newsletter no 9 2017 - quakershil-p.schools.nsw.gov.au

NEWSLETTER

Inside this Issue Page Article

No.2 From the Principal, 2018‐2020 Planning Cycle

No.3 Core Values, Education Week

No.4 Education Week continued, NAIDOC Day,Selective High School 2018, NAPLAN – Online School Readiness Test

No.5 Indigenous Stars, Principal & Deputy for a Day, Staff Development Days Term 4

No.6 Cricket Walkathon, State Cricket Knockout, Bikes & Scooters

No.7 Kindergarten 2018 Enrolments, SchoolUniform, School Signage

No.8 Cyberbullying, Morning Arrival Times, Late Pick‐Up

No.9 Healthy Canteen, Earn & Learn

No.10 Returning to School in 2018

No.11 School Banking

No.12‐13 Naplan Online Fact Sheet

No.14‐17 Green Bottle Drive, Book Fair, Parent Online Payment, T3 Soccer Program, EFTPOS

Important Dates Date Event

31/07/2017 Stage 1 AFL Clinic @ 9.10am

01/08/2017 ICAS English @ 8am NAIDOC Day Celebrations

02/08/2017 Education Week Open Day Assembly Book Fair

03/08/2017 ES1 Assembly @ 2.15pm (Kindy Purple) WestPoint Performances

09/08/2017 Infants Athletics Carnival (TBC) Senior Choir Rehearsal ‐ Shelley Public School

10/08/2017 Thai‐riffic Theatre Excursion Stage 3

School Banking each Wednesday Uniform Shop each Monday (8:45am to 10am)

From the Principal

Welcome back to Term 3, I trust that you had a wonderful time with your child(ren) over our recent break. I would like to formally welcome our new parents and children to our beautiful school. As is the case every year, Term 2 was an extremely busy and extremely successful one for Quakers Hill with the school enjoying wonderful successes in many curricular and extra‐curricular areas. Term 3 will be another wonderful term delivering exceptional curricular and extra‐curricular opportunities, including the Blacktown Music Festival and annual book parade. NAIDOC Day Celebration on Tuesday 1 August, Education Week Open Day on Wednesday 2 August and WestPoint performances while be held on Thursday 3 August and of course the continuation of quality education in every classroom. This term we will receive our school’s NAPLAN results for Years 3 and 5 and, as a school, we are looking forward to analysing our results and continuing to develop and improve our student’s education.

Newsletter No. 9 27 July 2017

Quakers Hill Public School Newsletter Thu 27 July 2017

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2018 ‐ 2020: Planning Cycle ‐ Consultation

Starting in 2017, school planning and reporting will continue to be underpinned by the School Excellence Framework, which will provide a clear description of effective school practice across the three key elements of education – Learning, Teaching and Leading. The School Excellence Framework will define our collective vision of quality education in NSW public schools and give our school a framework against which to determine improvement goals and measure progress. It is a statement of the quality we commit to deliver for our students and staff. The new strategic approach to school excellence will operate in three ways:

1. Schools will develop a school plan by consulting with their school communities to develop a shared vision and identify three key strategic directions that will form the basis of the upcoming 3 year planning cycle. Each strategic direction will have a single planning page articulating the school’s approach and identifying the key improvement measures using the new 5P methodology – Purpose, People, Processes, Practices and Products. The product will be an individual school plan, contextually driven to support the achievement of the key improvement measures to address the needs of students at the local level.

2. Schools will assess and report by conducting annual self‐assessments of their progress towards achieving the improvement measures set out in the school plan. The School Excellence Framework will help schools

make informed and consistent judgements. The product for each school will be an annual report which flows from the school plan and the self‐assessment process.

3. Over a five‐year cycle, each school will have their self‐assessments validated against the Excellence Framework. Schools will submit a self‐assessment report providing supporting evidence and involving discussion with the panel. The product will be a report to the school to provide feedback on the validation process. Quakers Hill will likely take part in the external validation process in 2018.

