Panania North Public School

This week I have been visiting classrooms and have been absolutely amazed at the incredible work our students and staff are doing. Transitioning back to school mid term 4, after a significant period of learning from home was a difficult challenge for all however; our students and staff have not only faced this challenge head on but are striving to make the most out of learning at school.

I would like to thank our parents and students also for managing the inconvenience of staggered finish times and different entry gates and I ask that you please continue to support us until the end of the term. My goal is to minimise the risk of isolating at home for staff and students if we do have a positive case of Covid.

Our students are needing their laptops at school to compliment their online learning sites. If you borrowed a laptop for your child during the learning from home period, please return the laptop and charger as soon as you can. 

BIG CONGRATULATIONS to all students who received Principal and Gold Awards this week. This is a huge effort after overcoming home learning and all the challenges faced this year, we are all so proud of there efforts.

We will be handing out the next awards on Wednesday 1st December so please ensure all awards are handed into the office no later than Monday 29th November. This will be the last Awards presented this year. 

Dear Parents/Carers,

Our school Presentation Day Assembly is a very special time for our school community to come together and celebrate the achievements of our students. 

 Current Department guidelines state we must maintain cohort segregation and are unable to have parents/carers onsite to attend events. 

We will be producing a Presentation Day video for 2021. A link will be posted on our school website, ClassDojo and Skoolbag. 

 Parents/Carers of award recipients will be notified by letter which will be sent in the mail within the next week. We ask that if you receive a letter, you keep this information a surprise for your child. 

 Once again, we thank our community for your continued support. If circumstances change you will be notified.

Recognition of School Counsellor & Psychologist Day was Wednesday 10th of November.  

We would like to acknowledgement and thank Ms Ulph for the great work she is doing in our school.  It has been a challenging two years for us all and we thank you for your hard work. 

Due to the ongoing COVID restrictions this year's Opportunity Class Placement Test has been rescheduled to Wednesday, 17 November 2021. It has been agreed by the Minister that the test will be administered as a computer-based test.

The change of date will require students attending NSW public schools to be tested at their own schools with teaching staff administering the test. This approach will ensure placement of students in opportunity classes on Day 1, Term 1, 2022.

Applications for Year 7 entry to selective high schools in 2023 open on 19 October 2021 and close on 17 November 2021 at https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/selective-high-schools-and-opportunity-classes/year-7

The Library is currently closed for our Annual yearly stock take, so if all Children can kindly return there borrowed books that would be a great help.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. 

On 24 October 2021, the Treasurer and Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning, the Hon. Sarah Mitchell MLC,  that school banking programs will no longer be run in New South Wales schools from 2022.

School banking programs at Panania North PS are arranged at a local level via our schools’ P&C Association. With the upcoming cessation of the program, students will no longer be able to deposit savings through the school banking program at Panania North PS. You can still keep your child’s bank account open and can continue to make deposits into your child’s accounts through online transfer or at any bank branch. More information are available on the department’s school banking website and Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s school banking website.

The decision was made following the review of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) review on School Banking Programs on 15 December 2020, which found that the costs of the program outweighed the benefits.

Key findings of the review include:

• School banking programs claim to help children develop long term saving habits; however, providers were unable to demonstrate that these programs in and of themselves improve savings behaviour;
• Payments to schools for implementing school banking programs incentivise schools to encourage greater participation in the programs;
• Young children are vulnerable consumers and are exposed to sophisticated advertising and marketing tactics by school banking program providers;
• School banking program providers fail to effectively disclose that a strategic objective of these programs is customer acquisition.

Financial literacy is embedded in the curriculum K-10. It is part of a continuum of learning in the work and enterprise learning across the curriculum content area from K-12. In Mathematics K–10, students develop knowledge, understanding and skills specifically related to financial literacy, such as money, financial transactions, pay rates, taxable income, rebates and levies. In Stages 4 and 5 many students elect to study commerce. A key objective of the Years 7–10 commerce syllabus is for students to develop skills in decision-making and problem-solving in relation to consumer and financial issues they may encounter now and in the future. Opportunities also exist for the inclusion of financial literacy in the mandatory Life Ready course in Stage 6. More information on the NSW Curriculum is available.

