Belair Public School Newsletter Take Just Pride 34 Carolyn Street, Adamstown Heights NSW 2289 Phone: 4952 1735

Email: belair-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Term 3 Week 7 September 4 2018

Principal’s Message

Greetings Everyone, This week our NAPLAN results will be released to schools and families should receive results next week. There has been a lot of hype around NAPLAN in the media this year, mainly around the challenge during the transition to NAPLAN online. Belair students completed the assessments online this year and parents can be confident that student results are of a higher quality and information is more accurate and detailed than previous years. NAPLAN Online worked very well. Online testing is more engaging for students and gives them greater opportunity to demonstrate what they know. ACARA develops the NAPLAN tests and releases the data. It has been a complex task equating the data between online and paper testing this year resulting in a delay in publishing data. It is expected that this will improve over time as all schools move to online testing. NSW continues to perform well compared to other states, particularly when the large pockets of disadvantage that exists in NSW that jurisdictions such as Victoria and the ACT don’t have. Regards Warwick Beard Principal

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

September

3rd–7th Hunter Creative

Arts Camp

5th Indigenous Literacy Day

7th Stage One STEAM Rotations

10th

Junior Dance Group 8am in the hall

Kings Chess Competition

11th Knights Chess Competition

12th

Senior Dance Group 8am in the hall

NCC Water Safety

9.10am

Year 5 Interrelate 9.15am

14 Whole School Assembly

19th Year 5 Interrelate 9.15am

22nd Belair 50 year Celebrations

24th Year 6 Interrelate 9.15am

26th Year 5 Interrelate 9.15am

27th Stage 1

Reptile Park 8.15am

October

23rd Kinder 2019 Transition 1

Year 7 Kotara HS Art

24th Kinder 2019 Transition 1

25th Kinder 2019 Transition 1

Farmer Fundraiser ~ This Friday 7 September Lots of Belair students have indicated that they would like to raise money for struggling farming families. We thought it might be fun to have a “Dress as a Farmer Day” with children making a donation. We are looking at identifying a particular school and community doing it tough at the moment and making a connection with them to see how our support could best be used. This event is planned for Friday this week. If children don’t have ‘farmer style clothes’ they can come to school in other out of uniform clothes. A gold coin is our usual request and that would be greatly accepted but if you are able to give a larger donation, your generosity would be extremely appreciated.

Spring Fair Raffle Thanks to our community for supporting this part of our 50 years celebration. Tickets will be coming home for the opportunity to win some amazing prizes. First prize is two nights luxury accommodation in town. In addition there will be seven huge hampers and several smaller hampers.

Spring Fair Performances At our Spring Fair on Saturday 22 September, the following groups will be performing:

• Junior and Senior Dance Groups • Junior and Senior Choir • Concert Band

If your child is unable to make the official part of the day which will occur between 11am and 12noon, please ask them to let their organising teacher know.

Premier’s Spelling Bee Yesterday a group of Belair students competed in the Regional Final of the Premier’s Spelling Bee. This is a highly challenging event that tests student’s nerve and resilience as well as their spelling knowledge. All Belair students performed well getting through several rounds of the competition. Congratulations to Callan P and Chloe L of Stage 2 and Isabella Y and Isla M of Stage 3. Extra congratulations goes to Callan who came out on top in the Stage 2 competition. As a result of this fantastic effort, Callan will be heading off to Sydney to compete in the finals.

Belair’s New Website The department has recently upgraded our website. Anyone who has visited the site will have noticed the new format. There have been quite a few “teething problems” that are beyond our control. The “Make a Payment” tab has been restored and our newsletters are now up to date. Hopefully by the time you read this, today’s newsletter will be on the website. A technical support officer has been assigned to the school (from Sydney). Thank you to everyone for your patience and understanding as we work our way through the new system. Sport News On Tuesday 28 August the Belair boys’ soccer team went to Branxton Public School. The score was 1–1 at full time which lead us into extra time. Unfortunately we lost due to corners 6–5. Everyone played really well. Thank you to our parent transporters. The Great Book Swap ~ Tomorrow 5th September Help the Belair Book Swap! Tomorrow, Wednesday 5th September. What to Do:

