16 November 2017

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Remembrance Day Services - Friday 10 November

Last Friday our year 5 & 6 students attended the Remembrance Day service at Manly Dam. It was a very reverent service and our school leaders Sonny Harper and Spike Hancock laid a wreath at the Cenotaph. Grace Nairne our school vice-captain made a very informative speech on the “Attack of Sydney Harbour” along with a school leader from St Kieran’s and Balgowlah North Public School. Grace certainly made us all very proud of her ability to speak in front of a large crowd and pay acknowledgement and tribute to servicemen and women past and present. I’d like to personally thank all our school leaders for their various contributions on the day.

Back at school students from year 4, Ben Yang, Scout Twidale, Caitlin Fisher, Ben Medway, Xavier Brown and Alyssa Puchner conducted a short Remembrance Day service in front of the flag pole and each class K-4 laid a handmade wreath. Thank you to all students who contributed and attended these services. Both services were truly special.

Disco “Summer Christmas” theme

Last Thursday night it was great to see the array of red, green and gold Christmas colours worn by everyone for our annual Christmas disco. Everyone had a wonderful time dancing with “DJ Andy” including the teachers. Thank you to our year 6 students for their work on the night assisting with supper, dancing and clean up. Thank you also to Mrs O’Grady, Miss Phillips and Mr Guzman for their preparation and organisation for the event. All proceeds will go towards the year 6 gift to the school presented at the Celebration of Learning assembly 6 December.

Maths Challenge Workshops

Congratulations Callum Northcott and Charlie Kanu on their selection and attendance at the Maths Challenge Workshops last week. The 2 day camp was a great way to further extend your problem solving and analytical skills. It was great to have 2 of our year 5 mathematicians attend this camp with other students from surrounding schools. Thank you Miss Phillips for your organisation.

Good Luck Newcombe Ball B team

Congratulations to our Newcombe Ball B team and Ms Kemp who have made the grand final this year and will play at Freshwater Senior Campus at 1.00pm tomorrow. Thank you to all the parents who have been able to help out with transport to and from this event. Grand final day is always so exciting.

SRC - tomorrow 11.20am

We have our final SRC meeting for the year with classes KS, 1D and 5F making their suggestions. Our year 6 leaders have done an amazing job in running these meetings this year and will hand over the SRC to the new leaders on Monday 4 December. Our student leadership for 2018 selection process is about to begin for our year 5 students.

Gregory John

One of our year 6 students Gregory John has been selected for the NSW Soccer team to compete in the Pan Pacific games in Adelaide in December. He wishes to thank the P&C for their donation of $100 in support of his trip, and the school community who have bought raffle tickets at Café Owl on a Friday. We wish Gregory all the best for his trip! Gregory also was selected as flag bearer for the Socceroos game on Wednesday 15 November.

Band Busking

Thank you to all the junior and senior band students who have been entertaining us on Friday mornings at Café Owl. It is lovely to hear our band members perform some of their favourite pieces. All busking donations will go towards the school band program.

ICAS competitions

Now that the results from the ICAS competitions are being released and certificates are being presented on assembly it is timely that I mention that these “competitions” are designed to challenge all students so that there are winners! They are not necessarily based on our current curriculum and the content can be extremely difficult. The results from these competitions do not reflect how your child is necessarily performing in that Key Learning area.

Please use school-based assessments, NAPLAN tests results and the school report at the end of the year to gauge how your child is going in a KLA. We really only use the maths and English competition results to help with the ranking of students for the Opportunity and Selective High classes.

Road Safety

Recent events in the news have prompted me to remind you all of safe driving around schools. We encourage all parents to park away from the direct vicinity of the school and walk if possible. Still we have parents using the car park as a drop off and pick up point which is extremely dangerous when we now have trucks and construction traffic, bike access and children crossing all in around that area. Please allow a little more time for your drop offs and pick -ups and park away from the school when possible.

Bus Behaviour

We have had reports from a neighbour in Koorala Street that students are getting off the bus and walking along fences and not being aware of cars entering and exiting properties. Could you please talk to your children about respectful behaviour when they are coming home on the bus and leaving the bus stop.

