6 December 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Congratulations to our senior boy’s eagle tag team who defeated Harbord Public School in the grand final last Friday. It was a fantastic display of teamwork and both coaches, Mrs Radan and Mrs Ward were extremely proud of the boy’s efforts. Well done!

Celebration of Learning

Today we had our Celebration of Learning assemblies. Mr James Griffin (Member for Manly) and Mrs Julie Kennedy attended the celebrations. Congratulations to all award recipients and thank you to the parents who attended today.

Our school leaders started with the new “Acknowledgement of Country” which they wrote with our local Aboriginal Education Officer.

Thank you to Gergely and Ben (our Band Conductors) and the junior and senior band for entertaining our audiences. Thank you to Mrs Lucey and Ms Mason for the choir performance and congratulations to all our choir members on their professional performances in both assemblies. Our individual items including Georgina Diaz de Rivera, Scout and Tobias Twidale, Kyan McDougall, Eva and Arianna Beninati-Lo and Noah Corner, were particular highlights during the assemblies. Thank you to all our performers.

The assemblies were a wonderful way to show off the talented students we have at Manly Vale Public School. Thank you Mrs Blackband for all her organisation.

SRC Handover

Our school leaders stepped down from their leadership positions to make way for our new school leaders and captains. Thank you to Kyan McDougall, Dakota Birch, Sarah Hills, Carter Sengchanh, Cleo Lovell, Charlie Kanu, Tobias Twidale, and Lucy Scholtens, who have been exceptional school leaders this year.

Last Monday the school leaders ran their last SRC meeting and handed over their committees and responsibilities to our new leadership team. We look forward to 2019 with anticipation.

Our new school leadership team is:

Captains - Joshua Slatter, Mia Lougher
Vice captains - Diya Malhotra, Callum Matheson
Prefects - Toby Marsters, Matilda Graham, Jake Van De Water, Talia Stedman

Farewell Miss Phillips

Along with our year 6 this year Miss Lisa Phillips will also leave us to pursue new and interesting challenges. Lisa has been successful in securing a merit selection position at Macquarie Park as a Literacy and Numeracy Strategy Advisor (LaNSA). Lisa has been appointed to this role for 2 years to visit schools and educate teachers on effective literacy and numeracy strategies. Lisa has taught most grades within the school including Kindergarten, year 1, year 5 and year 6. Lisa is dedicated to students learning and has a passion for professional learning of teachers, which makes her well suited for her new positon. Lisa has relieved as principal in my absence and has been an enthusiastic assistant principal of stage 1 and stage 3.

Although Lisa is very sad to leave the students and staff of Manly Vale Public School this is a fantastic career opportunity for her and we wish her all the best in her new job. She will bring passion and humour to her new role at Macquarie Park. I know she will miss the students, staff and community of Manly Vale Public School and it will be hard for her to say goodbye (especially to the discos).

Today some of us said goodbye to Miss Phillips at the Celebration of Learning assembly but there will be other opportunities at the Year 6 graduation and clap out on the last day. We wish her every success in her new role and hope she comes back to Manly Vale to visit often.

Peer Support Day/Minifest - Friday 7 December

Tomorrow we have a fun filled day for all our students. Our year 6 students will host a Peer Support games morning at David Thomas oval, followed by the annual Minifest. Year 6 has spent the week planning their stalls and activities and all students have the opportunity to join in the minifest and try and win prizes. All money goes towards the year 6 present to the school. It is always a fun afternoon. Please allow your child to wear mufti clothes tomorrow. Some sweets are awarded as prizes. Please send a note to the class teacher if you do not want your child to eat the sweets in the afternoon. This is our nominated “red” day for the term.

Reports - Friday 7 December

Tomorrow your child’s school report will come home with them. The reports are a reflection of how they performed during Semester 2 (July-November). Please be aware that if your child is performing at grade/stage level they will receive a “C” (sound) ranking. A “C” ranking is given to most students as they have reached grade/stage expectations for the outcomes.

Your child will only receive a “B’ or an “A” (if they are performing above grade/stage expectations. Not many students receive an “A’ or a “B.” Please feel free to make an appointment with your child’s class teacher if you have any concerns.

Picnic Days

Next week we have the annual picnic days for our students. Separate permission notes have been sent home to parents. Please sign the permission notes and hand into the class teachers as soon as possible.

