Celebrating Success

Congratulations to the following people who were recognised at the inaugural Newcastle

Learning Community Education Week Awards Ceremony last week.

Mrs Fran Pope: Dedication and commitment to Carrington Public School canteen.

Armani B: Excellent leadership in the development of the Aboriginal Dance Group.

Olivia B: Embodying Carrington Public School values of safe, respectful, learner.

Mrs Cunningham: Outstanding commitment to Wellbeing programs at Carrington Public

School.

Many thanks to our captains, Eliza and Jack for being part of the evening, and sharing some

of the small things that make our school such an amazing place.

Congratulations to our fantastic stage three students for demonstrating exemplary behaviour

and their amazing getting along skills whilst on camp last week. It was a pleasure to see each

student interacting in a relaxed atmosphere, even though they did make Mrs Deards and I

go all the way to the top of the giant swing - 17 metres. It was lovely to hear positive

comments about our students from a number of the camp staff. Thank you to Mrs Deards

and Mrs Cornish for giving up their precious family time to afford our students such a

tremendous experience.

Didgeridoo Group

This term we have started up a didgeridoo group with the help from Mr Liam Begnell. Liam is

working with students from years 1-6 teaching them how to play the didgeridoo. I am proud

to say that the students are doing such a great job at playing that they are putting me to

shame, with my meagre skills. I will have to keep practising and listening to Liam’s instructions

to become a better player.

Game Changers and Change Makers - Waste Audit

As part of Science week, students have conducted a number of waste audits across the

school and evaluated the amount of refuse we are creating. A small team of environmental

champions emptied the playground rubbish bins and sorted the waste into three categories,

Food Scraps, Recyclables and General Waste. By our calculations, our school contributes

over 334 kg of waste each year. Although this doesn’t sound like much, this only reflects

lunchtime waste - it doesn’t include recess nor fruit break. Classes have also conducted

waste audits within their rooms. One simple strategy that we have investigated is creating

reusable bees wax wraps. Each student has created a reusable wrap which they have

brought home this week. These wraps are an environmentally friendly alternative to single use

plastic film which you may find come in handy in the kitchen. This is one simple solution that

can reduce the use of single use plastic within our community.

As we analyse the data, keep an eye out for other changes that we make to the way we

process our waste at school.

ACARA Item Trial

Our school was randomly selected to trial possible future NAPLAN assessments. This trial tested

the computer system that may be used by school’s across Australia, the types of questions

that may be asked in assessments as well as the way students are expected to respond to

these questions (click, drag, draw and select using an iPad, for example). These trials were

run by an invigilator to ensure their validity. One of the invigilators was so taken aback at the

wonderful attitude and behaviour of our students that he wanted to tell the teachers that

they teach in paradise!

Coding workshop

Yesterday’s parent and teacher coding workshop was a huge success. Thank you to the

parents, grandparents and students that were able to attend, I hope that you learned

something and have a new found appreciation for computational thinking. James McGill Principal

Carrington Public School W: http://www.carrington-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/

E: Carrington-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

88 Young Street Carrington, NSW 2294

2 0 1 8

T E R M 3

W E E K 4

DATES TO

REMEMBER

Week 5

Monday PLP meetings

5/6D Fathers Day Brekkie TBC

Tuesday

Book Week Parade 10.30am

NHS Taster lessons

Wednesday

1/2C PLP meetings

NPMC

Thursday 3/4M PLP meetings

Friday

KT PLP meetings 5/6D Assembly

Week 6

Wednesday NHS Year 6

Taster lessons 9.15-11.30am

Friday

Father’s Day Brekkie 7.30am

3/4M Assembly

Week 7 Friday

P &C Disco 5.30pm-7.30pm

P A G E 2

KT Tigers

Wow! What a Wednesday. Our classroom smelt like a honey pot, as we ironed

beeswax into fabric to make our beeswax wraps! A delicious sounding activity in

the name of Science. Our aim is to reduce waste across the school. Beeswax

wraps are a great way to replace clingwrap. The wraps are reusable and help or

students be part of our War on Waste.

When explaining the procedure to KT, I asked for ideas as to how we could melt

the wax into the fabric. The responses were so thoughtful.

We could use a hair dryer.

We could put them in the oven.

Put them in the sun.

Put them in the microwave.

