3 February 2022

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Welcome back to all parents, teachers and students. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday and enjoyed some relaxation (even if it was in isolation). We have certainly hit the ground running here with our Year 6 students currently attending the Great Aussie Bush Camp at Tea Gardens. I will be attending the camp today myself and look forward to spending some quality time with our school’s leaders. Thank you to Mrs Blackband, Mr Dylan, Mrs Ward and Steph (Teacher’s Aide) who have attended camp. The campers will return at approximately 3.15pm tomorrow Friday 3 February. This is our most popular camp, and I am sure a great way to kick off the year for Year 6.

Welcome Kindergarten 2022

Welcome to all our Kindergarten students and their families who are busily completing their Best Start interviews this week. Kindergarten students will have their first official day at school next Monday 7 February. Two parents per child are able to accompany Kindergarten students to their classes next Monday only. Emails were sent out this week to communicate staggered drop off times.

Uniform

School uniform including black shoes, white socks and a school hat is compulsory. Please ensure your child comes to school daily with the correct uniform. Coloured runners/ joggers/ sandshoes are only to be worn on the grade sports day which for years 3-6 is a Friday. Plain black shoes (leather) or black runners are to be worn for the rest of the week. Please label all items so they can be returned to students if lost.

Drop off and Pick up for Kindergarten

Please use the gates below for pick up and drop off. Please wear a mask and social distance as much as you can when waiting for your child at the end of the day. Kindergarten will need to be picked up at 2.50pm daily from the gates below.

Office gate - KS & KM (2.50pm)
Main gate – KT & KA (2.50pm)

Drop off and pick up Years 1-6 (8.40am and 3pm)

Main gate - Years 1 & 2
Basketball court gate - Years 3, 4, 5 & 6
Café Owl gate (3.00pm) - for all the siblings in the school that need to be picked up together.

Covid Communication

Please make sure you are completing a RAT test twice a week. All kits should have been picked up from school by now. If your child tests positive they are to remain at home for 7 days and have no symptoms. Siblings also must remain at home and isolate too. Teachers are ready to send online links and work through the Google classroom or See-saw for students who are isolating. Class newsletters were sent out this week communicating how to access the online work. Children who test positive for Covid and are unwell, do not need to complete any work for a week.

Please inform the school (email) if your child has tested positive. A school email will be distributed to families if we have a positive case at the school.

Band starts next week (week 3)

Next week is officially week 3 for us at school even though our students only began this week. We will begin Senior band only next week, with our Junior band to start week 5 which is Tuesday 22 February.

The Senior Band will be split into cohort groups for the first few weeks.

Monday 7 February - 7.30am - Senior Band – Year 4 only to attend rehearsal at the hall

Wednesday 9 February – 7.30am – Senior Band Years 5 & 6 only

New classes - students need time to settle

Please allow some time for students to adjust to the new routines and their new teachers. Classes were made with a lot of consultation with previous teachers, and it is important to let children settle for a few weeks before emailing the school with your concerns.

Meet the teacher nights will happen after this term as the restrictions ease.

Classes 2022

We have made 24 classes this year in order to keep class numbers to a minimum and provide better ratios for teaching in our K-2 classes especially. All classes from Kindergarten to Year 2 have between 20-22 students in them, which provides for more intensive teacher instruction.

We welcome some new staff this year including Miss Charlotte Hepsworth (year 3), Miss Hebe Webster (year 2), Miss Natasha Smyth (Kindergarten) and Mrs Tanya Coleman (stage 2 science). We will also welcome back some old faces from leave including Mrs Jessica Legg (Stage 3 science), Mrs Jordy Fraser (AP release), Mrs Sally Fisk and Mrs Chrissie Hacking (Year 1- job share) Mrs Cadence Abrahams (Kindergarten) and Mrs McManus (year 5), who is currently in Scotland trying to return after her overseas holiday.

Our Executive team will be:

Mrs Tina Lee (Principal), Mrs Sharon Oscroft (Deputy Principal) Mrs Nicole Blackband (Stage 3) Mrs Catherine Nelson (Stage 2), Mrs Carol Speight (Stage 1) and Mrs Melinda Ward (Science, Sport and Learning and Support).

The classes are as follows:

KT- Mrs Agata Tams
KM - Miss Rebekah Mason
KA - Mrs Cadence Abrahams
KS - Miss Natasha Smyth
1P - Miss Caroline Pembroke
1G - Mrs Michelle Gibson
1C - Mrs Melissa Christian
1FH - Mrs Sally Fisk/ Mrs Chrissie Hacking
2S – Mrs Carol Speight / Mrs Lexi Macdonald
2W – Mrs Victoria Warnock
2LS - Mrs Karen Lucey/ Mrs Yasmin Sorenson
2H - Miss Hebe Webster
3N - Mrs Catherine Nelson / Mrs Chrissie Hacking
3J - Mrs Monika Johnston
3H - Miss Charlotte Hepworth
4B - Mrs Aga Banham
4S - Miss Ella Stoddart
4J - Miss Erin Jones
5T- Miss Hannah Taylor
5BC- Mrs Sarah Birrell/ Ms Lisa Cash
5M - Mrs Elaine McManus (Mrs Ellie Radan)
6D - Mr Patrick Dylan
6B - Mrs Nicole Blackband /Mrs Jordy Fraser
6W - Mrs Melinda Ward

All teachers are looking forward to a fun and productive year. It was great to be able to go straight into classes this week.

