Term 2 – Week 6 – 5th June, 2019

Principal’s Report We have recently commissioned a video of our school – A Day in the Life of Hamilton Public School’. It totally captures the essence of our school and of our students. The staff and students have watched it and love it! We hope you do too.Please pop on our school website to access it or click on the link below. Happy viewing! https://youtu.be/YxlXyaSeclY Last Friday the staff held a Biggest Morning Tea to raise funds for the Cancer Council. The Council uses funds for many causes including money for valuable research into the disease. The leftover cakes and slices, that the staff provided, were sold to students in the recess period. A huge thank you to staff, parents and students for supporting this cause. Over $400 was made on the day and all cakes were sold.

Leadership I always tell the students at our school that you don’t need to wear a badge to be a leader and it was wonderful to see that ethos in action last week with Ava-Grace and Scarlet- Rose. The girls noticed a lot of litter in the nature play areas, which was very disappointing. They took it upon themselves to clean up the area and then speak to the rest of the school body about their responsibilities. Leaders always try to effect improvements. They prepared a display about the issue and spoke articulately and purposefully about the need for responsibility of students in this area. They asked the students not to consider Clean up Australia Day to be one day of the year, but for it be everyday. Thank you girls for taking the initiative.

Nature play I had the pleasure of joining Bron and Jo at Club Macquarie last Wednesday night to present our school’s approach to Nature Play. I

would like to sincerely thank them both for their continual support of this project and thank those members of the school and community who were able to attend. It was a very informative evening and a great night of sharing which reinforced the positive approach that our school is taking in this space. We are already seeing benefits for students in the areas of inclusion, creativity, problem and conflict solving, collaboration, cooperation, critical thinking, resilience, imaginative play and originality. All of these factors contribute to building strong and positive mental health attributes in our children. The students are enjoying their creativity and becoming very resourceful and enterprising. We even have little businesses popping up including the Clay Store, which is busy producing clay pots and other creations. It is lovely to see such industrious play in our school and to see leadership in the playground. Please note that if there are any areas of play that you do not want your child to participate in, for example, water, clay and dirt, then please negotiate this with your child so that they understand your expectations in the schoolyard. Handy Hint: If you are concerned about dirt on a uniform, please supply your child with a play shirt to throw over their clothes when they are playing. Star Struck Next week, we have students participating in Star Struck in both the choral and dancing divisions. Star Struck is a wonderful show that gives thousands of students the opportunity to connect with each other and work together to create something amazing. It is a wonderful opportunity for students to see how big shows are produced and managed, and the enjoyment it gives an audience. I am looking forward to attending Friday night’s show and I wish all students participating lots of luck and lots of fun. I know all students will do the school proud. A huge thank you to the accompanying teachers, Mrs Mullard and Mrs Forrester for their time and effort in preparing the students and supervising them at the event. Leadership is actively encouraged and developed in all students at our school and appears to be the theme of this newsletter as we read about our students performing and leading in many areas across the school and across the community. Many students have met with myself, and the Fundraising Committee, consisting of Tom, Savva and Kostya, to formalise their ideas around causes for fundraising for this year. As a result, the following student-led fundraising events have been approved and scheduled. Thursday 27th June – Save the Tiger – Out of Uniform / gold coin donation Friday 16th August – Fundraising for Motor Neuron Disease – Pyjama Day / gold coin donation Wednesday 11th September - Ronald McDonald House- Out of Uniform/gold coin donation and 5 cents for 5 days Friday 22nd November – Cupcakes for the Homeless – Cake stall In addition, our choir will be performing at Lindsay Gardens again this year and we will be having students in the canteen cooking a variety of foods to provide catering for school events. It is wonderful to have so many student- led initiatives and to have so many students actively participating in school and community events. I wish everyone a wonderful week and a safe and warm long weekend Warmest regards Meredith Lindsay

Chess News On Tuesday 21 May, 16 students across Years 3 – 6 represented Hamilton Public School at another Interschool Chess Challenge this time at the Hunter School of Performing Arts. Everyone had a great time challenging themselves against students from other schools, learning new strategies and making new friends on the fun-filled day. Special mention to Jules and Sasha who finished fifth overall in the Primary School Division and collected a medal. Well done to everyone, for your efforts on the day. Marie Haines

Premier Debating Update Our Premier-debating season launched on Wednesday 28th May, with a debate against Hamilton South Public School. The topic – ‘Homework should be banned’ provided a familiar subject and a gentle start to our debating campaign. As the negative team (arguing to keep homework) we claimed our first victory in Round One. The team performed exceptionally well – leaving us all excited for the next round. The theme for round two is the media. Our school will be hosting the next Train-On Gala Day on Friday 28th June. Do not forget debate club is every Tuesday morning at 8:10 in Mrs Foot’s classroom. Holly Foot

GRIP Leadership Recount On Thursday 23rd of May, a group of Year 6 students attended the GRIP Leadership Conference at the Civic Theatre. We learnt many things about how to be a great leader. This quote ‘Leadership is about people not position or power’ struck me as most important. We got to the CORE of being a great leader. This means: Confidence with humility (demonstrating confidence without being arrogant)

Others focused (putting the needs of others before your own)

Reliability (being trustworthy and dedicated to a task)

Empathy (putting yourself in the shoes of others so you can understand how they feel).

