Respect, Responsibility, Real Learning Aloma Stewart - Principal PO Box 192 Fairy Meadow NSW 2519 P&C: www.balgowniepnc.com

The Bally Buzz

Balgownie Public School Living & Learning

W:www.balgownie-p.schools.nsw.edu.au T: 4284 4245 F:4284 3462 E:balgownie-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Term 2 - Week 6 Wednesday 5th June, 2019

Calendar - Term 2 - 2019

From the Principal’s Desk What a fortnight. I have been a proud public school educator and proud principal this fortnight. Not only are fabulous things happening in the classrooms, but also the extras which give our students a rich school life. These would not be possible without the dedication of our teachers and parents who go above and beyond. Thank you from all of the students and myself for giving of your time, expertise and generosity. Some events that have happened this fortnight include:

• Working Bee • K-2 Dance festival • Keirabald (a Community of schools art

exhibition and competition). • Reconciliation March • Netball knockout • Soccer • Basketball knockout

Congratulations to Dylan King who has been selected in the NSW 12 and Under Football

(soccer) team to play at the National Championships in Canberra. What an achievement for Dylan He will be competing in Canberra in August. We are very proud of you. Thank you for the working bee. Thanks to the 20 parents and community members, 9 staff and 8 students who came and helped on Saturday last week. Students showed responsibility and parents had time to socialise while working in our beautiful school. The main outcomes were: pruning, weeding, mulching, chain sawing, removal of old wooden seat slats, makeover of raised Kindy garden beds, sanding and staining of outdoor furniture, clean out of garden shed, tidy up of vegetable garden area, planting, planting & weeding & mulching of rainforest garden, litter pick up, large privet over G-A shed lopped back and stump removal. The quad gardens, library gardens, vegie and rainforest gardens were the ones that were made over. A special thanks to Julie who organised the workingabee. Defibrillator -Keeping our kids and community safe. Thanks to both Celia Iqbal, one of our Bally parents and the P&C who have provided our school with a defibrillator. Celia’s business is Convenient Chemist, Wollongong and they have donated half the cost of the defibrillator. Thanks to the P&C for donating the other half. It will be kept in our Sick Bay (first aid room) and the staff have

Thurs 6 June 2-6 Athletics Beaton Park

Fri 7 June South Coast Cross Country Nowra K-2 Athletics @ BPS

Mon 10 June Queen’s Birthday Holiday

Term 2 Week 6 2019

Respect, Responsibility, Real Learning

Aloma Stewart – Principal PO Box 192 Fairy Meadow NSW 2519 P&C: www.balgowniepnc.com

already received training to use this on the Staff Development Day in April. Keirabald Success Congratulations to our Balgownie finalists into the Keira Community of Schools Keirabald portrait project. It was a strong and vibrant exhibition. The folk who run Project ArtSpace, many of whom were there on opening night, were full of praise for the works. As the Lord Mayor said, if you see the Archibald you will have a greater appreciation of what our kids have achieved. Dr Turner, the Lord Mayor and Maurie Mulheron were able to attend.

Behind the scenes was the vision of the look of the show and I would like to thank colleagues at KHS and our Stage Three teachers, for the long day they put in hanging the exhibition and all their assistance in bringing this together.

Playground Consultation In 2012, the parents and community led consultation for improving our playground. The result was a five year plan to improve the play and learning spaces for our students. I have enclosed the plan with this newsletter. Some of the things we achieved included

• The play equipment • The climbing wall • A moveable net for the tennis court so

it could be used as a multi-purpose playground

• The toss ball tower in the quad • The cubby houses, sand pits and

outdoor cafe • Shaded seating – all the picnic

benches, the animals in the garden • The rainforest and reconciliation

garden • The heritage wall (with the pavers) • The vegie garden, compost space and

worm farms. There have been other improvements as we go along as well – for example the story wall. It is time for us to consult again and make our creative and fitness sport spaces even better. We are consulting with students, staff and parents to gather ideas to build on our

outdoor spaces to continually improve learning and play opportunities in our school grounds. Be creative and innovative! Please complete the Google form included here. The students are also being consulted. See page 6 for a image. https://forms.gle/JfstuAUdrNDnRSJL6 ANTIBULLYING LESSON 2 - Take a STAND How do I respond to Provocation? This week, students will discuss three basic ways to respond to a situation if they are provoked. The purpose is to understand that acting assertively (the ‘cool way’) will be the most productive rather than the passive or aggressive way. Why teach this skill? Students will encounter many situations where they will need to stand up for themselves. There are three basic ways to respond to a situation where you are being provoked. 1. An Assertive Response (Cool)

An assertive response to provocation usually involves making a firm request for the provocation to stop OR ignoring and walking away from the provocation. If neither of these strategies work, the next step in an assertive response is to seek assistance from a person with the resources and power to provide support.