1. Bring in any old books you can donate and give them to the library to be sold

2. Bring in a gold coin to purchase books from our Book Swap on Wednesday 5th September. $1 = 1 book $2 = 2 books

Stage One students are very excited to participate in parent workshops this Friday 7th September which has a focus on S.T.E.A.M education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics). Students will rotate through six activities and will problem solve, collaborate and use their critical and creative thinking skills. The workshops facilitated by parents with the support of teachers are on the following topics: Veterinary Science and Bone Health - Sonia and John Estens Coding - Luke Bellamy Native Bees - Brydie Pereda Sustainability and Waste Reduction - Nicola Nobilo Drama activities based on Minibeasts - Renee Price Engineering- Balloon Rockets - Nigel Hogan We are very thankful to these parents for sharing their skills and expertise with the students in Stage One. As part of learning about veterinary science, there will be baby chickens in the room which were adopted from KA. Please let your class teacher know if this is an issue. Stage One can’t wait! What a great example of lifelong learning and collaborating with our community at Belair Public School.

Deputy Principal’s Message Congratulations to 3H and 5K for being the classes of the week at last week’s primary assembly and to 1B the best class at the K-2 assembly on Monday. Belair Language of Resilience The focus for this week is the element of Courage.

Anti-bullying; Be an Upstander!! How to become an upstander Becoming an upstander is about moving from silence to action. Here are 2 examples of different ways you could be an upstander.

Example: Aysha turns the corner of the walkway and sees a group of kids making fun of Melissa, who has cerebral palsy. On some days, Aysha just ignores the bullying. She does not know Melissa very well, but it makes her mad. These kids are walking and moving with jerking motions like Melissa and then laughing. They don't seem to understand or care that Melissa has feelings just like they have. Today Aysha takes action. She tells the group "Stop it, how would any of you feel if you were being made fun of like this?" Aysha stands next to Melissa until they leave.

Example: Jay is frustrated with one of the kids in his class, Greg, who likes to pick on some of the unpopular kids. Greg's actions are subtle, but he gets other kids to laugh at his behaviour, which almost always is making fun of someone else. Greg decided weeks ago to ignore or be silent when he sees this happen. But there are too many others who feed into Greg's antics. At lunch when another friend starts talking about how funny Greg is, Jay says, "I notice that Greg likes to put down and embarrass others. I don't think that's funny. When other people laugh, that only encourages his hurtful behaviour. I stopped laughing. When people laugh along, they are being unkind also."

Jess likes to play handball but isn’t as good as her friends. Each time she asks to join a game the group make excuses that they have too many players or they let her join and then pick on her to get her out as so as it is her turn. Jess gets upset and usually walks away and sits on her own. If you were one of the people in the handball game that Jess asked to join how could you be an Upstander? I will ask for your responses at assembly this week.

Kind regards

Kathie Colley

Take action by telling the bully to stop

Take action by getting others to stand up with them to the

What would you do to be an Upstander in this

2B have been very excited this week with the introduction of some new pets. Twelve silkworms have taken up residence in 2B’s classroom to support lessons in

both their science unit: Schoolyard Safari and their writing on informative texts. The students will be feeding them mulberry leaves and exploring the transformation

from caterpillar to moth. Thanks to Mrs Lane for bringing these creatures to our classroom!

Student Awards

KA

Thomas W, Olivia G 2B Caden T, Lily C

4R

Caitlin K, Alexandros R

KM

TBA 2C Liam O, Phoebe S

5G

Zavier M, Helena M

KZ

Isobel N, Bronte S

2L

TBA

5K

Tahlia B, Georgia M

1B Kai K, Liam F 3H Emma H, Ysabel S

5/6F

Lachlan M, Charlotte J

1T

Maddison M, Taj R

3M

Harley K, Oliver B 6P TBA

1S Charlotte F, Austin F

3/4J

Riley M, Ethan C

6W

Brady F, Abbie R

1/2M Jasmine B, Tyson S, Harry T

4B

Lilly G, Charlotte M, Thomas T

Upstander Awards

1S

Keanu H

2L

Luke D

4B

Brodie F

6W

Lilly C

Dance Mya A

Choir Archie E

Environmental Macy W

Canteen Roster and News ~ Canteen Supervisor Sonja

0438 684 401

The Green Tree Kitchen

Canteen Needs Help Next Week! The canteen is short on helpers next week. If there is anyone able to help Sonja, even if it’s only

for an hour, would you please call in and see her or phone / text her on the above number. Thank you!

PLEASE NOTE THAT CHOCOLATE MILK, STRAWBERRY MILK, AND ALL JUICES ARE $1.90 WOULD YOU PLEASE UPDATE YOUR MENUS AT HOME!

