29 March 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Thank you to all the parents who sent in craft material to decorate our Easter hats ready for the parade today. Each class from K-2 were buddied up with an older class. It was a rewarding experience for everyone, to have the older children assist the younger children in the making of Easter hats for the parade. Thank you to Miss Pembroke and Ms Sussanna for their organisation of such a great peer-support activity.

May I take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy Easter break and a restful long weekend.

PSSA Winter trials

Last Friday we had the first day of our winter PSSA trials. The sports available are:

Girls’ soccer- Mrs Blackband, Ms Martin
Boys’ Soccer- Mrs Cash, Ms Sussanna
Netball- Mrs Humphreys, (parent assistant required for Nettas)
Rugby League- Mr Bennett

Our next winter PSSA trials/ training will be on Friday 6 April and teams will be announced in the last week of school in preparation for an initial training session on Friday 13 April. Please make sure that all students bring the correct protective gear for each sport including shin pads, mouth guards etc. Water bottles and hats are also necessary for sport afternoons. Draws for the winter competition and PSSA fees will come out next term. Fees for PSSA sports must be paid as these fees cover the buses and staffing allocations to travel away to these sports.

Earth Hour

Last Friday Manly Vale Public School observed 1 hour of no power from 11.20am to 12.20pm in support of the “Earth Hour” initiatives. Thank you to our environmental SRC committee for making our students and staff aware of turning off lights and the unnecessary use of power.

Parent teacher interviews

Today will be the last day to book your interview with your child’s class teacher. Please make sure that you go online and book in a time to have a one to one discussion about your child. All of the students have now settled into classes and it is a great time for you and the teacher to discuss goals and aspirations for the year. Please make the time as it is a valuable experience for you and the class teacher.

New Classroom Locations

Our old kindergarten classrooms and teacher resource room have now been removed from the playground. The kindergarten students have settled into their new classrooms and are enjoying being closer to the oval and their buddies.

Please make sure that all Kindergarten students are using the main entrance to exit the school of an afternoon and crossing at the pedestrian crossing. Jay walking across the car park and the corner of Sunshine Street and Gibbs Road is not a safe way to exit the school.

School Council AGM

Last Monday night 26 March we had our Manly Vale Public School School Council AGM. I’d like to thank and acknowledge our out-going president Mrs Miranda Markezic for all her work in running the School Council over the past 2 years. Miranda has been the president for the past 2 years and an active member since 2015. She has been involved in the Project Reference Group and with her background as an engineer been able to give a lot of advice and guidance on behalf of the parent body to this group. Miranda will stay on this year as a voting member.

Thank you also to Mr Richard John for his contribution to School Council over the past 2 years.

Our new committee for 2018 are:

President - Damian Pincus
Secretary - Louise Stedman
P&C representative - Ian Hills
Community Representative - Yorick Sweetnam
Parent representatives - Miranda Markezic, Stephen Hancock
Teacher representatives - Pat Dylan, Sarah Humphreys

This year it is the Council’s aim to encourage more parent involvement in both the School Council and P & C. All parents are welcome to come along and observe meetings and take part in discussions on school policy and procedures. Only elected members can vote of actions put forward during Council meetings. The next meeting will be to discuss projected enrolments for the next few years and traffic considerations for the increasing enrolments. The Council will be inviting the school’s new Director of Education to the meeting. The next meeting will be towards the end of term 2 and will be advertised via the school’s newsletter.

Sick Bay

The school’s sick bay is only able to supply bandaids and ice to children who are sick or injured. Panadol and antiseptic creams etc. cannot be given to children without written consent from the parents. The office staff will always ring a parent if your child is unwell or injured and require further medication or assistance. Please refrain from sending your child to school if they are sick or require extensive medical treatment.

School Fees

Thank you to all the parents who have paid their school fees for the year. The fees go towards the employment of specialist teachers in gym and dance, excursions and incursions and extra materials to support your child’s learning.

Tina Lee - Principal

Parking and Walking around schools

Assistant Principal’s Report K-2

Developing independent, resilient students within a safe learning environment.

Congratulations Stage 1

Dear Parents and Carers,

I would like to congratulate our year 1 & 2 students on exhibiting exemplary behaviour whilst attending their science excursion to the Australian Museum last week. Our students thoroughly enjoyed the day with one student stating “That was the best day of my life!”

