ELEEBANA ENDEAVOUR Issue 4 11

Eleebana ENDEAVOUR Issue 4 – Monday 28 May 2018

EXCELLENCE, CARE & COOPERATION, ENDEAVOUR WHAT’S ON

Welcome to our 4th Edition…. Welcome to the fourth edition of our monthly exposé of everything great happening at ‘the best school in town’. In classrooms, we have completed our third five-weekly cycle of literacy and numeracy data collection. The analysis undertaken by the executive and learning and assistance support teams continues to be extremely pleasing with regard to student growth and progression.

Almost all students are achieving or exceeding our grade benchmarks – rapidly progressing us toward achieving (already) one of 2020 strategic planning objectives; that, every student makes at least one year of progress for one year’s teaching. Importantly also, this data directly informs our mapping of student progress and assessment of student achievement in our Semester 1 reporting processes. Experienced parents and carers will recall the traditional battery of tests students normally face leading into reports being sent home. This is no longer part of our practice at EPS.

Year 3 and 5 students are to be congratulated for their effort and persistence in completing NAPLAN testing last week. Educational debate continues to rage regarding almost every aspect of the national assessment program, from cost, test construction and structure, test efficacy and reliability to marking; rest assured, we take the process seriously and value the student performance data obtained to reflect on teaching and learning systems, structures and processes.

I am proud of the efforts we have made to enhance the physical appearance and facilities of our great school this year. The awarding of the tender for the Infants Playground was a long-awaited source of community celebration, as will be its soon to be completed construction! Our P&C Working Bee also enhanced the safety of our Primary Playground Equipment. I am also currently obtaining quotes for the repainting of the Quadrangle Handball Lines kindly funded by our P&C.

Finally, a vast array of academic, cultural and sporting events and competitions are underway this term – debating, public speaking, Star Struck, ICAS Competitions and Lake Macquarie PSSA Weekly Competitions and we should all be proud of the level of participation and opportunity students are afforded at EPS. As example we have an unprecedented number of teams in the Friday PSSA Competitions – 4 soccer (football) teams, 3 netball teams and 2 rugby league teams. To facilitate teacher supervision of these teams is a whole-school commitment - my thanks to staff for their flexibility and collegiality. Thank you also to the following Education Partners (businesses owned or operated by EPS parents/carers) who have funded the purchase of four brand new sets of soccer jerseys:

• Cardiff Veterinary Clinic • FIFO Capital Business Finance • People Check • Liberty Industrial • PIRTEK

Additionally thanks to the P&C who have funded a monetary prize for the most outstanding performance by an EPS student in each of this year’s ICAS Competitions: Digital Technologies, Spelling, Writing, English and Mathematics.

Playground Getting Along & Fair Play Week – ‘Fair Play, is the Best Way'…. Not every expectation is new learning, and this week we reinforce and affirm a strength of wellbeing practices at our school. Students are expected to play fairly, include others, use their words to solve problems and seek staff assistance if a problem cannot not be solved with words.

Week 5 Term 2 2018

Date Activity –

Who/What/When/ Where

Mon 28/05

School Assembly – 9am COLA

Tues 29/05

Scripture – Kinder, 3BM, 3ES, 3JB, 4R, 4W

Knights Knockout Senior Rugby League Team

ICAS Science Senior School (optional)

Wed 30/05

Star Struck Rehearsal Broadmeadow Stadium

Thurs 31/05

Year 6 Cake Stall Lunch & Recess

P&C Fundraising Info Night Library, 5:30pm

Fri 1/06

Assemblies: Junior School (Hall) – 9:05am

Senior School – 9:45am Sport K-6

Save the Dates!!!

Mon 4/6

P&C June Special Meeting Staffroom, 6:30pm

Tues 12/6

EPS Athletics Carnival Glendale Athletics Centre

Wed 13/6

ICAS Spelling Senior School (optional)

Thurs 14/6

ICAS Writing Senior School (optional)

Sat 4/8

EPS Winter Ball Belmont 16s

24 & 25/9

EPS Spotlight 2018 NEX, 6-9pm

Star Struck 2018 ‘Connect’

Friday 15 & Saturday 16 June

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Eleebana PS Student Leader of the Month – Mason W Mason W is a 2018 School Councillor and is 11 years old. His interests include: AFL, X-box, singing and tenor saxophone and his favourite is food lasagne. The thing Mason likes best about EPS is the kind environment – ‘people are always friendly’ and he became a leader out of a desire to help others and ‘because it is good practice for later in my life’. As a leader of EPS, Mason hopes to achieve the delivery ‘responsibility with integrity and kindness’. He believes most important role of a student leader is ‘helping the school become a better place for everyone’. If Mason was principal for a day, he would reverse roles and make students the teachers and teachers the students. When Mason finishes school, he would like to be a teacher and would be a wonderful male role model in any school!

