Principal's MessageWelcome to week 5! It has certainly been a fast moving and busy start to the year which is exciting. There are several events that we look forward to including the ‘Colour Explosion’ and ‘The Silly Scientist’ visit later in the term. Congratulations to all students who are proudly wearing their correct school uniform each day. Along with this success I thank all our students who are representing their school with outstanding manners and consistently striving to achieve their personal best. Teachers and staff have commented on numerous occasions how pleasant it is to have students greet us each morning and throughout the day. Being kind and thoughtful of one another is a wonderful part of our UPS community. I often spend time in classrooms and have the great fortune to watch each child take positive steps in learning and exploring new concepts in different key learning areas. Nut Allergies Please be aware that there are students in our school with allergies to nuts. We ask that you consider to voluntarily agreeing not to send nut products, in particular peanuts and peanut butter to school. Thank you so much for supporting us. The Check-In Assessment for Years 4 and 6 Students in Years 4 and 6 will participate in a reading and numeracy ‘Check-in assessment’ during week 8 of this term. The Check-in assessment is a NSW Department of Education online reading and numeracy assessment available to support schools to assess and monitor student learning. The assessments can supplement existing school practices to identify how students are performing and to help teachers tailor their teaching more specifically to student needs. NAPLAN for Years 3 and 5 Our annual NAPLAN assessments will be held onsite next term from 10-20 May. Further information will follow later in the term. Cross Country This event will be held later this term and further details will be provided closer to the date. Parent/Teacher Interviews. Given the recent lifting of restrictions it is most likely that interviews will be face to face. Once again more information will be shared closer to the date. Personal Learning Pathway Phone Meetings for our Aboriginal Students. These important conversations will continue as originally planned over weeks six and seven. Packages for these important phone conversations will be sent home with students today. Please hold onto these snack packs until your phone call time and day. The teachers look forward to talking with our families and students. School Leadership Induction Assembly Each year students are elected by their peers into leadership positions here at Unanderra Public School. The 2022 Leadership team consists of School Captains and Vice Captains, Student Representative Council (SRC), Sports House Captains and Vice Captains, and the Environmental Committee. This privilege is highly valued by our students, community and staff. To celebrate this achievement, two family members are invited to the induction assembly on Friday 11th March at 9:30am to witness their child receive her/his badge. Please note this change of date is due to conflicting events on the original date and we apologise for any inconvenience caused COVID Smart Update For the lastest COVID-19 information around our school procedures, please click on the following links below; Afternoon Departures COVID Information Update - 25/2 Chewing Gum Just a reminder that chewing gum is not to be brought to school at any time. It has come to our attention that some students are bringing it to school and chewing gum during class time. This is part of our school policy and it is also a safety concern as it can be a choking hazard. Please ensure your child does not bring chewing gum to school. Thank you. Eggstravaganza Explosion Mufti Fun Day Friday 25 March (week 9) UPS will be participating in the P&C Colour Explosion Mufti Fun Day. Information and sponsorship booklets for the Colour Explosion Fun Run were sent home with children last Friday, additional copies are available from the school office. On this day we ask that families donate an easter egg for the P&C Easter Basket Raffle. All the eggs will be collected and packed up into amazing baskets to be raffled off on Friday 8 April (week 11) at our K-2 Easter Hat Parade. Important dates to remember: - Monday 7 March (week 7) information to be sent home about egg donation, colouring in competition and raffle tickets - Friday 11 March (week 7) Colour Explosion Fun Run consent form sent home to families - Friday 25 March (week 9) Eggstravaganza Explosion Mufti Fun Day - Monday 4 April (week 11) Easter Colouring Competition entries close - Friday 8 APril (week 11) K-2 Easter Hat Parade and Easter Basket Raffle Have a great fortnight ahead, Mrs Anissa Rajendra Upcoming EventsWeek 6 Friday 4th March: Book Club orders due Week 7 Monday 7th March: Yr 6 Try Year 7 for a day Wednesday 9th March: Regional Swimming Carnival Thursday 10th March: Selective High School Test day Friday 11th March: Leadership Induction Assembly Week 8 Stage 2 and Stage 3 Check in Assessment Week 9 Monday 21st March: Harmony Day Friday 25th March: Colour Explosion + Easter