21 November 2019

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Congratulations to all of our Year 5 students who stood for School Leader positions this week. The nominated names appear later in this newsletter. The final 8 leaders will be announced at this Friday’s morning assembly with the School Captains and Vice Captains announced at the Celebration of Learning on 5 December.

It is always a time of mixed emotions for our senior students as they bravely stand for leadership with some gaining positions and others suffering the disappointment of not being elected. I wish to congratulate all of these students who went through the process. Other leadership positions for 2020 will be elected towards the end of this term and the beginning of next term. These positions are the class manager and house captain roles. Thank you to Mrs Blackband for your organisation of the elections.

Disco - “Good vs Evil”

Tonight we will have our final disco for the year. Tickets have been on sale all week in the COLA area but you may purchase on the night. The tickets are $12 with proceeds going towards our SRC Sponsorship child Sathi and a Year 6 gift to be presented to the school at the Celebration of Learning assembly. The sessions are K-2 5.30pm-7.00pm; 3-6 7.10pm – 8.40pm. All students must be picked up by their parents from the door or have written permission to go home with someone else.

P & C AGM

Last Tuesday night we had our final P&C meeting for the year. I’d like to personally thank all parents who have attended these meetings throughout the year. These forums are very important as these meetings are very relaxed but an opportunity to discuss issues relating to the school and have input into the decision making. It was fantastic to hear of the opening of Café Owl last week and a big thank you to Justine Northcott and Ian Hills for their work in getting this community service up and running. Additional volunteers are required for this breakfast shift so if you are able help out regularly or as a back-up for Friday breakfast please contact Justine at jneditorial@gmail.com.

Elections were held for the P & C executive for 2020. Congratulations to the following parents who stood for leadership. The following were elected:

President - James Fewtrell
Vice President - Helen Gay
Treasurer - Tony Sherlock
Secretary - Karen Murgatroyd
Class Coordinator - Kristen Te Pania

For 2020 we will be looking at how to increase volunteers in our uniform shop, canteen and Café Owl. We really need to increase the amount of volunteers in all of these areas, otherwise increasing prices or lessening the availability of these services. If you are able to assist in any way please contact either the front office or these services directly.

Uniform Shop - Friday Opening

Our uniform shop will be open Friday mornings until 13 December with an extended opening on Friday 6 December from 9.30-11.00am. This week Wendie will be doing a stocktake of the items in the shop and if you are able to assist this Friday morning from approximately 9.30-11.00am it would be greatly appreciated. Please be aware that the uniform shop will not be open in the school holidays and that you won’t be able to purchase uniforms for next year until Friday 31 January. Thank you Wendie for the many hours you put into the organisation of the shop. It is really appreciated by all of the community.

Manly PSSA

Attached to this newsletter is an acknowledgment letter from our Manly Zone PSSA president. The letter acknowledges all of our PSSA coaches, supportive parents and achievements for 2019. Congratulations to all students who made PSSA teams this year and thank you to our own coaches Miss Stacey, Miss Panetta, Mr Chapman, Mrs Martin, Miss Kemp, Mrs Radan, Mrs Ward, Mr Dylan, Mrs Blackband and Ms Cash. All of our coaches go above and beyond to train and prepare our teams and are passionate about student’s involvement in the sport, many great lessons are learnt on the sporting field and team sports do allow students to learn to cooperate and work together. Thank you to the P & C and the parents for supporting Friday sport.

Principal for the Day - Ms Cameron Watson

Next Friday 29 November Ms Cameron Watson from Year 5 will be the “Principal for the Day.” Ms Watson will present awards at assembly, make speeches, attend the SRC meeting, visit classrooms, meet with the executive team over morning tea and support the junior girls eagle tag team in their grand final. This opportunity was one of the prizes at the Trivia Night. The school looks forward to welcoming a new principal for next week.

Morning tea with Mrs Lucey

Next Tuesday a few of the students from KL will have buffet morning tea provided by Kirsten Te Pania (P & C) with their class teacher Mrs Lucey and Mrs Tams. This morning tea privilege was one of the auction items at the Trivia Night.

