What’s Happening @the Ridge Week 3, Term 2 2019

It has been a busy fortnight at Sherwood Ridge for our school community with Year 4 students learning how to ride safely at CARES, our entire community dressed up as farmers and generously donated towards the ‘Adopt a Farmer’ initiative which was covered by the Channel 7 and SRPS was on the evening news! We had our multicultural perspectives public speaking finals, our children purchased gifts for their mothers and we all shared in the P&C Mother’s Day Breakfast. Students reflected on and reviewed their goals, and our younger students showed amazing team spirit at the K-2 Cross Country Carnival with our Year 2 Sport Leaders and House Leaders demonstrating their impressive leadership skills on the day. NAPLAN Online is well underway without any glitches for our Year 3 and 5 students who we are very proud of as we know that they are doing their best. Today we will model how to Walk Safely to School in support of this annual community event seeking to promote road safety, health, public transport and the environment. I am pleased to announce that the P&C have generously donated $10,000 towards upgrading the schools technology infrastructure. This has been a project in the works for the last 12 months to support the roll out of BYOD, NAPLAN Online and an increasing number of devices to support the learning outcomes for our students. This upgrade will provide our school with the technology to support the devices we currently have and new devices purchased in the foreseeable future. We thank the P&C for their very generous contribution towards making internet drop-outs a thing of the past! Staffing We congratulate Mrs Debbie Gili who was successful in gaining the Relieving School Administrative Manager position. She will take up the position from Monday of Week 5. We thank Mrs Sue Reed who will continue in the role of relieving SAM for another week - Week 4, she is doing a terrific job.

Woolworths Junior Landcare Grant We’ve been successful with our application for a Woolworths Junior Landcare Grant for our Outdoor Learning Garden project with its aim to create an outdoor learning circle with bird feeders, ‘bug-hotels’, vertical pollination gardens, and native gardens using upcycled products to promote more sustainable practices. Sherwood Ridge Public School is one of 538 primary schools and early learning centres throughout Australia receiving a Woolworths Junior Landcare grant to help grow our next generation of environmental champions. The grants are being funded with money made from the sale of the Woolworths recyclable Bag for good™ which was launched in 2018 when the supermarket stopped using single-use plastic bags. The children and teachers are looking forward to working and learning from this project and we’ll keep you updated on the results.

Adopt a Farmer!

The plight of Australia’s farmers is dear to our hearts at Sherwood Ridge. We have staff members and students who live on farms or who have family members who have been impacted by drought. In 2018 we were part of the Buy a Bale campaign and our school community raised $6500!

Last week we supported the Adopt a Farmer initiative by hosting a mufti day where our students and staff dressed up as farmers and donated a gold coin towards this worthy campaign. Our staff participated in a Staff Country Bake-Off where we voted with gold coins for the best tasting cakes to raise funds for Rural Aid to support our Aussie farmers. We had to convince some of our younger students that we hadn’t, in fact, actually adopted a farmer and that there wasn’t a need to build a chicken pen for the farmer’s chooks! Overall, our school community raised over $1000 and we thank them for their ongoing commitment and care towards our farmers and their families. We had a visit from the Channel 7 News team who took great interest in Sherwood Ridge’s ongoing commitment to our farmers. Check out the link to see some familiar faces - https://www.facebook.com/7NEWSsydney/videos/408211336425265/?comment_id=2704074392950010&notif_id=1557301100641301&notif_t=comment_mention

P&C Mother’s Day Breakfast Last Friday our dedicated P&C hosted a Mother’s Day Breakfast which was a well-supported community event! We thank our hardworking P&C who continue to support our students and their families in all that we do. The breakfast was a huge success!

K-2 Cross Country Carnival On Monday 13th May, 2019 students in Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 participated in the K-2 Cross Country Carnival. Our House Leaders did us proud by assisting our K-2 students on the day. Everyone demonstrated team spirit by wearing their sporting house colours. The students displayed great enthusiasm in cheering their team mates on as they ran to the finish line. Well done to the students in sporting House AIR for being the overall winning House on the day! Congratulations to all of our students for their great participation on the day. A special mention to the students who came 1st, 2nd or 3rd. Ribbons will be handed out to these students at the K-2 Weekly Assembly on Wednesday 22nd May, 2019 from 9.00am. Parents of these students are invited to attend the assembly. The results are as follows:

