BOLWARRA PUBLIC SCHOOL Bolwarra Road Phone: 4930 1296

Bolwarra 2320 Fax: 4930 0032

Email: bolwarra-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Website: www.bolwarra-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

BULLETIN NO. 19 WEEK 1 – TERM 3 Thursday 17th July 2014

Dear Parents and Care-givers Welcome back and I trust your holiday break (if you were lucky enough to get one) was relaxing and you had quality time with your children. Thank you for sending your children back to school looking so smart in their winter uniforms, a huge cost in today’s world. Thank you for organising your busy schedules to attend our parent interviews, which have been organised for the first two weeks of this term. Don’t forget that the Bunnings BBQ is this Saturday at the Maitland store and a huge thank you to the band of helpers who have volunteered their time on a busy Saturday. Next week our P&C meeting is scheduled for Monday (21st July) at 6pm in the staffroom; Tuesday sees State Touch and Netball commence as well as the Regional GATS Camp; Wednesday our basketball team participates in the Maitland Gala Day from 8.30-4.00pm; the Picker’s Cup will be held at Thornton for our selected Year 5 and Year 6 students on Thursday and the State Cross Country will be held in Sydney on Friday. We wish Flinders the best of luck as he represents the Hunter at the State Cross Country. Friday will also be a ‘catch up’ day for Dance2bfit, due to the Public Holiday last term. A new resource is available for parents to seek professional support on matters relating to their child’s development. Parent Line NSW is a state funded program managed by CatholicCare Sydney. Last financial year the program provided counselling support and information to more than 8,500 people who were involved in raising a child. Parent Line helps parents with a wide range of issues including separation anxiety, behavioural problems, other child mental health concerns, child development, bullying, and child issues around separation. Opening hours are 9am to 9pm weekdays and 4pm to 9pm on weekends. Parent Line also manages the Early Childhood Intervention Information Line for families of children 0-6 years who have been newly diagnosed with a disability. Free publicity material is available on www.parentline.org.au and parent counsellors can be accessed for the cost of a local call from a landline on 1300 1300 52 (some charges apply to mobile phones). Seasons for Growth will be shortly running an adult grief and loss program in Newcastle on Monday August 4, 11, 18 and 25, in the Catherine McAuley Building in Newcastle West. It runs from 6.00pm-8.30pm and cost $50 for the four sessions. If you are interested in attending you can ring 49791355. Flu season is here! Influenza is spread from person-to-person through the coughing or sneezing of infected people. Remind your child about these good hygiene practices to minimise the spread of infection:

Anyone who is sick with influenza symptoms should stay home until their symptoms are gone.

Cover the nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. Throw the tissue in the garbage bin after use.

Wash hands often with soap and water, especially after coughing or sneezing. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.

Avoid touching eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way. If you or your child develops influenza-like illness, seek the advice of your family doctor as you would with any other illness. The seasonal influenza vaccine, which protects against the pandemic influenza strain as well as two other influenza strains, is now available free to eligible people. More information about the vaccine is available from the NSW Health Immunisation Unit's vaccination page.Previous vaccination with the pandemic influenza vaccine, Panvax® is not a barrier to also receiving the seasonal influenza vaccine. If you shop at Woolworths this week you would have noticed that they have half price specials on blocks of chocolate, lollies and drinks. If you could grab an extra block or a bag of lollies to donate to the school it would be greatly appreciated. They are items that we will need for the Country Fair, which is to be held on Saturday 25th October. Thank you. As our children return to school it is timely for all of us to be reminded of the messages contained in the Stranger Danger Program. Please ensure your children are safe and aware when walking to school, waiting for buses or at the weekend if they ride their bikes around your area. Have a safe week and thank you for your support. Regards Sue Swetnam

IMPORTANT DATES

19th July Bunnings BBQ

21st July Stage 3 Public Speaking Finals at 11.30am in the School Hall

21st July P&C Meeting at 6pm in the Staffroom

23rd July Basketball Gala Day at Maitland

28th July Education Week

28th July Debate at Vacy Public School

29th July Junior Choir Cluster Rehearsal at Hunter School of Performing Arts

30th July Open Day - Morning Tea 12noon - 1pm

30th July Maitland Community Schools’ Presentation Evening at Maitland HS at 6.30pm

