Mount Kuring-gai Public School News · MKPS and am excited by the possibilities we have available to us. Schools are busy places of progress and change and with educational reform,

Mount Kuring-gai Public School NewsLeeming Street, Mount Kuring-gai NSW 2080T (02) 9457 9088 F (02) 9457 8691 E-mail: [email protected]

TERM TWO - WEEK 4 MAY 2019

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

What a busy couple of weeks we have had here at MKPS! Lots of learning and fun experiences have been shared and we even had an election day in there too!

I have been continually impressed with the wonderful things happening here at MKPS and am excited by the possibilities

we have available to us. Schools are busy places of progress and change and with educational reform, new research and changes in students and staff, we have the opportunities for continuous improvement.

As principal, it is my job to oversee the running of the school and ensure the best quality education and care is delivered here at MKPS. But I am leading a team, of which everyone is a part. Students, Teachers, Staff, Families and Community all have different perspectives and offer different contributions – all are valued. Throughout the rest of the year and beyond we will be evaluating our processes and procedures to ensure that they are relevant to our context. If you are interested in being part of any reference groups/working parties let me know and look out for communication requesting your input.

I attended my first P&C meeting last week and was happy to see the dedicated parents in attendance. If you have not been to a P&C meeting before (or it’s been a while) I would encourage you to come along and have a say in how the P&C supports the school and the students’ learning. P&C meetings are held on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 7pm in the the library. Hope to see you at the next one!

I would like to remind everyone of the requirements and requests related to the safe arrival and departure from school. Students should only be entering and leaving the school grounds via Leeming St and not through the staff car park from King St. This is obviously for safety reasons as students are at risk of not only staff cars, but delivery vehicles, in this area. Also, please remember that there is an OOSH service that operates on school grounds, which operates until school supervision begins at 9:00am. Any students not enrolled at OOSH should not be at school until after 9:00am, as there is no supervision and OOSH staff are only responsible for the children in their care. Likewise, in the afternoons, OOSH operate their service on the school grounds and are responsible for the children in their care. As they hire our space and the school does not provide supervision at this time, it is important that any student not enrolled at OOSH in the afternoon, leaves school grounds

as soon as possible after the bell. This is regardless of whether they have parents with them or not. I thank you for your anticipated cooperation.

SkoolBag: School Communication appTo keep up-to-date with school news and receive notifications on time, please make sure you have the SkoolBag: School Communication app. For those of you who already have the app installed on your phone, you may not be aware that there has been a recent update and you may not have full functionality. First, please make sure you have the latest version, and then go into the app and go to ‘my profile’, select ‘edit’ and tick ‘parent/guardian’. This should ensure full functionality (e.g. receiving notices and being able to notify of absences).

MKPS NEWS | PAGE 1GROW IN KNOWLEDGE

MKPS Fortnightly Calendar

WEEK 3

May 27 Zone Cross Country Art Club with Mrs Slade

May 28 Senior Choir with Mrs Slade

May 29 AUSLAN group with interested Year 5 and 6 Junior Dance Group with Mrs Connolly

May 30 Junior Choir with Ms Samuel PSSA Soccer Training 8.30am Debating at Afternoon Tea

May 31 Star of the Month Assembly Senior Dance Group with Miss Brown 9am Garden Club with Miss Hindmarsh

WEEK 4

Jun 3 Art Club with Mrs Slade

Jun 4 Kids Night In 5-8pm Senior Choir with Mrs Slade

Jun 5 AUSLAN group with interested Year 5 and 6 Junior Dance Group with Mrs Connolly

Jun 6 Junior Choir with Ms Samuel PSSA Soccer Training 8.30am Debating at Afternoon Tea

Jun 7 Senior Dance Group with Miss Brown 9am Garden Club with Miss Hindmarsh


Winter uniformNow that the weather is getting cooler you might find that last year’s winter uniform may no longer fit. Our uniform shop is open every Wednesday morning – thanks to our wonderful volunteer, Belinda! Check out winter specials posted at the uniform shop and keep an eye out on the app!

Also, remember to label all your child’s belongings – especially jackets, as they are often taken off during break times and left in the playground.

