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Father’s Day
This Sunday is Father’s Day. It is a day to acknowledge the important part fathers, grandfathers, uncles, and significant male role models play in the lives of children. I truly hope this Sunday you get the opportunity to acknowledge the role they play in your own way. Fingers crossed the weather is kind to us and we can enjoy the day following the current Public Health Orders. On behalf of our community I thank all the fathers, grandfathers, uncles and significant male role models for their love, support and guidance to support the children of today.
Student Achievement
Congratulations to Amelia C in Year 4 who has won the Art competition, Art in Lockdown, that was mentioned in our newsletter a couple of weeks ago. Amelia nominated our school as the organisation to receive a donation. I look forward to discussing this with her to ensure it is used wisely. Thank you to everyone in our community who voted.
Covid-19 Update
Last Friday the Premier announced the road map for a return to school for our students. My message last Friday was not completely accurate and hopefully I can clarify it here for you. I apologise for any inconvenience caused.
The current lockdown is due to end towards the end of September. If the stay at home orders are lifted then, all students will return to school at the beginning of Term 4. This will be under Level 3 guidelines.
The Level 3 guidelines are very similar to what we experienced last year when we returned to school after lockdown. You can expect to be advised about specific drop off and pick up locations and times. We will also be making adjustments to the break times throughout the day to limit the potential interaction between the grades.
If the stay at home orders are extended, then we will see a staggered return to school beginning on Monday 25 October (Week 4). During this week we would see Kindergarten and Year 1 students return and they would be kept in class cohorts. From the beginning of Week 5 we would also see the return of students in Years 2 and 6. Again these year groups will be kept in class cohorts. When in class cohorts for Weeks 4 and 5, students will spend the entire day with their class. This includes recess and lunch times. There will be no mingling between any classes. At the beginning of Week 6 we would welcome all students back to school. Please note at this point the students would be in class groups for their teaching and learning, however, recess and lunch they will be in year groups. These guidelines are considered Level 3 plus.
If we return to school under these guidelines there will be lots of adjustments made to the school day. There will be allocated times for students to arrive in the morning, where to be dropped, recess and lunch breaks and potentially pick up times in the afternoon. All these adjustments are to limit mingling and make contact tracing easier.
Our hygiene practices will remain in place with all students regularly being encouraged to wash their hands, plus all classrooms will be required to ensure they are well ventilated by opening their windows. As we are a split site this certainly has its advantages in this difficult time and allows us to manage it a bit easier than other schools. The school will also continue to be cleaned throughout the day to ensure high touch areas are regularly cleaned. All staff will be required to be vaccinated by Nov 8 and will be required to wear a mask at all times. Students in the primary school setting will be encouraged to wear a mask. Staff and students are to supply their own mask. They will not be supplied by the school. The school does have masks if required, especially as part of our infection control procedures.
When we get closer to the students returning the school will provide specific details to ensure we follow the guidelines set by NSW Health and the NSW Department of Education. I just wanted to ensure you have the most up-to-date information possible at this time.
Check-In Assessments
As a school we have signed up to a set of online assessments called Check-In assessments. These assessments have been organised by the NSW Department of Education. Students in Years 3-6 will sit these assessments which consists of two assessments: literacy and numeracy. Each assessment takes approximately 40 minutes to complete and will be completed next term. These assessments have been designed to quickly identify areas of strength and need after the lockdown to allow the teachers to adjust their programming to cater for the student’s needs. The results, usually to the school within 72 hours, are for the school and parents will not receive a copy of the results. You are more than welcome to arrange a meeting with your child’s teacher to discuss the results if you wish.
NAPLAN
The school is due to receive this year’s NAPLAN results by the end of this term. Once we have the results, we will arrange for parents of students in Year 3 and 5 to receive their copy of their child’s results. We will likely arrange a day for parents to collect from the school using the booking system we are using for the Learning from Home packs.
Learning from Home Packs – Week 9
For those families that require the hard copies of the Learning from Home packs please book in via the system we use for Parent Teacher interviews. Please use the following link, School Interviews and enter the code, f9w5a. Select your desired time to come to the 3-6 site. This booking site will be open from Thursday morning at 10am. All packs will be able to be collected this Friday or Monday for next week’s pack. Please only come and collect a pack if you need one. Please do not just call in to the office to try and collect a pack as you will be politely turned away. We have this process to ensure we are following our Covid-19 Safety Plan to assist you and the wider community.
Starting Big School in 2022
If you know someone living in our catchment area that is due to start ‘big school’ next year, please encourage them to contact the school. The enrolment process has been streamlined and all families living in our catchment area can now apply online and complete most of the process this way. For all information relating to enrolment please click the following link, Enrolment - Pennant Hills Public School (nsw.gov.au) .
Normally in Term 4 we would hold our Kindilinks program to transition next year’s enrolments to school. At this point we are unsure if this will be able to proceed. However, we have set aside the following dates for this process. When we have a clear understanding of what the future holds I will be sure to update our community, so please save the date and stay tuned.