1st Aug Zone Athletics at Woodberry Oval

4th Aug Senior Choir Argyle Concert at Sydney Opera House

18th Aug Book Week - Connect to Reading

22nd Aug Trash and Treasure Day

4th Sept Fathers’ Day Stall

5th Sept Fathers’ Day Stall

10th Sept School Musical

11th Sept School Musical

16th Sept Year 6 Canberra Excursion

17th Sept Junior Choir Primary Proms Kakadu Concert at Sydney Town Hall

25th Oct Country Fair

WEBSITES School Website www.bolwarra-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

P&C Website www.bolwarrapandc.wordpress.com

Online Lunch Orders www.flexischools.com.au

YEAR K – 6 NEWS

Parent/Teacher Interview Schedule

Please contact the school if you haven’t already made an interview time with the class teacher. Teachers are available at other times, before and after school, if you can’t make the scheduled day. Wed 16th July Lee Moore, Kylie Caffery, Belinda Baxter, Karen Lange Thurs 17th July Sue Wells, Melody Henry, Ashleigh Blayden Mon 21st July Belinda Turner, Jessie Wright, Mary-Claire Lidgard Tues 22nd July Erin Theoret, Jordan Hill Wed 23rd July Michele Baker, Andrew Erickson, Danielle Potts, Matt Leleu, Mark Taylor Thurs 24th July Penny Dimmock, Peter Allen Bolwarra Big Top The Circus will be visiting Bolwarra Public School for two days this term: Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th September. The children are busy rehearsing their items for the special shows. Information on costumes will be coming out over the next few weeks. Make sure you keep these dates free! Library Stocktake Please return all Junior Fiction and Fiction books to the library. There will be a stocktake of these books over the following weeks. Birthday Book Club

When it is your child’s birthday, they have the opportunity to donate a book of their choice (already purchased by the library) for the small cost of $6.00. The books will be presented to the children on assembly. Each book will have a special message inside saying who has donated the book. The birthday child will be the first to borrow the book. The following children have recently joined the Bolwarra Birthday Book Club: Charlotte, Ellie, Morgan, Amelia, Hannah, Jake, Matilda, Ella and Abbie.

CLASSROOM CAPERS KE Welcome back! We have had a fabulous first couple of days back at

school. The children have returned refreshed and energised (as have I) and we are all set for a great term. I am looking forward to meeting with all of you next week for our parent/teacher interviews and discussing your child's progress so far. If you haven't sent your note in yet, please do so that we can organise a time to meet. Next week we will begin our computer lab sessions and the children are really excited to start spending more time on the computer and learning more skills. They are getting really good at using the computers using literacy groups and I am looking forward to adding to their growing skills. Make sure your child brings their jumper to school every day as it is very cold in the mornings and after lunch. Have a great week everyone!

KT Welcome back to all KT children and their families. It is hard to believe we are entering Term 3 and that this time last year your beautiful children were visiting Bolwarra School and Kinder classrooms for pre-kinder interviews with Mrs Swetnam. Time flies when you're having fun! KT have settled back into class routines beautifully and are ready for a busy term of learning. We have begun our English unit with the text 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' and have been looking at patterns in words and text. We have been ordering the days of the week and writing about the activities we do on particular days. Capital letters are our focus in writing, as we learn that they must be used for proper nouns such as the names of people and days of the week. Consistent sizing of letters will be a focus this term as we learn to write in lined books and improve the overall neatness of our work. Our first attempt at this was a huge success! Keep up the fantastic work, KT!