I was lucky enough to accompany the year 2 students on Thursday 22 March and witnessed first-hand how well behaved our students were. They were attentive to their teachers and listened carefully to instructors from the museum. The answers they gave to questions during the guided lesson component were quite extraordinary. As parents you should feel extremely proud!

I would like to sincerely thank Mrs Lisa Morrison for organising the excursion and the entire Stage 1 team of teachers and support staff who helped with the organisation and management of students on the day. As a collective team we would like to also thank the parent helpers who assisted on both days. We truly appreciated your time and hope you had as much fun as we did.

We hope you enjoy looking through the photos we have compiled as a snapshot of both days.

Carol Speight – K-2 Assistant Principal

Dates for Your Diary

Australian Museum Excursion

Stage 1 had a wonderful science excursion to the Australian Museum this week. The students had the opportunity to become palaeontologists where they dressed up and dug for fossils. They explored similarities and differences between current animals and dinosaurs. They challenged their minds with putting together a human size Stegosaurus. They also then had the opportunity to look through the museum and explore all the different exhibits. It was a fun, hands on and engaging experience for all.

A huge thank you to the parent helpers who were absolutely fantastic. A special mention to the students as they were so well behaved and represented our school with pride.

Lisa Morrison – Science Stage 1 Teacher

Reading Volunteers needed

Parents, Carers, Grandparents, relatives – we need your help!

We are looking for volunteers to come into school and support children with their reading skills. Volunteers will be working with children across all grades with an intensive one-on-one reading program – all training and resources are provided. If you have a spare morning, we would love to hear from you.

Please note that anyone wishing to help will need to provide the school with a Working with Children Check Declaration Appendix 5 (available at the school office) with your 100 point check (ie: passport, driver’s licence etc).

Please email your availability to the school email address manlyvale-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au with attention to Cadence Abrahams) or complete the form below and hand in at the office.

We look forward to working with you!

The Learning Support Team

Zone Swimming News

Last Wednesday our Zone Swimming Team went to Manly Boy Charlton Swim Centre to compete in the Manly PSSA annual swimming carnival. All swimmers swam their best. Pipi Te Pania, Flynn Whelan and Tobias Twidale were successful in making 50m Freestyle finals.

Thank you to all students, spectators and Mrs Birrell for their wonderful involvement at the Zone Swimming Carnival. Thanks also to our parent supporters Ian Kennedy, Hiraani Kennedy and Hamish Matheson for timekeeping all day.

Melinda Ward

Rubbish Report

On Friday 9 March, Manly Vale participated in Clean Up Australia Day. The following Friday, several helpful year sixes went through all of the rubbish. They sorted it into different rubbish groups and these were the main things they found:

• Plastic bottles
• Chip packets
• Ice block wrappers
• Plastic bags

We have noticed that most of this rubbish has come from children’s recess and lunches, which is not recyclable. Although, there is the odd plastic cup or bottle that could be recycled, most of it is difficult to recycle soft plastics like the ice block wrappers. Regardless, this is all from people who couldn’t be bothered to put their in the bin, so we aren’t sure that more bins or different bins would necessarily be the answer to our rubbish problems.

To help encourage our school and the surrounding environment to be free from litter, Manly Vale will be starting Waste Free Wednesday next term. Waste Free Wednesdays are when children come to school with no plastic or any type of non-reusable packaging in their lunchboxes. This will help our school not have as much litter in our playgrounds so we can have cleaner playgrounds.

We thank you for your support when we begin this great new project starting Term 2.

Environmental Committee

Coles Sports in Schools

It’s Coles Sports in Schools time again! Please bring your vouchers in and place them in the box at the front office or at Coles Manly Vale to earn more sports equipment for Manly Vale!

Canteen News

If you have received a ‘pink slip’ this term because we supplied lunch or recess to your child, can you please send in what you owe as soon as possible. If you have lost the slip but think you may owe some money, please contact us as we have a record of all outstanding monies.

Kerry Smallman – Canteen Senior Supervisor

Canteen Volunteers Roster Term 1, 2018

Community Notices

Northern Beaches Council

Northern Beaches Vacation Care School Holiday Activities Autumn 2018 brochure is available from the school office or by visiting the council’s website northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au