Spring Farm Public School

2020 Newsletter Term 3 Week 9

Upcoming Events


Breakfast Club
every Thursday
Tuesday 22nd September

Primary Athletics Carnival - Field events

Wednesday 23rd September

Primary Athletics Carnival - Track events

Thursday 24th SeptemberYear 3 Check In Assessment
Friday 25th September

Kindy & Stage 1 Athletics Carnival


Last Day of Term 3

Friday 22nd OctoberK Lovely Parent Learning Conferences


Principal Report

Dear parents and carers

What a Term it has been with the pandemic, I want to thank everyone for their commitment and resilience as we get through these unprecedented times. Please be aware that the school is following updated department of education NSW’s guidelines and procedures. Please view the updated guidelines. Have a safe and restful spring break.

Latest updates: https://education.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/advice-for-families#Year7

  

Last day of Term 3 Friday 25th September 2020

Students return Monday 12 October 2020

Students can wear their summer uniforms, please clearly label all of their items (uniforms and drink bottles etc) so they can be easily returned to the owner.


Kinder enrolments

If you have not yet enrolled your child for kindergarten next year or you have a friend, relative or neighbour who has a child beginning school in 2021, please ask them to contact the school as soon as possible to complete enrolment. We are planning for staffing allocations to kindergarten and we need to finalise our student enrolments as soon as possible.


Kindergarten Orientation

We are looking forward to getting to know families and students beginning school in 2021. Due to the pandemic this will look very different than previous years.

As per the Department of Education advice schools have been advised that Kindergarten orientation and transition to school activities remain on hold until further notice. Rest assured we are trying our very best to ensure we engage as much as possible with students and families prior to starting school next year. Please update your Operoo account for relevant and up to date information.

We thank you for your understanding at this time and are happy to answer any questions you may have. Please email the school if you have any questions.

Positive Behaviour for Learning PBL

Spring Farm Public School is an official member of the Positive Behaviour for Learning. Please visit the PBL site to access more information https://pbl.schools.nsw.gov.au/


The PBL committee have recently implemented a new whole school reward system called “The PBL Rocket”. Feedback was collected from students, teachers and the community to identify the effectiveness of gotcha tickets as “fast and frequent” rewards. The PBL team responded to the feedback and created the “PBL Rocket” to ensure all students are consistently following school expectations and are rewarded for their achievements. The gotcha tickets have been replaced with gotcha tokens or stickers. These stickers have each school value on them so students know why they are being rewarded and can continue striving to reach the top of the PBL rocket. Students are regularly recognised in the playground when displaying our school values and rewarded with a gotcha sticker. These stickers are added to their class rocket so they can see progress and the positive result of following school expectations. Once students fill each part of the rocket, they receive different rewards such as, extra free time. A number of classes have already enjoyed their first reward and are on their way to achieving their second.

School Improvement Plan 2021-2024

Schools in NSW, have commenced the task of developing a situational analysis in preparation for the development of their next 4 year school plan.

At Spring Farm Public School, we have been busy analysing all the feedback we have received through parent surveys, student surveys, student forums, student leader meetings and feedback from staff. We are looking at our feedback, along with student wellbeing data and student learning data especially in the key areas of Reading and Mathematics, and using all of this data and feedback we are in the process of developing our situational analysis. This will provide us with a benchmark to begin our journey of continued school improvement over the next 4 years.

Reviewing and implementing a new school behaviour flow chart procedure

A draft spring Farm Public school’s behaviour flowchart in conjunction with the Department of Education’s draft Behaviour Policy have been sent to all families via Operoo. Please view and provide feedback through the survey so that the school can take on your suggestions and include them where possible with the flowchart so that it aligns with the new behaviour policy from the NSW Department of Education.

You are also able to provide direct feedback to the Department of Education’s draft Behaviour policy. 

https://education.nsw.gov.au/student-wellbeing/attendance-behaviour-and-engagement/student-behaviour/behaviour-strategy

 

Public Education Foundation Scholarships

Public Education Foundation are offering the following scholarships aimed at primary aged students.

Please click on the links below for information regarding each of these scholarships.