These traits are all necessary to be a great school leader. We found out that when you are making a difference to your school you have to have heaps of positive energy and it has to be team effort. We had lots of fun and walked away having learnt a lot about leadership.

Ella Haddow Year 6

Stage 3 News Year 5 and 6 students are all expected to prepare and be ready to present a public speech about multiculturalism in Week 7 (commencing Tuesday 11th June). All students have participated in a preparation lesson with their teacher and were given a scaffold to assist in constructing their speech. Students will deliver their speech in Week 7 and 3 representatives from each class will be selected to deliver their speech at the Stage 3 final. Parents, family and friends are welcome to come and watch the Stage 3 finals on the 20th June at 2pm. A significant component of our Australian History work this term involves students building and exhibiting their work in a museum. Parents, family and friends are invited to come along and visit the Stage 3 museum on Wednesday 26th June (Week 9). The museum will be open between 2-3pm. The museum will include a variety of exhibitions detailing significant events from the last 250 years of Australian History. More information to follow but for now please mark this day in your diary,

as we would love you to join us. Please note, the 26th June is a new date as the previous day selected clashes with another function.

Sport News PSSA Basketball State Championships Last week I went to Maitland to play PSSA basketball. On Tuesday, we had a team photo and won 3 out of 3 games. So, we won all the games on the first day. Our team lost all the games on the Wednesday. On the last day, we won our game and I got the coaches award for sportsmanship. Overall, it was a great experience. Simon Troup

Aboriginal Dance Group

Our Girls Aboriginal Dance Group are having lots of fun in their weekly lessons with Alexa Elbourne. On Monday, our local preschoolers came along to watch them perform their three dances. It was a small audience, with just one of our classes also in attendance, designed to help build the girl’s confidence in performing on stage. The girls will be dancing at assembly in a couple of weeks and at our NAIDOC Assembly in Week 10. Well done, girls!

Library Report Our library monitors have continued to shine in the library. They are amazing role models for our library users and always willing to help out with any library tasks. I would just like to say a big thank you to the library monitors for being so wonderful. There have been quite a few children from Years 2-6, tell me that they have completed the Premier’s Reading Challenge. This is fantastic! There is still plenty of time left for books to be added to personal reading logs so keep reading!

Mrs Nelmes

Upcoming Events Term 2

P&C Update

New Look P&C Meetings

The P&C have decided to trial a new format with our monthly meetings! To make the gathering a more social & relaxed affair, we will be holding the next meeting at the Bennett Hotel on the Wednesday 26th June at 6pm. It is our hope that people who have an interest in what’s happening at the school will take this opportunity to come along, share a drink and have a chat in a less formal environment. The meetings will be kept under

the hour so that it doesn’t impact too much on family life.

We’re very excited at this new partnership with our ‘local’ and hope to see some new faces 😊😊

Fundraising for Ace The very talented Ace Antonovich from 5/6M competed in AFL at the State Championships a few weeks ago and was selected to be on the State Team! This means that he now goes onto the National Titles in August representing our School & State.

This involves a weeks training in Barooga on the Victorian boarder, followed by a week in WA to play against other States and Territories.

To try to raise some funds for this costly exercise, Ace will be selling raffle tickets at school over the coming week (or until sold out). He will be set up under the Cola at lunchtimes and tickets are $5 each. There are some great prizes to be won! Show your support for Ace, and send some money along with your child to purchase a ticket.

Day Date Time Event Friday 7th June 9.00-3.00pm Starstruck Choir Rehearsal 9:15-10:00am UN Assembly Item 5/6M Monday 10th June Queen’s Birthday Wednesday 12th June 9.00-3.00pm Starstruck Dance Rehearsal Thursday 13th June 9.00-6.00pm Starstruck Dance and Choir Rehearsal Friday 14th June 9.00-3.00pm Starstruck Saturday 15th June Starstruck Tuesday 18th June Young Artists Studio Day at NHS Friday 21st June UN Assembly Item 2I Monday 24th June Koomurri Incursion Wednesday 26th June 6:00pm P&C Meeting Thursday 27th June Save the Tiger fundraiser/ Out of Uniform Friday 28th June Train-On Debate Gala Day Golf and Hockey Excursion Monday-Friday 1st-5th July NAIDOC Celebrations Thursday 4th July 9:30-2:00pm CU On Campus Excursion