Thank You Morning Tea for volunteers - Wednesday 27 November 10.00am

Next Wednesday the staff at Manly Vale Public School would like to invite all our volunteers including reading group helpers, canteen, uniform shop, Café Owl, SRE and SEE and fundraising events volunteers to a morning tea. The staff will provide a delicious morning tea to say thank you for a fantastic year. Invitations will be given out by teachers as well, but please come along if you have volunteered in the school in any capacity this year.

Kindy and Year 6 Buddy Picnic - Friday 22 November

This Friday our Year 6 will take their Kindergarten buddies on a walk and picnic to Manly Dam. The “Buddy” program is such a successful one in the school and it is always sad for the Year 6 students to farewell their Kindergarten buddies. With only a few weeks until they head off to high school this picnic day is a great way to finish their year.

If there is a lot of smoke around the picnic will be moved to the school hall and classrooms.

Final SRE and SEE - Wednesday 27 November 9.00am

Next Wednesday will be the final lessons for our School Religious Education (SRE) with a Christmas service taking place in the school hall. Our School Ethics Education (SEE) will also have their final classes that day. Thank you to all our Ethics and scripture teachers for their dedication to these programs this year. Please join us for morning tea in the school hall afterwards.

Overdue School Fees

We would like to finalise all our accounts for the end of the year. Phone calls will be made to parents this week in pursuit of outstanding school fees. Programs like gym, dance and PSSA are only available if parents pay the costs of buses and expertise. Textbooks have now been used for the whole year. Please make some payment this week regarding school fees if you have money outstanding. Thank you.

Farewell Mr Chapman and Mrs Lucey

Next year Mr David Chapman will be moving to Wagga Wagga to take up a permanent teaching position there. Mrs Karen Lucey will leave us to take a year’s maternity leave. We will miss these teachers next year but wish them all the best.

Farewell Mrs Ann Baleisis

Mrs Ann Baleisis is part of our school administration team. Ann spends many hours assisting in the library and helping out in the office. She has been at the school for 20 years and is always a friendly and happy face around the front office. Ann will be greatly missed by the staff, students and parents at the school. Thankyou Ann for your sense of fun and laughter, the care you have taken in looking after the sick students we have had at the school, covering 1000’s of books for our library, assisting with morning teas for new parents, packing and unpacking the library last year, and for always coming to work with a smile on your face. We will all be very sad to say good bye to Ann at the end of the year, but wish her all the best in her retirement. We hope to see her back for some casual days in the future.

Tina Lee - Principal

Dates for Your Diary

Waste Free Wednesday

School Leaders 2020

Thank you to all the current year 5 students below who have put themselves forward for a leadership position in 2020. All of year 5 will be involved in a Leadership workshop incursion today Thursday 21 November. Year 5 students and teachers have shortlisted the candidates to 8 boys and 8 girls. The final 16 students will write speeches and present these in front of Years 2-6. Parents and family of the candidates are able to assist their child at home with ideas in preparation for writing the speech, but speeches will be written under the supervision of Mrs Lee next Tuesday and then photocopied to go home and allow practice for Wednesday’s presentation. Good luck to all involved.

Celebration of Learning – Thursday 5 December

K-2 awards ceremony 9.15am
3-6 awards ceremony 11.00am

At this year’s Celebration of Learning, in an effort to be environmentally sustainable, we will be awarding A4 Gold certificates instead of trophies for the following awards:

Academic Excellence Literacy, Academic Excellence Numeracy, Consistent Effort, Citizenship and Class Teacher’s awards. Special awards such as sport, dance, drama and music will receive medallions.

Disco – Good versus Evil

Year 6 are hosting the end of year disco tonight Thursday 21 November. Tickets are $12 including drink, chips and a donation to our school’s sponsor child. Year 6 students are selling tickets each morning before school at the top of the grand staircase in the 3-6 COLA. All profits will go towards the year 6 purchase of a farewell present to the school.

Minifest

Year 5 & 6 students are organising their annual MINIFEST for Friday afternoon 6 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.

Stage 3 Geography Cultural Showcase

Parents and friends are invited to come to the Stage 3 Cultural Showcase to be held Friday 29 November from 10.00-11.00am in the year 5 & 6 classrooms. This event is a culmination of the student’s library research and classwork on Asia. Projects will examine the daily life, geographical features and political aspects of a variety of chosen countries. Please join us to celebrate the amazing learning our students have achieved.

