The newsletter for our school community

Passfield Park School

53 Guernsey Avenue Phone: 9820 1700 Minto NSW 2566

passfield-s.school@det.nsw.edu.au www.passfield-s.schools.nsw.edu.au

Diary Dates………. Tuesday, December 8 Presentation Assemblies Wednesday, December 16 Last day, Term 4 Friday, January 29 First Day, Term 1– 2021

From the principal…… Dear Parents and Carers, This week we celebrate NAIDOC Week. Students are participating in various class activities acknowledging the 2020 theme of Always Was, Always Will Be. We held a colouring competition where a student from each stage won a set of Aboriginal clapping sticks. It was difficult to pick a winner as there are so many beautiful artworks. On Thursday we held a NAIDOC assembly for all classes via Microsoft Teams. I wish to express my disappointment that we are unable to hold end of year celebrations in our normal manner due to the COVID-19 restrictions. We will still be celebrating our wonderful students at stage presentation assemblies within school grounds and are looking at the best way to involve parents and carers. More information about the assemblies will be coming home soon. Class and individual photos and awards will be sent home after the assemblies. Very exciting news you will see at the end of this newsletter is a new school build update! This morning staff met on the new site to celebrate, as from next Monday the site will be fenced off and prepared, to commence building in the coming weeks. Such a wonderful outcome for students, families and the community! Kind regards Wendy Low Principal

November 13, 2020

Valuing and respecting student and staff learning in a safe 21st century learning environment

Our charity, Passfield Park Kids Inc., was set up in 2013 to support the therapy needs of our students. The committee meet once each term. If you would like to find out more or be a part of this wonderful charity, please call Cheryl (in the office).

Our wonderful Book Week

foyer display.

Amazing work from all classes

NAIDOC

Colouring

artwork

CLASS NEWS

Pink Class have been very busy this term so far. We read the book Hey, Water! by Antoinette Portis and made craft activities around the story including a book cover puzzle. We are playing indoor netball and participating in weekly Special Olympics focusing on ball skills. We enjoyed visits from Bunny the therapy dog, and learned how to touch a pet safely and kindly. In Science and Geography, students learnt about rain, and where the sources of water are in a house or classroom. We walked outside in the rain with an umbrella, and painted with water. It is so good to see students learning and growing together. Well done Pink Class. The class is looking forward to having more fun learning in the coming weeks.

Pooja, Leanne and Nicole

It has been a busy and fun start to Term 4 in Purple Class. We started learning about water and have all

really enjoyed investigating and exploring it. Because it has also been a wet start to the term we have been able to observe the water cycle in action and love watching the rain falling from our classroom windows. Our class story There’s a sea in my bedroom has provided lots of laughs and taught us about some of the things we might find when we go to the beach. We have also continued to participate in special Olympics and all students have grown and developed new skills when moving our bodies. We are looking forward to the rest of the term and continuing to learn all about water.

Alana and Rami

Pink Class Purple Class

CLASS NEWS

Welcome to a fun and exciting final term in Bradman Class. This term we are looking at celebrations in

Australia and around the world, focusing on how they are celebrated within Australia. Our first focus was on weddings; students had the opportunity to design and create their own wedding cakes and dresses using a variety of art and craft supplies. Our book study is The Grinch who stole Christmas, where students explored characteristics of the Grinch and what kind of person they should be.

Sarah, Mandy and Kris W

Yellow Class students have had a wonderful year making and sustaining friendships with each other. We have learned and grown together. The students loved hands on activities in Science, Music and Creative Arts and participating in online literacy and numeracy programs has been one of our strengths this year. A highlight this term has been visits from Bunny the Pets as Therapy dog. Thank you to all parents and carers who have supported us for in their child’s learning in the unusual journey of 2020. We are so proud of our students’ achievements.

Sukhraj, Sharon And Marlene

Yellow Class Wow! What a fantastic start to Term 4. All the boys in Fraser Class have settled back into their routines and are enjoying our units of work. In history, art and music we have focused on events celebrated around world including weddings, Halloween, Día de los Muertos and Ramadan. The boys have also thoroughly enjoyed a few special activities that have occurred for Fraser Class this term. This has included a visit to the Café on Friday along with visits from Bunny the Pets as Therapy dog. We are looking forward to lots of fun in the remainder of the term whilst we continue our learning.

Holly, Di S and Michele

Fraser Class

Bradman Class

Check out our school website www.passfield-s.schools.nsw.edu.au

Green Class has had a fabulous start to Term 4. Music continues to be a favourite for all each week. We especially enjoyed our session with Daniel from Rhythm Village when we looked at Mexican special occasions. We tried on Mexican hats, did the hat dance and sang songs from the Disney film Coco. We are also learning about Water this term, which has enabled us to do many highly engaging experiments, sensory play and artworks. We all loved making special raining artwork by squeezing cotton balls as we stuck them onto cardboard. We hope the rest of term is as fun and exciting!