School Fees

We are now wrapping up the payments and invoices for all our 2017 programs for this year. We still have families that have not paid all of their fees for the year. The “voluntary contribution” is the only section that can remain outstanding in fee payment as the rest of the school fees actually pay for wages for gym and dance, textbooks, licences including Mathletics etc.

Please pay the remainder of your fees as soon as possible. Although the government provides the basic books and pencils additional programs including dance, gym, excursions etc have to be paid by the school fees.

2018 - changes

We are now finalising staffing and classrooms for 2018. Please let the school know if you won’t be returning to Manly Vale Public School next year. Staffing is based on numbers of students.

We have completed our Kindergarten Orientation and have 80 students enrolled for next year. We will make 4 classes and have grown another class overall, hence the new demountable that has been delivered on the back entrance way. If you know of anyone who is intending to enrol for next year please ask them to make contact with the office.

We have also employed a new Assistant Principal Mrs Nicole Blackband who will replace Mrs Lori Learmont as her retirement is now official. Mrs O’Grady will also be retiring at the end of the year having been at the school since 2005.

Strategic Direction workshops

Over the past 3 weeks I have run some Strategic Direction workshops for interested parents in the school hall. Our previous School Plan 2015-2017 was based around:

1. Active and Informed Learners- developing engaged, innovative, successful learners and leaders that are responsible, creative, productive citizens of the future equipped to face worldly challenges and achieve their full potential.
2. Inspired Leaders of Learning- provide inspirational leaders of learning who model quality teaching through current pedagogies and policies and differentiate to support students’ social, emotional and academic domains.
3. Real World Connections- create a culture focused on digital, sustainable, environmental and educational principles sin order to develop global citizens.

After evaluating the various programs associated and implemented during this 3 year plan parents came up with some areas of focus for the upcoming school plan 2018-2020.

1. Communication - more efficient communication between school, home and community. Including a wider use of school app, grade newsletters, online forms and letters, suggestion box in front office,
2. Stronger connection with community organisations including nursing homes, kindergartens, local police youth club
3. Environmental focus and local support for initiatives including “Clean Up Australia” day, recycling and reusing, and creating programs within the school to support the local environment.
4. Digital citizenship and use was a concern for parents. More workshops and focus on correct use of social media and online platforms for learning. Cyber safety extended to the stage 2 students not just stage 3.
5. Road safety programs made a focus for the beginning of the year. Social skills, sun safe procedures and anti- bullying programs to be delivered at the beginning of each year.
6. Homework- lots of differing views from parents but workshop discussion favoured a differentiated /rubric style of homework as a better use of home time. Children and parents have an element of choice was considered a more positive solution to home work.
7. Introduction of languages- some discussion around learning another language. Parents explored and discussed how much time could be given to the learning of another language in school and what program could possibly dropped in order to accommodate a language being learnt. Opinions were diverse as to what language should be taught and what time could be allocated for language instruction and whether it would be better to leave for an after school activity. After school classes could be considered as an option when we have our new school. Timing for language introduction was a concern.
8. “It takes a whole village to raise a child” idea to be incorporated into the “Caring and Sharing” theme.

School Council have also had a lot of discussion around the focus for the next 3 years and have come up with “Learning Together to create the Future” being about caring and sharing around environment and community. Pillars to build on being – Innovation, Environment, Community and Learning Outcomes.

More discussion will be engaged in at P&C meetings towards the end of the year 14 November (AGM) and 12 December, then early next year. Similar workshops will be held with staff and students over the next few months. Thank you to all parents who made contributions to the workshops or filled in the consultation forms at the office or attended P&C and School Council meetings. It has been a real worthwhile experience and will inform the directions of the school for the next few years.

The current school plan 2015-2017 can be seen on our school website.

Tina Lee – Principal

Assistant Principal’s Report

Warringah Mall Band Performances & Band Buskers

Congratulations to both our senior and junior bands for entertaining the Warringah Mall patrons last Tuesday. Both bands performed to a very high standard and were a joy to listen to. Thank you to the family supporters who attended and thank you to our conductors Ben and Gergely for getting our bands so wonderfully prepared to perform so well in public.

