Holbrook Public School

Wednesday, 9 September, saw students arrive in varied arrays of beanies – some practical, others purely decorative! This was the beginning of a very busy day of fundraising.

First of all, before the event even took place, members of the SRC volunteered their time, on Monday and Tuesday’s long break, to create daffodils to sell. There was quite a production line happening!

On Wednesday, noodles in a cup were sold for lunch, as were apple slinkies which proved to be very popular. There was a ‘Guess the Number of Lollies’ in a jar competition, daffodils sold and planted in the quiet area COLA garden (a really magnificent display) and a raffle kindly donated by Archie and Tracy Swan. Tickets are still available for the raffle until the end of term, when it will be drawn.

Congratulations to everyone on a really outstanding effort. It was great to see the commitment, cooperation and empathy displayed by all students. A very special thank you to our hardworking SRC, and all who helped.

We raised a truly amazing amount to help with brain cancer research - a whopping $710.00.

Kate Wedgwood

On Thursday, 10 September, the children at the Greater Hume Children Services (GHCS) Holbrook zoomed into Kindergarten! Together, the pre-schoolers joined the Kindergarten students for a reading of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak. The pre-schoolers then made monsters using crepe paper, paper plates, pipe cleaners, googly eyes and their imaginations! A big thanks must go to Kimberly and Renee at GHCS, Mrs Wedgewood, Miss Lavis, Mrs Mullavey and those wonderful Year 5 students that assisted in cutting, gluing and creating! We look forward to seeing the pre-schoolers over the fence when Year 5 pop over to GHCS for a visit on Thursday, 17 September. 

Last Friday, Year 5 and 6 were treated to beautiful spring weather and a field trip to the Holbrook Travelling Stock Reserve to plant some native shrubs, as part of a regeneration project. After about 1 ½ hours they had planted, guarded and watered approximately 175 native shrubs that will provide shelter, food and homes for small birds that live in or visit our region. The students were keen to get their hands dirty and worked hard digging, planting, making tree guards and watering the shrubs in. After some lunch, Kylie Durant from Holbrook Landcare, took us on a nature walk around the reserve, armed with binoculars and a telescopic camera. We checked the nesting boxes for recent or current activity and were lucky enough to find two boxes being occupied by possums.

We would like to thank Kylie Durant for allowing us to plant the shrubs and spending the day with us teaching us about our local plants and animals. The students had a fantastic day and represented our school and themselves proudly. ​

Thank you to the Jeffries family, for the donation of five wobble cushions. These are a valuable resource, used to help students engage in their learning. They will be utilised across the school, in many learning environments. 

The Kindergarten and Year 5 students are very much looking forward to getting to know the pre-schoolers at Greater Hume Children Services during Terms 3 and 4. Though we have had to modify the transition program this year, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the students are excited to show off the wonderful things about Holbrook Public School, and to have the opportunity to learn and create with the pre-schoolers. If restrictions on Kindergarten Orientation activities ease, we will liaise with GHCS-H to organise some face-to-face visits.

If you have any questions regarding Kindergarten transition, please contact the office.

Miss Hemphill and Miss Lavis

Between now and Week 3 of Term 4, Year 3 students will be participating in an online Check-in assessment for reading and numeracy.

The Check-in assessment is a NSW Department of Education literacy and numeracy assessment package, which has been provided to schools in the absence of NAPLAN this year. It will assess aspects of the NSW syllabuses and the National Literacy and Numeracy Learning Progressions.

The primary role of assessment is to establish where individuals are in their learning so that teaching can be differentiated and further learning progress can be monitored over time.

Assessment windows:

• Year 3: Term 3, Week 10 to Term 4, Week 2 (21 September to 24 October 2020).
  

The assessment package is designed to: 

• provide teachers with consistent and up-to-date information about their students’ skills and abilities in literacy and numeracy 
• assess the types of skills that are necessary for students to progress through school and beyond
• identify students requiring support to successfully engage with stage relevant learning outcomes 
• help inform targeted teaching and intervention strategies 
• supplement existing assessment practices.

The Check-in assessment gives teachers valuable information to assist them in: 

• identification of students’ literacy and numeracy skills
• differentiation of teaching strategies to support the learning needs of students 
• monitoring of student learning progress over time
• targeting the literacy and numeracy skills needed for students to succeed both during their schooling careers and beyond.

The majority of students will complete the Check-in assessment on the following dates:

• Year 3 Reading – Monday, 21 September
• Year 3 Numeracy – Tuesday, 22 September

If a student is away on the listed date above, further opportunities to complete the assessment will be provided within the assessment window.

On Tuesday, 22 September, students in K-2 will be completing some gardening around the school. Students will be re-homing some of the plants currently residing in the tractor tyres, as well as tidying up the gardens around the school. In order to do this, we are hoping that families will donate a few plastic plant pots of varying sizes that can be used on the day. Students can drop these off to the Kindergarten classroom before school. We thank you for your assistance and generosity in making this happen. Please also remember to send along some gardening gloves with your child if you have some!

K-2 Teachers and Students ​

We are excited to announce that we are now accepting online enrolments.

The Online Enrolment System is designed to provide flexibility for our parents to submit an enrolment application online and at a time that best suits them. 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.

Our local council is looking to develop the land surrounding our current Skate Park facilities. They are running a competition for students to design the space and hope to include, seating, undercover areas and bubblers. I'm sure there are lots of ideas now running through your little brains, so get drawing! These designs will be due later in the term.

Mrs Chontelle Henderson

We understand that with the change of seasons and continual growth of each child, it may be difficult to find the correct uniform at this time of year. Nonetheless, in NSW public schools, students are expected to comply with the school’s uniform policy and dress code. This is stated clearly in the NSW public schools ‘Behaviour Code for Students’. I encourage all families to visit the school office or contact Tracey or Judith (preferably Mondays, Tuesdays or Fridays) so that arrangements can be made for all children to wear the correct school uniform. The school uniform shop can supply everything, except shoes, and we encourage all families to purchase items through the school so that the uniform is consistent in colour and style. Quality second hand items are also available and financial assistance may be provided on request.

Some important points regarding our uniform policy:

• We only wear black shoes (excluding Fridays, when any coloured sneakers can be worn for sport).
• We wear navy blue, not black - for example, tights, leggings, shorts or pants.
• Our uniform doesn’t include sports branding. As stated above, the correct colours and styles are available through the school office.
• The only item that includes a hood, is our new weather proof school jacket.

Our shipment of headbands and scrunchies in the girls' tartan fabric have finally arrived (albeit very late in the season). Headbands retail for $11 and scrunchies for $7 - stock is limited.

Term 4 sees our students return in summer uniform. Please have your child try on their summer uniform so that you are well prepared for when the warmer weather approaches. Our uniform shop is fully stocked. 

The following Holbrook businesses sponsor our newsletter. Please support them when you can.