Egg Mufti Donation In the first few weeks of term, Stage 3 came together to help develop a Stage 3 Acklowedgemnt of Country. Students had lots of great ideas, and we brainstormed words and sentences that would best suit our stage and out students. The Acknowledgment of Country is read out in our class every day during morning routine, and will be used throughout the year for our stage 3 assemblies. PBL UpdateHave you heard your children discussing their rights, responsibilities, and privileges at school? This year, teachers and students across all year levels have been discussing classroom and playground expectations, procedures for monitoring behaviours and student rights, responsibilities, and privileges. In 2021, the Department of Education updated their Behaviour Code for Students. In response to this, our Positive Behaviours for Learning Policy has been updated to reflect the changes. This week, we would like to share with you the updated Rights, Responsibilities and Privileges section of the policy. Please read the blurb and table below. Unanderra Public School aims to provide a safe, supportive and responsive learning environment, in which all students can connect, succeed and thrive. To achieve this, we acknowledge that teachers and students have a right to teach and learn in a safe environment. To achieve this, students need to be responsible for their behaviour and learning at a developmentally appropriate level. If students are unable to be responsible for their own behaviour and learning, access to some privileges may be temporarily suspended until it is safe and appropriate for them to be reinstated. The following is a guide to key student rights, responsibilities and privileges at Unanderra Public School. K-6 AwardsKB Merit: Wren AR & Romano G Student of the week: Muti T KS Merit: Bowie C and Abigail J Student of the week: Ashton F KN Merit: Amelia & Kyen Student of the week: Evelyn 1/2AP Merit: Bentley C and Willow W Student of the week: Moriah G 1M Merit: Mackenzie C & Nicholas P Student of the week: Max R 1P Merit: Student of the week: 2L Merit: Ayah S & Jaylen L Student of the week: Lachlan M 2B: Merit: Kai A & Baylee T Student of the week: Amelia P 3/4D Merit: Marshall F & Kimberley T Student of the week: Katherine D 3/4S Merit: James P & Zahli M Student of the week: Liam M 3/4J Merit: Eden W & Daniel M Student of the week: Chase C 3/4R Merit: Hayley H & Anaiah J Student of the week: Christopher G 5/6K Merit: Yerre W & Lucas S Student of the week: Ruby H 5/6D Merit: Ashton P & Charlotte A Student of the week: Adina M 5/6M Merit: Sophie G & Ozzy L Student of the week: Taliah C 5/6S Merit: Jett F & Bentley F Student of the week: Ella H Stage 3 Dragons VisitOn Wednesday 23rd February, Stage 3 students participated in the ‘Best You Can Be’ (BYCB) program run by the St. George Illawarra Dragons NRL Community Education Unit. The program aligns with our Personal Development and Health syllabus outcomes and touched on the topics of social inclusion and diversity. Students had great discussion around the topics, played some relay games and even won some prizes! The dragons will be back again later in the term to take the students outside for some practical activites Unanderra Public School Swimming CarnivalOn Tuesday 8th February UPS held its annual swimming carnival at the Western Suburbs Pool and this year we were lucky to allow spectators of competitors to attend. The day lived up to expectations with wonderful achievements, sunshine and smiling faces all round. Congratulations to all the students who competed on the day, and we wish those who were successful in making it to the SWPSSA District Swimming Carnival, to be held at the Dapto Olympic Pool on Tuesday 22 February, all the best of luck. A huge thank you to all the parent volunteers and staff, and a special shout out to our School Leaders and Sport House Captains who helped on the day. With all your efforts the day was amazing! Kylee Denham 2022 UPS Sports Coordinator. District Swimming CarnivalOn Tuesday 22 February, 20 Unanderra Public School swimmers attended the District Swimming Carnival at Dapto. A huge thank you to the Unanderra Team Manager Miss Scruby for her organisation and attendance on the day. As the weather rolled in, it was pleasing to have completed all the scheduled events before the rain hit. Congratulations to all our swimmers who were very impressive and represented our school with pride. Our UPS Swim caps were noticed by many other schools, who are now looking into ordering some for their swimmers to wear in next years’ carnival. A highlight of the day were the relays with many close finishes. All Regional relay teams will be advised in the near future. Congratulations to the Carnival Team winners: 1st Dapto Public , 2nd Hayes Park Public & 3rd Unanderra Public. The Carnival Age Champions were: Junior Boys Hayes Park PS 11 Years Boys Dapto PS (UPS- Issac F 2nd & Ben A 3rd) Senior Boys Lakelands PS Junior Girls Hayes Park PS (UPS- Emily P 3rd) 11 Years Girls Hayes Park PS Senior Girls Berkeley PS (UPS- Taneeka M 2nd) We look forward to our qualifiers competing at the