‘Look, Listen

and Think’ ....

In the spotlight 1

Hello from the Principal 2-3

Assembly News 3

P&C News 4

Thumbs Up 4

Classroom work 5

TTFM survey 6

Cakes 6

Bell Times 7

Attachments

P&C Minutes

HealthWISE

Carp Muster

LCD Flyer

TTFM

Grounds Update

ICAS

Inside this issue:

In the Spotlight….

Burren Junction PS

Newsletter

17th March 2017 Term 1, Week 8

Upcoming Dates: 29th March—

Moorambilla

6th April -

State Swimming

7th April—

End of Term

26th April—

Term 2 starts

ZONE Swimming Carnival—Armidale

Monday 6th March saw a team of 10 children from BJPS compete in Armi-

dale in the North West PSSA swimming carnival. From that 5 children, 10 %

of our school, will now compete at the state swimming carnival in the last

week of term. After training in Narrabri on the Saturday in the pouring rain

the Armidale weather was surprisingly good. It was a great day and the

children really enjoyed the opportunity.

At state level Sarah Smith will compete in the freestlye. Sophie Sendall will

compete in freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly. Great job girls!

Our P5 team of Sophie, Declan, Milly and Campbell and hit the pool in style

led convincingly the whole race. They won by half a pool. Go Burren!

They all enjoyed purchasing the all-important jumper, and wore them

proudly last Friday.

Thank you parents, all the success is not possible without lots of commit-

ment from you.

Kate Slack-Smith

Principal’s report

As we prepare for autumn and are enjoying the cooler weather we are also having to consider the impli-

cations of the arrival of wet weather and impassable roads. If you have been unable to get your children

to school over this last week then please remember to apply for an exemption. Work is being sent home

with students that can be completed at home in the event that they are unable to attend school.

Congratulations to our representative swimmers who attended the carnival at Armidale. What an excit-

ing opportunity for these stellar swimmers. Congratulations to all our BJPS students who are now go-

ing off to the state carnival in April. Mrs Slack-Smith has successfully guided the Burren Junction rep-

resentative swimmers throughout their carnivals this summer. She has put together a piece on the

swimming team and their results for this newsletter.

Mrs Slack-Smith recently received the honour of being selected, from a strong field of applicants of dep-

uty principals, assistant principals and teachers from across NSW, to undertake a leadership opportuni-

ty to gain accreditation at Lead level. The high quality work that Mrs Slack-Smith did whilst relieving

principal of Burren Junction PS is well recognised in our community and has also been noticed by the

Leadership and High Performance Directorate. I have been successful in being nominated as a mentor

in this process. As a result, Mrs Slack-Smith and I will be in Sydney early next week to learn more

about the requirements of this leadership opportunity. Mrs Margaret Slack-Smith and Mrs Anne Cain,

two talented teachers, will be at Burren Junction Public School next week to take our classes whilst we

are away in Sydney.

Over the last two weeks the BJPS Parliament have been very busy in taking their role as leaders in the

school very seriously. The Minister of Sport, with the assistance of myself, Brett and students in years 3

-6, emptied the sport’s shed last week and reorganised everything. Then the Minister of Sport, ably as-

sisted by the Deputy PM, the Ministers of the Arts, Environment and Energy and Education, labelled

all the items in the shed with brand new laminated signs. As a result the sport’s shed is looking very

impressive. Last week the Minister of the Environment was overwhelmed with students who wished to

assist in the restoration of the vegetable gardens. Within one lunchtime the students turned the garden

from an unkempt space to a luxurious garden ready for planting. The Minister of the Environment is

quite excited about the next step in the process of bringing the gardens back to life. He is also looking

into building a chicken coop and getting some chickens. If any families have the materials to build a co-

op could you let me know so that we can start building the coop. So, congratulations to our parliamen-

tarians as they grow into their positions in 2017 and develop their exciting portfolios.

On the topic of our parliamentarians, we received a visit from the local member for Barwon, Mr Kevin

Humphries, and his wife Mrs Lindy Humphries, on Tuesday. Mr Humphries came to have a chat with

me about my new job as principal at Burren Junction and discuss the Australian Light Horse in World

War One, a topic that we are both interested in especially as Australia prepares to mark the 100 years

of the end of the war next year. I spoke to Mr Humphries about BJPS’s ANZAC day preparations and

how so many of the students attending the march are mounted on horses. Mr Humphries was aware of

this and he indicated that he was impressed by the way Burren Junction students and their families

supported the march. Thank you to Mrs Stump for organising for the school to sing their ANZAC day

song for Mr and Mrs Humphries. The children sang beautifully! Congratulations, Mrs Stump.