Picnic days:

Kindergarten - Graduation in school hall followed by the picnic - Wednesday 12 December
Year 1 & 2 - Movies and Collaroy Park - Monday 10 December
Years 3 & 4 - Sausage sizzle and jumping castle - David Thomas Reserve - Friday 14 December
Years 5 & 6 - Manly Water Works – Friday 14 December

Please ensure that you apply plenty of sun cream and make sure your child has their hat for these picnic days.

KM and 6OL demountable

On Thursday 13 December the fences will go up around the KM and 6OL demountable. These 2 buildings are the first demountables to go. The removal of the demountables will be on Saturday 15 December. KM will move into the library for the remainder of the year, and Year 6 will go into the tech room. Over the school holidays all the demountables on site will be removed and the current permanent buildings will be demolished.

Talent Quest - Thursday 13 December

Our annual school talent quest will take place on Thursday 13 December. All students have auditioned and are waiting to see if they have made it through to the final. Unfortunately there is no available space for parents to watch on this day. Only students and teachers are invited to attend the talent quest.

P & C Meeting - Tuesday 4 December

Last Tuesday we had our final P & C meeting of the year. It has been a great year for the P & C and I wish to formally thank the executive James Fewtrell, Helen Gay, Tony Sherlock, Karen Murgatroyd, and Kristen Te Pania for all their work this year. The skip-a-thon raised a total of $13,000 which meant the P & C have agreed to finance a teacher 2 days a week to run extension programs. $20,000 has also been allocated for teaching resources next year along with some hall sound and technical equipment for our new school hall.

The P & C have been able to finance new fridges for the canteen this year as well which means we go into our new school well resourced. Thank you to all parents who contribute to our fundraising events. It has been an extremely successful year. Big thanks to Wendie McDougall and Helen Gay for their work in the uniform shop this year. Please see dates of the final opening below:

Uniform shop – Last opportunity to buy for 2018

Friday 7 December- 9.00am- 11.00am (located behind the canteen)
Wednesday 12 December - last day for online orders
Friday 14 December – 8.30am-9.30am (final day for the year)

As the uniform shop is moving premises during the holidays there will be no sales done after 14 December. The shop will not be opened until the second week of February 2019. Please make sure you have all the uniform you need as there will be no opportunity to buy until 2019 Term 1 Week 2.

Canteen Closure - Wednesday 19 December

Our school canteen will remain open until the last day of school Wednesday 19 December. The last week though will be limited stock and ice creams. Please feel free to order lunches right up until the last day and ice blocks can be purchased up until the last day. The canteen needs to pack up and ready themselves for a move into the new school so perishables will need to be bought. Thank you to Kerrie and Robyn who have done a fantastic job in running the canteen this year. A big thank you also to Kirsten Watson (Bailey’s mum) for organising the canteen finances this year.

Traffic and Car Park

The school is receiving emails regarding parents illegally parking across driveways and in the car park situated next to the school on Sunshine Street. Please do not park in the staff car park anytime as the one-way access makes it difficult for drivers to see. Please park away from school and take care to watch for small children when parking, reversing and driving past the school. Do not park across people’s driveways or move their bins on pick up days.

Rangers will be patrolling over the next few weeks.

New school

The new school will be completed and handed over to the staff late January ready for day 1 term 1 2019. Please see the attached brochures for more information regarding the new school. Thank you to all the parents who attended the information booth.

On the first day of school next year Wednesday 30 January you will access the school through 2 access points. The front gate and entrance way and from in front of the current canteen. Signage will be up to help with directions but the front of the school will all be fenced off. The front playground area will be inaccessible during term 1 as the landscaping will be done during this time.

Emails will be sent home late January to explain any changes to entry arrangements.

(See link below for an example of how our new school will look.)

Tina Lee - Principal

Waste Free Wednesday

Dates for Your Diary

Senior Eagle Tag Boys B Grand Final

Congratulations to the Senior Eagle Tag boys who played an exceptional game last Friday and won 5-2 against Harbord Public School. The boys played an excellent team game with Miles Middleton (2), JD Scoon, Kyan McDougall and Ben Yang scoring impressive tries. The boys should be commended on their outstanding sportsmanship and effort throughout the season. A special mention to the Year 6 students who helped out at trainings and set up the warm up before the Grand Final. I would also like to extend a thank you to the students, parents and staff who supported the boys on the day.

Congratulations again – I’m sure you’ll wear your new patch with pride.

