A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL (Relieving)

Reports and parent/teacher interviews

Teachers are currently wrapping up assessments on students and writing

reports. Reports will go home week 9 or 10 this term. Parent interviews will

be occurring in week 9.

Dealing with Conflicts

Occasionally there will be an issue or conflict at school that your child comes home and tells you about. Quite

often parents are only given one version of events. Please trust the teachers to follow up on any issues and

ask/encourage your child to see their teacher first. We rarely get complaints from parents about not

following up on an incident, however if we do it is usually because the student has not told us about it in the

first place.

We encourage you to discuss any concerns with your child’s teacher. Please make sure you organise a time

to meet with the teacher outside of teaching time. Teachers are generally on class between 9am and 3pm

and have to be teaching and supervising students between these hours. Do not approach parents or students

in the playground as this can be seen as intimidating.

School Contributions

School contributions are voluntary however the school does rely on these to

purchase much needed resources that cannot be provided for under the

budget that is provided to the school. Contributions are low at Mount Druitt

Public School:

1 child = $20

More than 1 child = $30

Staffing Update

Congratulations to Mr Fernandez for gaining the permanent position of General Assistant at Mount Druitt

Public School. We are very lucky to have Christian. He is very good at his job and very liked by staff and

students.

Sadly we say goodbye to Mrs Callaghan this term. She has been a teacher at Mount Druitt Public School for

many years. We wish her all the best in her retirement.

Mrs Matijevic has been successful at interview for the position of Assistant Principal, Special Education and

will be taking over as supervisor from Mrs McCauley in term 3.

We look forward to working with Mrs Matijevic and thank Mrs McCauley for all her fantastic work with the

Multicat class.

Check In Assessments

Check in assessments are an optional reading and numeracy assessment used to assist the school in identifying how students are performing. Students in years 3 – 6 were assessed at the beginning of the term. We will be analysing this data over the next few weeks to make changes to our teaching and learning programs to address more specific student needs. Initial findings are showing a need to address comprehension and measurement and geometry.

Sun Safety

Recently staff and community were surveyed regarding sun safety. These results were used to help plan the new sun safety policy and action plan for the school. A number of areas were identified as needing a consistent approach. These include:

• Every student needs a hat. Hats need to remain in bags or at school

• The UV rating will be updated and displayed each day on the electronic notice board.

• Sun screen will be provided but is not mandatory for students in each class

• Students will be encouraged to play in the shade if they don’t have a hat.

• Students will not be disciplined for not having a hat.

• A review of the shaded areas will occur in term 3 and how we can provide more shade for the back oval.

• The school will look at purchasing shade sails for the basketball court.

• Sun safety will be taught across all key learning areas. NAPLAN 2021

A big thank you to Mrs Ali, Mrs Lampropoulos and Mr Fitzgerald for organising the NAPLAN testing for 2021. Staff have worked hard preparing our year 3 and 5 students for the assessment, giving them the best possible opportunity to succeed. Our support teachers will now start working with students in years 2 and 4 in preparation for NAPLAN 2022. Data from this years NAPLAN will be used to help identify areas of strength and weakness to inform future directions in teaching. Dianne Uthmeyer Principal (Relieving) Term 2 Week 6 2021

FROM THE FRONT OFFICE

Medication

Please be advised if you require office staff to give your child prescribed medication for a short term period

we will need the following:

✓ A signed and written letter from the parent.

✓ The letter must clearly state the amount of medication eg: 5 ml of liquid or 1 tablet.

✓ The letter must also state the required time the child is to take the medication.

If your child needs on-going medication then we will need a healthcare plan from your GP. Please see office

staff if you require more information.

Preschool Fees

Preschool fees have been waived by the Department of Education for 2021. No fees are to be paid until 2022.

Please contact the office if you have already paid fees this year.

School Gates Closed

For the safety of our students we have decided to close all the gates except the front office gate. This gate

is closed but not locked. Gates will be closed between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm Daily. Access to the school during

those times will be by appointment only via the gate closest to the front office. Preschool parents and carers

can access the school but must drop off and go. All other visitors are by appointment only. We are looking

at the costs of an intercom system with a magnetic lock to buzz parents onto school grounds however for

now if you do visit the school please shut the gate behind you.

COVID Safe Check-in

Please check in before entering the school premises. We’re helping keep our community COVID safe by

recording contact details to assist in contact tracing. QR codes are at the front gates and throughout the

playgrounds. If you require assistance please go to the front office for check-in. Please maintain social

distancing and do not stay on school grounds unless urgent. Students should be dropped off and collected

quickly.

What’s Happening in Stage 1

What’s been happening in 2K

WE ARE MATHEMATICIANS!

We have been working really hard in our math’s lessons learning about multiplication and division. We have

been doing lots of hands on activities, making arrays and grouping items.

SCIENCE

In science, we have been learning about earth and space. One

of our favorite lessons was learning about constellations. We

created our constellations using toothpicks and mini

marshmallows. We ate our constellations in the end, oopsies.

WRITING

This term we have been learning about informative texts. We have been researching information on special animals

and places, and writing informative texts about them. We have also been learning how to write procedures. A few

weeks ago, we wrote a procedure on how to make fairy bread. We made our fairy bread using real ingredients and

got to eat our fairy breads at the end of the lesson.

OUR ZOO EXCURSION

We visited the zoo in the beginning of the term. We had lots of fun and learnt so much about all of the different

animals that we saw. We also learnt about Aboriginal culture and enjoyed getting some traditional paint on our face.