Newsletter Term 1 Week 5 2022

"We acknowledge and respect the traditional custodians on whose land our school rests. Their footsteps and whispers blow in the wind, drift on the clouds, remain deep in the sandstone and float on the waterways of this place. Their memories and Dreaming stories will continue to connect us to the land and guide future generations of our school community. Country is alive if you take the time to look, listen and learn."

Principal's report

Celebrating Excellence

What a fabulous day we had at Manly Andrew “Boy” Charlton swim centre on Monday. Thank you to Molly Mc Indoe, Steph Rooleht, Susie Stock and Kerry Kelly for organising the carnival for our students. Great camaraderie was on display as well as bravery, when many students competed for the first time. 

Fabulous afternoon celebrating our students at our K-2 and 3-6 virtual assembly yesterday. Many congratulations to our two citizenship recipients Lucy A, K-2 and Luc B 3-6. Congratulations also to Callum R and Karina O, our new band captains. We also welcome our library monitors Isla K, Archer T, Grace P, Kayla T, Yasmine M, Lucy O, Erin R, Evie W, Anneliese O, Mia R and sound crew Ella M, Talia W, Molly H, Eli B, George R, Annelise O, Kiana A, Karina O, Archer T, Maddy A, Kayla T, Erin R, Joshua Q, Zac H, Alex D.

Student Representatives were also inducted for their first semester, congratulations to all our students. Our Student Representative Council ensures our student voice is heard within our school and within the wider school community.

Changes to the Guidelines

The Premier and Minister for Education have announced changes to school settings for the remainder of Term 1. These updated settings were developed in close consultation with NSW Health and key stakeholders to ensure we continue to keep our schools open for learning, while keeping up with changing community settings.

The updated settings include:

• We will continue the use of rapid antigen tests (RATs) for twice-weekly testing of students and staff until Friday 25 February.
• From Monday 28 February, we will move to symptomatic testing. Tests are to be used at your discretion such as if your child is symptomatic or there are cases in their class. We will be sending home 9 tests/students tomorrow. If you do not want these tests please contact the school to let us know.
• Masks will continue to be required indoors for all school staff, volunteers and visitors including parents and carers in primary schools until Friday 4 March. 
• Our school will consider activities such as assemblies, parent-teacher meetings, drop off and pick ups and other gatherings in the coming days. We will let you know if these can proceed with our school in a COVID-smart way. 
• All visitors are asked to follow our usual sign-in and sign-out digital process at the office. Please ensure you bring your mobile phone with you when you sign in. 

Parent Information Sessions

Thank you for attending our parent information sessions last week. If you missed the presentations or would like to go over these again they can be accessed on our school website. The kindergarten home reading presentation will also be available later today via the website.

Class Parents

Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered as class parents this year. A parent morning tea will be organised for Wednesday the 9th of March in the school hall at 9.15am. I look forward to meeting you all.

Take care everyone

Brooke Keevers

Principal

School news

UNSW Professional Experience Students

Balgowlah North Public School proudly participates in hosting and mentoring student teachers as we see this as an integral part of us contributing positively to the future of our profession and the education of our students.

This term we welcome Patrick Tjitrosantoso from the University of New South Wales who will be spending 9 weeks working  with Miss Molly Mcindoe and the students in 3M.

Later in the term we will also be hosting another 4 students who will be completing a series of observational days prior to a 4 week professional experience placement with a class in Term 2.

We are committed to ensuring our professional experience students feel welcome in our school community and that this  experience is rich and rewarding for the students and teachers involved. 

Instructional Leadership

Our school leadership team has a strong focus on developing the role of instructional leadership within our school in 2022. Instructional leadership is the continual improvement of teaching practice and pedagogy implementation to maximise student learning outcomes.

Effective instructional leadership has a targeted area of focus that has been strategically selected in response to the analysis of school data and identification of areas for future growth. 

This year our Assistant Principals will be working with their stage teams to develop teaching and learning in the area of reading and comprehension. 

Mrs Ridley will be working as an Instructional Leader in Stage 2 in the space of mathematics. The mathematical focus will be on multiplicative thinking which is the crucial building block students need to develop competence in to confidently engage with mathematical concepts in middle and upper primary school and beyond. Multiplicative thinking ensures students can think flexibly about relationships between numbers and view numbers as composite units that can be deconstructed using different strategies.

ICAS 2021

We would like to congratulate the following students who achieved outstanding results in the ICAS assessments in 2021. Distinction Certificates are awarded to the top 10% of participants. Credit Certificates are awarded to the next 25% of participants. 

