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Blaxland East Public School

Old Bathurst Road, East Blaxland 2774 Phone 4739 1579 Fax 4739 8300

Principal Kerry Bryan Email Blaxlande-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Webpage www.blaxlande-p.school.nsw.edu.au

P & C Email blaxlandeast@gmail.com

Term 3 Week 6 26 August 2016 Morning Bell 9.00am Afternoon Bell 3.00pm Office Hours 8.30am – 3.15pm

P & C Association meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 7.30 p.m. Next Meeting Wednesday 14 September 2016

In this School Matters:

Core Values Aussie of the Month

Celebrating Achievement, Effort and Service Athletics Carnival

Winmalee Cup – Netball ICAS Writing Competition Results

Blaxland East Concert Band at Hawkesbury Eisteddfod & Penrith Eisteddfod NAIDOC Day

Premier’s Spelling Bee Finalists STEM Day P&C News Fete News

Skoolbag App Assistant Principal’s Message

Fete Sponsors Greater West BrickFest Flyer

AECG Flyer

CORE VALUES

Be Respectful Excellence always

Participate Courageously Serve others

** 2017 Kindergarten Enrolments now being accepted **

School Matters

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Aussie of the Month

Tamika Maynard

Tamika is a hardworking, thoughtful student who is a friend to all.

She tries her best in all areas and helps 0thers when she can.

Tamika is a fun loving student who demonstrates our CORE values every day.

Isabel Watson

Isabel is a kind and thoughtful student.

She includes other students and thinks of their feelings.

Isabel works hard in class and is focused on the task at hand.

She is extremely respectful to others and always follows BEPS core values.

Emily Croft

Emily is a delightful and caring girl who is always respectful towards her peers and teachers.

She is a highly motivated and capable student who consistently strives to do her best.

Emily displays initiative and is a reliable and helpful class member.

She is a great role model for all students that she interacts with.

Emily definitely displays all the attributes necessary to be awarded Aussie of the Month.

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Celebrating Achievement, Effort and Service

KW and KP

Buddy Reading in Book Week

KW and KP had a wonderful time sharing stories with

4HW as part of Book Week. Everyone was very

excited to choose a book to read to their buddy.

Special thanks to 4HW for encouraging the

Kindergarten students and for sharing their love of

reading.

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K/1 M

Macey Wards

Macey participated courageously, last week in the Year 1 Item, at the

Aussie of the Month Assembly. Her partner was absent, though Macey

performed her part beautifully and looked terrific too!

3M

3 M have had a wonderful couple of weeks and have achieved many things. We are so proud of our

Olympic performance at the Aussie of the Month Assembly. We are also very proud of all our Australian

Olympians that we have been watching in Rio.

Congratulations to Lilly, Corey, Zach and Ian who represented

our school in Soccer and Netball in the Winmalee Cup. Good job

and good luck to Jeremy and David for being chosen as the

Year 3 Spelling Bee representative and back up. Congratulations

to Kiana, Lilly, Claire, Lucinda, Ian, Angus, Anna, Zach and

Corey for receiving their first place ribbon for band at the

Hawkesbury Eisteddfod.

Well done to the ICAS certificate winners in 3M. In writing

Jeremy & Lucinda got a high distinction, Kiana got a distinction

and Amelia a participation. We are proud that we were the first

primary class to properly enter and complete the PRC.

Athletics Carnival

Blaxland East had their Athletics Carnival on Tuesday, the 9th of August. We had a very successful day,

with our students participating courageously and displaying excellence. We are very proud of the

sportsmanship and encouragement the students showed and all of the personal achievements that came

from the day.

I would like to thank all the parent helpers and Blaxland

High students who contributed at our carnival; it would not

have been a success without your help.

A huge congratulations to our Blaxland East Athletics Age

Champions for 2016:

JNR GIRL: Jessica Stevens

JNR BOY: Ethan Haldane

11YR GIRL: Holly Richmond

11YR BOY: Lochie Davies

SNR GIRL: Zara Ebeling

SNR BOY: Tom Allport

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Winmalee Cup - Netball

On Thursday the 18th of August, three awesome netball teams travelled to Jamison Park to compete in the

Winmalee Cup. We had a very successful day with our Senior Team taking 1st place and our Junior Team

taking equal 2nd place.

All teams participated courageously and showed great amounts of sportsmanship. For some of our players,

it was the first time they had ever played the game and their development of skills throughout the day was

phenomenal.

All of our players should be very proud of their achievements.

Well done girls!

ICAS Writing Competition Results

Results have been received from the University of New South Wales

for Blaxland East students who entered the ICAS (International

Competition and Assessment for Schools) Writing Competition for

2016.

