Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to our Week 4 newsletter. Our students are certainly impressing us with their commitment to learning. I have seen students being brave, curious, problem solvers, reflective, collaborative, determined and resilient over the past few weeks. Well done to all of our fabulous learners at Prestons Public School.

Parent partnerships

We love working with all of our families to continually improve the learning and wellbeing of all of our students. This week saw our first P&C/Parent meeting for the year and wow, what a wonderful turn out. We had 18 parents join us in the community room for breakfast. We enjoyed breakfast and spoke about all of the ways that families can work with us at school.

• fundraising
• communicating important events via our P&C facebook page
• 2nd hand uniform stall
• participating in selection panels for staff, OOSH and other
• participating in parent forums (some upcoming ones are homework, bullying, behaviour, learning, learner qualities)
• Volunteering for class help
• Volunteering for sport help
• Volunteering to help with passion projects (every second Monday starting soon)
• Volunteering to help in classrooms
• Volunteering to help in breakfast club
• Volunteering to help in our gardens

We will be holding regular P&C meetings and parent forums and would love for you to join us. The next parent forum will be hosted by Mrs Lloyd in Week 6. A flyer will be coming out shortly.

Seesaw

We value communication and collaboration with our families and know that you do too. We have used Seesaw in the past to encourage communication with families and for our students and teachers to share the great work happening in our classrooms. We paused the use of Seesaw last year to ensure that our systems and communication with families about the storage of data were in line with the department cyber security protocols. We are pleased to announce that we will be able to return to using Seesaw with parent consent. A note is coming home today to inform parents and carers of the online platforms that we use at school to support and improve communication, learning and wellbeing. Only families who return the signed parent consent form will be able to use Seesaw. We are hoping to have Seesaw up and running again once all notes are returned.

Safety before and after school

Again, I want to remind families that supervision starts at 8.30am. Please do not send your child to school before this time as there is no supervision. Students are not to be left unaccompanied at the gates before school.

Road and traffic safety is of utmost importance. Please obey the road rules and keep our students safe. It is sad to see families ignoring the law by;

- parking in the bus zone (even if you are dropping your chid off or just picking the up, this is ILLEGAL and Dangerous). Repeat offenders will be reported to the police as you are putting student safety at risk.

- parking in no parking or no standing zones both in front of the school and across the road from our Kiss and Ride zone. It is very dangerous to park in the no parking zone across from the school and call students across. We do not want any child injured or worse so please help us by obeying the road rules.

We ask that Gate 1 is only used by Kiss and Ride students. This allows the teachers to monitor students and keep them safe and escort them to their car as it pulls up to the Kiss and Ride zone.

We hope you have had a wonderful week, don't forget to ask your child what they are learning.

Liz Van Der Meulen

Principal

Friday 24th February - Summer PSSA commences

Wednesday 1st March - Meet the teacher afternoon

Thursday 2nd March - Year 6 Jersey Day

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

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

Saturday 25th March - State Election Day

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

Thursday 6th April- Last day term 1

Friday 7th April - Good Friday

Tuesday 25th April - Anzac Day

Wednesday 26th April - Students return for Term 2

Wednesday 26th April - Anzac Day Assembly

Week 6 - 1st March (hosting 2 Elephants)

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 6 - 28th February (hosting 6 Eagles)

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.

Summer PSSA will commence Friday 24th February for selected students. Notes have been sent home to those students who were selected into teams. Payments and the permission note are due to the office.

Congratulations to our students:

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.

Liverpool Zone are holding trials for many sports throughout Term 1 and 2. Current sports coming up this week and next include AFL, Basketball, Touch Football, Hockey, U11 Rugby League, U12 Rugby League and Tennis. If your child excels in any of these sports, please have them speak to Mrs Kinniburgh to discuss the process and receive a note if selected. Trials are held outside of school hours and it is the responsibility of parents/carers to take students to and from the venue.

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).

It has been a wonderful start to the 2023 school year with 1 Flamingos. We are very lucky to also have Mrs Cavasinni and the Tigers join us this year and our joint class name is 1 Tigoes.

We absolutely love our new learning space and have settled into our Year 1 daily routine. In English, we have already began working on achieving our learning goals and are beginning to develop our independent reading and writing stamina. We have also been busy engaging in explicit teaching and learning of Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary and Spelling.

In Mathematics, we are developing our number sense by engaging in Number Talks, Choral Counts and Counting Collections. We are learning to become young mathematicians through engaging in all mathematics strands focusing on working mathematically. In Science, we are learning how materials can be changed or combined and learn how to collate data to represent our discoveries.

In Technology, we are learning to explore the components of digital systems. This semester, our RFF teacher Mr Velasco will be teaching History and the unit of work ‘The Past in the Present’. The Flamingos will be discussing aspects of the past that can be observed today and learn how places and sites in our local community can change over time. Our RFF teachers will also be teaching how to explore the elements of drama to convey stories.

Our Library day is Tuesday (every even week – Week 6, 8, and 10). Please remember to pack your library bag so you can borrow a book of choice from Mrs Silva to enjoy at home. We also engage in sport and fitness each Thursday so please ensure you wear your sports shoes.

Mrs Cavasinni and I can’t wait to see all the Tigoes grow with their learning and development this year. Mrs Quinn and the Flamingos

3/4 Seahorses have started the year with a bang! We have enjoyed building connections and creating a happy learning environment over the last few weeks. We particularly like completing learning tasks using technology and working as a team during sport sessions. In English and science, we are exploring the solar system and beyond whilst extending our number knowledge in maths.

During our social and emotional learning times, we have developed an understanding of our brains and the impact our emotions can have on us. We are extremely excited to see what the rest of our term has in hold for us, stand by!

Students in Year 6 engaged in a place value game that required critical thinking and teamwork

Jelly Bean loves visiting our students every Tuesday.

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.