Magpie MurmurP U B L I C SCHOOL

Towamba

TERM 2 WEEK 1 THURSDAY 30 APRIL 2020

Tel 6496 7159 Fax 6496 7059 towamba-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

www.towamba-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Coming Events

May 11 Phase 1 return to school part time

May 14 Bookclub online orders in

June 8 Public Holiday

Attached:• Phase 1 details for your

family• Fireflies song lyrics• Seesaw details Yrs 4-6

Email us your LEARN at HOME

pics for our next newsletter!

Welcome to Term 2 and thank you to those families continuing to support your child’s education and the health of the commu-nity by learning from home. Our teachers have been working hard to co-ordinate this and build resources for our students. In the first two weeks of term the majority of NSW students will be learning from home.

From Week 3 we will follow a staged return to school so that we can manage face-to-face teaching with appropriate safe-guards. We know that this may be difficult for some families and we have tried to accommodate requests as much as possible.

On their day at school students will follow the usual days tasks as they would at home using the prepared timetable, but allowing them to return to school part time will assist in re-establishing rou-tines, as well as a sense of returning to normal for all.

*Please note though that any child that is sneezing or coughing will be sent home as per the Department guidelines.

Details of the schedule for your child or children at school from week 3 is attached.

We are still practising social distancing and following the guide-lines to keep the curve looking like it should. Staff will continue to work from home on some days. Students will not necessarily have their usual teacher on their day at school.

The government suggestion is 25% of the student base at school each day. We know that in some cases at Towamba this will unfortunately not be the case. During this time of unprecedent-ed change, we ask for your support as we navigate this difficult transition in a way that works best for all.

Learn from home systemThe new colourful tote trays on the office verandah are for families to collect new work for learning from home - usually on a Monday.

There are still families with work to collect for this week.

On Fridays returned work in the orange returned work folder (the one with the giant green tick!)can be placed in the white tray on top, along with the empty red folder, & then on Monday they will be ready to collect again.

Remember- when you have your days at school- bring in your white tote tray so you can continue your school work.

This week’sCraft/ LEGO Challenge:

Build a swimming poolfor a mini character

OR

build a model of your room

Send us a photo for next week’s

newsletter!

Learn from Home Live StreamThe Department has some great wellbeing events each morning with prominent Australians, including musician Guy Sebastian and TV foodies Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and Manu Feildel, as well as the Department of Education’s Eddie Woo, donating their time to help students kick start their day while learning at home. The links for these special #learnfromhome live stream each school day at 8.45 am will appear on our school facebook page. All past videos can be watched n the same link as well.Wednesday 29 April – Guy Sebastian – musicianThursday 30 April – Matt Preston, Manu Feildel, Gary Mehigan – TV food-iesFriday 1 May – Ollie Florent – AFL player, Sydney SwansMonday 4 May – Eddie Woo – mathematics teacherTuesday 5 May – Costa Georgiadis – environmental educatorWednesday 6 May – Mel Silva – Managing Director, Google AustraliaThursday 7 May – Ben Quilty – artistFriday 8 May – Alan Tongue – NRL community program

Term 2 Phasing in The Department of Education is phasing in a managed return to school this term, starting with at least one day a week from Week 3. Students will continue to Learn from Home for the remaining days that they are not attending school, unless parents are essential workers or there is a real need. Teaching staff will be providing learn from home resources similar to the end of last term.

In order to reduce student numbers to allow better social distanc-ing and to also have the classes work efficiently, staff have come up with a plan of days for our students. This will commence in week 3, in the week starting Monday 11 May. A note is attached.

It is unknown when the next phase of increasing the number of days will happen, but we will be keeping our school families in-formed the usual ways. Staff will continue to work partly from home as well as much as practicable.

SeesawSeesaw is already up and running for students in K-3 and students should be checking in each day. I have been especially loving hearing students’ comments on their work - the recording function is great! Please let me know as soon as possible if your child is hav-ing trouble logging in to their journal.

I have also started adding links for students in the 4-6 class and there is an an access code for them attached. The first is our Fire-flies song -hope you enjoy it!