Check out our online only specials at flexischools.com.au

Check out Term 3’s online only specials at ‘flexischools.com.au’

September 5

Wednesday

Natasha W

September 6

Thursday

Help Needed

September 7

Friday

Cheryl A, Karen K

September 10

Monday

Help Needed

September 11

Tuesday

Help Needed

Book Club News Book Club Orders are due back next Wednesday 12 September 2018.

Belair 50th Celebration Paver Garden

The Belair Celebratory Paver Garden is taking shape.

Today Mr Beard and Mr Lohs were joined by students from Kotara High School

to continue our garden preparations.

Our paver garden will look spectacular when it is finished and will be enjoyed

for many years to come.

We would like to thank all our helpers that were here last Friday as well as today.

It really is true that many hands make light work!

SASS Recognition Week

This week is SASS Recognition Week!

Our SASS team are staff members who aren’t teachers and our school couldn’t run without them.

They include our Admin Staff, School Learning

Support Officers, and our GAs.

We are a lucky school to have such a brilliant team!

Environmental News

The Tell Them From Me student survey (Term 3, 2018) I am delighted that this term, our school, like many other public schools in the state, will participate in a Department of Education initiative: the Tell Them From Me student feedback survey. The survey measures factors that are known to affect academic achievement and other student outcomes. The focus of the NSW-wide survey is on student wellbeing, engagement and effective teaching practices. You may remember that our students also participated in a Tell Them From Me student survey in Term 1 this year. Asking students to complete the survey twice in one year allows us to identify trends in student responses as well as track engagement and motivation across the school year. The survey is a great opportunity for our students to provide us with valuable and quick feedback on what they think about school life, how engaged they are with school and the different ways that teachers interact with them. More than 6,300 schools in Australia and around the world have used Tell Them From Me to survey 5.4 million students. Capturing the voices of our students will help improve how we do things at our school. More information about the survey is available at: http://surveys.cese.nsw.gov.au I want to assure you that the survey is confidential. The survey is conducted online and will typically take less than 30 minutes to complete. It will be administered during school hours between 10th September and 26th October. Participating in the survey is entirely voluntary. A consent form for the survey is attached to this week’s newsletter. If you do not want your child or children to participate, please return the form to school by Friday 7th September Copies of the form and FAQs are available from: http://surveys.cese.nsw.gov.au/information-for-parents. A FAQ document can be found at: http://surveys.cese.nsw.gov.au/images/FAQs/TTFM_Student_Survey_FAQs_Parent_and_Carers_T12018.pdf

4/9/2018

Dear Parents and Carers

This term, our school is taking part in the Tell Them From Me student survey. The survey will provide us with valuable feedback on what our students think about school life, how engaged they are with school and the different ways that teachers interact with them. Schools in Australia and around the world have used the Tell Them From Me survey to help them improve. The survey is completed on-line and is run by an independent research company, The Learning Bar, which specialises in school-based surveys.

Staff in schools will not be able to identify individual students from their responses. To ensure confidentiality, participating students will receive a unique username and password. Where fewer than five students respond to a question, the results will be suppressed. The survey typically takes 30 minutes or less to complete and will be administered by the school during normal school hours. Once the surveys are completed by students, reports are prepared and in most cases are available to schools within three business days.

This survey will help our school better understand how to improve student wellbeing and engagement. It will help the school identify what works to improve student outcomes.

Participating in the survey is entirely voluntary. Your child will not take part if either you or your child do not wish. If, during the survey, your child is uncomfortable, he/she can choose to stop the survey at any time. The majority of questions in the survey can be skipped.

If you do not want your child to take part in the survey, please complete the attached form and return it to your child's school by Friday 7th September, 2018.

More information about the survey and the research is available in English on the CESE website: http://surveys.cese.nsw.gov.au/information-for-parents

Warwick Beard Principal Belair Public School Dr Jenny Donovan Executive Director Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation

Tell Them From Me student survey:

Information and consent form for

Tell Them From Me Student Feedback Survey non-consent form

If you do not want your child to participate in the student feedback survey, please sign this form and return it to the school by Friday 7th September, 2018.

I DO NOT give consent for my child/children to participate in the Tell Them From Me student feedback survey. Name of student 1 Roll class of student 1 ………………………………………………………………… ………………………………. Name of student 2 Roll class of student 2 ………………………………………………………………… ……………………………….. Name of student 3 Roll class of student 3 ………………………………………………………………… ………………………………. Name of student 4 Roll class of student 4 ………………………………………………………………… ……………………………….. Name of parent/carer ………………………………………………………………………...

Signature of parent/carer …………………………………………………………………….

Date ………………….................

Community News