Librarians

We will have Mrs Alison Webster (K-2) and Mrs Lisa Morrison (3-6) share the library position this year. Mrs Webster will be in on Wednesday, Thursday and Fridays, and Mrs Morrison Monday and Tuesday.

School Learning and Support Officers - SLSOs

Steph Davison, Jayne Crain, Justine Brabant, Mary Garth, Pete Snailham, Holly Caputo

Office team:

School Administration Manager (SAM) - Mrs Pam Davison

School Administration Officers (SAO) - Annabel Marsden, Luise Nealon, Danni Wareham, Petrina Nicklin

Grounds Assistant - Barry Warriner

IT – Greg Wetzler

A full run down of class formation and staffing will be given at next Tuesday’s P & C zoom.

P & C Meeting - Tuesday 8 February 7.00pm (zoom)

Next Tuesday we will have our first P & C meeting for the year. We will be doing it via zoom so please email Karen Murgatroyd (secretary) if you wish to have a link to this meeting. All parents and carers welcome.

manlyvaleprimaryschoolpc@gmail.com

We will hear from our new president Mr Karl Treacher and meet the new P & C executive. The principal’s report will be on classes, staffing, spending priorities and the school plan. All welcome.

Canteen - Covid closure

We may need to close the canteen at short notice if the staff (Robyn, Becky or Angie) test positive for Covid. If this happens Flexischools will close for orders and a push notification will be sent out through the Schoolzine App. Please check the App the night before you have placed your canteen order.

Swimming Carnival – Tuesday 15 February (Covid Guidelines)

We will have our swimming carnival at Boy Charlton pool on Tuesday 15 February. All children from Years 3-6 can participate in this event. Unfortunately, we are unable to have volunteers or spectators at this event due to the Covid restrictions. We will staff this event solely with teachers and support staff.

Just like the Year 6 camp, if you wish to keep your child home that day rather than attend the carnival, we will allow 3-6 students to work from home that day on the units of work provided by the Department of Education. Any child from years 3-6 who attends school that day will have to go to the pool where all the teachers will be, whether they are swimming or not.

Year 2 students who turn 8 this year are able to attend the carnival to swim in an event however this again will be a parent decision if they attend, otherwise they will remain at school that day with their teachers.

Tina Lee – Principal

Australia Day 2022

Manly Vale Public School Acknowledgement of Country - Tina

I would like to acknowledge that we meet on the lands of the Saltwater people. Always was. Always will be Aboriginal land.

I’d like to pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging and extend a warm welcome to any Aboriginal people who are with us today.

This land was the first frontier where our First Nations people were denied indigenous sovereignty, their land seized and their families dispersed, removed, and broken.

We live in the legacy of our history. Changing the date for Australia Day will not change the past. We must do more to improve our knowledge and understanding of the First Nation’s history and culture and recognise that the mistakes we made can never happen again.

As educators this is our role. To teach the ways of the Saltwater people, remember the stories of Uncle Dennis Foley and the other Elders of this land, and ensure that the students we teach, know the history of Indigenous Australia.

We fly the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flag and share the stories of this land, as part of our journey to Reconciliation.

Aboriginal History

1770 - Captain Cook claimed Australia for Britain on a legal term Terra Nullius - the land belonged to no one. Blatantly denying the existence of the Indigenous Australians as human beings. The assertion that Indigenous people were non-human.

The first Australia Day was held on July 30, 1915 to raise funds for the War Effort and it wasn’t until 1935 that all states adopted a common date for Australia day to be held on January 26.

18 January 1788 - The actual arrival of the first fleet - between 750-780 convicts and 550 crew. Having found Botany Bay was not as bountiful in freshwater and fertile soil as Captain James Cook has suggested the ships decided to move further north to Sydney Cove.

January 26 was when Captain Arthur Phillip rowed ashore at Sydney Cove raised the Union Jack and proclaimed British sovereignty over part of the continent.

The naming of Australia Day took almost 150 years and now is held on January 26.

26 January was adopted as a significant date for Aboriginal people marking invasion, and painful dispossession of their land, culture and people. Sometimes called Invasion Day, Day of Mourning, and Survival Day.

Australia is the only country of the Commonwealth that doesn’t have treaty with its Indigenous people. Indigenous people still feel the pain of occupation, dispossession and lack of recognition.

1788 -1930s

Thousands of indigenous people fought the colonisers for their homelands, families and way of life. However, these battles have been omitted from Australia’s war commemoration history.

1780s -1920s

Populations were devastated and the indigenous people were dehumanised by the colonisers in order to justify the horrific acts against them.

1800s

Missions and reserves housed the removal of Aboriginal people from their land and their everyday lives were lived under regimes of surveillance and lack of liberty.

It is time to close the gap of our lack of understanding and commitment to Aboriginal people. We must teach the pride and history of the Indigenous culture and listen with compassion to the First Nation’s people.

Dates for your Diary

Canteen News

Welcome Back

The Canteen is up and running ready to serve you for 2022. We are currently accepting orders via Flexischools only. We are serving recess, lunch and Birthday treats. Please make sure to update your child's class when you log on to order.

For those who are new to Flexischools, we have included some links to get you started.

If you have placed an order and need to cancel it, please call us before 9.15am and we can cancel it for you.

Robyn Lambley & Becky McGowan - Canteen Managers

Community Notices

K-6 Young Investigators before school Science Club at Manly Vale Public School

Term 1 2022 topic: SPACE! Running 7.45 – 8.45 am Tuesday mornings

For more information, contact info@eyeheartscience.com.au or 0413 186 330

Manly Vale Football Club Registration Days

School Information