The QHPS teaching staff are currently working on the new School Strategic Plan. The 2018‐2020 plan will guide the school's direction for the next three years. It involves developing a shared vision around three strategies directions 1. Excellence in Leading, 2. Excellence in Learning, 3. Excellence in Teaching. Whilst this is quite an involved and lengthy process, (to be completed by the end of the year ready for implementation in 2018), the consultation process with our community, students and staff has commenced. As a school we will engage in discussion and consultation with our community at P&C and general community meetings, with our senior students and with the staff. At these meetings we will eagerly discuss the three strategic directions for our school, under LEADING/LEARNING/TEACHING, looking at what we do well, what we could do better, and ideas for the future. A large and important component of this consultation is also looking at where we would like our school to be, what we want our school to look like in 10 years, 5 years and in three years time. During these meetings (community and staff) will engage in conversation in regards to why we do what we do? – what is our purpose as a school community? Why we have chosen the three strategic directions and how we will work towards achieving these? Discussion centred on how we will know that we have achieved our three strategic directions will in integral to our planning. Consultation (whilst ongoing and continues each and every year), will formally commence at our August P&C meeting, Chris Lambert will run the P&C through a consultation process, similar to the process conducted in 2015. This process will then be conducted at our father’s day breakfast. Community, student and staff consultation will be


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gathered, collated and used to drive our school well in to the future, ensuring that our kiddies, our community continue to be provide with the very best educational practices and opportunities. Consultation and discussion around the new plan will continue throughout this year.

Timeframe Term 3

‐ Consultation Process staff, community and students.

‐ Analysis of school based data and NAPLAN results ‐ Analysis of current three year plan ‐ Consultation on what the school does well, what

could be done better, ideas for the future ‐ Discussion around the school’s vision for the next

three to ten years – our dream for our school ‐ Formulation of the school’s context statement ‐ Formulation of the schools three strategic

direction ‐ Consultation around why we have chosen our

new strategic directions – The PURPOSE ‐ Collation of information gathered ‐ Presentation of consultation to staff and

community (P&C meetings) ‐ Planning around the 5Ps – PURPOSE, PEOPLE,

PROCESSES, PRODUCT and PRACTICES ‐ CONSULTATION, CONSUTLATION,

CONSULTATION Term 4

‐ Presentation of NAPLAN data to staff and parents – future directions and targets

‐ Presentation of whole school consultation and presentation of strategic directions

‐ Presentation of school vision statement, context and planning process

‐ Presentation and review of strategic directions and purpose – confirm directions

‐ Planning and development of school milestones – initiatives and programs

‐ Presentation of school plan to staff and community

‐ Publish school plan – website

Core Values The PBL team implemented a whole school initiative in 2012, where the Core Values as released by the NSW Government in 2004 are discussed each term. Each classroom will display the core value of the month and discuss its meaning with the children. At the start of each term, the core value for the month will also be included

in the school’s newsletter. These values will become the focus point for discussion in the classroom and it is hoped that it may also become a discussion point at home. At the end of each month, each class teacher will hand out a blue award to a child in their class who epitomises that value. The awards will be given out at grade assemblies. There are nine core values that will be discussed each month. They are: INTEGRITY EXCELLENCE RESPECT RESPONSIBILITY COOPERATION PARTICIPATION CARE FAIRNESS DEMOCRACY August’s core value is INTEGRITY ‐ Being consistently honest and trustworthy.

EDUCATION WEEK

Education Week will take place in Week 3. On Wednesday 2 August, whilst on Thursday 3 August, some of our performance groups will be performing at WestPoint Shopping Centre. This will be a great opportunity to display our marvellously talented students to the local and wider community. Thank you to all of our performance group teachers in preparing the children for this day. Your dedication towards the students and school is greatly appreciated. The school's Open Day will be on Wednesday 2 August. The organising committee has planned a wonderful day full of amazing activities consisting of;


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• 8:40am – 9:30am Book Fair in the Library opened all day Come along and buy a quality book for your child.

• 9:30am – 10:00am Open classrooms All classrooms will be show casing technology and how teachers embed these resources into the students’ everyday learning. Parents are encouraged to be involved in their child’s lessons.

