REMEMBRANCE DAY Our whole school attended a moving Remembrance Day Service at the Urunga Cenotaph last Friday. Our band played some songs as the crowd gathered. Mr Dick Nicholson from the Urunga RSL Sub-Branch spoke, urging us to remember all those that fell as victims of all wars. Our school leaders Lewis and Amy both spoke at the ceremony before laying a wreath at the cenotaph. Mrs Thorn’s choir sang a beautiful song called The Last Anzac. Many of the Urunga townspeople came out of the shops to join the gathering to commemorate this special day. The school band closed the ceremony with the national anthem.

NEWSLETTER NO. 35 TERM 4 WEEK 6 TUESDAY 15th NOVEMBER, 2016

BONVILLE STREET EMAIL: urunga-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au PO BOX 21 WEBSITE: www.urunga-p.schools.nsw.edu.au URUNGA NSW 2455 TEL: 02 6655 6393 FAX: 02 6655 5140

On the traditional lands of the Gumbaynggirr people

IMPORTANT DATES

Wed 16th Nov School Photos - Whole School Photo Thurs 24th Nov Assembly @ 11.20am 3/4P item

Thurs 17th Nov School Assembly @ 11.20am 28th Nov—9th Dec

School Swimming Scheme

Fri 18th Nov 2017 Kinder Orientation 9.30am-10.45am

Mon 28th Nov Garden Club @ 12.20pm

21st-23rd Nov Library Book Fair 28th-30th Nov Library Book Fair

Wed 23rd Nov Book Fair Dress Up—Come as your Favourite Book or Series Character

Thurs 1st Dec Christmas Scripture Performance

WEEKLY SCHOOL RULE

The focus this week is the pink rule “be in the right place at the right time ”

We ask that you reinforce this week’s rule at home with your child.

NEWS FROM OUR PRINCIPAL MR TREVOR MULLIGAN

PARKING AROUND URUNGA PUBLIC SCHOOL I have mentioned the issue of illegal and unsafe parking around our school many times yet the message is ignored. The parking restrictions are in place to ensure the safety of students and all other pedestrians, particularly at those times when students are arriving or leaving the school. Bellingen Shire Council’s Traffic Ranger was here again last week and has had to warn drivers not to stop or park in sign posted “NO STOPPING and “NO PARKING” areas. He has also had to warn drivers about stopping in the bus bay area, on Emergency Services driveways and across the school’s driveway on Orara Street (behind the Basketball COLA). Please take notice of the signs and park your vehicle in a designated parking space. Any of these offences carry a fine of over $300 and 3 demerit points on your licence! Also, a reminder about the school’s pedestrian crossing on Bonville Street. ALL pedestrians must cross between the dotted lines. To walk outside them is considered to be ‘jay walking’ and if noticed will be fined

accordingly. As a driver on this crossing you must stop on the L marking and not move your vehicle until all pedestrians are safely on the footpath. It is different to a normal pedestrian crossing and it is most certainly not a place to stop and drop off or pick up your child. Have a discussion with other people you know and remind them about the crossing and its rules. The safety of our students and all other pedestrians is being put at risk every day at the moment. Please drive with care and consideration. STORM DAMAGE Our school suffered a lightning strike last Tuesday afternoon at around 4:00 pm when a bolt hit the large Norfolk Pine tree near the school library. The tree had a five to six metre split down its trunk and two arborists determined that it needed to be brought down that evening as it could have been dangerous to leave until the next morning due to its unsafe condition. The lightning strike blew out the Phase Two power to the school, shut down the school’s internet access and destroyed the school’s phone system. Origin Energy came the next day to replace the damaged Phase Two fuse, contractor electricians ran a full assessment across the school and the Department of Education’s IT team came and spent many hours working to restore internet access. Telstra restored phone dial tones to the school on Thursday. Both Telstra and NEC agreed that our phone system was severely damaged. It will be replaced as soon as possible and the school apologise for any inconvenience caused as our lines have been diverted to a hand held phone and office mobiles. SUN PROTECTION A very important policy at Urunga Public School is the wearing of a bucket hat when playing outside in the sun. There is a growing trend amongst students, particularly those in Years 5 and 6, to “forget” to bring one, especially on sports afternoons. Students who do forget will be given a warning which will be a note sent home to parents and caregivers notifying them and asking them to sign the note before sending it back. Students who do not have a hat for sport after being warned will be kept at school, supervised by a teacher and will be given appropriate work to do while all other students are taking part in sports activities. Students who have lost or damaged their hat can wear another bucket hat which is not a school hat, but only for the sports afternoon on Thursdays. Caps are not appropriate sun safety hats. School bucket hats are available for purchase from the front office and the school canteen for $10.