Kindergarten Girls 1st- Abigail D 2nd- Charlie K 3rd - Miabelle D

Kindergarten Boys 1st- Georgi G and Mason P 2nd- Rohan M 3rd – Max B

Year 1 Girls 1st- Marlee T 2nd- Emma L 3rd – Mia Z

Year 1 Boys 1st- Michael C 2nd- Aaron S 3rd – Noah C

Year 2 Girls 1st- Georgia B 2nd- Aleena E 3rd – London C

Year 2 Boys 1st- Liam S 2nd- Andrew P 3rd – Nicholas S

NAPLAN Online Assessments NAPLAN Online is well under way at SRPS for our Year 3 and Year 5 students. This is our school’s second year of implementing NAPLAN in the online version and we are pleased to say that we have not had any technical glitches or problems. Our students have been well supported by their teachers and Mrs Cardwell and Mrs Bryant have done very well in their organisation of the NAPLAN Online assessments for our students. The NAPLAN Online test window continues into Week 4, concluding on Friday 24th May. The school will continue to post daily schedules via the School App to inform students and parents of session times for each class during the testing window. If you have any questions regarding NAPLAN, please contact your child’s class teacher or our Deputy Principal, Alicia Cardwell on 8824 3333. ICAS Assessments 2019 Our school, like many others in our area, have supported the University of New South Wales ICAS assessment program for many years. Up until last year, the assessments - including reading, writing, mathematics and spelling - have been pen and paper tests. Like most schools, our school conducted the assessments before school, supervised by teachers outside of teaching hours. Whilst the results of the assessments provided interesting information, we did not use the analytics of the results to inform teaching practice; the data provided by ICAS is not directly linked to school-based teaching and learning programs. Parents and students appeared to enjoy receiving the certificates and other associated awards, however, it should be noted that the results/awards have never been used as part of OC/selective high school application processes. Late last year, schools were informed by ICAS that the new testing program would be administered via an on-line tool, which can only be facilitated within schools. Whilst we accept that on-line testing is a feature of the way we operate in schools, the logistics associated with ICAS going on-line is highly problematic, particularly for schools which have traditionally had high levels of participation. This information has been relayed to ICAS, however, there have been no decisions to provide a pen/paper option for 2019. After much consideration it has been decided that our school will not participate in 2019 ICAS. Whilst this is disappointing, I want to assure all parents that students will not be disadvantaged. The ICAS results, as mentioned above, have never been used to determine academic progress nor have the results been used as part of OC/Selective High School applications. It should be noted, that many of the larger primary schools in our area that have supported ICAS in the past have also opted not to participate this year, including Riverbank, Beaumont Hills, Ironbark Ridge, Caddies Creek, Cherrybrook, Beecroft, Murray Farm, Oakhill Drive, West Pennant Hills, Epping West and Epping Heights Public Schools.

Final Reminder for Applications for Year 5 Entry into an Opportunity Class in 2020 Opportunity classes cater for academically gifted and talented students who may otherwise be without sufficient classmates at their own academic and social level. These schools help gifted and talented students to learn by grouping them with other gifted and talented students, teaching them in specialised ways and providing educational materials at the appropriate level. Applications for opportunity class

placement are considered mainly on the combined results of the Opportunity Class Placement Test and school assessments. The Opportunity Class Placement Test will be held on Wednesday 31 July 2019. If you would like to have your child considered for Year 5 opportunity class entry in 2020, you need to apply soon. You will need to apply on the internet using a valid email address (not the student’s email address). Detailed instructions on how to apply online will be available from Tuesday 30 April 2019 at https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/selective-high-schools-and-opportunity-classes/year-5 The application website opens on Tuesday 30 April 2019 and closes on Friday 17 May 2019. You must apply by the due date. There are no paper application forms. If you do not have internet access, you could apply at a public library. If you have a disability that prevents you from using a computer, you can contact the Team for assistance after 30 April 2019.

Students Demonstrating Initiative Student wellbeing underpins all that we do at Sherwood Ridge. As part of our teaching and learning program all classes take part in lessons about wellbeing practices. Several teachers have used Worry Ninja Power Cards with their class as part of a Wellbeing Sprint to explicitly teach coping strategies for building resilience in our students. One of our Year 4 students, Sophie J has taken the initiative to create her own Feelings Cards for children who are patients at Westmead Children’s Hospital who attend the Therapy Department. Sophie’s mother works in the Therapy Department and we are very proud to say that Sophie’s Feeling’s Cards have been produced and are being utilised by staff at Westmead Children’s Hospital. In her own words, Sophie explains the purpose of her cards – “I created them for the child life therapists so that the children could express themselves about how they are feeling, even if they didn’t want to communicate or couldn’t. They allow the children to pick a feeling card to let the therapist, doctor or medical staff know how they are feeling at the time of being unwell in hospital.” Sophie, we could not be more proud of you, well done!

A Farewell and Thank You Finally, on behalf of the school community I’d like to say a fond farewell to Mrs Emma Barnes and her family who are leaving SRPS at the end of May. We wish The Barnes’ family all the very best for the future and especially thank Emma for her hard work and dedication to the SRPS P&C. In her role as the P&C President, Emma has brought a sense of community, always working in partnership with our school to ensure that we work together to continue to strive for excellence. She, with her committee, has worked tirelessly to raise funds for the school, to organise and host community events and has represented the P&C sitting as a member on several merit selection panels to employ teaching and executive staff. Emma has been a breath of fresh air, an inspiration, a whole lot of fun and will be dearly missed! Thank you, from everyone at Sherwood Ridge PS for your service.

