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. 36 WEEK 8 – TERM 4 Thursday 27th November 2014

Dear Parents and Care-givers The week that was! What a busy week it has been as we move towards the end of the school year. Last week saw our beautiful 2015 Kindergarten children come for a Teddy Bear’s picnic with their buddies, our generous community sent in their Christmas Boxes, Swimming School finished, our 2015 student leaders were elected, our school was awash with mangoes on Monday, Stage 1 and Stage 3 Seasons for Growth Celebrations were held, a Forensic Science show was held, staff are finalising their reports and preparing for Presentation Day and Year 6 Farewell and Executive staff are still working on classes and staff for 2015. Congratulations: Congratulations to the Year 5 students who showed great courage and resilience in preparing speeches and presenting themselves to the student body for consideration for a 2015 student executive position. There were only six students selected but 22 students had the strength to stand above their peers and face possible disappointment. I am extremely proud of all the students who nominated. Our congratulations also goes to Myra P and Olly L (Captains), Rose S and Damon C (Vice-Captains) and Lexy H and Yarran Y (Prefects) who form our 2015 Student Executive. Well done! Student’s Farming Awareness is No Bull: This is part of the media release issued by the Department’s Media Unit in Sydney this week to all media outlets. “Students at Hamilton North Public School and Bolwarra Public School have come first and second respectively in the primary section of a national creative arts competition to raise awareness about farming in Australia. Forty schools across Victoria, NSW and Queensland painted fibreglass cows and made submissions to tell their story of their selected industry. Hamilton North took out the National Champion Archibull Primary School title with their entry “Mr Archiwool”, with Bolwarra coming second with their ‘Threadrick Bobbin” entry, examining the cotton industry in NSW. The schools received their awards in Sydney on Friday 14th November.” Well done to both schools and what an achievement Bolwarra!! Child Dental Benefits Schedule: Families who receive Family Tax Benefit Part A or other government payments can receive up to $1000 basic dental treatment for children ages 2-17 years. Just contact your local dentist for further details. Different types of writing: Your child may be asked to present an assignment in a particular text type. Text types mean writing according to a purpose or an audience. For example, factual texts inform and literary texts entertain. This fact sheet gives several examples and the purpose of different types of writing. Find out more: https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/eppcontent/glossary/app/resource/factsheet/4108.pdf Choosing a book for your child: What makes a good book for young children? Usually anything that they want to read. Resist the desire to choose only books that you read as a child. Good books teach children things subtly while still telling a great story. Find out more: http://www.schoolatoz.nsw.edu.au/homework-and-study/english/my-book-club/what-makes-a-good-book-for-young-kids

Does cartoon violence make children more aggressive? Lots of parents question the violence in many of today's cartoons and video games, but many of us grew up watching cartoons where violence was also a key ingredient. What does the research indicate about exposure of our children to violence? Find out more: www.schoolatoz.nsw.edu.au/technology/using-technology/does-cartoon-violence-make-kids-more-aggressive Next Week: The next meeting of Bolwarra’s School Council is scheduled for Monday evening commencing at 6pm in the Staffroom, the fourth Assistant Principal advertised position closes, ‘Robogirls’ will visit on Thursday (Newcastle University Science/Electronics staff to promote robotics for girls in Years 5 and 6) while the boys will be undertaking cooking lessons with Mr Allen and Mr Leleu and reports are due to supervisors by Friday. Don’t forget your survey response on Survey Monkey! Have a safe week. Regards Sue Swetnam

IMPORTANT DATES

28th Nov Canteen Open for Lunches

1st Dec School Council Meeting - 6pm in Staffroom

12th Dec Reports go Home

12th Dec Gingerbread House Night between 4pm - 7.30pm in School Hall

15th Dec Presentation Day

16th Dec Class Party Day

16th Dec Year 6 Farewell

17th Dec Students Last Day for Term 4

18th Dec Staff Development Day

19th Dec Staff Development Day

2015

27th Jan Staff return to school

28th Jan Years 1 - 6 return to school

2nd Feb Kindergarten start school

WEBSITES

School Website www.bolwarra-p.schools.nsw.edu.au P&C Website www.bolwarrapandc.wordpress.com Online Uniform and Lunch Orders www.flexischools.com.au

SCHOOL FAMILY PHOTOS

Family photos are now available to pick up from the office. If you want your child to pick up the photos please fill out the tear off slip at the end of today’s newsletter. Photos will not be given to your child unless they bring in the permission slip. Parents are also welcome to collect the photos from the office.

