Welcome back! 

The staff at PHPS hope that all of our students and families had a safe and enjoyable break. We are excited to welcome them back for an exciting and busy term, filled with learning. 

This term sees many large events taking place, including the infamous Art Show, Education Week, Book Week, National Science Week and numerous other events and activities. Our staff are eager to support the students during this busy and fun-filled term. 

Staffing 

By now you would be aware of the news that Mr Pinchbeck is not returning to PHPS. We know that the PHPS community will be saddened by his departure as he made many positive changes to the educational and wellbeing outcomes of our students. We would like to thank Mr Pinchbeck for all that he has done, and we wish him all the best for his future endeavours at Hornsby North Public School. 

Until such a time that the Principal position of our amazing school is filled, I will be relieving Principal and Mrs Griffith will be relieving Deputy Principal. During this time, Miss Dy will be teaching 4P and from week 3, Mrs Morin will be teaching our EALD (English as an Additional Language and/or Dialect) students on K-2. Thank you to these teachers for making themselves available in supporting our students and our school during this time. 

We welcome back Mrs Partridge to teaching 5W on Thursdays and Fridays and she is very excited to be back. 

Staff Development Day 

Yesterday we had our Term 3 Staff Development Day. Many families are confused as to what we do on these days, the following is what we got up to this term.  

• Mrs McLaren shared with us some of the research and learning that she has undertaken as part of the Primary Mathematics Specialist Teachers program. It was an engaging session that involved fractions and chocolate!  
• Mrs Hobbs led us through the importance of fluency in bridging the gap between decoding + word recognition and comprehension. Some thought-provoking discussions occurred between staff and we are continuing our professional learning about fluency over the next 3 Tuesday afternoons.  
• We had an interactive session around staff culture and our expectations for our staff room.  
• Mrs Schmidt then shared with us her thoughts around the possibility of an educational support dog.  
• Stage teams then broke off after lunch and planned and programmed for the term.  

A busy and productive day!  
  
Tinker shed 

This term we aim to trial a tinker shed during some lunchtimes on the 3-6 site. We are currently waiting for the shed to be delivered. In the meantime, we would like to start collecting items that would be of use to the tinker shed. If you have any screwdriver or wrench sets, screws, hammers, nails, pliers, measuring tapes, spirit levels or even an old laptop (wiped), DVD players, clocks, fans or anything else you think might be of interest to pull apart and put back together – please email the school – pennanthil-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au with the title Tinker Shed. Please note that we will not be accepting all donations as we are limited in our space. 

If you are interested and available to work with some of our eager students during lunchtimes at the tinker shed, please also email the school and let me know your availability – we would love to have you on board! 

Kind Regards

Kate Wasson
Relieving Principal

Welcome back to an exciting term.
I am looking forward to acting as Deputy Principal for Term 3.  

Around the Grounds

                                                                                

Kind Regards

Melissa Griffith
Relieving Deputy Principal

Mrs Hobbs
Assistant Principal Curriculum and Instruction 

The Spelling Bee finals were held in the school hall on the 27th June.

All our contestants from Years 2 to 6, put in an amazing effort by just attempting the Premier’s Spelling Bee- it was challenging and some tough words were thrown at them all. They are all to be truly admired for their achievement.

Our Junior Contestants:

Year 2- Shernelle L, Angela Z, Sashenka F

Year 3- Luca H, Dylan H, Chloe H, Jeremy D, David H, Lachlan N

Year 4- Amy M, Johan A, Dhruv P, Emily W, Diyaa M, Blake K, Calvin S, Tommy J

Our Senior Contestants:

Year 5- Lucas V, Kay M, Shaniq F, Lara B, Laila M, Gabi M

Year 6- Charlotte J, Asa L, Elinore F, Monica L, Liviru L, Ali P

Congratulations to…

 Junior Champion: Calvin S

 Junior Runner-up: Angela Z

Senior Champion: Liviru L

Senior Runner-up: Asa Lee 

Both Calvin S and Liviru L will be the PHPS contestants at the Regional Finals in Term 3.

Well done and we all wish you the very best of luck!!

Melissa Schmidt
Premier’s Spelling Bee Coordinator/ Learning and Support Teacher

In Science Stage 3 are exploring the states of matter. To support their learning they participated in an incursion where they watched 1000 ping pong balls explode, hit covered in slime and created and launched rockets. 

 I am investigating the possibility of PHPS getting its very own Educational Support Dog.  

There is enormous amounts of research supporting the idea that educational support animals can: 

• be a source of comfort & safety for children
• alleviate anxiety & distress
• facilitate social interaction and social skills
• stimulate learning outcomes and engagement in learning
• provide lesson opportunities about feelings, self-control, responsibility, grief & attachment
• be a writing stimulus
• support interaction with living creatures
• improve student attendance
• provide companionship
• be a non judgemental friend to talk to
• be read aloud to!!

There are so many positive reasons to welcome an Educational Support dog to our school, don’t you agree??!! 

Should we be able to get a dog, we will hopefully be welcoming Teddy to the PHPS Family, as our Educational Support dog. 

Teddy is a Frug- a male French bulldog and Pug mix who is 10 months old. Teddy is very loving, a whole lot cute and incredibly playful. He loves going to the dog park to meet all his friends but loves food even more. He has been attending obedience classes every Sunday and has so far learnt to sit, drop, almost stay and come when called.  

Teddy lives with Ms Schmidt and her daughter at their home. He has a sister, Astrid, who is also a Frug.  

If Teddy passes all the requirements of becoming an Educational Support Dog- there is a LOT of paperwork to complete!- he will be getting used to the school environment in the coming weeks. He will be located on the 3-6 site and will make visits to the K-2 site. More information as to when he will be at school and what that could look like, will be in future Newsletters, so keep an eye out for more information soon. 

If you have any questions, concerns or comments- such as: allergies or fearful of dogs or love dogs or absolutely anything else- about Teddy being at school, please contact me via email or call the school on 9484 1134.  

Please also note that although we may be having Teddy at school, unfortunately all other dogs and animals are not allowed. 

Ms Melissa Schmidt
Learning & Support Teacher and Teddy’s owner
melissa.schmidt7@det.nsw.edu.au

STAGE 2

Scores for the final game of Term 2.

Netball

Boys: NW defeated PH 15-6
Girls:PH defeated NWt 20-18

Soccer

Boys: NW defeated PH 7-0
Girls: NW defeated PH 3-0

STAGE 3

The 3-6 Athletics Carnival is being held next Tuesday, 25 July, at Pennant Hills Park.

The Canteen will be selling snacks and drinks at the Carnival. 

3-6 Students will need to bring Lunch from home.

There will be no Lunch Orders for 3-6 students on the day.

Lunch Orders for K-2 students and staff will be available as usual.

The K-2 Canteen needs at least two helpers for Friday this week please. If you are available from 1pm-1.45pm please consider coming to help. The children absolutely love having a parent/loved one there. It will be the highlight of their week!!

Heather Tyler
0425 274 681
canteenphps@gmail.com

PHPS Band Committee
phpsband@gmail.com
www.phpspandc.org.au/band/

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.

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