Mrs Jody Sullivan Relieving Principal Sherwood Ridge Public School A collaborative, creative and inclusive environment from which each give their best.

Through the Eyes of Captains - Our Safe Tackling Experience

Pumped can’t even begin to describe it. Not only had we made it into the PSSA Rugby League team but we were also named the Co-Captains of the senior team for 2019. What an honour!! As captains we know that the team is our priority and our leadership now plays a huge role in success or failure. Some things are out of our control like the talent and skill of other teams, illness, freak accidents and well that pesky rain. These things we cannot change and we know it. What we can control is what we put into this team. We can share our knowledge, offer our skills, build a sense of mate ship and trust amongst the team and overall just share our love for the game of Rugby League.

We knew right from the trials that to be safe we needed to make sure all of our players knew how to take a tackle and give a tackle. It was time to bring in some help from our friend Meg’s from the NRL Development Team. Meg’s has helped with PSSA Rugby League since we were juniors and will often be the referee at Friday games. Mrs Irwin and Meg’s had worked with us during the trials and we knew that they were best for the job!

On Thursday morning in Week 1 the PSSA Rugby League teams gathered on the top grass. Led by Meg’s along with Mrs Irwin and Mr Revill we came together to share our passion and sportsmanship. The

morning was filled with fun drills that challenged our skills and helped us develop better tackling technique through closed and open drills as well as modified games. As captains we were proud to be able to show Meg’s how far we had come as a team since the trials back in Term 1 and boast about the team’s commitment to safe tackling. We could see Mrs Irwin was proud and Meg’s couldn't believe the growth in individual players and both of the teams. #proudcaptains

Some of the things that stood out for us that morning were:

- Improvements in head position. - Confidence from the players and trust in our leadership. - Much better communication and teamwork. - Everyone was smiling and having fun.

It was a great opportunity for us as the captains to lead workshops and do one on one technical clinics with the younger or less experienced players. Our ability to communicate and lead drills has been something we have been working on with Mrs Irwin. We are more confident to show our leadership and talk through how the team and individual players can improve. We are ok with making mistakes and take these as something to work on and improve. We think that the younger players learn from us and the way we handle dropping the ball or missing a tackle. We are all human and make mistakes. We pat each other on the back and jump right back into the game.

The respect and mate ship that was formed in the morning has made us a better team. We know that we are well prepared and ready for safe play on the field. Knowing how to give tackles and take some big hits safely. Senior player Jack R said “after doing the safe tackling program I am much more confident and keen to go in and get the big guys down.”

On behalf of the other captains and players, Thank you Mrs Sullivan, Mrs Irwin and Megs for making the morning happen. It was a cracker of a morning, we had so much fun and loved it!!

Signing off as two proud captains,

Josh and Jarrod #proudcaptains #RLPSSA2019 #SRPSRL

Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking Competition

This year the Stage 2 and 3 students of Sherwood Ridge Public School were given the option of participating in the Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking Competition. Students were offered workshops in Term 1 to enhance their writing of and presentation of speeches, with a strong focus on impromptu speeches. At the end of Term 1, these students presented a prepared and an impromptu speech to their classes and teachers.

Six students from Stage 2 and Stage 3 then proceeded through to the finals early in Term 2. The Stage 2 finalists were Adhya S, Matilda R, Asharia K, Lauren M, Abigail A and Hugo P. The Stage 3 finalists were Lucy P, Neev A, Issac S, Zaina A, Shahaan C and Alexander W. All of these students are to be commended for their engaging prepared and impromptu speeches. The two winners from Stage 2 were Adhya S and Hugo P. The Stage 3 winners were Zaina A and Alexander W. These four students deserve to be congratulated on their success and will now be heading to the local schools final, which will be held at Jasper Road Public School on Wednesday 12th June, 2019. The staff and students of Sherwood Ridge wish these students the best of luck at the final.

Mrs Sheather, Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking Competition Coordinator

Year 4 CARES Excursion In Week 2, Year 4 students from 4A, 4D, 4I, 4T and SCJJ spent a day at St Marys CARES (Community and Road Education Scheme) facility where they learnt about bicycle safety and road rules from a NSW Police Officer. After their riding test, students received their bike licences to take on the challenge of riding around the purpose-built course, complete with working traffic signals, roundabouts and pedestrian crossings, while respecting all road rules. While some may have come home minus a point or two off their licence, the students loved this practical and fun day of learning how to be safe on and around the road. Mrs Susanne Tocher, Year 4 Grade Supervisor