UNANDERRA PUBLIC Principal's MessageDear Parents and Carers, Welcome to week nine of term three, which as we can all agree has been quite challenging and very different to what we had planned for. None-the-less, it is certainly a huge credit to our students, families and staff in recognising what has been accomplished and what continues to be achieved during this extended lock down period. SASS Appreciation Week This week is School Administrative and Support Staff Recognition Week. We would like to recognise and thank all of the SAS staff at school who work so hard to support students, teachers and parents. Our SAS staff play an important role in our school community. They have shown extraordinary commitment to supporting our school and its community especially in this current environment. A huge thank you to all of our incredible SASS staff who go above and beyond to support not only our students but also the staff and whole school community. We are very appreciative and thank you so much for all that you do! COVID-19 Update- Return to School Plan As you will all be aware the NSW State government together with NSW Health and NSW DoE have announced a staggered student return to school plan starting on Monday 25 October with kindergarten and year one for primary schools. On Monday 1 November, year 2 and year 6 are to return while the remaining students in years 3,4 and 5 will return on Monday 8 November. This still remains dependent on the numbers of COVID-19 cases in Wollongong closer to the date of each anticipated return. We have been advised that all staff are to be vaccinated by 8 November 2021. Staged return (Level 3 plus)- NSW DoE current advice When stay-at-home rules are still in place but other community vaccination and transmission conditions are met, students will return to school in a staged way. This is a staggered return for prioritised cohorts, with no mingling or on-site activities. Students will return to face-to-face learning under Level 3 plus with NSW Health-approved COVID-safe settings on school sites in the following order:
All families are encouraged to monitor the NSW Government’s latest COVID-19 news and updatesExternal link for locations where there may have been exposure to COVID-19 and adhere to the advice as appropriate. A friendly reminder that if you are working from home and your child is able to learn from home it is important that they stay at home as directed by the NSW Health Public Health Order. We thank all of our families who are continuing to support our school community by keeping their children at home and learning from home, to minimise day to day travel and movement. It has certainly been a long time and I can assure you that the teachers truly miss their classes and the UPS staff cannot wait for the all of our students to return to school when we are advised it is safe to do so. Thank you to our essential workers We also acknowledge and thank those essential and frontline workers who continue to work hard to keep our community safe and able to access essential food and necessary items and services. If you are an essential worker and/or your children cannot be supported to access some form of learning at home our school will continue to be open with a minimum number of staff for supervision. Available Resources 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. Our teachers are always happy to make additional phone calls, provide further adjustments to learning strategies and/or supply further resources to students who may need this extra guided support. 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) To support the hard-working parents and carers who support us all, the NSW DoE have created an 'essentials' toolkit packed with self-care tips and handy lists. Please see the following link, https://education.nsw.gov.au/parents-and-carers/parent-and-carers-toolkit/download-the-toolkit If parents and/or carers require any support, clarification or guidance from the class teacher or executive staff please do not hesitate to contact the school 42728730 or email: [email protected]. We are more than happy to answer your questions and concerns as best as we possibly can. Interrelate As you can imagine a great deal of planning and organisation was needed for the program Interrelate to be delivered online last Monday 30 August 2021. Unfortunately the course did not go ahead due to technical and company communication issues. This initiative was coordinated independently from Unanderra Public School, however was initiated by our amazing UPS P&C committee. This great learning opportunity was endorsed by the principal, and families and students were encouraged to participate if it was appropriate for them to do so. An apology from the staff at Interrelate has been provided to the families and students who paid and were disappointed and impacted. My understanding is that families have had a number of alternatives made available to them in order to be compensated for the inconvenience and non-delivery of the course. Southern Stars In light of the current COVID restrictions around the state, the Southern Stars Management Team has met this week to discuss a way forward for Southern Stars 2021. Unfortunately, they have had to make the difficult decision once again to postpone this year’s show from November 2021 to August 2022. The Southern Stars Management Team understand that this news will be very disappointing for our students, their families and the staff involved. Please be reassured that the entire Southern Stars team has been working tirelessly behind the scenes. Despite the countless hours spent to develop strategy and contingency plans in order to make every effort to put on a show this year, it is unable to proceed due to factors beyond anyone’s control. Southern Stars is a self-funding