BRADBITS

TERM 4 - WEEK 3

Address: 54-70 Laycock St,

Cranebrook

Ph.: 0247 290392

BRADBITS

Principal's Report…. Important Dates:

Monday 30th October

Belinda M—Author Visit

Monday 30th October

Y2 Swim School Begins

Wednesday 1st November

Whole School Assembly

Thursday 2nd November

Cake Stall

Friday 3rd November

Penrith Cup Gala Day

Wednesday 8th November

Remembrance Day Service

Thursday 9th November

Kinder 2018 Transition

Wednesday 15th November

Braddock's Got Talent,

Grandparent's Day, Book

Fair

Last week I was both the proudest and most entertained Princi-

pal, given the showcase of talent of our students at the annual

Performance Extravaganza. I never cease to be amazed at the tal-

ent of our students, who, when they are provided with the amaz-

ing opportunities given at Braddock, shine like the stars I know

them to be. Mr Hall has thanked all of the people who have made

this amazing event happen in his report on page 8, and I would

like to reiterate that thanks and acknowledge the amazing depth of talent we have in

the staff at Braddock. I would also like to thank Mr Hall, who had the vision and the

overall organisation of this event, as ensured it was a success. These events cannot

happen without the tireless work of our staff and I thank all involved. Also to the

parents who assisted with donations, the painting of back drops and the sewing of

curtains.

“Please pass on my congratulations to the wonderful Braddock PS students and staff who

made the performance evening such a success. Holka Polka was great fun!”

Deb Summerhayes Director, Public Schools NSW

Kindergarten Transition

We have begun our 2018 transition sessions, but it’s not too late to be involved!

We encourage all parents who intend to have their children attend Braddock in

2018, to participate in these sessions. If you know of any families who have children

ready to start school in 2018, please remind them to contact the school for infor-

mation on transition and to complete the enrolment process.

Student Sporting Success

Congratulations to Rowan and Xavier, two of our stu-

dents who represented at STATE athletics last week.

Rowan came third in his multi-class discus event, and

has not been willing to take his medal off since! Xavier

came 4th in his heat and 11th after placing in the 100m

. Amazing effort boys - we are so proud of you both, as

this is an amazing achievement!

Learning Success

Some of our amazing learners!

Ms Michelle Drage

Principal

Please Remember... Our car park

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Year 6 Fun Day

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1/2C We have had a very busy start to term 4 in 1/2C! In our literacy we have been focusing on our use of

description in our writing. Last week we all drew our own imaginary monsters which we then used to

create some descriptive writing. The results were very colourful and the class produced some excellent

descriptions to go along with their pictures. We will be continuing to work hard to achieve our reading

goals and I am really pleased that 8 students have already reached their target with a term to go!

We recently finished our science unit on water and had a go at making a cloud in a jar. We have also

been thinking about ways in which we can save water if there is drought. We will soon be starting our

new unit on playgrounds where we will look at what makes a good playground and have a go at design-

ing our own play space and building a prototype.

3/4D 3/4D continues to be a great place to be, shown by the excellence of our work, positive attitudes and

great team work and we have started this term with a bang. As always we continue to lead the charge

at keeping our school environment clean and tidy and striving to demonstrate a positive attitude both

in class and on the playground.

In literacy we are enjoying studying visual literacy using the picture book “Fox” written by Margaret

Wild and illustrated by Ron Brooks. We are enjoying viewing the text through a visual literacy mind-

set and making connections between the fabulous illustrations and the written story.

Our numeracy sessions continue to be both fun and engaging by learning many numeracy concepts

and playing our new maths game, Prodigy. We are also enjoying our new science unit exploring how

things create and transfer heat (even if our hands did get a little cold in our ice cube experiment).

As always, this term we have so much going on not just in the class but outside of it. It was wonderful

to see so many 3/4D students represent the school in the performance extravaganza in the choir, jazz

band and ukulele group. We are also looking forward to our upcoming Remembrance Day celebra-

tions and performing at our Christmas concert.

In 3/4D we welcome all parents and helpers so if you would like, feel free to drop in.

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An exciting new journey… In Term 4, we are beginning our new MiniLit program. MiniLit stands for Meeting Initial Needs in

Literacy and is aimed at improving reading outcomes for students.

This term we have set up three amazing new MiniLit learning spaces with colourful new furniture

and we have four wonderful volunteers who have offered to come and provide three hours of

weekly reading instruction to small groups across K-6.

Thankyou to Sonya, Mandy, Lisa and Renee who undertook their MiniLit training in week one and

have kindly volunteered their time to work with our students over term 4. We look forward to a

productive term and are excited to see this program grow into next year!

