Prestons Post
Term 3, Week 8
Principal's Message
Welcome to our Week 8 newsletter. The year is flying by and it is hard to believe that Term 3 is almost over. We are busy preparing and planning for 2021 which is very exciting.
PBL focus
Our fortnightly PBL focus is Keep your hands to yourself. All classes engage in PBL lessons to explicitly teach this behaviour and provide opportunities for students to learn and discuss the importance of this expectation. It would be great if our families supported us by discussing this at home.
Welcome
We are very excited to welcome Mrs Busuttil to Prestons Public School. Mrs Busuttil is the new classroom teacher of 4 Killer Whales and the Assistant Principal for Year 4. Mrs Busuttil started at Prestons this week and is already making great connections with the children in both her class and beyond.
Attendance
During COVID we need to be extra careful with hygiene. It is important that if your child has cold or flu like symptoms that they do not attend school and that they get tested. Children with cold or flu like symptoms are not able to return to school until they provide a negative test result. This is a directive from the department and NSW Health.
Arriving Late and Leaving Early
Our teachers work very hard to plan quality learning experiences each day. Learning starts straight away at 9 o'clock when the bell goes and continues throughout the day until dismissal time. At Prestons many students are arriving late to school and/or being collected early. These children are regularly missing out on important learning experiences. All children who are well need to be at school on time to ensure that they do not miss out on learning. If you are having trouble getting your child to school in the morning please give us a call so that we can work with you and see how we can help.
Tell Them From Me
We really value feedback from our school community. The Tell Them From Me (TTFM) survey for parents has now been released. Please take the time to complete this survey so that we can find out what we are doing well and what we need to change or do better. When we work together we can truely make a difference for our children.
Bullying
At Prestons we are passionate about making sure that every student feels safe and happy at school. We do not tolerate bullying of any kind. We ask families to work closely with us to support our children by encouraging them to tell a teacher so that we can (and will) follow up. We are finding that many children are engaging in social media and online games that promote violence and unkind actions. Please supervise your child's online behaviour to ensure that they are not being exposed to inappropriate content. Thank you for working with us to ensure that our school is a bully free and safe environment for all.
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
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.
Thursday 17th September 8.45am – 9.00am 11.10 am –11.35am
Friday 18th September 8.45am – 9.00am 11.10 am –11.35am
Monday 21st September 8.45am – 9.00am 11.10 am –11.35am
Tuesday 22nd September 8.45am – 9.00am 11.10 am –11.35am
How to Order
1. Student to visit the Book Fair
2. Student to choose items (Items will be held for 1 day awaiting payment)
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)
* PLEASE NOTE: Items will only be held for 1 day while awaiting payment*
We look forward to seeing students at our Book Fair! Remember, all purchases benefit our school.
Calling All Parents!!!
Mrs Lloyd is wishing to hold focus groups to gather information to assist in planning our future strategic directions. Due to Covid restrictions, group conversations will be held online via Zoom. If you are willing to participate please contact the school via email, phone or facebook by this Friday and Mrs Lloyd will be in contact with you shortly after.
Phone: 9602 7435
Facebook: Prestons Public School DEC Pages
Email: prestons-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au
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 4 Teachers
Miss Tan
Q1- What do you love most about Prestons Public School?
A-The comradery between teachers and our supportive nature.
Q2- Tell us about yourself
A- I am 43 years old and have been teaching for approx 15 years. I have been with my husband for 24 years and I love good food.
Q3- What do you love most about your job?
A-Building relationships with my students and making a difference.
Q4- What is your favourite book?
A- I do not have one as I do not read for leisure.
Miss Ahmad
Q1- What do you love most about Prestons Public School?
A-I love how friendly and supportive the staff, students and community is at Prestons.
Q2- Tell us about yourself
A-This is my first year teaching and I am so glad to be doing it at Prestons. I love spending time with my family and friends. I also love travelling within Australia and all over the world. My favourite sport is basketball which I love playing with my brothers.
Q3- What do you love most about your job?
A-I love watching my students grow as learners and use the skills.
Q4- What is your favourite book?
A-My favourite book is any of the Harry Potter books. I particularly love the 3rd one Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Miss Ellul
Q1- What do you love most about Prestons Public School?
A- The dedication of staff to always go above and beyond for our students.
Q2- Tell us about yourself
A- I am an early career teacher who loves travelling and playing sport. I love spending quality time with my family and husband around laughter and lots of dessert.
Q3- What do you love most about your job?
A -Having the ability to be apart of supporting students growth.
Q4 What is your favourite book?
A- My favourite book is "Dear John" by Nicolas Sparks
Mrs Busuttil our new Assistant Principal for Year 4
Q1-What do you love about Prestons Public School?
A- The friendly, accommodating staff.
Q2- Tell us about yourself
A- I am a highly passionate teacher who takes on new challenges openly. I have been teaching for 10 years. I have three children children.
Q3- What do you love most about your job?
A- inspiring students to take a risk with their learning and creating new opportunities.
Q4 What is your favourite book?
A- I don't read books for leisure.
Classroom Chat with 1/2 Macaws
1/2 Macaws have had such a blast during learning this term! We have been engaging in some interesting investigations as part of our Science & Technology unit, through looking at how we can use plants and animals as effective resources in our world. We planted seeds and have conducted observational investigations over time to record changes in living growth, depending on different environmental circumstances. The students in 1/2 macaws have been working extremely hard to ensure their quality of work is of a high standard when publishing their texts as final copies, using a range of devices. We have recently begun developing a deeper understanding of our own personal learning goals and will continue to celebrate our successes during learning, as we work towards achieving our goals together! We even had 2 new and very special class members join us this week – Choco & Candy!! These are our new stick insect class pets! We all work as a team to take good care of them and ensure that they feel safe and happy, just like we do in our learning space! I am super proud of the safe, respectful learners in 1/2 Macaws!
Classroom chat with 5/6 Blackbirds
It has been such a busy term of learning in 5/6 Blackbirds. We are currently reading a book named The Ickabog by J.K Rowling during novel study which keeps us so engaged that we cannot wait to find out what happens next. During our novel study, we were fortunate enough to recreate the town from the book by visualising through coding in Minecraft. In writing, we have been focusing on achieving our learning goals through writing literary descriptions about the representation of characters in texts. Our highlight of Week 8 has definitely been coding the Ozobots, which are small robots that can be coded to follow a race course perform tricks.
Until next time,
A Message from the Enviromental Ministers
Environmental Ministers Announcement
Spotlight on Learning
Spotlight on Learning
Spotlight on 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.