Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to our Week 7 newsletter.

Jersey Day

Thank you to the whole school community for supporting our Year 6 fundraising by wearing a jersey. This money goes towards Year 6 celebrations at the end of the year and to buy a gift for the school on behalf of outgoing students. Throughout the year, Year 6 will be holding several fundraising events, including spider drinks on the last day of school this term! We look forward to your continued support. If you were one of the clever people who wore the right colours (blue and white), congratulations on supporting the best team ever!

Save The Date Note

This week, your child will have come home with a bright yellow note asking you to save the date. The days listed on this note include P&C meetings, one of which will be held next Thursday, and parents forums. Our last P&C meeting had a record of 18 parents where we successfully selected a P&C committee. I look forward to working with the committee and having more parents join and attend the P&C.

NAPLAN

NAPLAN is a point in time assessment of literacy and numeracy skills. Each year students in Years 3 and 5 participate in tests for writing, reading, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. This year NAPLAN will begin on Wednesday 15 March to Monday 27 March. NAPLAN tests are just one part of our school learning assessment program and questions are primarily based on knowledge, understanding and skills gained from the prior year of schooling. Excessive preparation for NAPLAN is not required nor recommended. We ask that your child has a good night sleep, eats breakfast and comes to school ready to try their best.

Congratulations

Congratulations and welcome back to Miss Stapleton. Last week Mrs Stapleton took some time off to celebrate her wedding. She looked beautiful and had a great time. We'd like to welcome her back and introduce her as Mrs Matthews.

At Prestons we pride ourselves on students achieving in all areas of schooling. This week we had 5 boys selected to represent the Liverpool zone in Rugby League. Congratulations to Joseph, Patmos, Noah, William and Faifua, we wish you all the luck and know you will make us proud.

Week 8

Next week is going to be a very busy week for the students, staff and parents of Prestons Public school. We have our passion groups starting on Monday afternoon, K to 2 assembly, 3 to 6 assembly, NAPLAN, Purple Day, PSSA, library days and P&C meeting. I recommend you read 'Dates to Remember' section found in this newsletter and regularly check Facebook for updates. Every Sunday night we will be uploading 'The Mane Events' to Facebook which details upcoming events for the week ahead.

Have a wonderful weekend and don't forget to ask your child what they are learning at school.

Mo Lloyd

Deputy Principal

Tuesday 14th March - World Purple Day - Whole School Fundraising

Wednesday 15th March - NAPLAN - Writing (Years 3 & 5)

Thursday 16th March - NAPLAN - Reading (Years 3 & 5)

Thursday 16th March -P&C Meeting

Friday 17th March- National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence

Monday 20th March - Harmony Day

Tuesday 21st March - NAPLAN - Literacy (Years 3 & 5)

Thursday 23rd March - NAPLAN - Numeracy (Years 3 & 5)

Saturday 25th March - State Election Day

Friday 31st March - Year 6 to 7 EOI Website Closes

Thursday 6th April- Last day Term 1

Friday 7th April - Good Friday

Tuesday 25th April - Anzac Day (Public Holiday)

Wednesday 26th April - Students return for Term 2

Wednesday 26th April - Anzac Day Assembly

Friday 28th April - School Cross Country

Tuesday 2nd May - Parent Forum K to 2 English

Tuesday 9th May - The Rocks Museum Excursion (Year 5)

Wednesday 10th May - The Rocks Museum Excursion (Year 6)

Friday 12th May - Winter PSSA commences
Tuesday 16th May - P&C Meeting

Tuesday 23rd May - Zone Cross Country

Thursday 25th May - School Photo Day

Monday 29th May - Friday 2nd June - Reconciliation Week

We always look forward to seeing our parents and carers at our P&C meetings and Parent Forums, to help you plan ahead please find attached a list of upcoming meetings.

Week 8 - 15th March (hosting 2 Monkeys)

Week 10 - 29th March (hosting 2 Zebras)

Parents and carers are welcome to attend in the school hall.

Week 8 - 14th March (hosting 6 pelicans)

week 10 - 28th March (hosting 5 Rosellas)

Parents and carers are welcome to attend assemblies in the school hall.

Students will depart school by bus each day at 9.15am and return to school at approximately 12.00pm. Parents and carers are welcome to attend.

• T/Ball and Softball - Jardine Park
• Newcombe Ball - Homestead Park, Chipping Norton
• Oz Tag - Woodward Park, Liverpool

If PSSA is postponed, we will advise via Skoolbag and our Facebook page.

Please ensure that your child has the following items for PSSA:

· Hat

· Sunscreen

· School Sport uniform

· Water

· Packed lunch with piece of fruit

Congratulations to:

Hanna- 2 Elephants

Bilal - 2 Leopards

Khaled - 4 Blue Bottles

Sophie - 6 Eagles

Lyden - 4 Killer Whales

We are excited to be introducing our Passion Groups program for 2023!

All students will be involved in the program which is linked to PDHPE, wellbeing and key learning areas. Passion groups will be held every second Monday, commencing Week 8, from 2pm to 3pm.

Students have been placed into one of the groups that they selected as their own “top 5”.