MiniLit Reading Program

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Penrith Library Visit

On Monday 23rd October, 28 students from years 3-6 accompanied Mrs Scanlin and Mr Byrne to a spe-

cial excursion to Penrith Library.

This event was organised by Penrith Library as part of the Sydney Writer’s Festival and there were lim-

ited places to attend. Braddock Public School provided bus transport to take advantage of this opportuni-

ty, along with several other local schools. As always, our students stood out with their beautiful, respect-

ful Braddock manners and behaviour.

The students were split into groups and participated in author talks and workshops conducted by four

fantastic children’s authors – David Astle: author of Wordburger, Ursula Duborsarsky: author of over 50

books including Redshoe and The Terrible Plop, Karen Foxlee: author of A Most Magical Girl and Ophe-

lia and the Marvelous Boy and Lisa Nichol: author of Dr Booglaoo and The Girl who lost her Laughter.

All students left with new inspiration for their writing with tips for sourcing story ideas, building charac-

ters, playing with words and using music for setting rhythm and mood. There was a lot of creativity dis-

played and exciting discussions taking place. There was also an opportunity to purchase books, obtain

author signatures and ask questions.

Next Monday 30th October we have the very popular Belinda Murrell attending our school to talk to all

our students about her books and writing. I know those who attended the Penrith Library event are very

excited and can’t wait to share a similar experience with their friends next week.

We have several books by these authors in our school library

so stop by and check them out!

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On Wednesday the 18th October Braddock Public School witnessed the birth

of many stars right here on our very stage. In front of large crowds, our Sen-

ior, Junior and Cultural Dance Groups along with our School Choir, Wind

band and Ukulele Group set the atmosphere on fire for the Stage 3 Produc-

tion of the not yet classic fairy tale “Holka Polka”. As the crowds packed in

the excitement grew and children, parents, friends and special guests were

dazzled by the talents of our performers. To quote Mr Little “I’ve never seen

our students so mesmerised by what was happening on stage. An absolutely brilliant

performance!”

A performance of this magnitude was nearly a year in the making and I would

like to say a special thank you to the staff that worked tirelessly to ensure the

performances were a success.

Our Creative Arts director spent countless hours, weekends and days in the holidays preparing, painting and

perfecting the props. He organised his team of parent helpers to paint, glitter and decorate all of the amazing

backgrounds we saw in the show. Thank you Mr Byrne.

Our very handy G.A Mr Terry worked his creative magic to design and build all of the backdrops so that they

could be moved and changed to enhance the reality of what was happening. He even sprang into action, coming

from another school after work on Monday, to repair a malfunction on one of the props so the show could go

on. Thank you Mr Terry.

Our Musical director Mr Baker coordinated the sound equipment to produce quality sound. He spent time in

the holidays installing microphone boxes and cables to ensure all performances were well mic’d up with profes-

sional equipment. He also spent countless volunteer hours coming in and rehearsing with the wind band, ukulele

group and choir. Thank you Mr Baker.

The show would not have been nearly as good if it wasn’t for our very own Miss Ashlea who, not only taught,

dressed and rehearsed all three dance groups, but spent many countless hours of her own time coordinating

the costumes to make all of our play performers look authentic in their roles. Thank you Miss Ashlea.

We also had a team of teachers and parents working in the background to assist with hair, make-up, canteen

and supervision. Thank you to Mel for the donation of the items for the canteen, it helped make the night a suc-

cess.

It is a mammoth effort requiring a lot of teamwork to coordinate an event like this. I’m proud to be part of

such a large and dedicated team to give our students the opportunity to shine.

Well done to the cast of characters who worked tirelessly, with the often grumpy Mr Hall, to learn their lines

and stage positions. I hope that you are able to walk away from this experience with a passion for performing

and entertaining. I believe there is no better feeling than being the cause of someone’s smile and happiness and

to do this through the Creative and Performing Arts is a special gift which you all share.

Performance Extravaganza

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Cast of Characters

Brenda Summah

Wolf/Mr Fuzzy Letisha

Cindy Sowedha

Splenda Praague

Hilda Katelyn

Humpty Jayden

Fairy God Mother Isaac

Fairy God Father/Snorz Abhilekh

Pinnochio Gemma

Ezi (Ugly Step Sister) Abigail

Dezi (Ugly Step Sister) Peta

Sweet Stevie-Lee

Inkantadora Mia

Gandolt Talea

Zorka James

Zoom Shauna

Extra Gnomes and Witches

Caitlyn

Liza

Shanay

Payge

Tiffany

Lillijana

Leah

Lights & Sound

Trent

Narwid

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PBL News A key focus of PBL in both the classroom and playground is

Be respectful: We use kind words.

