Welcome Back

Welcome to the 2021 school year for what we hope will be a fantastic year of learning and growth for the students. If you have any questions relating to the school please contact your child’s teacher in the first instance. They are the best person to answer your question or resolve the situation as quickly as possible. If there is a situation where you do not feel the situation has been resolved please contact the Assistant Principal responsible for that stage (Kindergarten = Early Stage 1, Years 1 and 2 = Stage 1, Years 3 and 4 = Stage 2 and Years 5 and 6 = Stage 3).

School/Class Formation for 2021

This year, like other years, we have a multi-age (composite) class for 2021. Multi-age classes are formed at most schools due to our staffing formula and school numbers. All our 23 classes are even and equitable in every way. Each class has a range of students in them to ensure that no one is academically or socially isolated. Many hours have been spent by staff last year and this year formulating each class giving every child consideration. Each teacher is responsible for the learning of every child in its class, and often in a straight class you will find a huge range of academic abilities. Research also highlights the positives for students in a composite class, such as; independence, responsibility and study habits. If you still have any queries please contact your child’s teacher to discuss.

Drop Off/Pick Up

From tomorrow all students will need to enter and leave the 3-6 site on their own. Parents are not to walk their child on to the school grounds for that site. Parents of students in K-2 are able to walk their child to the playground, say their good-byes and then leave immediately. I must insist that you leave straight away in order to follow the advice that Health NSW has provided schools. In the afternoon Kindergarten students are to be collected from the asphalted area, Year 1 from the top oval and Year 2 from the bottom oval. Parents are reminded to remain physically distant from each other during these times and once you have collected your child/ren then please leave the school grounds immediately. I thank you in advance for your cooperation with this process.

Swimming Carnival

The school’s Swimming Carnival is due to proceed next Monday which is wonderful. Unfortunately, parents are not able to attend. This is a requirement from Hornsby Council which manages the pool to ensure they are being Covid-19 compliant and following their required guidelines. Please respect this to ensure that the carnival can proceed for the students.

A huge thanks to Mrs Amy Ford for all her organisation. Please ensure that your child arrives at school by the necessary time to catch the bus to the pool. We have our fingers crossed that the weather will be kind to us.

Covid-19 Learning Support

The NSW Government has allocated schools some money to support students whose learning was impacted by the Learning from Home phase that we experienced last year. We have engaged, Mrs Reishelyn DY, to fulfil this role 5 days a fortnight until Term 3 Week 2 when the funding will be exhausted. Her role will be to support identified children and withdraw them from class in small groups to assist with their literacy and numeracy. If your child is identified to participate in this program you will be notified by letter. The school’s Learning and Support Team has already identified students and parents will be notified in the coming week.

Meet the Teacher Night

This year we will need to hold ‘Meet the Teacher’ night virtually, due to the NSW Department of Education’s guidelines. Please save the date of Tuesday 16 February 2021 for this information session. Each session will run for 30 minutes and will run between 5-7pm for most classes. Specific details will be provided to the community when it is finalised. We are currently working out these details.

P&C Meeting

Tonight is the schools first P&C meeting for the year. The meeting will be via Zoom. I encourage all parents to attend if you are available. Our P&C does a fantastic job supporting our school and are always looking for people to become involved. Please see the P&C President’s report further down in this newsletter for specific information about tonight’s meeting.

Kind Regards

Mr Matt Pinchbeck
Principal

Welcome Back

We hope everyone had a safe and relaxing break and that you were able to spend some time with those you care about, albeit possibly in a different form to previous years. We are looking forward to 2021 here at Pennant Hills Public School and all of our teaching and support staff are excited to be back and have the kids back.

    

New LED Sign

You may have noticed something new on the school grounds on the corner of Ramsay Rd and Greycliffe Ave, our electronic sign has finally been installed! A huge thank you to the 2017 and 2018 cohort of Year 6 students who donated the sign. It looks fabulous amongst the new sandstone retaining wall.

       

School Targets – Professional Learning

2021 sees the beginning of a new school planning cycle. Our School Improvement Plan, often referred to as the SIP, is a working document that outlines some key strategic directions the school is taking for improvement. Our current SIP runs from this year until 2024. To ensure we are constantly reviewing what works best for Pennant Hills Public School and keeping on track to the best learning environment for our students, we have formed a main focus on Reading for 2021 and three supplementary focuses; Digital Technology/STEM, Wellbeing and continuing our focus on Mathematics.

If you would like to hear more about our school’s Strategic Directions, please join the P&C’s Zoom meeting this evening (link in the P&C section of the newsletter), where we will go into more detail.

Kind Regards

Mrs Kate Wasson

Deputy Principal

Scholastic Book Club

Twice a term Scholastic Book Club catalogues, featuring an array of books and other items, are made available to the students to take home if they wish to do so.  The catalogues can also be viewed on the Scholastic Australia website.  In turn, our school receives reward points from the orders that are placed and these are used to purchase a range of educational resources. 

