- Ironbark Ridge PS 1 Ironbark Ridge Road, Rouse Hill, 2155. Ph: 8814 5687 Fax: 8814 5698 Email: ironbarkrg-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Webpage: https://ironbarkrg-p.schools.nsw.gov.au Nurturing personal growth through inspired learning…

Mini-Newsletter 2019

Term 1 Week 1 1st February, 2019 Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful

DATES FOR THE DIARY FEBRUARY 5th – (Tuesday) 2019 Kindies start school! 7th – 2pm Parent Forum: Successful Learner Habits 8th – Ironbark Ridge Chess Tournament (Yrs3-6 entrants) 11th – Swimming Carnival 13th – Chinese Kung Fu presentation 18th – Allergy Awareness Sessions, Parent Info Session 19th – The Ponds HS Open Day (see later in newsletter) 27th – Ridges Zone Swimming

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PRINCIPAL’S WELCOME TO 2019 It’s wonderful to be back into normal daily routines, hearing the happy chatter of our students in our playground, and of course hearing excited questions, discussions and ‘the noise of learning’ in classrooms. My own youngest child will today finish her first week of High School… making me wonder where those primary school days disappeared to. Advice to you all from an old-timer would therefore be to keep your eyes open and enjoy your days as an Ironbarker, because our children grow up way too fast! The new year ahead here at Ironbark Ridge looks like being an exciting one… Self-Efficacy Self-efficacy refers to a student’s belief about their own ability to successfully complete a task. It is situation specific. For example, a student may feel confident that they can dance well on stage but be insecure about public speaking on that same stage. Educational researchers John Hattie & Robert Marzano both found that students’ self-efficacy had a substantial impact on their subsequent achievement. Students who believed they would master fractions were more likely to do so, while students who saw themselves as poor readers were less likely to improve their reading. The link between self-efficacy and successful learning is somewhat cyclical… both in a positive and negative sense. Achieving success has an ‘upward’ impact on a students’ feeling of self-efficacy, which in turn makes them more successful in future endeavours. However the reverse is also true, with low self-efficacy leading to a reduced success rate. Research and evidence is clear on this link. Self-efficacy relates to each students’ perception of their own strengths and abilities, which is closely linked to the strategies and ‘tools’ each student has to cope with the difficulty of being in the Learning Swamp (or pit). If you feel more prepared, with a set of practiced skills and ‘tools’ for learning at your disposal, you’re ready to go! To ensure that every student at Ironbark Ridge has the right habits, thinking tools and positive attitude towards their own ability to grow and learn, we are now explicitly teaching and focussing on the development of Learner Habits… see below for more.

Classes for 2019 We are close to forming classes for the new year and anticipate arranging our student groups with their new teachers early next week… after we’ve welcomed our new Kindergarten students for their first day of school. This is always a complex task for schools as it is uncertain whether all students will be returning to the same school as in the previous year. For us here in Rouse Hill/North Kellyville, with our new neighbours opening their school doors this week, this particular year has been even less predictable. As schools are staffed to the individual student number enrolled, one student arriving new, or one unforeseen departing student can mean the difference between 37 and 38 classes… for us in 2019! Apologies for this reality L, however we always do our utmost to form the new year’s classes as soon as possible. The language of Learning What does a successful learner look like, sound like? What do effective students do when confronted with new learning or difficult challenges?

The Ironbark Ridge Successful Learner Habits framework includes 13 behaviours and skills (that will become habits with practice over time), arranged under our three school aspirations: - Strength (Courageous, Focused, Persistent, Self-reliant) - Respect (Collaborative, Empathic, Interdependent) - Excellence (Seeking/Giving and Using Feedback, Questioner, Observer, Growth mindset, Knowledge-linker, Goal-setter) Our teaching team are now trialling and developing lessons, posters and ‘progressions’ to describe these habits from elementary to highly skilled. 2019 will be an exciting year for the development of this framework and as we all learn to be learners! Come along to a Parent Forum next