• 10:10am – 11:00 am Whole School Creative and Performing Arts Assembly (Library will be closed during the assembly)

• 11.10am – 11:30 am School Parliament Café ($2 donation) An opportunity for parents to use our ipads on stands to complete a survey that will provide valuable feedback for our school.

• 11:40am – 12:30 pm Stage technology workshops for parents Please complete the rsvp note below and return to your child’s teacher.

• 1.00pm – 2:00pm P&C Barbecue and picnic lunch with your family. BYO picnic and blanket as well as purchase a sausage sandwiches for $2.50 and a drink for $1.

NAIDOC Day – ‘Our Languages Matter’

The school’s annual NAIDOC Day celebrations will be held on Tuesday 1 August. A wonderful day is being organised by the committee commencing with our NAIDOC Day Assembly highlighting and celebrating our wonderful Aboriginal culture and history.

Students are encouraged to wear red, black and yellow.

9:30am – 10.55am Naidoc Opening Ceremony ‐ Performances by our Aboriginal students in the hall as well as cultural activities in classrooms.

11:00am – 11:30am Parent Morning tea in the Hall.

12:00pm – 1.00pm Liven Deadly Program Assembly SELECTIVE HIGH SCHOOL 2018 Quakers Hill Public School provides exceptional educational outcomes for each and every one of its students. Our outstanding teachers on a daily basis deliver these educational outcomes, and I am truly proud of each one of my staff. It is because of these amazing teachers, our amazing staff, and the quality teaching that occurs that our beautiful school continues to succeed and excel as measured by NAPLAN and other assessments. Congratulations to all of the Year 6 children who applied for and were successful in gaining placement in a selective high school for 2018. This year, 42 of our wonderful students have received first round offers while 38 students or are on the reserve list for selective high schools. Our students will be attending a variety of selective schools including, Baulkham Hills, North Sydney Girls, Girraween, Penrith, Blacktown Boys/Girls and James Ruse High. This wonderful achievement equates to 68% for the students who sat the selective high test. Our opportunity and enrichment classes have a strong reputation within the wider community, providing an excellent education for our enrichment students. Future focused learning is firmly embedded within the teaching and learning cycle and our students are provided a variety of quality educational and extra‐curricular opportunities. Our staff implements the best teaching practices into every classroom and this is the reason that our students succeed at an exceptional level.

NAPLAN ‐ Online School Readiness Test NAPLAN tests will move from pen and paper to online testing from 2018, with full participation by all Australian schools by 2019. The NAPLAN Online School Readiness Test is a mandatory 'practice run' before NSW schools start moving to online tests. It is an opportunity for schools to become familiar with the NAPLAN Online test platform and to identify any technical or administrative issues. The readiness test is not an assessment of student


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ability, skills or knowledge. The readiness test allows schools to: • become familiar with the NAPLAN Online test format and processes • check whether they have the technical capacity, rooms and devices to administer NAPLAN Online • provide students in NAPLAN years 3, 5, 7 and 9 with the opportunity to experience the online test question types and format by completing a practice NAPLAN online test. Quakers Hill Public School will participate in the NAPLAN Online School Readiness test throughout Week 10 of Term 3 (September 18 – 22). The test will be for students in Years 3 and 5, and will comprise of two one‐hour tests. There will be feedback to schools about the technical information gained from the readiness testing. There will be no reporting of student test results from the readiness test.

INDIGENOUS STARS

On Tuesday 4 July at Blacktown City NAIDOC Day celebrations hosted by Jai Pitman, Deacon (Year 5) and Emma (Year 1) joined & entered in the ‘Blackfullas Got Talent So You Think You Can Dance’ Idol Competition hosted by Blacktown City Council & Blacktown Performing Arts. In the heats the pair sang a NAIDOC Rap and making it through to the Final where they sang ‘Ngarra Burra Ferra’ which was sung in their Indigenous language. Emma and Deacon were so excited to be awarded 2nd Prize which was a $100 gift card for J‐Bi HIFI

PRINCIPAL & DEPUTY PRINCIPAL FOR A DAY

A few weeks ago, Year 6 participated in a contest to become Principal and Deputy Principal for a day. Surya and Emily were the lucky winners of this wonderful initiative, and on Wednesday these outstanding young individuals assumed the roles of Principal and Deputy Principal. The pair were provided the keys to the school, shadowed Mr Lo Campo and Mr Lambert, attending meetings and making important decisions impacting on our amazing school. Surya and Emily were hard working and tireless in their leadership, just like Mr Lo Campo and Mr Lambert.