Public Education Day Celebrations at Eleebana PS… Last Wednesday (23 May) staff turned green to celebrate everything that is great about public education. Thank you also to students who accessorised in green. Staff also took to the opportunity to speak up against the Federal Government’s $1.9 billion funding cut to public schools that will leave 87% of public schools below the minimum level of funding required to meet the educational needs of children. Further information regarding this important issue can be found at: http://www.fairfundingnow.org.au/ Thank you to Mrs Blair for her coordination of this event – especially the yummy cupcakes!

Community Chat – Wednesday 23 May…

Last Wednesday, we also held our first Community Chat for the year – thank you to parents and carers who attended and got to have a ‘play’ with some of the P&C purchased $15,000 worth of STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering – resources, specifically Sphero technology, that we use to drive the development of student coding, collaboration, and STEM skills. My thanks to Mr Burrows for sharing the positive outcomes happening in the STEM space. Attendees also received a sneak-peak at the proposed design for the EPS Canteen and provided some great suggestions on enhancing the design.

P&C Special June Meeting – 6:3pm, Monday 4 June - Staffroom Parents and community are invited to a ‘Special’ May Meeting of the EPS P&C. The purpose of this additional meeting is allow discussion of outstanding business from the May Meeting. Agenda items are (strictly): Item 1: Grants, Item 2: School Uniform, Item 3: Fundraising.

Are you following the P&C Facebook Page ??? If you are interested in hearing about all the wonderful things our 2018 P&C are doing to support EPS students, then make sure you are following the EPS P&C Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/eleebanaPSpandc/

Rest assured, you don’t have to be a P&C member to access the page - it is just a way to hear and see all that’s great about EPS…

Late breaking news: EPS the recipient of a National Science Week Grant!!! My sincere congratulations and thanks to Kathryn Maybury (EPS Parent) and Ms McCloy (Class Teacher 1/2M) who have co-authored a successful grant submission on behalf of our school for National Science Week 2018. The school theme for this year is ‘Game Changers and Change Makers’, reflecting on the significant people and moments that shifted our knowledge and our thinking, taking inspiration from three significant celebrations: • 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (genetic engineering,

biotechnologies, prosthetics, bionics, genetic modification, brain enhancement and ethics); • 40th anniversary of the first IVF birth (genetic engineering, biotechnology, nanotechnology); • International Year of the Reef (coral reefs and the scientists who study them).

School events were required to focus on the impact science, engineering, technology and mathematics has on our lives, our economy, our society and our world. Our concept is Propulsion Power – each class, in collaborative groups, will design a vehicle or form of transport that can relocate a specific item across a designated distance. Students will build and test their class model and choose the most efficient model to compete in the school-wide competition during 2018 Science Week.

Future focused, fun, exciting, with literacy, numeracy and STEM (Science, Technology, Mathematics, Engineering) as our core = EPS! Dr. Carl Leonard – Principal (rel.)

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Class News Items:

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Program & Community News Items:

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Library News

Wow! What a wonderful 4 weeks the start of Term 2 has been in the library. Thank you to all of the students who have come in to say hello and made me feel very welcome upon my return to the library. I have missed coming to Eleebana PS each day and I am very excited about what we have planned for the rest of the year!

The Junior School have been completing their exploration of Oliver and Orbit and building their digital literacy skills and the Senior School have been finishing off their learning about products and production lines.

eBooks - At this stage our eBook subscription with Wheelers has expired and we are currently investigating which platforms would be best for our students to use. If you have any feedback on the use of eBooks or would like to see something in particular happen around the use of eBooks, please do not hesitate to contact me or visit me in the library to discuss.

Book Club -Thank you to everyone who has been supporting our school library by purchasing books through Bookclub. Buying books through Bookclub earns much needed rewards for the school which is used towards purchasing new books and other resources for our library. Please remember we no longer accept money at school for Bookclub. All orders are done online through their website using the LOOP system. A big thank you also to our parent volunteer, Sam Jenkins who does an amazing job assisting in ordering, sorting and delivery Bookclub orders! We couldn’t do it without you, Sam!

Premier’s Reading Challenge - Congratulations to these students who have recently completed the 2018 PRC: Ned H, Heath G, Isaac L, Josephine D, Isabelle T, Sam H, Abby L, Addison R, Ella G, Sienna C, Noah T, Henry T, Patrick H, Larina H, Alicia M, Ashley A, Cleo S, Peter M, Abbey H, Ethan H, Zac O, Mahika R, Eliza G, Lucas H, Chloe B, Jesse P, Ashley A, Cleo S and Lawson M.

4W are our leading class at the moment! Well done!

Don’t forget to print out your reading logs when you complete the challenge and bring them to the library. Please do not hesitate to call in if you need assistance with anything PRC related.

Jenna Hopper -Teacher Librarian

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