DATE: Thursday 6 February 2020 TERM 1 WEEK 2

KINGSWOOD SOUTH PUBLIC SCHOOL Address: 60-68 Smith St, Kingswood, NSW 2747

Phone: 02 4736 2408 Fax: 02 4736 6001 Email: kingswoods-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Principal: Sandra Martin

BELL TIMES

8:53AM - SCHOOL STARTS

11:00AM - LUNCH 1:25PM - RECESS

2:45PM - SCHOOL ENDS

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Term 1 2020

Week 2

Friday 7 February

• PSSA Trials

Week 3

Monday 10 February

• NRL-All stars program

K-6

Tuesday 11 February

• Basketball Program

Stage 2 and 3 and

Support

Wednesday 12 February

• Free water safety

talks—Stage 2

Thursday 13 February

• Swimming Carnival

Friday 14 February

• PSSA begins

Week 4

Monday 17 February

• NRL-All stars program

K-6

Tuesday 18 February

• Basketball Program

Stage 2 and 3 and

Support

Wednesday 19 February

• Assembly—SRC

Induction

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

Welcome back to Kingswood South PS and our first newsletter for 2020. Our school celebrates learning every day and our mission statement is, “Kingswood South Public School is dedicated to providing a quality education that is inclusive for every student where the school values of Be Safe, Be a Learner and Be Respectful are paramount.” This year we welcome all of our new students beginning in Kindergarten and Preschool as well as new students who have arrived from other schools and hope you enjoy your time here at Kingswood South PS.

Swimming Carnival

Information has already gone home about our school swimming carnival which will be on Thursday the 13th Feb-ruary, 2020 at the Warragamba Swimming Pool. Any par-ents available who can help on the day will be appreciated. It’s our first big sporting event and it’s great for all of the students to attend. Payment is due tomorrow Friday 7th February.

Healthy Breakfast Program The school has partnered with Food Bank this year to provide a Healthy Breakfast program 3 mornings a week. The Breakfast program will be run by staff, students and parents. The program will run on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings beginning at 8.30am and finishing at 8.55am. The program is free for all students. If you wish to vol-unteer to help on the program please return the slip or come and see us at the school office. Thank you to the parents who have already volunteered.

PSSA Sport PSSA Sport begins next Friday the 14th February, 2020. Trials are being held on Friday 7th February. The district sport pro-gram is now in the mornings due to weather conditions. Please ensure your child is at school on time so that they don’t miss the bus for sport. We have teams competing in the following sports, T-ball, Softball and League Tag. The Breakfast Pro-gram is available Friday Mornings before school.

High School Students I ask that all high school students who come to school to pick up their younger brothers and sisters to wait outside the school until the bell rings un-less accompanied by an adult. Unfortunately, I have had High School students making a nuisance of themselves in the school toi-lets and outside classrooms before our school day has finished. This ensures no disruption by high school students to our classes. I thank families in advance for complying to this request.

STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE

School Media Communication The school communicates through three media avenues. Our school website contains lots of information regarding events and information. Each week we will be updating the website with notes that we give out to the students regarding excursions etc. The school calendar will also be regularly updated so that par-ents can be aware of upcoming events at school. We will continue to improve our methods of communication to parents throughout the year. Our school website address is www.kingswoods-p.school.nsw.edu.au We also have a school Facebook Page which is up-dated with information. If you are a Facebook user ‘LIKE” our page it is Kingswood South PS If at any times you are not receiving notes from school, please contact the school office on 4736 2408 or see your child’s teacher.

School Chaplain Our school chaplain Mr Ben Gray is back again with us this year every Monday. We will have a second Chaplain join our school to work on Fridays in the coming weeks. The National School Chaplaincy Pro-gramme (NSCP) is a Commonwealth-funded initiative to support the emotional wellbeing of students and the school community through the provision of pastoral care. The New South Wales Government adminis-ters the Programme on behalf of the Commonwealth. If you wish your child to speak to him or if a parent would like to meet and speak with him about any problems or family issues you may need support with, you can contact him at school on 4736 2408 or come and see him at school on a Monday.

