25 October 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

This week we had the last of our Kindergarten orientation program culminating in a “Welcome to Manly Vale” drinks night, hosted by the P & C. Special thanks to our P & C for coming along and providing a warm welcome to all our new parents. Our final event for the year will be a picnic at Manly Dam on Wednesday 21 November from 10.00am-12.00pm. This is simply a “bring your own picnic” and a chance for the new students to get to know each other. Classes will be made using the observations conducted by the teachers during the orientation. If you still have reservations in regards to sending your child to school please make contact with Mrs Lee or Mrs Speight for an interview.

Opportunity Class 2019

Congratulations to Tom Stevens and Oliver Sherlock who received offers to Balgowlah Heights Public School Opportunity class for 2019, Mackenzie Jeffs is also on the list for Mona Vale Opportunity Class. The students should be very proud of their achievements and we wish them every success in their new schools next year.

World Teacher’s Day - Friday 26 October

Tomorrow is World Teacher’s Day and I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the teachers at Manly Vale Public School who dedicate their time to making school a happy and exciting place to be. We are so lucky to have such a caring, enthusiastic group of teachers at our school. On behalf of the parents and community and the Department of Education I would like to thank you for all you do in the service of the students at Manly Vale. Thank you.

Leaving next year?

It is time to arrange staffing for next year so if you are intending on leaving the school next year could you please notify the front office through email.

P & C AGM - Tuesday 13 November 7.00pm

All parents are welcome to attend the Annual General Meeting of the P & C but only paid members are able to vote at the meeting. Positions to be elected are:

President - runs meetings, liaises with the principal, attends and represents the P & C at various school events including Open day, Kindergarten orientation and Parent Information nights. The president oversees all the running of the P & C businesses including uniform shop, canteen and band program. The president ensures that constitution is upheld and that all parents are represented at meetings.

Treasurer - maintains the finances of the P & C. The treasurer must present a monthly written report to the P & C meeting and account for the financial management of the canteen, uniform shop and fundraising activities.

Vice President - supports and assists the president with his/her role. The vice president also fills in when the president is absent.

Secretary - Keeps the minutes of the meeting and maintains a record of membership of the P & C. The secretary also distributes the meeting minutes to the members and sends out the agenda items and action items previous to the meetings.

Everyone is welcome to attend the AGM on 13 November, which will be followed by a normal P & C meeting.

Band AGM Thursday 25 October

Tonight the band will be having their Annual General Meeting in the tech room. The meeting will begin at 7.00pm. Please come along to support the band program and meet the hard working committee; John Logan (president), Helena Edgerton (secretary), Jo Poulos (treasurer), Manuela Curzon (senior band liaison), Glenys Beaumont (junior band liaison) and Turia Mako (instrument hire). They have done a great job running the band program for 2018 and supporting our conductors Gergely Malyusz and Ben Dickson. Thank you also to Ms Kate Stacey and Mrs Sarah Humphreys (school band liaisons) for their work in organising many of the activities and performances for the children. All parents are welcome to attend the band meetings to find out about the organisation.

NAPLAN Parent Information Session

Thursday 25 October 3.15-4.15pm in the tech room. All parents are invited to attend the workshop to find out more about the NAPLAN testing. Mrs Lee and Mrs Blackband will be available to answer questions around this testing. Registration for the workshop is at the front office or send an email to the school.

Swim School Year 2

Next week our year 2 students will all attend the annual swim school program at Manly pool. This program allows each child to learn to swim, or improve its stroke and style. This is a Department of Education initative and is offered only to Year 2 students and non-swimmers in year 3.

School Leaders visit to the Basin - Monday 29 October

Next Monday our school leaders accompanied by Mrs Blackband will go on an excursion with the president of the Aboriginal Education Group, Clarence Bruinsma to write a new Acknowledgment of Country that can be used in our school. This will be a wonderful experience for our leaders.

