BILPIN PUBLIC SCHOOL NEWSLETTER Excellence in Learning 2517 Bells Line of Road, BILPIN 2758 Telephone: 4567 1154 Fax: 4567 1388 Email: bilpin-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

www.bilpin-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

At Bilpin Public School we are SAFE, RESPECTFUL, LEARNERS

Term 4 Week 2 Tuesday 23rd October 2018

TERM 4 2017

WEEK 2

Tues 23rd Oct Gymnastics

Wed 24th Oct Hawkesbury Music Festival - Choir

Rehearsal 9am-2pm

Wed 24th Oct Hawkesbury Music Festival - Choir

Performance 7pm

Fri 26th Oct Disability Program Awareness Talk K-6

WEEK 3

Mon 29th Oct 2019 Second Kindergarten Transition

1pm-3pm

Tues 30th Oct Gymnastics

Thurs 1st Nov Interrelate Year 6 Comleroy Road P.S

8:45am - 2:55pm

Fri 2nd Nov Year 6 Polo shirt orders due -

No Late orders will be accepted

Fri 2nd Nov Swim School expression of interest note

due

WEEK 4

Mon 5th Nov Parent Assembly 2.45pm

Tues 6th Nov Gymnastics

Tues 6th Nov Stage 2 Longneck Lagoon Enrichment

Program

Tues 6th Nov P&C Meeting 3.40pm

Fri 9th Nov Jump Rope for Heart

WEEK 5

Mon 12th Nov Applications close for Selective HS

Tues 13th Nov Year 5 Leadership Day

Tues 13th Nov Gymnastics

WEEK 6

Tues 20th Nov 2019 Kindergarten Orientation

9.30am-11.30am

Wed 21st Nov Week of Tastes

Fri 23rd Nov Small Schools Basketball Gala Day

WEEK 7 & 8

Mon 26th Nov -

Fri 7th Dec Swim School

Thurs 13th Dec - Presentation Day

Dates to Remember

Welcome back to Term 4. We have many exciting activities planned between now and the end of the year. We would like to welcome the Hine family to our school. Dymon and Shayne have joined 5/6. We know they will settle in quickly!

Many thanks to the Graham family for taking care of the chickens during the holidays!

Bilpin Flower Show and Spring Fair We would like to thank Carol and the Garden Club Committee for once again supporting our school and providing the students with special ribbons for participating in the show.

Gymnastics Last week the Be Skilled Be Active gymnastics program began. The students had a wonderful time learning how to do a variety of tricks on the parallel bars and the low beam. A big thank you to Elijah and Holly the fabulous instructors.

External Validation Last term a significant amount of time was spent compiling evidence for external validation, the Department’s self-assessment process. External validation provides an opportunity for schools to discuss their judgements about the school’s practice – and the evidence that underpins them – with a panel of peers. Once during a five-year cycle, schools undergo an external validation of the evidence of their school’s assessment of progress. An independent panel comprising of a Principal, School Leadership (PSL) and a peer principal considers the school’s evidence using the standards articulated in the School Excellence Framework. Today the panel meeting took place. Brad Griffith, Principal School Leadership and Melissa Proctor, Principal Bass Hill Public School met with the staff to discuss the school’s submission. We kindly thank them for travelling so far to visit our school and share in the Bilpin experience! I would like to thank the staff for the time and effort they have spent contributing to the report. A copy will be presented to the P & C at our next meeting.

Newsletter Survey We are currently reviewing the newsletter cycle and are requesting your assistance in completing short survey. Each fortnight the newsletter takes a considerable amount of time to compile. We are considering reducing the newsletter to 3 cycles per term, with more frequent electronic notifications. Reducing the number of newsletters that are released each term will mean that more time can be allocated to keeping the website updated more frequently. This will also allow the school to reduce its environmental impact. If you could please complete the attached survey by Tuesday 30th October, we would greatly appreciate your assistance. Hawkesbury Music Festival Performance On Wednesday 24th October, Bilpin Choir will travel to Windsor Function Centre for their final rehearsal. The bus will leave school at

Term 4 Week 2 Tuesday 23rd October 2018

9am and will return by 2pm. The Hawkesbury Music Festival will start at 7pm sharp and doors will open at 6:30pm. It is predicted that the concert will finish at approximately 9pm. The students will take their tickets home this week Choir member's do not require a ticket. Please remember that your ticket is your program for the evening! We would like to wish the students all the best of luck for their performance on the night. The students have put a great deal of time and effort into rehearsing their songs and are sure to put on a fantastic performance for the audience! We would like to thank Ms Wheen for the time and effort she has spent preparing the choir for their performance. The boys and girls sound amazing and we look forward to seeing their performance on Wednesday evening!