program, meaning that the show needs to be financially self-sustaining to continue and is largely run by volunteers, with just one paid position funded by sponsors, participation fees and ticket sales. Funds associated with the 2021 production have already been allocated and spent, and Southern Stars will not be in a financial position to provide refunds for participation fees/t-shirts, and costumes. All schools will remain in the same item for 2022, using the same costumes so all costumes will be transferrable to the 2022 show. All purchased T-shirts and hoodies will be distributed by our school to students who have purchased these next term. ICAS In response to the COVID-19 developments and ongoing lockdowns, two additional ICAS sitting windows in Term 4 (5 Oct – 29 Oct 2021 & 1 Nov – 26 Nov 2021) have been added, to give affected schools and families peace of mind, as well as the chance to prepare. That means if you haven’t purchased ICAS yet, you have to the 19th September 2021 to purchase and sit. To further assist you, the ICAS Writing testing is moving to 5 Oct – 15 Oct 2021. Find out more about the dates https://www.icasassessments.com/event-calendar/ Parent Payment System (PPS) There’s still plenty of time for parents to sign up for ICAS. You can pay directly through the Parent Payment System (PPS). For PPS deadlines, find out more https://www.icasassessments.com/event-calendar/ Special Religious Education (SRE)/Special Education in Ethics (SEE) As you will be aware Special Religious Education (SRE)/Special Education in Ethics (SEE) is not permitted in Greater Sydney, including Wollongong and Shellharbour. For those students who normally attend Special Religious Education (SRE) or Ethics, you can now access a modified lesson to complete at home. If you would like to access this, you can go to the Unanderra Public School website and click on “Update on Religious and Ethics activities in NSW schools” Alternatively please see the links below to access lesson content that is appropriate for your family.
Kindergarten 2022 The Department of Education has released a new enrolment procedure, meaning that families can now enrol their child at any time. Once enrolled, it is my understanding that your child will then qualify for Active Kids and Creative Kids vouchers. Please note that when you complete the online enrolment application, you will receive an email stating that the school will call you to book an appointment for you to come in with your required paperwork. Please ignore this email, it is automatically generated by the system. Once you have all of your documentation, simply drop in and we will complete the process with you. Enrolment link: https://enrol.education.nsw.gov.au/#/?schoolCode=3308 Active Kids Voucher: https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-active-kids-voucher Creative Kids Voucher: https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-creative-kids-voucher Key Dates - Year 7 selective high schools’ entry in 2023 Mid-October 2021 - Applications open for placement in Year 7 in 2023. Dates yet to be confirmed. Mid-November 2021 - Applications close for placement in Year 7 in 2023. Dates yet to be confirmed. Paralympics To celebrate the recent Paralympic Games in Tokyo, students are invited to have a go at some of the resources in a booklet this week or next. The activities are from the Paralympics Australia website. Additional resources and information are available o website by visiting: https://www.paralympic.org.au/ The Week 9 packs that are currently out include a separate Paralympic Games booklet as a post celebration activity pack for students to do. K-2 Home Readers We are asking parents/carers of K-2 students who have home readers at home to please return them in the folders we provided or a plastic sleeve. We will leave a tub under the table of learning booklets on Friday of Week 9 and Monday of Week 10 so that parents/carers can return the home readers at the same time they collect the booklets. We will then organise for the books to be stored and cleaned over the holiday break before organising to send new home readers home at the end of Week 1 in Term 4. To continue reading at home over the holiday break, families are encouraged to utilise Reading Eggs and other online resources. K-2 parents/carers can contact classroom teachers via Seesaw for additional PDF versions of reading texts available (if applicable to the child's reading skills). Indigenous Literacy Day This day was held on Wednesday 1st September. This year's event theme was Celebrating Stories and Language. Classes listened to stories in Dharawal language including the Dreaming story of lake Illawarra and the black Swan. Dance2Bfit Dance2bfit is an energetic, innovative and fun way to get fit and funky with the latest dance styles to the hottest music tracks. This is a great program to improve the fitness levels of students while they are having a great time. Dance2bfit will be preparing and teaching our students dance routines for our school concert. Our students, will learn a professionally choreographed dance routine suitable for their age and ability and will rehearse this item during the program. The program in which our school will be participating in provides classes with individually catered dance lessons that will begin on zoom in week 2 and then move to virtual whole group lessons once all classes resume face to face in week 6. These lessons will teach students a whole class dance that will be performed at an end of year show. We look forward to ending the year with an inspirational and uplifting performance by our fabulous students. Remember to join our Dance2Bfit- Oceans Disco- last day of term 3- 5pm, 17/9/21 Thank you to UPS P&C Thank you for the Stage 2 Jelly Bean tables. They have arrived and are set up