Rachel Ridley

Deputy Principal (Acting)

World Book Online

World Book Online is a fantastic online research resource for students from K – 6, which our school subscribes to. Students can find reliable, engaging information to use for homework and personal projects. Our school username and password is: bnps

Premier’s Reading Challenge

It is that time of year again! The Premier’s Reading challenge is opening next Monday 28 February. The reading challenge is an excellent way to motivate reading and for students to be rewarded for their efforts. The challenge for K-2 students is to read 30 books and for 3 - 6 students to read 20 books by the end of August. It is a simple process to register and record each book online. Please visit the Premier’s Reading Challenge website and use the log on tab on the left hand side of the page to register. Students use their DET Username and password. Please contact me with any questions.

Paul MacDonald

Last Thursday Year 6 had the pleasure of attending a presentation from Paul MacDonald, owner of the award winning Children’s Bookshop in Beecroft. He has also been the author of his own children’s books and reviews up to 350 children’s books each year. With this multitude of experience his presentation was inspiring and left our Year 6’s excited about many of the titles he mentioned. Listed below are some of the titles highly recommended for our Year 6’s:

Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief by Katrina Nannestad

Pony by RJ Palacio

Northwind by Gary Paulsen

Ground Zero by Alan Gratz

Cyberspies by Logan Macx

Dragon Skin by Karen Foxlee

The Midnight Thief by Sylvia Bishop

Deborah Horsley

Teacher Librarian

Drama Ensemble for Year 3 and 4

We are excited to have the opportunity this year to run a Drama Ensemble for Year 3 and 4. Members of the Drama Ensemble will be involved in a performance, which will audition to be a part of the Arts Alive Drama Festival held at the Concourse Theatre. We will be holding auditions on Wednesday 23^rd February and Wednesday 2^nd March at lunchtime in the Music Rooms (after eating time).
Due to festival regulations we are limited to taking a certain amount of students. When auditioning we look at the following criteria:

• Ability to take on a role in a convincing and appropriate manner
• Spatial awareness
• Focus and attention
• Mood and emotion
• Enthusiasm and confidence when performing.

If you child is selected, they will need to commit to one weekly lunchtime practice. 
Miss Witton, Mrs McAllister and Ms Short

Balgowlah North Public School Choir
This year we have the opportunity for students in Years 3-6 to be involved in the choir. Members of the choir will perform at school and will also audition for The Festival of Choral Music. This exciting opportunity brings students from across NSW to perform selected repertoire in combined mass choirs guided by specialist choral teachers. We will be holding auditions at school on Tuesday 1^st March during lunchtime in the hall (after eating time). Due to festival regulations we are limited to taking a certain amount of students.  If you child is selected, they will need to commit to one weekly lunchtime practice and further rehearsals before the festiival. 
Mrs McAllister and Mrs Harris

Maths Olympiad 2022

This year, Balgowlah North Public School will be entering one team in the Maths Olympiad Competition. This is an opportunity for students from Years 3-6, who are highly capable in mathematics, to engage with mathematical problems in a creative manner. In Stage Three, this program will form part of our Mathematical Problem Solving Groups, where all students will be working on their application of numerical skills and development of problem solving techniques and strategies. The 2022 Maths Olympiad team will be formed over the coming weeks and they will participate in their first competition at the end of March.

Steph Rooleht

Maths Olympiad Coordinator

Swimming carnival

PBL

Waste free Wednesday

Band news

Ensembles Update – Beginner Strings Begins!

It was exciting to launch our Beginner Strings program with the very excited year 2 children.  String Director, Alex Paterson explained all the parts of the instrument, engaged the children in some rhythm and listening exercises plus they played their first pizzicato note! 

Meanwhile our Junior Band received their books and band bags which they will bring to every rehearsal to work through to develop their music skills.  They will also use these with their private tutor.

It’s never too late to join the band, if you are interested in being part of a great team, please contact bnpsband@hotmail.com

Caroline Fechner

Band coordinator

Dates for your diary

23 February

• Kindergarten introduction to home reading and sight word parent workshop on zoom
  

24 February

• Year 5 Leadership training

02 March

• Zone swimming carnival

03 March

• SEAT commences
  
• Yr 6 DMI Shrinking the footprint #1
• MiniLit virtual information session

04 March

• Kindy drinks

07 March

• Yr 6 DMI Shrinking the footprint #2
• Combined Manly/Pittwater PSSA AFL trial

09 March

• Class parent morning tea
• The Forest High School open day 
  

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