Newsletter to Parents Respect, Responsibility, Personal Best · strict protocols and guidelines in accordance with the Department of Education’s Social Media Policy. The voluntary

Respect, Responsibility, Personal Best Branxton Public School Newsletter to Parents

BRANXTON PUBLIC SCHOOL

Find us at: 12 King St, Branxton NSW 2335 Email: [email protected] Phone: (02) 4938 1214 Fax: (02) 4938 1905 Website: www.branxton-p.schools.nsw.gov.au

Week 2 Term 1 WEDNESDAY 6TH FEBRUARY, 2019

Dates to Remember

7.2.19 Kindergarten photos

7.2.19 Brainstorm Production (Anti-bully)

8.2.19 Primary Swimming Carnival

11.2.19 P&C Meeting 6pm

15.2.19 PBL Parent Meeting 2pm

8.3.19 PBL Celebration Day

19.3.19 Author Visit - Tim Harris

6.4.19 P&C Trivia Night

10.4.19 Whole School Photos

11.4.19 Easter Hat Parade

SCHOOL TIMES Class Time 9:10 - 11:10 Lunch 11:10 - 11:55 Class Time 11:55 - 1:25 Recess 1:25 - 1:55 Class Time 1:55 - 3:10

Office Hours: The office is open from 8:30 am until 3:30 pm.

PRINCIPAL’S NEWS Welcome to the 2019 school year! As much as we all love the holidays, it is really lovely to see all the student’s smiling faces again. As educators; they are the reason for our career choice and they lift our spirits every day. I would like to give a special welcome to all our new families that have started at Branxton Public school this year. I have attempted to organise a short “get to know you” meeting with many of our

new families. If I haven’t been in touch with you please make an appointment at the front office to see me. I would love to have a chat to see how we can best support your child’s learning journey. Our new Kindergarten children are a delightful group. I have visited their classrooms several times. I have not seen any tears yet! In fact I am going to quote one of our new little kinder boys; when he was asked by another parent “how was your first day at school?” he replied “It was so good I am coming back tomorrow” lol. I hope you noticed our beautiful stainless steel BBQ as you entered the school. This will be wonderful for the many school events held by the school and P&C. The P&C are going to organise a P&C noticeboard behind it. This will alert you to upcoming events and activities where you may be able to support the children of our school. These may include, BBQs, wrapping Easter hampers, lamington drive allocations, book covering or simply handing ice blocks out at the X-Country carnival. We really would appreciate any help you can give, even if it’s only for an hour or so. Please keep your eyes open for these opportunities. Your child will love seeing you involved in their school too! The P&C have recently supported the purchase of several new and engaging home readers. I am sure you will enjoy listening to your child each night. Don’t forget to read to them as well. I am hoping to have our afternoon reading sessions happening very soon. Watch this space!

Respect, Responsibility, Personal Best Branxton Public School

Social media can be a powerful tool to facilitate and enhance communication and learning, as well as build connected communities. Branxton Public School has a Facebook site that we encourage you to join to see the exciting events, celebrations and notifications. The staff that administrate these sites are required to follow strict protocols and guidelines in accordance with the Department of Education’s Social Media Policy. Staff also have their own personal Social Media accounts and are required to adhere with the Social media policy. Within the policy the Department “advises staff not to ‘friend’ parents on Facebook. In addition staff must not ‘friend’ students on Facebook or Snapchat or follow them on Instagram or Twitter”. Please do not be offended or upset if you have requested a staff member to ‘friend’ you on any of these sites. They are simply following the department’s social media policy. If you have any questions regarding this matter please contact me? This year we are proud to begin our own Junior AECG. We will soon organise a meeting for all indigenous families to discuss the implementation of the Junior AECG and ideas and activities for the whole school. Congratulations again to Patrick Bush of Year 6 who was awarded a Galuwa scholarship and will be our AECG leader for 2019. Next week we will begin a whole school music program. Mrs Helen Tuyl will work on a Friday, beginning with Stage 1 during Term, to teach music theory and skills. I have previously worked with Mrs Tuyl and I can assure you the students will love every moment! Mrs Tuyl will also assist with school band and musical groups. Welcome Mrs Tuyl! I look forward to seeing you all at the Swimming Carnival on Friday, don’t forget the sunscreen!

account includes payments for the 2019 Voluntary Family School Contribution, Maftific (a computer program which students use in the classroom and can access at home), incursion fees for the PBL Rewards Day on 8

th March and

the Visiting Author on the 19th March as well as

pool entry for the Primary Swimming Carnival on the 8

th February.