New Aboriginal Support Learning officer I would like to welcome Mrs Daniel Hopkins to our school as our new Aboriginal Learn-ing Support Officer. Mr Daniel will be working in our school on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. He will be supporting our Aboriginal students in the classroom, play-ground and providing some cultural activities and knowledge to our students.

Attendance Regular school attendance is vitally important for students. We all want our children to learn as much as possible so they are ready for their future. Great school attendance also helps children build strong friendships as friends get to play together every day. Our school and regional target for attendance is 94%, which means on average no more than 2 days off a term, more than that will have your child fall below the expected rate. Of course, sickness may mean that a student has several days off in a row but once they are well again, they should be at school every day for the rest of the term. School exemptions used to be granted for family holidays however in 2020, this is no longer a valid rea-son for school exemptions so I strongly encourage you to take family holidays during the school holiday periods. If you have an issue with attendance or would like some advice or support with this area, please don ’t hesitate to make an appointment to speak with your child’s teacher. We are happy to work together to keep everyone’s attendance as high as possible.

Sick Notes Sending a note when your child is sick has always been important however we have changed to a new software program this year which will only allow notes to be entered for the following 7 days after an ab-sence. So all notes explaining an absence must be submitted within 7 days or they will be counted as ‘Unexplained’.

Kingswood South P & C Thank you to our hard working P & C for their efforts in organising uniforms at the beginning of this year. Thank you to Mrs Fry and the uniform committee for all of the extra days they have put into the uniform shop to ensure our new enrolments had a uniform to start the year. The Kingswood South P & C held their first meet-ing on the 5th February, 2020 in the school library. The next meeting will be on the 4th March, 2020 and will be the AGM followed by the general meeting. If you wish to come along to a meeting you are most welcome and it’s a great opportunity to become involved in your child’s school.

Updating Family Contact Details Each year we ask families to update medical and contact information. Thank you to all of the parents who have returned medical details forms to the school. If your contact details, address or phone num-bers have changed could you please let the school office know ASAP. This ensures that in the case of an emergency we can contact parents immediately

Whole School Assembly Our first whole school assembly will be held on Wednesday the 19 th February, 2020. We hold our whole school assemblies each fortnight. At this assembly we will be inducting our 2020 Student Repre-sentative Council Members. Letters will be sent home to the parents to let you know that your child will be receiving an award or SRC badge. It will begin at 2pm and parents are invited to attend. Finally, we welcome some new teachers to our school. Mrs Fitzgerald is on year 1, Mrs Berghan is in the special Ed Unit on class and Mr Van Biljohn is on class 3/4V. Our students have made a great start to the year and we look forward to a great year of learning in 2020. Regards Ms Sandra Martin Principal

Congratulations to the following students

who will be our House Captains for 2020.

HOUSE CAPTAINS 2020

Rory S KING

Emmanuel E KING

Oliver G BLAXLAND

Summa-Lee W BLAXLAND

Ethan P MARSDEN

Shamika D MARSDEN

Jai T JAMISON

Matilda M JAMISON

P&C NEWS

Welcome back to school. We are looking forward to a fantastic year in 2020. Uniform Shop is open Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings 8.30am – 9.15. If you can help on any of these days please see Donna Fry. School Banking is Thursday morning. If you can help please see Debbie Witek. Please remember that we are all volunteers and to be polite when speaking to us. In March 2020 we will be holding our AGM. At this meeting the following positions will be nominated for and voted on. Now is the time to start considering if you would like a position on our P&C Committee. Only those who have paid their $1 membership and attended one meeting can vote. • President • Vice President x2 • Treasurer • Secretary • Uniform Shop Coordinator • School Banking Coordinator If you require any information regarding the above listed P&C Executive positions please come and ask me. I am always at the school. We had our first P&C Meeting of the year on Wednesday 5th. Thank you to all who came along. Everyone’s opinion is of importance to us. Regards, P&C Committee