‘Endeavour to Excel’ ‘Excellence, Opportunity, Success’ 121 PACIFIC HIGHWAY, OURIMBAH 2258 PHONE: 4362 1033 FAX: 4362 2531 Email : ourimbah-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Website : www.ourimbah-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

‘Communicating with our Caring Community’ u

Wednesday, 8th September 2021

DATES TO REMEMBER

PRINCIPAL

Stars of the Week – Learning from Home with KMB! It is time for the wonderful teachers and students of KMB to show off their home learning activities! Mrs McMurtrie, Mrs Brewin and the students in KMB have all become experts on using the online platform Seesaw. Seesaw has provided our teachers and the students with the opportunity to share their work with each other whilst learning from home. Adjusting to home learning with many of the activities being online has tested our patience, our bandwidth and our technology skills, but your teachers and I think you’ve done an awesome job, KMB! A huge thank you to the following students who have posted this fantastic work and shared it with Mrs McMurtrie, Mrs Brewin and I – Hugh N – Sight Words and Handwriting. I have noticed that Hugh has been practising his sight words and his

handwriting, this week. Great formation of the letter “b”, Hugh!

Elodie C – Guided Writing. KMB have been doing some descriptive writing and Elodie has drawn and labelled the parts of a snake – Ssssssssensational, Elodie!

Elise C – Maths: sharing. Elise and her classmates have been learning about sharing (division). I didn’t realise owlets loved mice so much, Elise!

DATE EVENT 8 September Book Club Issue 6 Orders Close 10 September Food Hamper Donations Close 13 September Keeping Connected via Zoom 17 September Last Day Term 3

Arshiya – Purple Sight Words. Great reading, Arshiya! Arshiya confidently posted a recording of her reading her sight word list - some tricky words too!

Sebastian R-C – Phonics: bossy ‘E’. Sebastian has been learning all about the ‘bossy e’ rule. Did you know that if I add an ‘e’ to the end of the word ‘mat’ it becomes ‘mate’? Thanks for being a great mate in KMB, Sebastian!

Zoey P – Descriptive Writing. Zoey’s zebra picture and descriptive labelling was very neat!

Travis M – Phonics: vowels. Travis has been practising hard on his sounds. He has been learning about ‘short’ and ‘long’ vowels in the middle of words. Can you tell which vowel is short and which vowel is long in these words from Travis’s list (made / chin)?

Call for Donations – Food Hampers A HUGE THANK YOU to those families for your generous donations and please keep them coming so we can make food hampers for families within the OPS school community. If you would like to help, we are still accepting donations of non-perishable food items, toiletries and any other items you think families may need to help them get by until this Friday 10 September!

If you are aware of any family within our school community that would benefit from one of our food hampers, please contact the front office (4362 1033). Free Your Mind Friday We know how incredibly hard the last 9 weeks have been learning from home and appreciate that there have been many triumphs as well as many challenges along the way. In response to this, we have decided to follow an initiative that some other local schools have trialled recently – FREE YOUR MIND FRIDAY for those students and their families who are learning from home. What does this mean for our students who are learning from home? This Friday, we are having an early mark! Put your work packs away (if you wish) and take the afternoon off. It’s time to take a break! • The planned Zoom meetings will still go ahead for

those students that would like to join in, however, there is no expectation to!

• You may like to catch up on some unfinished work. • Take a walk or a ride with your family. • Sit in front of the TV and watch your favourite

movie. • Dust off your favourite book and sit in the sun and

turn a few pages. • Turn your writing thumb into a green thumb and

spend some time in the garden. Students and their families are encouraged to have a wellbeing day – you deserve it!

SAS Staff Recognition Week This week the teachers and students have celebrated SASS Recognition Week. Our SAS staff play an important role in the school community. They are often the first people you see when you enter a school and are essential to maintaining positive relationships with students, parents and the community. SAS staff work in school offices, in classrooms and libraries and maintaining and caring for school grounds and buildings. They are often the ones to tend to students when they unwell and they ensure the efficient management of school financial and administration functions. SAS Staff Recognition Week is an opportunity for the school community to acknowledge the vital role that SAS Staff play at Ourimbah PS. Thank you to those highly valued members of staff that often work ‘behind the scenes’ to make our school the amazing place it is to work and learn. • School Administrative Team – Sue Vila,

Darrelyn Ward and Stella Dawson.