The Family School Contribution refers to the voluntary contribution scheme that all public schools operate. This is a very low $45.00 per family per year. This money goes to providing the everyday resources needed in classrooms - pencils, paper, books, teaching aids, counters, craft supplies, reading books, etc, available to every child. Payment of as little as $2.00 per week is possible if you prefer. Maftific is an educational program that our school subscribes to and forms part of each class’s teaching program. To fund this across the school we ask that families support the school and P&C by making a payment of $15 per child for Maftific. This program can also be accessed at home for children to reinforce their skills in Maths. Over a full 12 months this money presents great value and enhances learning opportunities. Please note we have no eftpos facilities. Should you wish to pay by credit card you can do so via school website make a payments tab. If you have any queries regarding the above information please feel free to speak to our School Admin Manager, Kelly Thomas for further clarification.

SCHOOL BANKING

Commonwealth School Banking is

available here at school. Would

your child like to join the

Dollarmites, on a Polar Savers adventure to the

Ice Cave of Savings?

Our banking day is THURSDAY. Due to

Commbank regulations they have requested that

children only bring their banking books in on the

school determined banking day. If you require

further information please contact the office.

FINANCE NEWS

Statement of Account This week we sent home a financial statement of account to each family. The statement of

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EARLY STAGE 1 (KINDERGARTEN) NEWS Kindergarten have had a fabulous start to their school life. We have been busy learning routines and names and rules and songs and numbers and words and so much more! You can understand why we might be a bit tired, and possibly grumpy, by Friday…. Thank you to the parents and caregivers who came along to the Best Start Appointments last week. We all enjoyed getting to know the children a little better and seeing just where they need to start their learning journey. You will receive a Best Start Parent Feedback Summary in the next week or two. See your child’s teacher if you have any questions about this. Please sign up to your child’s class Seesaw so you can see all the fun and exciting learning we are doing in our classrooms. You are also able to send private messages to the teacher if you have questions or concerns. If you’ve lost your QR code please ask for another one – it is super easy to connect and use. Ms Murray, Mrs Nimmo and myself are looking

forward to a wonderful year teaching your

children.

STAGE 1 NEWS A big welcome back to everyone! There wasn't too many tears and the children were great as well!

This year we have Ms Guilbaud teaching 1/2 Sea Lions, Miss Elsley teaching 1/2 Platypus, Miss Ridge is with 1/2 Frogs, Mr Kelly and Mrs Steele are sharing the teaching of 1/2 Turtles and Mrs Murray has some of our Year 1 in the Kookaburra room. Please come and introduce yourself to our Stage 1 teachers and we all look forward to working with you.

STAGE 2 NEWS

A busy start to our new year 2019. We have four Stage 2 classes all keen and ready to learn.

Our first big event will be our Swimming Carnival on Friday this week. All children are expected to attend and we hope we have lots of close finishes to go with the good weather in prospect.

We have an anti-Bullying Show coming up which is free to all children and our PBL Celebration is coming up in March so keep your eyes and ears open.

In Science we are looking at how animals and plants interact and I am hoping to have a friend of mine bring in a working beehive (sealed) for the children to appreciate the hard work our bees put in to produce honey for us.

The children are doing a history unit to do with Past to Present and forging ahead with some quality writing everyday in their classrooms.

A hearty welcome to everyone and let's hope for

a bumper year.

STAGE 1 NEWS cont.. Homework has commenced. Please provide your child with a homework book. This needs to be returned each Friday. Home Readers will also be sent home. Please take the time to listen to your child and also read with them. Eating lunch inside has been beneficial so far, as we don't have as many unclaimed lunch containers in the playground baskets. Please remember to label all your child's items.

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OPAL CARDS

2019 APPLICATIONS

Don’t throw out last year’s School Opal card because eligible cards will be automatically updated for the new school year. However, you will need to update your application if you have a current School Opal card and:

Are progressing from Year 2 to Year 3 Are progressing from Year 6 to Year 7 Your circumstances change, e.g. change of school, home address or school year outside of the usual progression.

Details are available at https://www.opal.com.au/en/about-opal/opal-for-school-students/

CANTEEN NEWS

HELP IS NEEDED and very welcome in the canteen. The more help we have, the wider choice of quality healthy and tasty food we can offer our students at a low price. You are welcome to come in any day and time that suits you best. Shorter times are very welcome and you can even bring a friend. Please let me know if you can support our school community in the canteen. Thank you to everyone who has already offered to volunteer this term, your time is very much appreciated. BPS canteen is an

approved not-for-profit

Voluntary work activity for

Newstart allowance.

Please contact me if you

would like more

information.

STAGE 3 NEWS Stage 3 are settling in to their new classes. We welcome Mr Tattis who has joined the Stage 3 team. Homework started this week and we are looking forward to implementing the online scheme using Google Classrooms. We see this as a very positive step in preparing our students for high school. There will still be a paper option for those students who do not have computer or internet access. Students have received nomination forms for the SRC Minister positions as well as Library Monitor Positions. These are due back Thursday morning to enable positions to be determined. The successful candidates will receive their badges at the Whole School Assembly on Friday 15

th February at 9.20am. Parents are most

welcome to attend. Soon students will receive a note regarding the

Canberra excursion which will be held in Term 4.