in each room and we can’t wait to use them with the students when we can finally get back into the classroom. AP C&I Position A new, permanent and dedicated Assistant Principal, Curriculum and Instruction role will be recruited in public schools. We have been notified that we are in Phase 1 meaning this position will start at UPS at the start of 2022. We were allocated one full time position. The Assistant Principal, Curriculum and Instruction position is a leadership role dedicated to ensuring that literacy and numeracy knowledge and skills are embedded in curriculum and assessment; high quality teaching practices are enhanced; and the capabilities of middle leaders are strengthened in literacy and numeracy instruction. A panel is currently being formed and I anticipate that the outcome of this merit selection process will be known early in term 4. Learning Booklets and Wellbeing Wednesday All stages are currently in the process of planning the Week 10 booklets which will again include ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’ due to the overwhelming appreciation from students, parents and our teachers to have this day once a fortnight considering the challenges we are all facing learning from home/school during this extended lockdown. Postcards We hope that by now all of our students will have received their personalised postcard from their own class teacher. We have heard from many parents that the children were really excited to receive something in the mail and we are so pleased that this put a smile on their faces. Friendly Reminder- surveys Students: The staff at UPS really miss having you in our classrooms each and every day and we know that you are all doing your very best to continue to learn during this difficult time. As we are continually striving to improve, we would greatly appreciate your feedback on how the learning from home experience has been for you so far. Please take a few minutes to complete this short survey by clicking on the link below. Your parents may need to assist you in reading the questions and completing this survey https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSed7i5yiJGy_YtWaScN5hWbsQqjV6B084QDBWpEp31C_T0kRg/viewform?usp=sf_link Parents/Carers: You are all doing an amazing job in supporting your children to continue to learn during these difficult times. As we are continually striving to improve, we would greatly appreciate your feedback on the UPS Learning from Home experience so far. Please take a few minutes to complete this short survey by clicking on the link below. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdktlZY4zW55RSYhuIarcE8MiI8IqquPYB3x5_vQVW8TGAMA/viewform?usp=sf_link Staff Professional Learning Over the last few weeks our teachers have been engaging with various online PL, with most having now completed the six hour, Sue Larkey Live Virtual Event ‘Making it a Success: Teaching Strategies and Behaviour Support’. Teachers will be meeting this week to discuss the application of the content addressed, particularly upon return to school. Stage teams will spend the last week of this term planning for Weeks 1 and 2 of next term, looking at consolidating content and skills from Term 3, providing revision and retrieval opportunities, as well as wrap up the units of work from Term 3. Cooler Classrooms Program Unanderra Public School have been successful in securing, installation of air conditioning, heating and ventilation in a number of learning spaces throughout the school. The work on this will begin sometime in term 4. Due to current COVID-19 restrictions this work will need to be done with up to date COVID-19 safety plans. Once again the continued support, understanding and patience of our remarkable school community is greatly appreciated by the staff at UPS. Have a wonderful fortnight ahead. Stay safe and stay connected. Anissa Rajendra Principal Similar to the rest of UPS, 4S has been participating in weekly Zoom catch-up sessions. A couple of weeks ago, the focus of our Zoom session was wellbeing. More specifically, students in 4S were asked to think of activities that they were doing at home during lockdown in order to keep spirits high and remain in the ‘Green Zone.’ So many wonderful and creative answers were given by all students who attended the zoom. The overall point of this activities was to give all students different ideas so they to keep themselves occupied and happy after completing their school work from home. 4S would now love to share these ideas with you! Mr. Scotland On Wednesday the 1st of September 3W celebrated Indigenous Literacy Day. The theme for this year is Celebrating Stories and Language so 3W read the story “My Weekend with Pop” by Ray Ingrey. Ray tells the story of a young Indigenous Australian boy spending the day with his Pop on Dharawal Country – The country on which Unanderra Public School stands. After reading the story we answered some questions about how we can connect to country and the importance of knowing about Aboriginal languages. Stage 3 - Learning From HomeDuring Week 7 of home learning, Stage 3 got to create a Cereal Box Book Review for their writing task. On the top of the box, they were asked to rate the book and share the title and author. On the front of the box, they had to create a name for their Cereal, without using the same name as the book and also develop a prize advert to be displayed. On the right and left side of the box is where the students described the book, the characters and the setting. Then finally on the back of the box, they designed a mini game that incorporated features from the book. When the students had completed their cereal box, they created a poster or a 1-2 minute commercial to convince their audience to buy their cereal. Take a look at some of the Cereal Box Reviews below!