KW This term KW will be studying ‘Patterns’. We will begin by reading ‘The Very Hungry

Caterpillar’ and finding the many patterns contained in the text. Our Science will focus on the life cycle of caterpillars and we will watch some multi-modal presentations on our smartboard. In number we have discussed the concept of time, with some vigorous debate on the value of a 2 day school week and a 5 day weekend. We are learning to tell the time ‘o’clock’ and have made some clocks to practise. Thank you to parents for coming to parent/teacher interviews. It is always a pleasure to share information.

1B Welcome back 1B. How wonderful it was to see all the beautiful smiling children this

morning. From the excitement in the playground it sounds like many had wonderful holidays. I hope you all had a great break and are ready for a very busy term! We have already begun our preparation for the school concert! Homework went home yesterday, however, as it is a short week I don't expect the children to get it all done this week, just do what you can! Reading groups will start next week so I look forward to seeing some familiar faces and if there is anyone else who would like to help out please let me know. Don't forget parent/teacher interviews are next week so if you are wanting an appointment please send the note in so I can book you in.

1H Welcome back to Term 3. We are looking forward to another busy term. This week we have

begun looking at landscapes from around Australia as part of our cross curricular study. In numeracy we have been making graphs of some of our favourite things. 1H were very excited this week to begin working on our dance for the school musical. We have some very groovy moves that we can’t wait to share with you. Reading groups will begin in Week 3 as I will be away next week.

1M It's been great to see how quickly the children have settled back into

school for Semester 2, all enthusiastic and ready for learning after their mid year break. We have begun work on a literacy/geography unit, starting with the text ‘Are We There Yet?’ by Alison Lester. This text traces a family's road trip around Australia and already the children are making connections with the text - especially the refrain ‘Are we there yet?’ during the long car trip.

2C Welcome back 2C students and families to another productive term of learning and growth.

This term students will be involved in a unit of work that develops the theme of eggs through both English and Science. Already students have created a concept map to activate prior knowledge about chickens and are thinking carefully about what they would like to know. We also have some very cute chickens hanging in our art display area. Our focus in maths this week is breaking up and rearranging numbers to 1000, along with interpreting displays of data. I look forward to meeting with families at parent/teacher interviews as learning is certainly a partnership between home and school. I thank you for your high levels of involvement in your child's education and your continued support as I guide your children with their learning.

2H Welcome back to Term 3! This is set to be another busy term. Just a few reminders for 2H students: This Friday the makeup session for Dance2bfit will be held, next week 2H homework and home reading will recommence. 2H would also greatly appreciate the return of our wonderful parent helpers for reading groups. Our reading groups operate every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings from 9:30-10:10am and 2H would love to welcome any new parent helpers who wish to join us. Just send a note in indicating your name and the day you wish to assist. In class this term for our literacy and science topic we are exploring a new unit which will ‘Investigate eggs in stories and science’. We have commenced our unit and the students have really enjoyed learning some interesting facts about what types of animals hatch from eggs. I look forward to another productive term!

2W Welcome back everyone! It is so wonderful to have a class come

back from holidays with such eagerness and willingness to get stuck into their learning!! We welcome Indiana to Bolwarra. She joins us from St Joseph’s at East Maitland. We are looking forward to getting to know her this term. We have another busy, busy, busy term ahead of us! This term we will be exploring the cross curricular unit ‘Investigating eggs in stories and science’. This unit develops the theme of eggs through both English and Science. The students will observe chickens hatching and explore the life cycles of various egg-laying creatures. Today we watched an egg hatching in both an incubator and in a hen house. We also discovered that once an egg has been laid, it takes 21 days for the embryo to develop before the chick hatches! We created a word cloud and recorded all of the words that we could think of to do with chickens. This Friday we will celebrate 100 days of school for 2014! Please don’t forget to bring in your collections of 100 objects! I can’t wait to see them! We have added lots of new things to our blog this week, make sure that you check it out.

3L I can’t believe that it is Term 3 already! I have been very impressed by the way 3L have

settled back into routine. I would also like to compliment the wonderful manners of 3L on our Tocal excursion, it was a wonderful day for everybody involved. Thank you to the parents who have returned parent/teacher interview notes, I have tried to accommodate all requests but the popular time slots are beginning to fill up fast, so please continue to send them in. I am looking forward to another great term with this lovely class.

