Thank You
As we near the end of another busy term I would just like to thank you all for your ongoing support of school programs and initiatives. We are extremely lucky at Hammondville to have such a supportive and collaborative community. Just a reminder that we have several events and fundraisers coming up to end our wonderful Term 3. Jump Off Day is next Wednesday 25th September and the Colour Run is next Friday 27th September. If you have not ordered your coloured powder, the money is due by this Wednesday 18th September, also please don’t forget to bring in your sponsorship order forms on the day so you don’t miss out on your fundraising prizes. Enjoy a colourful end to the term everyone!
Tell them From Me Survey – please complete
This term, our school will be participating in the Partners in Learning parent survey, another part of the Tell Them From Me suite of surveys (student, teacher and parent surveys) on student engagement. The survey asks parents and carers questions about different factors that are known to impact on student wellbeing and engagement.
Running this survey will help our school understand parents’ and carers’ perspectives on their child’s experience at school. These include: communication between parents/carers and staff, activities and practices at home and parent/carer views on the school's support of learning and behaviour. This valuable feedback will help our school make practical improvements.
The survey is conducted entirely online on smartphones, iPads, tablets, laptops or computers. The survey will typically take 15 minutes or less to complete and is completely confidential. The parent survey will be conducted between 2nd September and 25th October. Although participating in the survey is entirely voluntary, your responses are very much appreciated.
Information about the survey is available at: http://surveys.cese.nsw.gov.au.
To access the survey for our school go to: http://nsw.tellthemfromme.com/70hm
At present we have had only 27 responses, I urge all families to contribute as the information is invaluable in our school planning process. Thank you in advance for participating in this process.
Student Leaders
This week marks the beginning of our student leader application process for 2020. I am looking forward to seeing many of our Year 5 students who are ready for a leadership opportunity. For those Year 5 students who are interested in applying you will need to come to the office to see me personally, and receive your application. I will be available at recess and lunch during Week 9 and 10. Good luck to all of you.
Social Networking
Social networking describes a variety of services like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Minecraft, World of Warcraft and many others. All of these services enable direct interaction between individuals. Users can post information about themselves, display photos, chat and play games. Although many of these services have an age limit of 13+ it appears many of our students at Hammondville have their own accounts and use them frequently. As there is no way for us as a school to monitor student interactions online, it is the responsibility of parents to monitor and ensure that safe, respectful interactions are occurring online between students. Some helpful hints to support your children include:
- ensure privacy settings are on private, so the account is not open to anyone to view
- monitor the account regularly to view content
- remind your child to think before they post and be respectful to others at all times
- ensure location services are off so they are not publicly broadcasting their location online
- report any cyber bullying or inappropriate content to the social networking site or make a complaint to the Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner.
P & C –Online Ordering
For those of you who haven’t taken the survey, we are looking at moving to an online ordering system for lunch orders. If you could contribute to this survey that would be great. The more feedback we receive the better.
Hammondville P&C is considering a move to Online Canteen Ordering at our School and want your valuable feedback. Please take a moment to fill in this quick 1 minute survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VKBFHNM
Positive Stars Week 8
I had the lovely opportunity to see many students across the school last week for producing excellent work, demonstrating outstanding work habits and being exceptional learners. Well done to the following students on being Positive Stars in week 8. Josie and Hagop in K Red, Tamika in 1/2 Gold, Roxie and Ethan in 3/4 Gold, Simone, Natalie and Alexis in 3/4 Silver and Sienna, Moriah, Sissy, Shyanne, Jack, Isabella, Miriam, Natalie, Zakaria, Sienna H., Aiyden, Anthony, Daniel and Jack in 4/5 Bronze. Keep up the great work and I can’t wait to see more students this week.
Planning Days
Over the next two weeks we will be having our stage planning days to prepare for next term. This is a time for teachers to come together and collaborate on ideas, resources and lessons for the term ahead. During this time teachers will be off class. I thank you for your understanding of these rewarding and productive days for our staff.
Conjola Place
It is extremely important that when driving around and in school zones, that traffic rules and signage is adhered to and followed for the safety of our students. Last week we had several cars parking in the cul-de-sac in Conjola Place. This is not meant for parking and we ask that the rules are followed or the council rangers will be called to follow up. Please remember: Safety first.
White Ribbon Men’s Breakfast
This Wednesday is our White Ribbon breakfast for all the significant males in our student’s lives. Thank you to the committee for organising this event and I can’t want to see you all there on Wednesday morning from 7:45am.
Have a wonderful week of learning!
Mrs Rebekah Murray
Rel. Principal
