Meadow Flat Public School Newsletter

By the end of this term, the school will have in place a new school improvement plan. It will be:

• based on a situational analysis and the School Excellence Framework
• recognise the importance of a sharp, deep focus on strategic areas to address improvement in order to meet system-negotiated and school-determined targets
• improvement focused with a clear vision for student achievement
• a consultative process including all stakeholders
• based on authentic school practice and reflections on practice
• focused on collection, analysis, reflection and evaluation of evidence
• based on improvement measures aligned to our school's current state.

Our school has given opportunities to hear from all parents and carers throughout in the lead up, and we would like to hear from you again. 

The 2021 to 2024 school vision and school context has been developed and is currently in draft form. 

We would like every parent to provide feedback on it. Please keep an eye out for this opportunity. 

Last week we made changes to our class structure as our school grew since the start of the term. Our class are now:

• Platypus - Kindergarten and Year 1 = 17 students
• Bilby - Years 2 to 4 = 20 students
• Wollemi - Years 4 to 6 = 28 students

The school has a current enrolment of 65 students. 

There were minimal needs to create this change in structure, and all parents for the children concerned have been informed. 

The students in Years 3 and 5 will be completing their NAPLAN online in 2021. The school and parents will receive valuable data from these assessments. The NAPLAN Online assessment window starts on Tuesday 11 May and finishes on Friday 21 May 2021. 

An information sheet has been sent home with all Year 3 and 5 parents about this.  Click here for the information.

Teaching team:

Principal – Mr Michael Wood

Platypus classroom teacher (Kindergarten and Year 1) – Mrs Jennifer Gale

Bilby classroom teacher (Years 2 to 4) – Mrs Kate Burns

Wollemi classroom teacher (Years 4 to 6) – Miss Eleanor Black

Release from face to face teachers – Miss Brittani Hotham (Platypus and Bilby on Mondays, Wollemi is every second Wednesday)

COVID learning support program – Mrs Leona George

Support team:

School administration manager – Mrs Hayley Kelly (Monday to Thursday) and Mrs Tami Bennett (Fridays)

School administration officer – Mrs Heidi Inwood ( Wednesdays)

Student learning support officer –Mrs Leanne Walsh (Monday to Friday)

General assistant – Mr Peter Wade

Our teachers provide opportunities for parents and carers to meet with them to celebrate each student's success and develop goals for future planning. These are coming up next week and it is most important that each family has been booked in for an interview with their child's teacher. 

If you are yet to do this, could you please do it as a matter of urgency. 

Good news! From today, Monday 8 March, parents and caretakers are now welcome back to our schools and school sporting events. All parents must comply with physical distancing, hygiene and any other COVID-safe requirements in accordance with advice from the school or venue.

Read all the latest COVID-19 advice for families at https://education.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/advice-for-families

Please come to our school to hear our student leaders present their reports and watch the students get their awards. 

Each Monday at 9.00am - weather permitting. 

Welcome back. We hope you had a great Christmas holiday. To start off the year Mrs George has started to come and help kids in small groups three days a week in certain learning areas.  

In week nine, Year 5 and 6 are very exited to go to the leadership camp. We will learn about how to be a great leader and will also be learning all about gold.  

This year, Mrs Inwood has joined the staff team on Wednesdays in the office and will be helping Mrs Kelly, as well as editing the newsletter’s and helping to update the Facebook page. She has also been taking pictures of all the monitors and captions. 

Miss Hotham has started to teach Wollemi class every fortnight and has been teaching us about the elements of art and has also been teaching bilby and platypus about history. 

This term in the library we have been doing a Kermit award since last year. To earn the Kermit award you have to be respectful of the people and objects in the library, you have to be quiet and tidy up before you leave so the other classes and library monitors don’t have to clean up after you. 

We have lots of new books in the library that we got over the holidays that we hope you will start borrowing. 

By Ali, Tash and Nina

This year the chooks are getting a new enclosure made by Pete our general assistant. Once it is made the chooks will return back at school, and we will be looking after them. 