The activity groups are:

* Mathletics * Photography

* Gymnastics * Oz Tag

* Hula Hoop Dance Troup * Ribbon Twirling Troupe

* Drama Club * Stop Motion

* Basketball * Choir

* Science Club * Art

* Cooking * Auslan

* Gardening * Arabic Dancing

* Sewing * Lego Robotics

* Music * Chess & Board Games

* Sculptures * Minecraft Education

* Soccer * Macrame

* Origami * STEM

Students are super excited to learn and develop new skills.

If you have expertise in any of these areas and would like to help our teachers with these groups, please contact Mrs Lloyd by phoning the office.

The department has digitised the Year 6 to Year 7 transition process. In 2023 parents and carers will go online to complete the Expression of Interest (EOI) and Placement not Required (PNR).

EOI and PNR forms will be available on the enrolment page on the Prestons Public School website from 6th March - 31st March 2023.

Enrolment - Prestons Public School (nsw.gov.au)

To celebrate the final year of primary school for our Year 6 students, we are offering an opportunity for you to buy a special Year 6 polo shirt. This can be worn as part of your child’s daily school uniform.

We are asking for orders (and full payment that is non-refundable) over the next 3 weeks in order for us to purchase the shirts as soon as possible.

Please see attached note for all the details.

Purple Day is a global initiative dedicated to raising epilepsy awareness, dispelling myths, and increasing support for people living with epilepsy.

Prestons Public School will be holding a fundraising event for Epilepsy Action Australia on Tuesday 14th March.

Students are encouraged to wear the traditional colour of Purple on the day to show their support and to bring in a gold coin donation.

Students can also get their hair sprayed purple on the day for $1.00.

All proceeds will go to Epilepsy Action Australia.

On Monday 20th March our school will participate in Harmony Day.

Harmony Day is the celebration that recognises our diversity and brings together Australians from all different backgrounds.

All classes will participate in a Harmony Day activity in their classroom.

Students are encouraged to wear the traditional colour of orange on the day to show their support and to bring in a gold coin donation.

All money raised will go to a local charity ‘STARTTS’ that helps people and communities from refugee backgrounds.

*Please note that students MUST wear closed-in shoes. No sandals or thongs.*

We will be welcoming parents and carers to attend our whole school ANZAC Day assembly on Wednesday 26th April from 10.30am to 11.00am.

Students are encouraged to bring flowers for under the flag pole.

What is the purpose of a Voluntary Contribution?

A voluntary contribution is a payment requested by schools to supplement existing funding. The purpose of these voluntary contributions is to support additional resources and to enhance educational programs.

Our school voluntary contribution amount for 2023 is $30 per family.

Voluntary contributions can be made at the office or online at www.prestons-p.schools.nsw.edu.au.

Payments can be made to the office by cash, EFTPOS or by the school’s preferred method of POP (Parent Online Payments). POP payments can be made by visiting the school website, www.prestonsp.school@det.nsw.edu.au and using the Make a Payment tab. Money and permission notes need to be sent to the office first thing in the morning. Please encourage your child to do this as this will establish a sense of responsibility. Payments and permission notes are best sent to the office in a sealed envelope marked with: Your child’s name and class, what the money is for (If making a cash payment please endeavour to send correct amount).

1 Giraffes absolutely love learning. So far in Term 1 we have learnt all about being in the new build and Year 1 classroom routines. We have chosen our special cave spaces where we complete our independent learning to try and achieve our learning goals. We are extremely motivated to become better readers and enjoy reading our decodable texts. Check out some photos of our reading below.

Mathematics is something 1 Giraffes are enormously passionate about and we are becoming expert mathematicians by exploring a variety of ways to identify, describe, create and continue patterns with 2D shapes, numbers and colours. We adore engaging in our number sense routines where we represent numbers 1 - 10 in a variety of ways using our ten frames, number sentences and part-part-whole knowledge.

1 Giraffes are great at making inferences and are super lucky because a giraffe made a special entrance as a clue for one of the quality texts they got to unwrap.

3 Rainbowfish have settled into Term 1 and we have had an amazing start! We were so excited to meet each other and make new friends in our class. In 3 Rainbowfish, we are working hard to structure our writing to create a persuasive text. We have also been enjoying our numbers talks, as we have the opportunity to share our knowledge and understanding with each other.

This term we are learning all about music. The activities have been fun and they are helping us with our understanding of the concepts. We are looking forward to more music lessons this term!

Our Students love coding with Mrs Ferrari in the Library.

More information to follow shortly.

Skool Bag is a mobile app that communicates directly to parent smartphones. It provides access to key school information via one single Communication Centre for both students and parents. You are also able to inform your child’s school of their absence simply by logging and submitting their reason for leave. Simply search for Prestons Public School in the app store for iphone/apple users or the google play store for android users and install the Skool Bag App for free.

Our School community supports the wearing of school uniform to encourage pride in our school. Our school uniforms are sold from Moorebank Uniforms & Embroidery located in Liverpool and Moorebank. They can be contacted on 9601 0812

Orders can also be made online. Simply visit www.moorebankuniformsandembroidery.com.au

Enter the Password PRESPMUE2019 to shop online.