Zone Cross CountryI would like to wish our school representatives the best of luck as they compete in the zone Cross Country Carnival next week. Regardless of the results, you can be proud of your achievements so far and know that if you try your best and display our school values, then you will do us all proud here at MKPS.

Chess ClubWe are organising a free lunch time trial session of chess. If there is enough interest, then we will offer an after-school chess club. More information will follow once the free trial date has been confirmed.

Kids + Parents NightInvitations will be sent home for our MKPS Joint Event – Kids+Parents night on Tuesday 4th June, 5-8pm. Kids will enjoy hot dogs, pop-corn and movies during a pyjama party and parents can particpate in a short presentation by Dr Saskia Kohnen from the Macquarie Reading clinic. Saskia is an expert in how children learn to read and will share tips and strategies

on how you can help your child at home. It’s such a fantastic opportunity (and did I mention there’ll be a lucky door prize?!). We are greatly appreciative to Saskia for sharing her knowledge with us!

We want parents to enjoy a bit of time off too, so we will make sure that this informative session is no more than 30 mins and then you will be free to go and enjoy a child-free dinner. The P&C have kindly organised a booking at Mt Colah Pizza which you are of course welcome to attend, which is a great way to get to know other parents. Please pick up your children by 8pm so that teachers can go home to their families too. I would like to acknowledge our teachers’ dedication and generosity in giving up their personal time to make this event a possibility. I would also like to thank Mrs Bernadette Whiting for her hard work in coordinating the parent information event! She is forever looking out for opportunities to further support our students here at MKPS.

Save the Date: for the Bush dance 5th July Another joint venture between the school and P&C is being organised for this term. A Bush dance Shindig will be held as a school community event. A wonderful opportunity to come together after another busy term and have some thigh-slapping, toe-tapping fun!

We will also raise funds to purchase some djembe drums for the school so we can continue with our music delivered by Jim Jam Music. More information to follow in the next newsletter!

Mrs Greta Hughes


Thank you P&CThe students and staff of Mount Kuring-gai Public School would like to say “Thank You” to our wonderful P & C for purchasing iPads for our school. Stage One have already put them to good use, practising our photography skills in preparation for our Geography Incursion where we will be taking photos of our local bushland. Thank you to all the fantastic parents who are involved in our P&C fundraisers, for volunteering your time to benefit all students at MKPS.

North Sydney Dance Festival AuditionStudents in the Junior and Senior Dance Groups attended auditions for the North Sydney Dance Symposium on Monday 6th May. Unfortunately due to the overwhelming amount of entrants who applied we will not be performing at the event this year. Each week the students demonstrate great enthusiasm and a sense of belonging when they practise their routines. The commitment students display on a weekly basis should be applauded and they deserve to be recognised for their hard work and dedication. Students are still rehearsing each week with Miss Brown and Mrs Connolly in preparation for the many other opportunities they will be performing at this year including The Mountain Fest, special assemblies and end of year performances.

Leadership DayOn Wednesday 15th of May the MKPS Prime Ministers (Toby & Surmayi) and Deputy Prime Ministers (Jamison & Jake) went to Gibberagong to meet with other school leaders and learn about leadership skills. Here’s what they had to say:

When we first arrived, we went up into the main hall. After some time, other schools started to arrive. While the other schools were getting their name tags, we answered lots of riddles and found out what different abbreviations meant. We played a lot of games including cup stacking. To play this game we got into teams of four with people we didn’t know. We had to stack cups as high as we could and that really tested our teamwork abilities. We played rock, paper, scissors and many other games throughout the day.

During this excursion we learnt many leadership skills, such as teamwork and how to form friendships with new people. We learnt that being a leader doesn’t mean being a boss and taking over - it means being a good sport, being responsible and most of all being kind and caring to everyone, even if you don’t know them.

