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The Belltower ISSUE 12 2016 Term 3 Week 4 Friday 12th August

Hurstville Public School Newsletter Email: hurstville-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Phone: 9587 3963

Principal’s Message

Calendar of Upcoming Events Tuesday 16th August Zone Athletics

Year 1 Gymnastics in Hall ( 9.20am -1.00pm) ICAS @ 11.30 am Number Crunchers semi-final at Campsie PS 9-1.30

Thursday 18th August Kindy Gymnastics in Hall

Friday 19th August PSSA Final Year 3 Swimming

Monday 22nd August Zone Athletics Year 6 Gymnastics Book Week commences

Tuesday 23rd August Year 1 Gymnastics in Hall (9.20am – 1.00pm) P&C Meeting 9:15-11:00

Wednesday 24th August Book Week Character Parade (Kindy, Year 1 and Year 2) Book Week Mufti Day

Thursday 25th August Kindy Gymnastics in Hall Public Speaking Finals

Friday 26th August Year 3 Swimming

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Building Positive Social Relationships

One of the most important developmental challenges for children in primary schools is learning about

themselves and others. Often, this is a pretty straight forward task, with some bumps along the way. For

others, it is a much more difficult journey where their powers of resilience, and those of their families, are

often tested.

With such strong media attention on the issue of bullying, parents and children are frequently anxious that

any social dispute is an incident of bullying. Sometimes, this may be the case and needs to be dealt with

promptly and effectively. More often, in primary schools like ours, the behaviour is the result of children who

are still learning how to handle themselves and their emotions, and those of other

children.

There are two issues that I commonly see when children are struggling socially.

One concerns the power of language. Some children with high-level verbal skills (but low

empathy) can use language as a weapon. They are often bright, quick witted and can find

the words to put down others and thereby assert themselves. Their capacity to use language in this way

often causes resentment and frustration amongst their peers. The comments are often made out to be “only

a joke”, but the children on the receiving end don’t see it this way. The child making the comments is then

often excluded by the group which doesn’t have a more effective way of stopping the negative or hurtful

comments coming their way. Children with poor language skills—who can’t think quickly enough or find the

enough or find the words they need— can become physical as a way of asserting themselves or stopping the put downs . They use actions because they can’t use words well.

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The other issue is very tricky and confronting. It requires parents to be objective about their child, which is

often really hard to do. Most parents worry about their children being bullied: how many of us worry that our

child may be doing the bullying, or is acting in a way that makes it very hard for other children to like them?

How open are we to considering this? As a parent, it takes confidence and strength to acknowledge the less

desirable aspects of our child’s attitude to, and interaction with, with their peers.

Every year, we provide a range of programs aimed at developing positive social relationships. Our focus on

“Values in Action”, our Positive Behaviour for Learning program, Bounce Back, Circle Time, buddy program

etc are ways in which we seek to support our students socially. It is an ongoing priority and challenge and

your support at home makes an enormous difference to your child’s relationships with peers.

How to Help Your Younger Child make Friends

Teaching your child about the importance of making friends is as vital as learning their

ABCs.

Cathrine Neilsen-Hewett, a child development expert at Macquarie University, says if

children are happy socially they tend to be more engaged in their learning.

"If you speak to any Kindergarten child, one of the most important things for them is

having friends and having people to play with," Cathrine says.

She says children who are on their way to developing a healthy social life and good learning strategies have

good self-control skills, such as sitting still and listening quietly; work easily in small or large groups; follow

directions and cooperate with others.

If children are happy socially, they tend to be more engaged in their learning.

Social self-control

An important factor in helping children to be happy socially is guiding them to control their impulses. At the

end of preschool, children can sometimes still act out their frustrations or wants by hitting or through verbal

aggression; however, by the end of the Kindergarten year, "children who are still playing like that are the

ones who are at risk of being rejected by their peer group," Cathrine says.

"Children very quickly develop reputations, so you want to step in as soon as

you can and develop those appropriate social skills. You don't want your child

to be known as the one who hits other children, or the one who doesn't share.

You want to cut that off as soon as you can in Kindergarten and really work on

that."

Role modelling at home

Cathrine suggests using opportunities at home to model good social behaviour, such as teaching your child

to take turns, share their toys and even give attention to others.

