What’s on at Medowie...

8th Mar

Yarn up Breakfast 8.00am Gathang language lessons 9.00am PSSA boys cricket knockout 9.00am at Yulong Oval

11th Mar P & C Meeting 5pm in the library

12thMarBookfair - see page 7 for times Stage 3 excursion to Sydney 7.30am P & C Chocolate drive

13th Mar Book fair - see page 7 for times

PSSA Rugby League trials

14th Mar Book fair - see page 7 for times Scripture commences for 2019

15th Mar Whole School Assembly 2.20pm

19th Mar Yr6 Enrichment day at IHS

20th Mar AECG meeting at Tea Gardens Public School 10.00am

Notes in CirculationSt3 Sydney excursion-note and payment due now

Yr 6 T Shirt order form

Thursday 7th March 2019Term 1 Week 6Maths Stars

Last week I had the pleasure of Piper, Lucy, Joel and Danny from 1/2K showing me their work. They had been working on number lines. Ryder and Owen from 1/2G also showed me some great maths work.

This year our school has embarked on learning a new mathematics program ‘A Learning Place, A Teaching

Place’. This program allows for children to regulate and differentiate their learning according to the giv-en concept being taught. Staff are already seeing the benefits even though the program has required our teachers to rethink how maths is taught and ‘unlearn’ previous teaching practices.

PBL Expectations

This week our school has been focusing on the ex-pectation of being responsible. In every setting in our school we expect our students will move safely, are in the right place at the right time and are accountable for their actions. All classes have been participating in explicit lessons to these skills throughout the week. I look forward to our morning assembly tomorrow and seeing how many of our students can tell me what it looks like in our school to be responsible.

Merit Awards

Last week at our whole school assembly we had a very exciting event occur. The stage lift was finally in-stalled and Ally was able to access it and get onto our hall stage independently for the very first time.

Medowie Public School

Her beautiful smile told us all how much this meant to her. The stage lift has also allowed our new MC Kin-dergarten student, Carter, to access our stage. It will be wonderful to see these students on stage later in the year when our school holds its biannual school musi-

cal. As per the usual custom, students were recognised during the assembly with merit awards for their won-derful contributions during the last fortnight. Con-gratulations to all students who received an award.

Old Smart Phones

Mrs Purvis conducts a range of fun and engaging STEM activities for students in our school. She is still currently seeking old and unused smart phones to as-sist student learning. She has requested before they are given to her that they are wiped of all their con-tent. She has volunteered to assist anyone in wiping material off their phone if they are not sure how to go about this.

Community PBL

Thank you to our wonderful community who have al-ready made nominations for Medowie students whom they have noticed displaying the STARS expectations - Safety, Trust and Honesty, Acting responsibly, Respect and Success. In support of the community PBL initi-ative, two staff will join other PBL schools next week to participate in a workshop. The aim is to develop lessons that assist our children in the community. One of the recent successes the community PBL team have had is working with Hunter Valley buses. In coming weeks all buses that run out of the Rutherford depot will have behaviour matrixes to assist our students in how to travel safely on the bus to and from school.

Defence School Mentor

Our school is currently looking for a Defence School Mentor. Please refer to the advertisement attached to our newsletter for further information. An infor-

Medowie Public SchoolTel (02) 49828222Fax (02) 49828732medowie-p.school@det.nsw.edu.aumedowiepublicschool.comfacebook.com/medowiepublicschooltwitter.com/medowieps

gathering under a number of plants and gardens. A huge thank you to Mrs Klein for organising our school to participate in this worthwhile project.It has been 30 years since the very first Clean Up Sydney Harbour event which was started by Ian Kiernan, AO in 1989. Every year in late February or early March, a range of businesses, schools and community groups take time out to clean up their own backyards and neighbourhoods.

Information about Clean Up Australia Day and other related campaigns is available by following the attached link – learn more about the issues that face the Aussie environment and what you can do to help! https://www.cleanup.org.au/campaigns

STEM Snapshot

It's no secret that Minecraft is widely popular. The NSW DoE provide a free Minecraft EDU app for students. Along with the Stage One lunchtime Mi-necraft group, Mr Gould's class participated in an

mation sheet outlining the job is available from our school office.

‘I Can Count in Port Stephens’ book

Today all Kindergarten students will receive an ‘I Can Count in Port Stephens’ book. The aim of this book is to facilitate the development of early literacy and nu-meracy skills as well as encouraging a sense of belong-ing. The book was funded through the Port Stephens Cultural Grants program and was in partnership with both Gan Family Centre and Thou-Walla Centre. The community project was undertaken in collaboration with a number of services, community members and local Elders. The landmarks, plants and animals were chosen following a survey of families living across Port Stephens. All the illustrations in the book were painted by Emily Mauldin, a talented young student from the Alesco Senior College at Tomaree Campus. We hope all our Kindergarten students enjoy reading this book and enjoy the connections they make with Port Stephens.

