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Newsletter Term 4 Week 5

Dear Parents,

PREMIER’S SPELLING BEE

Congratulations to Sophie who represented Stanwell Park and the South Coast Region in the Finals of the Premier’s Spelling Bee this week.  These were held at the ABC Centre in Sydney on Wednesday and were broadcast live on ABC radio.

Sophie is an outstanding student and performed extremely well in the very demanding, high pressure situation of the Finals.  There were 36 students competing in the Finals with each student asked to spell a word in turn.  If the word was spelt correctly the student progressed to the next round.  if not, they were eliminated.  Sophie successfully negotiated 8 rounds spelling words such as wondrous, strenuous, corroboree, extortionate, malleable, maelstrom and myxomatosis.    It got very exciting for Sophie and the group of students who travelled to Sydney as supporters, as Sophie continued down to the final 13 competitors.  Sophie did a fantastic job in very difficult conditions and we are all very, very proud of her achievements.  To be in the top 13 of students in NSW for spelling is a brilliant achievement – well done Sophie!

Thanks go to Sophie’s parents and to Helen Cooney who transported our strong band of Year 6 supporters to the Finals.  It was an amazing experience for all the students.

DEBATING COMPETITION

Good luck to our senior debaters who will compete  in the Final of the Northern Schools Debating Competition next Tuesday in our computer room at 9.30am.  The team will debate against Helensburgh PS.  The debate will take place using our video conference equipment, allowing both schools to participate without transport.  This should be a very interesting experience for all concerned.  I know it is a first for schools in our local Illawarra area. Year 6 have been working hard on their debating skills and are looking forward to the debate. Good luck to our team members.

GYMSPORTS

Due to the changes forced by bad weather and Musica Viva, parents are reminded that Gymsports will take place next week on both Monday and Wednesday as it did this week.  Students should wear sports uniform on both these days.

SCHOOL CAPTAIN ELECTIONS

Prospective School Captains for 2010 will get the opportunity to address the student body at a special assembly to be held at 2.00pm next Monday.  Their Captains speeches will lead into voting by the students to elect our captains for 2010.  Once the student votes are counted, the staff and student votes will be averaged to obtain a final result. The School Captains for 2010 will be announced at the normal Monday assembly in Week 7.

END OF YEAR REPORTS

In a couple of weeks all students will be bringing home their end of year reports.   These are the result of a great deal of time and effort on the part of staff throughout the year.  Our reports for this semester will include:

·         information on your child’s level of effort and teacher comments on progress in each Key Learning Area.

·         teacher comments that identify areas of student strength and areas for further development

·         information about the student’s attendance at school.

·         information about student achievement in relation to school programs that extend or are additional to syllabus requirements. 

·         information about the student’s social development and commitment to learning.

The current report format will provide parents with quality information regarding their child’s strengths and weaknesses.  As always, if there is anything you don’t understand or wish to enquire further about, please make an appointment with your child’s teacher 

PUBLISHED!

Congratulations to all Year 6 students who wrote poems and narratives earlier this year as part of the World of Words program.  Four students were selected to be published in the rather expansive World Of Words book which was received last week.  Copies are being ordered for the school library.

Zoe , Elle , Laura and Nicola had their work published alongside students from all over Australia.  Their writing is certainly of an extremely high quality. Outstanding girls!

BUILDING WORKS

By the time you read this, the fences should have gone up signalling the start of our building program under the Federal Government’s, Building The Education Revolution program (BER).  Our new buildings will replace our current demountable library, classroom and toilet blocks.

The builders have indicated that the works should take 26 weeks, which should see the buildings finished and ready for normal operations by the second week of Term 2, 2010. Preparatory work will commence next week.  This includes the removal of the demountable classroom and toilets and the removal of trees.

As previously notified to parents, a decision was made to temporarily move the Year 2 classroom into the existing library building for the duration of the works.  This decision was taken to minimise the impact on school proceedings during the construction phase and still give us access to playground space.  Mr Bailey will operate a mobile library, visiting classrooms during library time with selections of books. 

Fences will separate the student population from the building site.  These fences will be erected from the bottom grass area through to the asphalt in line with the current senior basketball posts.  Access for staff, students and parents from Station St will be via the stepped ramp.  Site buildings will be located next to the driveway on the bottom grass area.

There will be some minor disruption to normal school operations due to the building works.  Some minor changes to playground procedures, times for events etc. Please bear with us, the end result will certainly be worth the wait.

APPLE ORDERS

The regular P&C fundraiser, the apple orders, is again taking place this term.  Orders may be submitted every second Friday for delivery the following Tuesday (see the calendar below). 

The apples are of really high quality and competitively priced.  Often parents are disappointed because they miss the order deadline.  I suggest you add the dates to your fridge calendar now to avoid disappointment.

EARLY ARRIVAL

Recently there has been a disturbing trend for some students to arrive at school well before the official time of 8.30am, some arriving prior to 8.00am.  Parents are reminded that students should not arrive at school before 8.30am as this is the official opening time of the school when teachers are on duty.

If you need to leave for work or whatever, and bring your child to school, you should make arrangements for your child to be supervised at the OOSH care.  Just contact Julie at school.  It is not Julie’s responsibility to supervise students who arrive at school before 8.30am and whose parents have not made arrangements for care.  Your assistance with this matter is required for safety reasons.

Regards,

Keith Tomlinson

PRINCIPAL

 CAPTAIN’S AWARDS

These awards are selected and presented by the School Captains to recognise students who have consistently followed school rules, in class and in the playground.  Congratulations to:

BRONZE CERTIFICATES

Congratulations to the following students who were presented with their Bronze Certificates and ribbons at this week’s assembly:

 SILVER CERTIFICATES

 Congratulations to the following students who were presented with their Silver Certificates and sausage sizzle voucher at this week’s assembly.  The Silver Certificates are presented after receiving five assembly awards.  Congratulations to:

GOLD CERTIFICATES

The Gold certificate is the pinnacle of the school’s Fair Discipline Scheme. Gold Certificates are presented after receiving seven assembly awards and include a special morning tea with Mr Tomlinson.  Congratulations to these students on this outstanding achievement:

CALENDAR – TERM 4 2009

Stanwell Park Public School proudly provides quality, public education.