SCHOOL PHOTOS A reminder that the whole school photo will be taken tomorrow morning at 9.20am. Please ensure your children are at school on time and are wearing their full school uniform. The Year 6 photo and the Captains and Prefects photos will also be taken tomorrow.

LIVE LIFE WELL - ACTIVE LUNCHTIME GAMES Miss George and Mark Holberton, our school chaplain, have been offering fun physical activities on Thursday lunchtimes relevant to the different stages. Here are some photos from the “Active Lunchtime Games”. These games are all about developing fundamental movement skills, promoting activity and having fun. They have been very popular and definitely enjoyed by the students.

LIBRARY—CHRISTMAS BOOK FAIR The theme for this Book Fair is Australia’s Story Country. So come along and find your story at the Book Fair!! Book Fair will run for two weeks. Monday 21st to Wednesday 23rd November, as well as Monday 28th to Wednesday 30th November. We will be having a Book Fair Dress Up day on Wednesday 23rd. Come dressed as your favourite book or series character! If you have any book vouchers these can be spent at the Fair. Their will also be a guessing competition and colouring competitions with great prizes to be won!! Geri Jensen - Teacher Librarian

SCHOOL BANKING REWARDS This years school banking rewards have been proving to be extremely popular! As a result the stocks of the Bush Fly Fan and Jump and Skip Rope are running low and will shortly become unavailable. There is still plenty of stock of the following items: Outback Pat Bag Tag (2016 item) Wriggly Glow Worm (2016 item) Outer Space Savers Money Box (2015

item) ET DVD (2015 item) The final day you will be able to order rewards this year will be Tuesday 29th November. If you order after this date the rewards will not be sent until 2017.

SWIMMING SCHEME Places in the School Swimming Scheme have now filled up. Swim scheme will run from Monday 28th November to Friday 9th December. Thank you to those families who have paid the full amount. If you have paid a deposit, please make your final payments by this Friday 18th November. Full payment must be made for your child to attend.

NEWS FROM OUR COMMUNITY LIAISON OFFICER JENNY LUXON

KNITTING CLUB Our Knitting Club for this year has come to an end. Many, many thanks to Mrs Chapman and Mrs Williams for helping the children do their knitting and finish some amazing little projects. In the photo we have Kloe with her bear Willow, and Summer with Jeramiah. The girls said they enjoyed knitting because they learnt how to knit harder things using patterns. They also learnt how to cast on and off for different rows. It was also a very social time- getting together and chatting. Any parents or grandparents out there who would like to help with the Knitting Club next year, please let us know. Well done girls!!

Bee-utiful Many thanks to The Honey Place from Urunga who have donated a native beehive to the Kitchen Garden. This latest addition will enhance the students’ learning about how all things co- exist and the importance of sustainable living.

P&C NEWS Our next meeting will be an end of year catch up at 10am on Monday 12th December at the Boardwalk Café. The P&C have made a decision to rename the Literary and Numeracy Awards which we sponsor each year. The Year 1 to Year 6 awards will now be presented as the Dixie and Rachel Erlandsen Memorial Awards in honour of Dixie and Rachel. These awards will be presented to students on Presentation Day. The P&C will be subsidising the new air conditioner in the Teachers Resource Room to the value of $1500 as well as subsidising the purchase of the new laptops for the computer room to the value of $6000. The canteen will receive a new stove/oven to the value of $1200, and the music department have already received a new speaker valued at $300. It is great to see all the fabulous fundraising efforts being put back into the school. Karen Nicol P&C President

WHAT’S DUE School Swimming Scheme final payment

due Friday 18th Nov

Year 6 Baby PhotosYear 6 Baby Photos In preparation for a fantastic and fun filled Year 6 farewell, could all Year 6 students please bring in a baby photo of

themselves.

Please have your name clearly written on the back and hand in to the ladies at the office.