Disability Awareness Program On Friday 26th October we have visitors from the Hawkesbury Outreach Community Services joining us to raise awareness of how people with disabilities are just like everyone else and work alongside others in the community achieving great things. We hope the students enjoy the opportunity to listen to their stories and talk to them about their experiences.

Kindergarten Transition On Monday 29th October, the second Transition session will be taking place. Our new Kindies will arrive at 1pm with the program concluding at 3pm. The Kindergarten Orientation will take place on Tuesday 20th November from 9:30 - 11:30am. Parents will have the opportunity to learn information about school routines, curriculum and extra-curricular programs offered at the school. Mrs McCloy will also show a presentation on Literacy and Numeracy. Our Uniform coordinator Tessa McLaughlin, will also be on hand to discuss uniforms. At this time the new Kindies will meet their Year 5 buddies who will look after them in 2019. If you have any questions in the lead up to the Orientation, please contact the school directly.

Interrelate Year 6 will be attending Interrelate sessions this term. The program will take place on Thursday 1st November from 8:45am - 2:55pm Students will need to arrive at 8:35am to ensure lessons can begin promptly at 8:55am. Parents are responsible to transport their child. We kindly thank Comleroy Road Public School for hosting our students for this worthwhile program. Notes were handed to Year 6 students Monday 22nd October.

Explanation of Absences Please remember that when your child is absent from school that a note of explanation is provided on their return to school. Please contact the office if you need information regarding prior absences. School notes will be sent home with students if an explanation is not received within 7 days of an absence occurring. For a few years now, principals have been unable to provide an exemption for holidays during school time or weekends away. Whilst we are aware there may be extenuating circumstances for leave during term time, please take this into consideration when planning holidays. Thank you for your assistance in keeping our records up to date.

Please read the attached Departmental information for parents, regarding absences and table indicating the impact of high absenteeism.

Intention to apply for Yr 7 entry to a Selective HS 2019

Applications for Year 7 placement in 2019 are now open and will close on Monday 12th November 2018.

Please see Mrs Mackie if you have intentions to apply and the necessary information will be sent home.

Jump Rope For Heart Day On Friday 9th November Bilpin School will participate in Jump Rope For Heart Day. The Heart Foundation’s lifesaving research and health projects are funded almost entirely by donations and our efforts on the day will go towards this worthwhile cause. On the Friday, students are asked to wear red and make a gold coin donation. Our group skipping activities will commence at 10 am up near the tennis court area. After our four group skipping activities, there will be 'Jump Offs' for each stage. The Jumps offs cost 50 cents to enter. The first jump off will see who can skip for the longest and the second one will see who can perform the best skipping trick or stunt. Prizes will be awarded to the winning students after the competition. There will also be slices of watermelon and fruit for sale at recess for 50 cents. So.... get skipping everyone!!!

Special Swimming Scheme The School Swimming Scheme run by the Department of Education will be occurring from Monday 26th November till Friday 7th December for students in Year 1 through to Year 6.

We strongly urge you to carefully consider your child’s swimming skills and enrol them in the 2018 School Swimming Scheme. Please remember that this is your decision as a parent, not your child’s.

An expression of interest note is attached to this newsletter and needs to be returned to school by Friday 2nd November.

Enrolments and Departures for 2019 As we near the end of the year we are beginning to make plans for the coming year. If you know of anyone who is wishing to enrol in Kindergarten in 2019 but may not have let the school know yet, could you please encourage them to contact the school as soon as possible as our transition program begins next week. If you know of any one who is looking to enrol students of any other age, enrolments are welcome at any time.

If you know you may be leaving the school at the end of the year, please contact the office as soon as possible.

This important information is needed to formulate class organisation for 2018.

We thank you in anticipation of your assistance.

Term 4 Week 2 Tuesday 23rd October 2018

Happy Birthday We hope the following students had a great birthday in October. They were Josie (7 years old) and Sasha (11 years old).