Mrs Radan

Minifest 2018 – Kindergarten – Year 6

Year 5 & 6 students are organising their annual MINIFEST for Friday afternoon 7 December. Small groups of senior students will be running a variety of fun and exciting activities and stalls. All students have the opportunity to have a go for a token. The children purchase tokens in the morning of the Minifest from Year 6 students in the playground. It costs $2 for 10 tokens. The children may purchase more tickets during the afternoon. Please ensure they have a small carry bag which they can put their prizes in throughout the afternoon.

This will be a mufti-day with no school uniform. As the weather will likely be hot clothing should be sun sensible.

Children are being asked to bring in small prizes to donate to the activities. The prizes can be small trinkets or wrapped lollies. If the children bring in wrapped lollies we request there are no chocolate type lollies owing to traces of nuts which some children are allergic to. They need to begin bringing in the prizes to their class teacher now if possible please. This year we are including the option to bring in a small donation of $5 instead of contributing to the prize pool.

Proceeds from the day go towards the year 6 fundraising efforts which include their gift to the school.

Massive thank you from the Stage 3 staff.

Pat Dylan

Gifted and Talented Students

It has been a successful year filled with many extension programs and incursions. Each stage has been allocated time to engage their GATS students in mathematics or English extension programs.

Kindergarten

During term 4, Kindergarten students were selected and attended weekly sessions to engage them in writing creative texts including a dialogue. The group was very enthusiastic and as a culmination of this program, we prepared the readers theatre based on the ‘Wombat Stew’ book by Marcia Vaughan.

Students enjoyed this project and practised their lines and actions with utmost enthusiasm. They performed in front of the 4 Kindergarten classes and their parents. I would like to congratulate them on this fine show.

Stage 3

While the year is drawing to an end, the stage 3 writing extension group is finishing composing their high school style essays based on the ‘Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief’ book by Rick Riordan. The students were presented with a challenging topic that “relationships are essential to finding a true sense of belonging” and were asked to discuss it with reference to the book.

They engaged deeply with the discussion and uncovered parallel themes of friendships and father-son relationships. They practised note-taking, applied their analytical skills while crafting their paragraphs using examples from the book as the evidence to support their thesis.

I am proud of this group for taking on a challenge such as this. Each student applied their critical thinking and extended their writing skills to a new context. This program is one of many initiatives that prepare our students for the smooth transition into their respective high schools.

Mrs Banham - GATS Coordinator

ES1 Science Term 4

This term Kindergarten have been looking at the unit ‘Staying Alive’ in science and how all living things need shelter. They were very excited and engaged having the opportunity to be creative and make their own safe shelters out of cardboard, straws and tape. It was a pleasure to watch their imaginations and creativity flow.

Jackie Holman - Kindergarten Science Teacher

WELLBEING & WELFARE SUPPORT

Resilience: Supporting Children to Cope with Stress (KidsMatter.edu.au)

Children who cope better with life’s everyday setbacks develop good mental health and wellbeing. Some ways adults can support children’s developing coping skills include:

Optimising children’s positive experiences

• Keep stress within a manageable everyday range.
• Arrange opportunities for ‘ups’ that involve fun, joy, and pleasure which provide a bank of positive emotions to buffer against life’s everyday ‘downs’ that may involve hurt, disappointment, frustration or conflict.

Helping children develop optimism

• Children learn by observing others. Show them how to be optimistic by your own attitude and what you say when things go wrong for you.
• Look for solutions and avoid blaming others or yourself.
• Give children opportunities to succeed.
• Give realistic praise and encouragement.

Helping children to reframe their unhelpful thoughts, feelings and behaviours into helpful ones

• Help children turn setbacks into a drive to try again
• Help children to think positively. For example, "I know that puzzle was hard today, but yesterday I saw you get a hard puzzle out. You kept trying until you found the right place to put the pieces."

Reconnection and repair when things go wrong

When things go wrong between parents and carers and a child, the most important thing to do is to reconnect and repair the relationship. This is not only essential for the child’s mental health and wellbeing but also enables them to learn to deal with relationship problems.

It may not be possible to reconnect right at the time because of strong feelings, but as soon as you can, offer a hug and some words to show that you understand and accept how the child felt.

HAPPY principles

The HAPPY principles also offer some ways to help your child have an optimistic outlook and are outlined in the table below:

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 the link below.

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

Canteen News

We just have one more shift to fill on Tuesday 11 December. If you can help out please contact Robyn in the canteen.

Canteen Volunteers Roster Term 4, 2018

Community Notices

Northern Beaches Council Vacation Care

Please see Council’s website for more information: