Speers Point Public School Newsletter

After several weeks of wet weather, the sun has made a very welcomed return. The old saying, “slower than a wet week” has a special meaning for children when the weather restricts outside play.

Students have done very well under these conditions over this wet spell, and have continued to be safe, respectful, responsible achievers even when they are just wanting to get out and run on the oval, or on the fixed equipment. 

We are very pleased to see a return of Brekkie Club on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. For our newer families unfamiliar with this program, students have an opportunity to grab brekkie here at school, including toast and fruit - all free thanks to Bakers Delight and Woolworths who are supporting the program. 

I am very proud of the senior student leaders who are there each week, helping to prepare and serve the food for their peers. It's through their efforts that the program runs as well as it does.

Brekkie club is located next to the school library on Tuesday and Thursday mornings between 8:30 and 8:55am.

Given the wet, we’re expecting a return of the mozzies. Classrooms are still using the ventilation strategy and windows and doors are open where possible to allow for natural ventilation. As the rain subsides and the mozzies plot their revenge, we suggest applying insect repellent before coming to school to help combat these winged missiles. 

Congratulations to all of our swimmers who competed in the Swimming Carnival this week. I have had so much praise come through for the effort of all of our swimmers – getting in and having a go! Such a great achievement.

We had 3 students go on to compete at Zone, well done Parker, Zara and Cassidy. Parker will go on to the next step and represent at regional. Well done! 

The word NAPLAN brings many different thoughts and reactions. Next term, in weeks 3 and 4 our students in Years 3 and 5 will sit the NAPLAN assessments. For Year 5 these are completely online, including the writing. For Year 3 it is online except for the writing which is still handwritten.

If you have any concerns around your child and NAPLAN please discuss these with the class teacher for support.

At Speers Point we don’t teach for a test, we teach for life. We won’t be changing our class teaching programs to prep for NAPLAN, but we will continue the high standard of teaching in supporting students at their level of learning. We definitely do not want to stress students.  It is one assessment in a wide range of assessments we use over the year.

If parents are looking to prepare at home these are the few suggestions I would include:

• Year 5 typing practice. Building skills to write fluently on a keyboard. 

• Vocabulary building – developing a deeper understanding and use of inexhaustible range of words and meaning. 

• Building number facts, like simple addition, multiplication facts etc. This allows less “cognitive load” (or brain power) needed on the simple tasks and frees up more RAM for more complex tasks.

Have a great week

Chris Payne

Principal

Monday 14 March - P&C Meeting - School Library - 6.30pm

Friday 18 March - Active Inclusion Sports Day - Support Unit

Friday 18 March - Hunter Water Show K-2

Thursday 24 March - Harmony Day/Bullying No Way - Anti-Bullying Day

Wednesday 30 March - Hot Cross Bun payment and orders due

Friday 1 April - Cross Country

Thursday 7 April - Hot Cross Bun delivery

Friday 8 April - Crazy Hair/Easter Hat Parade

Friday 8 April - Last day of Term 1

Monday 25 April - ANZAC DAY

Tuesday 26 April - Staff Development Day - no students

Wednesday 27 April - Students return for Term 2

Thursday 28 April - School Photos

All 2022 school photos are to be ordered online using the code below.

To order a package please click on the link

Newcastle School Portraits

If you need any assistance ordering online, please see the office staff.

If anyone has any uniforms they no longer require,  it would be greatly appreciated if you could donate them to the school to add to our second hand uniform pool. 

Please bring all donations to the office.

Thank you

CLASS BORROWING 

Could you please return any outstanding library books.  Thank you

BOOK CLUB

Issue 2 orders are due by Friday 25 March 2022.

Students can order via the LOOP, click on the link Order Online

or bring in their orders and money to the office.

Things are starting to heat up around here! We’re rounding out Term 1 with a number of whole school events, so get out your calendar and let’s get organised. 

First up is the P&C meeting on March 14. It will be held at 6.30pm at the school library. For those who can’t attend, there will be an option to Zoom in at the link below. This is a great opportunity for you to become more involved in your child’s education and have your say in how we can support the school through fundraising.

ZOOM LINK: https://zoom.us/j/94817476718?pwd=aHJTQmw5aTdkUFN0VzFPOFdDbVJ1dz09

Meeting ID: 948 1747 6718

Passcode: Sa29xt