• School Learning Support Officers – Mel Cooper, Elise Brewster, Judy Worth, Niamh Formby, Mel Kenny, Amanda Hampson, Suzie Matheson, Rhys Smith and Jess O’Harae.

• General Assistant – John Rainger • Canteen Manager – Victoria Keegan

On behalf of the Ourimbah PS Community I would like to give a massive shout-out to our AMAZING SASS TEAM and thank them for their dedication, compassion and initiative!

R U OK? Day – Thursday, 9th September R U OK? Day (Thursday 9 September, 2021) is our national day of action dedicated to reminding everyone that every day is the day to ask, “Are you OK?” and support those struggling with life's ups and downs. The past 2 years have certainly been very challenging for everyone and circumstances have made it even more important for us all to stay connected and, for those who are able, be willing to support those around us. R U OK? has developed four conversation steps to give you the skills and confidence to navigate a conversation with someone you're worried about… 1. Ask 2. Listen 3. Encourage Action 4. Check-in

If you would like to learn more about R U Ok? Day watch the following video on the Education website – R U Ok? Resources

Working Together, Greg Francis (Principal) Classy Article KMB – Mrs McMurtrie & Mrs Brewin We may have been learning from home for almost a term but that has not stopped the students of KMB from improving their skills in the backyard, on a bushwalk or even in pyjamas! Students have not only completed some brilliant work at home, they have also

demonstrated impressive skills in technology by using Seesaw to upload their work. Some highlights from KMB are shared below.

Hugh has been up bright and early each day and has consistently completed and uploaded his work to Seesaw.

Elodie has shown a wonderful improvement in her writing skills over the term.

Elise has worked hard in all areas and is always keen to share her animals and toys with the class on Zoom.

Arshiya demonstrates a consistent effort, always with a smile, whether she is working at home or at school.

Sebastian has dazzled us with his amazingly neat handwriting and use of adjectives in writing tasks.

Zoey has shown dedication in home learning and has boundless energy when completing her brain breaks and PE tasks.

Travis has worked hard on all tasks and is flying high with his sight words.

Without a doubt, the highlight of our week has been our class Zoom meetings. We have had so much fun seeing everyone’s smiling faces and hearing the news of different lockdown experiences. We have played scavenger hunts, Mr Squiggle, Guess the Animal, Bingo and brought our teddies to a teddy bears picnic. We always look forward to our Zoom meetings and can tell from the bright smiles that the students enjoy interacting with their friends and teachers too.

Congratulations to our KMB students and families for such a wonderful Term 3.

CLASSROOM EFFORT & BEHAVIOUR POINTSCORE Week 8 - Winning House – Koalas 1st Koalas 2nd Kangaroos 3rd Platypus 4th Emus

BOOK WEEK Next week we are celebrating Book Week with a difference. Hopefully your children have viewed the videos promoting Book Week at our school in 2021 and have felt inspired to make their own costume from items you already have at home, or to reuse a past costume. There will be a number of activities in the learning from home packs next week relating to Book Week. In regards to dressing up, K-2 students will be encouraged to have a photo taken wearing their costume and upload this to SeeSaw by 3pm Wednesday, 15th September. Mrs Wakelin and her team will share the photos with K-2 in one of their weekly wrap-up videos. Stage 2 students are encouraged to wear their Book Week costumes during their class Zooms (3/4R Wednesday 10:00; 3/4E Thursday 10:00 ; 3/4A Friday 9:30; 3/4B Friday 10:15 ; 4C Friday 11:00) and Stage 3 are encouraged to dress-up during their Wednesday morning Zoom. Any students who need to be on-site during Week 10, are invited to wear their Book Week costumes to school on Wednesday 15th September. Stay updated through your class’s SeeSaw or Google Classroom. Whether it is via Zoom, or through photos, I cannot wait to see everyone’s creativity this year!

Thanks, Jodi Golding BOOK CLUB ONLINE – ISSUE 6 CLOSES TODAY WEDNESDAY, 8th SEPTEMBER 2021 If you wish to place an order for Issue 6 of Book Club, please ensure that all orders are placed today online with your credit card via the LOOP option. The catalogue can be viewed on their website. Access to LOOP orders will be closed after today. During Lockdown, Scholastic is also offering home delivery for $7.50!