 21 March from 7.30pm in the library. Everyone is invited to attend.

We hope you can join us!

Please order school uniforms online. The P&C will process orders and the school office staff will distribute them.

 Please use our school Registration ID: 2572963 to create an account if you don’t already have one for canteen orders.

Welcome to 2023

We hope everyone had a great break and are well rested, ready to jump into the new school year!

New class names have been updated on school24. Please log on to school24 ASAP and update your children's classes for the 2023 year. Student lunch orders will go into the wrong lunch tubs if not updated.

In order for the canteen to be able to offer a sausage sizzle on Fridays and pasta during the week, we desperately need volunteers. If you have half an hour or more to spare we would love to have your help.

To volunteer, please log in to your school24 account.

• Click on Volunteers Roster in purple.
• Choose month-click view roster.
• Choose day and time. It’s so easy!

We are looking forward to having your company and help plus your children will be so excited to see you too!

Canteen, P&C Committee

canteen@drummoynepublicschool.com.au

We’ve enjoyed welcoming some new faces for 2023. Please enrol for the new school year via the Gowrie Drummoyne website.

This year we have designed an orientation booklet with information on our OSHC program to help new families receive relevant information about our service prior to enrolment. 

Contact Rekkha for more information on 0436 616 744.

To book Gowrie NSW enrolment forms can be found on the Gowrie website:

https://www.gowriensw.com.au/out-of-hours-care/drummoyne-and-stmarks

With Google Translation integration, you can access our newsletter in ANY language. Simply scroll to the bottom of the newsletter preview to give it a try.