Principal: Jenny Lewis
Cowra-Carcoar Road, Cowra NSW 2794 63422172 0458 422 000 63411247 @ holmwood-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au www.holmwood-p.schools.nsw.edu.au Term 4 Week 3 – Week Ending 28th October 2016
Students of the Week!
Principal’s Message
Congratulations to our Week 2 Students of the Week!
Dear Parents and Caregivers, I write to inform you of a change to the staffing at Holmwood Public School for the remainder of Term 4. As you are all aware I have been appointed as Principal of Cowra Public School from 2017. Following conversations held yesterday with my Director Mr Duncan Auld, and Director of Cowra PS Ms Maree Angus, my commencement date has been brought forward and it is anticipated that I will now start at the beginning of Week 6 (14th November). I would first and foremost, like to reassure all parents that the continuation of each and every student’s Educational Program, and in particular the Kindergarten class, is at the centre of my planning and I will be having discussions in consultation with the P&C Executive, Director PSNSW and relieving Principal to ensure that the transition is as smooth as possible, until a permanent Principal is appointed later this term.
Jack Billing (Kinder), Chelsea Leister (Stage 1),
Shaun Petty (Stage 2) and Keanin Judd (Stage 3)
Should you have any questions around this, please contact me directly at school. I will endeavour to keep all parents promptly informed of developments as soon as they arise.
Merit Awards were presented to; Stage 1 – Samuel Lawler Stage 2 – Laylah Hood Stage 3 – Taylah Boatwood Library – Lucas Sandry, Brodie Rye, Keanin Judd
Kind Regards, Jenny Lewis Principal
Congratulations to all students! ‘Day for Daniel’ BIG RED TRUCK Visit!
Citizenship Award Week 2 – Jaydan Wright Jaydan was chosen as the Week 2 Citizenship Award winner by our SLSO Cheri. Jaydan is in Year 4 and was awarded the Citizenship Award for being on task and on track in all areas of his learning! Congratulations Jaydan!
The Daniel Morcombe Foundation's BIG RED TRUCK rolled into school on Monday afternoon this week. Stage 2 and 3 students enjoyed spending the afternoon with Rosie and Shaun from the Australian Federal Police who are touring the central west spreading the message of "RECOGNISE, REACT and REPORT" when it comes to keeping all children safe. Thank you to Mrs Skene for organising such an important and worthwhile visit and don't forget to wear red this Friday for the 'Day for Daniel'!
prepared to go swimming on Monday. There will be no cost for the swim test – the school will cover both the bus cost and pool entry for this day. A permission note was sent home on Monday regarding this – please sign and return to school ASAP.
Cowra High School Transition Visits
The Daniel Morcombe ‘Big Red Truck’, AFP Staff and even Elmo visited our school on Monday afternoon as part of the ‘Day for Daniel’ awareness program.
Cowra High School Year 6 to Year 7 Transition visits will be held on Thursdays from 2:15pm-3:15pm this term during Weeks 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9. A full transition day will be held on the 18th November and a Year 6 and Year 7 social will also be held on the 1st December. A Parent Information Evening for all parents of Year 6 students heading up to CHS next year will be held in the school Library on the 21st November from 6-7pm. A note advising parents of these dates has been attached to this week’s Newsletter for those students involved.
Selective High Schools Applications for students entering Year 7 in 2018
Who doesn’t love a cuddle from Elmo? Year 6 students Katelyn and Christian prove you are never too old! Elmo was at our school on Monday as part of the ‘Day for Daniel’ Awareness Program in schools.
Swim Test – Next Monday 31st October Next Monday 31st October the whole school will be attending Cowra Aquatic Centre in order to complete a “Water Challenge” Swim Test. This is a Department of Education requirement for all students attending excursions where water activities are to occur. This swim test is required for the Borambola excursion but will also allow us to group students in readiness for our School Swimming Scheme and Lifesaving in Weeks 6 and 7. Students will need to bring swimmers, rash shirt, towel, goggles (if required) and a plastic bag to put wet swimmers in. We will depart from school at 1:45pm and will be at the pool until 3:00pm. Parents are asked to collect their child/ren from the pool at 3:00pm or alternatively, students will be walked up to the buses at Cowra PS by a staff member. Please ensure your child comes
Applications for Year 7 placement in 2018 opened on 11th October 2016 and will close on 14th November 2016. Parents need to download the application information at https://schoolsequella.det.nsw.edu.au/file/eafa8804 -3a28-4730-9fc0-0ee49dd90f83/1/SHS-applicationinformation.pdf and go to the links on the right to find out more. The online application form is available on this web page. The Selective High School Placement Test will be held on 9th March 2017
World Peace Day Colouring Competition Congratulations to two of our Year 3 students who received prizes in the recent Cowra Council's World Peace Day colouring competition. Liam Beaumont received a Highly Commended and Katie Boatwood took out first place in the Stage 2 section. Katie's artwork will also feature on this year's Cowra Council Christmas cards! Well done Liam and Katie!!
