The Punchbowl Press

Playgroups 

The SaCC centre runs three playgroups a week. Only 6-8 families are allocated for each playgroup session due to Health Restrictions and space. 

Mums & Bubs playgroup on Monday: Our centre is a safe place where first time parents and carers can support each other through sharing ideas, parenting experiences, concerns and information. A place where families can build long-term friendships as their children grow and transition to school. 

Play-to-Learn playgroup on Tuesday: Our parents utilised the opportunities in our play-based learning playgroup to support their children’s development and build their confidence through socialising and engaging with other parents. 

Transition to Preschool playgroup on Friday: The transitions program is specifically tailored for four year old children going to Preschool in 2021. We work closely with parents to support their children’s development and building strong relationships to develop their confidence as they transition to the school environment. 

Step into Work 

Step into Work is a program specially designed for women who want to find meaningful paid work: whether seeking employment for the first time or wish to return to the workforce. 

Congratulations to our parents Raheela, Tasleema, Sumiya, Amreen, Shanza and Sumana who received their Certificates of Completion from the Step Into Work Volunteering Inc. These parents spent six weeks learning skills applying for jobs, preparing resumes and cover letters, communication skills and interviews. It also focuses on building life skills and confidence needed when entering or returning to paid employment by managing the family and work life. 

Parent as Confident Community Members 

Chester Hill Neighbourhood Centre provides our parents great opportunities to learn about healthy lunchbox, parenting skills, financial managing and budget, self-care and wellbeing. The program rewards parents and their children with holiday activity programs and bills support through EAPA. This program runs once a year: families enjoyed learning new skills and gaining their confidence by speaking about their life experiences. 

One of the highlights of this term so far in preschool was the visit from the Kindifarm. The children were fascinated as the presenters showed them different farm animals, and showed their curiosity and kindness when they got to touch and feed them. Educators included farm animal learning experiences in their programs so the children could learn all about the animals they were going to see.  

The Book Week parade was another highlight of the term. The children got dressed up as their favourite book characters. It was a very exciting day, and the children were so shocked to see their educators dressed up too! 

Learning to effectively communicate has been a big goal across all preschool classes. Children are learning to communicate in different ways, for example verbally, by using visuals, or by using iPad apps such as LAMP (Language Acquisition through Motor Planning). Being able to communicate is helping all our children to be included in the preschool program. The work we are doing on inclusion has been featured on the Department of Education’s website. You can read more here: https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/disability-learning-and-support/our-disability-strategy/latest-news/inclusive-preschool-program-encouraging-high-expectations 

Last but not least, we had a visit from Andrew from Cleanaway who presented to the children information about sustainability and recycling. The children were very interested in sorting garbage into red, yellow, and green bins, and seeing the worm farm.  

The Punchbowl Public School Preschool were acknowledged by Andrew Feilding, the Director of Educational Leadership Chullora Principals Network. They received an award for excellence in the role of teaching and learning.  

K-6 Kookaburras and K-6 Owls have jumped right back into our school routine for Term 4. We continue to care for our garden and have been busy tidying and planting new seeds after all the rain. The Kookaburras and Owls have been learning about the value of money for maths and have enjoyed setting up a play shop to practise buying items and giving change. For literacy we are learning how to write formal and informal letters and how to write make-believe stories using our imaginations. The Owls have been learning all about the world and temperatures for Geography and the Kookaburras have been busy constructing their own bridges while learning about Forces for design and technology. We had a lot of fun dressing up for Book Week, congratulations to Uriah, Giorgio and Abubaikr for winning best costume for our classroom.  

As part of our Science unit ‘Staying Alive’, Kindergarten students had a Kindifarm incursion. Students had the opportunity to pat, hold, feed and learn about different farm animals, their environment and what they produce. All students had so much fun during the incursion, some even faced their fears! 

In Science this term, students are learning about how heating and cooling foods can change its properties and whether the changes can be reversed or not. As part of this learning, students have been exploring changes in different foods including spaghetti, chocolate and popcorn.  These investigations have allowed students to draw conclusions about the time it takes for these changes to occur and the consequences of change. 