Mr Lo Campo and Mr Lambert passed on some of the tricks of the trade, rules to abide by. Poor Emily had to absorb 75 rules, whilst lucky Surya only the one major rule. You might like to ask them what these were. Congratulations Surya and Emily, it was an honour to spend the day with you. STAFF DEVELOPMENT DAYS TERM 4 ‐ VARIATION As was the case in 2016, the Term 4 2017 Staff Development Days for Quakers Hill staff has been varied. This means that there is no school on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 December. Quakers Hill staff will take part in 12 hours of professional learning during the course of Term 3, between 3.30‐5.30pm each Tuesday afternoon for a 6‐week period. Staff will be taking part in Focus on Reading Phase 2 training, led by our school‐based facilitators.


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Families will need to make alternate arrangements during this time. Before and After School facilities will be operational on both the Monday and Tuesday. The last day of school for students in 2017 is Friday 15 December. Bert Lo Campo – Principal

CRICKET WALKATHON Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Children of ALL Ages.... Remember the countdown is on for our Cricket Walkathon. It is only $10. Remember your contribution will help us raise funds to purchase and build our brand new state of the art cricket nets here at school!!! All students who participate will receive a Certificate of Achievement. There will also be prizes for students in each stage from a lucky dip. A giant raffle will be held where parents could win autographed cricket clothing, equipment and books. Major raffle prize ‐ a signed NSW cricket bat with current Australian player Steve Smith, David Warner, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Usman Khawaja and much, much more!!

Toby Hynes ‐ Cricket Walkathon Co‐ordinator STATE CRICKET KNOCKOUT Quakers Hill 3/175 v Gladesville 10/113 Tues 25th July 2017 Nikhil Thokala won the toss at Harvey Park and batted scoring 41 (retired) with help from Aayush Madan 40 (retired), Xavier Nath 43 (retired), Prajit Das 18 (not out), Jayden Kumarage 11, Darsh Uppili 2 (not out), Gurmann

Pawar 2 and Jacob Nath 1 in our 25 overs totalling 3 wickets for 175 runs. In the Gladesville innings of 10 wickets for 113 Gurmann took 2 wickets and was on a hat trick with one wicket each to Nikhil, Jayden, Xavier, Prajit, Monark Patel, Surya Gounder and Dhruv Makkar with one team run out from Sami Malik’s bowling. There was some great fielding efforts from Jayden and Dhruv with two catches each and Aayush with one brilliant catch as wicket keeper. Our next game will be a quarter final against a team from Northern Sydney. Thanks to Mr Abbey and Mr Hynes for coaching and umpiring our games.

Written by Nikhil and Jayden191078

BIKES AND SCOOTERS It is wonderful to see so many children riding their bikes and scooters to school. Please remember that all children who ride their bikes or scooters to and from school must wear a bike helmet.


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KINDERGARTEN ENROLMENTS Enrol now for 2018 don’t miss your opportunity to enrol in our great school.

Quakers Hill Public School prides itself in delivering quality programs to students in a warm, caring learning environment. Our teachers are professional, caring and committed to teaching students a broad and balanced curriculum across the key learning areas (KLAs). We pride ourselves on catering for the individual learning needs of all children. If your child is turning 5 before 31 July 2018 they can enrol at Quakers Hill Public School for 2018. Please collect an enrolment package from the office and return it as soon as possible. Proof of age and residency status will be required.

