The newsletter for our school community

Passfield Park School

53 Guernsey Avenue Phone: 9820 1700 Minto NSW 2566

Passfield-s.school@det.nsw.edu.au www.passfield-s.schools.nsw.edu.au

Diary Dates………

Friday, 5th July Last day of Term 2 Tuesday, 23rd July First Day of Term 3 Friday 27th September Last day of Term 3 Saturday,12th October Shopping Trip Saturday, 26th October Trivia Night Friday, 29th November School Formal

Dear Parents and Carers, Reports Your child’s Semester 1 report has been sent home. You will notice it is in a more practical format and is informative and relevant to your child’s learning. We hope you enjoy reading about the progress your child has made so far this year. Shining Stars Again this year, some of our students performed at Shining Stars which was held at the Seymour Centre, Ultimo last week. Our group performed with the Cat and Mouse ensemble and were brilliant. I would like to thank our students for their excellent behaviour, Alana Barnes and Michele for their commitment, organisation and time which enabled our students to be part of this performance Staffing Shortages Due to a staffing shortage of teachers throughout NSW, especially in special education, we have found it necessary to collapse a class.

July 3, 2019

Valuing and respecting student and staff learning in a safe 21st century learning environment

Our charity, Passfield Park Kids Inc., was set up in 2013 to support the therapy needs of our students. The committee meet once each term. If you would like to find out more or be a part of this wonderful charity, please call Cheryl (in the office).

From the principal……

Some staff and students will be in different classes next term and those affected have been advised individually. Much thought has gone into this decision to minimise the impact on students.

Staff Development This term all staff at Passfield Park School participated in a professional learning activity that allowed us to identify our top character strength. Research identified 24 character strengths that contribute to what is best about our personality. Everyone possesses all 24 character strengths in different degrees, so each person has a truly unique character profile. Each character strength falls under one of six broad virtue categories, which are universal across cultures and nations. The virtues are Courage, Humanity, Wisdom, Justice, Temperance and Transcendence. To determine each staff members’ top character strength and which virtue they sit under, we all completed the Via Character Survey. We then took photos of each staff member with a sign displaying their top strength. These are displayed in our foyer. Next time you visit the school, have a look at our display and the individual strengths of our

amazing staff. Further information If you would like further information on any of the above matters, please contact Chris, Sally or Cheryl on 9820 1700 who will be able to take a message for the relevant staff. Kind Regards Wendy Low

CLASS NEWS

Green Class Blue Class

Congratulations to all students in Blue Class for a fantastic Term Two. All students have enjoyed continuing to explore Japanese culture through Geography, History and Creative Arts. On Mondays, everyone in Blue Class has enjoyed having Mrs Patrick in class. The students have participated in fantastic units of work, created beautiful artworks and have enjoyed trying some Japanese cuisine. Blue Class has thoroughly enjoyed participating in food technology with their peers in Green Class. Each Wednesday, we have participated in making, cooking and eating chicken schnitzel, potatoes and peas. Eve-ryone should be very proud of their efforts during this program. It is exciting to see you all progress with your table manners and eating behaviour. We wish you all a very happy, safe and relaxing holiday. We are all looking forward to an exciting Term 3. Happy holidays, Holly, Rami and Mrs Patrick.

Green Class has had a fantastic term! We have enjoyed learning across different environments in the school and making memories as a class. We have particularly enjoyed our class food technology program. This has allowed us to go to the kitchen each week, work with our neighbours in Blue Class to cook chicken schnitzel, peas and chips from scratch. Green Class has also been working on identifying our emotions and using the circles program, meaning we are working on identifying different people in the community and learning, practicing and using the correct communication and interaction with them. Thank you for a great term. We are excited to see what Term 3 has for us. Alana and Nicole

Silly Face

Happy Face

Tired Face

CLASS NEWS

Red Class Purple Class

In Maths, Purple Class has been making comparisons based on length and height. Students traced around their hands and feet to create templates which they used to compare and identify objects in the classroom which were longer than, or shorter than, their hand or foot. Purple Class also enjoyed comparing the heights of two friends and using visuals to identify who was taller and who was shorter. After great success, they then compared the heights of three friends to identify who was the tallest and who was the shortest. Friday’s cooking sessions continue to be very popular. Purple Class’ sandwich making skills are improving and everyone thoroughly enjoys eating their toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches. Di, Leanne & Kris

What an exciting term in Red Class. Each and every day was filled with excitement and opportunities for learning. We finished our units of work on the sense, growth and change, the body and length. Swimming at Beverley Park School is the highlight of many students’ week, with the excitement beginning as soon as the word “swimming” is mentioned each Friday. Red Class students’ water confidence has increased with all students confidently moving through the pool, independently with floatation devices to assist. Students enjoy singing action songs within the pool, with students completing the action. Sarah and Kris W

Pink Class Pink Class students have had a fantastic semester getting to know their school. They have begun exploring visual arts this term and were very excited to show off some of their wonderful creations! Student’s areas of interest continue to expand and are encouraged. It is fantastic to see students notice and engage with new books as they are display on the class bookshelf. Playground time is a great opportunity to consolidate classroom learning, especially communication and social skills but is also great fun! We wish you all a fantastic break and look forward to seeing you back in Term 3! Dominique, Jeanette and Mandy

Woolowrths Earn & Learn

Earn & Learn has now finished. Please send in any stickers you may still have. We would like to thank all our families and friends who supported our school.