South Coast Swimming Carnival on Wednesday 9th March, at the Dapto Olympic Pool. Kylee Denham 2022 SWPSSA District Swimming Coordinator. Book Club!Book Club Issue 1, 2022 is here! Orders due in two weeks - Friday 4 March 2022 This is a great opportunity to get your child/ren excited about reading and to build your home library. Book Club pamphlets have been handed out to classrooms for students to take home but feel free to look at the online catalogue by clicking this link: https://scholastic.com.au/media/6622/bc122_web.pdf Please ensure all payments are made online using LOOP - just click this link and follow instructions: www.scholastic.com.au/LOOP There are NO CASH PAYMENTS currently due to COVID19 restrictions. Happy Reading! From Ms Prior, your Teacher Librarian Canteen Menu UpdateCanteen Online OrderingPlease read the information below and use the link https://www.quickcliq.com.au/ to order from the canteen. You need to sign up and register using the link above, add your child/ren and their details, add credit to your online wallet and select the meal order and you're good to go! Dear Parents and Carers, Unanderra Public School will be participating in Clean Up Australia Day Friday 4 March, Week 6. UPS students will join thousands of volunteers in this annual event, who are donating their time around the country to clean up and preserve Australia's incredible landscape. Students will learn about the importance of keeping our environment clean and disposing of rubbish responsibly. Students are encouraged to bring their own gardening gloves, however, disposable gloves will also be made available. Rachel Prior Clean Up Australia Day Organiser P & C UpdateHi All It has certainly been a challenging year for many and as a P&C we were not able to show our faces in the community as much as we had hoped. Our wish for the P&C is that it will grow stronger and have more involvement from more of the school community in 2022 when restrictions allow. Some of our committee members will not be staying on with us so we really need some new people to lend their time and skills to the P&C or take up the opportunity to learn new skills and have more involvement in the relationship between the P&C, school community and the school. Our AGM will take place on Monday 7th March 2022 at 7pm. Location to be confirmed. All current committee positions will be declared vacant and will be available for nomination. Attached you will find information about what each role involves, if you have any questions at all, please reach out as we are more than happy to answer any questions. To be able to be nominated for a position and to vote at the AGM you must be a financial member before the AGM commences. All membership fees are due prior to the start of the AGM. The membership fee is $1 and can be paid to the school office. We hope to see you there and please invite along anyone who you think may be interested in a position. They can become a member and be nominated at the next meeting if the position is left vacant. Thank you for all your support once again over the last year. Here is to a bigger and brighter 2022! Again, any questions, please reach out. The P&C Committee. Colour Explosion School Fun RunDid you hear the exciting news? We are hosting a Colour Explosion School Run 4 Fun with @Australian Fundraising on the 25th March 2022🏃😱 Great effort! We can see that lots of students have already started fundraising for our Colour Explosion School Run 4 Fun! 🤩 Way to go! We still have four weeks to go and need lots more donations to reach our goal of $9000, and purchase Outside playground equipment and school athletics carnival hire and ribbons. Can you help us? Most importantly, visit www.australianfundraising.com.au to create your profile page and share with family and friends to spread the word! 💳 Big prizes are up for grabs! Raise at least $10 and your child will receive a selection of awesome prizes. You can also share in $200k of extra prize credit, win a Razor Prize Pack, and become a Fundraising MonSTAR! ⭐ We can't wait to fundraise with you 🙌. Stay tuned for updates! #schoolrun4fun #funrun #australianfundraising #fundraising #colourexplosion
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Principal's Message Welcome to the new year! We have begun 2022 with students filled with energy and excitement to start their new school year. All classes have now been formed and the kindergarten children have settled well into ‘Big School’. It has been a delight to welcome all of our new kindergarten students and their families to UPS. We also have been excited to meet our new students in years one to six and their families who have joined us this year. We continue to work in stage cohorts and follow the NSW DoE and NSW Health guidelines in keeping everyone as COVID safe as possible. In addition, we will use our new approved air conditioners and continue to follow NSW Health ventilation guidelines. Natural ventilation is the most effective measure so we will maximise fresh air flow in learning spaces through opening doors and windows. Enhanced cleaning focusing on high-touch and high-traffic