3T Welcome back to another exciting term. All of our class have

displayed a settled approach to the start of Term 3 and have demonstrated an eagerness to learn. We have shared all of our exciting events from the holidays within 'Recount' writing this week. We have enjoyed looking at and using a recount Mr Taylor prepared to assist in the modelling of its structure and language. We read about a boy named Hugh who came across grizzly bears while in Canada! Everybody has loved the first two chapters of our class novel, ‘Rowan of Rin’. The adventures of climbing the mountain to save the town of the blockage in the river has instantly engaged all students....maybe it’s the dragon we are all awaiting to read about. Miss Stone has worked on place value of four digit numbers, while Mr Taylor has really taken to the 'Super Sentences' that are assisting in our ability to create interesting writing rich in adjectives and action. Homework will go home on Friday this week and will be a weekly expectation this term instead of fortnightly. Reading group notes will go home today and I thank all helpers in advance for the generosity of their time. Interviews are on Wednesday next week in our class room and I look forward to seeing you all then.

Logic Puzzle for the week: A frog is at the bottom of a 30 meter well. Each day he summons enough energy for one 3 meter leap up the well. Exhausted, he then hangs there for the rest of the day. At night, while he is asleep, he slips 2 meters backwards. How many days does it take him to escape from the well?

3-4B Congratulations 3-4B on a settled start to Term 3. We all enjoyed our holidays and we are

refreshed and ready for another term of learning. In maths we are revisiting place value and in English we enjoyed orally recounting our holidays and getting our partners to listen carefully to what we did. Our last Dance2bfit session is tomorrow. Parent/teacher interviews are on today! Looking forward to a great term 3-4B!!

4B Welcome back everyone, we have a busy term ahead of us! This term we will be learning a

lot about simple machines and how things work. We will be focusing on visual literacy and inferencing in reading, as well as working towards becoming quality writers using ‘mentor texts’ to guide us in how to write well structured, cohesive quality texts. This term sees us practising our trading in subtraction and we will be investigating problem solving using Newman's analysis and some of the strategies we should have in our ‘Math toolbox’ to work out various problems. We have begun to practise our items for the musical, we are getting very excited to be in a big production!

4E After a relaxing 2 week break, 4E are back in the swing of things. In mathematics we are

learning how to measure volume and capacity using millilitres, litres and cubic centimetres. In Science we have started our new unit on ‘Simple Machines’. In English we are continuing our novel study on ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ and learning how writers use inference in their writing. This week we are conducting an in class spelling bee and we wish our class finalists: Amelia, Kaylee and Zoe R the best of luck in the stage finals of the free choice public speaking finals next week.

5A Welcome back to another busy term. Students will be studying 'Weather and Natural

Disasters' this term in Science. We will be looking at this topic area in English as well, utilising stimulus material with a weather and disasters theme.

5PL Welcome to Term 3. All students in 5PL have made a fantastic start to the term, settling

quickly into class routines and approaching tasks with enthusiasm. We have enjoyed reading the 1st chapter of our new class text 'Tales of Disaster'. The text is a collection of multicultural myths and legends about natural disasters. The 1st chapter 'The tale of the wave that ate the people' was a legend about a tsunami based on the stories of the Moken Sea Gypsies. Our focus in Science this term is 'Weather and Natural Disasters' and our HSIE unit is 'Australian Democracy'. We are looking forward to a busy and productive term.

5-6D Welcome back to Term 3! This term we welcome Mr Lachlan Hemsworth who will be

working with our class throughout Term 3. Mr Hemsworth is an Intern student from the University of Newcastle who is completing his final 10 weeks of university by completing a classroom placement with our class. I know we will all enjoy and greatly benefit from Mr Hemsworth working with us in the classroom. This term Stage 3 students will be studying the following units of work: Science - ‘Weather/Natural Disasters’; HSIE - ‘Australian Democracy’; PE - Fundamental Movement skills such as throwing and catching, striking, side step and vertical jump. PE lessons will be held each Tuesday and Thursday. This week in English we have read the book ‘Fire’ by Jackie French. This book is a rhyming text which describes the power and devastation of bush fires in Australia. Students have analysed the meaning behind stanzas in the poem and discussed the use of descriptive language and poetic devices in the text. In HSIE we have discussed the definition of democracy and we did a role play of a democratic vote. I am looking forward to meeting with parents at parent/teacher interviews next Thursday.