HPS Chicken Coop GRAND Opening!! th
Next Friday 4 November we will be holding the GRAND OPENING of our HPS Chicken Coop! Invitations have been sent out to Department of Education personnel, P&C Executive members, parent helpers and industry professionals who have assisted Stage 3 and Ms Edgerton with the project. Our invited guests will arrive at 12:30pm and be shown a Multimedia Presentation by Stage 3 students. Following this, the Official Ribbon Cutting and Opening will occur at around 12:45pm, with a lunch to follow for all invited guests. In keeping with the theme of “Chicken Run”, guests will be cooked a delicious chicken burger by our Canteen Manager Sam (thanks, Sam!). Students will also be able to ORDER a chicken burger from the canteen menu – this will be the only item available on Friday for lunch. Please find attached a canteen order form for NEXT Friday. All chicken burger orders are due by Wednesday 2nd November 2016 so that catering can be finalized.
skills and who are not yet able to swim 50m unaided. As a small school, however ,we are fortunate to be able to offer swimming to all students, with the more capable students working through their Lifesaving Levels. Thanks to a VERY GENEROUS donation from the P&C, there will be NO BUS COSTS for students again this year. The P&C will cover all bus fees for ALL Students! This means that for students with Season Tickets, there will be NO COST this year for Swimming. For all other students, the cost is now $20 ($2 pool entry per day for 10 days). We thank the P&C again for their kind donation towards our Swimming School. Please sign the permission note (sent home with last week’s Newsletter) and return to school with payment by Tuesday 8th November.
Book Club All orders and payment are due back at school by TOMORROW Friday 28th October.
Whole School Excursion: Borambola
13 Sleeps to go!! Our Whole School Excursion is fast approaching – Week 5 Term 4 - 9th, 10th and 11th of November!! Outstanding payments need to be received by THIS Friday 28th October. Attached to this week’s Newsletter are all the notes required for camp including Permission Note, Information Note, What to Pack Note and detailed Itinerary. Please ensure you read these carefully and keep them in a safe place! On behalf of the staff I would like to say a huge thank you to the Kinder parents who will be attending this year’s Excursion as helpers – Adrian Billing, Matthew Newell, Naomi Lawler and Nadine Light. We are all getting very excited now with less than two weeks until departure! Please ensure Permission Notes are returned to school ASAP. If you have any questions please contact our Excursion Coordinator; Mrs Fiona Skene at school.
Calendar Term 4 Week 4 Mon 31st Oct
Tues 1st Nov
Wed 2nd Nov Thurs 3rd Nov Fri 4th Nov
Whole School – SWIM TEST – Cowra Pool 1:45pm-2:45pm P&C Meeting – 6pm at the School KINDER Transition Class cancelled for today! STEM 3D Printing Workshop (Stage 3) Mrs Lewis, Mrs Knight, Mrs Skene – Personalised Learning Pathways Professional Development Day – Orange (Mrs Kiely K-2; Ms Edgerton – Stage 2/3) STEM Coding Workshop (Stage 3) Mrs Skene – Live Life Well Training – Orange (Mrs Kiely Stage 2) STEM HPS Chicken Coop “GRAND OPENING”!! 12:30-1:30pm
Term 4 Week 5 Tues 8th Nov
Wed 9th Nov
School Swimming Scheme – Weeks 6 & 7 In weeks 6 and 7 of this Term our school will be participating in the Annual School Swimming Scheme. This Scheme is targeted at those students who are developing water confidence, beginning swimming
Thurs 10th Nov Fri 11th Nov
KINDER Transition Class-9:30-12:00pm. Healthy Ears Presentation for K-2 plus Kinder Transition – 9:30-10:15am School Swimming Scheme payment due SCHOOL EXCURSION – BORAMBOLA SPORT AND RECREATION CENTRE SCHOOL EXCURSION – BORAMBOLA SPORT AND RECREATION CENTRE SCHOOL EXCURSION – BORAMBOLA SPORT AND RECREATION CENTRE
Term 4 Week 6 Mon 14th Nov
Tues 15th Nov
Wed 16th Nov Thurs 17th Nov Fri 18th Nov
SCHOOL SWIMMING – 1:45-2:45pm Mrs Lewis – WHS Meeting (Mrs Kiely – Kinder) SCHOOL SWIMMING – 1:45-2:45pm KINDER Transition Class - 9:3012:00pm. SCHOOL SWIMMING – 1:45-2:45pm SCHOOL SWIMMING – 1:45-2:45pm Cowra High School All Day Transition – Year 6 to 7 – 9am -3pm SCHOOL SWIMMING – 1:45-2:45pm
Kind Regards, Jenny Lewis Principal
Attachments
Cowra High School Transition Day Information Note (Year 6) URGENT REMINDER re Excursion Medical Notes – to be completed ASAP! EXCURSION INFORMATION PACK – Itinerary, What to Pack and Permission Note! Chicken Burger Lunch Order – Friday 4th November Sushi Recipe (from K-2’s “Around the World” Trip to Japan) and Goi Cuon Recipe (Stage 3)
Kinder Class News This Term Stage 1 and Kinder are working on a Thematic Unit called "Around the World!" Each week we 'travel' to a different country learning about its customs, art, food, language and way of life! This week we arrived at our first destination - Japan!! With our special boarding passes and security checks done, we were ready for take-off! After a quick snack and a 5 minute in-flight movie we landed at Tokyo International Airport! We made delicious Sushi (a new taste experience for many of us!), learnt some Japanese words, practiced writing Japanese letters and even tried our hand at Origami! It was a fabulous day! I have included our Sushi Recipe with the Newsletter as we had some very eager K-2 master chefs who wanted to try making Sushi at home!