- Tuesday 19 October – Kindergarten Parent Information Session at 7pm – Probably via Zoom
- Tuesday 26 October – Kindilink session from 9:30am-11am
- Tuesday 2 November – Kindilink session from 9:30-11am
- Tuesday 9 November – Kindilink session from 9:30-11am
- Tuesday 16 November – Kindilink session from 9:30-11am
Kind Regards
Mr Matt Pinchbeck
Principal
Screen-Free Wednesday
Celine- 6R and Eden 6R
Survey Results
Thank you to the families who provided us with feedback in regards to our wellbeing initiative; Screen-free Wednesday – over 200 responses! Families from across the school responded to the survey, with between 15-25% distribution across the grades. Please see below for the results of the survey.
With over 91% of families stating that their child/ren enjoyed Screen-free Wednesday and over 86% of families seeing the benefit in this initiative, we will take that as a win! Almost 70% of families stated that they would like to see Screen-free Wednesday every week or fortnight, with the majority responding that fortnightly would be preferable.
Due to this, we will continue this initiative on a more frequent basis with some adjustments. Most of the comments were very positive and others provided some areas for us to refine. We understand that having a Zoom session in the morning is not screen-free, nor is taking photos of the student’s work, however, we are obliged to mark the roll and conduct wellbeing checks on our students as well as providing our students access to the teachers if they need them. We will be outlining to our students that this isn’t a ‘day off’, it is a day of student-direction and choice with a focus on wellbeing without a screen. We appreciate your support in this message. We will be looking at embedding additional independent or ‘parent-free’ activities to support our families. Thank you for your very valuable feedback!
Where is Wally?
How many Wally’s have you found in the neighbourhood so far?
Thank you to our school leaders for supporting the Where’s Wally hunt!
Kind Regards
Mrs Kate Wasson
Deputy Principal
Book Week
Last week our school celebrated Book Week at home. The virtual theme day was a great success with many characters from many worlds joining us in our daily class zooms. There were lots of Book Week webinars from the State Library with different authors and various writing workshops. Thank you to everyone that dressed up and made the day special.
Luke’s Lockdown Boredom Busters
During the lockdown, it is important to stay healthy and keep moving. My favourite things to keep active are:
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Going for bushwalks with my family,
- Taking my dog to the oval across the street or to the dog park and teaching her many new tricks,
- Having lots of little breaks during the day and going on the trampoline or shooting some hoops with my brother,
- Kicking the ball at the oval with my dad,
- Riding my bike.
Another important thing is to keep your imagination active. My favourite ways to do this are:
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Filming Lego stop-motion movies
- Reading a good book
- Online drawing tutorials
The most important thing to do during lockdown is to keep in touch with your family and friends. I have been doing that by:
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Zoom dinners with family. We even had a zoom birthday party the other day and we had all bought cakes and party hats.
- Face time with friends,
- Playing Xbox with my friends online,
- Friday night movies and pizza with my family.
These are the things I have been doing to stay busy during the lockdown and I hope that one of the above ideas helps you try something new. Stay safe and healthy.
Luke
Vice Captain
Sophia’s Leaders Report
During this tedious lockdown period, we have missed out on many activities that would’ve been different if we weren't in lockdown, such as book week. Last week was book week, we got to dress up in our favourite book characters for our Zoom classes. There were many amazing outfits that students wore.
This lockdown has taken a huge toll on our lives, school had to be switched to online and activities to do around the house have either become less fun or more fun. For me and others, learning from home has been an opportunity to become more independent since we were not learning face-to-face.
I’ve realised that I have way more spare time than I used to, since extra-curricular activities have paused. Instead of out-of-school activities, I’ve decided to do many things that I wouldn’t usually do, like
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Observing insects
- Cleaning out my room
- Binge-watching my favourite TV shows hundreds of times.
Even though lockdown is an unfortunate event, it has been the perfect opportunity to do those things that we were going do ‘later’.
Remember to get away from your device and get some fresh air every now and then. Stay safe and have fun!
Sophia
Vice Captain
Mrs Griffith
Relieving Deputy Principal
KB - Fynn T, Joanna Y, Gavin Z
KC - Angus C, Abigail J
KD - Jasper S, Madeleine B
KL - Ethan S, Emma L, Rasidhu H
1A - Kaleiya S, Eric W, Eleanor P
1E - Reeti G, Jordan H, Sian Y
1M - Evie B, Max F, Henley W
1/2P - Esther P, Isla B
2A - Kira B, Jack V, Blake K
2B - Rehan K, Clara D, Alex A
2W - Dan H, Marcus T, Moksha Y
3D - Isaac L, Arin S, Kaiden T
3H - Shion R, Lucas V, Hannah M
3R - Austin D, Alexia L, Abi W
4B - Priyani B, Atticus P, Ansh B
4F - Edward C, Ryan P, Nathan P, Liviru L
4M - Reuben T, Dhruv T, Kelsey C, Roshini K
5B - Tom S, Claire A, Jayden S
5M - Angus W, Vinessa S, Anthony L
5W - Elijah F, Hamish C, Isabella P
6M - Lauren P, Martha M, Shwe M, Abigail N
6R - Ava N, Charle S, Mathew M
6S - Ronan S, Alanna K, Ameya A, Alex B
Music - Isla A (1A), Marlina T (1E), Giselle H (4B), Lenny F (5B), Annabelle R (5M), Aiden L (6S)
Student Support - Anderson X (1A), Lucy K (2A), Ethan S (3D), Sahanya F (4F), Kenzie W (4M), Mathieu C (5W)
Lucas got dressed up as Dr Muderis for book week. He also wrote an email to the author and she replied and then put his photo up on her Instagram account.