This is what some of our students have to say about what they have noticed: 

Allan: “Cooked spaghetti feels sticky and long".  

Shafi’i: “Once spaghetti been cooked it is flexible and bendy ” .

Misinale: “When chocolate is melted it feels squishy ” .

Jannah: “When popcorn is heated it feels bumpy and hot”. 

Students in 3/ 4 Inspire have been learning how to organise information. They asked ‘How many times did we powerwalk from line to line in one minute?’ Students then powerwalked in the playground for one minute, keeping count of how many times they walked from line to line on the asphalt. Back in the classroom students discussed ways of showing their information: a column graph, a picture graph, a table and a line graph. There was a vote held with column graph being the most popular to use. Our photos show us working to create colourful column graphs.

In Term 3 Years 5 and 6 explored the lives of convicts to Australia or ‘New Holland’ as it was called back then. These convicts colonised Australia. They were convicted of crimes in England and sentenced to transportation, where they would sail on ships to get to New Holland. Some of their crimes were surprising to us because we thought they would have committed serious crimes. Some convicts were charged with stealing ham or clothing for their families. When they sailed to New Holland, they had horrible conditions and suffered from lots of different sicknesses. 

I researched George Atkinson. His crime was stealing clothing and a book from the London Boarding House. He was transported in the First Fleet on the ship ‘Scarborough’ to York Shire Sheffield Quarter Sessions near Van Diemen’s Land. He became a police constable, and he got married to Mary Cockran. - Moiz 5/6 Fireball 

My convict was Francis Greenway. He went bankrupt in 1812 and pleaded guilty to forging a financial document. He was sentenced to death but it was later changed to 14 years transportation. When he arrived in the colony, Greenway presented letters of recommendation and his portfolio of work to Govener Lachlan Macquarie. He had a major impact on the building of Rum Hospital as a civil architect and engineer. - Mohamed 5/6 Eclipse 

I discovered lots about James Bloodworth. I learned was a convict sentenced to transportation for the theft of a game cock and two hens. I also learnt that James Bloodworth was a master bricklayer between 1788 to 1800. He was one of the first convicts pardoned. – Jayda  5/6 Earth 

I learnt that John Hudson has a relative in the nrl called John Hudson. He was also the youngest convict to sail on the First Fleet and he was one of the many convicts that was relocated to Norfolk Island in 1790. They had strict conditions and he was sentenced to 50 lashes for being out of his hut after 9 o’clock. – Ali 5/6 Earth  

Kindergarten students are learning about Natural and built environments. In this lesson, students were encouraged to use fine motor skills by cutting coloured paper into different shapes and collage the first Arabic letter of natural and built places. They have developed an understanding of the difference between places that are natural like beach, mountain, trees, and man-made places like buildings, houses and theme parks. This activity has also developed students’ Arabic phonological awareness, cutting skills and interpersonal skills.  

Book Character Parade

Book Week celebrations finished with the highly anticipated Book Character Parade. Our students and staff showed off their creativity with a sea of colour and designs many of which were home-made costumes from their favourite stories. Our worthy prize winners earned a $20 Book Voucher to encourage a love of reading. We thank our school community for their support of school activities and the learning of students. 

Each year Tony Burke (MP) invites local schools to enter a Christmas/New Year card competition. This year we have selected 9 artworks from Stage 2 and Stage 3 and these have been entered on behalf of Punchbowl Public School.  These artworks were created using a variety of artistic styles including drawing, painting and decoupage. We wish Alaa, Megan, Selma, Moala, Princess, Sabrin, Syahlan, Tamara and Fadhli the best of luck with their entries. 

Mrs Haidar - Visual Arts Teacher 

The NSW Department of Education are working closely with the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), NSW Health and other agencies to ensure our schools continue to operate in the safest ways possible during the COVID environment. Please read the updated information available at https://education.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/advice-for-families