Nicole Blackband - Assistant Principal

Year 5 Japan Research - Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes

As part of our Asian Cultural Study, year 5 have been reading the true story about a 12 year old girl, Sadako, who suffered leukaemia as a result of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. She attempted to fold 1000 paper cranes in an attempt to save herself from dying. She was unsuccessful but her classmates completed the task for her. Sadako's story was sad, but it demonstrated amazing strength and solidarity and had a strong message about peace.

One of our students, Milo, visited the Children's Peace Museum in Hiroshima during the last school holidays and he and his Mum, Tracy showed us a presentation on aspects of their visit including the history, origami and the desire for world PEACE.

We have been busy learning about the ancient art of origami and some special mums Tracy (Milo's Mum 5BC) and Lou (Ruby's Mum 5R) came in to give us a demonstration in paper folding and we are folding cranes to send to the Peace Museum in Japan. Feel free to help! Here are some photos! Please send any origami cranes to 5BC. We are hoping to make 1000 and send our cranes to Hiroshima where we will have the Manly Vale Public School name in the Children's Peace Museum Book. Current count is approximately 420.

Lisa Cash

Build a Buddy

This term, some Kindergarten students have been participating in a lunchtime program called ‘Build a Buddy’. This involves students working together to build different objects out of Lego. They have been making cars, trucks, roads, parks, schools and most importantly new friendships.

Miss Hannah Taylor

The GATS Committee in 2019

2019 was a challenging and rewarding year for our students. The GATS Committee worked tirelessly to provide a variety of programs that recognise our students' strengths and allow them to hone their skills and deepen knowledge. Our students gratefully accepted the challenges and they have achieved impressive results. Here are some highlights from 2019:

English

Kirsten Evans 5R NSW Write-On competition - Gold

Two Premiers Debating Challenge Teams coached by Mrs Radan and Mrs Banham

Two Year 4 Debating Trainee Teams

16 students attended the Debating Workshop run by the Arts Unit at our school.

Record participation in the Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking Competition organised by Mrs Banham and a team of teachers.

Isaac Sherlock - Highly Commended at local finals
Phoebe Crowe - Highly Commended at local finals
Kate Fewtrell - Bear Pit Competition
Talia Stedman - Bear Pit Competition

Mathematics

Selected Year 6 students learnt aspects of financial mathematics through the ASX Share Market Game. This program was run by Mrs Banham.

Over 80 students from Stage 2 and 3 participated in the APSMO Maths Olympiad and Maths Games problem solving program. Mrs Banham taught all 3 teams.

Max Mako 5/6W - winner of the MVPS Maths Olympiad team for 2019 finishing amongst top 20% of participants in Australia

Isaac Modra 5R - winner of the MVPS Maths Games Stage 3 team for 2019 finishing amongst top 2% of participants in Australia

Emily Zhang 4K - winner of the MVPS Maths Games Stage 2 for 2019 finishing amongst top 2% of participants in Australia

We would like to invite parents and caregivers of all students that participated in the APSMO competitions this year to attend the Friday morning assembly on 22 November to witness the presentation of their certificates.

Creative Arts

Drama

Drama group performs at the Arts Alive coached by Miss Kemp.

Phoebe Crowe, Morgan Andrews and Will Curzon performed at the State Drama.

Visual Arts

Holly Thompson, Charlotte Fiefia, Olivia Taylor and Diya Malhotra artworks were selected for the Operation Art exhibition.

Charlotte Fiefia, Emma Lambley and Holly Thompson attend the Arts Alive Visual Arts camp.

History

Thomas Bradley competed in the National History Challenge. Mrs Banham worked with Thomas on this project.

Cross-Curriculum

Chess Club run by Miss Sussanna - over 20 students dedicated their lunch breaks to play chess.

Tournament of Minds

MVPS STEM Team 1 achieved the Honours recognition at the Tournament Day. Manly Vale Public School was the only public school recognised with this achievement in the STEM category and it is the first recognition of such a magnitude in the school history. The team coached by Mrs Banham.

MVPS The ARTS Team 2 presented a highly creative and humorous drama presentation inspired by the Wizard of Oz tale. The team coached by Mrs Radan.