"Children who are more popular are those who ask a question of another child and then listen to their

responses. It's modelling that at home when they're interacting and talking with each other, and it's about

how to engage peers in conversation and pay compliments to their friends, ‘Gee, I really love that picture'.

That success in terms of peer interactions is critical," she says.

Inviting children over for play dates in small groups on the weekend and monitoring their interactions is also

helpful because you can see how your child is interacting, and guide the behaviour if need be”, Cathrine

adds.

Remember, if ever you have concerns about your child’s experiences at school, help and advice are available from our teachers, executive staff or our Community Engagement Officer, Ms Jin Liang, who is at our school every Monday and Tuesday.

Mrs Anne Hewson – Principal

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Helping your Child with English - MODALITY In an effort to help parents understand more of what their children learn at school, teachers recently sent home term overviews outlining the skills, knowledge and content covered this term. I am including an information sheet in this edition of the Belltower which explains one of the words you may have seen on the overview. The word is Modality. This is a language term that students refer to in persuasive speaking and writing that suggests a particular perspective on events. Modality forms a continuum from high modality (for example obliged to, always, must) to low modality (for example might, could, perhaps, rarely). Modality can be expressed through modal verbs, modal adverbs, modal nouns and modal adjectives.

Ms Jennifer Birch – Deputy Principal

From the Deputy Principals

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Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) Hurstville Public School has followed the Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) framework since 2010. PBL is a strengths-based proactive approach to creating a positive, safe and supportive school climate which enhances the wellbeing and academic achievement of ALL students in ALL school settings. It is one aspect of the many wellbeing programs being delivered at our school. We use a variety of strategies and practices to promote, recognise and reinforce appropriate student behaviour. At Hurstville Public School, we explicitly teach and encourage expected behaviours. All students recognise the importance of being respectful, responsible learners. They participate in lessons to discuss what our expectations look and sound like. They receive Values in Action awards for demonstrating respect, responsibility and learning. They receive acknowledgements, prompts and reminders to encourage them to be respectful, responsible learners. We also have strategies and practices to manage inappropriate student behaviour. All classes follow our continuum which allows for continued learning for all students and provides an opportunity for the teacher to remind and prompt students to make good choices. If students receive a third warning in a session, they are given the opportunity to reflect on their behaviour with the teacher, and set goals for improvement. If misbehaviour continues or a student’s behaviour is unsafe, a student is sent to the Assistant Principal for further explicit teaching and discussion and for positive behaviour goals to be set. If students have been sent to the Assistant Principal, the Reflection sheet, which has been completed by the student with the support of the Assistant Principal, is sent home to allow parents to discuss and encourage positive behaviours from their child.

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Hurstville Public School staff members are currently updating their knowledge and understanding of PBL strategies. We are reviewing our processes and will soon be sending home a survey seeking feedback about some of our wellbeing programs. A wellbeing committee consisting of staff and parents will review the feedback and make recommendations to update our policy. Parents could help support our school expectations at home by discussing what respect, responsibility and learning look like. Perhaps students could even discuss some of the ways they can show respect, responsibility and learning at home. For example:

I show respect by saying please and thank you to family members.

I show responsibility by packing my bag every morning to be prepared for school.

I am learning when I complete my home reading each night.

Miss Danielle Scott – Deputy Principal

Week 3 was a cold, wet week. The weather was very changeable throughout the day. It is always difficult on days like this to keep students dry as they move around the school to various locations such as the toilets, library, Community Language classrooms or the hall. When students sit in wet clothing, they are uncomfortable and are more susceptible to illness. For this reason, we ask all parents to please provide wet weather clothing in their child’s bag as a precaution. Thin plastic raincoats or ponchos with hoods are available quite cheaply and, if they are kept in a plastic bag, they do not take up very much space in a school bag. These are preferable to umbrellas as they provide greater protection from the rain.

Thank you to all parents and carers who took the opportunity

to attend our Open Morning during Education Week. The

presentation “Maximise the Mind through Mindfulness”, was

very well-received and our school hall was filled to capacity

with parents and carers eager to learn about the benefits of

mindfulness for their children.

Your children, our students, took great pride in showcasing

their skills as 21st Century learners in their classrooms.

We hope you enjoyed your visit.

Mrs Jenny Cooper – Assistant Principal

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Early Stage 1 (Kindergarten) This week, students in Kindergarten were very excited to welcome their visitors into their classrooms for Education Week. In KT, students carefully displayed their favourite books on their desks and chose to read some of their writing to their visitors. Each student also read a short story with their guest and went on to make some of our weekly sight words using play dough. Students eagerly walked their guests around the classroom to talk about all the artworks they have worked on throughout the year. Parents and visitors then helped students to colour, cut and make a Teddy Bear before joining the rest of Kindergarten for a Teddy Bears’ Picnic and Morning Tea. KT really enjoyed showing their visitors all of the hard-work they have been doing in class this year.

Miss Natalie Saad – KT Classroom Teacher

Stage 1

Year 2 Reading: Reading in our class is important. We’ve got all sorts of reading material. Most books we read have lots of chapters, facts and stories. Our teacher reads us “Matilda”, “Madeline” and Roald Dahl books. Mathematics: This term we are learning about 2D and 3D shapes, addition and subtraction, multiplication and area. Students in our class like maths because we learn something new. CAPA: Our teacher teaches lots of fun craft like knitting, making props, painting and drawing. I think the best craft I have learnt is French knitting. Mrs Comino: Mrs Comino helps teach our class in writing. Students like her because they like writing. Mrs Comino is very nice to us. Her writing is always interesting. Computers: Thursday is our computer day. We like to play games but we have to do our research first. Once we finish we can play. We research information about Australia, Aboriginal sacred sites and famous artists.

In The Classroom

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Assembly: During our assembly, we are sometimes nervous. We’ve won lots of trophies. Our class is lucky because we keep getting the trophy. Aerobics and Sport: Wednesday is our aerobics day and Thursday is our Sport day. We learn to catch, throw and relay race. I think our favourite sport is Gymnastics because we always get excited. Library: On Friday it’s our library day. In the mornings we could do quick borrowing by returning the book and getting a new one. We borrow books like chapter books. We do enjoy library very much. Our library teacher is Miss Lee. She is very nice to us. Spelling: On Monday we write five sentences using our week’s spelling words. Buddies: Our buddy class is 5H. Our class is always excited about seeing them. Community Language and Cultural Studies: We learn Chinese language and we learn about the Spanish culture and some Spanish language. Elaine L. & Amanda G. – 2B Students

Stage 3 Years 5 and 6 REMINDER….. Expression of Interest for Year 6 Camp 2016 Notes have been sent home for expression of interest in attending the Year 6 Camp at the Department of Sport and Recreation Camp – Narrabeen. Camp will be held on Monday 7th November 2016 to Thursday 10th November, which is Week 5 of Term 4. The camp will be an invaluable experience for your child and a great opportunity to develop their independence, problem-solving, social and sporting skills. It is also an excellent way to end their time at Hurstville Public School before they head off to high school in 2017. In order to book your child’s place on the Year 6 Camp, please complete and return the Expression of Interest form complete with $50 non-refundable deposit to your child’s class teacher by, no later than, Friday 19th August. Families experiencing financial hardship are asked to speak with Miss Scott. Expression of Interest for Year 5 Camp 2016 Notes have been sent home for Expressions of Interest in the Year 5 Camp to be held at the Department of Sport and Recreation Camp – Berry. Camp will be held on Monday 14th November 2016 to Wednesday 16th November, which is Week 6 of Term 4. The camp will be an invaluable experience for your child and a great opportunity to develop their independence, problem-solving, social and sporting skills. In order to book your child’s place on the Year 5 Camp, please complete and return the Expression of Interest form complete with $50 non-refundable deposit to your child’s class teacher by, no later than, Friday 19th August. Families experiencing financial hardship are asked to speak with Miss Scott. Year 5 and 6 Classroom Teachers

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Year 6 6P students have completed their movie, ‘Bad Hat Day’, which is being entered into the Film by the Sea festival. If the film is accepted, the students will be invited to walk the red carpet at the premiere in October. Fingers crossed! Year 6 students have also been busy designing products for this year’s Mini-Fête. Students are working in small teams to create items that can be sold at a profit to raise money for the Year 6 farewell gift to the school. It is a challenging process and everyone is enjoying finding solutions to the problems that the project poses. 6P Class Students

This week, many boys and girls from Hurstville Public School performed at the St George Performing Arts Festival which was held at Marana Auditorium in Hurstville. The students had a fabulous time showing off their amazing singing voices and dancing skills. Well done, students of Hurstville PS! Thanks must go to the dedicated teachers who have spent many hours supporting these students to be the best performers in singing and in dancing that they can be. Thank you to :