areas will continue and we will continue to follow physical distancing guidelines and maintain 1.5 metres distance wherever possible. Unfortunately, parents, carers or visitors are not allowed on school site until further notice from NSW Health and NSW DoE. All staff on school sites are required to be fully vaccinated, including having their booster when eligible. NSW Health and NSW DoE strongly encourage our students and their families to consider vaccination when eligible. Find a vaccination clinicExternal link to book an appointment near you. A huge thank you to all our families who collected RAT kits recently. We really do have a wonderful community who are incredibly supportive of one another. My thanks are also extended to the staff who spent many hours coordinating and distributing these tests on these very hot days. A number of parents requested that they children bring home their RAT kits (7 tests in each pack) today. RATs were distributed today. Any families who have not yet received their tests can request that their child bring them home by communicating via email or phone with the administration office. Congratulations to all the children who participated in the swimming carnival on Tuesday. All students were encouraging of one another by cheering each other on and clapping at the end of each race. We are certainly proud of you all! A big thank you to our volunteers and to all families who assisted the staff in following the COVID smart rules that aimed to keep us all safe. Finally, thank you so much Ms Denham! UPS are very appreciative of your hard work and dedication in preparing for this carnival. Well done everyone! Headlice As the warmer weather continues we are noticing that we have had a few incidences of headlice across the school. Headlice can, not only be uncomfortable but also be quite distressing for the child if, not treated in a timely manner. Please refer to the information provided to avoid and/or treat your child/ren for headlice. https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/environment/headlice/pages/default.aspx Healthy Food Choices As you may be aware all students eat outside with their stage group peers and it is really pleasing to see and hear the children chatting happily to one another and some making healthy food choices. Ice-packs inside insulated lunch boxes are encouraged during the warmer weather to keep food fresh and safe to eat. We also encourage children to bring healthy food choices such as fruit, vegetables, fresh sandwiches, rice or pasta etc to school and remember to leave sweet treats and chips as a sometimes food. Drinks bottles are essential as the days are warmer so, please ensure that these are also clearly labelled and can close securely after use. Staying Sun Safe Please ensure that your child/ren wear the correct full school uniform including a school hat and that all items are clearly labelled. It is also a good idea for all children to apply sunscreen in the mornings before school as part of their morning routine when possible. On very warm days we ensure that the children eat in shaded areas and that everyone wears a hat while playing outside. Wellbeing for all Since returning to school a number of students and their families have requested some information around building a positive mindset, developing resilience and promoting wellbeing. At Unanderra Public school we embrace and celebrate the uniqueness of each child and we are certainly proud of all students and their individual achievements in all areas of learning academically, emotionally and socially. Unanderra Public School is committed to providing safe and supportive learning environments that respect and value diversity that are also free from violence, discrimination, harassment, and vilification. We know that the research shows the supportive environment schools provide can have a lasting impact on both the educational and lifelong outcomes for students. Last year I gathered some additional resource links from a variety of support services that may be useful. Please see these below. For general health
7 Cups of Tea - Find someone to talk to: 7 Cups of Tea provides online therapy and free counselling. The Better Access initiative provides better access to mental health practitioners through Medicare. If you’re eligible, you’ll receive Medicare benefits for up to 10 individual consultations with a mental health professional in a calendar year. For more details head to Beyond Blue or the Better access to mental health care factsheet. We understand that exploring professional help in person might not be the best option for you, so below we’ve listed some alternatives:
Please contact the school via email [email protected] or telephone 4272 8730 if you require any further information or clarification. My continued thanks to the Unanderra Public School community for their encouragement, support and flexibility as the term begins. We have an exciting year ahead to look forward to. Have a great fortnight ahead! Kind Regards, Anissa Rajendra COVID 19 UpdateCanteen MenuP & C |
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