! !PBL

Focusing on Safe

Keep your hands, feet and objects to yourself !

Important Dates to Remember Term 3 2017

Kootingal Public School

STAR NEWSLETTER “Caring, Learning and Achieving Together.” !

Phone: 02 6760 3332 Email: kootingal-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Website: http://www.kootingal-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Term 3 Week 1 Wednesday 19th July 2017

Friday 21st July and 28th July - Athletics Carnival Tuesday 1st August - Book Club due Tuesday 1st August - ICAS English Wednesday 2nd August - KPS Spelling Bee Thursday 3rd August - Assembly at 2:15pm by 3/4M, item 5BW Friday 11th August - Tamworth Zone Athletics Monday 14th August - Chess at Tamworth Public School Tuesday 15th August - ICAS Mathematics Tuesday 15th August - P & C Meeting, 6pm to 8pm, Library Thursday 17th August - SRC Disco

Executive Team - Principal - Cara Cracknell Assistant Principal - (Kinder to Year 2) - Nicole Chegwyn (Mon - Wed) and Anne Doak (Thur - Fri) !Assistant Principal (Yr 3 to 6) - Jill Cook !P & C Executive President: Cath Bubb Vice President - Noni Kasch Secretary: Vanessa Johnson Treasurer: Scott Cracknell and Jelka Schurink (Canteen)

!Kootingal Public School will be celebrating NAIDOC Week with Community Elder, Stella Lamb in week 2. We look forward to her coming to spend some time with us. The 2017 theme - Our Languages Matter - aims to emphasise and celebrate the unique and essential role that Indigenous languages play in cultural identity, linking people to their land and water and in the transmission of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, spirituality and rites, through story and song. 250 distinct Indigenous language groups covered the continent at first (significant) European contact in the late eighteenth century. Most of these languages would have had several dialects, so that the total number of named varieties would have run to many hundreds. Today only around 120 of those languages are still spoken and many are at risk of being lost as Elders pass on. The importance, resilience and richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages will be the focus of national celebrations marking NAIDOC Week 2017. !

!Our Athletics Carnival is approaching very fast! This Friday is our first of the two day schedule and Mr Doak, or Poppa Smurf as I call him as he has blue hands, marked our oval with a bright blue track. Mr Doak, with the assistance of Mr Hazelwood, marked our oval with precision. As this is our third year hosting the carnival at school, it appears we are now ‘old hands’ at the marking game. The students are excited to represent their house and are busily preparing for the athletic events during their weekly sports program. We are pleased Tamworth High School students are assisting with the operation of the carnival. Lunch orders for the athletics carnival are available for all parents, carers and community members. Our normal canteen menu is available. Please send lunch orders with students on a paper bag as per usual process. We look forward to sharing these days with our community. See you all at the carnival! !Lots of work happened both on and off site during the school holidays. In the second week of the holidays, bird netting was installed and the paving between Ms Cook's and Mrs Walsh's and Mrs Blinman's rooms was completed. !Thank you to Lachie and Barry of State Wide Pest Solutions for the installation of the bird netting in our COLA area. It looks great and unobtrusive. The installation of the netting solved a long-standing issue for our school and this area is now used to its full capacity. !Thank you to Mr Cracknell and his father for completing the paving. Mrs Knight worked tirelessly on the decorative panel for the rear of the area and we are waiting for it to be erected in the near future. No doubt there are more photos to come. !!

!At our recent P&C meeting this week, our hard working P&C donated considerable sums of money to support our school. Namely, the P&C are purchasing a set of sports shirts from sports supplier ISC, three bench seats for the renovated area between Homebases 7 and 8 and five art drying racks to share between classrooms across the school. Altogether, the P&C donated over $5000 to purchase these items. Thank you P&C for your donation and the work you continue to do to support our students and school. !This week, I attended the training for the NAPLAN Online School Readiness test for coordinators and Principals. In the last four newsletters of Term 2, there was information regarding the NAPLAN Online School Readiness test. I encourage our community to read this information and consider it carefully as this has implications for our school and community. !This term we commence our Come & Try Program for Kindergarten 2018. Our Come & Try Program during Term 3 is designed for all children intending to enrol in Kindergarten in 2018, regardless of school. The Program will operate on Wednesday afternoons each week for part of Term 3 2017. A bus will transport those students attending from Kootingal and District PreSchool from 1:30pm and return the children by 3:15pm. Parents may wish, however, to bring their child at 1:30pm and collect them at 3:15pm. The program will orientate children to school and to the Kindergarten setting, as well as help develop social skills, gross and fine motor skills, literacy and numeracy skills necessary for a confident and smooth start to school life. !At the start of Term 4, our Kindergarten Bright Stars Transition program will commence. This program is designed for students intending to commence Kindergarten at Kootingal Public School. All days will be advertised throughout long day care and pre-school centres and through our normal means of communication. !If you know of a family that has a child who may enrol in Kindergarten next year, please direct them to the school. We welcome parents and children to our school at any time to view our facilities and as a part of our transition program. As well, we would like to offer assistance in choosing a school and ensuring a sound start for each child. !Congratulations to Jessie Johnson, Alexander Cracknell and Luke Goodhand who achieved a Credit in the recent ICAS Digital Technologies. We have two more ICAS assessments to go in 2017, so all the best to the students participating. !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mrs Cracknell’s Message