You may have noticed our senior and junior band students busking at Café Owl on Friday mornings this term. We have many talented students at Manly Vale and the band committee wanted to showcase our band members as not only band members but as individual musicians as well. We are very proud of the both bands’ progress and achievements this year and hope you enjoy the lovely music on Fridays. All proceeds collected will be used to support the fabulous work of our band program.

Selective High School 2019 Entry

On Monday the Selective High application website closed. The closing date is being strictly observed so no late applications will be accepted. Parents, of year 5 students, who made applications online will receive a test authority letter from the High Performing Students Unit at the beginning of March 2018. Students will then sit the Selective High Placement test on Thursday 15 March. Please ensure you notified the school that your child is sitting the test.

2018 Student Leadership

Year 5 have started their leadership process to prepare to become year 6 and the leaders of the school in 2018. We would like to acknowledge and thank all of year 6 as the current leaders of our school and for the role models they have been. They have less than five weeks as our 2017 leaders and will spend the rest of their time training the year 5’s and leading the end of year ceremonies.

The year 5 students have listened to talks from the various year 6 leaders about the leadership roles available for next year. Year 5 students have nominated their peers to be one of 16 students who will present leadership speeches to the school and the student primary cohort will vote for the 2018 student leaders. It has been fabulous to see such enthusiasm for leadership from our year 5 students and we look forward to working with such a dedicated and positive group of students in 2018.

Lisa Phillips – Assistant Principal

Dates for Your Diary

Remembrance Day

Hi, my name is Grace Nairne and I am the 2017 school vice-captain for Manly Vale Public School. I have been asked to give a speech on, ‘The attack on Sydney Harbour’

“Read all about it! Read all about It! Japanese raid on Sydney Harbour fails, midget submarines attempt to attack shipping, three believed destroyed!”

Stop think, picture this it was Sunday evening, the 31st May 1942 and many Sydneysiders were resigning themselves to the end of the weekend. It wasn't a particularly pleasant evening — it was rainy, overcast and cold. While many people were either at home or making their way home, there was still plenty of activity in some parts of the city, particularly the parts populated by sailors from the many allied naval vessels docked in Sydney Harbour. There were reportedly 80,000 US servicemen in Australia at the time. But it was an evening like no other…not even the Admiral of Sydney Harbour or the Captain of the heavy cruiser USS Chicago who we rumoured to be enjoying an evening of entertainment together, would expect what was about to happen next! For you see the Japanese had been planning an attack right under their very noses, for two days, the Japanese Imperial Navy had sent an I-21s float-plane to perform a final reconnaissance flight over Sydney Harbour with the mission of mapping the location of the major vessels and of the anti-submarine net. Surprisingly multiple observers spotted the float- plane, but assumed it was a US Navy plane. Therefore the authorities in Sydney didn’t take it as any serious threat, and no special defence measures were taken. At 6:30pm The attack began, despite heavy seas the midget submarine M-27 was the first to enter Sydney Harbour at 8pm, it was detected, but was dismissed due to the heavy civilian traffic, it got entangled in the Australian Government’s anti-submarine net, the semi-completed part, the nets was still underway due to lack of materials, the HMAS Yorroma and Lolita boats weren’t sent to investigate until about 10pm, but after a few attempts to destroy the sub, the Japanese crewman activated a scuttling charge, meaning they deliberately destroyed the vessel, destroying the subs forward section and killing themselves.

The M-24 was second, sneaking past the submarine net following a Manly ferry. HMAS Geelong fired at the midget submarine M24, just before the M24 fired two torpedoes at the USS Chicago. One exploded under an old ferry, HMAS Kuttabul splitting her in half and killing nineteen sleeping sailors and 2 Royal navy men. The second torpedo ran up on to the shore and failed to explode.

The third and final mini submarine M-22, which entered around 11pm, was fired on by the HMAS Yandra (a converted anti-submarine vessel) and was presumed sunk until it made a comeback four hours later and tried to fire its torpedoes. Since the M22 was already partially damaged, it’s attack failed and it was blasted with depth charges by three allied ships, the HMAS Sea Mist, HMAS Steady Hour, HMAS Yarroma. The M22 was sunk in Taloy’s Bay sometime after 3am.