2. A Passive Response (Soft) Some students lack confidence in their ability to deal with provocation. They become fearful and let others continue to give them a hard time or agree to things they really don’t want to do. Passive responses result in a loss of self- respect and respect from others, and usually the provocation continues.

Term 2 Week 6 2019

Respect, Responsibility, Real Learning

Aloma Stewart – Principal PO Box 192 Fairy Meadow NSW 2519 P&C: www.balgowniepnc.com

3. An Aggressive Response (Aggro)

An aggressive response involves

reacting with any or all of the following behaviours:

• hitting, punching, tripping and so on;

• using insults and put-downs; • shouting and yelling; • damaging property.

Many students believe that unless they respond aggressively to provocation, they will lose face and be called ‘wimps’. However, an aggressive response tends to escalate the conflict and often results in injury, or property damage, and loss of self-esteem. Students often don’t realise that they can maintain face and stand up for themselves by using an assertive response instead of an aggressive one. What is the difference between dobbing and telling?/ or asking for help? There is always the risk that students who seek support will be called “dobbers”. You don’t want to encourage dobbing but we want to encourage asking for support. Teachers are using the following definitions to distinguish between dobbing, telling and acting responsibly. • ‘Dobbing’ is when a person tries to get

attention or to get someone else into trouble. It is when you want to get someone in trouble over something that is not harming you or anyone else.

• Asking for help/support’/Telling is when someone feels a situation is out of their control and they are unable to deal with it alone. Telling is something you need to do to help yourself or someone else or is something that is serious and an adult needs to know. If anyone sees someone else in this situation they should also ask for help.

• Acting responsibly is letting a teacher or other adult know when something damaging or dangerous is happening to

you or someone else in your class. Asking for help is always okay.

Let’s work together to give our students skills to deal with life challenges.

Road Safety - Keep our kids safe. Please take the time to think about ways we can prevent any of our children being hit by a car and for us as drivers to prevent a tragedy. Children are unpredictable and can dart out onto roads for a variety of reasons. Please review your own practices and talk with your own families about safety on and around roads. Tips to improve children’s safety around your school ●Never drive in and drop your children off in our driveways. Reversing around children is extremely dangerous as you can’t see them easily. Please use the Kiss and Drop zone. Children should always get in and out of the car through the rear kerb side or ‘safety door’. ● Always drop your children on the school side of the road. ● Meet your children on the school side of the road, preferably at the school gate – particularly in wet weather. NEVER call to your children from across the road. Teach them to wait until you come to them. Talk with them about what they should do if you are not there on time. If your children are old enough to cross walk home by themselves, practise the routines together, crossing at crossing and where to cross if there is no crossing etc. ● Children up to at least eight years old should hold an adult’s hand in the car park, on the footpath and when crossing the road. Children between eight and at least ten years old should be closely supervised by an adult in the traffic environment and should hold an adult’s hand when crossing the road. ● Talk your child through the ‘STOP! LOOK! LISTEN! AND THINK!’ routine every time you cross the road together:

• STOP! One step back from the kerb. • LOOK! For traffic to your right, left and right again. • LISTEN! For the sounds of approaching traffic. • THINK! Whether it is safe to cross.

Term 2 Week 6 2019

Respect, Responsibility, Real Learning

Aloma Stewart – Principal PO Box 192 Fairy Meadow NSW 2519 P&C: www.balgowniepnc.com

● Always slow to 40km/h when travelling in an operating school zone. ● Always obey parking signs as these signs help save children’s lives. Joke of the Week Q. Why do kangaroo mums hate bad weather?

A. Their joeys have to play inside!

Aloma Stewart Principal

K-2 Sports Carnival Our Carnival will be on this Friday from 12 o’clock. As spectators you are welcome to come to school from 11am to share lunch with your child/children. The students are expected to remain at school after the carnival is finished. The running races will begin at 12 o’clock, in order of youngest to oldest. This event is for all of the students in Early Stage One. It is also for any students in Stage One that didn’t compete in the Stage 2 and Stage 3 Carnival. After the running races the students will rotate around different athletic events. We look forward to seeing you there. K-2 Staff

South Coast Touch Trials Kids

Girls Basketball The Balgownie Public School Girls Basketball team played their first round against Woonona. Unfortunately they lost to a very strong team. The girls then had a win against Balarang. All girls played well and displayed terrific sportsmanship.

Term 2 Week 6 2019

Respect, Responsibility, Real Learning

Aloma Stewart – Principal PO Box 192 Fairy Meadow NSW 2519 P&C: www.balgowniepnc.com

On Friday 31st May, selected students from Balgownie Public School attended the annual Reconciliation Walk, hosted by Bellambi Public School. This year the theme ‘Grounded in Truth: Walk Together with Courage!’ Balgownie students participated with the utmost pride and respect. Our very own Kyeson E excitedly participated in learning an indigenous dance and received a gift on behalf of Balgownie Public School to plant in our garden. This day is an important one, even more important that events such as this open up channels of communication about Australia’s history. Well done Balgownie kids!