Thursday afternoon, 7th February, from 2-3pm in the Hall to discuss this and other current school initiatives… and enjoy a chat with other Ironbark Ridge learning community members, too. New Teachers for 2019 We welcome some exciting new ‘draft picks’ into our Ironbark Ridge staff team in 2019. New teachers include Ms Jenni Attinger, Ms Emma Regan, Ms Amanda Wijesinghe, Ms Christina Lee and Ms Madison Ayas. We have a new School Counsellor in the wonderful Ms Erin Zammit, with our own Ms Kaveri Rutherford being promoted to Senior Psychologist, still to be overseeing our school’s prpgrams, and Mr Xhongxhi Li has taken over the position as Spotless Site Handyman after Mr Eddie’s departure at the end of 2018. Special congratulations to Mr Ian Barton who was recently confirmed as General Assistant on a permanent basis after several years in temporary capacity. How many students? Overall student numbers for Ironbark Ridge in 2019 have lowered slightly due mainly thanks to the opening of the awesome Kellyville North PS on Hezlett Rd. Between the two schools there were almost 240 Kindy enrolment applications for 2019!! We expect to have approximately 975 Ironbark Ridge students once our Kindergarten cohort (about 115) are all welcomed next week, a slight reduction from our peak in Term 4 last year of 1003 students J Allergies at school Did you know that Australia has one of the highest incidences of food allergies in the world? Each year we remind families about the importance of carefully considering the foods sent to school in lunchboxes and schoolbags for eating. Many of the students in our school experience difficulties with allergies, some very extreme (anaphylaxis). We have invited Jackie Nevard, author and founder of the My Food Allergy Friends program to our school in Week 4 on Monday 18th February to present a session to our younger K-3 students. A special Parents and Teachers session will be conducted in the school Library from 3.15pm to 4pm. Please join us for that after-school learning session about allergies. Play and eating times We’ve made a few alterations to the times for student play breaks in the normal school day for 2019, to go some way towards acting on the feedback received about last year’s separate lunches. The amount of play, eating time, and importantly learning time has not changed. We will be calling the breaks from learning either the Long Break or the Short Break, with our 3-6 students having the morning Long Break (10.40-11.30am), and our K-2 students the later Long Break (12.50-1.40pm). Short Breaks will be at 11-11.30am (for K-2) and at 1.10-1.40pm (for Yr3-6) canteen lunches. Note that this gives our students a session of 20 minutes each day to play in a smaller cohort, and two x 20 minutes of combined play where all students will interact. All Canteen lunch orders will be prepared by Doris and her team by the later break times – ie. 12.50pm for K-2 students and 1.10pm for Years 3-6 students.

Parenting ideas – Five parenting tips for the year! With the best of intentions we often make ‘resolutions’ and plans to be more strategic with our parenting. Leading parenting expert, Michael Grose, has compiled not only a list of five high impact parenting tips, but has planned a set of ‘webinars’ for us to ‘attend’ online this year in the hope we can all make a difference in our children’s lives. Read the two-page article later in this newsletter and look out for upcoming ‘free voucher’ offers that may come our way as a Parenting Ideas school… Grass play area Very late in the holiday period our school maintenance company laid beautiful wide rolls of turf across the damaged and dirt areas of our grass oval/playground. Unfortunately we must now allow this new turf time to ‘bed in’ to ensure long-term productive growth and the strength to handle our 975 students. The recent sunny, hot weather, combined with a heavy watering effort has been very positive for the new turf. Students still have a smaller section of old grass to play on and hopefully by Week 3 or 4 we will be able to use the whole grass area again. Chess, Chinese Language, Engineers, Talent Club… Our usual extra-curricular after-school programs are starting already so please look out in newsletters and on the Fb page for information about the programs available at Ironbark Ridge. Note: These providers are not associated with our school office and must be contacted and paid separately. Class teachers are already planning their ‘Meet the Teacher’ sessions for Week 4 this term so please be ready to join us in the afternoons that week (Feb.18-22) for a chance to chat and meet your child’s 2019 teacher. Yours in holiday-rejuvenated inspiration, ready and raring to go for 2019! Nick Thomson Principal _______________________________________________________________________________________ 1 February 2019 OPEN NIGHT 2019

ATTENTION: YEAR 5 & 6 STUDENTS Dear Parents & Carers, The Ponds High School Open Night will be held on Tuesday 19 February from 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm. The evening will begin with an information session in the school hall; this will include a general overview of the school and systems including BYOD, Learning Support and GATs programs. The Ponds High School students will lead tours of the school and introduce the subjects on offer. You will have the opportunity to ask teachers and students questions about the school and their experiences. Looking forward to meeting you on Tuesday 19 February. Yours sincerely,

Jenny Weal Principal The Ponds High School

Principal: Mrs Jenny Weal Deputy Principals: Mr Brad Cook

Mr Andrew Fitzgerald Mr Philip Scandizzo