White Class

CLASS NEWS

What a busy term it has been! In week 8, we went on a Woolworths Discovery tour. We saw the back dock and the super cool cardboard compacting machine. We went in the coolroom which was a cool 4 degrees and the freezer which was a chilly -15 degrees, bbbbrrrrrrr, glad we didn’t stay in there too long. We have made amazing progress in our everyday living skills lessons. Students independently wash hands, set tables and make mini pizza snacks. We have started our science topic Earthquakes, participating in hands on investigations to simulate different strength earthquakes based on the Mercalli Scale. In History lessons we have learnt about traditional Japanese miso soup. We researched recipes, created shopping lists and tasted miso soup. We are excited to make our own miso soup in Term 3. For sport, we have been learning to play T-Ball. We have had lots of fun practicing batting and running around bases. We love to score home runs! We would like to wish you a safe and happy holiday break. Karen and Rob

As mentioned in our last newsletter, Teal Class

continues to identify the qualities of a good friend and what is needed to maintain friendships through the

Bucket Filling program. Every morning each student tells classmates whose bucket they have filled and explain how they filled the bucket. Most students have an enthusiasm for completing their personal details forms which include their names, mum and dad’s phone numbers and addresses during the literacy sessions. In History, students listened to dreamtime stories about the Aboriginal rainbow serpent’s path and the creations it made from the south to the north of Australia. In cooking, students proudly helped each other and took turns to read the ingredients and recipes. The students actively participated in the English and Aboriginal rhymes during the weekly music program sessions.

Tapiwa and Michele

Teal Class

Check out our school website www.passfield-s.schools.nsw.edu.au

Silver Class

CLASS NEWS

Silver Class has had a fabulous term with many achievements celebrated by all students. All students have made significant gains using their personalised communication systems as a result of our daily targeted lessons. It is exciting to see students generalising these skills into the playground and using their voice more often. Music sessions with Daniel from Rhythm Village continue to be a favourite for all our students. Instruments that create sound through vibration tend to be preferred by Silver Class students. This includes the gong, digeridoo, guitar, drums, rain

maker and thunder stick.

Amanda, Lucinda and Di B

Congratulations to Orange Class on a fantastic term! We have been learning about relationship circles this term and identifying the different people in our community and how to interact with them. Orange Class has continued to cook each Friday during our food technology class. This term we enjoyed cooking fried rice. Each student has made big strides in preparing food and cleaning up after each lesson. Our weekly music lessons with Daniel from Rhythm Village remain a big hit with the students in Orange! The students have enjoyed learning about Australian music this term. Hope you all have a fantastic holiday and I look

forward to Term 3!

Cameron and Julie

Orange Class

All students in Yellow Class have enjoyed continuing to explore gardening, creative arts, book-study and self-help skills. Yellow Class tended to their vegetable garden by regularly watering and spacing seedlings. All made an effort to ensure we did not pull out the plants we are growing when weeding. Students also enjoyed growing five different plants in transparent gloves. In developing our self-help skills, the focus for some of us has been using modified equipment for cutting toast and holding the edge when spreading the butter evenly. In washing up after breakfast, students are paying attention to washing with a sponge, rinsing and placing items in the dish rack. During multi-sensory music program sessions, Yellow Class students’ excitement and growing confidence is evident. They took turns in making music as they sing into the microphone, while their peers played the drums, maracas and tambourines. Students are having fun creating their own version of potato people during craft sessions. Our classroom helpers are displaying greater success in undertaking classroom jobs. Sulaiman and Lincon are now picking up worksheets from the printer room independently. Abbie loves being the lights person, turning switches off when we leave the classroom. Shon and Justice like to show the day and date on the calendar every morning. We are making an effort in applying ourselves well in all areas of learning. A couple of us have earned a Principal’s award for excellent work! Congratulations to Yellow Class on a productive Term 2. We wish a safe winter break to our families and look forward to seeing you all again in Term 3. Sukhraj and Sharon

CLASS NEWS

Yellow Class

COMMUNITY NEWS

In a first for the region, a new music event for young people with a disability has today been announced to be held in Campbelltown in August. The Feel the Beat music festival is the latest addition to the community events run by Council and will put the needs of people with a disability first. So far, the festival line-up includes Ironic Circus, Underwraps and Rudely Interrupted at The Cube in Campbelltown Catholic Club for two separate age group sessions.

While energy levels on stage will be high, the event will be managed to ensure participants are comfortable by controlling output noise levels, appropriate lighting and established quiet zones.

Feel the Beat will be held as two sessions on Sunday 18 August:-

Over the Rainbow - 12 to 17 years from 2pm to 4.30pm

Light Up Your Life - 18 to 24 year olds from 6pm to 10pm.

There will be Auslan interpreters, a dance area, seating area including a chill out zone full of cushions, bean bags and blankets, quiet zones and tables and chairs. To add to the festival vibe, the event festival will feature fun, festival-like activities such as airbrush tattoos, henna tattoos, flower crown making and more.

Tickets will be $10 and will go on sale soon.

COMMUNITY NEWS

SHINING STARS