By Jake & Surmayi


Mother’s Day Breakfast What a lovely turn out we had for our Mother’s Day breakfast on Monday 13th May. Our beautiful mothers, grandmothers and aunties were pampered by their forever-grateful children with hand massages, match-box car back massages, fabulous hair styles and nail polish. We hope the morning’s festivities made everyone feel loved and appreciated. A special mention to our wonderful helpers who made the “tea bag” treats: Sasha, Pippa, Nandana, Chloe, Rachelle, Maddie, Maceo, Amy, Mia, Lara, Jessica, Maisie and Lillian.


Mother’s Day Breakfast (continued)


Stage 3 Maths Groups Stage 3 started Maths groups this term. These photos show Mrs Slade’s group working on multiplication through a dice game. The classroom was buzzing with chatter as the students learnt their times tables in a fun way!

Stage 3 ScienceThis term Stage 3 are exploring the theme My Physical World. These photos show students in 5/6HM conducting experiments to discover the effects of different forces such as gravity and magnetism.


PATCHThis week continued the PATCH activities (Playground Activities That Create Happiness). On Thursday students enjoyed playing some games in the library – chess, UNO and Twister to name a few. Such lovely manners were displayed! Game playing is a great opportunity to practise taking turns, winning AND losing. The conversations between children are also lovely to hear. Even as parents, playing games with children is the perfect opportunity to chat about the day in a non-confrontational manner. It has also been lovely to see our giant chess set being put to good use in the playground.

Patch continues to bring happiness to the playground as the children play capture the flag.

News from 2EThis term, Year 2 have been learning about sustainability through the beautifully illustrated books of Jeannie Baker. The class have thoroughly enjoyed comparing how our community has changed in the past 10 years, as well as predicting how they think it will look in 10 years’ time. We are in the process of creating Jeannie Baker inspired artwork.

I am very thankful that we have such wonderfully compassionate students at our school who care for the environment and understand that we need to preserve the natural habitats of all our incredible animals. This English unit also ties in with our wonderful Geography unit and we are looking forward to our incursion.


K/1W Gibberagong Incursion Last week the Year One students from K/1W had their Gibberagong incursion. We learnt all about the place that we live in and the people that live here. First we looked around our school and took photos of the environment that we spend our time in. Next, we walked down to Mount Kuring-gai Oval and explored the features of that place. After that, we went for a short bush walk and learnt about the different native plants and their uses. We enjoyed trying nectar, making tracks, listening to a story and capturing our environment by taking photos on the iPads. Once we got back to school, we created an iMovie, using the photos we had captured and our new knowledge to show off our local environment. We would like to say a big thank you to the Gibberagong Education Centre and to Brad for coming to teach us all about our local area. We had such a fun day and we all learnt a lot!

Positive EducationThis fortnight in Positive Education lessons the K-2 students looked at the feelings ‘Happy’ and ‘Worried’. They discussed different situations that may cause them to feel this way and how intense their feeling of happiness or worry would be in each situation. The 3-6 students looked at compassion and how they can demonstrate compassion to others. It is so important to discuss our feelings and actions to ensure that we are in control of them. We hope that you can continue these conversations with your children at home.

Amelia WargrenWellbeing Team Coordinator


Attendance at SchoolIt’s easy to think that the occasional day off doesn’t matter, but consider the following graphic table... just one day a fortnight = 1.5 years of missed learning at school.

NSW DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND COMMUNITIES LEARNING & ENGAGEMENT WWW.DEC.NSW.GOV.AU

Compulsory School Attendance

Information for parents

Education for your child is important and regular attendance at school is essential for your child to achieve their educational best and increase their career and life options. NSW public schools work in partnership with parents to encourage and support regular attendance of children and young people. When your child attends school every day, learning becomes easier and your child will build and maintain friendships with other children.

What are my legal responsibilities?

Education in New South Wales is compulsory for all children between the ages of six years and below the minimum school leaving age. The Education Act 1990 requires that parents ensure their children of compulsory school age are enrolled at, and regularly attend school, or, are registered with the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards for homeschooling.

Once enrolled, children are required to attend school each day it is open for students.

The importance of arriving on time

Arriving at school and class on time:

• Ensures that students do not miss

out on important learning activities scheduled early in the day

• Helps students learn the importance of punctuality and routine

• Give students time to greet their friends before class

• Reduces classroom disruption

Lateness is recorded as a partial absence and must be explained by parents.

