3 September 2020

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Welcome to our three new students this week Mitchell Yimthanom 1GT, Namika Chaudhary 2W and Naison Chaudhary 6D. We hope you have found your first week at Manly Vale to be a warm and friendly place. Class coordinators will be given the details of our new students this week so that they are able to make contact for playdates and school events and activities.

On Your Soap Box Speeches

At the moment all classes are completing class finals for their On Your Soap Box speeches. There will be stage/grade finals conducted from next week, unfortunately our Annual Bear Pit competition at Parliament House has been cancelled this year. Stage finalists will receive a certificate and a photo of their performance later this term.

P & C Meeting – Zoom

Next Tuesday evening there will be a P & C meeting via zoom for all P & C members and guests. The meeting will begin at 7.00pm to be finished by 9.00pm on Tuesday 8 September. Please contact the secretary of the P & C Karen Murgatroyd, if you wish to participate in this meeting. Class coordinators will be emailed the minutes so they can be distributed to all parents of Manly Vale.

Cross Country

Thank you to Mr Dylan and his team of teachers for organising last week’s Cross-Country event. The teachers at Manly Vale have managed to work around all the current COVID restrictions to run both our Athletics carnival events and Cross Country. We will still be able to acknowledge times and places in these carnivals for our students and award record keepers and aged champions at a later date in an assembly. This Friday all of our Cross-Country place getters will receive their ribbons in a short 15-minute assembly. Thank you to our committed teachers for allowing our students this opportunity this year.

Happy Father’s Day - Sunday

The staff at Manly Vale Public School would like to take the opportunity to wish all our fathers a very Happy Father’s Day this Sunday. We are certainly missing the opportunity to meet and greet our fathers at our annual Father’s Day breakfast this year. Enjoy your day on Sunday!

School Camp Refunds

Year 5 & 6 parents should have received a refund for the Great Aussie Bush Camp and cancelled activities this week. It has been unfortunate that we have had to cancel our Stage 3 camp this year but hopefully we will have some easing of restrictions for our Term 4 activities next term.

Department of Education COVID-19 Update

Thank you to all parent and carers who have supported the new guidelines regarding COVID-19 testing. A summary of the main aspects that impact our school are:

• All extra-curricular activities such as dance, art shack, drama, choir and math’s club that occur during the school day are on pause.
• Band rehearsals are on hold until further notice
• Buddies are on pause
• If a student is unwell and displays any flu like symptoms such as a runny nose, sore throat or cough they will be sent home and will need to get a covid test. The child cannot return to school until we have sighted a negative covid result and are symptom free. This can be done by taking a screen shot of the negative covid result which is usually sent as a text message. You will then need to email this screen shot to the school (manlyvale-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au) before your child can return.
• When communicating a child’s absence please provide detail on why they are away. Of course if it was because of any flu like/cold symptoms we will need to sight a negative covid test. We need this to ensure we are following the guidelines.
• Interschool sports have been allowed to continue within our local area. The PSSA conveyors for our local area will be meeting shortly to manage the best way forward with the aim to be resuming summer PSSA. This will be confirmed in the coming weeks.
• Minimised parents and carers on the school grounds. Parents and carers are still unessential visitors and should not be on site. We therefore ask for all parents if coming on site to drop off or collect your child and to leave as soon as you have done so. Please ensure the 1.5m social distancing rule between one another.
• If you need to come into the school office for any reason you will be required to complete an external visitor form.
• Our library remains open for students to use at lunch, however each stage has been assigned a day to ensure no crossing over of stages.
• Kindergarten Orientation, excursions and parents/carers attending the school is on hold. This means that parent meetings will need to occur over the phone with the teacher.

Thank you for your support and understanding as we continue to navigate the challenges of educating our students during this ever evolving pandemic.