To further support our students with financial literacy education, the department launched the Treasurer’s Financial Literacy Challenge in collaboration with ASIC. The challenge is currently in pilot intended for students in Years 5 to 8 but open to all. The challenge aims to engage students in practical activities focused on making informed financial choices, setting goals and managing money.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact the school on 9773 8394.

At Panania North we are committed to every teacher and leader improving every year. Below is our whole school professional learning agenda for Term 4.

·         EAL/D Reporting to Parents

·         Return to school Plans/Strategic School Plan Team Meeting

·         2022 School Planning

·         Class Builder data entry for 2022 classes

·         Positive education PDHPE

·         Reporting to parents – Student reports

·         2022 Student Transition

·         Mandatory Training PL

·         2022 School Organisation

Link to form https://forms.gle/wqReyFvNsyLxMb5BA

We would like to request your assistance in helping us to complete as accurately as possible our anticipated enrolments for 2022. The school is required to provide reliable enrolment projections for 2022 to the Department of Education so that they can determine the appropriate staffing levels for our school for next year. Once this is done we have time to fill in any teacher vacancies that may result.

All current students are guaranteed a place but we need to know if you actually need that place. We are aware that things can change so your response is not binding, but it will give the school a good indication of possible changes to existing enrolments.

Please advise us of any issues you would like the school to consider for class placement in 2022.

Parents are invited to advise us of any special reasons they would like the school to take into consideration when placing their children in classes for 2022. Please be aware that this is not an invitation to request particular teachers or class structures, but it is an opportunity to advise us of any important concerns that you would like us to consider when placing your child. Parents can be confident their issues will receive full consideration when classes are being formed but the school reserves the right to make the final determination about class placement based on detailed knowledge of all related circumstances.

Please send a separate form for each child as forms are filed as class sets.

New Kindergarten students starting school in 2022                                              

If you have a child beginning Kindergarten next year, please follow the link to our online enrolments

Enrolment - Panania North Public School (nsw.gov.au).

If you know of other families with children starting Kindergarten in 2022 please let them know it is important they enrol now. We have very limited places available at this stage.

Link to form https://forms.gle/wqReyFvNsyLxMb5BA

A single School Visitor Check-in system for every school across the state is coming from 18 October!

The Department of Education has partnered with Service NSW to provide a streamlined, digital school sign-in system for visitors and contractors at every NSW government school. 

Parents dropping and picking up their Child/ren from school or OOSH do not require to check in.

Benefits of the new system include:

• Accelerating your check-ins to as fast as 20 seconds!  

• Linked to NSW Health’s COVID-19 contact tracing ensuring every school is compliant with the NSW COVID-19 mandate.External link

• Giving every school greater access to streamlined NSW Government services. 

Watch our short parent videoExternal link to see how it works for parents or our contractor videoExternal link.

Who can use School Visitor check-in

• Visitors such as parents and carers, contractors, service providers and volunteers.

Students or visitors under the age of 18 are not required to use School Visitor Check-in.

School Visitor Check-in will be ready from 18 October at all NSW Government schools.

Parents and students will be notified if a decision is made to close the school due to a confirmed case of COVID-19.This communication will be via the school website and through an alert on both the Skoolbag App and ClassDojo. If the school is to close, we will provide links for our students to the DET HUB Learning From Home website. Community will then be notified by the same school website and Skoolbag and Class Dojo App alert process when we can return to face-to-face learning. Each case can vary so after the school notifies the DET hotline we are guided by NSW Health. We have just been through these procedures and no communication can be provided to the community until it has been authorised by health and education department.  This communication will be personalised for close contacts and casual contacts. A generic letter will be for monitoring. Our school phones will have a message saying the school is non operational as no one is here to answer them. Teachers will also be able to maintain contact through Class Dojo to parents if needed. To ensure that you receive the information you need, please make sure that your contact details, including phone numbers and email addresses, have been updated with our office. You can do this by emailing the school

pananianth-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au