2015 SCHOOL LEADERS

Yarran - Prefect, Damon - Vice Captain, Olly - Captain, Myra - Captain, Rose - Vice captain and Lexy - Prefect

NEW JERSEYS

A huge thank you goes to Julie Wicks, Karen and David Webb and Maitland Blacks Rugby Club for the generous donation of brand new jerseys for our teams to wear. Clancy and Aidan are modelling the new jerseys.

COMBINED SCRIPTURE

YEAR K – 6 NEWS

Bolwarra Public School now has Skoolbag! Skoolbag is the ultimate ‘school-to-parent-communication’ tool. This School Mobile App provides schools with an easy way to tell parents and carers everything they need to know about school news, newsletters, events calendar, cancellations, school notices, school information, school timetables, parent sick note forms, school documents and much more. No more lost paper in school bags! Download the FREE Skoolbag App on your smartphone through the ITunes App Store or Google Play. 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. After paying the children can come to the library and select a birthday book. 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 child has recently joined the Bolwarra Birthday Book Club: Alexandria.

Seasons for Growth Celebration Thank you to all of the parents and students who came to our Seasons for Growth Celebration that was held yesterday. It was a very special time and we had a lovely afternoon celebrating the wonderful progress the students involved have made. Library Borrowing has finished for the year. Please return all library books.

CLASSROOM CAPERS KT KT have been reading 'The Gruffalo' by Julia Donaldson this week and

exploring the descriptive language in the text. We wrote our own fabulous descriptions of the Gruffalo using lots of descriptive language. We have begun our Christmas unit today and KT are very excited! It is hard to believe we have only one month until Christmas!

KW This week KW has been finishing off their unit of work on water safety and have begun to

start some exciting Christmas work. In Numeracy we have been using our knowledge of friends of 10 to help us do some subtraction questions. KW have been making a big effort to keep hydrated during the hot weather.

1H This week 1H have continued to study the fabulous Alison Lester picture book 'Magic

Beach'. We have been looking at her fantastic use of descriptive language and have used this as inspiration for our own '1H Magic Beach' class picture book. Our book will be published and on display in our classroom during Week 9 if you would like to come and have a look. Well done 1H on your outstanding work this week!

1M This week we have begun looking at the theme ‘Celebrations’. We have started with a celebration all our children know and love - birthdays. We have examined the symbols and practices that are associated with birthdays and everyone enjoyed designing their own birthday cake.

2C Wow - the year is flying! Contractions have been our focus this week - students are

becoming quite clever using apostrophes to shorten words. We have revised location and time in Maths this week. Students have learnt to turn objects a quarter and half turn. Students have taken their responsibility of electing our school leaders very seriously this week, listening respectfully to leadership speeches and casting a vote. Well done 2C! Next week will be our last week of Daily Five and parent helpers. I thank our parents who have been able to assist over the year in our classroom - the students and I have greatly appreciated your help. Thank you very much!

2W Wow Week 8 already! Only 2 and a bit weeks to go!! This week as a can do for the Daily 5

we have been practising how to be reflective learners by providing others with constructive feedback. We became news reporters and composed a list of questions to interview a friend about their favourite book. We watched the clip back and had to give our partner some feedback on how clearly they spoke, how effective their eye contact was, volume of their voice and the quality of questions and responses. I will upload some of these interviews onto the blog - they are very entertaining!! In Maths this week we have been revising money! Yesterday we went shopping at Toys R Us and were all given $50 to spend. We had to choose the toys that we wished to purchase and although it was tempting, we couldn't over spend. We totalled our toy bill and worked out how much change we would be given from $50. Thank you Sharzly for bringing in some American and New Zealand money for us all to see, it was wonderful to be able to have a look at different money from around the world!!