Last year Mr Wood purchased a Wollemi tree and over the holidays looked after it. The Wollemi tree has been planted in a garden near the gates at the sandpit with some orange and white flowers. It has grown about 8-10 inches over the holidays, and it can grow up to 20m. The Wollemi tree was only discovered 25 years ago in an undiscovered, dense part of the Blue Mountains. The travellers who discovered them took the seeds and kept the place they found the trees secret, to keep the trees safe from people wanting to dig them up.

The white flowers may be droopy at the moment because they have been moved to a new place and the roots are settling in.

We will be composting all the fruit scraps in a big wooden frame behind the sports shed. The farm monitors collect the fruit bin and empty it into the composting bin. The worms then eat the scraps and turn it into soil for gardening. Grass does grow in there due to the fresh soil. After the fruit bins are emptied they get rinsed under water and taken back to the classrooms.  

The farm monitors will be gardening during lunch breaks. The gardens will be filled with new fruits, veggies, flowers and other plants. They will be looked after and grown properly and safely. If you want to bring in seeds for the garden, go ahead! 

By Jai, Caitlyn, Couper and Khaylan 

This term in Wollemi we are creating diary entries and newspaper reports. We have already started diaries. We are imaging what it would be like to be gold miners by panning in the sand pit. It has been a dusty, dry and hot job so far and we haven’t found any gold.

By Lachy s 

Day 1

I woke up one morning to a noisy sound. It sounded like gold mine  so I  got out of bed and got dressed. I put on a shirt on that was as brown as dirt  and a cloak that was as black as night.

For breakfast I had a delicious piece of butter toast and stood up and went out the door with gold equipment. It was a gold rush and I went to a spot and started to dig. I panned and panned. "No gold to get out of here" I heard. 

By Taisha  

Dear Diary. 

Today I was gold panning and I was hoping I was the first one there but I wasn’t. I got up at the crack of dawn and there was still about 100 people, but I didn’t care. I surprisingly found a spot that only had about 15 people to gold pan. I quickly started to gold pan so maybe I had a chance to gold pan before anyone else came. This may have been the worst day ever, it was the hottest I have ever seen and that just made everyone more on edge and paranoid. This indeed was the worst day ever , someone had just started next to me and already found gold. I wanted to hit myself for not starting there so I did what any gold panner would do and stole it from him. I straight away went home before anyone noticed I had gold and before that gold panner realised someone stole is gold. I got home, ate dinner and went to bed. I woke up in the night because of the sound of clattering outside. I grabbed the first sharp thing I could find, which was an axe and I went outside and all of my mining tools were gone and I saw some rich kids with them. 

By Caitlyn Harisson 

Dear diary

Today was no different than others. We woke up before the sun rose so we could get some gold first. We didn’t bother getting out of our pyjamas, it was too early and we were so tired.

As we walked out of our tent we saw all of our equipment had gone. Father said that one of the rich kids must have stolen them and walked off into the night. He didn’t come back for thirty minutes, so as we waited. Mother gave us some canned corn. It was mushy and I think it was expired too.

Father came back with ours pans, pickaxes, shovels and water jugs. He had a huge bruise on his left eye, but didn’t seem bothered, so we got off to work. 

By Khaylan 

26 January 1896 

This day is my birthday and I hope I get lucky today. After an hour I got nothing, only rubbish and giant rocks. I was getting sad so I got the pan and I found nearly half an inch of gold. I was glad that I at least found the gold in Sofala. So I showed the boss and we all dig and we found one that was 4 inches.  

By Joey

My Holiday 

My favourite thing that I did in the holidays was going to the dirt bike track. It was very fun. I did a whip over the table top. It was scary. A guy went up a metal ramp and did a front flip off it. In the holidays I went on a shopping spree. I got a jumper.

By Cody

I went to the show. I went on the dodgem cars and the ferris wheel and the trampoline. I had hot chips for lunch.

By Connor  

I got a new motorbike for Christmas. It is a Honda CRF 110. It is very fast. I also bought myself a new mountain bike.