  • NSW Primary Principals Association scholarships - open to NSW primary school students in years 2 - 5
  • Una May Smith scholarships - open to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Years K - 11
  • Vorsay/NSW Teachers Federation scholarships - open to current Year 1 students

Applications for the above scholarships close midnight on 22 September 2020.

https://publiceducationfoundation.org.au/

 

Breakfast Club each Thursday morning

Thank you to Ms Scuteri and team who have organised and volunteered their time to provide a breakfast club for all students.

 

Congratulations

Congratulations to Mrs Laws and her husband on the arrival of their first baby girl born 14 September 2020 we wish them all the very best.  

 

Weed spray

Over the spring holidays, weed spray will be used on the oval and around the classrooms to help reduce the weeds and clover.

Social Media

Recently there have been concerns and alerts sent out to schools about inappropriate content being viewed by students at home. Please work with your children when they interact with social media so they can develop the critical literacy skills when exposed to online content. Please remember that most social media platforms require children be over the age of 13.

 

Advice for parents:

The following advice for parents assists in limiting students’ exposure to harmful online content:

  • Engage in your child’s online activity and discuss the types of apps, websites and games they are viewing to ensure content is age-appropriate
  • Make use of parental control on devices to help limit your child’s online exposure
  • Help your child report and block inappropriate content on social media or apps
  • Encourage your child to talk to you about anything upsetting they view online

 

Support Services:

 

The key resources listed below provide additional support in relation to suicide prevention and mental health:

General Information

Check-in-Assessments Years 3 and 5

Year 3 and Year 5 students will participate in a new reading and numeracy check – in assessment in Term 3, 2020. The Check-in assessment is a NSW Department of Education online reading and numeracy assessment available to support schools to assess and monitor Year 3 & 5 student learning following the period of learning from home.

 

The Check-in assessments can supplement existing school practices to identify how students are performing in literacy and numeracy and to help teachers tailor their teaching more specifically to student needs.

The assessment will be scheduled for our Year 5 students from 17 August to 4 September 2020.

The assessment will be scheduled for our Year 3 students from 21 September to 23 October 2020

The assessments will be administered in the coming weeks at Mount Annan Public School and will be utilised for planning and programming purposes

Assisting Children - Supporting my child through natural disasters and global events

Illustrated guide to coping with traumatic news - ABC

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-23/illustrated-guide-coping-traumatic-news/5985104?nw=0

Tips for emotional psychological support - Anglicare

https://www.coordinare.org.au/assets/Uploads/Resources?resources/Anglicare-tips-for-Emotional-Psychological-support.pdf

Smiling Mind app- https://www.smilingmind.com.au/

Kidshelpline-  https://kidshelpline.com.au/

Online Enrolments

We are excited to announce we will be are rolling out the new Online Enrolment System from Monday, 14 September 2020

 The Online Enrolment System is designed to provide flexibility for our parents to submit an enrolment application online and at the time that best suits you. The application can be accessed on all browsers and mobile devices including iOS and Android.

The online application process is currently restricted to:

  • Enrolments into local schools only
  • Children who are Australian citizens, New Zealand citizens or permanent residents
  • Children who live in NSW.

 We offer our support and encourage you to complete your application to enrol online. If, however, you do not feel comfortable completing an application online, a paper copy will be available for collection from the front office or can be downloaded from the Department’s going to a public school site.

Further information about online enrolment can be found on our website here

P&C Information

The next Spring Farm Public School P&C meeting will be on Monday 2 November 2020 at 7pm via a zoom meeting. All parents and carers are welcome to attend. More information about Spring Farm P&C can be found on the facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/SFPSPANDC/

 

Thank you to the P&C for organising and  delivering Father’s day gifts ,  for their ongoing work to raise funds  for the school and  for continuing the with the organisation of the second hand uniforms. We are very appreciative of their commitment and work for all students and Spring Farm Public.

We need your help to raise funds to upgrade the Kiss & Ride area

How it works:

1.  Bring in your spare coins for your class jar

2.  The class that raises the most money will win a prize

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Spring Farm Public School