6L Welcome back to Term 3. We have begun work on ‘Australian Democracy’, as we lead up to our fantastic Canberra excursion at the end of the term. In computers, we are researching and creating a Power Point presentation on our current members of parliament, the two houses in federal parliament and the role of Australia’s Governor General. Our Science topic for the term is ‘Weather and Natural Disasters’ and we have begun to read the book, ‘Flood’ by Jackie French, which was based on the catastrophic Queensland floods in 2011. In art, we have recreated the front and back covers of the book using some of the techniques of the illustrator Bruce Whatley.

Sport Zone Athletics Team: This carnival is to be held at Woodberry Oval on Friday 1st August.

The team list was placed on the office window last term and notes will go home to all selected students this week. Students will travel by private transport to this carnival. Discus: Keeping the safety in mind of our students, those wishing to compete in

the Discus event will have the opportunity to qualify on Tuesday 22nd July. This will take place after school at Smythe Oval, Maitland from 4:00pm. Please let Mr Taylor know if you are interested. NSW PSSA State Cross Country: We wish Flinders from Year 4 the very best of luck as

he competes tomorrow at Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney. This is the second year Flinders has competed at this event. Well done Flinders and we all wish you well.

Library

The Library will be undertaking a Stocktake over the next few weeks. This means that all Junior Fiction and Fiction books need to be returned to the Library and there will be no borrowing.

Environment Thanks for the lovely comments on the memorial garden. My husband and I enjoyed the

project. This project was sponsored by Battery World due to the great support of battery contributions. The plants were purchased from Heritage Gardens and a thank you must go to Bob and staff for their discount on plants. Every little thing helps!

Marilyn Yeend

Choir Busy times for the choirs!

Junior Choir: The Junior Choir will be travelling to the Hunter School of Performing Arts on Tuesday 29th July for a Cluster Rehearsal. The children should have notes providing information on transport and times. Senior Choir: Some of the Senior Choir children will be travelling to the Sydney Opera

House on Monday 4th August to perform in the Festival of Choral Music. The children will be receiving notes during the next few days giving final information about transport and times.

P&C NEWS The next P&C Meeting is on Monday 21st July at 6pm in the staff room. A big thank you to Ollie and Isiah’s mum for spending her days and nights for the past couple of months coordinating the Bunnings BBQ which is this coming Saturday at Maitland Bunnings. If you are around Saturday stop in and grab a sausage sandwich and drink. A massive thank you to everyone who has donated money and items to help get it going and to those donating their time this weekend. It's is greatly appreciated. P&C Committee

CANTEEN ROSTER TERM 3 I can’t believe Term 3 is here! The roster for this term will be distributed this week. You will note we still have many shifts left to fill. I understand that some families did not receive the volunteer form at the end of last term. The form will be sent out again with the roster so if you are able to help please return the form or give me a call or send a text. Helping in the canteen is a great way to be an active member of the school community, meet other parents, gain food handling experience and most importantly, as our canteen is a major fundraiser for our school, we function solely on our friends and families giving up their precious time to volunteer. Thanks, Alison (0409 653 868)