Amanda, Lucinda, Caitlin, Rayeen and Mel

CLASS NEWS

Green Class What a great year we’ve had in White Class! This term our theme for learning is Water. White Class has been learning where water comes from and how it gets to our tap. In weekly music lessons with Rhythm Village, we have been learning about celebrations such as birthdays, Christmas, Diwali and Dias De Los Muertos. We have been cooking each Wednesday, learning how to set tables, pour water and wash our plates after eating. Each Thursday we have been learning fundamental skills in Special Olympics such as balancing, passing a ball and catching. For the first 3 weeks of term we had a special visit from Bunny the therapy dog which was so much fun.

Cameron and Rob

White Class

Wow it is hard to believe the year is almost over! This term in history, art and music, students have been learning about different events celebrated around the world including weddings, Halloween, Día de los Muertos and Ramadan. We have had lots of fun singing, dancing and creating a series of artworks to develop our understanding of the ways people and cultures celebrate each of the events. We had a wonderful time celebrating NAIDOC week this week; Always Was, Always Will Be was this year’s theme. We all tried hard to win the poster colouring-in competition, we created a class story using aboriginal symbols and joined all other classes for an online assembly on Thursday afternoon. Café Skills is continuing and students are enjoying serving peers and staff during the Breakfast Café each Friday.

Karen and Kris B

Goolagong Class

Freeman Class participate in Special Olympics every Thursday morning where all class members are developing skills in listening, following instructions, playing games and completing simple exercises demonstrated by the instructors. All students are enjoying these 30-minute sessions and are improving skills each week. To celebrate NAIDOC week Freeman students each painted an indigenous symbol during a creative arts lesson. The painted symbols were then cut out and students were asked to choose a symbol and place on the story board. Once the symbols were positioned on the story board we wrote and printed a story incorporating all the painted symbols to create our class dreamtime story. Di and Julie

Freeman Class

CLASS NEWS

WORLD TEACHERS’ DAY

World Teachers’ Day recognises the high quality of our teachers and principals and the significant contributions they make in classrooms and communities.

In 2020, World Teachers’ Day celebrated teachers with the theme “Teachers: Leading in crisis, reimagining the future”. The day provides the occasion to celebrate the teaching profession worldwide, take stock of achievements, and draw attention to the voices of teachers, who are at the heart of efforts to attain the global education target of leaving no one behind.

We celebrated World Teachers’ Day at Passfield Park School by holding a lunch to show appreciation for our teachers and principal and the incredibly difficult year that has been 2020. Thank you to all our teachers who are so committed to making a difference for our students every day!

NSW Department of Education – School Infrastructure

Passfield Park School Works notification

12 November 2020

Dear parents, carers and neighbours,

The redevelopment of Passfield Park School is about to commence with early preparation of the construction site starting from Monday 16 November with official construction commencing on 23 November.

The redevelopment of Passfield Park Public School will deliver 16 new permanent teaching spaces, a new library, a new school hall, a new entrance and drop off area for parents, carers and students, new modern core facilities including staff and administration areas, a new covered outdoor learning area and a new indoor sports facility.

An upgrade to the existing car park adjacent to the existing playing fields will also be undertaken and will see car park spaces increase from 50 to 68 car spaces.

Schedule of Works for early construction from 16 – 23 November

The project management team will be undertaking the following in preparation for construction as part of what is termed as site mobilisation and set up. This will occur between 16 and 23 November:

• Erection of temporary fencing and hoarding (shade cloth) around perimeter of where the building site is located

• Installation of work sheds, toilets, meeting rooms

• Establishment of erosion and sediment controls.

Schedule of Works for commencement of construction from 23 November to January 2021

• Excavation of existing car park to start upgrade

• Excavation of school buildings site

School pick up and drop off

As this redevelopment is a new and separate facility and separated from the existing Passfield Park School – there will be no impact to school drop of and pick up zones.

Parking

Parking for site crew will take place in Durham Road on the school side of the street and construction crews have been requested to not park their vehicles on the residential side of the street.

NSW Department of Education – School Infrastructure

schoolinfrastructure.nsw.gov.au Page 2 of 2

The car park for the playing fields that is already closed Monday to Friday will now be closed until March 2021 to allow the immediate upgrade and expansion of car parking spaces in time for the beginning of the 2021 team sport competitions.

Traffic Management

To ensure the safety of students, staff, the local community and our site workers, traffic management will be implemented if and when required. This includes the use of onsite traffic control personnel to manage entry and exit of construction vehicles. Site vehicles must give way to pedestrians at all times.

Wherever possible, truck movements will be scheduled to outside school drop off and pick up times.

Construction hours

In line with the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment (EPA) (COVID-19 Development – Construction Work Days) Order 2020, School Infrastructure NSW construction sites can operate on weekends and public holidays. This is to allow workers to abide by social distancing rules while on construction sites by distributing building work.

Under this order, works will take place 7:00am to 6:00pm Monday to Friday, and on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, only when required.

School Infrastructure NSW will ensure work is considerate of neighbours with noise kept to a minimum. The extended hours will continue while the EPA COVID-19 Order is in place.

The health, safety and well-being of our students, staff and neighbours is our highest priority and we will continue to keep the community updated.

We are here to make sure that work is completed safely and efficiently and that we minimise impacts on the community at every opportunity.

For more information contact:

School Infrastructure NSW Email: schoolinfrastructure@det.nsw.edu.au Phone: 1300 482 651 www.schoolinfrastructure.nsw.gov.au