Mary Street, NORTHMEAD, 2152

Phone: 9639 8448 email: thehills-s.school@det.nsw.edu.au Website: www.thehills-s.school.nsw.edu.au

Principal and Deputy Principal’s Report

26 NOVEMBER P&C MEETING 6 PM

27 NOVEMBER

ORIENTATION FOR NEW STUDENTS

29 NOVEMBER CELEBRATION OF LEARNING

10 DECEMBER YEAR 6 CELEBRATION

12 DECEMBER GRADUATION 6.30 PM

19 DECEMBER LAST DAY OF TERM 4

Newsletter No.11

23 November 2018

Peter Gurrier-Jones Neale Rudland Principal Deputy Principal

We have been spending time over recent weeks meeting new families and students who will be coming to The Hills School

in 2019. The next phase of our Orientation Program is taking place next week. Parents and carers will have an opportunity

to spend some time getting to know our school and each other, while new students will participate in classroom activities

for the morning. It is always a terrific time to be able to welcome new students and families to The Hills School community.

As we begin to meet new students and families, we are also busily preparing to say ‘farewell’ to the Year 12 students who

sadly, will be leaving at the end of this year. The remaining time that we have to spend with these wonderful students is

cherished. To help celebrate and recognise many great things that have been learned and achieved by our school leavers

and other seniors, many students will soon be participating in various ‘Leisure Week’ activities. Classes will participate in

carefully designed and planned activities and outings, designed to help maximize their learning opportunity and

experiences. We wish all students and staff some wonderful times, where firm memories of great experiences and

participation are created.

A number of classes have been participating in a terrific Special Olympics program during Term 4. Our school is strongly

committed to providing many opportunities throughout each week for students to be engaged in movement, fitness and

activity. Great learning can take place in many different environments and moving our bodies helps our fitness, brain

activity, learning, coordination and general wellbeing. Students actively participate in a range of activities each week,

including: water programs, walking, Physical Education, sports activities and games, exercises, scooter riding and equipment

activities, to name but a few. This commitment to fitness and movement links in with our active involvement in the Live Life

Well program and initiative. Teachers promote and encourage healthy eating, movement, activity, as well as rest.

Nura PH recently spent three days visiting Canberra. The three-day visit was the culmination of many months of careful

planning and is a celebration of the wonderful learning that has taken place by all the students throughout the year. The

students visited a number of key Canberra sights and attractions such as The War Memorial, Canberra Zoo and Questacon,

just to name a few. Class teacher Paul and SLSO Mel, made special mention of how well behaved all the students were

throughout the entire three day excursion. Congratulations to all the students involved. Thank you to Paul and Mel for

organising the excursion and for supporting the students over the three days. We also thank parent volunteers, Jenny and

David for their assistance and time.

The end of term is fast approaching. However, we still have many more exciting things happening and opportunities for our

students, right up to the end of the school year. Some of these events include our Celebration of Learning and our Year 12

Graduation. We are especially looking forward to meeting with many families and students at our annual Christmas Carols

night taking place on Friday 23 November. We hope to see you there.

Bura RL Rebecca La Plume (Teacher) Vanessa Fahmy & Yasna Suefong (SLSOs)

This term Bura RL have been focusing on fun, sensory science activities. We have made a volcano erupt in class using vinegar

and baking soda; we have also made goo out of cornstarch and water. We put an egg in vinegar and food dye and let it sit,

then witnessed the magic of a blue, bouncy egg - it was so much fun to bounce it, until it popped! Our favourite, by far, has

been making and playing with slime. We have made bouncy slime, slime with beads and sticky gooey slime. Nikhil loves

slime the most, playing with it for almost 45 minutes. It has been a great success and we are happy to share our slime

recipes.

Bura DL Deborah Lenon (Teacher) Amber Buckland (SLSO)

Since our last newsletter item, Bura DL have been busy. We have worked hard at the farm and seen the fruit and vegetables

grow because of our efforts. We enjoyed eating the fruit but most of us were not keen to try the spinach! We have been

enjoying our excursions to the Cumberland State Forest, learning lots of things about trees, maps, hand dryers and brush

turkeys. We especially love leaping from log to log at the outdoor theatre and when it’s too hot, it’s a great place to sit and

blow bubbles.

Gura DD Dalia Dulinskas (Teacher) Alex Armstrong & Laura Sorbello (SLSOs)

Gura DD this term has begun to visit Lake Parramatta for our weekly excursion. On arrival, we go to the café for hot chips.

Everyone sits and waits patiently at the table for the hot chips to be cooked. Once the chips arrive, we all enjoy choosing

which chips we would like from a plate in the middle of the table. We then enjoy a walk around the lake, stopping to look at

the ducks in the water. Another new activity for this term is a weekly bike ride at the Bike Track on the 2-wheeler bikes.

Meena, Isabella and Krishnan happily put on a helmet and then pedal around the Bike Track, being supported especially

when going up the hill, as pedaling can be a challenge.

Nura AC Angela Corfield (Teacher) Janelle Poole (SLSO)

This term, Nura AC has enjoyed the tranquil scenery of Lake Parramatta and have been working on developing relaxation

skills together. We have enjoyed seeing different types of birds, ducks and fish. We continue to enjoy buying and sharing hot

chips together in the beautiful sunshine.

Yura JU Jenny Unsworth (Teacher) Ramona Bodnar (SLSO)

The students in Yura JU have been working very hard this term on our Work Enterprises projects to ensure we have enough

supplies of soap and candles to sell at The Hills School Christmas Carols Night. Our students really enjoy making these

products and selling them to the community. Thank you for your continued support of our Work Enterprise programs. See

you at the school stall.

Yura DS Dishanka Sekhar (Teacher) Rebecca Taylor (SLSO)

As part of our Work Enterprise, the students in Yura DS have tried a new recipe, Malteser and honeycomb fudge. We have

heard great reviews from the staff as we have sold out all our slice orders. The slice has gone through quality taste testing by

all the students in our class who have assessed the texture, appearance and taste through a small sample. Come and try the

tasty results of our hard work!

P&C News

to the following students

from all your friends

at The Hills School:

Ethan, Tristan, Keefer,

Eshan, Matthew & Anish

Thank you to everyone who assisted Jenny, Coral and Delma with the most recent Bunnings BBQs. From all accounts they

were a great success!

The Hills School Carols Night is on this Friday evening. The P & C are running a raffle and a cake stall so please make sure

you come and say hello and buy a ticket or two as well as something deliciously sweet.

Our final meeting for the year is on Monday 26 Nov at 6pm followed by dinner at The Winston. Everyone is welcome to join

us.

Michelle Gough Jenny Harris Marjie Capple

President Treasurer Secretary

Andy’s Christmas Lights Display Andy Cutajar (driver for P&C Bus 5) would like to invite you to enjoy his Christmas lights display at:

45 Grasmere Avenue, Northmead

Christmas lights will be twinkling from 1 December to 24 December. There will also be a BBQ on

Saturday 15 & Monday 24 December

All donations go to Ronald McDonald House Westmead

Recently there was an emergency situation related to the schools power supply and we were unable to contact all our parents via our school app FlexiBuzz. In order for our school to comply with WHS procedures & Department of Education policy it is important for families to download the app and register so that in the event of another emergency situation in the future we can contact all our parents. Please see details on how to download and register

with the FlexiBuzz app in the newsletter insert.