Anabelle carefully making Sushi Rolls during our trip to Japan last week! This week Kinder have worked very hard in Maths, completing some very tricky Subtraction word problems. We played 10-pin bowling and made up number sentences to show how many pins were knocked down. Daniel was the champion bowler in our class knocking ALL his pins down and leaving zero pins left! This week’s efforts by Kinder in their Writing have been AMAZING!! It is so wonderful to see them all attempting to write their sentences independently, using capital letters, full stops and spaces between their words and using their very wild imaginations!! Just ask Ruby about her crazy dog that has 10 eyes, 10 legs and 10 tails! Don’t forget Homework and Humpty Sight Word Books are due tomorrow! Kind Regards, Mrs Jenny Lewis Kindergarten Class Teacher
Stage 1 Class News During Week 3 Stage 1 created some excellent draft expositions on whether animals should/should not be kept in the zoo. They had some very strong and convincing points for both sides of the argument including the protection of endangered species, the ability to survive in their own environment and being separated from their family. The students also worked hard on a variety of spelling tasks including syllables, word art and rule grouping. In Maths, we looked at the varying strategies we can use for Subtraction. We used number
lines, counters and Year 2 learnt about trading tens to ones to make Subtraction problems easier to do. On Wednesday the students worked on word problems and had to decide which strategy was the best to use. A very big thank you to Mrs Kiely for having Stage 1 on Wednesday - they had a fantastic day. Until next week… Mrs Amylee Knight Stage 1 Class Teacher
Stage 2 Class News Class News from Stage 2 will appear next week as Mrs Skene is currently in Dubbo at a training course learning all about Aboriginal Pedagogies. She is looking forward to catching up with Stage 2 on Friday. Mrs Fiona Skene Stage 2 Class Teacher Stage 3 Class News It has been another busy week in the Stage 3 classroom. On Friday, last week we all explored the taste of Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls which was inspired by our Aboriginal and Multicultural Unit “My Place”. The dish was a hit with all and many going back for seconds, thirds and even fifths! The Stage 3 students enjoyed preparing our meal and being introduced to a little bit of Vietnamese Culture. The recipe is attached to this week’s Newsletter.
Stage 3 moving along the procession line to make their own Goi Cuon (Rice Paper Rolls).
Lilly W, Matthew, Jake and Hayley with their winning design.
This week students are very busy using a Software Program; ‘PhotoStory3’ to present a short film clip of the build week during Chicken Run. Students had to sort through the many photos that were taken during the building of the Chicken Coop and compile a digital story combined with Music and subtitles for each picture in a sequential order to demonstrate the construction of the Chicken Coop. A maximum of 25 photos are to be used in the project. The best two ‘PhotoStories’ will be presented at the Grand Opening on 4th November. The students are writing a personal reflection of the whole STEM Project ‘Chicken Run’. STEM aims to build students’ knowledge of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths through project based and enquiry based learning. They are required to reflect on what that they have learnt throughout Terms 2 and 3, inform others of the benefits of STEM learning in the classroom and explain what they have gotten out of the process. Two personal responses will also be read during the Grand Opening. On Wednesday, the Stage 2 and 3 classes joined together for the day. English and Spelling activities were completed during the morning session and the middle session was a STEM project. Students were spilt into 6 groups and were given selected items including paddle pop sticks, paper clips, bulldog clips and elastic bands. The design brief was to use the provided items to design and create a bridge that was 50cm in length and could hold the weight of numerous books while suspended between two tote trays. All groups work exceptionally well together to come up with their designs. The winning team was Matt, Hayley, Lilly W and Jake, whose bridge held up four books and a total of 1kg of weight. Congratulations on your team effort. Enjoy the weekend! Ms Heidi Edgerton Stage 3 Teacher
P&C News
H.P.S Future IS in Your Hands Holmwood Public School P&C are offering parents, carers & guardians of Holmwood Public School students the opportunity to have input on the future direction of our small school at our next meeting.
Monday 31st October @ 6pm Holmwood Public School Agenda The Department Of Education’s process for appointing a new Principal (two variations to be discussed). How you would like to see the school progress? What aspects of the school do you value? What works well? What could make our school even better? What values you would hope to see in a new Principal? A selection of one P&C member, by vote, if there is a need for an Interview Panel. Your input and information will be compiled to form a presentation for our incoming Principal in 2017 as a welcome and to set a Holmwood Public School Standard.