15 Frederick Street, Charlestown 2290 Telephone 4943 4063, 4943 4137 Facsimile 4942 2583 E-mail [email protected]website http://www.charlestow-p.schools.nsw.gov.au Dear Parents and Carers, Thank you for all your ongoing support and patience. We are certainly missing connecting with everyone and are looking forward to seeing your lovely children next week. Mother’s Day This Sunday we wish all of our mums, nanas, grandmas and special women in our lives a very happy Mother’s Day. I hope you are really spoilt by your loved ones and have a fantastic day. Next year we hope to have our highly successful Mother’s Day stall operating again. Congratulations to Mrs Thomson and her family on the birth of her new baby, Sylvie Rose. Sylvie will be much loved by her two older sisters Aaliyah and Lani. DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Term 2 11.05.20 Phase 1 8.06.20 Queens Birthday Public Holiday LINES OF COMMUNICATION The preferred mode of communication from the school is via electronic formats. This includes notes and information being sent via email, the Skoolbag app and posted on the school website. It is therefore important that you provide the school with a frequently used email address and where possible have the Skoolbag app downloaded on your mobile device. Please also ensure that you have the Class Dojo app downloaded as this is the preferred mode of communication from most classroom teachers. It is during this time of “Learning From Home” that these methods of communication are vitally important. Charlestown Public School also encourages students to stay connected with their friends and classmates. The longer this period of isolation, the more important it’s going to become for children to feel connected to their peers. While play dates and hang outs with friends after school and on the weekends are not currently possible, we encourage families to provide ways for their children to stay connected even if it means Face timing a classmate during the school day to work on a task together; or a phone call during break time. We are noticing students mentioning that they miss one another, so please consider some safe ways for your children to stay connected. Charlestown Public School Newsletter Term 2 Week 2– Wednesday 6 May 2020 A proud partner of the Whitebridge Community of Schools
Thank you for all your ongoing support and patience. We are certainly missing connecting with everyone and are looking forward to seeing your lovely children next week. Mother’s Day This Sunday we wish all of our mums, nanas, grandmas and special women in our lives a very happy Mother’s Day. I hope you are really spoilt by your loved ones and have a fantastic day. Next year we hope to have our highly successful Mother’s Day stall operating again. Congratulations to Mrs Thomson and her family on the birth of her new baby, Sylvie Rose. Sylvie will be much loved by her two older sisters Aaliyah and Lani.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Term 2 11.05.20 Phase 1 8.06.20 Queens Birthday Public
Holiday LINES OF COMMUNICATION The preferred mode of communication from the school is via electronic formats. This includes notes and information being sent via email, the Skoolbag app and posted on the school website. It is therefore important that you provide the school with a frequently used email address and where possible
have the Skoolbag app downloaded on your mobile device. Please also ensure that you have the Class Dojo app downloaded as this is the preferred mode of communication from most classroom teachers. It is during this time of “Learning From Home” that these methods of communication are vitally important. Charlestown Public School also encourages students to stay connected with their friends and classmates. The longer this period of isolation, the more important it’s going to become for children to feel connected to their peers. While play dates and hang outs with friends after school and on the weekends are not currently possible, we encourage families to provide ways for their children to stay connected even if it means Face timing a classmate during the school day to work on a task together; or a phone call during break time. We are noticing students mentioning that they miss one another, so please consider some safe ways for your children to stay connected.
Charlestown Public School Newsletter Term 2 Week 2– Wednesday 6 May 2020 A proud partner of the Whitebridge Community of Schools
ZOOM! ZOOM! Yesterday we started Zoom sessions with the Yrs 3-6 students and by all accounts they were a huge success. There were a few technical issues which hopefully will be sorted by Friday. On Friday it will be everyone Zooming, with sessions timed throughout the day. The Zoom timetables have been put up on Skoolbag and Facebook and we have tried our best to avoid clashes with siblings and class times. But sometimes this cannot be avoided. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
NAPLAN 2020 – Cancelled Please find below the message sent to schools from the NSW Education Standards Authority, CEO, Paul Martin on 20th March, 2020. Education Council agreed today that NAPLAN 2020 will not proceed to help principals, teachers and school staff focus on student learning during the outbreak of COVID-19. This decision includes cancellation of: • NAPLAN Online practice testing, 23 March – 9 April 2020 • NAPLAN Online tests, 12 May – 22 May 2020 • NAPLAN paper tests, 12 May – 15 May 2020. NESA recognises and thanks principals, teachers and school staff who are critical to ensuring students receive a continuation of education. This cancellation is to provide you with more time to focus on your students and staff.