Robotics Stage 3

Years 5 & 6 are participating in the Robotics program over the next few weeks. Please make sure that you have paid for the program prior to the day, as non-payment will mean that your child will not be able to participate.

Skip-a-thon Friday 16 November

This week you will receive the sponsorship from for our skip-a-thon. Please encourage your child to try and get at least one sponsor for the day. It is always a fun day and the children do enjoy skipping to raise funds for the school. All funds will go to the P & C to support spending priorities for 2019, which includes a new sound and AV system for the new school hall.

School Fees

We are trying to finalise all our end of year accounts. We still have some outstanding accounts. Please make sure you pay the final amounts of your school fees, reminders have already been sent out. Follow up phone calls will be done this week.

Apologies to Mrs Radan

Our year 5 teacher Ms Ellie Martin was married in the school holidays. Ellie will now be known as Mrs Radan.

Tina Lee - Principal

K-2 Assistant Principal Report

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

Dear Parents and Carers,

I would like to sincerely thank the parents who attended the Kindergarten Sydney Aquarium excursion last week. It was such a fabulous day! It is always a joy to share the excitement children express when they discover new experiences. All students were well behaved and are an absolute credit to their parents.

We have come to the end of our Kindergarten Orientation sessions for students attending Kindergarten in 2019. I would like to thank the parents and carers who provided morning tea for the first or third sessions. It was a wonderful, warm way to welcome new parents to our school.

All students will receive a sponsorship form for the Skip-a-thon which will take place on Friday 16 November. This is a wonderful P&C initiative to raise valuable funds for resources for our new school. We truly appreciate your anticipated support with this event.

Just a reminder that the Year 2 Learn to Swim Program begins next week and will run throughout weeks 3 & 4.

Carol Speight

Waste Free Wednesday

Dates for Your Diary

Disco Thursday 8 November

Summer PSSA Sport 2018

PSSA Results

iPLAY - Strategies to promote physical activity in children

Ways you can help your child be active.

Be an active role model and have a positive attitude to being active.

Encourage active play in the backyard, going for a fast walk, dancing to music, riding a bike or more vigorous activities like running and swimming.

Make time to be active as a family – walk with your children to the local park and kick a ball, play chase or tag games, or walk the dog.

Plan ahead and schedule a regular time for physical activity with your children.

Help your kids ‘play active’ by buying presents that encourage physical activity such as balls, bats, skipping ropes, trampoline or other active equipment.

Make sure your children have the opportunity to be active after school and on the weekends – either through active play or organised sport. Talk to your child about what activities they would prefer to do. Encourage your child to try a variety of activities so that they can find one or more they enjoy and want to continue with.

Park further away from your destination (such as school, sport or the shops) and walk the rest of the way.

Keep a football, frisbee, jump rope, scooters or bat and ball in your car at all times.

Limit the amount of time your children are allowed to spend watching TV, using the internet and playing consoles.

Plan family holidays or weekends with a view to being active, e.g. somewhere near the beach or where there are good walks to do. Remember to take bikes, tennis rackets, balls and other equipment.

The iPLAY Committee

WELLBEING & WELFARE SUPPORT

Mindfulness for Children

• What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a whole body-mind state of awareness that involves ‘tuning in’ to the present moment, with openness and curiosity, instead of ‘tuning out’ from experience. It is about focusing attention on the present, rather than thinking about the past or worrying about the future - which is often our brain’s default mode.

Mindfulness can be developed through formal sitting meditation practices, or through informal everyday mindfulness activities that use the senses to anchor the attention: such as mindful walking, listening to music, eating or conversation. Mindfulness is a clinically proven tool to support wellbeing and mental health by reducing stress and allowing life to be experienced more fully.

• Why practise being mindful?

The way we interact with our kids has a huge impact on the way they think about themselves and their levels of personal resilience. Ellen Langer and team, a world-renowned mindfulness researcher found that children not only prefer to interact with mindful adults, but actually devalue themselves following interactions with mindless adults (Langer, Cohen & Djikic, 2010).