Kind Words ask us all to think before speaking badly to other people. Schools are one of the places where a

family’s values are evident. They are on display for us all to see. Our students generally are very kind and love

to do things to help each other out. It is important that we maintain this value of respect to each other to fos-

ter harmony in the classroom and playground.

As staff and parents, we can nurture and encourage the students/your children to use kind words to siblings,

family members, friends, adults and the general public. Kind students look kind, act kind and say kind

things. Adults in their lives have demonstrated kindness to them by speaking kindly to them and doing kind

things for them. Kindness spreads, other pupils know the kind kids.

Unkind children show unkindness on their face and in how they walk around. They have bullying as a tool in

life. They think they have to “stick up for themselves”, boss other people around and often not follow school

expectations. They often have no close friends. Other students know the mean, unkind ones. Unkind children

say unkind things daily and often use swearing as a way to express how they feel.

Swearing at school:

lowers the tone of the school if students use swear words as part of their everyday language to each other.

creates a poor impression to school community members and visitors

can make students, staff and community members feel uncomfortable when they hear people swearing

Language is a powerful tool and at school we constantly emphasise appropriate social behaviour such as using

kind words to each other. Swearing is not acceptable at Braddock Public School. Please talk to your children

about the appropriate language to use at school and using kind words.

Kind words can help make the school day a positive one. Teachers will be congratulating students at school

who are using kind words and thanking them for contributing to our caring community.

KG Rhianna, Koen KB Alyssa, Kayden, Harrison, Liam,

Apinya, Alexander

K/1N Mia, Nicholas, Alba, Simon, Sim-

eon, Noah

1/2S Shynitia, Martilda, Billy

1/2C Emelia, Noah, Dylan, Samuel,

Rhys, Charly-Grace

1/2L Mia-Rose, Aiden, Beau, Luke, Har-

rison

3/4D Joel, Phoenix, Nikitah, Izabella 3/4H Harlee, Saladdin, Kaeleb, Curtis,

Sharnise

4/5H Jamie, Jack, Liza, Tookey, Kate-

lyn, Shauna, Lavelua, Jayden

5/6B Leyka, Jai, Nathan, Sowedha, Na-

talie

5/6T Zarliah, Nathan, Sheina, Praa-

gue, A J, Trent, Jacob, Abigail

3-6D Hayden, Ciaran, Oliver

PBL Attendance Awards Term 3

This term ,we will also be focusing on:

We are Safe: - We wear our Braddock Hat outside. Students will be required to wear their Braddock Hat when playing outside in the sun. This includes: playing

on the back grass area, in the sandpit, on the basketball court, on the netball courts, on the hand ball courts

on the top outdoor area, during class sport during physical education lessons and when gardening.

Students who are not wearing a hat will be asked to play in the shade under the COLA outside the Library

or to visit Library during our play breaks.

Hats can be purchased from the office for $10

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Selective High Schools cater for highly achieving gifted students who may otherwise be without classmates at

their academic and social level. These schools help gifted and talented students to learn, by grouping them

with other gifted and talented students, teaching then in specialised ways and providing educational material

at the appropriate level.

Applications for selective high schools placement are considered mainly on the basis of the Selective High

School Placement Test results and school assessment scores. The Selective High School Placement Test will

be held on Thursday, 15th March 2018.

If you would like to have your child considered for Year 7 selective high school entry in Year 7 in 2019, you

need to apply soon. You will need to apply on the Internet using a valid an email address (not the student’s

email address).

Detailed instruction of how to apply online will be available from 10th October in a printed application infor-

mation booklet and at https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/selective-high-schools-and-opportunity-

classes/year-7.

The application website opens at: https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/selective-high-schools-and-

opportunity-classes/year-7/ on 10th October, 2017 and closes on 13th November, 2017. You must apply be-

fore the closing date.

INTENTION TO APPLY: YEAR 7

Our school has a partnership with The Smith Family and they are able

to offer scholarships to students within our school. The Learning for

Life Program provides families with the opportunity to increase the

chance of their children’s success at school, TAFE and university.

The Learning for Life Program provides financial support in the form

of a scholarship to help pay for the cost of education such as school

uniforms, school shoes, textbooks and excursions.

To be eligible apply for a scholarship you must meet the criteria of:

Being a holder of a health card

Your child has at least 90% attendance at school

Provide the Smith Family with a copy of your child’s report.

Meet with a Smith Family Representative to discuss your commitment to the Program

If you wish to apply for a Learning for Life Scholarship, please contact Mrs Bentham to complete the Expres-

sion of Interest form which will then be forwarded to The Smith Family.

Smith Family – Learning for Life

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