Parking

We have been receiving many complaints about illegal parking and unsafe drop off and pick up behaviours. Please do not park across driveways of our neighbours. Please park legally respecting the access for our neighbours. The painted yellow line on the road along the gutter means that you are not allowed to park there. Please do not sacrifice student safety for convenience.

Kindergarten Orientation 2021

All Public Schools in NSW received advice that Kindergarten Orientation and transition school activities remain on hold until further notice. This means our planned program is unable to go ahead.

Our first session scheduled for Monday 21 September at 9.30-11.00am will now run as a live Q & A forum for parents through a zoom link. This session will be tailored to answering your questions about starting school, learning more about our school and any other transition questions you may have.

If you have any questions or concerns please email them to manlyvale-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

We look forward to seeing you virtually on Monday 21 September.

Tina Lee - Principal

Dates for your Diary

Waste Free Wednesday

2020 Cross County Results

Last Friday we held the 2020 School Cross Country Carnival at David Thomas Reserve. The students walked down with their class teachers and sat in year groups close to the finish line ready to cheer on their peers throughout the day. Children in the 8/9 years & 10 years age groups had to run 2 km while students in the 11 & 12 years had 3km to cover.

The 8/9 years kicked off the carnival with many enthusiastic participants who were cheered on passionately by the equally enthusiastic crowd. Our 8 year old year 2 students headed back for school after their races to have lunch back at school while 3-6 stayed down at the oval for lunchtime and finishing the older races. Thank you to our amazing General Assistant Barry who dropped the canteen lunch orders off allowing lunch orders to still be able to ordered on the day.

Congratulations to every student who participated on the day, it was amazing to see so many fit and active students taking part in the events no matter their level of long distance running ability. A huge shout out and thank you to the tireless staff who supervised the track and supported the athletes as they competed in their events.

We aim to hand ribbons out to our top 6 in each race at this Friday morning assembly. Students will be bringing their ribbons home to share with families that day.

Pat Dylan

Kindergarten Animal Incursion

Last Thursday the kindergarten students spent the day dressed up as zoo animals. We had a Zoom video conference with Taronga Zoo where we met a baby possum, some bilby’s, a shingle-back lizard and a green tree frog. The presenters were very engaging and the students were able to interact through some acting activities and asking questions about the different animals. After this we had an animal parade to view each other’s costumes. Classes then rotated around 4 different animal activities. It was a brilliant day! Thanks for organising the Zoom Mrs Holman!

Kindergarten Teachers

Year 5 Sierpinski Tetrahedron Challenge

Year 5 Entry to an Opportunity Class in 2021

Owing to the most recent NSW Health advice received on 14 August, the Opportunity Class Placement Test has been rescheduled to Wednesday 18 November 2020.

Only students whose parents have received a confirmation email from the High Performing Students Team are eligible to sit the test on the new date of 18 November. The application portal will not be re-opened for new applications.

Further details will be announced as soon as they are confirmed on the following website:

Library News

Book Week Celebrations

The theme for Book Week this year is Curious Creatures, Wild Minds. This year our Book Week celebrations have to be slightly modified but there is still lots of fun to be had. Earlier this term all students participated in a wonderful Mini-Writing Festival and students in K-2 have been sharing the Children’s Book Council of Australia shortlisted books during Library lessons – we will find out which books are the winners next term!

Book Character Dress Up Day

We will be holding a Book Character Dress Up Day on Wednesday 21 October (Week 2, Term 4). Please start thinking about your favourite book character and creating your outfit. We love it when students get imaginative and try to create their own book-based character from recycled or borrowed materials.

Curious Creatures, Wild Minds Challenge

Over the next few weeks students will notice a Curious Creatures, Wild Minds display appear in the library. Each letter of the display will represent a different book character. We challenge you to figure them all out! See Mrs Webster or Mrs Morrison in the Library for an entry form.

Ali Webster – Teacher Librarian

Scholastic Book Club

Scholastic brochures have been distributed. Orders are due Friday 11 September 2020.