As was the case last year parents place their own orders online. Consequently, the school does not accept cash or cheque payments. 

If you wish to order from the Book Club catalogue you will need to go to the Scholastic Book Club LOOP website page, register/update your details if you haven’t already done so and then pay by credit card.  After the closing date for that issue your order will be sent directly to the school and distributed.

How do I register and order?

1. Go to the Scholastic Book Club LOOP website to register your details. You will need to enter your name, email address and a password. Click on “Add new child” and using the drop-down menu locate our school and your child’s class. If you have children on both sites you may decide to register and place your entire order just with one child to save time.
2. Enter your child’s first name and their surname initial. Please note that Scholastic does not share student details with third parties or use this information for marketing purposes. This information is for distribution when the order arrives at the school.
3. Click on “ORDER” and enter the item number from the Book Club catalogue and follow the prompts to make payment by credit card.
4. All orders are processed after the closing date and delivered to the school to be distributed.

Please note there is no need to return a paper order form or payment receipts to the school.

Classes will receive the Issue 1 catalogues this week. The closing date for online orders is Wednesday 10 February.

Ms Davis

Teacher Librarian

Welcome back everyone! Whether you’re returning from last year or are brand new to our school, we hope you had an amazing holiday and look forward to the year ahead! I’m confident 2021 will be amazing. We especially welcome all our new little friends, who start Kindy this year. We wish you all the best of luck and hope you enjoy your first of many years at our school! To all our returning families, great to have you back, we all remember how daunting the first year is, so please reach out and help them to feel welcome and part of our fantastic community.

The new works at the 3-6 site look fantastic, especially the very long awaited electronic sign, looks amazing! Well done to Mr Pinchbeck and the team for getting that done so well.

If you have any time or any ideas, come along and join our amazing P&C, it’s the best one around and will only get better with your help and your ideas.  Don’t forget, whatever YOU put in, only enhances YOUR child’s education and experiences at our school. 

Our first P&C meeting for the year is this Tuesday 2nd February starting at 7.30pm. It will be very informal and a really great opportunity to meet the P&C executive, as well as the Principal, Mr Pinchbeck and Deputy Principal, Mrs Wasson - and to see how the School and the P&C work so well together in providing our kids with the best opportunities to learn and enjoy their schooling.  P&C meetings are held on the first Tuesday of every month and we would encourage you to come along, join other committed families and support your kids in getting the best equipment, facilities, grounds and education experience they can! All the hard work and money we raise goes straight back, directly into our kids and their futures.

P&C meetings will continue to be held via Zoom to start 2021. The meeting this week can be accessed through this link:

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 813 6774 2593

Passcode: 579345

Look forward to seeing you soon and have an awesome term.

Our 2021 Business Directory is OUT NOW.

Read now: https://tinyurl.com/y3hsf7pp

COME JOIN THE GREEN TEAM

We are a group of parents and guardians with curiosity and interest around sustainability, and who work with the school to reduce our environmental footprint.

We are looking for other like-minded members of our community to join our team. The minimum time commitment is 2 hours / month for a catch up.

Some of our achievements:

1.     We have run a ‘green’ fete and hope to do the same this year
2.     Our Return and Earn Initiative has raised over $1,000
3.     Worked with teachers and the canteen to introduce soft plastic and food scraps recycling
4.     We have been accepted as a P&C sub committee
5.     We started a “Dear Green Team” newsletter feature to answer our kid’s sustainable questions
6.     Helped our school to be featured as Hornsby Shire Council’s first Local Waste Champions
7.     We successfully campaigned for water station bottle refill taps
8.     We demonstrated a portable water filtration system at the P&C BBQ for our children to gain interest in reducing single use plastic bottles and using re-usable water bottles
9.     We are working with the Principal and P&C to solar our school

2021 will be an even BIGGER year

Come and join us. Enquiries to phpsgreenteam@gmail.com

If you would like to subscribe to our P&C meeting emails (minutes and agendas), 

please subscribe at the following link: http://eepurl.com/dlK3PD

Andrew Passé-de Silva

President, PHPS P&C

pandcpresident@gmail.com

0410 653 878

Covid-19 Operating Protocols

 
The Uniform Shop has reopened for over the counter sales and service.
However all parents are required to make an appointment before attending the Uniform Shop. This is to ensure that there is no overlapping of families or crowding and queuing at the shop.
All parents will be required to sign in and register at the 3-6 office before coming to the shop for their appointment. As a result of the sign in requirements, the Uniform Shop has had to adjust its operating hours and for the remainder of the term the shop will now open on Thursday mornings instead of Thursday afternoons.
To make an appointment at the Uniform Shop please use the following link:

https://calendly.com/phpsuniformshop/15minutes?month=2021-02

Uniform Shop Committee

We are currently seeking new members for the Uniform Shop Committee. The committee meets just once a term to discuss and monitor the supply, quality and price of the school uniform. The committee members also provide assistance to new families at the Kinderlinks program. If you are interested in joining the committee please contact me on the below email address.