Students from Blaxland East again achieved outstanding results

when they participated this year. Those students whose

achievements were outstanding were rewarded with certificates of

Merit, Credit, Distinction and High Distinction.

These ICAS tests are designed to assess students’ academic

abilities in aspects of Writing such as Genre, Grammar, Syntax,

Punctuation and Spelling.

Each year, many BEPS students take the plunge and attempt these tests, putting themselves up against

gifted and talented students from all parts of Australia, New Zealand and parts of Asia. These students

deserve the highest praise for their efforts and participation.

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The highlights of our results this year are as follows:-

High Distinction: Lucinda Page, Jeremy Spikmans (Year 3) Hannah Irvine (Year 6)

Distinction Awards: Kiana Foote, Ella West (Year 3), Lillian Byrnes, Louise

Viney (Year 4), Lavinia Loscialpo, Adrian Martinovici (Year 6).

Credit Awards: Abbey Heath (Year 4), Maggie Laurence-Rogers (Year 5), Jemima Freeman, Keely Gray (Year 6)

Merit Awards: Jezebel Mills, Larissa Niklaus (Year 4), Thomas Cairns (Year 5), Ashley Bulsara

(Year 6)

Congratulations to all these students, and to all who participated.

R Wallis and D Riedy

Competition Coordinators

Blaxland East Concert Band at Hawkesbury Eisteddfod

On the 15th August 43 members of the band were ‘Happy’ to ‘March Zuma’ to

Windsor to show our talents at the Hawkesbury Eisteddfod.

With a relatively young and inexperienced band we prepared well and were

confident of acquitting ourselves well against the other 4 bands from across north-

western Sydney.

We listened as we heard the other schools perform their pieces, judging them

against our performance and delighting as we heard familiar pieces.

After what seemed like an eternity, the adjudicator announced the

accomplishments, from Highly Commended to First Place. We became more

and more excited as other bands were awarded their placing, leaving Blaxland

East in First place.

The adjudicator spoke to all the bands about the need to watch their

conductor, to start each piece together on the first note, about posture in order

to blow into their instruments effectively. He watched the bands enter the

stage in set up, noting their ability to work together, support one another and then

move to watching their band director.

Some of the comments on our adjudication sheet were:

“March Zuma - Good start … Always work for full sound … good ensemble playing …

Good performance all round. Try to be a little clearer with (quavers) but good dynamics and tone.

Happy – Another good start … Trumpets could have played a little longer in the opening bar to bring out the

clash note … Percussion provides a solid base … Well done – I really like your tone and attention to

dynamic detail. Thank you”

It is a testament to the hard work of the students under the guidance of Mr Smith and Mrs Davison that

these comments reflect the attention to detail. Please continue to encourage your band member/s in their

practise at home so the rehearsal at school is about the bringing together of the parts to form the

harmonious pieces we hear at performance.

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Blaxland East Concert Band at Penrith Eisteddfod

Last Thursday 25th August found an intrepid band of 44 musicians from Blaxland

East ready to take a ‘Skyfall’ so they could ‘March Zuma’ to triumph at Penrith

Eisteddfod.

They faced 3 other bands from the region - 2 from the Hills district plus our

neighbouring school, Mt Riverview. From the first note of the Jasper Road

Performing Band recital we knew we had tough competition. This was followed by an

equally daunting performance from Winston Heights Public School.

Our band ‘brought their A game’ – sounding confident from the very first note. They performed well, looked

great and represented themselves, their families and their school with pride. It was indeed representative of

our Core Value – Participate Courageously!

Following our performance we were asked to watch the next two bands from the High School sections

before the adjudicator would announce our section winners.

Mr Buckley, the adjudicator, took the opportunity to speak to all the band members about the need to work

together as a team under the conductor’s baton and to watch the music score with its dynamic markings –

the loud and soft sections. He announced the results for our section in order from Highly Commended

through to first.

The children were satisfied with our third placing, recognising the more proficient

playing of the first and second place bands. Mr Smith is very proud of the band and

their performance, recognising that both the top bands are from much larger

schools with very large band programs.

Some of the comments made by the adjudicator were:

March Zuma – “Very confident start … Good balance at bar 9 … quite a good

performance”

Skyfall – “Good start … Good work trumpets at bar 7 … nice work at bar 15,

especially percussion … Good work at bar 312. I like the balance at bar 35 … good control bar 42-43 …

Nice work bar 51 to finish. Well done. Keep up the good work.”

I would like to congratulate all band members for their commitment to the past two Eisteddfods and am

looking forward to the Seniors Concert tomorrow. A huge thank you should go to you, the parents, for

continuing to support your children with their practise – it does make a difference!! You

can indeed be ‘Happy’ that these pieces will be retired for a little while as the children

learn the new pieces that Mr Smith has purchased.

