2019 TERM 2 - WEEK 4

ENDEAVOUR

NEWSLETTER OF WEST RYDE PUBLIC SCHOOL

‘nothing left unattempted’

Principal’s Message

It has again been a very busy fortnight for West Ryde PS. Students in Year 1 participated in a Minibeast Drama incursion where they dressed up and explored an imaginary garden learning about the traits, food sources and protective behaviours of insects and other creepy crawlies. Kindergarten got their hands dirty and learnt about shapes and textures during their Raw Art incursion, creating sculptures out of clay. Years 3 and 4 spent the day at Meadowbank Park with members of the Western Sydney Wanderers honing their football skills and enjoyed running around on grass! Excursions and incursions give all ours students the opportunity to learn and consolidate their skills and understanding about focus topics but it also is a wonderful way to engage them in activities and experiences outside the classroom.

A big thank you goes to the staff for organising and facilitating these events for all our students.

Building Update

The upgrade of West Ryde Public School is underway. This will provide a new three storey building comprising of 14 new flexible teaching spaces, a new library and the refurbishment of existing core facilities including the administration and staff areas. The demolition of the old toilet block has been completed and the civil works are now progressing on the site.

As the construction proceeds, we will endeavour to get as much information and updates to our community as possible.

UPCOMING DATES: 23rd May Canteen Open 24th May PSSA Rd 4 29th May Zone Cross Country 30th May Canteen Open 31St May PSSA Rd 5 5th June Uniform Shop Open 6th June Yr 2 Marble Run Inc Yr 1 Schoolyard Safari Incursion

Attendance

We had a record number of students (over 180!) away from school last week, mainly due to sickness. Thank you to parents and carers for ensuring students unfit for school are resting and recuperating at home. Yes, missing time from school is not ideal, however, being sick means your child is not doing their best learning and those around them are being affected too. But, if your child is healthy and feeling 100% for school, then they need to be here on time. School starts at 8:55am and we are again seeing an increase in students arriving late. 10 minutes doesn’t seem like a lot, but if your child is late 10 minutes each day, that is up to 30 hours of school in a year they are missing. Lateness not only impacts your child, but the rest of the class as it interrupts the morning routine. Let’s try and get all our students to school on time, to ensure their day starts in the most positive way possible so they have a successful day of learning!

Absence Notes

The Department of Education’s policy on school attendance states “parents are required to explain the absences of their children from school promptly and within seven days to the school. An explanation for absence must be provided to the school within 7 days of the first day of any period of absence”. Included in this newsletter are copies of absence notes you can print and use when your child has been absent from school. These are also available on the school and department websites and translated versions of the document can be found at https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/going-to-a-public-school/translated-documents/absentee-note-1-one-day-absence

Lost Property

A number of students and parents are coming to the office enquiring about lost property such as drink bottles, lunchboxes, jumpers and hats. Could you please ensure all items brought to school are clearly marked with your child’s name so these items can be returned to the student. Any clothing items without a name will be passed on to the P&C uniform shop to be sold back to you!

Thank You

A big thank you goes out to the P&C for the recent Mother’s Day Stall and Federal Election Day BBQ, Book and Bake Stall. This year, the P&C through their fundraising efforts have donated: • $5000 to our school library to purchase quality literature

for all our students, • $2000 to fund new PSSA jerseys for the Junior and Senior

Girls Football teams • $1000 for passive play equipment for the hall. Also a huge thank you to Heather Gorton, our Community Youth Worker, for yet again going above and beyond organising and catering for the annual Mother’s Day Morning Tea. It was wonderful to see so many mums, aunts, grandmothers and a few dads connecting with other carers and taking time for themselves. Albina Lee – R/Principal

National Simultaneous Story Time On May 22, a number of our classes really enjoyed hearing Alpacas with Maracas read by author Matt Cosgrove. We participated in the National Simultaneous Story Time event along with over a million other Australian children. This happens every year with a new Australian picture book and aims to promote a love of reading at home and at school. Ms Lizzie Chase, Teacher Librarian

Senior Girls Netball

On the 13th May the Senior Girls Netball team competed in the New South Wales Netball knockout competition against Boronia Park Public School. The girls arrived early in great spirits and played enthusiastically through four gruelling quarters of determined Boronia Park attacks. All girls played whole heartily and worked together excellently as a team. A huge thank you to Miss Richards for taking the girls to the competition. Sam James

Wanderers Coaching Clinic On Tuesday 21st May all year 3 and 4 students walked to Meadowbank Park to participate in a Western Sydney Wanderers Coaching Clinic. All day students took part in various football skills, drills and games in an initiative to get active and healthy while learning the fundamentals of football. All up students and teachers had a wonderfully active day thanks to the excellent work from the Kickstart team at the Western Sydney Wanderers.

Making Online Payments It is now possible for parents to make online payments to the school for amounts owing for students, via a secure payment page hosted by Westpac. Payments can be made using either a Visa or MasterCard credit or debit card. The payment page is accessed from the front page of the school’s website by selecting ‘$ Make a payment’ or via https://quickweb.westpac.com.au/OnlinePaymentServlet

2019 Parent Volunteers – WWCC Declaration We are very appreciative of all our parent volunteers in the classrooms and around the school. Please ensure you have completed an Appendix 5 Declaration for Volunteers which is available at the school office. You will also need to provide ‘Proof of Identity’ that meets the 100-point check (ie, Passport, Driver’s Licence, Medicare card). The office staff can assist you with any queries. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter and please note if you have previously completed this in 2018, you will not need to do so again this year. Communication At West Ryde PS we use a range of communication methods to keep our community up to date.

