Pennant Hills Public School eNewsletter

Staffing Update

We warmly welcome Mrs Angela Milligan to our wonderful school. Mrs Milligan was permanently appointed to our school at the end of last term and will be teaching 6R for the remainder of the year. Mrs Milligan is very excited to be joining our school community. She comes to us with a wealth of experience, and I am certain she will be an asset to our teaching staff.

Mrs McCloghry, who is very well known to our community will be taking 3D for the remainder of the year as Mrs Dakin is on Maternity Leave. We thank Mrs McCloghry for making herself available for five days a week to support the students of 3D. We also wish Mrs Dakin and her family the very best for the impending birth of their second child. I look forward to sharing their exciting news in a few weeks.

The school is currently in a recruitment process for two more teaching staff members. When each individual process is concluded I look forward to announcing the successful candidate to the community.

Covid Update

Welcome to the start of Term 3, after hopefully enjoying a safe and enjoyable winter break. I want to give you an overview of how we are continuing to ensure our school remains COVID-safe throughout this term.

As we continue to prioritise student and staff learning and wellbeing while at school, our layered COVID-smart measures will continue for Term 3. These ‘baseline measures’ are aligned to the NSW Government’s general community settings and include:

Staying home and getting tested if unwell, and only attending school when symptom free
Strongly encouraging mask wearing for all staff and students, particularly in the first four weeks of term
Rapid antigen testing for symptomatic students and staff, and close contacts attending school to learn and work
Strongly encouraging COVID-19 vaccinations for students, staff and their families, including a booster shot (when eligible)
Strongly encouraging students, staff and their families to get a flu shot
Strict requirements for close contacts attending
Good hygiene practices
Maximising natural ventilation
Boosted cleaning during the day, with particular attention given to high touch surface areas
Responding to local COVID-19 conditions when necessary, by working with the department’s Health, Safety and Staff Wellbeing team.

Continuing these baseline COVID-smart measures allows us to prioritise student and staff wellbeing while giving our learners a consistent and productive learning environment this term.

What’s New in Term 3?

As winter continues, our COVID-smart measures have been updated in consultation with NSW Health to provide appropriate protection to our school community.

Vaccinations - The department has updated its policy regarding COVID-19 vaccination for employees following an independent risk assessment of school (and corporate) settings and consultation with unions and relevant stakeholders. While vaccination will no longer be a requirement for our staff from 1 August 2022, it is pleasing to see that a recent survey highlighted that more than 99% of the department’s active school-based workforce have had at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. We will continue to strongly encourage all our staff to keep up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations as a way of protecting themselves, students, and our school community.

Boosted Day Cleaning - The department has made a slight change to its cleaning process. Cleaning of school sites will now be more concentrated during the day, with an increase in cleaning in school hours, and a subsequent reduction out of hours. Boosted day cleaning will continue to focus on high-touch areas and other hard surfaces, door handles, lockers, light switches and handrails in stairways and movement area.

What’s Continuing for Term 3?

Masks - Masks are an effective way of minimising the transmission of respiratory viruses and infections, and protecting our community, especially those who are at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 and flu. We strongly encourage all students and staff wear a mask for the first 4 weeks of Term 3, particularly in indoor settings or when distancing is not possible.  The latest NSW Health advice also recommends wearing a mask for people who have recovered from COVID-19 and recently completed their 7-day isolation period for an additional 3 days (from days 8 to 10 after receiving a positive COVID-19 result). Additionally, as outlined in the below section on close contacts, mask wearing is mandatory for staff and high school students returning to school as close contacts for 5 school days and strongly recommended for primary school students returning to school as close contacts for 5 school days. Students or staff identified as close contacts who are unable to wear a mask will be supported to learn or work remotely.

Rapid Antigen tests (RATs) - The department will send another round of RATs to our school early this term, which we will provide to you in the form of 1 multipack of 5 RAT kits per student. These RATs can be used as required for symptomatic testing, such as if your child is displaying even mild symptoms. Once these department-supplied RATs are exhausted, please continue to access store-purchased RATs which are now readily available in the community or PCR tests. Alternatively, let the school know that you need more and we will try and assist. Additionally, our school will be maintaining a reserve stock of RATs onsite to support symptomatic testing in the event of an outbreak in our school community. Please also remember that positive RAT results must be registered with Service NSW, and students who test positive to COVID-19 must not attend school until their isolation period ends and they are symptom free.

Close Contacts - Students identified as close contacts remain able to attend school providing they are symptom free, notify the school and return a negative COVID-19 test result daily for 5 consecutive school days. Primary students, while not required, are strongly encouraged to wear a mask for 5 consecutive school days (except when eating/drinking or exercising). Please note that students identified as close contacts are still unable to attend overnight excursions, including camps. Visitors identified as close contacts who are engaging directly with students are required to return a negative COVID-19 test result before attending our school and wear a mask.