Congratulations and thanks must go to Mr Smith and Mrs Davison for their hard work in

tutorial groups, to Mrs Anderson for her support over the past 3 years of Eisteddfods and

to Miss Morris for her assistance at the Penrith Eisteddfod. Thank you to all those parents who have

supported us at the last two eisteddfods – it means a great deal to the musicians.

Our next big performance – opening our school Fete on September 10. A note will be sent out next week.

Yours in music,

Mrs Robyn Wallis

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NAIDOC Day

Blaxland PS joined BEPS for this year’s NAIDOC celebrations.

Harrison Gavin acknowledged country and Mrs Bryan gave a short

speech on the meaning of NAIDOC week. Special guests Uncle Chris

Tobin, a Dharug man, and Aunty Carol were present also for the day.

Activities included: Smoking Ceremony, Chalk story writing, Damper

making and Camp Fire yarns.

NAIDOC 2016 was a great day for both our students and Blaxland PS

students. All students and teachers enjoyed the celebrations and

various activities.

Our four camp fires were kept glowing as hundreds of tasty dampers

were made as the following photos highlight.

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Premier’s Spelling Bee Finalists

A big congratulations to the following students who will be representing BEPS at the Regional Spelling Bee

at Faulconbridge Public School on Friday, 16 September.

Jeremy Spikmans - Year 3

Larissa Niklaus - Year 4

Isaac Parsons - Year 5

Jerry Rufus - Year 6

Well done also to the following students who were runners

up.

David Babajanyan - Year 3

Jezebel Mills - Year 4

Ella Terry - Year 5

Cecilia Hill - Year 6

Mrs Fuller - Spelling Bee Coordinator

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I had the opportunity to take 4 students along to a day of challenging and thought-

provoking Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics activities at

Lapstone Public School on Friday, 5th August. Abbey Heath, Larissa Niklaus,

Lachlan Baldock and Toby Watson were the lucky four and here’s what they had to

say about the day…

I was so excited when I was chosen to go to the STEM day at Lapstone. First we did WeDo Lego. After

recess we did Scratch. Finally we went to the hall for the STEM challenges, then we went back to school. It

was a fun day for all of us.

Abbey Heath 4/5W

On Friday myself and 3 others were chosen to go to Lapstone for their STEM Day. When we arrived we

were taken to one of the classrooms then we did WeDo Lego and we programmed it. Then we had recess.

After recess we went to the school library and we did Scratch. Abbey and I did our Scratch together and I

must say it was fun. After lunch we did the actual STEM activities. After STEM I programmed and eV3

robot called Frederick. I really enjoyed the STEM Day.

Larissa Niklaus 4/5W

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At the STEM Day at Lapstone PS we did some challenging activities like a marble run, foil towers, paper

plane making, straw and foil boats and paper clip chains. We also learned a lot about Scratch. We had an

experienced Scratcher to help us with making an animation. A lot of people’s were really funny. With WeDo

Lego, Toby and I made a working spinning top. We increased the speed of it, it could also come apart.

Larissa was chosen to learn how to program an eV3 robot called Frederick. The four of us learned about

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. At lunch we played soccer, some kids went on the

equipment. At the end of the day it was the best learning experience and I personally learned how to use

my Science with engineering and Technology with Maths.

Lachlan Baldock 4/5W

When we went to Lapstone Public School on Friday 5th August we had a chance to do ‘We-do Lego’,

Scratch, Ev3 and stem challenges. I built a spinning top with Lachlan Baldock with the We-do Lego.

Scratch is a programming game where you can make video games or short movies. I made a short video

about a monster who turned into a swirl and exploded. Ev3 is about robots and you can program them to

do things. For my STEM challenge I had to build a marble run in a small group. It was about a metre tall

and the marble made it all the way to the bottom.

I had an amazing day and it was awesome to attend and do fun things and meet some new people.

Thank you Mrs Dunning for this great opportunity.

Toby Watson 4HW

Liz Dunning

Coordinator

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P&C News

If you haven't already noticed our NEW LED School sign was delivered and installed this

week!

Our NEW Sponsor board was also put up this week. Thank you to all new sponsors and

welcome again!

Our Father’s Day stall will be held on Tuesday 30 August, please ensure your child brings

money with them as we are unable to hold gifts.

If your child misses out or you forget to send money, there will be a follow up stall on Wednesday morning

only between 8:30 - 9:30am.

A HUGE thank you to the families that helped with our gardening day!

We had such a great response, we will be doing another before the weather gets too hot or in the new year

after the heat passes!

