UNANDERRA PUBLIC Principal's MessageDear Parents/Carers, Thank you once again to our very supportive and understanding school community during this incredibly uncertain time. The staff at UPS have been overwhelmed with messages of appreciation from the Unanderra Public School community throughout this term. Thank you for these words of encouragement, they really mean so much. Just as our staff are always working very hard to support our students, so are our parents and carers, and in particular, during this time of an extended period Level 4 restrictions. Thank you parents and carers! We congratulate our wonderful students and thank our families for continuing to follow the NSW Health orders by staying at home when you can and maintaining regular communication with your class teachers. The generous donation of a hot/cold beverage from the UPS P&C to our staff is so kind and the UPS staff are ever so appreciative of this acknowledgement, thank you! We understand how challenging it is for our families to work from home and support their children to complete remote learning activities successfully at the same time. Please remember that parents and carers are always welcome to contact the school to discuss these challenges and ways that they can remain at home with their children successfully. This may include teachers making additional phone calls, applying varied learning strategies and/or supplying further resources. Some additional supports available for families to refer to are below. Learning from home Learning environment checklist (PDF 83.47 KB) Remote learning guidelines (PDF 185.94 KB) The staff at UPS recognise and understand the challenges of the essential and front line workers in our community, who are constantly juggling their days between home, work and school while trying to keep themselves and others safe (many staff members are doing the same). Unanderra Public School will continue to supervise students of these critical workers and those students where school is the safest place to be. As you will be aware the stay-at-home rules that apply to schools in Greater Sydney (including Wollongong), have been extended until at least 30 September. ‘Parents and carers in areas under stay-at-home rules must keep children – across primary and secondary school – at home unless they need to be at school. Schools and outside of school hours care (OOSHC) services are open for any child that needs it.’ (NSW DoE, 20 August 2021) Please know that our school will maintain a skeleton staff each day in order to comply with NSW Public Health orders. Opportunity Class Test The Opportunity Class Placement Test has been rescheduled to Wednesday 6 October 2021. This is due to the increased health and safety risks which prevent large groups of external students mixing and mingling with local school students. In mid-September 2021 you will receive your child’s ‘Test authority’ advice which will confirm where your child will sit the test Cyber safe families Families can refer to the following resources to support their children in being responsible online users:
A friendly reminder for all families Students must not attend work or school if unwell, even with mild symptoms of COVID-19. Any person with any COVID-19 symptoms must be sent home and not return to school unless:
Anyone who is unwell with COVID-19 symptoms is strongly encouraged to get tested and self-isolate until a negative result is received. Find your local testing clinics. Spooky and Sparkly UPS Zoom Disco On Friday 13 August, many students, families and staff enjoyed an hour of dancing and singing during an online disco hosted by a lady called Amber from a company called Danc2Bfit.Teachers, students and even some parents dressed up for this hour of fun. We definitely had sparkly little faces lighting up our screens and even some scary costumes to frighten us into doing some crazy dance moves. Seeing so many happy faces and funky dance moves was the best way to end a busy week. Thank you to all who participated and made such a huge effort. It was really a highlight for us all and certainly left a big smile on our faces that lasted throughout the weekend. Well-being Wednesday Last Wednesday UPS enjoyed a day away from the more formal side of learning and focused more on relaxing, playing games and connecting with family members both indoors and outdoors. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and as a result will be held again in week 8 and week 10 of this term. Information for parents and carers on talking about COVID-19, supporting their child’s wellbeing and where to access support can be found in Talking to children about coronavirus (COVID-19) (PDF 110KB) Helpful phone contacts, agencies, websites and apps that support mental health and wellbeing in these changing times can be found at Wellbeing services. Another useful resource is Smiling Mind, a meditation app for young people. It has been developed by a team of psychologists and uses mindfulness to boost calmness, contentment and clarity. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to help manage stress, resilience, anxiety, depression and improve general health and wellbeing. This is free. Smiling Mind app on the App Store and Google Play Celebrating Learning Congratulations to all of the children uploading and sharing their learning via Seesaw and in hard copies. We are certainly proud of you all and we know how hard you are all trying. Keep going you are all amazing! The families and friends of Unanderra Public School have been gracious and understanding during this extended period of restrictions and in an ever changing landscape of teaching and learning experiences. I am immensely proud of all of our children and thank our school community and staff for the continued support provided. I recognise and appreciate how much effort everyone has made to assist the staff to meet the needs of each student in the most effective and efficient ways possible. You are all doing a great job! With four weeks until the term ends I am confident we will continue to show our children strength, positivity and courage. We are all in this together. Please continue to communicate with your child’s class teacher and the school when you need to; phone (02) 4272 8730 or email [email protected] Stay safe and look after one another. Kind Regards, Anissa Rajenda Welcome to KS... KS has been working extremely hard this term. They are dealing with their first lock down while at primary school and have taken home learning in their stride, being super resilient and doing their absolute best to complete all learning tasks. Even though the students have been amazing it can't be said enough the amount of work families are doing to support KS during this time. So, I want to take the time to say a big thank you to all parents supporting KS. You are Awesome. Here is a collection of photos recognising not just the students but also the families who are being super heroes for KS. While we’ve been learning from home, the iLibrary has continued to deliver library lessons online across the whole school. During NAIDOC week, students from K-2 listened to the story ‘My Country’ by Aboriginal author, Ezekiel Kwaymellina and Aboriginal author and illustrator, Sally Morgan. Years 3-6 listened to another story by Aboriginal author, Ezekiel Kwaymellina, which is also illustrated by Sally Morgan, ‘We All Sleep'. Both stories focus on a connection to country and as the theme for NAIDOC this year is Heal Country, students were encouraged to get outside and enjoy nature near them. Students also drew pictures in the same style as Sally Morgan capturing their environment and considering its importance to them. Here are some of their artworks. InterrelateThe Fathering ProjectModelling and teaching your child about acceptance of othersAs a role model, it is important for fathers to be aware of how they treat other people and to model inclusion of people from all backgrounds and abilities. To do this, you need make the effort to be aware of any prejudices you may have yourself. It can be helpful to reflect your own behaviours to identify any unconscious prejudices or even times you may joke about things that might seem harmless, but that could give you children the wrong idea. Prejudice is often brought by a fear of the unknown or of something that is different. It is natural for younger children to be inquisitive or even frightened of people who are different to them, when they first see or meet them. As fathers you can help your children learn that everyone is different in some way, and that we are all unique and special in our own way. Top Tips to model and teach acceptance of others
Did you know? The Fathering Project does Celebrity Podcasts! Each week a different celebrity father joins the podcast and talks about the ups and downs of being a father. Previous weeks have had Brad Haddin and Hamish Blake sharing personal stories of their fathering duties. This week comedian Jimmy Rees shares his own stories and promotes his new book 'Bedtime Sorted'.
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