Keeping In Touch

Colyton Public School Nelson Street Mount Druitt Phone: 9625 8185 Facsimile: 9832 2403 Email: colyton-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Issue 2 Term 1 Week 4 2017

School News

Principal’s Report

From the Desk of the Principal What a great start to the year we have had. Children and teachers are settled in their classrooms and working hard. There are lots of extracurricular activities starting to get organised for this year. I thank all the staff and community for making the start of this year so positive. In the coming weeks, you will see some ongoing improvements to the school. Block C, where some of our Year 2 and Kindergarten classrooms are located, will undergo an external paint makeover. In addition, two of our older demountable classrooms are also being painted. This should create a fresh look. The previously cut trees in the Infants Cola area are also being trimmed and tidied to make the playground safer.

Attendance Responsibilities Schools, in partnership with parents, are responsible for promoting the regular attendance of students. While parents are legally responsible for the regular attendance of their children, school staff, as a part of their duty of care, monitors part or whole day absences. Parents and schools have specific responsibilities concerning children’s attendance at school. It has come to my attention that a number of children are regularly late to school and/or have too many unexplained absences. Principals are legally responsible for maintaining accurate records of student attendance. When reasons for absences are provided to the school by parents, principals are accountable for their decision to record a student’s absence as justified. Principals may decline to accept as satisfactory an explanation for an absence and will record that absence as unjustified.

What is a justified reason for being absent from school? Justified reasons for absences may include the student:

Having an unavoidable medical or dental appointment (preferably, these should be made after school or during holidays)

Being required to attend a recognised religious holiday

Being required to attend an exceptional or urgent family circumstance (such as attending a funeral)

Being sick, or having an infectious disease. Absences for reasons such as some of the following may not be justified:

Shopping

Sleeping in

Working around the house

Minding younger siblings and other children

Minor family events such as birthdays

Haircuts

Keeping the school informed If your child has to be absent from school, it is important to tell the school and provide a reason for the absence. To explain an absence parents and carers may:

Send a note, fax or email to the school

Telephone the school, or

Visit the school

Ms Pate Cooper

Principal (Relieving)

2016 Student Leaders Congratulations to our 2017 elected student leaders:

School Captains

Alexander Camua Lexie Fernandez

School Vice- Captains

Jay-Carlo Lardizabal Sumayyah Qamar

Prefects Shahmir Hashim Chloe Pickering Marlon Rodriguez Tazeen Atif William Hermiz Rosie Silvio Mason Manera Scarlett Bishop

Class Parliamentarians

1/2S Alyssa Urfano 2F Allyarna Harrex 2D Brett Sequeria 2G Fatima Mirza 2M Patrick Chi 3C Arham Huq 3M Nhin Yin 3S Ambriehl Knaus-Petrie 3P Gerome Tatana 4R Tristan Davison 4T Ahmad Aziz 4W Imogen Markham-Ward 4/5K Prince Sheth 5A Jiya Raniga 5H Zacharia Khan 5R Kapilan Thesinghu 5Z Tayla Matthews 6C Francis Dagandan 6H Paula Gevero 6J Celis Pascual 6T Joshua Cinco

Library Monitors

Tanisha-Lee Chalker Sanam Hussein Vithia Kantharoopan Jiya Jojo

Lojain Baig Lexie Auld Sarah Kim Olivia Zabel

Madalyn Moffat Anthony Gorgis Alexander Bowen Rwik Chatterjee

Sports Captains & Vice Captains

BLAXLAND House Captains:

Bailey Anderson Justine Ademovic

House Vice-Captains: William Burgess Kayla Deacon

DRUITT House Captains:

Raymond Francis Marissa Kang

House Vice-Captains: Ali Haider Pearl Ibekaku

LAWSON House Captains:

Kareem Namrawi Tori Robertson

House Vice-Captains: Azmaan Rehmani Harsha Rajkumar

MARSDEN House Captains:

Siar Saifi Bella Semaan

House Vice-Captains: Samuel Woldseth Tanisha Sharif

2017 Assembly Days & Times Parents/carers are welcome to attend all assemblies. Days and times are as follows:

K-2

When: Friday of the EVEN weeks (2, 4, 6, 8, 10)

