Principal's ReportWelcome to the final newsletter for 2022. The final weeks of school at Ups have involved so many exciting events. We bid farewell to our Year 6 students and celebrated their achievements with a ‘Red Carpet’ evening at Wests Leagues Club last Thursday evening. This followed a fabulous Year 6 assembly and a week of rewards and fun classroom activities. Congratulations to our kindergarten children who have completed their first year of formal schooling and we are looking forward to seeing how they enjoy becoming the bigger kids when our new kindergarten students arrive in 2023. Our school celebrated a year of excellence with a presentation assembly recognising high achievements and outstanding effort in all areas of learning. We were fortunate to be able to enjoy some outdoor fun using our very new cola area. Regardless of whether they received an award at the presentation assembly, I want all our students to know how valued they are at Unanderra Public School and that their personal achievements and growth is something to be immensely proud of. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the class reports of each child and am excited to see the continuous learning that will take place into 2023. Thank you to all the parents and carers who continue to encourage and support their children in partnership with our teachers. Being committed together to focus on the academic, social and emotional growth for each child makes all the difference. Thank you! During the coming school holidays our school library will be repainted and upgraded which is very exciting and we can’t wait to see what it will look like. We also anticipate that the classrooms flooded in early November will be repaired and ready for use at the start of 2023. Just a reminder school returns for students in Years 1-6 on Tuesday 31 January 2023. Kindergarten students will begin on Monday 6 February 2023. Please note that 2023 kindergarten children have already been advised of their Best Start time and date. Please email or phone the school administration team if you require clarification of these details. The staff at UPS will be participating in professional learning on Friday 27 January and Monday 30 January. These days are not school days for students so they can enjoy a few more days to rest! The staff at UPS wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and New Year and thank our school community for the support and generosity shared throughout the year to ensure such positive outcomes and opportunities are available for all students. Thank you 3/4R have been very busy this term in a new learning environment. We have been extremely lucky to be working alongside 3/4J and have been working hard to learn about Australia, its states and territories and the amazing landmarks we have. We have explored the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. More recently we have been excited to share our learning time with our Kindergarten friends through Peer Support. This week we spent time with our buddies and friends to build kindness boxes and Christmas boxes. We learned about how we can communicate clearly and how to use our active listening skills to help our friends. We have had an amazing year learning and working together. From us to you we wish you an amazing holiday break! In preparation for 2B’s excursion to Killalea State Park, the students looked at the dreamtime story of “The Rainbow Serpent”. The students engaged with this story to learn about the indigenous connection that we have with nature and the land that we live on. K-6 AssemblyCongratulations to the following students for receiving an award at our last assembly for the year; KB Merit: Saxxon M.S & Romano.G Student of the week: Jasper.W KS Merit: Jett & Emelia Student of the week: Ramon M G KN Merit: Isla G-H & Lyla R Student of the week: Skye S 1/2AP Merit: Lara L Student of the week: Moriah G 1M Merit: Caius J & Nicholas P Student of the week: Harlem H 1P Merit: Taj T & Airlie S Student of the week: Glory P 2L Merit: Alex M & Van M Student of the week: Noah. I 2B: Merit: Tempe W Student of the week: Milah K 3/4D Merit: Zara W & Ryan H Kimberly T & Jake F Student of the week: Kymani J 3/4S Merit: Isabella M & Cooper E Joshua M & Hayley C Student of the week: Izzy B & Casey P 3/4J Merit: Kasey.R & Ayse.H Brianna.M & Chloe.O Student of the week: Jaxon.M & Khatiya.M 3/4R Merit: Jeremy A & Lily D-H Jamaica D & Rocky R Student of the week: Arinya L & Ryley N-S 5/6K Merit: Ruby H & Yerremurra W Leanna & Lucy Student of the week: Nora S & Stefan V 5/6D Merit: Adam C & Elijah L Ashton P Student of the week: Oscar W 5/6M Merit: Adan N & Amelia H Lexie S & Bentley P Student of the week: Luca R & Sienna M 5/6S Merit: Mandela M & Ben A Eli C & Halil S Student of the week: Tahlia D & Amy S Bronze & Silver Awards Bronze Awards: Madeline O. Luna W Hayley H Rockey R Sama O Medeline O Mason H Ryley N S Silver Awards: Romano.G Jasper.W Bonnie.A Evie.A Luke.W Skylar-Rose.T Saxxon M.S Lachlan C