Ms Law and Miss Boardman – Stage 1 choir

Ms Moar and Mrs Proctor – Stage 2 and 3 choir

Mrs Muir, Ms Roebuck and Miss Davies – Silver Boys’ Dance, Year 6 Girls’ Dance

Mrs Zhai and Miss Liu – Chinese Senior Dance

Stage 1 Choir

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Stage 2 and 3 choir

Chinese Senior Dance Group

Year 6 Girls’ Dance Group

Silver Boys’ Dance Group

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The students listed below will receive their medal on Monday 15th August at the whole school morning assembly. Congratulations! Parents are most welcome to see their child receive their award.

The students listed below will receive their GOLD award at this assembly as well.

If your child receives 5 Values in Action Awards, please send them in so that your child can receive their Bronze award at their grade assembly. Mrs Jessica Maakaroun – Assistant Principal

From the Library Premiers Reading Challenge All online entries must be completed by Friday 19th August to be eligible to receive a certificate. Book Fair Our annual Scholastic Book Fair will take place during Week 7 this term. You will receive further information about this event over the next couple of weeks. Start saving your money for some great deals.

Miss Chaan Wadley – Teacher/Librarian

Janet D. 2D Liam C. 4M Landrie Z. 5H Anthony W. 6M Andrew P. GOLD

Caitlin H. 2I Kevin W. 3K Electra L. 3M Zachariah B. 3R

Values In Action

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Band Change of Tutorial Time As of this week, there has been a change in tutorial time for the Concert Band Blue and Red flutes. The Concert Band flute tutorials will now be held during lunchtime on Friday in gym block. Upcoming Events Our Training Band students will be joining other schools to participate in Bandtastic on Wednesday 7 September in our school hall. They will work with students from other schools and tutors from Engadine Music to learn a new song which they will perform as a mass band for parents in the afternoon beginning at 2.15pm. We hope you can join us for the performance. Our Training Band will also be performing later in the term for our Year 3 students to demonstrate the skills they have developed this year. All bands will be performing at our Hurstville Public School Showcase in Term 4. We look forward to hearing them play in a large auditorium for a huge audience. Make sure your child is practising at home on a regular basis so that they can shine at the many performances.

Sporting Achievements Congratulations to our PSSA Senior Boys Division 2 Softball Team in making it to the Grand Final. They will be up against Carlton South next Friday. We wish them all the best. Congratulations to Flinders who was selected from Botany Bay Zone to attend the Sydney East Regional Boys Primary Cricket Trial. Good luck at the trials, Flinders.

Miss Danielle Scott – Deputy Principal

Extracurricular

Kindergarten 2017

If you have a child who turns 5 before 31 July 2017, and you wish them to enrol into

Kindergarten next year, please contact the school office to complete an application to

enrol form.

Please bring all relevant documentation with you to show evidence of your residential

address and permanent residency.

Further information regarding our enrolment policy can be found on our website

www.hurstville-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

If you have a friend or neighbour who lives within our school boundary area and has a

child who will be enrolling at our school in Kindergarten in 2017, could you please advise

them to contact the school office ASAP.

Our Kindergarten Orientation and Transition dates in 2016 for students starting Kindergarten in 2017 are in Term 4. They will be held from 9.15 to 10.45 am on the following dates:

Orientation : Tuesday 18th October or Thursday 20th October

Transition Visit 1 : Wednesday 26th October

Transition Visit 2 : Wednesday 2nd November

Transition Visit 3 : Wednesday 9th November

If you have already filled out an application to enrol your child, you will be notified by mail with more information about our Kindergarten Transition program later this term.

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To continue with our parent/carer presentations that support 21st Century Learning skills, we would like to hold a session on “Promoting your child’s potential”. The presentation will include a focus on questioning techniques that can promote critical thinking skills and build effective communication skills. It will also explore ways to promote optimal learning at home and/or the out of school environment. The presentation will be in English and will be led by Ms Amy Mortimer and Ms Kristy Dean. Mrs Jin Liang, our Community Engagement Officer, will also provide additional assistance. The proposed dates for these sessions are: *Tuesday 6th September 9.15-11.00 *Tuesday 6th September 11.30 -1pm *Monday 12th September 9.15-11.00 *Monday 12th September 11.30-1pm A note about this was sent home this week. If you would be interested in coming, we ask that you complete the slip at the bottom of the note and return it to your child’s teacher by Monday 15 th August. For your convenience, I have also included the return slip below. Thank you.