3L This week 3L took inspiration from the Year 5 leadership candidates, writing persuasive and engaging speeches in an attempt to become 'Class Captain'. It was wonderful to see the persuasive techniques that students have learnt throughout the year along with their ever-growing confidence. We have been discussing water safety along with developing our understanding of the danger of drugs and alcohol.

3T As we come closer to the end of the year, 3T are enjoying their work on

the book, 'Private and Confidential' by Marion Ripley. This interesting book is a story of how penfriends overcome the issue of Malcolm who is blind. We have discovered the fascinating world of the blind through Braille. We have had fun writing the alphabet in Braille and solving cryptic puzzles using this system. We had lots of fun at the Science show. Homework is due tomorrow.

3-4B Another hard working week for 3-4B! In English this week we started to look at poetry, we

have enjoyed reading some poems and attempting to write some of our own. We have looked at the text 'Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day' and we have used this book to discuss some positive strategies we can use to help us to feel better when we are having a bad day. In Maths we have been exploring angles. We have made angle testers and we have investigated the classroom to see if we could find different types of angles. We even went outside to play handball, investigating the best types of angles used when making different shots in a game. We had a great time at the Forensic Science Workshop. Keep working hard 3-4B!

4E This week in 4E, we have started learning about drug education and what a drug is. In

water safety we have been learning about the dangers and how to stay safe near rivers, lakes and dams. In Mathematics we have been learning about data and how to represent

this in tables and graphs. In HSIE, we created our own personal coat of arms based on our own beliefs, interests and family. We are very excited about our trip to the movies to see ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day’.

5A This week is an exciting and busy week. We had the election of school leaders.

We are continuing to finish power points on Australian icons, as well as presenting completed ones in class this week.

5PL Week 8 has been a huge week in Year 5 with 16 students taking on the challenge of

presenting a captain's speech in front of the school. Congratulations to all the candidates. Each one of these 16 students did a fantastic job, showing confidence, organisation, persistence and resilience along the way. We've continued to focus on graphs this week in Maths. Students have drawn and interpreted divided bar graphs and learnt how to calculate the mean or average of sets of scores. In Literacy, we have written some fantastic descriptions, using photos of breathtaking scenery as our inspiration. Students have endeavoured to write complex sentences using features such as similes, metaphors and personification. Our discussions and group work in PD/H/PE have centred around the negative effects of smoking. Students have considered possible scenarios and completed problem solving flow charts to show how they would tackle each situation if faced with the problem.

5-6D This week in 5-6D we have commenced a Health unit on ‘Drug Education’. We have looked

at safety with medication, discussing the need for adults to administer medication, storing medication safely and proper administration procedures. During PE, we have been learning several dances in preparation for the Year 6 Farewell, which is only a few weeks away. In Maths we have continued our work on measurement including calculating areas and perimeters, calculating speed problems and multiplying and dividing periods of time. In our HSIE unit on ‘Australian Identity’ we have discussed Australian slang and the meaning of unique phrases we use in Australia. Technology based learning has been a major part of our learning this term as we work towards completing our ‘Personal Interest Projects’ and case study research on ‘Diseases’ and ‘Multicultural Australia’.

6L We have had a busy week interpreting all sorts of graphs in Maths.

Through our investigations, we have realised that not all data is accurately represented in graphs and that we have to be careful not to be mislead by graphs in the media. In English, we have begun our unit on 'Australian Poetry' by examining the poem, 'My Country' by Dorothea Mackellar - what beautiful images it gives of our country. I would like any student who did not begin Kindergarten at Bolwarra or Nillo to bring in a Kinder school photo for us to use at the Year 6 Farewell. If you don't have a school photo, any photo around five years of age will be suitable. Congratulations to Ivy who got a bronze medal at State Gymnastics last weekend and to Sam who won all of his events at Zone Athletics.