Today the Health Checks will go home with the students. The teachers have indicated on the letters if

they wish to have a meeting with you. Please contact the teachers as soon as possible to make those ar-

rangements. If you would like to meet with your child’s teacher, even if the teacher has not requested an

interview, then please feel free to contact your child’s teach and request an interview.

Continue page 3

Term 1, Week 8 Page 2

Hello From the Principal…

The School Council held their first meeting for the term last week and they will be meeting again on

the 28th of March. The P&C held their AGM on Wednesday and seven hardy souls ventured out to at-

tend despite the cyclonic weather condition. The next P&C meeting will be on Wednesday the 3rd of

May and the P&C will have the final figures for the hugely successful ‘Night on the Landmark Green’.

If you still owe money to the event, as a sponsor or from sales, then please settle your account with

the P&C sooner than later to assist Mrs Smith in finalising the account sheet. Congratulations to Mrs

Shearer, Mrs Smith and Mrs Sendall on being elected to the Executive roles of the BJPS P&C for

2017. I would like to thank all the elected position holders, past and present, for all that they have

done to ensure that BJPS has a vibrant and supportive P&C. The wonderful work carried out by both

the School Council and the P&C certainly makes for many quality opportunities for the children at

the school. Ms Suzanne Galvin

The grade 3/4s have been very busy learning and writing Fairy Tales during English as well as solving Fairytales problems in Maths.

Can you help them to solve these problems…….

Fairytale Problems 3/4 made up in class…

Assembly last Friday... Grade 3/4 presented their Art Work and read their Fairy Tales

Term 1, Week 8 Page 3

The 3 Little Pigs have 16 bales of

hay. If they need 8 bales to make

one house, how many houses can

they build?

Jack’s Bean Stalk is 100m high.

He climbed a quarter of the way

up and fell asleep. When he

woke up, he climbed another

quarter of the way. How far did he climb?

Cinderella has 100 glass

slippers. If she lost 60 how

many would she have left?

Spring clean for the sports room….. Thank you to all the students

who dedicated their lunch time to cleaning up the sport’s room

equipment.

Night on the Landmark Green On behalf of the fundraising committee I would like to say thank you so much to everyone who supported "Night on the Landmark Green". As a school community we came together, worked hard and had fun raising money for our school. It was a sensational night- the weather was kind, the food was absolutely divine, the drinks were cold and tasty, the music was great and the company was first class! Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who helped make the event such a memorable one.

Cheers, Sandy Shearer P & C President

P & C News…

Page 4 Burren Junction PS Newsletter

NEXT COMMITTEE MEETING

3rd May

Time TBC

Thumbs Up...

Class Room Work by Kinder

Cakes …. The students in 3/4S and 5/6G

were taken on a sensational

journey of discovery, by Mrs

Slack-Smith and Mrs

Hattingh, through the art work

of American pop art painter,

Wayne Thiebaud.

The students then linked

Thiebaud’s artistic style to the

story of the text Alice in

Wonderland. Congratulations

to the students on their artistic

interpretations.

TELL THEM FROM ME SURVEY, 2017

I am delighted that this term, our school, like many other public schools in the state, will participate in a Depart-

ment 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 sur-

vey is on student wellbeing, engagement and effective teaching practices.

More information about the survey is available at: http://surveys.cese.nsw.gov.au 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. Schools in Australia and around the world have used the Tell Them From Me survey to help improve how

they do things at school.

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 27 March and 7 April. Partici-

pating in the survey is entirely voluntary.

A consent form and FAQs for parents/carers about the survey is being sent home with students. If you do not want your child or children to participate, please return the attached form to school by Friday the 24th of March, 2017. Copies of the form and FAQs are available from: http://surveys.cese.nsw.gov.au/information-for-parents.

Page 6

Good Luck to those who will be

participating in the Fred Hollows

Foundation trek today, Friday

17th March in Sydney !

Reminders….

Bell Times

8:55am Supervision commences 9:15am First bell for the cessation of play, children to return sports equipment, use toilets and form lines in assembly ar-ea 10:30am Fruit Break 11:15am Recess 11:40am Classes resume 1:25pm Lunch Break 2:15pm Classes resume 3:15pm End of school bell—children to be released promptly for bus lines, teacher on duty remains until last bus leaves

Telephone: (02) 6796 1464

Facsimile (02) 6796 1458

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

http://www.burrenjunc-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/

Contact us….

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