What if my child has to be away from school?

On occasion, your child may need to be absent from school. Justified reasons for student absences may include:

• being sick, or having an

infectious disease • having an unavoidable medical

appointment • being required to attend a

recognised religious holiday • exceptional or urgent family

circumstance (e.g. attending a funeral)

Following an absence from school you must ensure that within 7 days you provide your child’s school with a verbal or written explanation for the absence. However, if the school has not received an explanation from you within 2 days, the school may contact you to discuss the absence.

Principals may decline to accept an explanation that you have provided if they do not believe the absence is in the best interest of your child. In these circumstances your child’s absence would be recorded as unjustified. When this happens the principal will discuss their decision with you and the reasons why.

Principals may request medical certificates or other documentation when frequent or long term absences are explained as being due to illness. Principals may also seek parental permission to speak with medical specialists to obtain information to collaboratively develop a health care plan to support your child. If the request is denied, the principal can record the absences as unjustified.

Travel

Families are encouraged to travel during school holidays. If travel during school term is necessary, discuss this with your child’s school principal. An Application for Extended Leave may need to be completed. Absences relating to travel will be marked as leave on the roll and therefore contribute to your child’s total absences for the year.

In some circumstances students may be eligible to enrol in distance education for travel periods over 50 school days. This should be discussed with your child’s school principal.


NSW DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND COMMUNITIES LEARNING & ENGAGEMENT WWW.DEC.NSW.GOV.AU

If a student misses as little as 8 days in a school term, by the end of primary school they’ll have missed over a year of school.

My child won’t go to school. What should I do?

You should contact the principal as soon as possible to discuss the issue and ask for help. Strategies to help improve attendance may include a referral to the school’s learning and support team or linking your child with appropriate support networks. The principal may seek further support from the Home School Liaison Program to develop an Attendance Improvement Plan.

What might happen if my child continues to have unacceptable absences?

It is important to understand that the Department of Education and Communities may be required to take further action where children of compulsory school age have recurring numbers of unexplained or unjustified absences from school.

Some of the following actions may be undertaken:

• Compulsory Schooling

Conferences

You may be asked, along with your child, to attend a Compulsory Schooling Conference. The conference will help to identify the supports your child may need to have in place so they attend school regularly. The school, parents and agencies will work together to develop an agreed plan (known as Undertakings) to support your child’s attendance at school.

• Application to the Children’s Court

– Compulsory Schooling Order

If your child’s attendance at school remains unsatisfactory the Department

may apply to the Children’s Court for a Compulsory Schooling Order. The Children’s Court magistrate may order a Compulsory Schooling Conference to be convened.

• Prosecution in the Local Court

School and Department staff remain committed to working in partnership with you to address the issues which are preventing your child’s full participation at school. In circumstances where a breach of compulsory schooling orders occurs further action may be taken against a parent in the Local Court. The result of court action can be the imposition of a community service order or a fine.

What age can my child leave school?

All New South Wales students must complete Year 10 or its equivalent. After Year 10, and up until they reach 17 years of age, there are a range of flexible options for students to complete their schooling.

Working in Partnership

The Department of Education and Communities recognises that working collaboratively with students and their families is the best way to support the regular attendance of students at school.

We look forward to working in partnership with you to support your child to fulfil their life opportunities.

Further information regarding school attendance can be obtained from the following websites:

Policy, information and brochures:

Please visit the Department of Education’s Policy library

The school leaving age: Please visit the Department of Education’s Wellbeing and Learning website

Do you need an interpreter?

Interpreting services are available on request, including for the hearing impaired. The Telephone Interpreter Service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week on 131 450. You will not be charged for this service.

For further advice and questions contact your educational services team

T 131 536

Learning and Engagement

Student Engagement & Interagency Partnerships

T 9244 512 www.dec.nsw.gov.au © February 2015 NSW Department of Education and Communities


Kid’s Market on Election Day


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Mount Kuring-gai Public School News · MKPS and am excited by the possibilities we have available to us. Schools are busy places of progress and change and with educational reform,