Sport Swimming School: All of our students had lots of fun at East Maitland pool while learning

the vital skills involved with water safety. It was pleasing to see the confidence develop for many students as the program progressed. It was a pleasure to take such a respectful and well behaved group of students for these two weeks. Premier Sporting Challenge: Students across our school have completed the challenge for 2014 and have been presented their certificates. Well done for a whole school sports initiative that enhanced the awareness of active play and the benefits of leading a healthy life.

Representative Singlets: We have been lucky enough to place an order for a set of new competition singlets for rep teams. I look forward to show casing these next week when they arrive. Keep an eye out at morning assembly!

Enviro It was lovely to see the rain! The chooks have been out roaming during lunch time. Enviro

table is available on Wednesdays and Fridays.

P&C NEWS Gingerbread House

Create a table centrepiece for Christmas or a beautiful gift on Friday 12th December 2014 in the school hall between 4pm and 7.30pm. $25 per kit includes gingerbread house, cake board and disposable icing bag filled with icing. Bring your own lollies to decorate your house and it will be gift wrapped for you at the end of the night. Woodstax pizza van and drinks will be available. Mr and Mrs Clause will be visiting after 6pm. Please find an order form at the end of today’s newsletter and return to the school by Friday 5th December.

Rebel Sport Join Rebel Active and secure funding for our school. 5% of your purchases are paid back to us to improve our facilities. All you need to do: Join Rebel Active, Rebel Sports Loyalty Program instore or online. It’s free! Identify yourself as a Rebel Active member at the checkout in store and tell them you want to support Bolwarra Public School.

CANTEEN NEWS Thanks to a small group of volunteers the Canteen will be open for lunch tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who has contacted me to let me know they can volunteer this term. The opening of the Canteen for lunch on a Friday within Term 4 will be subject to filling vacancies on these dates and will be determined week by week. Please check each week in the Newsletter and on Facebook for updates. Please look at the roster and if you can help to fill any vacancy please contact me. Please note that Moove Banana Milk is no longer available from the supplier. The request form for volunteers for next year, Term 1 2015, will be coming home in the next week or so. Please return this as soon as you can so that we can begin planning for next year. Thanks, Alison (0409 653 868)

CANTEEN ROSTER TERM 4

DATE SHIFTS 9am-2.30pm

9am-11am

11am-2.30pm

12.30-2.30pm

ANZAC BISCUITS

WEEK 8

FRI 28/11

EVELYN ROBINSON LYN MCDONALD JOY WILKINSON

KAYE HUTCHINSON BROOKE HOLZ KAYE HUTCHINSON

WEEK 9

MON 1/12

MEGAN PALEOLOGOS AMANDA BARBER

ROCHELLE WALMSLEY

TUES 2/12

KIRSTY MCDONELL MELISSA STACE

HAYLEY GILBY

THURS 4/12

JO BEECHING ANNEMARIE GIBB

SHEREE HARVIE

FRI 5/12

LIZ HOLLE JO BRADFORD ROCHELLE WALMSLEY TRACEY GUY

KAYE HUTCHINSON

WEEK 10

MON 8/12

BELINDA RAE AMANDA BARBER

BECK CROESE

TUES 9/12

MARCUS CLACK VACANCY

ANNETTE PEEL

THURS 11/12

JODY AND JASON DASZKEWICZ

ANN COATES

FRI 12/12

SARAH THOMPSON ANITA WHITEHORN ALI HAGGARTY VACANCY

KELLIE AULD

WEEK 11

MON 15/12

CLOSED - PRESENTATION DAY

TUES 16/12

CLOSED - CLASS PARTY DAY

COMMUNITY NOTICES

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FAMILY PHOTOS I give permission for __________________________ of class ______ to pick up the family photos from the office. Signature: _____________________________ Date: ____________ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ABSENTEE NOTICE

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