With some further clues we discovered the iron!

Well, how exciting!

“My mum has one, but it has green on it.”

“We’ve got one of these with purple parts.”

See, as I have said before, “Best job in the world!”

A special thanks to our Rotary volunteers, Ted and

Anne. Their usual

reading group took

on a very different

look today. They ea-

gerly embraced the

opportunity to get

hands on in Science!

Mrs Turner

Thinking While Moving In English

Stage 2 students have been invited to participate in a Newcas-

tle University study that aims to examine the effect of active K-6

English lessons on a range of health and educational out-

comes, including increasing student activity levels and on-task

behaviour.

Last term 3/4M wore pedometers for a week to measure their

activity levels at school and also participated in data collec-

tion. This term they were a part of the control group. During

term 4, 3/4M will participate in the intervention program which

will run for six weeks. During this time, physical activity will be in-

tegrated into English lesson 3 times per week for 45 minutes. The

primary outcome for this study is to measure on-task behaviour

and will also look at cognitive control, academic performance

in English and physical activity.

KT

Isabella

Sunny

1/2C

Maddison

Jude

1/2D

Skylar

Hazel

3/4M

Shayla

Caillen

5/6D

Ayva

Eloise

Art Expression

Only 7 weeks to go!

Put Thursday the 27th

of September in

your diary! We are

seeking donations

of prizes from local

Newcastle businesses.

If you have any

connections with busi-

nesses that you think

would be happy to

support us, could you

please have a chat

with Mrs Cornish.

Community artist en-

tries open on 10th of

September and close

on 19th September.

We cannot wait to

see the entries this

year!

Please help us spread

the word about this

wonderful event! We

aim to build strong

partnerships with our

community so would

love to see family,

friends and communi-

ty members.

Don’t forget to check

out our Instagram

page for updates,

artexpression__ (that’s

two underscores at

the end)

Mrs Cunningham

Award Winners Gold Award

James Weyer

Silver Award

MacKenzie Linnertson

1-2C Caterpillars

We enjoyed having visitors in our coding lessons this week! Thank you

to those family members that were able to come along and see

what we are learning to do with the Osmo and Awbie!

Book Fair Organisation

Monday 20th August

Our students will visit the

library to create a Book Fair

wish list. Children will bring

this wish list home for you to

view. If you choose to pur-

chase any books from that

list, please indicate book

choice and send wish list

and money to school on

Tuesday 21st so that your

child can purchase those

books. Being prepared to

shop on the Tuesday morn-

ing will help avoid possible

disappointment later in the

day .

Monday 21st August

10.30am Book Parade &

Book Fair

followed by

Picnic Lunch Tea, Coffee

& Scones available at

the canteen

1/2D Dragonflies

Hello, I’m Mr James Dow-

ler. I have the pleasure of

teaching 1/2D whilst Mrs

Durie is gallivanting

around the Greek Isles. I

am looking forward to

getting to know all the stu-

dents in 1/2D as I have

recently moved from Or-

ange to live in Newcastle

again after teaching

abroad in England for two

years.

I love Mathematics, sports

and my beloved Arsenal,

which plays in the English

Premier League. I am in-

credibly excited for the

next four weeks as we

continue learning about

our debating skills, persua-

sive writing and of course

maths.

As a part of our Science Week activities students made their own bees wax wrap. Not only are these wraps ‘upcycled’ as we used

material scraps donated by Jennifer Smart, (thank you Jennifer!) but

they are a step towards leaving a lighter footprint on our environ-

ment.

Don’t forget our PLP meeting day is next Wednesday 22nd August. I am

looking forward to getting together with you and your child to reflect on

their learning goals. If you haven’t already booked a time the details

were in the Week 2 newsletter which you can find on our school website.

Mrs Cunningham

P &C Thank You The P & C would like to thank everyone

who helped out at our clean up last

Saturday. We managed to clean out

the front garden and add mulch, wash

down a few buildings, cut back some

trees, clean out the sports shed and

storage rooms.

I would like to give a special thank you

to the following families and people for

helping out on the day. The Moore’s,

Bragg’s, Epstein’s, Keever’s , Gwena

Levasseur and Raylene Kaluza

Amanda Keevers

P & C President

P&C News August 21

Tea, Coffee, Scones

August 22

Pasta Bolognese Day

$6.00 Canteen August 30

Setting up stall Friday

August 31 Selling goods at the stall

Please call Rachel Moore 0477 999 039

August 31 7.30am

Fathers Day Brekkie

P A G E 4

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL)

Carrington Public School is on the hunt for a

new mascot! We currently have the bee and

based on student feedback we are updating

him.