Responding to our local situation - We will continue to liaise with NSW Health and the department’s Health, Safety and Staff Wellbeing Case Management team to ensure our COVID-smart settings keep up with the latest developments. If local conditions require it, this may mean reintroducing temporary additional COVID-smart measures to act as a ‘circuit breaker’, including:

- Mandating mask wearing for all staff
- Postponing or limiting non-essential activities like excursions, indoor assemblies and visitors to the school
- Directing cohorts to learn remotely for short periods of time.

Maximising natural ventilation - The department has reviewed environmental differences across NSW as part of their winter ventilation planning to ensure that local climatic conditions at each school are considered. The department will continue to provide local guidance to schools, including advice on maximising natural ventilation while balancing thermal comfort and the use of indoor and outdoor learning areas for school activities to support schools to adapt to local climate conditions throughout the winter months.

Reducing the risk of illness this winter - Finally, it is important to note NSW Health’s advice to reduce our risk of not only COVID-19, but other illnesses that may affect our school at this time of year such as the flu and, both of which can be serious in younger people. We can all protect our loved ones and our community by:

- Staying home and getting tested if unwell or displaying symptoms
- Keeping up to date with our vaccinations – including the flu vaccine, which is available from your local GP, pharmacy or Aboriginal Medical Service now
- Flu vaccines are free for all children aged 6 months to under 5 years, or for a small charge for those aged 5 years and older
- Getting tested immediately for COVID-19 if you become symptomatic and isolating until you receive a negative result and are symptom free
- Practicing good hand hygiene by washing regularly with soap and water
- Taking a RAT before visiting vulnerable loved ones or going to large gathering or events.

On behalf of our school, I want to thank you again for your ongoing support and resilience as we continue to work together to support our students.

Kind Regards

Matt Pinchbeck

Principal

Welcome Back

It is always so nice to see the many smiling faces on the playground the first morning back of a term and today was no different. There were a couple of worried Kindys, however they soon settled once they were in their classrooms and in a familiar routine. Most students seem to have had an enjoyable holiday and a break from school work, which is wonderful and the vast majority are happy to be back. We are happy to see you!

Staff Development Day

The staff development days that are often held at the beginning or end of a term can be a bit of a mystery to our community. What are we doing in this time? Well, it’s not cartwheels around the staff room as I like to tell some of the students, not usually anyway. Towards the beginning of the year we focus on our mandatory training, covering anaphylaxis, asthma, CPR, the code of conduct, WHS policies and procedures and normally Covid-19 updates. This term, we had Mrs McLaren and Mrs Ford share some of their knowledge about current, evidence-based mathematics pedagogy and had a play with some open-ended mathematics tasks, discussing the different ways we could differentiate for our students. We also completed a course on the introduction to the new English K-2 syllabus, which is due to be adhered to in 2023. It was very beneficial to go through the online version of the syllabus and discuss new aspects and how we could embed some of these concepts into our current programming. Stage teams had time in the afternoon to solidify these discussions, plan and program for the term ahead. We also conducted a Scavenger Hunt as a team building exercise. In groups, teachers recreated Beetles covers, created domino snakes, did handstands, played the floor is lava, recreated the evolution of man/woman and drew portraits, to name a few.

Kind Regards

Kate Wasson

Deputy Principal

KR - Stephanie X, Noah A, Loya C

1P - Kelvin Z, Dylan S, Patrice S, William P, Felicity N, Benji H, Navya D

2A - Aliya A, Eva G, Evie B

PHPS Green Team

Dance Spectacular Coordinators

President’s Message

Hi All

Come along to the free P&C Welcome back BBQ this Friday 22nd July from 5pm. Details are below. The Return and Earn Poster competition is closing on Wednesday so make sure entries go to the school offices!

Our annual Walkathon is back on Tuesday 2nd August and is a fun afternoon for kids and families alike. To make this happen the P&C rely on parent volunteers so please sign up for an hour to help out if you’re able to attend. Details are in the section below.

More exciting events will be shared in coming weeks, including an Art and Sip Night,an Obstacool inflatable course and a raffle to be drawn at the School Dance Spectacular in October!

This year we are using the Building Fund to help raise money for the Solar Panel Project - helping the school install Solar Panels (a Government grant is being applied for but 50% must be paid by the School Community). Solar Panels will help reduce our carbon footprint, reduce environmental impacts and benefit the community as a whole. It will also SAVE approx $11,000 a year in annual electricity costs that can be PUT BACK into the school in other programs - it is a win win situation!

We look forward to seeing you and spending time with our wonderful PHPS community!

Just a reminder the next P&C General Meeting is in August as July fell during the school holidays.

Have a great week.

Luke Whenman

P&C President

pandcpresident@gmail.com

Welcome Back BBQ this Friday!