Time: 11:20am - 12:20am

3-6

When: Thursday of the ODD weeks (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11)

Time: 2:00pm - 3:00pm

Meet the Teacher Parents are advised that ‘Meet the Teacher’ meetings will be held next week (Week 5). Notes were sent home with students this week. Days & times are as follows: Kindergarten: Wednesday 22

nd February at 4pm

in Mrs Candy’s classroom (KC) Years 1 and 2: Tuesday 21

st February at 4pm

in Mrs McKervey’s room (1/2S) Years 3 and 4: Monday 20

th February at 4pm

in Mrs Palmos’s room (3P) Years 5 and 6: Thursday 23

rd February at 4pm

Yr 5: Miss Angell’s room (5A) Yr 6: Mr Clark’s room (6J) Please note: These times do not include 5R students.

On your marks, get

set….Run Club!

Run Club will be held again this year

every Wednesday morning at 8:30am

on the Staff Lawn with Mrs Schreurs and Mr Clark.

For the last couple of years a large number of students

attended Run Club in an effort to improve their fitness.

Teachers commented on how settled and focused their

runners were and many of these children had shown

improvement in just a few weeks.

Participation is FREE so if you would like to join Run

Club, come along on a Wednesday morning with a smile

and your running shoes!

5R’s OC Orientation Camp

On the 7th of February, 5R went on their Orientation

Camp to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. They stayed

in Hartley Lodge, run by the Katoomba Christian

Convention. For the first day, it rained halfway through

the bus trip, and the driver’s case (with things to prevent

oil spills, but joked to be a hidden corpse or the like) was

mistakenly taken.

The first bushwalk to the Three Sisters was rainy and

windy and got stormier as the day went on, but there

were many photo ops which obviously meant it was

worth it. Near the end, there was a visit to Scenic

World’s souvenir shop after an adventure on the Scenic

Skyway, formerly called the Sceniscender. Jayden and

Ashton bought a cockatoo plush, named Saucy after an

almost-disaster involving this poor bird and tomato

sauce that was accompanying some chips. Saucy swept

nearly all 5R off their heels.

Spaghetti Bolognaise was served for dinner on our first

night but it was actually served with pasta and not

spaghetti with a delectable dessert of strawberry

cheesecake. But instead of going to bed, 5R had a talent

quest, graded by communication, creativity and

innovation. There was a group using an iPad to mimic

gunshots, three girls who told their tales, stories and

yarns, and a group who narrated an adventure in

Pokémon Go.

Wednesday was probably as stormy if not more as the

first day, but loads of things happened. Firstly, our grand

principal, Mrs Cooper dropped in to check her students

and help us with our morning activities. We did a circuit

titled “OC 2017 Orientation Camp Boot Camp” and a

trivia with round 1 as general knowledge and two being

superheroes. After trekking from the lodge into the

Katoomba, we indulged in burgers and salad. We took

the Scenic Railway (the world’s steepest!) to the Scenic

Walkway, with wonders like a eucalyptus that suffered

an obviously rough life, possibly things that happened to

it or it being genetically more prone to disease, the

Kissing Trees, two Sassafras who shared their

protective tissue and other things like sap, and a

cableway for the now-closed Katoomba mine for

transporting coal and shale. The cables became useless

when the return cable broke. We took the Scenic

Cableway back to Scenic World, we returned to Hartley

Lodge to enjoy a baked dinner, then a quick session of

free time before Drama night!

Mr. Paul Innes was our teacher, who taught us about

levels, shapes, spiking, monster shape and freeze

frame. He told a story about Ted, a Sydney brick-maker

who leaves his job to be a goldminer in Bathurst, but the

story was cut short and the task given to us to finish it.

(By the way, dear reader, Ted discovers a quartz

specimen worth 150 pounds. He returns to Sydney,

proposes to his significant other, Lucy, and takes over

the management for the brickworks he used to work at.

Only one group deviated from the “Ted finds gold,

everyone’s happy” ending, which that group did,

“suddenly, Lucy steals the gold they just found!”)