Students will be invited to submit their ideas and

designs from Week 4-6. As a whole school we

will then vote on our favourites. The winner of

the competition will become our new school

mascot!

3/4M As part of science week 3/4M took part in a classroom waste audit. We found that in one day we

throw away ½ bucket of food scraps, 3 buckets of recyclables and 1 bucket of general waste. Togeth-

er we came up with some ideas to reduce the amount of waste we put in our bins. These included: try-

ing to use less paper, placing paper in the scrap paper tub to be reused, putting food scraps in the

compost bin, placing recyclables in a recycling bin and using reusable containers for our food and

drink.

On Wednesday each student made their own beeswax wrap which is an eco-friendly alternative to

plastic wrap and can be used to wrap sandwiches, leftover food or folded into a snack bag for pieces

Sports Update

Last Friday 15 students attended the zone athletics carnival held at Hunter Sports Centre, Glendale.

We had students participate in 100m, 200m, 800m and high jump. All participants displayed won-

derful sportsmanship. It was great to see everyone cheering each other on and trying their best.

Mrs McQueen

Gymnastics Our gymnastics program

also began last Friday.

This program will run

every Friday until the

end of term. Students

had a great time learn-

ing gymnastics skills

while using mini trampo-

lines, bars and balanc-

ing equipment.

PLP Meetings

PLP meetings have been organised for

week 5 this term (August 20 to August 24)

To book your meeting please follow the

steps below. If you do not have internet

access please contact the school office

for help. Go to www.schoolinterviews.com.au

Enter our school event code 35gut Then fol-low the 3 simple steps.

5/6D

Wow, what a trip! I was lucky enough to travel to Kincumber Great Aussie Bush

Camp with Years 5 and 6 last week. Mr McGill and Mrs Cornish also joined us for

some fun. The students were buzzing and Day 1 really pulled through. We learnt

fencing skills and practised our very best posh accents to call 'En guard! Ad-

vance! Touche!' as we refereed our friends in their fencing matches. It was then

afternoon tea time where the students enjoyed a refreshing snow cone and the

teachers, a coffee. We then made our way to what would be one of the most

memorable parts of the trip...the giant swing!! At 17m tall the giant swing is a real

thrill. Students learnt how to get harnessed up and talked about setting goals

to push outside their comfort zone. It didn't take long for the students to realise

that it was easy to be courageous when your feet were firmly planted on the

ground. It really was a lot of fun to hear the screams and see the fear turn into

laughter and relief. I can confirm that the swing really feels twice as high when

you are strapped in and pulled 17m in the air!! The drop...is a thing from night-

mares. At night we ventured off with our torches and our pillows: which were to

become 'hostages'. We were off to play commando. As the teachers ventured

off in the bush to find the 'base' the students were each given a life token. It was

their job to find the hostages and bring them back 'home'. Off the students set in

search for the base, which took quite some time. At first they were loud and easi-

ly found by the teachers. When spotted they needed to hand over their life to-

ken and retrieve another from 'home'. As time went on the students became

more stealthy and managed to secure two hostages.

On Day 2 we built catapults, rock climbed, built and tested rafts in the lake and

finally, archery. The weather was glorious and it was such a joy to watch the stu-

dents' team work, see them relaxed, laughing and pushing themselves to

achieve their goals. There was a real camaraderie: new friendships forming, ex-

isting friendships developing even further. This has been one of the most positive

outcomes of camp, and something that other teachers have even commented

on this week.

On our final day we packed up and headed down to the 'Lost Island' or what

we called 'Mud World'. It was a fresh 6 degrees and the students were about to

get very wet and very dirty. The teachers decided to forgo this activity, some-

thing we did not regret. I really did enjoy taking photos on this day. The expres-

sions on their faces as they slid down into the muddy pond were just priceless.

Our final activity of the day was the high ropes course, which the students at-

tempted again and again. The bus ride home was a quiet one, on which many

of us snoozed, preparing to share our favourite stories with our loved ones.

Mrs Deards