After a long COVID delay, the P&C is holding a BBQ on Friday 22 July from 5pm at the school hall to welcome families back on site.

Meet other families, have a free sausage sandwich, take part in our sustainability scavenger hunt to celebrate our project to put solar panels on the school. You will also be able to cast your vote for the winning Return and Earn poster competition entries on the night!

If you can help out on the bbq during the night or setting up from 4pm please txt Chris K on 0424 744 315.

Poster Competition - Return and Earn

The P&C is holding a poster competition to help promote our school’s Return and Earn program. Posters can be A3 or A4 and should include useful information such as:

Return and Earn bins have orange lids and are on each site
Containers must be empty and uncrushed
Eligible containers have a 10c logo on the label.

Entries can be submitted via the box at the office on either site. Entries close on Wednesday 20 July and winners will be voted on and announced at the Welcome Back BBQ on Friday 22 July. It's a great holiday activity for the kids and a great way to share the positive focus on our green initiatives.

All entries will be displayed at the Welcome Back BBQ. Everyone at the BBQ will have the chance to vote on a winner by dropping a gold coin in the can displayed with their favourite entry. The winners will be announced on the night. There will be a K-2 winner and a 3-6 winner.

Walkathon - Tuesday 2 August at the K-2 site.

A great day for families to watch our children walk laps around the school, raising money for each lap! Sponsorship forms were sent home before the holidays - now is the time to approach family and friends for $’s for each lap! Sponsorship forms and payments via Flexischools will be due by mid-August.

We need volunteers

Wednesday 27 July: 8 - 9pm Dial in meeting - join us to help coordinate prizes and sponsorship money. No experience or skills necessary!
Friday 29 July: 9:30am - 11am at the K-2 office to prepare the lap cards.
Tuesday 2 August: from 11:30 - 3pm (1 hour shifts) for setting up and pack down, encouragement around the course and canteen.

Sign up to this great event here!

Message From PHPS Green Team

Now that we are having events including families at school, please remember to bring your keep cups and drink bottles with you each time. That way we can avoid using disposable containers and cut down on the amount of rubbish we send to landfill.

Parents or carers who would like to be part of making our school more sustainable, please contact 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

I hope you all had a nice break over the holidays and are feeling a little refreshed.

Price Increases

At the end of last term we received notification from several of our major suppliers about significant price increases, starting on the 1st of July. I was not surprised given the current circumstances, but unfortunately this does mean that we need to increase our prices. We are sorry about this and hope that you will be understanding. Please know that we only put our prices up out of necessity.

3-6 Athletics Carnival

The 3-6 athletics carnival is Tuesday, 26 July at Pennant Hills Park.
The Canteen will be selling snacks and drinks at the venue
The P&C will be running a Sausage Sizzle.
No pre-ordering required - cash only sales on the day.

We will require helpers for the stall and transporting drinks etc. Please let me know if you can help with this. Thank you.

PLEASE NOTE - The Canteen will not be open for lunch orders at either site on this day.

Walkathon

The Walkathon will take place after lunch on Tuesday 2 August. The Canteen will be open for lunch orders as usual, and the whole school will eat lunch together at the K-2 site.

If you have any questions, or would like to be involved in the canteen, please contact me.

Heather Tyler

0425 274 681

canteenphps@gmail.com

New Pricing

From Monday 18 July, due to recent increases in our supplier costs, the Uniform Shop has slightly increased prices. In conjunction with the price increase we have removed the bag fee and credit card surcharges that you have previously been charged. This allows us to implement a single price list that will be used for both online and in-shop purchases. The new pricelist is available to be viewed in Flexischools.

Please note, we are trying our hardest to balance the price increases from our suppliers and maintaining an affordable uniform for everyone. If you are experiencing financial hardship, please do not hesitate to have a confidential conversation with the school regarding your circumstances.

Appointments

The Uniform Shop will continue to be open by appointment only for the foreseeable future. This will assist us in maintaining physical distancing and minimise waiting times for you to be served.

Appointments can be booked on Eventbrite using the following link: https://phps-uniform-shop.eventbrite.com
Appointment times are in 15-minute increments and are open to 2-3 bookings per available timeslot. As these are not individual appointments you may need to wait until the person before you has been served.
If the available times are not suitable, please contact us via email at phpsuniformshop@gmail.com to organise alternative arrangements.

Second Hand Items

Second Hand / Preloved items will continue to be available online via Flexischools. Only items in very good condition will be added for sales online, and these items currently will not be available for purchase directly from the shop. If you don’t find what you are looking for on Flexischools, you can book an appointment to look through the unsorted/unlisted items at the shop.

For all enquiries, feel free to contact me via email.

