27 September 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the students, staff and parents a safe and happy holiday. School resumes on Monday 15 October as there is no staff development day. The school will be closed to all students and parents during this holiday break with the exception of the holiday care program run by Primaryoshcare (0430369288). This is because there will be extensive construction works during this time and limited space available so only students booked into the holiday program will be allowed on site. Security guards have been employed for this holiday break to patrol the school.

Next term we will be packing up the classrooms in preparation to move into our new school over the December/January school break. School will officially finish on Wednesday 19 December for all students with staff staying on for an extra day to pack. No access to the school will be available after 19 December 2018 until the end of the school holidays on Wednesday 30 January 2019.

Kindergarten 2019

Yesterday we had our second Kindergarten orientation session from 1.45pm-2.30pm. We currently have 80 students enrolled for next year and will grow another class for 2019. If you haven’t yet handed in your enrolment forms please do so to the front office.

Our final orientation sessions are below. Please attend all sessions as important information is given out to you and your child is assessed for school readiness.

Kindergarten orientation morning - Tuesday 23 October - 9.30am-11.00am

Parent information evening (meet the Kindergarten teachers) - Wednesday 24 October 6.30pm- 8.00pm.

Thank you to Mrs Carol Speight who has done a fabulous job organising all of these sessions and to the parent volunteers from the canteen, uniform shop, P & C, the SRE and SEE coordinators who have contributed to the sessions.

Gifted and Talented Programs - Inquisitive Minds & Debating camp

This week Mrs Banham organised some extension programs for our years 3-6 students. Monday was a mathematical problem-solving day with “Inquisitive Minds” working with nominated students from years 3-6. Mrs Banham reported that the day was a great success and all the students enjoyed the extension workshops.

We have also had selected year 4 & 5 students at the Debating Camp on 25 & 26 September. Mrs Banham reported all the work she has been coordinating and doing at our last P & C meeting. Thank you to the P & C for their ongoing financial support of our Learning and Support team and our Gifted and Talented team. This year we have had a lot of children benefit from these programs within the school.

Selective High School Applications 2020

Our year 5 students have the opportunity to apply to a Selective High School in 2020 which caters for high achieving academically gifted students. These schools help gifted and talented students using specialist teaching methods and materials at appropriate levels.

Year 7 enrolments are available in:

• 18 fully selective high schools (Manly Selective is our closest)
• 24 partially selective high schools
• 4 agricultural high schools
• 1 virtual secondary school (Aurora College).

You must apply online by 12 November 2018. You can change your school choices by 26 April 2019. The online link:

A note will come home with your year 5 child outlining the process. Please return the tear off note to indicate whether you will be applying for a selective high school. All students who wish to be considered for a selective high school in 2020 will need to sit an external test next year 14 March 2019, as well as complete internal assessments and testing.

Dancesport Lessons - Term 4

Next term the Dancesport confidence organisation is commencing some after school classes at the Manly Vale Community Centre starting on 16 October at 3.15pm. Feel free to enquire about these classes at support@dancesportconfidence.com. Some brochures will be distributed to interested students for their information.

Australian Reptile Park Incursion - Kindergarten

Today our Kindergarten students were treated with a visit from Ranger Mick and some reptiles including snakes, lizards and crocodilians from the Australian Reptile Park. The children enjoyed seeing reptiles from the park up close and learning about the preservation of Australian ecosystems and the remarkable life of a reptile. It was a fantastic way to finish off a very busy term for Kindergarten.

Stage 1 Excursion to Manly Dam

Last Friday 21 September all of our year 1 & 2 students walked down to Manly Dam to participate in a range of science, history and aboriginal education activities. All students and teachers had a wonderful day in the beautiful local area. Thank you to all the teachers who accompanied their classes on this excursion and to Mrs Lucey who organised the day. It was a great way to end the term.

Skip-a-Thon - Friday 16 November

Next term we will have our final fundraising for the term. Every student will be given a sponsorship form in order to raise funds for our school. The students will then come together as a school and be timed doing a variety of skipping activities. Look out for the sponsorship forms early next term.

P & C Annual General meeting - Tuesday 13 November

Next term we will be electing the following positions on the P & C. The positions that need to be re-elected each year are:

1. President
2. Vice President
3. Secretary
4. Treasurer

Nomination forms are available through the current secretary Karen Murgatroyd. Please feel free to come along to the meeting and be a part of the process. Only financial members are able to vote on the night.

Thank you Canteen

Thank you to our canteen staff Kerrie and Robyn who have participated in the Healthy Canteen Menu Check. The canteen committee have received some feedback regarding their menu and have also visited Wheeler Heights Public School to further investigate some more sustainable practices in the new canteen. Thank you to our coordinators and to all the parents who help to run a 5 day a week canteen. Please ensure that all outstanding debts are settled with the canteen by this Friday 28 September. Reminder notes have been sent home.

Tina Lee

K-2 Assistant Principal Report

Developing independent, resilient students within a safe and supportive learning environment.

Dear Parents and Carers

I would like to congratulate all year 1 & 2 students for their exemplary behaviour at last Friday’s Stage 1 excursion to Manly Dam. All students willingly participated in a range of engaging activities prepared by Stage 1 teachers and their science teacher Mrs Fisk.