Our camp ended on Thursday, and finally the sun shone

for the whole day, not just for a few minutes. Everyone

cleaned, packed their bags and left their rooms for the

very last time. Our bushwalk took us to the Skyway,

over the valley, then another ride on the Cableway to the

Walkway and then back up the Railway. Lunch was

served, and roughly an hour later, the bus pulled up and

5R left Katoomba to return to Colyton Public School.

Kayla Fairweather, 5R student.

Library News

Borrowing information for parents of students in Years 3-6 Due to the increasing enrolments here at Colyton, we have had to come up with creative ways to ensure that all students access the library as regularly as possible. This term, we are trialing a new delivery of lessons and borrowing procedures. Lessons will now be delivered to students in Years 3-6 in weekly sessions. This means that students may access the library for 4-5 weeks at a time and then, not come for the same amount of time so that another class can have access. Delivering lessons in this manner means that students would not be able to regularly borrow from the library. So the school will be trialing a borrowing day. From next week, students in Years 3-6 only, will be able to come to the library on a Wednesday morning between 9:30-10:00am to borrow books. Students 3-6, can also come to the library Tuesday – Friday mornings 8:30am – 9:00am and second half lunch Monday and Wednesday if they wish to borrow books. If students have any questions regarding borrowing, they should ask their classroom teacher for clarification. Mrs Cox and Miss Neill.

World Book Web Good news! Our library now subscribes to the following award winning World Book Web products. • World Book Kids—is based on World Book’s

award winning Discovery Encyclopedia and is designed to give younger students, ESL students and reluctant readers a rewarding online learning experience. The site illustrations, diagrams and maps enrich more than 2,000 articles selected for appeal and relevance.

• World Book Student—forms the foundation of an expansive reference database that includes over 40,000 encyclopedia and reference articles, thousands of links to outside web sites selected by World Book editors and contributors. It also includes an extensive Dictionary and Atlas plus audios, visuals and animations.

• Enciclopedia Estudiantil Hallazgos—the optimal beginner’s Spanish language reference site.

• World Book timelines - Allows students to access timelines they've created and saved. Students can edit World Book's timelines to create their own custom timelines by searching the World Book database for events. They can add media from World Book or upload their own images to bring the timelines to life.

Our World Book subscription allows us to give you and your family access to this valuable reference source at your home computers 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. We are providing this service to you at no charge! We hope that your whole family will use the World Book sites often to help with homework, special projects, at-home learning and information seeking. To access the World Book Web, follow these simple steps: 1. Go to the World Book web site: http://www.worldbookonline.com

2. Type in the following user Login ID: colyton 3. Password: colyton Happy researching, Mrs. Cox and Miss Neill

St Mary's PSSA Sydney West Team trials This year, St Mary's PSSA will be holding a trial day for students who wish to trial for Sydney West PSSA District teams. Previously, these trials have been held outside of school hours and on separate days. This year, these trails will be conducted during school hours with an attending teacher on Wednesday, 1st March. The trials conducted on the day will be Rugby League (11s and opens), AFL, Girls soccer, Boys soccer and Netball. Students must be eligible to trial, including currently playing at club level (or above) and/or have previous experience representing at a district level and/or have natural sporting abilities that can transfer across sports they are trialling for. Students who are interested in trialling should see Mrs King and submit their name NO LATER than 3pm Monday 20th February. Further details will be provided for those students who have submitted their names. Sarah King Classroom Teacher- Year 4/5

Term 1

Week 5 Monday 20th February Yrs 3&4 Meet the Teacher - 4pm Mrs Palmos’s room Tuesday 21st February Yrs 1&2 Meet the Teacher – 4pm Mrs McKervey’s room Wednesday 22nd February Kindergarten Meet the Teacher – 4pm Mrs Candy’s room Thursday 23rd February Yrs 5&6 Meet the Teacher 4pm – Yr 5 Miss Angell’s room - Yr 6 Mr Clark’s room Friday 24th February CLC Sport begins

Week 6 Monday 27th February School Swimming Carnival (competitors ONLY) Wednesday 1st March PSSA District Team Trials Friday 3rd March District Swimming Carnival

Week 7 Tuesday 7th March P&C A.G.M – 7pm in the Residence Thursday 9th March Selective High Test

Week 8 Thursday 16th March School Photograph Day -Scholastic Book Club orders due