Janine Sherlock

Uniform Shop Manager

phpsuniformshop@gmail.com

Big thank you to all the band members, and families who attended the Performance Assembly and Post Music Camp Concert at the end of last term. We hope you enjoyed it and saw how much the students all got out of attending. Plans for next year's Music camp are already being voiced with some big ideas in the works.

If you'd like to hear some of their past performances, they can be found on the PHPS Band YouTube page here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC494Os0W09Vyv5O966ooZ_g

We add new performances as they come to hand, so subscribe to be notified when a new piece is added in! If we get more than 100 subscribers then I can finally change the Band YouTube URL to something better!

NSW State Junior Wind Band Representatives

Congratulations to both Quinn S - 6R (Trumpet) and Kaiden T - 4F (Clarinet) for being selected to be part of the NSW State Junior Wind Band for 2022.

The State Wind Band provides an opportunity for talented music students in NSW public schools to perform in a state ensemble under the direction of professional conductors. The band will perform repertoire chosen to challenge and extend students' musical skills. They will participate in 4 days of intense rehearsals at the end of August, and concerts at the Sydney Town Hall on Wednesday 31 August, and the Sydney Opera House on the Thursday 1 September.

Well done!

Future Band Events

Our performance calendar has a number of events for the year. So please keep your eye on this section of the newsletter for important dates to keep free.

Education Week Assembly: Wednesday 3 August, 1:45-3pm - All Bands
Ryde Eisteddfod: Thursday 4 August - JB
ASBOF, UNSW Kensington: Sunday 7 August - SCB, ICB, & TB
Performance Assembly: Wednesday afternoon 7 September - TB, ICB
NSSWE Spring Music Festival: 8 - 11 September - TBD
Music by Moonlight, NWPS: Satursday 17 September - SCB

Keep your eye on the newsletter, WhatsApp and emails for more details.

Senior Concert Band

Please ensure you're practising the following pieces **priority:

**Arabian Dancers (https://youtu.be/MUkWjYMcRBQ)
**Tales of the Sea (https://youtu.be/f_JNFoSTkDw)

Jazz Band

Please ensure you're practising the following:

**Blues Machine (https://youtu.be/x6LehBpCZJc)
Havana (https://youtu.be/A9DnpdPEiRI)
Hit the Road Jack (https://youtu.be/ia027MOA0qk)

Intermediate Band

Please ensure you're practising the following pieces as well as working on your term 3 worksheet exercises:

**Star Wars (https://youtu.be/wyna3F9fByM)
**Tequila (https://youtu.be/IXOccbAPRy0)
How To Train Your Dragon (https://youtu.be/bhz8ZPm0oPY)

Training Band

Please ensure you're practising the following pieces as well as working on your term 3 worksheet exercises :

**Lets Rock (https://youtu.be/UZBFR-A9n7U)
**Lullaby (https://youtu.be/LeKw4dQAvt0)
Rise of the Bladesmith (https://youtu.be/XJWfAE4b37g)

Regarding Wet Weather

If it's raining the flutes, clarinets, & trumpet players can put their cases under their chairs inside and pack away in there.

Unfortunately the larger instruments are a little harder, ideally if it's only a little wet they will need to pack away outside on the ramped area. If it's bucketing down, then having them pack away inside may be necessary.

Term 3 Parent Helper Rosters Open

Please get them filled in ASAP

Award Worksheets

We're now at the beginning of Term 3, so Training and Intermediate bands really should have completed their current Term 1 & Term 2 worksheets. There are still a number of people who have not submitted these. Please work with your children's tutor to get these signed off as soon as possible.

Once complete these are to be submitted through the Worksheet Submission Web Form.
If anyone needs a particular worksheet you can print them from the Band web pages here.

Parent Helper Duties

A full list of parent helper duties is available here.

Crowding the door - please don't let the students crowd the door with bags and instrument cases. School bags should be put on the silver shelves, and instrument cases can be lined up on the ramp.
Behavior: If children are misbehaving please help the conductors. Just because they're not playing, doesn't mean they should be talking. If they have a question, classroom rules apply, they raise their hand and wait to be asked. There is a red "Student Behavior'' book which can be used to write children's names in, if a name is in there repeatedly then we will get in touch with their parents.
Training Band: When walking the students back to the 3-6 site try to have them line up in pairs on the path to the side. Count them twice, check the head count to the marked roll. Tell the students to walk nicely and stick together on the walk up. If possible, have a parent front and rear and discourage wandering. Once all accounted for you are free and thank you for helping.
Packing up the room: The students are primarily responsible for packing up the music room after band rehearsal. Percussionists should be getting the percussion equipment back toward the wall and covered up, and the rest of the band packing up chairs and stands. It is not to be left to the conductor, or the parent helpers. All students should be involved, and students should not leave until the room is in an acceptable condition.

Parent Helpers

Big thank-you to this week's helpers