Please find below an outline of upcoming Parent Information Forums for term 4:

Please remember to register for any of these sessions at the front office prior to the event. Each session is capped at 30 participants. Thank you!

I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 teams, to wish all our K-2 students and their families a wonderful, relaxing and safe holiday. We look forward to seeing you all again in term 4.

Carol Speight

Waste Free Wednesday

Dates for Your Diary

Maths & Art Buddy Sessions

KS and 6OL have been doing maths and art in their buddy sessions. The 6OL students are fantastic role models for KS. Here are some snap shots of what we have been doing together...

Kate Stacey

Library News

20 Cent Book Sale

Thank you for participating in the 20c book sale. We had a wonderful response from students K-6. We raised over $180 which will be forwarded to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

Glynis Poole
Teacher Librarian

2019 Junior Band

We are excited for our future 2019 Junior Band members to start their one-on-one tutorials next term and band rehearsals next year.

If your Year 2 child received a Junior Band Acceptance Form (issued a few weeks ago), please return the completed form to Miss Stacey by Friday 28 September. One of the parents from our dedicated band committee has kindly offered to put together the band packs over the holidays ready for your child for term 4.

Miss Stacey & Mrs Humphreys
(Band Committee)

GATS Mathematics

More than 50 students across years 3-6 took part in an innovative problem-solving workshop on Monday 24 September. The 'Out of the Box' program motivates students to cooperate, communicate and work through a variety of mathematical challenges. Students demonstrated resilience and good sportsmanship whilst applying their understanding of mathematical concepts. We would like to congratulate Dylan Whitmore and Ian Kim who won both the 'Challenge' and 'Rally' and also Ollie Sherlock and Tom Stevens who won the Stage 2 group. This event showcased the Manly Vale Public School students abilities to join together to problem solve. All students successfully demonstrated creativity while building the tallest structure from wooden blocks. Who would've thought that 4 hours of maths could be so much fun?

Aga Banham

Water Monitoring Day

September 18th is recognised as Water Monitoring Day. While Australian's take access to clean water for granted, many countries in the world don't have regular clean water.

Last week, Jamie and Tom, 2 UNSW PhD students presented to our Stage 2 classes on how water quality is monitored across Sydney. They explained technical terms such as turbidity, conductivity and acidity that determine water quality to our Manly Vale Public School students. Students were delighted to share their scientific knowledge from this term and also our Sydney Museum earlier this term. Our students were engaged with interactiveactivities and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Thank you to Mrs Banham for organising this incursion.

Nicole Blackband

Wellbeing & Welfare Support

Anxiety: Suggestions for Families (KidsMatter)

Children with anxiety difficulties tend to see the world as a scary place. They can be overly sensitive to their feelings and lack confidence in their own ability.

How you can help

Parents and other adults can help by supporting children to be brave. In order to be brave children need to have skills for understanding and managing their feelings. They need to learn about helpful thinking that they can use to encourage themselves to have a go, and they need to gradually build up their confidence by taking on small challenges.

Help to recognise and understand anxiety

A first step in helping children gain some control over anxiety is recognising when it occurs and how it affects them.

Model helpful coping

Being a good model involves showing children how to cope with emotions (not just telling them). Show children with anxiety how you use helpful self-talk in a difficult situation (eg “This looks a bit scary, but I’ll give it a go”).

Discourage avoidance

Sometimes when children say they feel sick, they are describing feeling anxious. It is important that children do not avoid things like school or homework unnecessarily.

Praise having a go

Encourage children with anxiety to attempt new things and praise them for trying. It is very important to emphasise trying rather than success when anxiety is an area of difficulty.

Introduce challenges gradually

Children build strength and resilience by learning to face challenges. It is important to begin with small challenges that children can meet. For example, a child who is frightened of dogs might start by walking past the house when the dog is barking without having to cross the road. This improves confidence for taking on more challenging steps.

Start small

Help the child to choose goals for becoming braver and to take small steps towards achieving them. Celebrate his or her success at each step. Experiencing even small successes helps to reduce anxiety.

Practise coping skills

Practise using coping strategies for challenging situations. Help children talk about problems and support them to come up with possible solutions.

Try not to get angry

If a child simply refuses to do something even after you have encouraged him/her and broken the task into steps, it may simply be overwhelming at that time. Sometimes, you need to back off and praise the child for doing as much as he or she could. Later, try again with smaller steps and encourage your child to have a go, one small step at a time.

Mrs Humphreys
(Welfare Committee Member)

Summer PSSA Sport 2018

PSSA Results

Canteen News

Pie & Popper Day

Thanks for supporting the pie & popper day, it was a big success, we hope to run one again next year!

Term 4 Roster

If you are a current volunteer please check your inbox for the canteen volunteer roster for Term; if you would like to join our lovely team on volunteers, please let us know. A huge thank you to all our lovely volunteers who have helped out this term!

Canteen Volunteers Needed

Volunteers are needed in Term 4 Week 2 on Monday 22 October for the long shift (2 volunteers needed) 9.30am-1.30pm and Tuesday 23 October for short shift 9.00-10.30am.

Outstanding Money

Letters have been sent home to remind parents who have outstanding debts to the canteen, payment by the end of the week would be much appreciated.

Kerry Smallman
Canteen Supervisor

Canteen Volunteers Roster Term 4, 2018

Community Notices

Narrabeen Sports High School Open Day

Brookvale Show