CLASS NEWS

CLASS K/1/2 - Mrs McCloy

Welcome back to school, I hope you all had a refreshing holiday. We enjoyed meeting Healthy Harold last week and are continuing to work on the following safety themes this term: home and rural safety, road safety, water safety and being sun safe. Our gymnastics program is also underway and K/1/2 have been practicing ‘ice cream scoops’ on the balance beam and strength skills on the bars. Having put in many lunchtimes of practice on the playground it is little surprise that K/1/2 are quite strong! Maths this week is rounding to the nearest ten (Yr 1), rounding to the nearest 100 (Yr 2) and calculating money. Year 2 were given an Aldi catalogue and ‘$100’ to spend on 5 items. They had to round the amounts to the nearest dollar, total, then calculate the change. Year 1 were given a Target catalogue which was already rounded and could buy 2 items and kindergarten rubbed coins with pencils under their page to show which coins they need to buy an item under $5 (to the nearest dollar). In English we have been studying persuasive writing through the texts ‘No More Pears!’ and ‘Click, Clack, Moo’. We will be using a variety of texts this term to help us understand and write persuasively. I will provide a link to Click, Clack, Moo on Class Dojo so they can share the story as it was quite funny. In Science K/1/2 have some new class pets. Our mealworms are growing quickly and have moulted several times already. We are waiting to see what they are going to do in the next stage of their life cycle. Please bring in a baby photo before Thursday November 1st, to show how our student's have changed over time.

CLASS 3/4 - Mrs Mackie Students have returned to school settled and ready to learn. The boys and girls participated with enthusiasm and great manners during Life Education and Gymnastics lessons last week. During gymnastics the class learnt how to use the parallel bars and balance beams. Students will complete 3 speeches this term which will be presented each fortnight. Homework will continue to be distributed on Mondays and due the following Monday. Homework will conclude in Week 8. Please check at home for any home readers that were not returned last term. Students will need their reading folders before they can take readers home. Last week the class had their first lesson with the Department’s new STEM kits. They will spend the next few weeks exploring lego, bots and Dash and Dot. The students will be posting their work on Class Dojo so that you can see what they are learning in class. We hope you enjoy their creative designs!

CLASS 5/6 - Mr Hynds

Welcome back everyone to what is a very busy term. Our spelling and homework activities have commenced this week. Our Reading routine is underway as normal on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 10.45am. As always we would love to have any reading helpers during these times. In Maths we will be covering a wide range of topics over the next fortnight including multiplication, decimals, number patterns, addition, subtraction, division, length, data and chance. We will also be commencing some assessment tasks in preparation for reports at the end of the year. In Literacy we will be completing our information reports and excursion recount writing tasks ready for publishing. Year 5 have received their order forms for the Year 6 shirt. If you have any questions in regards to sizing, there are shirts available in the office to try on. Please return the note by Friday 2nd November as late orders cannot be processed. Year 6 have received a permission note for the Interrelate Program which will be running on Thursday 1st November at Comleroy Road PS. We see this as a very valuable program for students in Year 6 to attend and would encourage parents to send their children along.

Term 4 Week 2 Tuesday 23rd October 2018

P & C NEWS

Canteen News - The canteen is a valuable P & C asset that is the main fundraiser for the school, enabling many expenses for programs to be subsided, thus reducing costs to families. If you can assist with volunteering please Contact Rebecca Tadrosse on 0415 312 995. We would like to thank those parents that have been able to volunteer for this term and a special thank you to Cathy Vecchio-Ruggeri a community member who has enabled us to kepp our canteen open on a Thursday this term. Please think about volunteering in our canteen in 2019 to keep it operational.

TERM 4 CANTEEN ROSTER Canteen will be CLOSED Monday’s in TERM 4 due to there being

no volunteers available.

Thursday 25th Oct - CLOSED Thursday 1st Nov - Cathy Vecchio-Ruggeri Thursday 8th Nov - Amy Hale & Cathy Vecchio-Ruggeri Thursday 15th Nov - Michelle Coe Thursday 22nd Nov - Rachael McKinlay & Cheryl Baird Thursday 29th Nov - Michelle Coe Thursday 6th Dec - Cathy Vecchio-Ruggeri Thursday 13th Dec - Amy Hale Canteen hours are 9.30am to 2.30pm (approximately)

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