The attack lasted about nine hours overnight between 31st May and 1st of June, from the time the M-27 sub got caught in the net at 8pm to the time, the HMAS Sea-Mist sent the M-22 to a watery grave at about 3am. Some Sydneysiders were spooked by the commotion and considered skipping town but many came to witness the subs get wrenched out of the water.

In true Australian spirit, the four Japanese submariners who were recovered from the destroyed submarines in the harbour were recognized for their bravery, and were accorded a funeral with full naval honours, a gesture much appreciated in later years by the Japanese.

I highly recommend, going to go the North Fort and looking out over the view where the attempted destruction of the harbour took place seventy-five years ago and silently remembering and honouring those who lost their lives those fateful days and also to remember those who continue to defend our way of life today.

Thank you

Eagle Tag Gala Day

On 2 November Manly Vale Public School participated in an Eagle Tag Gala Day at Lionel Watts Reserve under the supervision of Mrs Ward and Ms Cash. We entered four strong teams into the competition and each played several exciting games throughout the day. The competition (organised by NSW NRL) was so well organised and the children enjoyed having "real" referees and timekeepers!

Manly Vale Public School did exceptionally well with 3 out of our 4 teams making semi-finals and grand finals. We didn't quite bring home the trophies on the day but had a fantastic time and really developed our team work skills. These three teams have also made it through to the "Championship League" which will be played at Brookvale in the weeks to come.

The behaviour of the Manly Vale players was as usual, excellent and our players showed wonderful encouragement to their team mates. A very big thank you to our supportive team parents and supporters. Also to the parents that drove our players to and from the venue - thank you as well. Your assistance was very much appreciated on the day.

Lastly - congratulations to Hailey Ridge and Finn Smith who won the lucky footy ball prizes in the raffle draw.

Lisa Cash and Mel Ward

Library News

Congratulations to the 140 students who completed the Premier’s Reading Challenge.

A special mention for the Gold Award recipients, Bede Russell, Don Jackson, William Curzon, Zarifa Ahmed, they have completed four consecutive years of the challenge, a great achievement!

Your certificates will be presented at assembly on Wednesday.

Borrowing for the year has finished

If your child brings home an overdue notice please help them to find the book/s and return them to the library.

Glynis Poole – Teacher Librarian

Scholastic Book Club

Book club orders are due back at school on Friday 1 December 2017. No late orders accepted.

Manly Vale OSHC Centre

M: 0430 369 288 E: mvoshc@primaryoshcare.com.au

Dear Families,

We are excited to announce that we have launched our re-enrolment process for 2018. We are in the process of finalising numbers for 2018 and have accepted all current Kindy bookings. To ensure your information is current, please head to the link below and look through your information including parent guardianship and emergency contacts. We have also sent out a notice to families with children with medical needs, please return your forms as soon as possible.

We are also happy to announce that OSHC will be closed from the 25 December to 8 January. Please keep an eye out for our Vacation Care program due to come out this week.

During the last two weeks, the children have loved having coach Archie back for our Health and Wellbeing program! We have also enjoyed making pancakes for Cooking Club, making self-portraits for Creative Club and working on our outdoor herb garden outside for Sustainability Club.

From the Manly Vale OSHC Team

Transport of NSW School Opal Card 2018

Applications for 2018 school opal card are now open. If your child is starting Kindergarten 2018 and catching the school bus you will need to apply online for an opal card (applications close 31 December 2017). For more information visit the link below:

Canteen Volunteers Roster Term 4, 2017

Community Notices

Lifeline Giant Book Fair 2017

24-26 November, St Augustine’s College, Federal Parade, Brookvale. Friday 4-9pm, Saturday 9am-5pm & Sunday 9am-2pm.

Mobile Blood Service

The Australian Red Cross Mobile Blood Service is visiting Northern Beaches TAFE on Friday 24 November, 9am-2.30pm and Saturday 25 November 9am-2.30pm. To make an appointment call us on 13 14 95 or visit the link below. 1 in 3 Australians will need blood, but only 1 in 30 donates. Donated blood helps cancer patients, people with blood disorders, mothers-to-be and newborn babies, as well as trauma and surgical patients.