• The benefits of mindfulness with children

Research shows that mindfulness training increases connectivity in the frontal lobe of the brain, which is linked to improved attention, memory processing and decision making abilities.

Mindfulness training involves tuning in to internal and external experiences with curiosity resulting in increased self-awareness, social awareness, and self-confidence.

Mindfulness training increases children’s ability to self-regulate their emotions, especially difficult emotions such as fear and anger, through breathing and other grounding techniques.

Mindfulness has been shown to improve empathy or the ability to understand what another person is thinking or feeling, which improves children’s awareness of others and helps them to build positive relationships.

• Mindfulness and childhood mental health

Mindfulness training has been to shown to reduce the severity of depression, anxiety and ADHD in children.

Mindfulness builds resilience by giving children skills to help them to cope better with stress, as well as engage more fully with themselves and the world.

• Mindfulness for parents

The best thing parents can do to help their children become more mindful is to commit to some regular mindfulness practises themselves! The more present and mindful you are with your children, the more happy, mindful and resilient they will be. Mindfulness training can assist parents to remain in the present moment and engage more fully when interacting with their children. Research shows that parents and carers who practice being mindful around their children contribute to improving their child’s sense of self-worth and self-esteem.

• Mindful play: Dedicate a window of time each week to mindfully play with your child or children. Turn off all other distractions such as TV, and put your mobile away and on silent. Try to give them your full attention during this time and if your mind wanders off to all the things you should be doing, that’s fine – that’s just what minds do! Use your child as an anchor to come back to every time your mind wanders away.

• Mindful cooking: Cooking together can be a great way to spend quality time. Help your child notice the colours, smell and taste of the ingredients as you add them to the meal, and the touch of the different items as you cook.

• Mindful dinnertime: Create a time for your family to appreciate and savour their food at the start of a meal by spending the first few minutes of dinner in silence, just eating and enjoying the food. It’s a surprisingly nice activity to do with the whole family, and done regularly, can become a lovely ritual.

• Mindful teeth brushing: Getting kids to brush their teeth can be a challenge, so why not make it a challenge, by inviting them to try to do it mindfully with you? Invite them to pay attention to the feel of the brush in their mouth and the sensation and taste of the toothpaste. Ask them three things they noticed that was different about their brushing tonight than from the previous night.

Mrs Humphreys - (Welfare Committee Member)

School Student Transport Scheme 2019 Applications (including Opal Cards)

School Student applications for 2019 open from Monday 15 October 2018. Students progressing to year 3 and year 7 do not need to re-apply if they:

• Are continuing at the same school;
• Are residing at the same address;
• Have not been sent an expiry notification from Transport for NSW.

Where a student meets the new distance eligibility, the system will automatically update their entitlement. If they do not meet the new eligibility, they will receive an expiry notification.

Term Bus Pass holders will receive a notification to re-apply.

If students need to update their information or re-apply, they should go online to

Applications need to be submitted before 31 December 2018 to ensure student entitlements are updated and their current entitlement/card is not cancelled. If their application is submitted after 31 December 2018, the system will automatically cancel a card and a new one will need to be issued.

Students in the Opal network applying for a SSTS or Term Bus Pass entitlement for the first time will receive their card at their nominated postal address. Cards will be mailed out during December 2018 and January 2019.

Transport for NSW

Scholastic Book Club

Brochures have been distributed and are due back at school no later than Friday 2 November 2018.

Canteen Volunteers needed

Volunteers are needed for Wednesday 31 October 9.00-10.30am; Thursday 22 November 9.00am-1.30pm; Thursday 29 November 9.00-11.30am; Tuesday 4 December for both shifts; Friday 7 December 9.00-11.30am; Tuesday 11 December for both shifts.

Canteen Volunteers Roster Term 4, 2018