Fete News

15 days to go!!!

Thank you to those that have answered our call for more volunteers... We STILL NEED MORE! If you don't feel your skills match your class stall, please contact Emma Ricci on 0419 258 886 to nominate an alternate stall or time and we are happy to allocate you to be a helper elsewhere.

We would love to see you too at the final Fete Meeting on Wednesday 31 August at 7.30pm in the Staff

Room.

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Skoolbag App

Our School now has our own free Skoolbag iPhone and

Android App to help us communicate more effectively

with our Parent/Student community. We are asking

parents/students to install our Skoolbag School App. To

install it, just search for our school name Blaxland East

Public School in either the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

For Windows users search for Skoolbag in the Windows Store and install the app and then find your

school. Please note it must be a Windows 8.1 or 10 device.

Assistant Principal’s Message

There has been much to celebrate at BEPS this term. We shared our love

of reading with our Book Week parade this week. There was the weird, the

wonderful and of course princesses and pirates. The rain led us to the more

intimate setting of the hall but it didn’t dampen our enthusiasm or energy.

Thanks to those who dressed up and joined in the fun. Thanks also to Mrs

Watson for her hard work in organising.

Year One and Two visited the observatory at Western Sydney University on

Tuesday and Wednesday evening. They all had a great time, and learnt a lot

about space and solar systems. The 3D movies were a big hit. Thanks to

Miss Carpenter for organising this exciting event.

Zara Ebeling and Natasha Watson represented Sydney West at the Touch

football state championships this week at Tamworth. The team came 6th

overall. Congratulations girls for your selection and representation.

Our Concert Band has performed in two eisteddfods recently with great success. They were awarded first

place at the Hawkesbury Eisteddfod and third at Penrith. Congratulations to all members, you’ve done

BEPS proud. The band will also perform for the senior citizens at the church hall across the road today,

Friday 26. Many thanks to Mr Smith, Mrs Wallis and Miss Morris for your hard work in organising and

conducting.

The new format Winmalee Cup was held recently. Our senior netball team were undefeated champions,

well done girls and Miss Thomas. Congratulations to all teams on your teamwork and sportsmanship.

Week 4 was an extremely busy week at BEPS. The Athletics Carnival finally took place with most of the

primary participating courageously all day. Congratulations to all competitors and good luck to those

students who will be representing us at the district carnival very soon. Thanks to Miss Thomas for

organising the day and to all teachers and parent helpers who ensured it ran very smoothly.

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Thursday of Week 4 brought us all together for our Open Day where we displayed our artistic and scientific

talents as well as our class work. Our Art and Science shows drew big crowds once again this year. The

wide variety of displays, both in and out of the hall, were of an exceptionally high standard. Big thanks to

Mr McGowan and the Year 5’s for the way you set up and packed up.

We welcomed students and staff from Blaxland Public School to our NAIDOC celebrations this year. Our

day started with a warm welcome from Chris Tobin and Harrison Gavin, then the flag was raised and we

followed our Aboriginal students through the playground to the oval for a smoking ceremony. Uncle Chris

and Aunty Carol reminded us that the smoking ceremony is performed to clear the mind and body of bad

spirits. Once again this year we enjoyed sitting around campfires, making damper, smothering it in golden

syrup and then eating it as the golden syrup dripped down our arm. We told stories with chalk around the

playground and learned about Aboriginal culture and history. Year 6 examined the declaration made by

Kevin Rudd when he said sorry to the Aboriginal people in 2008 and they used the iPads to record their

own versions of the speech. Thanks to Mrs Pearson and all our Aboriginal students for organising and

running the day.

Don’t forget our Fete is coming up on Saturday 10 September. This is also

the day of local elections so we are expecting a big crowd. Thanks to those

who have already made donations and have volunteered to help on the day.

Your donation of time to help on the day is extremely valuable so please

contact your class representative and let them know when you’re available.

Even helping for one hour makes a difference.

Many thanks to our P&C who are also organising the Father’s Day stall next

week. A huge thank you to Anthea Strathdee who was instrumental in

organising our new electronic sign. The installation is complete! Stand by

for the first message; there has been much discussion about what it should

be!

The office staff are making final preparations for the transition to the new LMBR system that is due to

launch on 5 September. Please be aware ALL outstanding cash and cheque payments must be finalised

by 31 August as our accounts will be changing and our whole payment system will change. We will also be

unable to accept any online payments between August 27 and September 4. From 6 September all

payments will be accepted as before. We appreciate your assistance with this transition.

Thank you parents for the way you support our school and for instilling in your children a love of learning

and community. Mrs Bryan will be back next week after sick leave.

Kind regards

Mrs Jo Glazebrook

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