DATE SHIFTS 9am-2.30pm

9am-11am

11am-2.30pm

12-2.30pm

ANZAC BISCUITS

WEEK 1

FRI 18/7

JACQUIE BANKS KAYE HUTCHINSON VACANCY

JODY MORRISSEY ALISON RADFORD VANESSA SEYMOUR

WEEK 2

MON 21/7

BELINDA RAE MEGAN PALEOLOGOS

BELINDA RAE

TUES 22/7

KYLIE BANAGHAN TRACY MORTIMER

RENNAE COLEMAN

THURS 24/7

ANN MARIE GIBB NARELLE MILLING

JAYNE HAWKINS

FRI 25/7

EVELYN ROBINSON LYN MCDONALD JOY WILKINSON

JANIEN FULLER BROOKE HOLZ ANNETTE PEEL

WEEK 3

MON 28/7

BECK CROESE MEL BOUCHER

JENNY FREEMAN

TUES 29/7

KIRSTY MCDONELL ALISON RADFORD

PENNY MURDOCH

THURS 31/7

JODY AND JASON DASZKEWICZ

KYLIE BANAGHAN

FRI 1/8

JO BRADFORD LIZ HOLLE ROCHELLE WALMSLEY TRACEY GUY

SHEREE HARVIE

WEEK 4

MON 4/8

MEGAN RIDGERS VACANCY

ANNE MARIE GIBB

TUES 5/8

TRACY MORTIMER VACANCY

MEGAN PALEOLOGOS

THURS 7/8

ANNE MARIE GIBB VACANCY

KIM TOUSSAINT

FRI 8/8

ANN BARTLETT ANNETTE PEEL

JACQUIE BANKS ALISON RADFORD

JULIE THIBAULT DOREEN DORN

SHEREE HARVIE

WEEK 5

MON 11/8

KYLIE BANAGHAN VACANCY

BELINDA RAE

TUES 12/8

BECK CROESE VACANCY

PENNY MURDOCH

THURS 14/8

LISA CONNOLLY AMANDA EDWARDS

HAYLEY GILBY

FRI 15/8

JODY MORRISSEY JACQUIE DECOSTA VACANCY VACANCY

MEGAN PALEOLOGOS

WEEK 6

MON 18/8

MEGAN PALEOLOGOS BELINDA RAE

BECK CROESE

TUES 19/8

MEL BOUCHER MEGAN RIDGERS

ANN COATES

THURS 21/8

LISA CONNOLLY AMANDA EDWARDS

MEL BOUCHER

FRI 22/8

EVELYN ROBINSON LYN MCDONALD JOY WILKINSON

ALISON RADFORD BROOKE HOLZ KRISTIE DRAKE-BROCKMAN

WEEK 7

MON 25/8

VACANCY VACANCY

JESSICA PERRY

TUES 26/8

NARELLE MILLING VACANCY

KRISTY BIDNER

THURS 28/8

JODY AND JASON DASZKEWICZ

HAYLEY GILBY

FRI 29/8

ANN BARTLETT VACANCY VACANCY VACANCY

PENNY MURDOCH

WEEK 8

MON 1/9

MEGAN RIDGERS VACANCY

BECK CROESE

TUES 2/9

KIRSTY MCDONELL VACANCY

JENNY FREEMAN

THURS 4/9

MEREDITH SEARLE VACANCY

KELLIE AULD

FRI 5/9

JO BRADFORD LIZ HOLLE ROCHELLE WALMSLEY TRACEY GUY

KIM TOUSSAINT

WEEK 9

MON 8/9

VACANCY VACANCY

JAYNE HAWKINS

TUES 9/9

MEL BOUCHER VACANCY

LISA CONNOLLY

THURS 11/9

VACANCY VACANCY

ANN COATES

FRI 12/9

JODY MORRISSEY KAYE HUTCHINSON VACANCY VACANCY

SHEREE HARVIE

WEEK 10

MON 15/9

VACANCY VACANCY

ANNETTE PEEL

TUES 16/9

VACANCY VACANCY

JESSICA PERRY

THURS 18/9

JODY AND JASON DASZKEWICZ

FRI 19/9

CLOSED

ATHLETICS CARNIVAL K-2

COMMUNITY NOTICES

SEASONS FOR GROWTH FOR ADULTS

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ABSENTEE NOTICE

My child ..............................................of class ............. was absent on (date) .................................. For the following reason ..................................................................................................................... Parent signature: …………………………………………………………………………………………...