Mental Health and Physical Wellbeing Now, more than ever, we need to be looking after our own and our children’s mental health and wellbeing. The ABC has released an illustrated guide to BACE self-care. BACE is a simple way to divide our daily activities into four categories: Body care, Achievement, Connecting with others, and Enjoyment: https://www.abc.net.au/life/an-illustrated-guide-to-bace-self-care/12136186 The Office of the Advocate for Children and Young People (ACYP) has launched a new website called ‘Digital Lunchbreak’ with online resources and activities that children can do during their lunchbreak or on weekends: https://www.digitallunchbreak.nsw.gov.au/ You may find the following link helpful for talking to children about COVID-19: https://education.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/main-education/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/learning-from-home/media/documents/wellbeing/talking-to-children.pdf
Scripture Scripture will not be available at school until schools resume normal operations. In response to requests from school communities, SRE approved providers are delivering their authorised curriculum with modifications to allow students to learn from home from the start of Term 2 if parents so desire. The lesson content and the mode of delivery has been reviewed and modified for easy access by students. The approved providers recognise that learning at home will not replicate face-to-face learning at school. These lessons can be assessed at https://www.christiansre.com.au/learningfromhome Please note that these lessons are optional.
Opportunity Class Information The placement process for opportunity class entry in 2021, including the Opportunity Class Placement Test, will be delayed until later in the year. As a result, applications will not open on 28 April 2020 as previously advised.
This delay is in response to the social distancing measures that are currently in place to help slow the spread of COVID-19 throughout the community.
The opportunity class placement will still go ahead in 2020 however, the process for that, including the timeline, will look a little different this year. We intend to ensure
Year 5 students are placed opportunity classes in 2021 with minimal disruption to schools and families.
The department will continue to work closely with NSW Health to ensure people have access to the latest advice on how to keep staff, students and the community safe.
Revised dates for applications, tests and process changes (including any changes to school assessment scores) will be announced as soon as they are confirmed. Web pages will be updated shortly to reflect this message. Please encourage staff, parents and carers to continue to monitor the department's website via https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/selective-high-schools-and-opportunity-classes/year-5 to remain up to date with information relating to opportunity classes. What’s Happening??? At present there is so much media hype and conjecture about schools, what should and shouldn’t be happening. Many of these people having their say are giving opinions about something they know little about as they are not educators themselves. The NSW Department of Education is the largest education system in the southern hemisphere and we are all working very
hard to ensure equity, quality learning and that students remain the focus of our work. I will always bring you information in a clear, concise and timely manner and keep you up to date. All the very best, keep well, keep positive and we will get there. Mrs Jayne Thompson Principal
P & C News Clothing Pool The clothing pool is available for online orders only. Orders can be placed at https://form.jotform.co/73258295131861 and payment can be made via direct deposit into the P&C bank account. Your order can either be delivered to the classroom when your child is at school or it can be picked up from the school office on Tuesdays from 9am to 9.30am only (normal clothing pool hours).
This year we have added gold skivvies and brown tracksuit pants to our stock held by the P&C. We are still just waiting for them to arrive. Once they arrive, the online order form will be updated to include them as an option. We have had trouble sourcing the brown jazz pants for girls this year. We have decent stock levels for most sizes except size 6. We have a couple in size 6 in stock only, we are still trying to source them and will let families know if we are able to get more in stock. Alternatively, we have the girls tights and the new trackpants will be suitable for boys or girls.