Diesel W W Sedra S Kayla C Merry Christmas from the iLibraryWhat a term it has been. Thank you to everyone who brought back their library books and congratulations to KB, who were the first class to bring all their books in and won class Super Dupers. Also, thank you to those who have made a donation to the school library via the school website if they were unable to locate their books. Your support is very much appreciated. The iLib was happy to welcome 5/6K to the Library main, due to the closure of several classrooms as a result of flooding in Week 4 of this term. Unfortunately, this meant that the Book Fair had to close early but will be back in Term 2, 2023. The iLib has been focusing on Technology and our library lessons have been in the Computer Lab. Here is a quick overview of what we have been doing this term: ES1: We finally made it to the Computer Lab after lots of anticipation. Students were introduced to parts of a computer and vocabulary to talk about technology as well as basic digital citizenship information about being Safe, Respectful and Responsible when online. In addition, students learned to log in using a username and password and navigate to the student portal via the internet browser, Google Chrome. Stage 1 have been learning to create PowerPoint presentations utilising their online access to Microsoft Office via the student portal. This can be reached wherever students have access to the internet. Students have learned to open and name a presentation, insert text boxes and pictures, adjust text colour, size and style, insert bullet points and edit layout. I have heard from many classroom teachers that students are using their new-found expertise to create presentations for News items! Stage 2 have been introduced to coding concepts and computational thinking skills building programs using the coding language ‘blockly’. Working through the Code Studio coding course, students have worked at their own pace at their various levels of coding expertise as they reason and problem solve to work through game based challenges within the program. Stage 3 have been further developing their existing coding knowledge, continuing to progress through the Code Studio courses, with many students completing the courses and moving on to build their own arcade games using Microsoft: Make Code Arcade. This culminated in a Robotics session as students coded our school Dash Bots to navigate an obstacle course and then race each other through an obstacle course challenge. Buster Bee also came to visit us in the iLib on the PBL Rewards Day to take a look at the work we have been doing to empty the library for painting and refurbishment, which will be taking place over the school holidays. It has been a mammoth job and a big thank you to our GA, Mr Thomas and the many students that helped me pack books into bags and transport to another classroom. Thank you to everyone who donated the bags! I think the students will love the new look 2023 iLibrary and we will make sure there are opportunities for our school community to come and check it out also. And finally, a big thank you to the iLib Library Monitors and Tech Crew who have worked tirelessly throughout the year to keep our library running like clockwork. They have been happy, hardworking students who give up a minimum of one lunchtime a week. I am very proud of each and everyone of them. So until next year... 2022 Ethics at Unanderra2022 has been busy year for Primary Ethics at Unanderra Public School. The younger children have been encouraged to develop their skills by listening to others, taking turns and giving reasons for their ideas. The older children have developed critical thinking skills on a wide range of discussion based topics. Primary Ethics Parents Page: https://primaryethics.com.au/parents/ outlines the full program of topics by Stage taught in 2022 and lots of information about the program.
If you are interested in enrolling your child in an ethics class in 2023, please contact the school office. This year Primary Ethics has introduced a recognition program for volunteers. We would like to recognise the hard work and dedication of Rebecca Phillips, who started the Ethics program at UPS in 2016. Rebecca taught Ethics classes for 5 years, taking 2 classes a week for most of that time. Thankyou Rebecca. Unfortunately we will not have enough volunteer teachers to fully run the Primary Ethics program here at Unanderra in 2023. Can you, your children’s grandparents, or carer assist by becoming a voluntary ethics teacher? Classes are 30 minutes each week and all the teaching material is provided. Information on volunteering can be found on the Primary Ethics website at https://primaryethics.com.au/volunteer/. To inquire about becoming a volunteer ethics teacher please contact Joanne Egan, the UPS Ethics Coordinator at [email protected] or on 0437 404 758.
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Unanderra Public School
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