SCHOOL UNIFORM

Boy’s school uniform consists of the royal blue shirt and grey pants with white socks and black shoes. Girls have the choice of wearing either the school dress (preferred option) or the royal blue shirt with skorts and white socks and black shoes. The yellow polo shirt is now the school’s Friday sports shirt and is worn with royal blue shorts for boys and royal blue skort for girls (with the school’s emblem) and sneakers with white socks. During the winter months our students also have our wonderful micro‐fibre track top and pants. Our girls can choose to wear the school dress (with the school microfiber/bomber jacket). In 2014, the school has added

long grey pants for boys and blue slacks for girls for the winter months. For the winter months the school has added new bomber style jackets, these are replacing the older fleecy jackets. The bomber jackets are extremely warm and a great look. QHPS beanies are also available from the uniform shop. These have been added to the list of school uniform after many parent requests. Please note, that only QHPS crested beanies are to be worn at school. We have an amazing school array of school uniform for our amazing students. Only school branded clothing, purchased from the uniform shop is to be worn to school. Please ensure that your child is always in our school uniform. Please note that yellow polo shirts are to be worn on Friday sports day only and school hats are also to be worn at all times. Our uniform can be purchased from the P&C uniform shop located in school grounds, at the old hall.

SCHOOL SIGNAGE

ACHURCH SIGNS have created new school signage for Quakers Hill and they look amazing. The main sign has been installed at the Quakers Rd pedestrian gate entry as well as a new Learning Hub sign outside the library. There will be a few more signs installed shortly as the school begins the process of changing over the original signs installed in 2011, which formed part of the old school identity. The complete replacement of the old signs will conclude in 2018.


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CYBERBULLYING: THE NEW CHILDREN’S ESAFETY COMMISSIONER

The Office of the Children’s e‐Safety Commissioner (the Office) was established on 1 July 2015 to handle complaints about cyberbullying material targeted at Australian children. The Office can investigate complaints about material considered likely to have a seriously threatening, intimidating, harassing or humiliating effect on the child. Where possible, the material should be reported to the social media service first, before it is complained about to the Office. To consider a complaint the Office will need evidence of the cyberbullying material. Parents, along with schools and the government have a role in ensuring children are protected online. The Office will work with social media services, parents and schools to ensure serious cyberbullying material is removed.

What to do if your child is being cyberbullied If your child is being cyberbullied advise them to:

avoid retaliating or responding

collect the evidence—keep mobile phone

messages and print emails or social networking

conversations

block the bully and change their privacy settings

report the abuse to the social media service

If your child continues to be cyberbullied and you believe it is having a seriously threatening, intimidating, harassing or humiliating effect, we encourage you to assist your child in making a complaint on the Commissioner’s website. More information on the role of the Office, how to deal with cyberbullying and how to lodge a complaint is available on the website. The Kids Helpline provides a private and confidential, telephone and online counselling service for young people. Encourage your child to speak to them if they are in need of counselling support. The Kids Helpline also manages Parentline, a confidential telephone counselling service providing counselling and support for parents and care‐givers. If you believe your child is in immediate danger, call 000.

MORNING ARRIVAL TIMES The school's supervision roster starts from 8.40am. Teaching staff is not available to ensure the safety of children in the playground prior to that time. We well understand that many parents have commitments at work, which require them to leave before 8.40am. However, there is available within the school a Before and After School Care service which operates from 6.30am every school morning. Alternatively, you may be able to arrange with friends or neighbours for the supervision of your children. Some families in the school with working parents take turns to take each other's children to school. As well, many employers will be sympathetic to parents with responsibilities for caring for children and will allow some flexibility in parents' working hours. By law, employers are restricted from treating an employee detrimentally on the grounds of their status as a carer. Whatever arrangements you make, please understand that you remain legally responsible for your child prior to 8.40am when supervision begins. I would therefore ask that you ensure that your child is not left unsupervised at the school before 8.40am anymore.

LATE PICK UP School concludes at 3.15pm. Whilst we understand that from time to time parents are running late to pick their children up from school, we do ask that students are collected in the afternoon on time. If you know that you are running late on a particular day, we do ask that the school is notified.


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Parents will be contacted for children who are not collected by the time the final school bus leaves the school. If parents are unable to be contacted, students will be admitted to before and after school care. Please note that this will incur a cost from the before and after school care providers.