This excursion will complement the students

learning about Federal Government. The cost of

this excursion can be paid off over the year.

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Respect, Responsibility, Personal Best Branxton Public School

PBL Over the holidays there

have been a number of

changes in and around our

school which meant our first

PBL focus was on these

changes.

We are also establishing our class and school procedures. Students are learning where they need to go to line up after each break. We have had a lesson on using the toilets and what the expectations are for this area. We are also learning about our PBL system and the consistency guide that determines the consequences for behaviors. It is important to remember that classrooms are out of bounds in the morning, so the teachers are developing routines for the placement of bags on arrival at school. We are also learning about the expectations for departing the school each afternoon. The logistics for getting close to 400 students safely to where they need to be takes some consideration. Please support your child with the establishment of these routines. To assist parents with this we will be conducting

a Parent PBL

Information

Session on

Friday 15th

February at

2.30pm in the

Library. Please

come along to

learn more

about the PBL

systems at

Branxton

Public School.

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P&C NEWS

Welcome to the new school year! Our first meeting for 2019 is on Monday 11

th February,

6:00pm in the school library. Everyone is welcome and we always love to see new faces (especially Kindergarten parents). Whether you would like to join the P&C and attend regular meetings or help out when you can, all assistance is greatly appreciated. We are all friendly and welcoming and we can’t wait to work with you all in 2019 to continue to raise money for our wonderful school.

We have a lot of wonderful events planned for the

school this year. Our big one for Term 1 is our first

ever Trivia Night! This will be held on Saturday 6th

April at the

Branxton

Golf Club.

More

information

to come in

the next

newsletter but the best way you can help is by

organising a table of family and friends to

compete on the night.

With the change of lunch and recess times, our school canteen has purchased a new bench oven that can heat the food in a quicker time frame. Previously we only had pie warmers and this fantastic new oven was purchased with funds we have raised through P&C events. If you are able to help out by volunteering in the canteen please see Sharyn – she’s very friendly and loves as

much help from parents and caregivers as she can get throughout the school term. Toward the end of Term 1 we will also be holding our annual Easter raffle, which coincides with the school’s Easter Hat Parade. Later in the term we will be asking for donations for the raffle so stay tuned on how you can help to raise much needed funds for the students. The Central Hunter Business Chamber is holding a community movie night on Saturday 2

nd March at Greta Sports Oval. The movie will

be “Ralph Breaks the Internet”, the sequel to “Wreck it Ralph”. Our P&C will be running a stall on the night selling glow products. If anyone is able to help with running the stall on the night, please let us know but we will be providing further information about this closer to the date. This is a great community event that the chamber is hoping to run every year with the assistance of local businesses, services and school P&Cs. New technology for Branxton PS classrooms! Branxton Public School P&C has partnered with ACI Insurance with the goal to purchase new iPADS for our students. Parents and staff do not pay a sponsorship levy to fund this initiative. It is a community-based project undertaken by ACI to provide sponsorship to schools for the purchase of new resources and facilities. HOW? 1. Get an obligation free quote from ACI –

direct through CGU on our website or through our insurance services using a vast range of insurers such as QBE, Allianz, Chubb, Rural Affinity

2. Purchase insurance policy – no sponsorship levy attached to premium

3. ACI sponsors Branxton Public School – every policy, each year it is held

Do you already pay for insurance?? Let ACI sponsor Branxton Public School … no sponsorship levy attached to your policies, just funding for new iPADS. Click to website Active Community Insurance

Respect, Responsibility, Personal Best Branxton Public School

Key dates coming up: First P&C Meeting for 2019 – Monday 11

th

February 6:00pm in the school library. Central Hunter Business Chamber community

movie night – Saturday 2nd

March at Greta Sports Oval.

Branxton Public School P&C’s trivia night – Saturday 6

th April at the Branxton Golf

Club.

To get in touch or keep up to date with the P&C like our Facebook page, read the school newsletter, talk to P&C members, email the address below, help at an event or come along to the next meeting. Thank you for your support Branxton Public School families. Melissa, P&C Secretary [email protected] www.facebook.com/BranxtonPublicPandC

SPORT NEWS

Just a reminder that the swimming carnival is this Friday. The students will travel by foot and will depart school at 9:30am. Students are required to wear their sports uniform. This includes their broad brim school hat and fully enclosed, comfortable walking shoes. Sunscreen is essential. The canteen will be operational on the day, students will be able to purchase sundry items from the canteen but they will not be able to purchase any hot food.