BILPIN PUBLIC SCHOOL NEWSLETTER Excellence in Learning 2517 Bells Line of Road, BILPIN 2758 Telephone: 4567 1154 Fax: 4567 1388 Email: bilpin-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

www.bilpin-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

At Bilpin Public School we are SAFE, RESPECTFUL, LEARNERS

Term 4 Week 4 Tuesday 6 November 2018

Dates to Remember

Newsletter Survey Many thanks to the families who returned the newsletter survey. The newsletter will continue in this format until the end of the year. Next year we will be using a new format which will be increased in length and reduced to 3 issues per term. Families will have the option to receive the newsletter electronically or via print. The newsletter is always available to download from the website. More time will be devoted to keeping the website up to date ensuring it is informative and a place for celebration of student learning. Hawkesbury Music Festival Performance On Wednesday 24th October the choir performed at Windsor Function Centre as part of the Hawkesbury Music Festival. Not only did the students sound amazing, the enthusiastic expressions on their faces was priceless! Many comments were made about how wonderful the Bilpin students looked and sounded! Well done boys and girls! We would like to thank Ms Wheen for the time and effort she spent preparing the choir for their performance. They were definitely a credit to her!

Kindergarten Orientation The Kindergarten Orientation will take place on Tuesday 20th November from 9:30 - 11:30am. Parents will have the opportunity to learn information about school routines, curriculum and extra-curricular programs offered at the school. Mrs McCloy will also show a presentation on Literacy and Numeracy. Our uniform coordinator Tessa McLaughlin, will also be on hand to discuss uniforms. At this time the new Kindies will meet their Year 5 buddies who will look after them in 2019. If you have any questions in the lead up to the Orientation, please contact the school directly.

Special Swimming Scheme

The School Swimming Scheme run by the Department of Education will be occurring from Tuesday 27th November till Friday 7th December for students in Kindergarten through to Year 6. We have had a good response from our families and this has allowed us to bring the price down for the Swimming Scheme to $100 per child. A permission note is attached to this week’s newsletter and this will need to be returned to school together with your payment by Friday 23rd November. Payment can be made either by cash or cheque (Bilpin Public School) or online via the school website - “Make a payment”

Parent Assembly Next Monday 12th November, is the second last Parent Assembly for the year. A number of students involved in the music tutorial program this year will be performing at the assembly. Students who are receiving an award will receive a letter before the end of the week. We hope you are able to join us!

Year 5 Leadership Training Day Year 5 Leadership Training Day will be held on Monday 19th November. This day provides Year 5 students with an opportunity to work with Year 10 students from Colo High School to learn about the skills required to be an effective student leader. The Year 5’s will participate in activities from the Colo feeder primary schools and learn about the 5 Building Blocks of Leadership. The permission note for this program, as well as leadership information, went home on Thursday last week.

Small Schools’ Basketball Gala Day On Friday 23rd November, the Small Schools Basketball Gala Day will be held at Hawkesbury Indoor Stadium at Ham St, South Windsor. Students in Years 3 - 6 will be invited to participate. There

WEEK 4

Tues 6th Nov Gymnastics

Tues 6th Nov Stage 2 Longneck Lagoon Enrichment

Program

Fri 9th Nov Jump Rope for Heart

WEEK 5

Mon 12th Nov Parent Assembly 2.45pm

Mon 12th Nov Applications close for Selective HS

Mon 12th Nov P & C Meeting 3.40pm

Tues 13th Nov Gymnastics

WEEK 6

Mon 19th Nov Year 5 Leadership Day

Tues 20th Nov 2019 Kindergarten Orientation

9.30am-11.30am

Wed 21st Nov Week of Tastes

Fri 23rd Nov Small Schools Basketball Gala Day

WEEK 7 & 8

Fri 30th Nov Book Club Orders due

Tues 27th Nov - Fri 7th Dec - Swim School

Mon 3rd Dec P & C Meeting 3.40pm

Term 4 Week 4 Tuesday 6 November 2018

will be teams from Hawkesbury Small Schools competing in Stage 2 and Stage 3 competitions on the day. The aim of this day is for students to participate in a friendly competition where students will be coached by the referees as they play. Transport to this event will be via bus. A permission note will be sent home later this week. Parents are welcome to come and spectate on the day.

Bee Program Last Friday all of our students were involved in activities about the importance of bees in our environment. They learnt about different types of bees and how they make honey. Our students looked at where bees were found in and around our gardens and made paper cylinders to stack in our newly acquired bee hotels which will now be placed in our gardens. Thank you to Caroline Galbraith who organised and ran the activities and Dave Hazeltine for building the bee hotels.

Week of Tastes On Wednesday 21st November students from Years 3 - 6 will travel to Shields’ Orchard for activities in our Week of Tastes. Our students will rotate through activities involving food and taste testing, as well as visit Bill and Julie’s orchard to learn about how it functions. We would like to thank the Shields and McLaughlin families for giving up their time to make this a fun day for our students, and to Darryl Carle for donating his time to bus the students to and from the orchard. A permission note will be coming home early next week. There is no cost involved.

