GIRLS BASKETBALL GALA DAY Last Tuesday 2nd August, the senior girls KO basketball team competed in a gala day at Sportzcentral, Coffs Harbour. The girls represented themselves and Urunga Public School with a positive attitude and a great sense of team spirit. In their first match they played against Sawtell Public School. It was a well-played match with both teams trying extremely hard and not much separated the two teams at each quarter. The final score was 18 – 18 – a well fought draw. In the second round match we took on Boambee Public School. Our girls worked hard to maintain possession and defend against the opposition, but we were just beaten in the final quarter. Our third and final game against Kororo Public was the competitive PSSA knockout match, with the winner progressing through to the next round. With the opponents towering over the top of our girls, they still played with a lot of determination and a never give up attitude. This was very pleasing to see! The game was full of action and skill and unfortunately this time we were defeated by Kororo Public. We wish them the best of luck as they progress into the next round of the PSSA knockout competition. Coach Patterson

NEWSLETTER NO. 23 TERM 3 WEEK 4 TUESDAY 9th AUGUST, 2016

BONVILLE STREET EMAIL: urunga-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au PO BOX 21 WEBSITE: www.urungapublicschool.com.au URUNGA NSW 2455 TEL: 02 6655 6393 FAX: 02 6655 5140

IMPORTANT DATES

Thurs 11th Aug Education Week Open Classrooms @11.20am and Assembly @ 11.50am

Fri 2nd Sept NC Athletics

Fri 12th Aug MNC Athletics Mon 5th Sept Garden Club @ 12.20pm

Mon 22nd Aug Garden Club @ 12.20pm Wed 7th Sept Milo Cup Cricket

Thurs 25th Aug Assembly @ 11.20am Thurs 8th Sept Assembly @ 11.20am

Thurs 1st Sept P&C Father’s Day Stall Mon 12th Sept P&C Meeting @ 9.30am

Our focus this week is the green rule “raise your hand

and wait for permission to speak”

NEWS FROM OUR PRINCIPAL MR TREVOR MULLIGAN

FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENTS Nicola Kerr from NSW Health’s “Live Life Well” program, is again working with our staff this coming Wednesday afternoon, 10th August, on the twelve Fundamental Movement skills for students from Kinder to Year 6. Nicola gave a one hour presentation at the Term 3 Staff Development Day about the “Live Life Well” program which included looking at good, balanced nutrition, regular exercise and a healthy life style.

The focus around this program, which fits within the Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) curriculum, is to bring about more awareness of why we should choose some foods over others, eat a more balanced array of foods and exercise more regularly. The benefits from doing this can be noticed in students’ work rate, attention and activity within a classroom and their being able to join in more physical activities outside the classroom.

HEALTHY LIVING

EXTERNAL VALIDATION Our school is being externally validated on Tuesday, 6th September by two panel members – one Principal School Leader (PSL) and one school principal from the Armidale area. This process has presented us with an opportunity to conduct a self-audit about how our school practices are reflected in the NSW School Excellence Framework and backed up with evidence, either a photo, assessment figures or growth data. Our submission will be ready in draft form by the beginning of next week.

FACEBOOK The school will have access to the P&C’s Facebook site and will be using it weekly as a means for communicating information to parents and community about upcoming school events, and what’s happening around the school and in the classroom. If you already are a regular visitor to the P&C Facebook or would like to access it please do so. This is another way of getting messages and information out into the homes and community about school and community events.

URUNGA P&C With the P&C’s assistance, in the form of a $1000 donation, the school is installing a new reverse cycle air conditioner in the Teachers’ Resource Room which will cost approximately $4000. The current one is extremely noisy, often not working as required and is very old. The staff and students appreciate the P&C’s help in this area.

CHICKEN DIARIES IN 1/2N 1/2N had a fabulous experience over a week or two in June. Osha’s mum Vanessa kindly brought in some fertilised chicken eggs that were ready to hatch. All the students very excited and engaged with this process and each kept a “Chicken Diary” every day. Here are some of their diary entries.

14th June – Indiana Sticker “Today Vanessa brought some chicken eggs for us to watch grow. They came in an incubator to keep them warm because they need to keep warm otherwise they won’t hatch. Vanessa told us things about the eggs and everything else we needed to know. The incubator rotates the eggs and flips them over like real chickens do. They won’t hatch until Friday or Saturday. There are three eggs in a line and one needs to be in the outside of the lines because there’s no room in the lines. The eggs are spotty and when they hatch they’re going to be black and creamy. The chickens are called Blue Laced Bandervilders.”

15th June – Cooper Lamb Today nothing different has happened since yesterday. All of the chickens are still in the eggs. 16th June The incubator has been on but there is no change in the eggs. Vanessa rolled them around yesterday so that they are warm all over. Tomorrow the eggs could hatch, but they might not hatch tomorrow. There has been no difference in the eggs yet.

20th June – Savannah Kolosque On Friday there was a tiny triangular crack in one of the eggs but unfortunately the bell rang so Osha went home with the eggs. On the weekend the baby eggs hatched so Osha came back to school with two baby chickens. They are adorable and cute. When they just hatched they were soggy and wet. They were chirping in class at school. They are so fluffy. The chickens appeared out of the eggs at Osha’s house. They have black feathers with white spots. They have orange beaks and the beaks are as hard as rocks. The chicks are up on their feet. They have orange webbed feet. I think they like to fight. They like sleeping too. They look like they’re dead when they are asleep. They’re still in a heated box. They cracked out of the chicken eggs. There are more chickens at Osha’s house. They can be hurt very easily. They are greyish, blackish, whitish in colour. They’re lying down at this moment. They are lying on their backs. They are also very, very tiny. They move a lot and they have a white belly.