Supporting children learning at home- helpful tips• establish routines and expectations• define a space for your child to work in- keep the school work

in the tote tray• check for communication from the teachers via Seesaw, email

(including student email) or Messenger• take an active role in helping your child learn• encourage physcial activity and/or exercise• check in with your child regularly to manage stress• monitor how much time your child is spending online and set

rules

Lego thank youThanks to the Community Pantry at Eden for donating 20 won-derful Lego kits for our students- a wonderfu;l incentive for bring-ing in their work from home for marking and updating!

Term 2 eventsWe will see how things pan out as the term progresses but at this stage there will be no cross country this year or Athletics carnival this term. There is also no NAPLAN this year for our Year 3 and Year 5 students.Our other scheduled calendar events arlier in the term will not be proceding but gradually we hope towards the end of term we will see some opportunities again being available to our stu-dents. 2020 is the go with the flow year!

Accessing the student portal at home• enter the address education.nsw.gov.au into your browser• use the log in drop down menu on the top right and select

Student Portal• Enter student userID which is usually firstname.surname (using

the student’s name) though some students also have a num-ber- ask your child or contact us if you need help

• password the student should know- again contact us if re-quired

• once in the student portal they have access to email, safe search and links.

• older students should expect emails from their teacher tooSupport for our familiesWe are very excited to share the news that the Pambula and Bega Bendigo Community Bank and their Bushfire Relief Pro-ject is supporting our school families with $100 each. Wonderful news!

Since first opening n the local area 11 years ago he bank have contributed over $600,000 back into community groups in the Bega Valley. We are extremely grateful for this Bushfire Recov-ery funding for our school families, which could be used to help families with school expenses due to disrupted parent income streams or other associated costs.

We will distribute it as soon as we can.

ABC School on TVThere’s something for everyone on ABC TV Education!

Some highlights are:

• Primary science with ‘I’m A Creepy Crawly’

• Story reading, Tales from around the world

• Music and arts

• ‘Fierce Earth’ geography for primary and lower secondary students

• Behind the News

Most shows are also available on iView.

Find out what else is screening on ABC Education : https://www.abc.net.au/tveducation/

A rainy dull day in Towamba

Virtual Book Club

Orders in by 14 May

Great project at Hadassah & Kokoda’s house!

Letter to SveaIf anyone still has their thank you letter for Svea at home please send in or send a photo of it so that we can send our package off to her. We have three letters so far and it would be great to have more!

Virtual Book ClubFor the first time in the history of Scholastic- there is a Virtual Book Club this term! The new cata-logue is available online and orders will be sent to school for distribution. Parents making orders will need to use the LOOP system and pay online. Please ensure all orders are in by Friday 14 May. https://scholastic.com.au/book-club/virtual-catalogue-1/

Fireflies UpdateMassive shout-out to Vicki who is doing an amazing job keeping our Fireflies alight throughout these challenging times. Thanks also to Priscilla for her photography skills in preparing images for a virtual exhibition which will be hosted by the Bega Valley Regional Gallery. We have had a great deal of positive feedback from people who have been able to enjoy the art on display at Wild Rye’s Bakery in Pambula, and have had a request from the Commonwealth Bank for pieces to display! The Australian Journal of Emergency Management featured the Fireflies in their April jour-nal and we brightened up the Community News section of the last Merimbula News Weekly!

Congratulations to the students who have engaged in Vicki’s interviews about their art and the creative process. The students will be given an opportunity to copy their words in their ‘best hand-writing’ for display alongside their paintings. In return they will receive a set of high quality acrylic paints and brushes and a new canvas, along with instructions from Vicki, to enable them to con-tinue developing their love of painting as Learning at Home continues into this term.

We have uploaded the Fireflies song link to Seesaw- it’s a song that sparked an aim of releasing 100 000 fireflies all over Earth. Please let us know if you want more of your children’s art-cards to send to friends and families!Go Fireflies! You light up so many hearts!

P&C NewsCommonwealth Bank Bushfire Assistance GrantThe P&C were recently successful in obtaining a Bushfire Recovery Grant from the Commonwealth Bank. Thanks to our P&C President Jo for meeting with Courtney and Jodie of the Merimbula branch and making this application. The P&C will receive $5000 to be used for purchasing a new barbecue for the P&C catering events and end of term BBQ lunches, as well as netting over the garden and more.