Disability Awareness Program Last week we were fortunate to have a visit from the Hawkesbury Outreach Community Services to talk to our school about how disabled people are still an important part of our community. The children loved listening to Jamie who has spina bifida and all the wonderful things she has been able to achieve in her life. We thank Pat Knott from the Hawkesbury Outreach Community Services for organising the visit.

Book Club Book Club was sent home today. Orders need to be placed online through the Book Club Loop by Friday 30th November. Cash

orders cannot be accepted.

Jump Rope for Heart Day Friday 9th November is our Jump Rope for Heart Day. Students are required to wear red and are encouraged to make a gold coin donaton. Our Jump Rope for Heart Day will commence around 10 am, where students will be involved in a variety of skipping and jumping activities up in the top playground. Afterwards, there will be skipping competitions for each class. Students will need to donate $1 if they want to compete in these. There will be prizes for the children who can skip the longest and for those who can perform the best tricks. Students who participate in the skipping competitions will also receive an iceblock. All proceeds on the day will go to The Heart Foundation. Watermelon will also be for sale for 50c at recess.

Happy Birthday We hope the following students have a great birthday this month. Lola (8 years old), Annika (9 years old), Cleo (8 years old), Charlie (9 years old), Brandon (9 years old).

CLASS NEWS

CLASS K/1/2 - Mrs McCloy

K/1/2 had an amazing day learning about pollinators and bees on Thursday. We wrote our own bee dances then performed those to 8 drum beats. We also went hunting for pollinators and were surprised by the variety we found. Thank you so much Carolyn for visiting us and organising such a wonderful bee program.

Year 2 have been working hard at subtracting 2 digit numbers. We have learnt a couple of different strategies and now will do short sharp frequent practice each morning to practice this tricky skill!

In PD/H/PE this week we are covering road safety. We had a game of celebrity heads where we had to guess which road safety feature you were. We are now working through the Safety Town resource https://www.safetytown.com.au/ which you can also view at home if you would like to discuss road safety further with your child.

CLASS 3/4 - Mrs Mackie

The students have been working with the Department’s new STEM kits since the beginning of the term. We hope you have enjoyed the uploads to portfolios in Class Dojo. More will be posted over the next few weeks. If you have not signed up to Dojo and would like your password, please let me know.

This week the class was given a speech as part of their homework. Students are asked to research a famous Australian. This can be any Australian; a sporting icon, an inventor, an artist, an author, an actor/actress, a politician, an explorer. The speech will be due on Monday 12th November.

Over the next few weeks the students will be undertaking a variety of end of year assessments in preparation for the end of year reports. Assessments are used to provide evidence of the consolidation of a

Term 4 Week 4 Tuesday 6 November 2018

child’s knowledge of concepts learnt this past semester.

Next Monday is Parent Assembly. Students receiving awards at this assembly will receive a note before the end of this week.

CLASS 5/6 - Mr Hynds

Our three week reading rotation will continue and students commence a new reader and activities next week. I welcome any parents who would like to assist in listening to groups read on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 10.45am. My students have been doing some fantastic work with Ms Wheen using the STEM kits we have accessed from the DOE. We are integrating these skills into our science unit where groups are designing an ants nest and will program their bot to visit each chamber in the nest and return it to the entrance. Everyone has been practising their skipping skills enthusiastically in preparation for Jump Rope for Heart activities on Friday. Activities will commence in the morning and I am looking forward to students dressing in red mufti and having lots of fun to raise money on the day. Year 5 students who are interested in standing for leadership positions in 2019 have received information regarding the responsibilities involved and can start to prepare their speeches to be handed in. Permission notes for the Leadership Day for those wishing to stand for positions need to be returned by this Friday. Students receiving awards at next week’s parent assembly will have received a note to invite their parents along.

P & C NEWS

Canteen News - The canteen is a valuable P & C asset that is the main fundraiser for the school, enabling many expenses for programs to be subsided, thus reducing costs to families. If you can assist with volunteering please Contact Rebecca Tadrosse on 0415 312 995. Please think about volunteering in our canteen in 2019 to keep it operational. The following items won’t be available this term: Fried rice, vanilla milk, orange juice, Up & Go.

TERM 4 CANTEEN ROSTER Canteen will be CLOSED Monday’s in TERM 4 due to there being

no volunteers available.

Thursday 8th Nov - Amy Hale Thursday 15th Nov - Michelle Coe Thursday 22nd Nov - Rachael McKinlay & Cheryl Baird Thursday 29th Nov - Michelle Coe Thursday 6th Dec - Cathy Vecchio-Ruggeri Thursday 13th Dec - CANTEEN CLOSED (Presentation Day) Canteen hours are 9.30am to 2.30pm (approximately)