Opportunity Class and high school placements

Once again we would like to congratulate Thomas Bradley 4T and Emily Zhang 4K who achieved a placement in the opportunity classes at Balgowlah Heights Public School and Neutral Bay Public School respectively. We also commend the students who were placed on a waitlist for the opportunity class. It is an outstanding achievement for our students and a tribute to their K-4 teachers that nurtured them throughout their schooling.

We would like to congratulate all Year 6 students who attempted scholarships or achieved a place in the academic classes in their respective high schools. We wish you all the best in your future academic endeavours.

The GATS Committee would like to thank all of the parents who helped, supported and attended many of our programs. Your support is invaluable for us and your contribution has made these achievements possible. We are looking forward to grow our strong program further and embrace the next year opportunities for our students.

Once again, please join us on Friday morning 22 November to witness your child being recognised for his or her problem-solving prowess.

Mrs Banham and the GATS Committee

School Banking

The last day for school banking is Wednesday 11 December 2019.

Scholastic Book Club

Orders are due back at school no later than Friday 29 November 2019.

Cafe Owl

A record-breaking return for Cafe Owl on a beautiful spring morning last Friday saw 140 egg & bacon rolls and bucket loads of coffee and fruit juices sold to the school community, raising welcome funds for the P&C.

It was the first time this year Cafe Owl was able to open, and we didn’t anticipate such a busy turn out. If you had a long wait or missed out altogether, please accept our apologies and be assured we’re taking steps to see it doesn’t happen again. The issues encountered Friday are easily sorted.

As the landscaping nears completion, we’re also looking at increasing the available seating, plus the new grass area nearby will soon become available.

A few tips to help us help you:

• Please remember at this stage we’re cash only.
• Come early – the closer to 9.00am it gets, the busier we are. We’re open from 8:00am.
• Student orders close by 8.50am - we can’t send kids off to assembly chewing an egg & bacon roll!
• Special dietary requirements are not easily catered for. Our supplies are sourced from a local bakery and major supermarkets.

Cafe Owl has always been a fabulous place for parents, grandparents and carers to catch up with others, meet their child’s classmates, or grab a coffee before running off to work. Also, in the lead up to Christmas, school band members will be busking outside Cafe Owl.

Finally, Cafe Owl is operated by a handful of dedicated volunteers from the school community on a rotating roster. We’d love a few extra hands – please contact Justine Northcott (Kalinda 3S) jneditorial@gmail.com or 0406 451 098 if you’d like to help out.

Café Owl Coordinator

School Student Transport Scheme 2020 Applications (including Opal Cards)

School Student applications for 2020 open from Friday 11 October 2019. 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 of NSW.

Where a student meets a 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 2019 to ensure student entitlements are updated and their current entitlement/card is not cancelled. If their application is submitted after 31 December 2019, 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 from January 2020.

Transport NSW

Canteen News

URGENT HELP NEEDED IN THE CANTEEN FOR NEXT WEEK

Thank you to all the people who kindly took up the plea for more volunteers needed to help in the canteen this week.

However, if you missed out or couldn't help this week no need to be disappointed we are still in real need for helpers next week as well.

We have also changed the shifts slightly and made the long shift into 2 shifts with 12.00-1.30pm being the top priority and the other shift being 9.00-11.30am.

Help is needed for the following days next week:

Tuesday 26 November 9.00-11.30am and top priority is for 12.00-1.30pm
Wednesday 27 November 9.00-11.30am
Thursday 28 November 2 shifts of 9.00-11.30 am and 12.00-1.30pm

Please go to the following site to sign up or drop by the canteen and let us know.

Do you have any spare plastic take away containers? The canteen would love them if you do.

Kerry, Robyn & Becky – Canteen Coordinators

Canteen Volunteers Roster Term 4, 2019

Community Notices

Kids Christmas Club

Get excited for Kids Christmas Club, Thursday 19 & Friday 20 December 2019, 8.30am-5.00pm at Christ Church Northern Beaches, 3 King Street, Manly Vale. Two fun days for primary school kids to spend together celebrating Christmas. Christmas themed activities, craft and fun with lots of friends! To book a place is at the link below: