Prestons Post
Term 3, Week 9
Principal's Message
Welcome to our Week 9 newsletter. Our teachers and students have been working very hard and focusing on having clear learning goals for English and Maths. Mrs Beavis and myself have loved walking through our classrooms with the stage or grade Assistant Principal and talking to our students about their learning. The evidence says that students have higher achievement when teachers explain what they will be learning and are clear about the purpose of tasks. We are proud to see that our students are learning to articulate their individual learning goals and talk about how they can use this skill in other areas.
Playground and grounds updates
We are excited to share that our playground will be having some bright and colourful updates over the school holidays. The wonderful Mrs Margetts has been very busy organising quotes and talking to companies about how to make the drab asphalt area more inviting and colourful for our students. Keep an eye out on facebook for some updates over the holidays.
Uniforms
As the weather becomes warmer, many students are taking their jumpers and jackets off during lunch and recess. Lost items are sent to the office, however, if there are no names on items it is difficult to find the owner. Please ensure that all of your child's items of clothing are clearly labelled with their name.
Student safety
We thank all of our families for working with us during COVID to ensure that our whole school community is safe. Please note that our gates are locked until 8.30am each morning. Children should not be dropped off on the street and left unaccompanied prior to this time. A growing number of students are being dropped at the Box Road gate from 8am, this is not safe as there is no supervision. There is Before and After School Hours Care (Cubby House) available onsite if you require care before 8.30am. Thank you for supporting the school to keep your child safe.
Late Arrivals and Early Leavers
Please note that our school hours are from 9am - 3pm. During COVID we have a staggered dismissal process where students commence being dismissed from 2.45. It is quite a well coordinated process to escort all children to their respective gates and all teachers are involved in this process. Please note that if you need to collect your child early for a medical appointment, it may be difficult for us to contact your child and have them come to the office for an early pickup. Children who arrive late or leave early should only be doing so if they have a medical appointment that is unable to be scheduled outside of normal school hours.
P&C
We had a very successful P&C Zoom meeting last week. Thank you to all who joined us. Sadly, we have a vacant position for Vice President as our current VP is no longer able to continue in the role for personal reasons. We would like to say a huge thank you to Jeda Brown for her ongoing work in our school and for the tireless work that you have always done to support our students. We will be holding an election at our next P&C Zoom meeting which will be held onTuesday 10 November at 6.30pm. A link for this Zoom meeting will be sent out closer to the date.
Have a wonderful week and don't forget to ask your child what they are learning.
Liz Van Der Meulen
Principal
Dates to Remember
17--22/9/2020 - Book Fair
24/9/2020 Teddy Bears Picnic
25/09/2020 Multicultural Day
25/9/2020 - Last day of term
12/10/2020- Students return to school
NBN installation to the School
Book Fair 2020
Thursday 17th September to Tuesday 22nd September
Reading for pleasure unlocks the power of information and imagination and helps children discover who they are. Here’s what you can do to help children develop stronger reading skills and a love for reading:
· Set the example. Let children see you read.
· Have a collection of books in your home. Update this collection routinely to keep up
with changing tastes and reading skills.
· Support our school’s Book Fair. Allow your children to choose their own books
to read.
The Scholastic Book Fair is a reading event that brings the books kids want to read right into our school. It’s a wonderful selection of engaging and affordable books for every reading level.
Book Fair dates / Shopping hours: Shopping hours are for students only as parents are unable to be on school grounds at the moment. To assist with the organistation and to help with COVID safety guidelines, classes will be sent at different time slots on their allocated day as per the table below.
Thursday 17th September K-2 Wish List & Purchases
Friday 18th September 3-6 Wish List & Purchases
Monday 21st September K-2 Purchases
Tuesday 22nd September 3-6 Purchases
1. Student to visit the Book Fair
2. Student to choose items (Items will be held until their next purchase day)
3. Student to bring home order form
4. Parent to approve order and organise payment
5. Order form returned to the office with payment details
6. Preferred payments are Eftpos or Credit Card
(we will accept cash – to keep cash handling to a minimum, please send the exact amount in a sealed envelope)
We look forward to seeing students at our Book Fair! Remember, all purchases benefit our school.
Teddy Bears Picnic
On Thursday 24th September 2020 we would like to invite Kindergarten students to bring in their favourite Teddy Bear to spend the day with us for our Teddy Bears Picnic. We will be enjoying a range of teddy bear related activities throughout the day. It will be great to have all of our favourite teddies to help us celebrate the end of term.
We are looking forward to a great day!
Kindergarten Teachers
Payments
Student Absent Notes
Parents are requested to notify the school of their child's absence on the first day they return to school after their absence.
Notification can be made by sending a signed note to the office, medical certificate, submitting a notification via the Skoolbag App or by telephoning the office.
Absent notification via seesaw will not be accepted.
Kindergarten 2021
We are now accepting enrolments for Kindergarten 2021.
Children who turn 5 by the 31st July 2021 are eligible to enrol for Kindergarten 2021.
Enrolment forms can be collected from the administration office.
Meet our wonderful Year 3 Teachers
Miss Sladek
Q1- What do you love most about Prestons Public School?
A-I love the collaborative nature of the staff, it is a really special place to work.
Q2- Tell us about yourself
A-I love to travel and love to spend time with my Great Dane puppy. I am getting married at the end of the year and am super excited for that!!
Q3- What do you love most about your job?
A-I love seeing my students excited and ready for learning. I love having the opportunity to teach exciting, future focused lessons such as the WeDo 2.0 Lego program.
Q4- What is your favourite book?
A-My favourite book is Julian is a Mermaid. It is a beautiful book about accepting all types of people.
Miss Truong
Q1- What do you love most about Prestons Public School?
A-I love that all students, teachers and the community show Prestons Pride in everything that we do. We are one big family.
Q2- Tell us about yourself
A- enjoy eating, shopping and taking my dogs, Trigger and Pablo, out for a walk to the park
Q3- What do you love most about your job?
A-The best part of my job is building positive relationships with my students and seeing them excel in their learning.
Q4- What is your favourite book?
A-The World's Worst Teachers by David Walliams
Miss McManus
Q1- What do you love most about Prestons Public School?
A-I love the supportive and positive school culture.
Q2- Tell us about yourself
A-I love all animals big and small. I have many pets of my own including 2 parrots, 1 cat and 8 fish.
Q3- What do you love most about your job?
A -I love creating a safe and supportive classroom environment.
Q4 What is your favourite book?
A-Do Not Open This Book by Andy Lee
Classroom chat with K Echidnas
K Echidnas have been very busy learning this term! We have been discovering all about dinosaurs in our writing and exploring a range of fabulous dinosaur related texts. In phonics we have been learning that sounds in words can be made by different letter combinations with a focus on double letters and suffixes. We have also been practising stretching and counting the sounds in words using our favourite learning tool - slinkies!
To celebrate the arrival of Spring the Echidnas created some lovely sunflowers to add a pop of colour to our classroom this season. We have also been enjoying the beautiful Spring weather with some outdoor sport activities. Can’t wait for more fun and learning next term!
Classroom Chat with 4 Stingrays
4 Stingrays have had a busy term of learning. We have each created and updated our personal learning goals for english, reading and maths. We go into each lesson with a growth mindset to achieve our goals and are absolutely nailing it! In our English sessions, we are working on writing a good informative text. So far, we have written about lions, kangaroos and echidnas. In the process, we have learnt a lot of new interesting facts about these animals. Our favourite subject this week has been science. We got to create a new pet enclosure using different materials that were practical and kept our pet safe. You can see us hard at work in the pictures below. We definitely have done some fantastic work and are eager to continue our learning journeys next term.
4 Stingrays and Miss Ahmad
PBL Keep your hands and feet to yourself
Thank you to all the PBL token recipients that demonstrated the PBL focus “Keep your hands and feet to yourself”. Congratulations to the award winners who received a Star Award from their stage draw.
Kindergarten: Elyas
Year 1: Mana
Year 2: Amelia
Year 3: Eva
Year 4 : Amarvobry
Year 5/6 : Maria & Serafina
A Message from the Enviromental Ministers
Environmental Ministers Announcement
Spotlight on Learning
Our Students love talking about their learning
Our Students love talking about their learning
Our Students love talking about their learning
Our Students love talking about their learning
Our Students love talking about their learning
NSW School Updates app
The app will complement the other means of communication available to parents and carers from schools and the Department of Education to ensure families receive timely, accurate information in a crisis.
The app is free and available now for iOS and Android users.
You can opt in for notifications about the operational status of as many NSW public schools as you choose.
Privacy information
The app doesn't store any personal or identifiable information. When using the app, it communicates with the department's servers storing a unique identifier for your device; the schools that you wish to receive updates for; and if you've opted into receive push notifications information to send notifications to that device.