NAPLAN Online

This year our Year 3 and 5 students will sit the NA-PLAN assessments online. NAPLAN online provides better assessment, more precise results and faster turnaround of information. The assessment will run through a real-time internet connection. NAPLAN online features ‘tailored testing’ which gives students questions that are more suited to their ability – re-sulting in better assessment and more precise results. The testing window for our students to complete NA-PLAN online is between Tuesday 14th and Friday 24th May. Year 5 will also complete the writing assessment online, however, Year 3 students will complete this on paper on the first day of the official testing period.

Clean Up Australia Day

Last Friday our students participated in Clean Up Australia Day. I have to say this was much needed as our school had a large amount of rubbish that was

activity to create roller coasters that incorpated many literacy skills. Students wrote instructions for their roller coasters and labelled their drawings. The stu-dents joined each others worlds and collaborative-ly built a community fun park. Lillianah shared her interactive roller coaster with me and I was very im-pressed with the outcome.

Allison ThompsonPrincipal

P & C AGM & General Meeting

P&C will hold its Annual General Meeting on Monday, March 11 at 5.00pm in the School Li-brary. An election for the Executive positions of

PresidentVice-President x 2

Treasurer and Secretary

will be conducted and 2017/18 financial statements tabled. All Welcome! 2018 financial members are eligible to stand for nomination and eligible to vote. Contact our current Secretary Melanie via email pandcmedowie@hotmail.com if you would like more information.

Our AGM will be immediately followed by the general monthly meeting.Cadbury Chocolates Save the date! This fundrais-er will start 12 March. Easter Disco March 28 – Save the date!Entertainment Books – Coming soon!Thank you for supporting Medowie Public School through P&C events. To contact P&C, email pand-cmedowie@hotmail.com.

On the 22nd February 18 students competed at the PSSA zone swimming carnival.

Mindy, Ryah, Dean, Holly, Daisy, Dane, Breanna, Campbell, Callum, Nikhil, Alannah, Amber, Beau, Harry, Jessica, Lachlan, Tylah and Bryn represented Medowie proudly, showing great sportsmanship and putting in their best efforts. Congratulations to all. Special thanks to Campbell who was a late call up to compete in the Junior Girls relay.

Thank you to all the parents, grandparents and family members who cheered loudly for each of our swim-mers.

Congratulations to Alannah and Beau who both qualified for the 50m Butterfly at the Hunter Swimming carnival on the 5th March at Lambton swimming pool.

Results

Alannah 3rd Junior Girls 50m Butterfly

Beau 3rd Senior Boys 50m Butterfly

Jessica 4th Senior Girls 50m Butterfly

Lachlan 4th Senior Boys 50m Butterfly

4th Senior Girls Relay

Medowie Public School Book Fair – Week 7

WHEN: Before school and during lunch on the fol-lowing days:

Tuesday 12th of March

Wednesday 13th of March

Thursday 14th of March

WHERE: Our School Library.

COST: Books start from $4.00

Welcome to both new and returning families for 2019.

We are holding our annual Book Fair for the Library in Term 1! The fair will run before school (8:30am –8:55am) and during lunch times (11:10 – 11:55am) on Tuesday 12th, Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th March (Week 7).

If there are any parents/carers who could volunteer some time to help with selling books and being cashiers could you please come and let either myself or the office ladies know which day(s) and what times you can help out. It will be most appreciated!

*RAFFLE COMPETITION*

For every book purchase (one ticket per transaction) during the book fair, students will receive a raffle ticket to go into the draw to win 1 of 6 books! The raffle will be drawn the following Monday (week 8) during morning assembly.

Mrs Bertsos(Teacher Librarian)

School Banking Reminder

School banking day is every Tuesday.New banking deposit books will go home this week, could you please use these new forms from now on.

Thank youSchool Banking Coordinator

To all parents of Catholic children

This is to advise that the Sacramental program to prepare children to receive the Sacraments of Confirmation and Communion for those children who have already received the Sacrament of Rec-onciliation will commence with an information evening on Wednesday 3rd April 2019 at 7.00pm in the school hall (St Brigids).

Any parents who would like their child in years 2 to 6 or older who have already received the Sacra-ment of Reconciliation to participate in this pro-gram are required to attend and register their child at this meeting.

Please contact St Brigids parish if needing further information.

Thank you