Newsletter –The newsletter is sent out to families via the Skoolbag app. The newsletter can also be found on our website and a hard copy in the office foyer.

School Website – The website provides a platform to locate general information about WRPS. Permission notes, photos and new stories are uploaded throughout the year.

Skoolbag App. – The skoolbag app. provides notifications to your phone. The app. is used to provide you with reminders about school events. For information on how to download the app, please see the instructions in the newsletter or go to the website.

Can I please ask that you do not come to class lines or to classrooms and expect the teachers to talk to you while supervising the children or teaching the class. Our staff are more than happy to talk to you at a time that is suitable to both parties and affords enough time to discuss any issues that you might have. We do understand if the issues are urgent. If this is the case please see the office staff so that they can communicate this urgent information to your child’s class teacher.

Canteen - Week 4 – Wednesday 22nd May and Thursday 23rd May Week 5 – Thursday 30th May. Note: No Canteen open on Wednesday 29th May due to Zone Cross Country.

Uniform Shop Opening days for Term 2 2019 Wednesday (8.45am – 9.15am): 5th June, 19th June, 3rd July. Note: Uniform Shop will no longer supply plastic bags with your purchase - Please remember to bring your own bag. WE NEED YOUR HELP! Volunteers are required to help with Canteen, Uniform Shop and School Banking. If you are interested in assisting with any of these, please contact the office on 9874 2515 so your name can be passed on to the Coordinator. School Banking Please put your child’s bank deposit book in SLOT 2 on WEDNESDAYS. The CBA School Reward Program items will be delivered within 2-3 weeks after your order has been placed.

P&C News I hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day! P&C had a fantastic time organising the mother’s day stall on the 9th of May 2019. One of our mums, Christine has been organising it for the second year in a row! She has been doing a fantastic job. With 2 kids in school, I always thought they might get the same gift. I don’t want to jinx it but this is the third year in a row, when they have brought something completely different. We would love to know what your little ones bought from the stall? Remember they put in a lot of thought when they pick something for you.

Talking of putting a lot of thought into choosing what mum likes, 2 little sisters chose beautiful succulents as their mum spent a lot of time in the garden. What they didn’t know was that their mum is the one who actually donated 40 succulents’ for our mother’s day stall! Nasi-We owe you one! We sold all of them!! They were perfect!

Those were not the only donations we received for the day. Amy baked her yummylicious cookies! We also received beautiful handmade eye masks/pillows and hand warmers from Fiona T and some wonderful earrings from Lakshmi! Thank you for being so kind mums! You are awesome.

A big shout out to all the volunteers who turned up on the day! You helped in making our mother’s day stall a big success. Thank you Pika, Lalita, Fiona T, Fiona L, Amy, Ki, Sunit, Lakshmi, Surya, Maheshwari, Stephanie, Vicky, Clare, Carol and of course Christine! Here are a few pics from the day!

Mother’s Day Morning Tea

Our school Chaplin, Heather Gorton has been organising the morning tea for Mother’s day for many years now. I recently found out that many of the dishes served on the day are actually prepared by her! WOW! I know if I had to organise something on such a large scale, I would be panicking. She simply does it with a smile

I would like to thank her on behalf of the P&C for organising such a wonderful morning tea and making all the mums, grandmas and aunties feel so special! Many people turned up on the 10th May to enjoy the Morning tea Thanks Heather! You just made our day!

The Million Dollar question – to have a democracy sausage or not?

Well of course the answer was YES! Hannah and Karina decided to organise the Election BBQ, then added a book sale to the agenda.....and then thought of adding a bake sale to it! I would call them the unstoppable Duo! They opened the school gates at 7AM on 23rd March and by the time they packed up it was 4PM! I have never seen people working so hard and having so much fun. Michael made some slogans that were just too quirky and you had to be in the school to see how they drew the crowd.

They raised more than $1800 that will be used to purchase quality books for the library. Thank you to our Relieving Principal, Ms. Albina Lee, who turned up on the day with some home baked brownies!

The book stall was effectively managed by the children who helped raise more than $300 from the book sale. A big thank you to all the families that generously donated books!

Karina and Hannah were well supported by Geoff, Richard, Sally, Russell, Sheila, Gautam, Grace, Pooja, Neyhaa, Craig, Nhu, Rochelle and Michael. Let’s not forget the little ones who lent a helping hand on the day. Thank you to our little helpers- Isabella, Sienna, Alyssa, Ned, Martha, Anay, Henry and Ivy. You rock!

It is really overwhelming to see how many people turn up to help in whatever way they can. I am truly grateful to each and every one of you for your help and support !

I look forward to seeing you all in our next meeting !

Many Thanks Rachna Bhardwaj P&C President president@westrydepublicschool.com.au

The next P&C meeting

Wednesday 19th Jun 2019, 7 PM

In the school library (Free child minding available)