NAIDOC Week 2017 Mrs Cracknell’s Message

This week and next week our PBL lesson focuses on the value of Safe and the skill of keeping your hands, feet and objects to yourself. This is a recap of Mrs Ardill’s lesson from Term 2. Our lessons this term are based on our data collated during Term 2 on the predominant behaviours in the playground. Each lesson is taught over two weeks. PBL Lesson Focus Weeks 1 & 2 - Keep your hands, feet and objects to yourself Weeks 3 & 4 - Unsafe play Weeks 5 & 6 - Inappropriate talk/discussion Weeks 7 & 8 - Be honest and fair in actions/decisions

!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Clothing Pool will only be open on: Tuesday and Wednesday mornings

9am to 9:30am School Banking

Thursday

PBL News

CHARITY DAY

Saturday, 22nd July, 2017

Kootingal Moonbi Roosters

V

Walcha Kangaroos

Junior Games from 9.00 am • Ladies League Tag - 1.30 • Men’s Game - 2.30pm

Major Sponsor for the day:

Admission Adults: $5

Pensioners: $3

Children under 16 Free

Auc on of Ladies and Men’s Jerseys will be held

at the Koo ngal Hotel from 6pm.

All money raised on the day will go to the Tamworth Hospital Children's Ward.

!

!!!

!

!!!

1NAPLAN Online – Fact sheet for parents and carers

10/05/17_2

7754

Fact sheet for parents and carersThe National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an annual national assessment for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Planning has begun to move NAPLAN from a pen and paper assessment to an online assessment.

What are the benefits of NAPLAN Online?Results will be faster and more precise

• Your child’s individual results will be returned to you within just a few weeks of the NAPLAN testing.

• Online assessment will reduce the time it takes to mark and provide feedback to schools, teachers and parents.

• Improved precision and timing of results will help teachers to tailor their teaching more specifically to address students’ learning needs.

Tailored tests will provide better assessment

• The online format allows for ‘tailored testing’, where the test adapts to a student’s performance and asks questions that match their achievement level.

• Students in each year level start with the same set of questions which can then branch into a different set of questions based on their responses to the first set of questions.

• This means that students will be directed to questions that may be easier or more challenging depending on their responses.

• This test design will allow students to better demonstrate their literacy and numeracy skills.

• Students find online assessment is more engaging*, which means they are encouraged to persist longer and try harder.

* Research by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) into online assessment has shown that students have engaged well with electronic tests.

NAPLAN Online School Readiness TestNSW schools will participate in a school readiness test between 14 August and 22 September 2017.

The school readiness test is a ‘practice run’ for schools to assess their technology ahead of NAPLAN Online. The readiness test is not an assessment of student ability. The readiness test allows schools to:

• become familiar with the NAPLAN Online test format and processes

• check whether they have the technical capacity, rooms and devices to administer NAPLAN Online

• provide students in NAPLAN years 3, 5, 7 and 9 with the opportunity to experience the online test question types and format by completing a practice NAPLAN online test.

For more information Parents, students and schools interested in familiarising themselves with the NAPLAN Online format can access the NAPLAN Online demonstration site that includes sample tests for each NAPLAN year. Use the following link:

http://www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/naplan-online/naplan-online-public-demonstration-site

Further information about NAPLAN Online is available on the national ACARA website:

http://www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/naplan-online

Contact your school principal or visit the ACARA NAP website for more detailed information:

http://www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/online-assessment.html