21st June – Lennon Roberts The chickens are all well except for one. One can’t walk. All it does is lie down. I can’t wait until they’re all grown up. They have very hard feet. They look orange and multi-coloured. They need a red and blue light in their box. They need red and blue light bulbs because if they don’t get warmth they will die. Also if they get normal coloured light bulbs they can’t go to sleep. 21st June – Lucy Rodgers Today Vanessa brought all the other chickens into our classroom. They are very, very cute. This morning I got to hold one. They are very light. They are yellowish brownish in colour. They are adorable. I want to call one ‘Chirps’. There are lights in the box . They are blue and red. We might be able to hold one but if we hold all of them they might be stressed. Next week Vanessa is bringing the chickens back to school and we are looking forward to seeing how they have grown and changed.

NEWS FROM OUR COMMUNITY LIAISON OFFICER JENNY LUXON

SPOTLIGHT ON….. KW Classroom Teacher: Mrs Wickham Number of students: 18 Kindergarten has had a wonderful time learning to read and write. We are now trying really hard to use finger spaces, capital letters and full stops. We are also experimenting with conjunctions in our sentences. In maths we are counting beyond 30 and backwards from 20. We are also learning to skip count by 2’s and 5’s. Kindergarten enjoys art and craft and later in the year we will be doing pottery. Our favourite classroom activities are Maths Work Stations and Literacy Work Stations, where we learn through hands-on activities and games. Kindergarten love having helpers in the classroom and we would like to thank all of them for their time and effort!!

PLEASE REMEMBER TO MAKE UP JARS FOR THE LUCKY DIP JARS FOR OUR SCHOOL FETE ON THE 17TH OF

SEPTEMBER!!

CLYDESDALE TEAM VISIT It was a very unexpected sight to see the Carlton Clydesdales pulling up across from the school last Tuesday. Four majestic looking Clydesdale horses harnessed to a lorry being driven by their driver with the help of Cassie the Dalmatian. 1/2N was the first class to come out of their classroom for a look but soon the whole school was at the fence taking in the impressive sight. Traditionally used to pull delivery vans for breweries, the teams are now used to show off their heritage at events around Australia. They were passing through Urunga on their way to the Coffs Cup and then continuing onto Brisbane. The whole school sent them on their way by giving the team their command to walk of “Ready, Set, Go!”

EDUCATION WEEK ACTIVITIES RESCHEDULED As you would be aware, due to the horrendous weather conditions last week, the Education Week open classrooms and assembly was postponed. It will be held this coming Thursday 11th August. We hope to see many family members come along to spend some time in their children’s classes, have lunch with their children as well as watch the assembly. Each class will be making a small presentation on the assembly. Open classroom will start at 11.20am and the assembly will commence at 11.50am.

P&C NEWS Thank you to the people who have volunteered to help out at the school fete. We greatly appreciate your help. We still have a few stalls that will need some extra help on the day. If you could help for an hour or two on any of the following stalls, please ring the school office, or Karen on 0412 753 490: Devonshire Tea, Craft Stall, Lucky Dip Jars, Crazy Hair, Showbag Stall, Guessing Competition, Slip/Slide Waterslide, Haunted House, Wet Sponge Thru the Hole at Teachers and the Raffle Stall. The P&C will be holding our annual Father’s Day Stall on Thursday 1st September. Donations of gifts up to the value of $5 can be dropped into the front office of the school. Please drop them in either wrapped in clear cellophane or unwrapped with the price attached. Your donations will be gratefully received. A big thank you to The Honey Place who will be donating a native bee hive to help with pollination in the school’s Kitchen Garden. Native bees are stingless and don’t produce much honey but are a beneficial insect and are great pollinators. Following our meeting yesterday morning, the P&C are happy to announce that we will be donating $1000 to subsidise the purchase of a new air-conditioning unit for the school’s Resource Room. Karen Nicol - P&C President

WHAT’S DUE Cascade Medical Form due Wednesday 24th August Cascade Excursion final payments due by Wednesday 31st August Outstanding School Contribution payments

PREMIER’S SPELLING BEE Last Friday, as part of Education Week, our Primary classes participated in the Premier’s Spelling Bee. We compete in two different groups – Stage 2 and Stage 3. After narrowing the group down in our classes, Friday’s competition was to find our top two spellers in each group.

Stage 3 went through two rounds to get our winner, while it took another six rounds to find our 2nd place speller. Stage 2 went slightly longer, taking two sessions to get a winner, with some great spelling by the students.

Congratulations to all students who participated with special congratulations to our finalists;

Stage 2 Winner: Sid Palmer Stage 3 Winner: Phoenix Smith Runner up: Holly Taylor Runner up: Celia Ross

They will go on to represent our school at the regional finals in Sawtell on September 12th.

MONEY RAISED THROUGH SCHOOL BANKING! Thanks to the fantastic efforts of our students we have raised $139.17 for our school through School Banking commissions in Term 2, 2016. Our school receives $5 when a student makes their first ever School Banking deposit and 5% on every deposit made through the school (to a maximum of $10 per individual deposit). Saving regularly is an important habit to get into, whether you're saving a little or a lot. Keep up the great work and remember to bring in your School Banking deposit every Tuesday.

Urunga Riverside Markets is on this Sunday! Down at the beautiful Lido 8am-1pm.

60 fabulous stalls, awesome hot food and drinks, the best

local fresh produce, kids activities and great music.

Visit the market, have a stroll down the Boardwalk and let

the kids have a play in the sand. It is going to be a gorgeous

day and we hope to see you all there.

Urunga Riverside Markets is YOUR community markets so

come on down and support local small businesses in

the best location on the Mid North Coast!