Term 2 Week 6 2019

Respect, Responsibility, Real Learning

Aloma Stewart – Principal PO Box 192 Fairy Meadow NSW 2519 P&C: www.balgowniepnc.com

Term 2 Week 6 2019

Respect, Responsibility, Real Learning

Aloma Stewart – Principal PO Box 192 Fairy Meadow NSW 2519 P&C: www.balgowniepnc.com

Skoolbag Problems We have been experiencing some problems with receiving absence emails from Skoolbag. We have contacted them and they have advised us that they have fixed this problem. If you do receive an absence letter and you have submitted it previously on Skoolbag, fill it in and make a note on it that you have sent an email via skoolbag. We will be monitoring this and hope the issues are fixed, apologies for any unneeded letters. Compulsory Educational Fees Please note any outstanding Educational Fees need to be paid now, this is an annual fee of $30 per student. These fees are for subscriptions, IPad apps, Reading Eggs, etc and are charged on a per-student basis. These items are used at school to develop your child’s learning through Technology. This fee must be paid before any extracurricular activities are undertaken.

Uniform Shop Not sure how to place an order? No problem.

• Place an order online http://balgowniepnc.com/ourschool/uniforms and your order will be delivered to your child’s classroom on Friday morning

OR • Come to the Uniform Shop on Friday

morning in person. We can only accept cash on Friday’s and appreciate correct change.

Thank you to those families who have recently generously donated preloved clothing. If you have items that no longer fit your child why not consider donating them to the P & C for other community members to purchase. Second hand items are sold or $5 and $1 per item! Please note we can only accept school uniform donations. Please take other items to appropriate donation collection points.

Balgownie Public School P & C 2019 Colour Run Balgownie Public School P & C are running our first Colour Run in Term 3. Opportunities exist for families, individuals and businesses to secure colour powder ‘squirter’ position/s and colour bags for use at the colour fight. The colour fight will occur at the conclusion of the run. We are hoping to gather enough sponsorship and ‘squirters’ to cover all the costs and enable all student participation fees to go directly towards school resources. We have already secured several sponsorship positions and colours, so if you are interested email sponsorships@balgowniepnc.com for further details. Please note packages commence at $50.00 and invoices will be issued to assist with tax donation claims. Student participation fees $10.00. Further details will follow.

Double Deal - Helping your school & the environment! You probably know about Return & Earn? What you may not know is that you can contribute Return & Earn money to Balgownie Public School! Return & Earn works for those small single serve plastic bottles (eg. gatorade), cans or glass bottles. Milk cartons or big juice cartons etc are not accepted. You can recycle them in your yellow bin at home. Where is Return & Earn located? The automatic deposit machine is located at the back of the Fraternity Club in Fairy Meadow. When you get to the Return & Earn collection point, simply scan the barcode below and start feeding your bottles down the chute. This money is then sent to the P & C's PayPal account which will help us raise money throughout the year. Every little bit helps and your children are always the recipients of material bought with the money raised for the school. Of course recycling in any way is better than it going to landfill, so you can involve your children in Return & Earn where they can earn some pocket money, or you can choose to donate it to one of the charities or organisations listed. Happy bottle & can collecting!

Term 2 Week 6 2019

Respect, Responsibility, Real Learning

Aloma Stewart – Principal PO Box 192 Fairy Meadow NSW 2519 P&C: www.balgowniepnc.com

Woolworths Earn and Learn The Woolworths Earn and Learn program will be operating in the school this year. If you shop at any Woolworths please collect the Earn and Learn stickers. These stickers can be placed in the stores at Fairy Meadow, Corrimal or in the School Office. Ask your neighbours and family to collect them for our school. This program allows the school to receive quality school resources for our students.

2019-2020 Entertainment Book Memberships There were over 80 families who purchased digital or book memberships last year and have enjoyed their savings and fun experiences using the fabulous vouchers (which are still valid in the current edition until June 1st). If you would like to continue getting huge discounts on your groceries, petrol, eating out and kids holiday activities then please buy the new membership and support our school! It costs $60 and contains hundreds of local restaurants, cafes, shopping and entertainment vouchers. Every membership sold raises $12 for our school, which buys educational resources and other items to create a wonderful learning environment for our children. Order forms have been sent home to kindergarten families, but the easiest way to preview the vouchers or place an order is online www.entertainmentbook.com.au/orderbooks/280m215k

Term 2 Week 6 2019

Respect, Responsibility, Real Learning

Aloma Stewart – Principal PO Box 192 Fairy Meadow NSW 2519 P&C: www.balgowniepnc.com

Term 2 Week 6 2019

Respect, Responsibility, Real Learning

Aloma Stewart – Principal PO Box 192 Fairy Meadow NSW 2519 P&C: www.balgowniepnc.com