Can you guess who this is?
Ms Davis
Teacher Librarian
Hi all
I hope everyone is holding up ok through this extended lockdown. Given the continued uncertainty around restrictions and return to school dates all core P&C activities remain on hold pending further advice.
We will be holding the September P&C meeting via teams next Tuesday 7 September at 7:30pm. Whilst the P&C updates will be limited, this is a great opportunity to hear from Mr Pinchbeck and Mrs Wasson as well as connecting across the community.
Microsoft Teams meeting
Join on your computer or mobile app
Click here to join the meeting
Or call in (audio only)
+61 2 8318 0009,,506084360# Australia, Sydney
Phone Conference ID: 506 084 360#
Finally, I'd like to wish all the Dads a very happy Father's Day for this Sunday. Not the quite the day we hoped for but I'm sure we'll make the most of it.
Have a great week.
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
Luke Whenman
President, PHPS P&C
Heather Tyler
0425 274 681
The Uniform Shop is closed due to the current Covid-19 restrictions introduced during the school holidays. Once the lockdown restrictions have eased, we will advise you of the operating procedures that will be put in place for the remainder of Term 3.
Any outstanding Flexischools orders will be processed as soon as the shop re-opens.
Order forms are available on the Uniform Shop page of the school website or by using the link below
Opening hours are currently suspended
Alison Parker
Uniform Shop Manager
Year 2 Families!
Are you thinking about joining the band program in 2022? The band program is open to any students from Year 3 upward, and we encourage all students who have an interest in music and learning to join. I understand that there may be some hesitation in joining, especially with the uncertainty around Covid restrictions, but learning an instrument is a skill which can benefit students in so many ways. Keep your eyes on this part of the school newsletter; we will be putting up lots of information about the benefits of learning a musical instrument over the coming weeks.
JAZZ BAND Lockdown Video
Our Jazz Band have done on outstanding job on their Lockdown video entitled "The Funky Covid Monkey"
Check it out on here: https://youtu.be/SESXUKavwaM
A lockdown video from ICB should be out by next week, and TB shortly after..
Instrument Sales
The band program often purchase new instruments and sell some of our older ones to existing students and families. At present we have for sale some Alto Saxophones, Trombones, a Euphonium, and a Tuba. If you are interested please let us know and we can provide additional information.
Google Classrooms and Zoom for Band
Please make sure you are logging into the Band Google Classrooms and attending the Zoom sessions. Links for the Zoom sessions are going out via the WhatsApp groups.
Tutoring
We think it is really important that your children remain engaged with the band program during the time we have to learn from home. It is also important that they continue to receive tutoring. If you are having issues with tutoring due to the lockdown please let us know and we will see what we can do to assist.
Future Events at a Glance
Given the current government return to school plans, we think it is highly unlikely that any events will take place this year (including the Christmas Carols).
But watch this space and your email for any updates.
Term 3 Fees
Term 3 fees will be issued soon. If you are under any financial pressure due to the lockdown and are concerned about band fees, please reach out via email. Any correspondence will be treated under the strictest confidence.
Award Worksheets
Please keep your children working on their worksheets with their tutors.
Can any completed worksheets please be submitted as soon as possible through the new Worksheet Submission Web Form. https://forms.gle/NpPEG9jk2FsYdmmq7
If you have issues with the web form you can still send through to phpsband+worksheets@gmail.com
A Note from the Committee Convener
I'd like to thank everyone for their continued support during this time. Conducting a music program online is a difficult task. We're all trying our best, and will endeavour to keep it as interesting as possible for the students. But we'll need your help in encouraging your children to continue to take part in the band exercises.
Pennant Hills Public School Band Committee
Website: http://www.phpspandc.org.au/band/
Dear Strings parents
All communications regarding the String Ensembles will be via email until kids return to school.
PHPS String Ensemble
Website: http://www.phpspandc.org.au/string-ensemble/
Feedback: http://www.phpspandc.org.au/string-ensemble/contact-us/
DISCLAIMER
Advertisements placed in the School’s Newsletter do not reflect an endorsement or otherwise by Pennant Hills Public School of the product or service.