Mrs Amy Mortimer –Teacher

Expression of Interest for the parent/carer session on “Promoting your Child’s Potential”

Your Name: Child’s Class: Please indicate your first and second choice of dates/times by putting a 1 and 2 in the preferred boxes. Once we have collected all slips, we will inform you of the decided day and time. Tuesday 6th September 9.15-11.00 Monday 12th September 9.15-11.00 Tuesday 6th September 11.30 -1pm Monday 12th September 11.30-1pm

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Dear Families, Education Week What a wonderful day our teachers put on for all families during Education Week! We hope families were able to drop in and see the wonderful work all the kids were doing in class, and also stop for a leisurely morning tea with the kids.

With so many families having attended the Education Week open morning, the P&C would like to encourage parents to stop and reflect on this for a moment in your day, to consider … what does Education Week mean to you?

While it is undoubtedly a time to drop in and say hello to the kids in their classroom, (on “their turf”), Education Week can mean so much more …

it can be an opportunity to watch a class full of kids interact, and for parents to be part of their children’s world for just that moment in their life as they go about their class routine …

an opportunity to look over our children’s work and see it in context of their peers, not to compare, but to admire and appreciate the collegial environment and marvel at the joy each child gets out of having a sense of belonging to their class …

to see a classroom full of children “acting as one”, all aware of what is expected of them, and instinctively going about their work with a rhythm and instinct that would be difficult to find elsewhere..

What a wonderful opportunity all families had - to be part of our children’s lives for that one moment in time. And in reflecting on it all, please don’t forget the extremely hard work, dedication and passion that your child’s teacher brings to the classroom each day. Happy, sad or otherwise, while every teacher no doubt has many personal things in the back of their mind, the one thing we can be sure of as parents, is that every teacher is providing our children with a wonderful opportunity, not just to be educated and learn, but to build friendships, and memories of their childhood that they will one day be able to look back on, and remember they had a wonderful childhood and primary school experience – thanks to their teachers. From the story time reading that the younger ones love so much, to the in-class band and video production in the senior years … these “value add” experiences that teachers offer our kids, and the friendships they made along the way, is what they’ll reminisce about in 30 years from now. So the P&C would encourage all families to drop in to school and let your child’s teacher know their work has been acknowledged and appreciated. It won’t take long, but it’ll make a world of difference across the whole school, and that can only be a good thing for our whole community. If you have any questions or topics you’d like to raise but can’t make it along to the next P&C Meeting, please email: pchurstville@hotmail.com . PLEASE NOTE THAT THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD ON TUESDAY 23 OCTOBER. Thanks for your support, P&C Association Hurstville Public School

P&C News

The P&C would like to invite families and students to email the P&C by 19 August to share your story about the thing you found most memorable or that you most enjoyed during Education Week. A selection of responses will be printed in the next edition of the Bell Tower. Please keep messages brief and positive, and let us know what year your child is in. For privacy, personal details will NOT be included in the Bell Tower.

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ANOTHER REMINDER TO ALL PARENTS/CARERS ……………………. Dear Parents and Carers, Hurstville Public School will transition to the new NSW public schools’ finance system and a new bank account on 17 October 2016. To ensure a smooth transition, there will be changes to the way we accept parent or carer payments. 1. EFTPOS payments: We will not be able to accept EFTPOS payments between 10 October and 17 October 2016. Please ensure that you have made any outstanding EFTPOS payments before 10 October, 2016. From 18 October 2016, EFTPOS payments will be accepted as before. 2. Cash and cheque payments: Between 12 October 2016 and 17 October 2016, we will also not be able to accept payments by cash or cheque as we prepare to close our current bank account and transition to the new one. Please ensure that you have made any outstanding cash or cheque payments before 12 October 2016. From 18 October 2016, cash and cheque payments will be accepted as before. 3. Online payments: Between 4:00 pm 23 September 2016 and 16 October 2016, we will also not be able to accept online payments as we prepare to close our current bank account and transition to the new one. Please ensure that you have made any outstanding online payments before 4:00 pm 23 September 2016. From 17 October 2016, online payments will be accepted as before. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we transition to our new finance system. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs Des Karatasas on 9587 3963

From the Office

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Community News

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