Year 6 Sports Shirts

Class lists have been finalised and the shirts will be delivered to the printer this week. At this stage, I anticipate distributing the shirts by the end week 4 to those children who have placed an order.

Ordering Uniforms

Uniforms can be ordered by making an appointment at the Uniform Shop during opening hours, or alternatively an order form can be completed and together with payment of cash, cheque or card details handed in at either office. Orders will be filled and then delivered to the children’s classes. A combined pricelist and order form can be downloaded from the school website by following the links to Our School and What We Offer. Uniforms can also be ordered online through Flexischools, however prices will include the Flexischools’ surcharge.

Please note that uniform orders cannot be paid via the school online payment service

Hours

Monday and Tuesday 8:45am – 10:45am

Thursday revised to 8:45am – 10:45am

Order forms are available on the school website by following the link to Our School.

https://pennanthil-p.schools.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/doe/sws/schools/p/pennanthil-p/about-our-school/uniform-shop/Term_1_2021_Order_Form_and_Price_List.pdf

Alison Parker

Uniform Shop Manager

phpsuniformshop@gmail.com

HAPPY  NEW  YEAR!!!

The canteen will reopen next Monday, 8 February.

All ordering is through Flexischools.

We are open for lunch orders everyday at both sites.

Recess orders are available at the site 3-6 Wed - Fri.

Frozen Treats can be ordered for lunch time on Fridays only.

   

Heather Tyler

0425 274 681

canteenphps@gmail.com

2021 Training Band

A big welcome to the new Training Band members! 

The Training band rehearses on Friday mornings. For this week all Training band members should attend rehearsal time. This will give Ms Rose Foster the chance to go through what happens at a rehearsal, how to set up the room, what's expected of the children, hand out books and music, and get to know the children a little. Your child will not need their instrument for rehearsal this week.

Hire Instruments 

If you're hiring an instrument they can be collected from the Hall at the K-2 site on Tuesday the 2nd, from 3:30pm-4pm. The Band Committee Convener will be there to answer any questions. 

Worksheets

Please make sure you print off the new set of worksheets for your child to work on. They can be found on the Band web pages here. We're also working on a new way to submit these, so keep an eye on your email inbox for these details when we have it finalised. In the meantime, if you have one ready to submit, please take photos of them and send through all completed worksheets (or AMEB results) to phpsband+worksheets@gmail.com

Parent Helpers

Doodle polls are now open to fill in for Parent Helper slots. Please remember the band doesn't function without parent helpers. If we don't have a parent helper for a rehearsal it will not go ahead. 

SCB Permission to Walk Form

If all Senior Band families could fill in the "SCB Permission to Walk" form that would be great.

BASC

If your child attends BASC on a rehearsal morning or afternoon please ensure you let them know, so they can make arrangements to ensure your child is in the right place at the right time.

Rehearsals

Like last year, due to COVID we have social distancing requirements at rehearsals. All bands have been placed into two groups. On fine and sunny days band members from both groups would attend the rehearsal which will be done on the grass outside the band room. On days where it's raining or the ground is too wet only the group assigned to rehearse that day would attend.

Senior Concert Band - 

Group 1 (Brass, Bass guitar & Percussion) Monday afternoons (3:30pm - 4:30pm) 

Group 2 (Woodwind) Thursday mornings (7:30am - 9am)

Intermediate Concert Band (Wednesday 7:30am – 9:00am) - 

Group 1 (Brass, Bass guitar, Bass Clarinet, Tenor Sax & Percussion) odd weeks

Group 2 (Clarinets, Flutes, Alto Saxs and Percussion) even weeks

Training Band (Friday 8:00am – 9:00am) -  

Group 1 (Woodwind & Percussion) odd weeks

Group 2 (Brass, bass guitars & Percussion) even weeks 

This week will be too wet for full band rehearsals outside, so SCB please only attend on the day your group is on, ICB please only attend if you're in Group 2.

As per the information at the beginning of the band section, for Training Band (TB) everyone should attend for induction.

Full details should be in your inbox. I know this is a little confusing so if you have questions please send them to the committee.

SCB Monday afternoon rehearsals.

If you're attending Monday afternoon rehearsals, please encourage your child to get to the music room as soon as possible after the bell goes. It's a short rehearsal anyway and if we need to move gear outside then rehearsal time is very limited.

Jazz Band

Auditions will be conducted soon. Watch this space and your emails.

Band AGM and Committee Meeting

We're having our inaugural 2021 band AGM and committee meeting on Tuesday night at 7pm via Zoom.

Please use this link to attend.

2021 Committee Members

We'd love to get some new committee members involved in the running of the band. We'll have a few people leave at the end of the year, so we'll need to fill their positions, and being involved now gives a good amount of time to see how things are done in order to handover responsibilities.

Remember the band program doesn't run without a well-functioning band committee and volunteers, and if we can't get enough help there's always the possibility that the band program could disappear.

Many thanks,

Pennant Hills Public School Band Committee

phpsband@gmail.com

Website: http://www.phpspandc.org.au/band/