By Sam 

Crash! Bang! I crashed my motorbike. I nearly broke my gear peg. Then I wheeled my motorbike back up to the house. I had to go to my sisters in Sydney and I stayed two nights. We went to the beach. That night we rode our bikes to the beach.

By Aidan 

I went to Tamworth. I bought a new scooter and I was riding around the cabin. It was fun, I loved it. I was with my family.

By Isaac 

On my holiday Aidan, Dad and I went camping with the motorbikes. My motorbike is a HR50 and Aidan’s motorbike is a TTR110 and Dad’s motorbike id a 230, but Dad didn’t ride his 230.

By Logan 

I got a tropical fish. The tropical fish has a heater and a filter and a thermometer. The fish tank has a real plant. The fish is called and angel fish. I went camping to Glen Davis with my little brother and a friend called Sam.

By Harrison 

On my holiday we were bailing in the tractor. You have to mow it with the mower, rake it with the rake and bale it with the bailer.

By Liam  

In the holidays Eli came over. He gave me zing pong. We played it.

Jack 

I went to the movies twice and the first movie was The Croods 2. From Santa I got a Fitbit and saw a snake.

By Chloe 

Yay! I’m on my way to Eilish and Ellie’s house. I had just left my house in Portland. I’m going up a hill that makes my tummy feel funny. I went down the hill. Yay! I’m here. I went inside and I saw Eilisha then my dad left. Eilish asked if I would like to go for a pony ride. I said yes. I went outside and we went to get all the stuff. I put on the helmet and got on the pony.

By Violet 

Splash splash! Oh, hi mum! On my holiday I went to the pool. It was fun and cool and I went with mum. She said hi back. I swam with mummy. It’s super fun!

By Millie 

“Wake up Anna and get ready and hop in the car!” mum yelled. Oops, I forgot we were going to Newcastle for Christmas. It’s Christmas eve and we were heading to Newcastle for Christmas. We got in the car and started to go. Four hours later we are at Newcastle.

By Anna 

For Christmas I got a smart watch from Santa. It is pink and black. It has everything that every watch has. I love it. After Christmas my mum and dad and sister Charlie and I went to Orange swimming carnival and they made me race in 9 and under. I did not get any places but if I was only racing 8 and under I would have got a few medals and places. I love swimming, it is my favourite sport.

By Lyndall 

On my holiday I went to Windamere. I went on the biscuit, it was crazy! I went to Windamere for one week. For Christmas I got a scooter and Lego and a pogo stick and a lot more stuff. I went on the slip and slide. I went in the pool. We got ball pits, we put them in the pool and they sank. We had a pool party for Australia Day with friends. It was fun! By Blair 

On my holiday I went to Dunns Swamp and if you stand really still in the water the fish nibble on your feet. We went on a big walk to the dam wall and there were turtles in there. When we were asleep a possum ate some of our food and the icing of my aunt’s cake. We went kayaking.

By Ruby  

We have been practicing writing our names-Maggie

We have been reading books to learn how to read- Emery

We have been doing Phase 3 phonics. We have been learning ch, ar, ur, and other sounds.-Ellie

We have been learning about qualities- like kindness, in health-James

We have been reading books about Pat and the pan. -Maddie

We read the fairy books- Jonty

We have to do read and draw, where you read and then draw a picture of what it says.- Ayden

We have been learning to share- Hunta

We have been reading “The terrible suitcase”. She gets upset. -Belinda

We have been making sounds like robot talk.-Milly

We have been reading the ant book-Olivia

In L3 we play the pirate game. You get a sword and there’s a sound on it and you have to say the sound and then you push the sword in. Then the pirate pops up!-Jake

We do OSMO. We have to make a word. -Sophie

We do writing about how we feel. -Alex

I like the OSMO game. We have to make a word.-Chirag

Point at the sounds and make the noise, then we read the word-Hollie

 We move, then sometimes kids go to the vet and we play. It is a box. We made animal pictures and glued them in. We made signs that we hung up. The sign says open and closed.-Oliver