HEALTHY CANTEEN STRATEGY

With around one in five NSW children between the ages of 5 and 16 being overweight or obese, the Premier has set a target to reduce childhood overweight and obesity by 5% by 2025 as one of the Government’s priorities. In response to this, the Department has updated its Nutrition in Schools Policy to include a revised Healthy School Canteen Strategy. The revised Healthy School Canteen Strategy aims to increase the availability of healthy food and drink options by adopting the 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines and including the use of the Health Star rating for packaged foods. Under the revised Strategy, the traffic light system in the former Fresh Tastes @ School strategy has been replaced by a new approach of ‘Everyday’ foods comprising at least

three quarters of the menu and ‘Occasional’ foods comprising no more than one quarter of the menu. Schools will transition to the revised Strategy over the next three years, 2017‐2019. The transition period will enable schools to be responsive to canteen operating arrangements, product availability and community and cultural expectations. The timeline for implementation is outlined below.

EARN AND LEARN

Woolworths EARN and LEARN programs commences 26 July 2017. Parents/community members can help local schools earn amazing equipment. Just shop at Woolworths to earn one sticker for every $10 spent from 26 July, while stocks last.

Incredibly, last time over 16,000 schools and early learning centres participated in Earn & Learn, and earned nearly 450,000 pieces individual items. Quakers Hill earned many resources in past through this program.

A deposit box has been placed in our school office foyer for the Earn & Learn stickers.

Term 1, 2017 Release of the revised Healthy School Canteen Strategy

Semester 1, 2017

Schools engage and familiarise themselves with the revised Healthy School Canteen Strategy

Semester 2, 2017

Schools commence self‐assessment of current canteen practices and planning for implementation

2018 onwards

Ongoing implementation of the Healthy School Canteen Strategy

By end 2019 All school canteens compliant with revised Strategy.


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RETURNING TO SCHOOL IN 2018

Wow the year has flown by and it is that time in the school’s organisation for 2018, when we begin to start planning and looking at student enrolments. It is extremely important that the school has a good idea of its anticipated numbers for the 2018 school year. These anticipated numbers need to be sent to the Department of Education so that anticipated staffing and budgets can be organised.

Please indicate below if your children are returning to Quakers Hill next year, but not starting on……………….. Or if your children will be enrolling in another school. Your support with this information, especially if returning after the start of the school year, is very much appreciated.

Please tick

My child/ren____________________________ Class________

____________________________ Class________

____________________________ Class________

____________________________ Class________

will be attending Quakers Hill in 2018, but will not be returning until

Date ____________________________

Reason ______________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

will not be returning to Quakers Hill in 2018 & will be enrolling at:

____________________________________________________

New School

Name:___________________________ Date _______________

Signed: ______________________________________________


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NEW EFTPOS FACILITIES

The school office now has an Eftpos machine and can take credit and debit card payments. . Eftpos payments can only be made between the hours of 8.30am to 2.00pm as we need to balance the money at the end of the day. You can also pay by cash and by the online payment option on our school website. Please remember when paying online that you need to pay before 6pm for the school to see the payment the next day.

DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN PAY ONLINE? Many families are now using the school’s online payment option linked to our school website to pay for school related expenses. This is a secure payment page hosted by Westpac. What expenses can be paid online? Voluntary Contributions Excursions Sport Creative and Practical Arts Sales to Students Other (any items not listed above) Unfortunately, payments to the uniform shop and P&C cannot be accepted via this system. How do I make a payment? Go to the school website. Click on make a payment, found on the front page of the school website.

1. In the student and payer details, fill in all the green asterix items. (These are compulsory) 2. Choose a payment option. 3. Enter the amount you are paying and the payment description (Eg: the name of the excursion) 4. Enter credit card details. 5. Confirm payment details. 6. Receive online payment receipt. Pay before 6pm for the school to receive your payment the next working day. How do I let the school know I paid online? Please write the receipt number on the permission note and return to the school.

Making an online payment does not constitute permission. Please return all signed permission notes as per normal.

newsletter no 9 2017 - quakershil-p.schools.nsw.gov.au

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