Book WeekWe all know that Book Week is my favourite week of the year (of course) and despite not being able to be together to celebrate, it was fantastic to see the amazing fun students had at home celebrating books and reading. We had students:
https://unanderrapslibrary.weebly.com/book-week.html Thank you also to all the parents who supported their children to dress up as a book character and sent in a photo. I hope you were able to make some memorable moments Our 'Virtual Book Parade' movie shows the ingenuity and fun had by all. ES1 - MacKenzie C - KS (Bluey) Year 1 - Nate W - 1SC (Stickman) Year 2 - Emmie O - 2B (Macca the Alpacca) Year 3 - Lachlan C - 3A (Goosebumps) Year 4 - Isaac F - 4A (Ninja Kid) Year 5 - Taneeka M - 5/6S (Little Red Riding Hood and St George NRL) Year 6 - Jett T - 5/6D (Basketballer) - special mention goes to Mia A - 5/6S (NRL player). In addition, our teachers did a great job of getting into the spirit as well and it was terrific to see their families join in also. Take a look... I would like to commend all the students who took the time and showed us their amazing talents in the annual Book Week Poster competition. Art is always subjective and you are all winners. Take a look at this fabulous movie showing the gallery of book art created by UPS students. The below students will be contacted in regard to their book prize. ES1 - Oakland H - KS Year 1 - Kaimia W - 1SC Year 2 - William P - 2L Year 3 - Emily Palmer - 3/4J Year 4 - Taliah C - 4S Year 5 - Gemma C - 5/6S Year 6 - Charlotte M - 5/6 And so... until next year when I hope we will be celebrating all together in person, happy Book Week, 2021 and of course, keep reading. From Ms Prior Teacher Librarian Book Week "Bake a Book" Competition.For the first time at Unanderra Public School, students were asked to bake a book for book week. Their cake or biscuits needed to represent a book in a creative and fun way. We had a number of delicious and delightful entries this year and it is clear that UPS has some future bakers and master chefs amongst our students. To celebrate Book Week, we have awarded an Infants and a Primary Winner. It was an extremely tough decision as all of the entries were thoughtful and creative. We would like to congratulate the amazing Olivia H from KB (Infants winner) and the spectacular sisters Madeline 3/4J and Charlotte 4S (Primary Winners) on winning their sections for the competition. Highly Commended was awarded to Chris 1/2N, Miranda 1SC, Lola 1M, Lachlan 3A, Isaac 4W and Charlotte 5/6S. We look forward to seeing more amazing "Bake a Book" entries next year. Unanderra Public School had a terrific time celebrating Science Week this week! It was unfortunate that we could not complete our whole-school science week event, however it was so wonderful to see so many students participate in home-based science experiments! This year's theme was "Food-Different by Design". This was particularly fitting for Remote Learning as so many scientific concepts happen as we cook and prepare meals at home every day! Mrs Smith, Mr Le Breton and Mr Scotland had so much fun creating the video for Science Week. It was pleasing to see that many families had a go at these experiments as well as those that were set as tasks in the learning packs. Many thanks to all of the UPS families and students for taking part in Science Week 2021 (remotely). Keep smiling, keep experimenting and stay safe! Mrs Smith
The Fathering ProjectQuality time and making memories Spending more time with your child reaps rewards and builds strong foundations for life. The time a father spends with his child is important. Spending quality, one-on-one time together enables you to deeply connect and get to know your child. You get to know their likes, dislikes, worries, fears, inspirations and aspirations. Fathers who spend this time with their children also have been found to be better at caring because this time helps a father to be more sensitive to their child’s need for love, attention and support. Children need to know their dads think they are special. Meaningful time It is not just about the amount of time. You can’t put a number of minutes around quality time. What is important is that it is meaningful and regular time that will create lasting special bonds. Studies have shown, the memories of time with dad with the most impact, were when the child felt they had their dad’s undivided attention, without interruption. They need to know that you want to be with them, to listen to them and care about how they feel. In studies where adults have been asked to recount the times, they felt special with their dads, it wasn’t so much the activity they were doing, it was the feelings they remembered. It was because it was their special time their dad, with a feeling of togetherness and bonding between dad and child. These meaningful moments might have been going somewhere, playing, watching or creating something, but the important thing was that it was together. The key point that your kids will remember is, “Dad thinks I am important to him, and he wants to spend this time with me”. It was special between child and dad. To read more click on the button below to learn about more dad tips on making memories!
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